Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Steerpike

Watch: Sue Gray enters the Lords

And there we have it. Baroness Gray of Tottenham has entered the House of Lords. Sir Keir’s former chief of staff Sue Gray has today become a Labour peer after a whirlwind seven months under Starmer’s government. The political peerages document dropped in December after the nominations from the PM, Kemi Badenoch and Sir Ed Davey were formally approved by King Charles III – and readers were quick to spot the Starmer ally on the list. It’s quite the controversy. The ex-civil servant was made the Prime Minister’s chief staffer in July but rather quickly fell out of favour with his top team after being accused of cronyism, ‘subverting’ Cabinet

Lara King

Is this London’s most anti-car borough?

In a city at war with the car, there’s plenty of competition. Lambeth has hiked the cost of residents’ parking permits by as much as 400 per cent, Islington has installed wavy kerbs to deter drivers and more than half of Hackney is covered by Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs). But Labour-run Hammersmith and Fulham, in west London, must surely have a claim to being London’s most anti-car borough.  Not content with raking in £11.8 million in a year from drivers breaching the ‘South Fulham Clean Air Neighbourhood’ that has left local businesses losing money, the council recently created one of Britain’s smallest LTNs – a 350ft stretch that critics have warned could

Michael Evans

What will happen to Hamas’s tunnels?

Even if the third phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal is successfully completed and all hostages, alive and dead, are handed over, Hamas will still retain its most treasured and most deadly warfare advantage: hundreds of miles of deep tunnels and bunkers known as the Gaza metro. From day one of the Israel Defence Forces’ retaliatory invasion of Gaza, the search began for the tunnel complex which their opponents were using to hide command bunkers, weapon-making plants, munition stores, fighters and the 250 hostages seized from southern Israel on 7 October, 2023. The IDF may have killed an estimated 17,000 of Hamas’s 30,000 soldiers, but the remnants of the battered

Matthew Lynn

Vance is right, Europe is smothering AI

They won’t have liked the message or the messenger. With characteristic bluntness, the American vice president J. D. Vance tore into the European Union’s smothering regulation of artificial intelligence today.  Still, Europe’s leaders should listen. Vance happens to be absolutely right. When President Macron convened an AI summit in Paris this week, he was probably hoping for the usual platitudes from world leaders about ‘transformative technologies’ and ‘empowering change’ – along with a few billion euros for some data hubs in France. Unfortunately, no one told Vance how these things are meant to work. In his speech he spoke his mind, and tore into his hosts.  ‘We believe that excessive

Steerpike

Reform support surges to new high, poll shows

Another day, another positive poll result for Reform. The latest Westminster voting intention poll from YouGov shows Nigel Farage’s party swooping into first place – again. More than a quarter of Brits would vote for the Reform crowd if there were a general election tomorrow, with the party up a point since last week and on its highest figure to date in a YouGov poll. Watch out Keir… The Labour lot received the backing of 25 per cent of poll respondents – also up a point on the previous week – to land in second place, while Kemi Badenoch’s boys in blue came third with just over a fifth of

Isabel Hardman

Why has Labour dropped so many NHS targets?

Does the Labour government still care about mental health? Recently, it dropped its NHS targets for mental health, along with other targets on dementia diagnoses and women’s health. Today at Health questions in the Commons, ministers were confronted about whether they were still committed to improving treatment for mental illness, given the targets are now gone. Stephen Kinnock argued:  ‘What we know about targets is that if you try and overload a system with too many targets, it causes confusion, and you end up with, as she rightly says, perverse outcomes. And so we are very clear that we want to not have a system which is based on just

Andrew Liddle

It’s a mistake for Scottish Labour to stand by SNP policies

With just 15 months to go until crucial devolved elections in Scotland, 2025 will be a momentous year in Scottish politics. Few leaders understand this better than Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who hopes he will be the man to end two decades of SNP dominance come May 2026.  Yet Scottish Labour has fallen down in the polls in recent months and Sarwar needs to figure out how to make his party stand out. It was therefore little surprise that he began 2025 by pledging to use the year to set out how he and his party would chart a ‘new direction’ for Scotland. ‘In each area of responsibility for

David Cohen

What does China want with the Cook Islands?

