Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Thursday

Steerpike

Ed Davey to boycott Trump's state banquet

Buckingham Palace has endured its fair share of shocks and crises over the years. But last night, His Majesty was hit by the latest bombshell: Sir Ed Davey will not be attending his upcoming banquet to host Donald Trump. The Liberal Democrat leader is boycotting the event in protest at the President’s stance on Gaza. How will they fill the void… Writing in (where else?) the Guardian, Davey declared that skipping the Palace knees-up ‘goes against all of my instincts’, but was ‘the only way I can send a message to both Trump and Starmer’. With the PM, Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch all publicly keeping schtum on their own private

Matthew Lynn

Can India's economy survive Trump's tariffs?

President Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on India kicked in yesterday. The timing could not be worse: in May, India overtook Britain, Germany and Japan to become the fourth largest economy in the world. According to a report by EY only this week, it was already set to become the second largest globally by 2038, behind only China. After a decade of liberalisation and rapid industrialisation, it has witnessed exceptionally strong growth. And now, it looks like Donald Trump may kill off the Indian economic miracle. Over the last twenty years, India’s growth has averaged 6.9 per cent, a rate that puts almost every other country in the world firmly

Stephen Pollard

Why is it OK to fly a Palestinian flag but not the St George’s Cross?

If, like me, you spend too much time on social media you’ll have noticed a recurring theme in recent days: horror at the phenomenon of flags with the cross of St George starting to appear across much of the country. That’s hardly a surprise; social media has always been awash with left-wing types, for whom patriotism is racism under a different name, and who seem to do nothing but parrot all the usual dull cliches. But today’s version of those cliches turns out to be interesting – because it reveals a double standard so jarring as to be off the scale. The England flag is upsetting only to those who

Ross Clark

Rachel Reeves is itching to whack up taxes

Gosh, Labour really does hate private landlords. Rachel Reeves’ latest property tax proposal to be dangled before the public is to charge National Insurance contributions (NICs) on income from rental properties. This would set it aside from other forms of investment income, which are liable for income tax but not NICs. It would also represent a growing war against small-time private landlords as opposed to corporate ones. Companies letting properties would not be affected by the change and neither would private landlords with substantial salaries be hit badly – there is a ceiling on the main rate of NICs, with income over £50,000 a year taxed at only 2 per

Jonathan Spyer

Iran may be down, but it's not out

The sirens began at about 5 am. A Houthi ballistic missile was on its way, over Jerusalem, in the direction of the coastal plain. After half a minute or so, I began to hear the familiar sound of doors scraping and muffled voices, as people made their way to the shelter.   It has become a regular occurrence. No one makes much of a fuss anymore. For most Israelis, most of the last 70 years, Yemen was a remote country on the other edge of the Middle East, the part facing the Indian Ocean, rather than the Mediterranean. What was known about it consisted of a few items of food

Michael Simmons

The coming crash: the markets have had enough

‘The problems of financing our deficits have seriously hampered progress in achieving our goals,’ wrote Labour’s chancellor Denis Healey in 1976 in his letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Half a century on, little has changed. Britain’s numbers still don’t add up. Our demographics are the problem: we’re an ageing population with too few taxpayers. As births struggle to replace deaths, liabilities funded from today’s taxes become harder to sustain. If the picture looks bad now, the next few years will be disastrous. A crash seems almost certain. For years the government has spent more than it raises through taxes. It financed that gap through the kindness of others,

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Reform’s migration crackdown, South Korea’s school phone ban and Meghan Markle misses Magic Radio

Home Nigel Farage, launching Reform’s policies on illegal migrants, said: ‘The only way we’ll stop the boats is by detaining and deporting absolutely anyone who comes via that route.’ A Taliban official in Kabul responded: ‘We are ready and willing to receive and embrace whoever he [Mr Farage] sends us.’ The government sought to appeal against a High Court ruling which temporarily forbade the housing of asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex. Protests against asylum hotels and counter-protests continued in several places. The government said it would introduce a panel of adjudicators instead of judges to hear migrants’ appeals in the hope of speeding up the asylum

Rod Liddle

Angela Rayner and the spite of Labour

As a snapshot of our country, you’ll be pressed to find anything quite so resonant as the one which depicts a leading member of our Skankerati sitting in an inflatable off the southern coast of the UK with tattoo and vape in attendance. There has been much debate of late about the very large numbers of other people bobbing about in the English Channel – and the possible value they might be to our benighted economy. We could ask the same question about Angela Rayner. On paper she is a huge cost to the Exchequer, one which would easily outstrip even a fairly successful Albanian drug dealer. Henceforth, then, it

James Heale

The left’s fightback against Labour has begun

If there is a hallmark of Keir Starmer’s leadership, it is a willingness to bash the left. For five years, he has repeatedly sided with his moderate factions to make Labour electable. Corbynites have been purged from parliament and the party machine. Principles and policies have been changed to meet the electorate’s approval. Last summer’s election result appeared to vindicate the Prime Minister’s strategy. But with Starmer’s authority crumbling, the British left is aiming to reassert itself and wreak its revenge from outside, rather than inside, the Labour party. ‘This Labour government is here to appease Reform. We are here to defeat Reform’ Three groups pose a threat to Starmer.

Madeline Grant

How long can Miliband’s net zero wheeze last?

The current head of energy policy in this country is Muppet-made-flesh Ed Miliband. While he makes a speciality of eye-catching policy announcements; notably playing a tuneless rendition of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ under a wind turbine, he is proving less capable of any form of actual policy implementation. His absolutism is increasingly bringing him into conflict with colleagues in other departments. Each time one of his ideas comes to the moment where practicality is involved, it dies. One is reminded of Thomas Huxley’s remark about Samuel Wilberforce when he fell off his horse: ‘His head finally came into contact with reality and it has proved fatal.’ And so it proved yesterday, as

Wednesday

Freddy Gray

Can the Democrats save themselves?

