Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Monday

Steerpike

Reeves will remain Chancellor until next election, No. 10 insists

Another day, another Labour drama. Rachel Reeves has returned from her weekend China trip to a rather uncomfortable atmosphere back home after last week’s bond market turmoil – with the Labour lot facing surging borrowing costs while Whitehall departments fear further spending cuts. So perhaps it’s not all that surprising that the question of how long Reeves can hold onto her job keeps cropping up… Taking questions from journalists after his speech on AI this morning, Sir Keir Starmer got the Westminster rumour mill running after he refused to confirm whether Reeves would still be Chancellor of the Exchequer by the next general election. Eyebrows were raised when the PM

Ben Goldsmith

Bring back lynx to Britain

The surprise appearance and subsequent safe capture this week of a seemingly tame family of Eurasian lynx in the Scottish Highlands, more than a millennium after the species was extirpated from Britain, has been by far the most bizarre British news story of the year so far. For a brief moment, one of Britain’s most iconic extinct species is now dominating the national discourse – which can only be a good thing. The big question arising from this story, though, is not how the unfortunate creatures got there; but why the lynx, a secretive, beautiful British native species, was not officially reintroduced to Britain long ago. There are no good reasons

Isabel Hardman

Is Westminster forgetting about the grooming gangs already?

Remember grooming gangs? Last week’s big story has amazingly already been superseded by other political rows, but they came up again at Home Office questions in the Commons this afternoon. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp used his topical question to ask Yvette Cooper whether she now agreed with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Liverpool Walton MP Dan Carden that there should be a ‘proper national public inquiry’. Cooper did not agree in her response, but equally she didn’t rule out an inquiry, showing how far the government has had to shift from its initial adamant position that those calling for an inquiry were jumping on a ‘far-right bandwagon’.  Presumably

Oscar Edmondson

Why hasn’t Tulip Siddiq been sacked yet?

18 min listen

It’s rare that a world leader knows the name of a junior minister in the British government – let alone calls for them to be sacked. Yet that is the feat achieved by Tulip Siddiq, No. 4 in Rachel Reeves’s Treasury team. The anti-corruption minister is now facing calls to resign from the leader of Bangladesh, who condemned the use of properties gifted to her and her family by its former regime. Elsewhere, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch joined the chorus of people calling for Siddiq to resign over the weekend, warning of a diplomatic crisis. On the Sunday media round, even Science Minister Peter Kyle refused to say that the

John Ferry

The SNP’s ferries disaster isn’t over yet

The Scottish ferry, the Glen Sannox, has completed its first passenger journey, 2,610 days after it was infamously launched with fake parts and painted on windows by then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.  Unlike the staged fanfare of that 2017 event, no children were bussed in to wave Saltire flags at Troon harbour this morning, nor speeches given by any government official. This was a quiet affair, in line with current First Minister John Swinney’s strategy of distancing himself from the failings of the Sturgeon era.  In 2017, Nicola Sturgeon said the new boat would contribute to ‘Scotland’s world-leading climate change goals’. It seems it might instead negatively impact those climate ambitions Islanders will no

Simon Hunt

The fatal flaw in Starmer’s AI plan to save Britain

You’d be forgiven for thinking the government’s new AI Opportunities Action Plan lacks ambition. While frontier AI businesses in the US and China are developing dazzlingly powerful AI tools to cure diseases and solve mind-bending equations in physics, Sir Keir Starmer today promised that artificial intelligence would ‘spot potholes more quickly’. Leaving this Starmerism aside, there is lots of detail in the plan to get tech companies excited. The creation of so-called ‘AI growth zones’ to build tech infrastructure faster and attract clusters of AI expertise in targeted locations brings huge promise. The history of technological advances, from social media to semiconductors, is often a story of bright, like-minded individuals

Ross Clark

AI won’t save Britain with one quick trick

Obviously, artificial Intelligence (AI) is a boom industry that will transform many other industries and make fortunes for some people. Anyone should want Britain to be involved and earn itself a slice of the AI pie. Why, then, does the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan depress me? Apparently, according to Keir Starmer, it is going to turn Britain into an ‘AI superpower’. There are going to be AI growth zones, and the public sector is going to be at the forefront. AI is going to help teachers plan lessons, help councils speed up decisions on planning applications, even help mend potholes – all the biggest public sector failures, in other

