Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Monday

Ross Clark

Will Ed Miliband's climate change speech be a 'radical truth'?

For once, Ed Miliband is right about something: the British way of life is under threat. But it is not for the reasons he claims. Our way of life is under threat because high energy prices are leading to Britain’s rapid deindustrialisation. Once a proud and wealthy industrial nation, we are becoming an impoverished country ever more reliant on importing stuff that we used to make ourselves. Miliband, by contrast, claims that our way of life is being ruined by a changing climate. Today he will make a statement to the House of Commons revealing the contents of the latest annual ‘State of the Climate’ report by the Met Office

James Kirkup

The populist case for fixing the pension system

Pensions rarely top the Westminster agenda or get politicians excited. Too boring, too distant. But maybe, just maybe, pensions will soon become political.    There is a growing consensus among pensions policymakers and industry insiders: if we want future generations to retire with a bit of security and comfort, contributions into defined contribution (DC) pensions must rise. That means workers will need to put in more – and so will their employers.  So soon the government will take the next sensible steps on this sensible journey, with its ongoing Pensions Review starting to focus on ‘adequacy’, technocrat-speak for saving enough to retire on.   The world of pensions policy is

Steerpike

Who are working people? All Labour's definitions

The Labour party has long been dubbed the party of working people – but despite the term being integral to the group’s existence, Sir Keir Starmer’s army have so far demonstrated an extraordinary degree of ineptness when pushed on its definition. After new transport minister Heidi Alexander caused a flurry of excitement at the weekend when she gave her own description of ‘working people’ – only those on ‘modest incomes’, apparently – Mr S decided to compile a list of all the, er, contradictory accounts of how exactly the phrase has been interpreted by the Labour lot. 18 June 2024: Sir Keir Starmer suggested ahead of the 2024 general election

Steerpike

Wallace's BBC return 'untenable' after complaints upheld

Another week, another bit of bad news for ex-Beeb star Gregg Wallace. A report into the former MasterChef presenter has substantiated a whopping 45 complaints against the TV personality – making any return to the public service broadcaster ‘untenable’. A seven-month inquiry by legal firm Lewis Silkin was carried out on behalf of the programme’s production company. Speaking to 78 witnesses, it probed a staggering 83 complaints against the star – and upheld more than half. Crikey. The ex-MasterChef presenter faced more than 14 hours of interviews with the investigating team. Almost all of the allegations related to incidents occurring between 2005 and 2018, with most of these concerning inappropriate

James Heale

Who exactly is a working person?

Tomorrow is Rachel Reeves’s big speech in the City. The annual Mansion House address is a chance for the chancellor to set out their big vision for the British economy. But amid a gloomy set of economic indicators – including two monthly GDP contractions in a row – it is difficult to see what good news message she can deliver. Initially, there was talk about reforms to cash ISAs, with Reeves planning to cut the £20,000 annual tax-free allowance. However, following a backlash, the Financial Times reports those plans have now been dropped. There is talk instead of Reeves promising a ‘new Big Bang’ by slashing regulation on financial services. That will

Sam Leith

Banning disposable vapes was a waste of time

When we’re debating the introduction of a new law – ban this, ban that, crack down on the other – most of the energy in the public conversation goes into the question of whether this, that, or the other is something that deserves to be cracked down on. It seems to be after the event, usually, and with the sound and fury at last subsided, that we discover whether the law in question will achieve its stated purpose.  A corker of a recent example, I think, was the Blair government’s foxhunting ban. It sucked in hundreds of hours of parliamentary time. It generated thousands of headlines. It brought hundreds of

Sunday

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: Labour defends its ‘one in, one out’ migrant scheme

The government is piloting a ‘one in, one out’ migrant scheme with France. As part of the deal, the UK will return some migrants to France, and in exchange others with a strong case for asylum in the UK will come the other way. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips noted that France could refuse to take back certain individuals, and asked Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander why they would accept ‘violent offenders and rapists’. Alexander said there is a lot of ‘operational detail’ that the Home Secretary and Prime Minister are working on, but claimed the deal was ‘robust’ and ‘workable’, and could ultimately ‘break the model’ of the international people

