Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Thursday

John Connolly

Labour should look to Andy Burnham for inspiration

For Keir Starmer, it seems everything is going south. His MPs are openly rebelling, his advisers are mutinous and it often feels as though he can’t decide whether to run the country as human-rights-lawyer-in-chief or as Nigel Farage-lite. It’s no wonder that some in his party are beginning to look north for an answer to the party’s woes – specifically to Manchester, where Andy Burnham increasingly looks like the King over the river Irwell. With the government trapped in an ideological Bermuda triangle, Greater Manchester suggests there is a way out – a way for Labour to govern effectively. The region has had the highest productivity growth in the UK

Wednesday

Lee Cohen

The right is splintering

When Elon Musk tweeted his vision for an ‘America Party’, he ignited a firestorm of hope and scepticism. The idea was inspired by his anger for Donald Trump’s $5 trillion spending bill. In the UK, Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe, formerly figures in Reform, have splintered away from Britain’s populist party over splits with Nigel Farage. Musk, Habib and Lowe are all disruptors united by disdain for broken systems, and all face harsh electoral realities. In the US, a hypothetical Musk-led party could split the Republican vote, potentially handing Democrats victories. Habib and Lowe could dilute the populist vote in the UK, most of which is currently with Reform. Musk’s

Madeline Grant

At PMQs we saw Keir Starmer’s ugly side

‘When a Knight won his spurs in the stories of old, he was gentle and brave, he was gallant and bold.’ I wonder if Sir Keir Starmer ever sang the old hymn, podgy hands on crossed-legged knee when at primary school in the Stakhanovite front-lines of 1970s Surrey? Presumably not, given how ill-suited the epithets therein are to his demeanour. If there had been any doubt as to the nature of Sir Keir’s real character, today’s Prime Minister’s Questions laid them to rest. The PM droned on about how pleased and proud he was of Labour’s record on women MPs. Next to him, the Chancellor looked sadly at her feet

James Heale

Chancellor in tears during PMQs

11 min listen

There were extraordinary scenes in PMQs today. Rachel Reeves appeared distraught as the Prime Minister failed to guarantee her security when asked by leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch. It was brutal to watch, as the iron chancellor’s lip quivered and a tear rolled down her cheek. In many ways, you can’t blame her – with her headroom narrowing, she will be forced to find a further £5 billion worth of savings to allow for the government’s botched welfare bill. No. 10 has since clarified that Rachel Reeves has not resigned and will not be sacked, stressing that it was ‘personal’ matter that had upset her, ‘which – as you

Isabel Hardman

Starmer throws his Chancellor under the bus

Keir Starmer was utterly brutal at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, though towards his own Chancellor, rather than the opposition. He refused to say, when invited by Kemi Badenoch, that Rachel Reeves would be in position until the end of the parliament. Behind him, Reeves looked utterly miserable, to the point that Badenoch highlighted it in one of her questions. The Chancellor either had a particularly badly-timed case of hay fever, or was struggling emotionally during the session, with what appeared to be a tear rolling out of her eye when Starmer was only partially defending her. Reeves was nodding and agreeing with him, but looked devastated at the same time

Steerpike

Taxpayer to fund legal bills of ex-SNP chief

Just when the SNP thought Operation Branchform had disappeared, the curious case into the party’s funds and finances has reared its head again. Now it transpires that former SNP chief Peter Murrell – and ex-husband of Dear Leader Nicola Sturgeon – has been granted legal aid after being charged with embezzlement, meaning the taxpayer will, um, fund his legal bills. Good heavens… As reported by the Daily Record, the onetime chief executive of the Scottish National party had his application for solemn legal aid approved by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. The 60-year-old will receive support which is usually granted to those who cannot afford to pay for legal help

Steerpike

Watch: Reeves in tears after Labour's welfare U-turn

All is not well on the Labour front benches. As Sir Keir Starmer defends his welfare U-turn in the Commons – after last night an eleventh-hour concession saw the government push back Personal Insurance Payment changes – behind him Chancellor Rachel Reeves is struggling to keep it together. Looking both upset and rather sleep deprived, the beleaguered Chancellor has even shed a few tears during the gruelling session. Throughout Prime Minister’s Questions, Reeves appeared close to tears – and a line of questioning by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch seemed to push her over the edge. The Conservative party leader quizzed the Prime Minister on whether the Chancellor would hold onto

James Kirkup

Labour MPs should thank – not blame – Reeves for trying to cut welfare

Labour MPs blaming Rachel Reeves over welfare cuts are like teenagers blaming their mum for telling them to wear a coat when there are bloody great storm clouds on the horizon. It’s silly and it won’t save them from getting soaked. But this is emerging as part of the blame game over Labour’s welfare debacle, where the party’s MPs forced the government to shred its own welfare bill by threatening to vote it down at second reading. ‘She must be toast,’ a Labour MP told the FT. The Times quotes a senior Labour source accusing Reeves of having ‘very little political acumen’. The argument, apparently, is that Reeves is at

Limor Simhony Philpott

The war in Gaza is far from over

After nearly 21 months of bitter fighting in Gaza, reports suggest Israel and Hamas may be edging closer to a 60-day ceasefire deal – or at least circling it warily. Talks mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt have resumed, raising hopes of a temporary pause, or even a broader framework for peace. President Trump claimed that Israel has agreed to a deal, although Prime Minister Netanyahu has so far maintained ambiguity. The debate in Israel is unfolding under mounting pressure. Israelis desperately want the remaining hostages released. They are also worried that the war is becoming a slow war of attrition, reminiscent of the 15-year long, costly war against Hezbollah, which bore limited achievements. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) also