Gavin Mortimer

Spain is stoking Europe’s migrant crisis

The new year in Spain began much as the old one ended, with a huge influx of illegal immigrants arriving on its shores. Nearly 800 people from North and Sub-Saharan Africa landed on the Canary Islands between 6 and 8 January. That fleet of ten boats are an ominous sign of what Europe can expect in 2025. Spain has become the people smugglers’ route of choice: last year they ferried 63,970 migrants into Spanish territory, an increase of 12.5 per cent on 2023. Of that number, more than 43,000 men, women and children landed in the Canaries. Spain is seen by the people smugglers as the softest of touches The

Steerpike

Watch: Just Stop Oil protestors graffiti Darwin’s grave

Readers might have hoped Just Stop Oil would have left their bizarre stunts in 2024 – but sadly it wasn’t to be. This morning two eco-activists decided it would be a good idea to graffiti Charles Darwin’s grave at Westminster Abbey in protest at rising global temperatures. Er, right. Alyson Lee and Di Bligh sprayed ‘1.5 is dead’ in bright orange paint across the memorial today. It’s reference to last week’s report that that 2024 was the first year that warming rose 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures – breaching a significant climate emergency threshold. Bligh – who is a former Reading council boss – insisted that: Darwin once said, ‘It

Steerpike

Nicola Sturgeon announces divorce

To Scotland, where there is trouble in nationalist paradise. Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has this morning announced that she will be divorcing her husband – and former chief executive of the Scottish National party – Peter Murrell. The shock news was published as a short statement on Sturgeon’s Instagram story, with the SNP’s Dear Leader writing: With a heavy heart I am confirming that Peter and I have decided to end our marriage. To all intents and purposes we have been separated for some time now and feel it is time to bring others up to speed with where we are. It goes without saying that we still care

Ian Williams

Labour’s kowtowing to China will cost Britain

When the security services accessed the mobile phone of Yang Tengbo, the alleged Chinese spy who became a confidant and business partner of the Duke of York, they found a document in which Yang said of the duke, ‘He is in a desperate situation and will grab onto anything’. We can only assume there are memos circulating in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this week describing the visit by Rachel Reeves in similar terms. Starmer and his ministers appear to be competing to see who can kowtow the lowest before Xi The hapless duke’s entanglement with Yang, whose exclusion from Britain was confirmed shortly before Christmas, was held up as

Kate Andrews

Rachel Reeves is making the same mistake as Liz Truss

Rachel Reeves returns from China this morning to face growing accusations that she has lost her grip on the public finances. This latest bond market crisis has brought into question whether the Chancellor is at risk of – or has already – broken her own fiscal rules. Capital Economics reports that a surge in gilt yields – which are at their highest levels since the financial crash – means that her £12 billion of fiscal headroom is now gone. The Treasury will be desperately hoping that something, anything, calms the markets this week and sees borrowing costs start to fall. Reports that the Chancellor has called on ministers to come

Terry Barnes

Djokovic must forgive and forget his shoddy Covid experience in Australia

Another Australian Open tennis tournament, another Novak Djokovic media sensation. As play gets under way at Melbourne Park, Djokovic the showman has been working the Australian media, as well as doing a glossy spread for the upmarket US magazine, GQ. The common thread of his media commentary is his experience coming to the 2022 Australian Open when, as the Covid-19 pandemic still raged, the unvaccinated Djokovic was detained and deported after seeking to enter Melbourne, the city oppressed by arguably the most draconian lockdown and vaccination mandates in the world, let alone Australia. The Serbian star’s 2022 experience clearly gnaws at him Having initially been given an exemption to enter

Katy Balls

Was Rachel Reeves’s China trip worth it?

