Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Mark Galeotti

Why is Putin so happy in China?

The often dour Vladimir Putin is looking very cheery in China, which has just hosted the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tianjin to the north, and is preparing for a grand parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Beijing tomorrow. Xi Jinping is clearly the man of the hour, Vladimir Putin seems to be having a good trip, too While Xi Jinping is clearly the man of the hour, Vladimir Putin seems to be having a good trip, too. Even as his Alaska summit saw him getting the literal red carpet treatment from Donald Trump, this is a chance

Julian Jessop

Why are UK debt costs still so high – and does it matter?

The yields on UK government bonds, commonly known as ‘gilts’, are now consistently the highest among the G7 group of advanced economies. Why is this, and why should the rest of us worry? Yesterday’s No.10 reshuffle has done little to help but there’s a lot more going on.  The numbers alone are disturbing. The cost of new government borrowing for ten years is now around 4.7 per cent in the UK, compared to 4.2 per cent in the US, around 3.5 per cent in France, Italy and Canada, 2.7 per cent in Germany, and just 1.6 per cent in Japan. This is all the more remarkable because UK public debt

Francis Pike

Is Xi Jinping still in charge of China?

China will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of the ‘war of resistance against Japanese aggression’ (i.e. what we call VJ day) tomorrow. Given that Japan’s invasion of China started some four years earlier than Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, and cost an estimated 20 to 30 million Chinese lives, this week’s military parade is a major milestone. As the People’s Liberation Army Daily newspaper has explained: One of the highlights is a grand military parade at Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square themed on commemorating the great victory and promoting the enduring spirit of the War of Resistance. Not surprisingly, China is pushing the boat out in terms of

Julie Burchill

Why must the English respect every flag other than their own?

It’s strange to think that the British people were once addressed as adults by those who governed them. In theory, this shouldn’t have been the case; in previous times, there was more social rigidity and more class deference. But everyone from weather forecasters to prime ministers somehow resisted the temptation, until relatively recently, to speak to us as if we were wayward school kids – or ‘half devil and half child’ as Rudyard Kipling had it in The White Man’s Burden. If Winston Churchill was giving one of his wartime broadcasts today, he’d have to end it: ‘And wrap up warm/Take a brolly/Stay hydrated!’ When did this ruling-class obsession with

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

How the Taliban will deal with Afghanistan’s earthquake

More than 800 people have been killed, and thousands more injured, as of Monday evening after a magnitude-6 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan late Sunday night. With the epicentre around 27km away from Afghanistan’s fifth-largest city, Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar, heavy tremors were felt as far as Kabul, around 130km westwards, and also eastwards in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. The death toll is expected to rise ominously, with entire villages collapsing in Nangarhar’s bordering Kunar province where much of the rugged region is difficult to access, amid relief teams’ best efforts to reach the worst-hit sites in time. In 2022, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 1,000 people,

Iain Macwhirter

Badenoch's Tories have seen sense on North Sea Oil. Will Starmer?

Kemi Badenoch’s rediscovery of the North Sea oil and gas industry would be more convincing had it not been successive Conservative governments that promoted its decline in the first place. In a speech in Aberdeen today, she will call for “every last drop” of oil to be extracted from our waters. Contrary to popular belief, there is still a lot of the black stuff lying there: up to 15 billion barrels, or enough to fuel the UK for 30 years. Norway has been drilling in the Arctic. “Bor ja Bor” (“Drill, baby, drill”), as they say in the Storting No one really knows how much is left because, while the North

Gavin Mortimer

Keir Starmer must not ban Eric Zemmour from Britain

Eric Zemmour will be in London on 13 September at the invitation of Tommy Robinson. In a message posted on X, the leader of France’s Reconquest Party said he will ‘stand alongside the hundreds of thousands of Britons demonstrating against the submergence of our countries.’ Zemmour is an advocate of the ‘Great Replacement’ theory Robinson is the organiser of what is being billed as a ‘Free Speech Festival’ in central London. It aims to bring together three movements: UTK (Unite the Kingdom), MEGA (Make Europe Great Again) and MAGA (Make America Great Again). Various left-wing groups, among them Socialist Worker and Stand Up to Racism, are encouraging their members to