Diplomatic storm clouds are gathering around the Cook Islands, a picturesque tourist destination in the South Pacific known for its creaking palms, pink beaches and deliciously warm nights.  The microscopic island-nation has a long-standing ‘free association’ with New Zealand, which sees Wellington give the islands defence and financial support. Now though the islands are in the middle of striking an agreement with China, and New Zealand says it has been kept in the dark about the nature of the pact.  ‘We can confirm that there are a number of issues on which New Zealand and the Cook Islands government currently do not see eye-to-eye,’ a spokesman for New Zealand’s foreign

Rhys Laverty

The problem with Labour’s home-school crackdown

There are some counterintuitive differences between the US and the UK. One of them is this: home education has always been far easier in the UK, legally speaking, than across the Atlantic. But that is all about to change. In states across the US, the right to home educate, and the attendant level of government oversight (e.g. registration, submitting planned curricula, proving progress etc.) has always varied wildly. But in the UK it has always been very simple: centuries of English common law mean that if a parent wishes to keep their child at home to be educated it is none of the government’s business. The rising home education figures

Chas Newkey-Burden

Blame vegans for the ‘anti-vegan backlash’

Is the vegan revolution over? An “anti-vegan backlash” has “made Britain fall back in love with meat,” according to the Daily Telegraph. Studies have found that 18-24 year olds in the UK increased their meat intake in 2024, sales of fake meats are falling and vegan restaurants are closing their doors. It’s not just about putting oat milk into your coffee and saying no to bacon Well, if veganism is falling out of fashion then vegans must take a fair amount of the blame. As a vegan myself, I’ve noticed that this ethically rooted movement has begun to focus too much on money and not enough on morality.  I’ve lost count

Euan McColm

Why aren’t Scotland’s politicians standing up for Sandie Peggie?

The remarkable story of nurse Sandie Peggie, suspended from her job after she complained about the presence of a male doctor in a staff changing room, has what politicos describe as ‘cut through’. Over the past week, a tribunal in Dundee has heard jaw-dropping evidence about how the nurse was treated when she questioned the presence of Dr Beth Upton, a trans woman, in a female-only space. Even BBC Scotland, normally decidedly squeamish about covering anything that might upset touchy trans activists, has carried daily reports on the case brought by Peggie against both her employers, NHS Fife, and Upton. To give you a flavour of proceedings so far, on

Matthew Lynn

Starmer should split from the EU if it hits back at Trump on tariffs

The European Union has hit back against Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel imports. “Tariffs are taxes – bad for business, worse for consumers,” the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said, adding that the levy “will not go unanswered”. Yet for all the fire and fury, Europe will not be quite as united as it wishes. The British government has made it quietly clear that it will not be joining the fight. The Daily Mail reports that the Prime Minister is poised to split from the EU by holding off retaliating. The PM right: this is a fight from which Britain has little

Steerpike

Farage and Tories in borders bill battle

It was a late-night showdown in the Commons yesterday evening. The terrain? Labour’s Border, Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. But while the legislation was passed – by Pyongyang-style majorities – on the back of Labour votes, a row has now broken out over whether the Tories or Reform were more effective in their opposition. Nigel Farage took to X to say that: Without Reform MPs there would have been no vote on Labour’s useless immigration bill tonight. The Tories did not intend to oppose it until we forced a vote in the House of Commons. Reform UK are the real opposition. This then prompted a counterargument by Conservative MPs, with

Steerpike

Why has the BBC changed its trans tribunal headline?