Adam Hay-Nicholls

In defence of Christian Horner

Christian Horner has very beady eyes. If you sit opposite him, his shark-like spotlights will dart around you, probably in the hope there’s someone more important he can talk to, but also spying for threats and opportunities. His sacking as the team principal of Red Bull Racing after 20 years in the job has caught the paddock off-guard. We were at Eddie Jordan’s memorial on Monday at Central Hall Westminster with F1 powerbrokers past and present and none of them knew this was coming. But Horner surely did, and I bet he’s one step ahead. Christian has faced more threats than opportunities during the past 18 months. There was the embarrassing leak of sexualised text messages to a personal assistant which proved, at the very least, that he

Nigel Jones

Reform is right to reject Liz Truss

Reform UK topping the opinion polls and winning local council elections has prompted several leading Tories to defect. But now Nigel Farage’s insurgent party is riding so high that it is getting choosy about which Conservatives it will accept into its swelling ranks. If too many Tories join Reform they will begin to look like a convenient vehicle for rats leaving the sinking Tory ship Sources in the party have told the Mail on Sunday that it would spurn any attempt to defect by former Prime Minister Liz Truss or former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, as both are so unpopular that they would ‘damage Reform’s public image’. Reform leader Nigel Farage

Steerpike

Thatcher hit job piece backfires

It is a century this year since the Iron Lady’s birth – and conservatives are determined to mark it in style. Amid a whole host of dinners and seminars, the Margaret Thatcher Centre held a symposium on Monday to debate the legacy of the former Prime Minister. Among the likes of Lord Lilley, Sir Anthony Seldon and David Starkey was a writer from the New Statesman who duly filed a predictably snippy piece about the day. Quelle surprise… Yet it seems that the piece has backfired somewhat. For Donal Blaney, the conference organiser, has penned a letter in response. It thanks the journalist in question and says: We have shared

Rory Hanrahan

Norman Tebbit, forgiveness and my father, the IRA bomber

Norman Tebbit, who died this week at the age of 94, embodied a sterner Britain. His political career was remarkable but it paled in comparison with his unyielding love for his wife Margaret, whom he wheeled through life for four decades after the IRA’s Brighton bomb paralysed her body in 1984. Tebbit never forgave those who nearly killed him and left his beloved wife in pain for the rest of her days. My dad met Tebbit several times, earning his ‘hero of the week’ nod in his Sun column for exposing the IRA My father, Sean O’Callaghan, was an IRA bomber who turned against his comrades and, in doing so,

Matthew Greenwood

English schools are failing disadvantaged children

Education should be the great equaliser – the ladder with which all children, regardless of circumstances of birth, can improve themselves and, by doing so, climb towards a more prosperous future. It was certainly that way for me. I loved learning, and my state education took me from humble beginnings in Clacton-on-Sea to working in Westminster. Fixing this system will not be politically easy … but political difficulty is no excuse for inaction But not all children are so lucky. Despite England’s significant success at raising overall attainment over the past decade, the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils has stubbornly remained – despite the significant sums of money spent

Nikki Da Costa

Why the Lords doesn't have to accept the Assisted Dying Bill

In an effort to hasten the Assisted Dying/Suicide Bill on to the statute books, Esther Rantzen and Lord Falconer have offered a novel interpretation of the role of the House of Lords. Falconer suggested that the Lords must ‘uphold’ what ‘the Commons have decided to go ahead with’. Meanwhile, Rantzen said of Parliament’s upper chamber: ‘Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose.’ Someone like Rantzen may be forgiven for playing so loose with conventions, but a former Lord Chancellor may not. Labour’s manifesto made no reference to assisted suicide nor assisted dying The reality is that both the House of Commons and the House of