Rachel Reeves is on her way back to the UK after a brief visit to China over the weekend. The Chancellor faced calls to cancel the trip, not over alleged human rights abuses by her hosts, but instead because of the state of the UK bond market. However, those around Reeves did not seriously consider cancelling her visit to China, taking the view that to call it off would have added to a sense of panic. After borrowing costs soared in the days before she departed, Reeves abruptly cancelling the trip would have likely drawn comparisons with 1976, when chancellor Denis Healey turned back at Heathrow, aborting a planned trip

Ammad Butt

Labour’s shake-up risks making the NHS even more bloated

Labour’s plan to reform elective care is nothing new. Successive governments over the last twenty years have tried and tested reform in the NHS and the result is a minefield to navigate for both patients and staff alike. The resulting bureaucracy has left doctors and patients baffled. The process can be mind-numbing and leaves doctors who just want to help patients despairing It’s no surprise then that doctors like me are sceptical about the government’s planned shake-up which was unveiled by Health Secretary Wes Streeting last week. While the changes are designed to ‘empower’ patients, it’s likely to leave them even more confused. The announcements include the expansion of ‘Community

Jay Mens

Trump’s presidency could spell the end of Iran’s regime

Donald J. Trump returns to the Oval Office for the second time as the least interventionist American president since 1941. As the Islamic Republic of Iran – which recently tried to kill him – is at its lowest point in forty years, could the end be near? And what does that all mean for the UK? The death of the Islamic Republic has been predicted many times before, always prematurely. But today, with the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, economic collapse at home, and an incoming Trump administration, the moment feels different. The Iranian rial is trading at 820,000 to the dollar; it was 59,000 back in 2017. It has

Sam Leith

The truth about Dominic Cummings and Elon Musk’s ‘sabotage plot’

A few centuries ago, when I worked on the Daily Telegraph under the editorship of the now Lord Moore, there was a very sensible item in the style book. It said (I paraphrase) that when a story sounded too good to be true, you should pause, give your head a wobble and apply a bit of common sense. That local newspaper, for instance, reporting that a giant pike in the village pond had been taking small dogs and toddlers that strayed too close to the edge of the water…Really? Musk and Cummings are, superficially, aligned in certain respects This is the heuristic I think we need to apply to a

Niko Vorobyov

Scotland’s drugs consumption room could save lives

Being a drug addict has never been sunshine and roses, especially not on the cold, rainy streets of Glasgow. At least now there may be a glimmer of hope. From today, a ‘Safer Drug Consumption Facility’ called ‘The Thistle’ will open in the city that has been labelled Europe’s drugs death capital. Drug addicts ‘under the supervision of trained health and social care professionals’ will be able to shoot up with clean, sterilised syringes. At no point will Old Bill make an unwelcome appearance, dangling a pair of handcuffs. The caveats are that you must be over 18, sharing your drugs is not allowed, and the usual rules about indoor

Sunday

Rod Liddle

Trump 2.0 is more than a ‘vibe shift’

People don’t like to use the term ‘vibe shift’, but I suspect it will turn out to be rather more than that. Certainly, I have never known opinion to change so rapidly – almost overnight. I’m talking about Donald Trump, or, more properly, how he is regarded. On Saturday morning, I was presenting my new Times Radio show (10 a.m. to 1 p.m., tune in, tune in, please!) and struggled to find any interviewees who might criticise Donald Trump. In a lengthy debate on World War Three, the wonderful Lord Owen (Labour, then SDP) was optimistic we would avoid conflict largely because of Trump’s presidency, and he praised Trump’s determination

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows: calls grow for Tulip Siddiq to resign

Peter Kyle: Tulip Siddiq will lose job if inquiry finds her guilty of breaking ministerial code The Conservatives have called for the prime minister to sack anti-corruption Treasury Minister Tulip Siddiq after she herself became part of a corruption investigation. Reports have emerged that Siddiq may have been living in properties linked to her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who is being investigated for allegedly embezzling up to £3.9bn whilst serving as prime minister of Bangladesh. Siddiq has referred herself to the ethics advisor, but on Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Science Secretary Peter Kyle whether Siddiq should stand down while the investigation takes place. Kyle said that Siddiq had ‘done exactly