Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Thursday

Matthew Parris

Kemi shouldn’t play the Trump card

I doubt I’m alone among Spectator readers in feeling a certain slight but nagging discomfort when I hear those on the left in British politics tearing into the present President of the United States. Why so? one asks oneself. Have I a shred of sympathy with this monster? No. Can I do other than deplore the attitudes and personal behaviour of this moral toad? Of course not. Do I for a minute agree with the way he’s handling the presidency – that machine-gun fire of executive orders and constitutional improprieties?’ By no means. Could I by any stretch of the imagination endorse the preposterous policy goals Donald Trump is wont

Douglas Murray

Our politicians find truth more painful than fiction

Do you remember the great Adolescence debate? It may feel like an age ago, but way back in March Netflix released a drama about a 13-year-old caucasian boy who stabs a female classmate to death. For a time it was one of the most watched shows on Netflix. British politicians and opinion writers spent weeks chewing over this entirely fictional programme. What could we learn about the epidemic of white 13-year-old boys from decent two-parent families killing their female schoolmates? Should everyone watch it? Should anyone who hasn’t watched it be hounded from public life? Soon Keir Starmer was convening a roundtable meeting in Downing Street about it: ‘As a

James Heale

The changing face of Nigel Farage

On Monday night, a hundred Reform staff and donors met at a Marylebone pub to toast the local election results. A jubilant Nigel Farage addressed his troops, who ran up a five-figure bill. They had good reason to celebrate. With 30 per cent of the vote, Reform crushed Labour (20 per cent) and the Tories (15 per cent). They won 677 wards, ten councils and a fifth MP in the Runcorn by-election. Certain results were particularly satisfying: in Ed Miliband’s Doncaster North, Reform won more seats than any other party. Three speeches defined Reform’s campaign. First, there was the Birmingham rally at the end of March. Farage arrived on a

Rod Liddle

The Reformation is here

These are dark and bewildering days for Britain’s community of Good People, the ones who – insulated from material discomfort through large incomes and in many cases large inheritances – believe that everything can be accomplished simply by being kind and, further, by wearing one’s kindness as a badge which on the surface proclaims gentility and compassion but which, not very far below, is a polite voice insisting: ‘I am considerably richer than you, which is why I have these beliefs.’ These are the people who could not possibly vote Reform UK because it would be akin to having an avocado bathroom suite, or net curtains, or a bright-yellow Nissan

Gus Carter

Welcome to Scuzz Nation

Reform’s success in last week’s local elections has been attributed to many causes. Labour’s abolition of the winter fuel payment for pensioners. The hollowing out of the Conservative party’s campaigning base. Nigel Farage’s mastery of social media. But if you want an emblem of why voters turned their back on the political establishment let me give you Goat Man. In one ward in Runcorn, the seat Labour lost to Reform by just six votes, residents found that no one would listen when a neighbour filled his derelict house with goats and burned the animals’ manure in his garden. Despite repeated appeals to authority, no action was taken. If the council

Wednesday

The Spectator

Coffee House Shots Live: The local elections shake-up

As a subscriber-only special, get exclusive access to The Spectator’s local elections live post-match analysis with host Spectator editor Michael Gove, former Conservative minister Jacob Rees-Mogg and Chairman of the Reform party, Zia Yusuf, deputy political editor James Heale and political correspondent Lucy Dunn.

Lloyd Evans

Starmer used Kemi’s words against her at PMQs. It worked

Kemi Badenoch tried two ambushes at PMQs. She lambasted Sir Keir Starmer for cutting the winter fuel allowance and leaving old folks to shiver through the coldest months of the year. But Sir Keir claimed that he was merely trying to stabilise the economy. Kemi accused him of balancing the books ‘on the backs of pensioners.’ Sir Keir Starmer blamed his favourite cavity at PMQs, the ‘black hole’ Good start. Kemi has waited a long time to lead on this issue and the clamour of dissent grows daily. She read out a list. The mayor of Doncaster, the Welsh first minister and various grumble-bunnies on Labour’s backbenches are united against

