Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Monday

Steerpike

Tories purge the Jenrickites

It seems that Kemi Badenoch isn’t done with Robert Jenrick just yet. Tonight she is set to meet Tory MPs from both the 92 Group and the Common Sense Group. But before that, Tory apparatchiks have sought to finish what she started on Thursday when she sacked Robert Jenrick from the Shadow Cabinet, expelled him from the party and removed the party whip. Talk about no nonsense… At least five allies of Jenrick have had their membership of the Conservative party cancelled, following the defection of the onetime Shadow Justice Secretary. An email seen by Mr S shows the Chairman’s Office telling the alleged wrong-doers that: Your membership of the

Freddy Gray

Is Greenland a new Suez crisis?

37 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Jacob Heilbrunn, Editor of The National Interest, and David Whitehouse, science journalist and former BBC Science Editor, to discuss Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland and the potential rupture in transatlantic relations. They also discuss Greenland’s strategic importance for missile defence, the ‘Golden Dome’, Arctic shipping routes and space-based surveillance; and how Russia and China’s expanding presence in the Arctic, in space and in critical minerals is reshaping global security.

Rory Hanrahan

Starmer’s war on pubs shows he was never serious about growth

To a landlord in a draughty Victorian boozer staring at his latest business rates bill, it will read more like a ransom note from the mafia than a letter from HMRC. In 2026, under Keir Starmer’s ‘growth-first’ regime, this chap’s rates have rocketed. While Starmer is strutting the stage at Davos or waxing lyrical or at some CBI luncheon about ‘unleashing Britain’s potential’ and ‘building a brighter future’, delivering drivel so vacuous that it would make even Tony Blair blush, his government is unleashing policies that are throttling the engines of economic growth. The changes to business rates are exhibit A, a perfect storm of outdated valuations, inflationary hikes and half-hearted

Jacob Heilbrunn

Far from all Americans support Trump’s advance on Greenland

President Trump isn’t ushering in a golden age but rather an age of gold. The precious metal has hit an all-time high of $4,650 (£3,466) an ounce following his latest threats to levy tariffs against Europe over Greenland. By contrast, the geopolitical ructions over Greenland mean that the once-proud dollar has continued to tumble against foreign currencies, jeopardising its status as the world’s reserve currency. A number of Congressional Republicans, including Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, are voicing their doubts about the wisdom of Trump’s eagerness to cosplay Russian president Vladimir Putin seizing Crimea. Kennedy referred to the notion of invading Greenland as ‘weapons-grade stupid’. The latest conservative figure to join

Steerpike

Poll: public back Badenoch’s sacking of Jenrick

So, who’s gonna be the next to go? The rate of Reform switchers has stepped out in recent days with both Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell taking the plunge. But while elements of the Conservative parliamentary party seems to enjoy staging a performance of And Then There Were None, Kemi Badenoch is happier acting as the Poirot-esque sleuth, identifying defectors and kicking them out before they can quit on their own terms. It all makes for rather good sport and the public seem to like it too. For a new Opinium poll for The Spectator found that six in ten voters (59 per cent) think Badenoch was right to sack Jenrick,

Greenland: why Europe needs to 'grow up' | with Tim Marshall
Tim Shipman

Greenland: why Europe needs to ‘grow up’ | with Tim Marshall

15 min listen

Donald Trump has thrown another diplomatic hand grenade. This weekend, the President threatened sweeping tariffs on countries backing Greenland’s independence – a move that has rattled European capitals and reignited questions about America’s global strategy. Is this about Arctic security, rare earth minerals, or something more personal? As tensions rise, how should Britain respond? Can diplomacy defuse Trump’s latest escalation, or does this mark a deeper shift in US–European relations – and the future of Nato itself? James Heale speaks to Tim Shipman and Tim Marshall, foreign affairs analyst and author of Prisoners of Geography. Produced by Megan McElroy and Oscar Edmondson.

Mickey Down

Mickey Down, Charlie Gammell, Sean Thomas & Douglas Murray

32 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Mickey Down, co-creator of Industry, reads his diary for the week; Charlie Gammell argues that US intervention could push Iran into civil war and terrorism – warning that there are more possibilities than just revolution or regime survival; false dichotomy at the heart of; Sean Thomas bemoans the bittersweet liberation from his libido; and, Douglas Murray believes Britain has a growing obsession with race. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Stephen Pollard

Davos’s Iran invite is a new low

It’s the fag end of January, so that means it’s time for Davos – the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering in the Swiss mountains, when the world’s smuggest men and the occasional woman come together to play dinner companion one-upmanship. Davos has always enraged a certain type of equally smug leftist – and now the MAGA crowd and their allies elsewhere – for whom the words ‘globalisation’ and ‘globalist’ respectively are rant catnip. I have always just found the whole thing more amusing than worrying or even important. Not this year, however: Davos 2026 is a shameful event, and those organising it deserve not just to be pilloried but