Laurie Penny

Labour has tied itself in knots over welfare reform

The problem with having principles is that they’re very expensive. This is proving an enormous headache for Starmer’s government, which is still trying to slash disability benefits in plain sight rather than raise taxes, only to be forced into another embarrassing U-turn by hundreds of its own backbenchers. These rebel MPs kicked up a fuss on the basis that they didn’t run for office to push hundreds of thousands of disabled people into poverty. Most of these MPs ran for office on the basis of not being Tories. The party leadership apparently believed that it could legislate like Tories and get away with it, but to get away with that sort

Steerpike

Watch: McFadden refuses to rule out tax rises after welfare U-turn

Uh oh. After Sir Keir Starmer’s embarrassing U-turn on his government’s welfare bill last night – where changes to Personal Insurance Payments were pushed back until after disability minister Stephen Timms’s review on it all next year – cabinet minister Pat McFadden has been out on the airwaves this morning defending his leader. But when the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster appeared on BBC Breakfast, Mr S noted that he didn’t quite manage to reassure viewers that there would be no tax rises in the autumn as a result of this £5bn volte face… When quizzed on whether economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies were correct in thinking

Michael Simmons

I feel sorry for Rachel Reeves

I’m starting to feel a tiny bit sorry for the chancellor. Yes, most of the economic and fiscal problems we’re facing have been exacerbated – if not caused – by current Treasury policy. But Labour’s welfare reforms, flawed and limited as they were, at least acknowledged that the welfare bill is not just fiscally unsustainable but also morally unacceptable. The idea that we should simply accept rising worklessness among the young – 25 to 34-year-olds are now the fastest-growing group on sickness benefits, with claims up 69 per cent in five years – is indefensible in a supposedly compassionate country. Much of this is driven by the medicalisation of anxiety and

Steerpike

CPS considers further Letby charges

To the Lucy Letby case, where it transpires that the Crown Prosecution Service is considering further criminal charges against the ex-nurse. Murder investigators have passed evidence of further allegations that relate to baby deaths and collapses at the hospitals that employed her – and these are now being considered by the CPS after the Cheshire force handed over the evidence. Good heavens… The number and nature of the potential new offences remain unclear, and it is thought that any new charges could take weeks to come. Commenting, a CPS spokesperson remarked: We can confirm that we have received a full file of evidence from Cheshire Constabulary asking us to consider

Matthew Lynn

If AstraZeneca quits the London Stock Exchange, it will be a disaster

It was already a bad enough week for the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, what with the collapse of their welfare reforms. But now news has leaked that AstraZeneca’s CEO Sir Pascal Soriot has reportedly discussed moving its listing from London to New York. There is nothing official yet, and no decision has been made. But for the boss of Britain’s most valuable listed company to even contemplate upping sticks spells trouble for the UK economy. It is not hard to blame him. Over-regulation has turned the London market into a relative backwater. Meanwhile, Wall Street has been booming. The business would be more highly

Ross Clark

Are we really living through a ‘record-breaking’ heatwave?

Thank God for the Guardian website. Without it I would never have known that I have been marching through a killer heatwave. For the past couple of weeks I have been quite happily carrying a 15 kilo rucksack over Alpine passes, walking the GR 5 trail which leads from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean. So, too, have plenty of others. Around Mont Blanc the path was positively crowded, remarkably with Chinese hikers. It has been hot work at times, though there is a good way to counter that: with a ‘chapeau d’eau’ – fill your sunhat with water from a tumbling stream and then put it back on your head.

Lana Hempsall

Welfare isn't working

Despite the opposition of a huge swathe of Labour MPs, the government’s Welfare Bill managed to scrape over the line to the next parliamentary stage. But that was only after a humiliating U-turn that ditched almost all of the Bill’s original measures, at least in regard to existing claimants of disability benefits. What was originally pitched as the ‘biggest shake-up to the welfare system in a generation’, with the aim of getting millions of people into work (and saving £5 billion in the process) is no more. Far from being the bold reset the country was promised, the Bill simply preserves a broken eligibility system that the government itself has

Philip Patrick

Nissan's future looks bleak

Nissan has announced that hundreds of jobs will be cut at its Sunderland plant. The Japanese auto-maker said the lay-offs would be in the form of ‘voluntary redundancies’. The move is part of the beleaguered corporate behemoth’s plan to reduce its global workforce by 15 per cent following several disastrous years, not least because of slow demand for its fleet of electric cars. Some sympathy is due perhaps, at least for Nissan in the UK While the cuts only affect four per cent of the plant’s 6,000 workers, the question now is whether this is just the start. So serious is the state of Nissan’s finances – it announced losses

Lisa Haseldine

Can freedom of movement survive Europe’s migrant crisis?

Freedom of movement in the EU received another nail in its coffin yesterday after Poland became the latest European country to introduce checks along its shared borders with fellow member states. As of next Monday, Warsaw will start enforcing border controls at crossings shared with Germany and Lithuania.  The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that he felt compelled to introduce border checks in particular to ‘reduce the uncontrolled flows of migrants across the Polish-German border to a minimum’. The source of Tusk’s angst is the tougher border regime introduced by new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz less than two months ago. Under the new measures, German border guards have been

Tuesday

Madeline Grant

Welfare reform just died in parliament

That this government is bad at maths will not come as a surprise to many readers. Thus far, however, in its endless parade of resounding successes, this has been mostly confined to miscalculations on the economy. Now, though, government innumeracy seems to have spilled out into its Parliamentary arithmetic too. Despite having a landslide majority, Labour has managed to find itself, not quite a year into power, with a serious backbench rebellion on its hands. This is doubly impressive: not only is the government’s majority enormous, it is composed of an intake of infamously supine backbenchers, desperate for attention and promotion from No. 10. They make the 1997 Labour cohort