Lucy Dunn

Reform looms large for Scotland’s Unionists

The last twelve months in Britain have seen a general election, leadership contests, council polls, mayoral races and even a parliamentary by-election – and the next year isn’t looking to be much quieter as the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections loom. The starting gun was fired on the race for Scotland’s Holyrood poll today, as party leaders from all sides of the Chamber took to podiums across the country to make their pitches to the public.  Speaking from Edinburgh this morning, SNP First Minister John Swinney celebrated an anniversary of his own: his first year in the top job, after he replaced his beleaguered predecessor Humza Yousaf in April last

Isabel Hardman

Neither Starmer nor Badenoch got what they wanted from PMQs

Keir Starmer wanted to spend Prime Minister’s Questions talking about the UK’s trade deal with India, while Kemi Badenoch – and later SNP leader Stephen Flynn – wanted to attack the government’s energy and welfare policies. Neither side really succeeded in its aims: Starmer ended up shoehorning the trade deal into random answers, while Badenoch didn’t exactly get the prime minister on the ropes. But the session did show how many bruises Labour has available for its critics to punch. The Tory leader led on whether Starmer accepted that his government was wrong to have removed the winter fuel payment. He insisted that Labour had to fix the ‘black hole’

Steerpike

Senior Tory MPs and peers call for recognition of Palestine

Well, well, well. The conflict in the Middle East has caused splits among the Labour lot and now it seems serious divides are forming in the Conservative party over the issue. As reported by the Guardian, it transpires that more than a dozen senior Tory MPs and peers have broken ranks and written to Sir Keir Starmer calling for the UK to immediately recognise Palestine as a state. The seven MPs and six House of Lords grandees have signed a letter that insists ‘recognising Palestine would affirm our nation’s commitment to upholding the principles of justice, self-determination and equal rights’. Yet this is very much not the stance of the

James Heale

Do the Tories hate free trade? Plus, Reform hits new polling high

15 min listen

Lots to talk about today, including new polling which puts Reform on 29 points compared to the Tories on just 17. We’ve also just had the first PMQs since the local elections. But the trade deal announced yesterday between the UK and India is dominating the headlines, with many concerned about some of the concessions made – namely the decision to exempt some short-term Indian workers from national insurance as part of the new agreement. This comes barely a week after the local elections, where immigration has been widely considered the most salient issue. The Conservatives have gone on the attack, despite the fact that a trade deal with India

Stewart McDonald

A year on, has John Swinney turned things around for the SNP?

It’s difficult to imagine a more cautious revolutionary than John Swinney. When the First Minister was unexpectedly swept into Charlotte Square just one year ago – answering the call of a party in need of healing and direction in equal measure – few expected him to author a radical’s reset. The party of the late Alex Salmond’s braggadocio, Nicola Sturgeon’s sure-footedness and Humza Yousaf’s faltering optimism had turned, perhaps inevitably, to the reassuringly experienced veteran whose political style has been compared to that of a Blairgowrie bank manager.  When he returned to the frontline, some thought Swinney was to play the part of a political caretaker – a soothing interregnum

Druin Burch

The trouble with GPs

This week, Wes Streeting – defending Labour’s rise in National Insurance contributions and seeking to fend off the surging Reform party – announced an extra £102 million to improve primary care. The money, the Health Secretary explained, would be given to a thousand surgeries that were prevented from taking on new patients by not having the building space to see them in. General Practice has collapsed. But will Streeting’s funds really help fix it? Many readers will be able to recall the GPs of their youths, doctors who knew them and knew their parents. Asking for a home visit was a serious step, not to be done without good reason,

Ian Acheson

Is the era of cowardly criminals hiding from court over?

