Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Wednesday

Tim Shipman

Spending review: smoke, mirrors and no strategy

10 min listen

There were few surprises in Rachel Reeves’s spending review today. Health was the big winner, with a £29bn increase in day-to-day spending and £39bn was announced to build social and affordable housing. The main eyebrow-raiser was the announcement that the Home Office will end the use of hotels for asylum seekers within this parliament; this could save £1bn or it could become Labour’s ‘stop the boats’ moment. The bigger picture was confusing – with increases measured against levels three years ago, is there really as much cash as Rachel Reeves wants you to think there is? And what’s the strategy behind it all? The Spectator’s new political editor Tim Shipman

Steerpike

Khan takes a pop at Reeves over spending review

There were always going to be winners and losers in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s spending review and it appears that Sadiq Khan’s London has pulled the short straw. The Labour mayor’s frustration at the Chancellor deepened this week ahead of her speech today over fears that the capital wouldn’t a sufficient cut of the government’s cash. Today, that has proved to be the case: while a four-year settlement was announced for Transport for London, Khan has lamented that it is ‘disappointing’ there had been no promise made by the Treasury to ‘invest in new infrastructure London needs’. The gloves are coming off… In a statement released after the spending review announced,

Lucy Dunn

Swinney stages reshuffle amid SNP infighting

It’s a busy day in politics and the SNP is keen not to be left out of the action. As Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils her spending review in London, today the Scottish Cabinet has undergone a reshuffle. The looming return of ex-net zero secretary Mairi McAllan from maternity leave had in recent weeks sparked speculation about how First Minister John Swinney would reorganise his top team, and his party’s rather dismal result in last week’s Hamilton by-election has led to much frustration – public and private – about the strategy deployed by the SNP government. Swinney’s reshuffle today may be modest, but the First Minister has, with 11 months to

Isabel Hardman

Starmer returns to his favourite PMQs subject: Liz Truss

‘Mr Speaker, he loves talking about Liz Truss – why? Because he wants to hide from his economic record.’ Kemi Badenoch didn’t need to do much guesswork ahead of today’s Prime Minister’s Questions: she knew Starmer would bring up the former prime minister. Starmer always likes to mention Truss, as Badenoch pointed out, but today he was nailed on to do so as part of the groundwork for Rachel Reeves’ spending review speech. The Tory leader, though, wanted to prepare the ground for her party’s narrative about what Reeves was having to do. She opened by pointing out that: Since Labour took office, inflation has nearly doubled, growth has halved

Stephen Daisley

SNP plotters should think twice before moving against John Swinney

For those who feel Scottish politics has become a little dull of late, fear not: a rebel faction within the SNP is plotting to make things very interesting again. Today’s Glasgow Herald brings the news of a secret summit of top SNP insiders at which plans to remove incumbent party leader (and Holyrood first minister) John Swinney were discussed. The paper says 25 ‘senior’ figures gathered on Monday to consider the boss’s future after the SNP’s surprise defeat in last week’s by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, a seat they had held uninterrupted since 2011. ‘The Presbyterian schoolmaster might fly in Perthshire, but in the rest of Scotland it just

Steerpike

US urges UK to U-turn on Israeli sanctions

As if the Labour government didn’t have enough on its plate with Rachel Reeves’s spending review to be announced at midday, it is also facing pressure from the US over sanctions imposed on two Israeli cabinet ministers. Late last night, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the travel ban and asset freezes imposed on security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich ‘Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said that the asset freezes and travel bans on Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich ‘do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war’. Rubio hasn’t just taken aim at the

Andrew Tettenborn

David Lammy has scored a win against pro-Gaza civil servants

Not for the first time in Whitehall, we are seeing a power struggle between elected government ministers and civil servants under their control claiming the right to follow their own agenda. 300 middle-ranking mandarins in the Foreign Office have written to the Foreign Secretary attacking Israel’s conduct in Gaza, suggesting that it contravened international humanitarian law. Their letter implied that they should not be asked to do any work that might encourage or condone it. The administration called their bluff. Permanent under-secretary Olly Robins, doubtless with Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s approval, told them that if they maintained their position, then their ultimate – and honourable – recourse was to resign.