Debbie Hayton

ITV's Transaction is painfully unfunny

The plot of Transaction, a six-part comedy currently showing on ITV2, is simple. A supermarket accused of transphobia hires a transgender night shift worker to protect themselves from an activist mob hammering on the doors. The problem for manager Simon (played by Nick Frost) is that he employs a transwoman on a mission to be outrageous, vulgar and crude, and to lecture the audience on trans rights. Promoted as humour, there’s a big problem: it just isn’t funny. Transaction was written and created by Jordan Gray who also plays the part of egocentric transwoman Liv, someone more accustomed to sponging off friends and surfing the internet than earning a living

Saturday

Julie Burchill

Wimbledon's Royal Box has become naff

As Wimbledon reaches its climax this weekend, those of us neither interested in tennis, nor in taking a fortnight off work for solid perving purposes, are delighted it will soon be over. I couldn’t care less about the tennis, but the comings and goings in the slightly obscene-sounding ‘Royal Box’ are impossible to escape from. The comings and goings in the slightly obscene-sounding ‘Royal Box’ are impossible to escape from This year has provided a bumper bonanza: Rebel Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Celia Imrie, Rory Kinnear, Nick Jonas, Bear Grylls, Hugh Grant, Olivia Rodrigo, Priyanka Chopra, Gary Lineker, John Cena, Dave Grohl, Dominic Cooper, Judd Apatow, Leslie Mann, Russell Crowe, David

Gavin Mortimer

France doesn't need Boomers dreaming of political comebacks

If France didn’t have enough to worry about right now with its soaring rates of debt, crime and immigration, now comes news of a political comeback. Dominique de Villepin, prime minister between 2005 and 2007, earlier this month launched his political party called Humanist France. ‘I decided to create a movement of ideas, of citizens, through the creation of a political party,’ he explained. ‘This movement is for everyone. We need to unite all French people to defend social justice and the republican order,’ he said. Given some of his recent statements about Israel, de Villepin will have his work cut out to unite the country. In October, the Jewish

Nick Timothy

How to save Conservatism

It is impossible to deny the sense of gloom and pessimism in Britain today. The economy is stagnant, and our society is divided. The opinion polls convey what many of us know: that the public do not trust the mainstream parties to steer us away from our predicament. The conversation around many family dinner tables is dark: parents worried that their children will miss the opportunities they enjoyed, and young people contemplating emigration. Even the spectre of civil war is being discussed – not just in private but online and in the media. It is easy to list the individual things that are going wrong. But to really understand what is happening and

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Jewish doctors are sick of the BMA

Around sixty Jewish doctors, including senior consultants and general practitioners, have left or are planning to leave the British Medical Association. Their decision is not a fleeting protest, but a serious response to what they consider to be a deeper institutional malaise that has gone untreated for too long. Many Jewish doctors feel their concerns have been ignored The BMA, whose purpose is to protect its members’ welfare, is now regarded by many Jewish doctors as compromised. They feel that it is no longer impartial, no longer safe. For a professional body that prides itself on care, inclusion and advocacy, this represents a systemic failure of grave consequence. The resignations follow the

Amanda Spielman

Amanda Spielman on the SEND row and Labour’s Ofsted blind spot

22 min listen

As Labour looks to get a grip on public spending, one rebellion gives way to another with the changes to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system threatening to become welfare round two.  On this week’s Saturday edition of Coffee House Shots, Lucy Dunn is joined by The Spectator’s Michael Simmons and former Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman to explore what the government is planning – and why so many Labour MPs are worried. Is the system failing the children it’s meant to support, or simply costing too much? And can Labour afford to fix it without tearing itself apart? Listen for: Amanda on the unintended consequences of the 2014

Friday

John Keiger

How Macron triumphed over Starmer

‘Small boats’ are the big talking point from this week’s Franco-British summit. The consensus is that there are slim pickings for Britain, and the reason why is simple: France negotiates according to its interests, Britain negotiates according to the Chagos template. France’s president Emmanuel Macron had little incentive to agree anything but a symbolic ‘returns’ agreement with Sir Keir Starmer. Most of the French political class, public opinion and ‘humanitarian’ organisations do not support Britain returning migrants to France. Nor for that matter do other EU states. Why would they? What then was Macron seeking from the summit? The French president is still smarting from Brexit The French president is