The disconnect between actions and consequences that bedevils this country’s justice system suffered a modest reversal today. The government has announced that legislation will be introduced to compel convicted offenders to appear before the judge at a sentencing hearing or face sanctions. This honours a promise made by Keir Starmer’s predecessor Rishi Sunak after he met the parents of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, a nine-year-old girl murdered by Thomas Cashman last year. Cashman refused to attend the court in an act of utter cowardice. Will these new powers be used? That is a question with a political answer. The fact that a few additional days in prison on top of a 42-year

Steerpike

Watch: Haigh accuses No. 10 of briefing against women

All is not well in the Labour party. After a rather bruising set of local elections for Sir Keir Starmer, now the PM’s advisers are under scrutiny after ex-transport minister Louise Haigh accused No. 10 of briefing against women. Speaking to the Beeb’s Victoria Derbyshire on Newsnight, Haigh admitted she was ‘really fed up’ of reading negative briefings about her female colleagues in the papers, adding: ‘The kind of briefing that undermines them on a daily basis is not is not supporting the Prime Minister, and it’s not supporting the Labour government.’ Oo er. Nodding to last week’s local election losses, Haigh raged: I was really angry at the weekend

Francis Pike

Is nuclear war between India and Pakistan inevitable?

Yesterday evening Indian prime minister Narendra Modi authorised missile strikes on jihadi training camps located in Pakistan’s East Punjab and Pakistani Kashmir. It is retaliation for the attack on Hindu tourists allegedly carried out by the Pakistani Jihadi groups Lashkar-e-Taibi and Jaish-e-Muhammad in Indian controlled Kashmir on 22 April. Does this mean all-out war between the two nuclear powers is inevitable? Not necessarily. Since Indian partition, the perennial casus belli in the subcontinent there have been three major wars between India and Pakistan. The First Indo-Pakistan War (1947-1948) and the Second Indo-Pakistan War (1965) were both fought over the Kashmir issue. The third Indo-Pakistan War of 1977 was fought over

James Heale

Tories slump to 17 per cent in poll

A new YouGov poll published this morning makes for grim reading for Kemi Badenoch’s team. It finds that, in the wake of the local elections, Reform are now on 29 points compared to Labour on 22 and the Tories on just 17, with the Liberal Democrats on 16. That is the joint-lowest ever Conservative poll rating, tying with June 2019, during the dark days of the Brexit wars. According to YouGov: Naturally, these results are quite striking, but they are probably in line with what we would expect after the locals. With Reform performing so well Thursday, and the positive media coverage that is associate with such a result, it

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

Pakistan and India are on the brink

During the early hours of Wednesday, India launched airstrikes targeting nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing at least eight people, with Islamabad claiming as many as 26 may have died. In a press release issued overnight, the Indian government said the strikes were aimed at ‘terrorist infrastructure’ in response to the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam town of Indian administered Kashmir. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for the terrorist attack, while Islamabad denies being involved. In a press briefing, officials from the Indian defence and external affairs ministries said last night’s strikes  targeted camps and hideouts affiliated with Pakistan based jihadist outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed. Masood Azhar,

Matthew Lynn

This Indian trade deal could be a disaster for Labour

It should have been a triumph. We might not have managed to get a trade with the United States over the line, and we are still waiting for the long-promised ‘reset’ with the European Union. But the Labour government has managed to complete a major trade deal with India, and that should prove a significant boost for the British economy. There is just one catch. By clumsily exempting temporary Indian workers from National Insurance contributions Sir Keir Starmer has blown it – and the deal will be permanently tarnished.  By clumsily exempting temporary Indian workers from National Insurance contributions Sir Keir Starmer has blown it The US may remain the

William Atkinson

Are the Tories mad enough to bring back Boris Johnson?

The Conservative Party is not an imaginative organisation. The clue is in the name. In response to an electoral disaster – like last week’s local election Götterdämmerung – its established method is to work through three familiar stages: pretend, Comical Ali-style, that everything is fine; begin plotting to oust the leader; and then smash the glass marked ‘bring back Boris Johnson’. Having ticked off one and two, yesterday saw the unhappy launch of stage three. Politico have suggested a growing number of Tories, including MPs, are pining for the party’s ex-leader-but-two. No MP has gone public with a call to ‘Bring Back Boris’ quite yet. But there is an awareness