17 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Semafor journalist David Weigel about the Democrat’s summer meeting in Minnesota which was cut short following the tragic shooting at a school today. They discuss what we know about the shooting so far, how the Democrats can reset their stance on law and order, and whether they can unify their stance on Gaza.

Matthew Wilcox

Church of England abuse survivors have been failed – again

The Church of England’s abuse Redress Scheme was set up to help survivors of abuse, but a serious data breach last night led to the email addresses of dozens of survivors being unwittingly revealed. More than 180 people were openly copied into an email update about the project sent by a law firm tasked with administering the scheme. The Church of England has expressed ‘profound concern’ about what happened. These words offer little comfort to those caught up in this latest debacle. The Church of England has expressed ‘profound concern’ about what happened One survivor told The Spectator they had opened the message expecting long-awaited details on how the compensation programme would

Steerpike

'Cash for questions' Tory MP cleared

‘Tory gain!’ is a cry heard less and less frequently these days. But in a rare piece of good news for the current HM Opposition, Tory MP George Freeman has today been cleared of ‘Cash for Questions’ accusations by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. The former Science Minister referred himself to the watchdog back in June following reporting by the Sunday Times. Always good to try and get ahead of the story… The paper alleged that Freeman inquired to a company that paid him £5,000 per month as an advisor ‘what to ask about’ in Parliament and to ‘help him get the wording right.’ But the Standards Commissioner gave Freeman the all

Gawain Towler

Elon Musk is wrong about Nigel Farage

Elon Musk, the tech titan who has revolutionised space travel and electric cars, has once again waded into British politics with the subtlety of a Cybertruck crashing into a late summer vicarage garden party. His latest intervention came via a tweet endorsing Advance UK, the fledgling splinter group led by Ben Habib, former Reform UK deputy leader and Brexit party MEP. ‘Advance UK will actually drive change,’ Musk declared, dismissing Nigel Farage as ‘weak sauce who will do nothing.’ This was in direct response to Tommy Robinson’s call for supporters to rally behind Habib’s outfit, while urging figures like Rupert Lowe to join. But make no mistake: this isn’t really

James Heale

Labour goes on the Farage offensive

12 min listen

As James Heale writes online for the Spectator today, ‘two issues continue to plague the government’: how best to attack Nigel Farage. and how to frame an incrementalist approach to policy ‘when the national mood favours radical change’. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for UK-EU relations, attempted to tackle both today as he came to the Spectator to set out Labour’s Europe strategy. Labour are pursuing ‘pragmatic alignment’ – what they argue is greater co-operation when beneficial to the British interest. But what does this mean? James joins Michael Simmons on the podcast to unpack the speech. And, on a day when Reform have claimed another defector (this

James Heale

Reform’s new MSP is a portent of the future

Another red-letter day for Reform as the party unveils its second defector at Holyrood. Graham Simpson, a Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), has today crossed the floor to join the ranks of Nigel Farage’s ever-expanding army. He is Reform’s second ever MSP, after Michelle Ballantyne’s short-lived spell from January to May 2021. Simpson, though, is likely to last longer, by fighting his Central Scotland seat at the upcoming election in May next year. At a press conference, Simpson told assembled journalists that he was joining Reform ‘to create something new, exciting and lasting that puts the needs of people over the system.’ He is expected to play a

Steerpike

Labour: Farage wants Britain to fail

Following Farage’s deportation declaration yesterday, Labour have gone on the attack. In a speech today on the future of EU relations, Europe Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds hit out at Farage, declaring he wants Britain to fail. Speaking at The Spectator, he told the assembled great and the not-so-good of HM Press Gallery that: Aside for his pension packet, Nigel Farage can’t bring himself to have any relationship with the EU. Unable to recognise what is actually the best choice for working families across Britain but also because Nigel Farage wants Britain to fail. His model of politics feeds on it. When British businesses fail, when family bills go up, he offers

Gavin Mortimer

France has lost control of its borders

The cynic might wonder if Keir Starmer and his government aren’t a little relieved that France is once more on the brink of political chaos. Now they have a convenient excuse for why waves of small boats continue to land on English beaches. Starmer’s Gallic counterpart, Francis Bayrou, has called a vote of confidence in his government on 8 September. Lose and he will be out, and Emmanuel Macron will be searching for his fifth Prime Minister in 21 months. A source in the British government has said that the turmoil in Paris could undermine the ‘one in, one out’ migrant treaty recently signed by the two countries. ‘We still

James Heale

Labour’s latest Farage attack? Brexit

As recess draws towards its close, two issues continue to plague the government. The first: how best to attack Nigel Farage, riding high on a wave of migration outrage? The second: how to frame ministers’ modest protest, at a time when the national mood favours radical change? Today, it was the turn of Nick Thomas-Symonds to answer both. The Cabinet Office minister, who handles the brief of UK-EU relations, came to The Spectator to set out Labour’s Europe strategy. Thomas-Symonds’s argument for Labour’s reset is one of pragmatic alignment – pursuing greater co-operation when beneficial to the British interest. After unveiling the long-awaited EU reset in March, he now plans

Ross Clark

Should we worry about Britain's 'hottest summer on record'?

So, according to the Met Office, Britain is reaching the end of what will ‘almost certainly’ be the warmest summer on record. The average temperature across Britain up until 25 August was 16.13 Celsius, compared with 15.76 Celsius for the previous record-holder, 2018. There is still a week to go, of course, and it is a week which, on average, you would expect to be one of the coolest weeks of the summer, coming as it does right at the end. But let us assume that the Met Office is right and 2025 really does grab its place in the record books. So what? It has also been a largely