Ross Clark

Rachel Reeves's spending review is a recipe for trouble

Rachel Reeves will apparently tell us today that she has chosen stability over chaos. It is one of the Chancellor’s standard lines, but it is very much beyond her control. Bond markets will have the ultimate say. They didn’t much like her Budget in October – indeed, long-term borrowing costs are higher now than they were in the wake of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini Budget in September – and they might not like the spending review much more. That is a potent mixture for economic gloom – it is the economy’s mental health we should be worried about most The underlying synopsis behind today’s fiscal event is that the government is

Gavin Mortimer

Will the L.A. immigration riots reach Europe?

The pro-immigration protests that erupted last week in Los Angeles have now spread across the United States. On Tuesday there were confrontations between police and demonstrators in Atlanta, Chicago and Denver, where tear gas was used to disperse a crowd. Police in New York City arrested 45 people as they came under attack from a variety of projectiles thrown by a mob that numbered several hundred. Demonstrators shouted ‘shame, shame’; one local councillor, Shahana Hanif, accused the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of ‘attacking our communities’. The anti-ICE protestors are in the minority The protests began in L.A. last Friday when ICE officers began rounding up suspected illegal immigrants in

David Bergman

Will Bangladesh’s leader mention Tulip Siddiq in his meeting with the PM?

If Keir Starmer meets Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, as planned at Downing Street this week, their agenda will likely include the country’s transition to democratic elections, scheduled for April next year, as well as how the Labour government might assist in recovering stolen Bangladeshi assets. Siddiq wrote to Yunus inviting him for “lunch or afternoon tea” at the Houses of Parliament But the unspoken tension in the room will be Labour MP and former minister Tulip Siddiq – niece of deposed Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina fled the country on 5 August 2024 following a violent state crackdown on student-led protests, in which over 800 people have been

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Britain's sanctioning of Israeli ministers is a grave mistake

The United Kingdom’s decision this week to impose personal sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, is a grave error – not only strategically, but morally. In concert with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway, Britain claims this move defends human rights and opposes settler violence. In truth, it represents a striking double standard, a capitulation to domestic partisan pressures, and even a step towards decreased relevance on the international stage. The UK is posturing for domestic political gain The contrast between Britain’s treatment of Israeli ministers and its posture towards the enablers of terrorism is glaring. Palestinian Authority officials who

Mark Galeotti

No, Nato: Brits had not 'better learn to speak Russian'

It seems conventional wisdom by now that the public can only be convinced by hyperbole. As Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte implies that Britain faces a choice between the NHS and Russian conquest, it is worth asking how much this actually damages democracy – and helps Vladimir Putin? The real threat Russia poses is less of direct military action but through its ‘hybrid war’ instruments of subversion and division Rutte is on tour in a bid to sell the new orthodoxy that Nato member states – many of whom barely, if at all, hit the previous target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence – must commit to spending

Stephen Pollard

Britain's Holocaust memorial must focus only on the Jews

The Holocaust Memorial Bill returns to Parliament for its report stage in the House of Lords today. The legislation marks the end point in a – so far – eleven-year process that began when David Cameron set up a commission in 2014 to consider what Britain should do to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and ensure its lessons are never forgotten. The commission recommended building a memorial and learning centre, with a site chosen next to Parliament, in Victoria Tower Gardens. The proposal has been deeply controversial, both because of the site – which Lord Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terror laws, described as a ‘self-evident terrorism risk’ –

Tuesday

Tom Jones

Does David Bull know why people vote Reform?