The BBC is back in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. As the trial between the Scottish nurse Sandie Peggie and NHS Fife continues – after Peggie’s suspension over questioning the use of female-only facilities by trans doctor Beth Upton – it seems that the Beeb can’t quite seem to work out how to characterise its coverage. Mr S’s spies have drawn attention to a rather odd change on the BBC Scotland website in an article covering the ongoing trial. Initially a piece was posted with the headline: ‘Transgender doctor tells tribunal “I am not male”.’ The opening paragraph of this read as follows: A transgender doctor at the

Steerpike

Six times Leadbeater promised a high court judge safeguard

Back to the assisted dying bill. It has emerged that the legislation’s requirement for a senior judge to approve whether someone should be allowed to end their life has been removed over concerns about the toll it could take on Britain’s struggling courts. An amendment put forward by Kim Leadbeater, the bill’s sponsor, has now proposed that, instead of having a high court judge investigate each case, a panel of social workers and psychiatrists among others should oversee applications. How curious. It’s certainly quite the turnaround. While Leadbeater has now claimed the changes will ‘make the system even more robust’, prior to her amendment, the bill’s sponsor and her supporters

Peter Sefton-Williams

My false diagnosis exposes a key flaw in the Assisted Dying Bill

Perhaps the strongest argument against the reintroduction of capital punishment is the possibility that mistakes, once made, cannot be rectified. In the 20th century, such errors – even with legal safeguards in place – were not uncommon. Infamous cases, such as those of Timothy Evans and George Kelly, are a testament to that. It is ironic, therefore, that MPs who would strongly oppose capital punishment can, at the same time, enthusiastically support the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill brought before parliament by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. The same argument applies. If a mistake is made, and a person opts for assisted dying based on incorrect information, that mistake cannot later be rectified.

Thais Portilho

Should Christie’s cancel its AI art auction?

How do you define art? This centuries-old question is constantly brought back to the fore, particularly at times when artists find new ways to create. It was the case with the advent of photography in the 19th century – and it is the case with art where the process is aided or fully executed by AI models today. It displays unforgivable ignorance of the innovative and fascinating ways these artists create with the use of new technology Last week, auction house Christie’s caused a huge stir in art circles, after announcing on social media its first auction offering works exclusively created with AI. Leading the line-up of AI artists are

Patrick West

Why children peddle conspiracy theories

Teenagers today are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, and that is a very bad thing indeed. This was the unmistakeable message conveyed by a story in the Times yesterday. Citing a report published by the Commission into Countering Online Conspiracies in Schools, it related how ‘conspiracy theories are rife in classrooms’. Young people, we’re told, are more inclined to trust social media influencers than the government when it came to news sources and forming their views of the world. Teachers ‘need urgent support’ to prevent children ‘falling down rabbit holes online’ and succumbing to ‘misinformation’ they discover therein. There is nothing novel in teenagers avoiding mainstream news sources

Oscar Edmondson

Have Kemi Badenoch’s first 100 days been a success?

18 min listen

Kemi Badenoch has been Conservative Party leader for 100 days. Her party is fighting for survival, and she faces an uphill task greater than many of her predecessors: Reform UK surging in the polls, a depleted talent pool of just 121 MPs, and the hangover of 14 years of Conservative rule leaving her hamstrung on issues such as immigration and the economy. Has she managed to transform the party? What will the next 100 days look like? Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Paul Goodman. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Gareth Roberts

Andrew Gwynne and the truth about WhatsApp

Labour MP Andrew Gwynne has been sacked from the government, and suspended from the party, for sending ‘vile’ WhatsApp messages. Gwynne, who reportedly wrote that he hoped an elderly constituent who had complained about bin collections would die, is also said to have made antisemitic remarks and jokes about Diane Abbott. He stands exposed of being a callous bigot. Case closed. Gwynne’s career is over. If making horrible jokes in private is a sin, we’re all damned Except, of course, Gwynne – and his Labour colleague Oliver Ryan MP, who was also a member of the WhatsApp group and has been suspended – are not bigots. Yes, their remarks were