Monday

Lucy Dunn

Yvette Cooper pledges to overhaul Britain's asylum system

Addressing the Commons today, Yvette Cooper promised the government will overhaul the asylum system. This will include changing the way the appeals system works for asylum claims and the suspension of new family reunion applications. The Home Secretary’s remarks coincide with figures that show the overall number of successful applications for family reunion visas has surged by five times in the last three years. Cooper also hinted that there may be changes to how the ECHR is interpreted. She suggested that Article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life, which has been used to help block deportations) may be interpreted differently. The Home Secretary claimed that promises

Isabel Hardman

What’s the point of Starmer’s reshuffle?

Will Keir Starmer’s mini-reshuffle of ministers and key aides solve the Prime Minister’s problems? The Prime Minister has moved Darren Jones from the Treasury to the Cabinet Office in a change widely interpreted as an attempt to sideline Rachel Reeves and boost the government’s ability to deliver on its reforms. Jones was Chief Secretary to the Treasury, but his new Chief Secretary role is designed to ‘drive forward progress in key policy areas’. It is a response to Starmer’s growing frustration that the Whitehall machine isn’t moving fast enough to deliver his reforms. Over the summer there have been more briefings against the new Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald for being

Nick Boles

Starmer must embrace the Thatcher paradox

Most of the people I deal with outside government agree that Darren Jones, whom Keir Starmer has just appointed as his chief secretary, is one of the most effective ministers in it. And both Tim Allan and Minouche Shafik bring to their new jobs as director of communications and chief economic adviser the authority and judgment that come from long experience in communications and economic policymaking. So Keir Starmer’s reorganisation of his No. 10 team has a good chance of improving his grip on the government machine. But nobody in the Labour party should be under the illusion that the government’s woes are simply a result of dysfunction in Downing

Madeline Grant

Keir Starmer is Downing Street's David Brent

How many resets does it take to make a doom loop? In another attempt to work out what the problem with his government is – and with all the mirror salesmen in the capital presumably on holiday – Keir Starmer has done another mini-reshuffle. ‘Phase two of my government starts today’ he says in a fatuous video clip, deploying that nasal whine which you had probably mercifully forgotten over the recess.  The image of the PM squeezed into those gimpy little shorts postmen wear is not one that anybody wants Obviously all this isn’t actually phase two but probably closer to phase 14. This time it’s involved the mass import

Steerpike

Corbyn and Sultana's party split over trans stance

As if it hadn’t experienced enough splits over the last few weeks, it transpires that Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party is divided over its policy on trans issues. ‘Your Party’ – not its official name, according to a fuming Sultana – is set to have six MPs, with four pro-Gaza independents to join the group. But while Sultana has insisted she will ‘always’ speak in support of trans people, one of these, Adnan Hussain MP, stated last week that trans women are ‘not biologically women’. Talk about trouble in paradise, eh? Hussain is currently a member of the Independent Alliance of MPs, alongside Corbyn and Sultana. Once the

Lord Offord

Are the Scottish Tories too obsessed with the Union?

The end of summer recess (in both Westminster and Holyrood) seems like a reasonable moment to leave tribal party politics at the door and assess whether 25 years of devolution in Scotland has met expectations. Has it improved the quality of life of ordinary Scots, and how it might be changed to ensure that it does better in future? I am still relatively new to politics, having enjoyed a career in business prior to being appointed a Scotland Office minister in 2021, but I was in the room long enough to experience both the satisfaction of being able to make a difference and the frustration of not being able to

Ian Acheson

Does tagging prison leavers really stop them reoffending?