In a week of high drama, in which Reform lost its chairman and then saw him return 48 hours later, the party could have hoped for a quiet news day. Slim chance of that. After Zia Yusuf returned as party chairman, Reform held a press conference to announce that Yusuf would head the party’s DOGE unit to uncover waste at councils – and would be replaced as chairman by Dr David Bull. A former Conservative, Bull is better known than his predecessor was when taking the role, having formerly presented Newsround and Most Haunted, becoming an MEP for the Brexit party in 2019 and the co-host of the TalkTV weekend breakfast

Madeline Grant

Ed Miliband is an astonishing Commons performer

I’m not totally sure where they keep Ed Miliband in between his Commons appearances. Perhaps some sort of deep freeze for the terminally media-unsavvy, in between Lammy and Lucy Powell. True, he is allowed to do the odd cringe-inducing publicity video, like the time he filmed his atonal strumming of a ukulele in front of a wind turbine. Presumably Sir Keir releases him from the grip of his iron trotters for these occasional acts of self-humiliation pour encourager les autres.  Yet here he was today in parliament – an increasingly rare example of a cabinet minister actually coming to the Commons to announce a major policy. What’s more, this was something

Steerpike

Tories score double the donations of Reform

How much have political donors gifted to their party coffers? Well, the results are now in. Today’s Electoral Commission figures bring some long overdue good news for Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives, who have come out on top: the Tories received a whopping £3.3 million of donations between the 1 January and 31 March 2025. In fact, Badenoch’s boys in blue took £1 million more than the Labour lot who received £2.3 million, and over double the £1.48 million of donations Nigel Farage’s Reform UK took. Talk about raking it in, eh? And the Tories have more than just the raw figures to boast about: it transpires that onetime Labour supporter and

Michael Simmons

Labour goes nuclear while Reform turns to coal

17 min listen

Rachel Reeves has pledged a ‘new era of nuclear power’ as the government confirms a £14.2 billion investment in the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk. This comes on the eve of Labour’s spending review, with the government expected to highlight spending pledges designed to give a positive impression of Labour’s handling of the economy. However, as Michael Simmons tells James Heale and Lucy Dunn, there are signs that the government’s National Insurance hike is starting to bite. Plus – Nigel Farage has made two announcements in as many days. This morning, he unveiled Reform’s new chairman, former MEP Dr David Bull, taking over from the recently returned Zia Yusuf.

James Heale

David Bull is Reform UK’s new chairman

‘There are no disasters, only opportunities.’ Boris Johnson’s famous mantra is being embraced by Nigel Farage as he tries to turn Reform into a vehicle for government. Zia Yusuf’s un-resignation as party chairman last week offered Farage the chance to restructure his top team. At a press conference this morning, a chastened Yusuf handed over the baton to his successor, shaking hands under Farage’s watchful eye. Reform’s new chairman is Dr David Bull, a former GP, TalkTV personality and onetime MEP for the Brexit party. Yusuf lavished praise on Bull, declaring him a ‘more affable and charming man than I am’ and ‘universally loved across the party’. That is a

Brendan O’Neill

Did Greta Thunberg refuse to watch the October 7 video?

Did Greta Thunberg refuse to watch footage of Hamas’s 7 October atrocities? That’s the accusation being made by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz. Greta and her crew, upon their arrival in Israel last night, were taken into a room to be shown the harrowing truth of what Hamas did 20 months ago, says Katz. But when the video started rolling, and ‘they saw what it was about’, they ‘refused to continue watching’, he alleges. Israel just saved you from a bloody warzone and you accuse it of war crimes? How about showing some gratitude? This is a serious charge. Thunberg and her fellow sailors should address it with haste. For

Steerpike

Watch: Eco-activist Greta Thunberg deported from Israel – by plane

Well, well, well. After the failed attempt by Greta Thunberg and her comrades in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on ship Madleen to take aid into Gaza, it transpires that the climate activist has now been put on an, er, plane as Israel deports her to France. The eco-zealot has long been vocal about her disdain for air travel and so her own carbon-dioxide emitting journey back to Europe in what Mr S assumes Thunberg believes is a frightfully polluting jet – calculated, by the Telegraph, to likely emit more than half a tonne of CO2 per person – is a final twist of the knife by the Israeli government. The