Finally, some good news for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) – tagging works! Last week, the prisons minister was unleashed to proclaim that the latest data on electronic monitoring (EM) of offenders not in custody shows the concept works. Well, up to a point, Lord Timpson. A study of 3,600 offenders on tagging orders has reportedly shown a statistically significant reduction in their rates of reoffending compared with non-tagged prison leavers. It fell from 33 per cent to 26 per cent, which is not bad for government work. We should be grateful that giving ankle tags to offenders means only a quarter of them will go on to commit burglaries,

Tim Shipman

Labour's transfer deadline day

17 min listen

The summer transfer window comes to a close today but, as Parliament also returns from summer recess today, the only team Keir Starmer is focused on is his own in Number Ten. The Prime Minister has decided to reshuffle his advisers, including bringing in Darren Jones MP to Number Ten from the Treasury. Political editor Tim Shipman and James Kirkup, a partner at Apella Advisors and senior fellow at the Social Market Foundation, join economics editor Michael Simmons to go through the moves. Will yet another change in advisers boost Labour’s fortunes? Or are they doomed to relegation? Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Natasha Feroze.

James Innes-Smith

Why is Lambeth council charging landlords £923 to fill out a form?

Perhaps it’s the left’s puerile belief that all property is theft that has led to Rachel Reeves’s swingeing attack on private landlords. Her latest threat is to slap National Insurance on rental income in her autumn Budget. As a proud socialist, I’m sure Lego-lady is on board with anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s property-thieving assertion; in which case, why not go the whole hog and hand all that stolen booty back to the state? Or give it to Angie; I’m sure she’d be thrilled to add another 14 million properties to her already bulging portfolio. As a small-time ‘landlord’ (a word dripping with feudal menace), it’s not just the wracking up of taxes that makes me

Lucy Dunn

Can Starmer's No.10 reset save him?

Parliament’s summer recess has just ended and, on his first day back, Sir Keir Starmer has already announced a reset of his Downing Street team. A number of people have moved out – most notably James Lyons, the Prime Minister’s director of communications, who was appointed to the role just last year. It’s only Starmer’s first day back, but it’s certainly not a slow start A selection of new faces will now head to No. 10. The most significant move is Darren Jones, the former chief secretary to the Treasury, whom the PM has poached from Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Jones will oversee Starmer’s day-to-day work, with the new title of

James Kirkup

James Lyons's departure will cost Keir Starmer

When my friend James Lyons told me last summer that he was going to take a gap year, I knew it wouldn’t be a normal career break. It’s common enough for successful men around 50 to take some time out from busy, stressful careers to re-evaluate, reflect and just get some sleep. I know bankers who have gone back to university, consultants who’ve gone travelling and private equity guys who become surfers. James Lyons is usually the first to see where the story is going But that was never going to James’ mid-life break from the norm. He’s the most intensely focused person I know. After 15 years together as political journalists at

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Hamas will struggle to recover from the elimination of Abu Ubaida

Despite its extraordinary discipline and repeated battlefield successes over the past two years, Israel has been judged in many quarters to have failed in one vital domain: the war of information. While Israel has neutralised enemy commanders, destroyed arsenals, and advanced through hostile territory, it has consistently been outflanked in the propaganda theatre, leading armchair generals to declare that no amount of military action can kill “an idea”. The elimination of Abu Ubaida shows that Israel constantly adapts Hamas and its allies have skilfully harnessed imagery, narrative, and the symbols of victimhood to mobilise global opinion, especially in the West. Yet in recent weeks, there has been a discernible shift.

Sam Leith

Why shouldn't adults play with toys like Lego?

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” That perennial funeral favourite, 1 Corinthians 13, has a lot to answer for. Generations of so-called grown-ups have, whether through the fear of God or the fear of embarrassment, done all they can to distance themselves from anything that they fear the neighbours or the man upstairs will think is childish. If you don’t like painting Warhammer figurines or building Lego or collecting Funko models, nobody’s making you Now, only two thousand years later, the tide seems to be turning.