James Heale

Keir Starmer chooses jaw jaw over trade war with Trump

There used to be a sign up in No. 10 which quoted Gilbert and Sullivan. ‘Quiet calm deliberation disentangles every knot,’ read the plaque, installed by Harold Macmillan. It is advice that Keir Starmer has taken to heart, as Donald Trump seemingly tries to tie Nato in as many twists and bows as possible. The Prime Minister had an unenviable task in his press conference this morning. He sought to both firmly resist Trump’s demands to annex Greenland – while desperately trying not to escalate the issue further. His approach might be summed up by another Macmillan quote: that ‘jaw, jaw is better than war war.’ At his presser, Starmer’s

Mani Basharzad

The West will regret not intervening in Iran

The longest war of the twentieth century was between Iran and Iraq and lasted for eight years. Yet during those eight years, Iraq killed fewer Iranian civilians than the Islamic Republic has reportedly killed in the past two weeks. The regime’s security forces enter hospitals, not merely to arrest protesters, but to shoot them in the head. In the piles of bodies visible in the tragic videos circulating online, some corpses, with bullets in their heads, still have hospital monitors attached. This is a government at war with its own people. It is an occupying force that does not see Iranians as citizens, but as expendable sacrifices for the larger goal of spreading Islamic

Angela Epstein

We’re in danger of forgetting the Holocaust

On October 7, 2023, more Jewish people were murdered in a single day than at any time since the Holocaust. It’s a grotesque irony then that the war in Gaza – triggered by the Hamas-led massacre of 1,200 people in Israel – should be the catalyst for a sharp fall in the number of schools taking part in Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). The Holocaust, even for those committed to its memory for religious, personal, or humanitarian reasons, demands grappling with the incomprehensible Yet the figures are unambiguous. In 2023, more than 2,000 secondary schools signed up for HMD events, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. By 2024, around 800

Lisa Haseldine

Does Europe still have an ally in America?

European politicians had little rest this weekend after Donald Trump’s announcement on Saturday that he would be imposing punitive tariffs on the eight countries that had sent troops to Greenland last week. From 1 February, 10 per cent tariffs will be slapped on goods entering the United States from Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. They had, Trump said, ‘journeyed to Greenland for purposes unknown’ and he accused them of playing a ‘very dangerous game’. Denmark has stated that Greenland is not for sale; Trump is unlikely to back down By sending troops to Greenland on Thursday, those eight countries had only done what Trump implied

James Graham

The secret costs of net zero

Last week, a new report by the Institute for Economic Affairs argued that the cost of transitioning to net zero could be billions – even trillions – more than some government  forecasts. That may sounds worrying, yet in many ways it still understates the problem. Net zero isn’t just hurting our energy sector, it has a complete stranglehold over the entire British economy – and it is making us all poorer. This is the ugly reality of net zero No large company in Britain can escape its grasp. Our regulators, in league with asset managers, are constantly pressuring companies into pursuing costly and fruitless green goals that make them less profitable. As a result  FTSE

Robin Ashenden

Jenrick’s treachery has made Badenoch stronger

If Kemi Badenoch needs a little relaxation from the ‘psychodrama’ of Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform, she could do a lot worse than watch Shekhar Kapur’s 1998 Elizabeth. The historical drama, about the plots and betrayals surrounding the early days of Elizabeth I’s reign, is uncannily reminiscent of recent events in her own party. With her bitterest opponent now banished from the court – pushed before he could jump – those looming May elections hold fewer fears for the Tory leader The film (spoilers aplenty) begins as Mary I dies childless, leaving her callow and inexperienced half-sister a tattered kingdom. ‘Your majesty has inherited a most parlous and degenerate state,’

Sam Leith

Is there method in Donald Trump’s madness?

I am, as often, lost in admiration for my colleague Freddy Gray. Whenever Donald Trump does something that looks, on the face of it, like a toddler tantrum backed by the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, and announces said tantrum in an erratically capitalised screed on Truth Social – and when the world responds as one to this apparent tantrum with utter bewilderment – Freddy is there with one finger raised sagely. Let’s take a pause, he says. Let’s look at what this really means. And then he explains, in a wholly plausible and authoritative manner, that the president is actually doing something bold and well-calculated – albeit characteristically dramatic –

David Werdiger

How Australia’s teens are dodging the social media ban

At a time when technology has invaded our lives, Australia is now running the world’s biggest real-life experiment that seeks to mitigate its effects on our children. What could possibly go wrong? It’s now just over a month since the world’s first social media ban for children launched in Australia. Age-restricted social media platforms (like Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube) must take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent under 16s creating or keeping an account. Just a few weeks into the ban, Aussie teens are skirting the rules with ease: two phones, fake birthdays, borrowed accounts Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, in his 2024 book The Anxious Generation, argued that smartphones and social media are ‘rewiring’ our children and

Sunday

James Heale

Andrew Rosindell defects to Reform

Reform UK has gained its seventh MP after Andrew Rosindell switched sides on Sunday night. The longtime Member for Romford was unveiled after a rapid series of talks earlier today. In a statement Nigel Farage said that ‘Andrew is a great patriot. The Tories’ lies and hypocrisy over the Chagos Islands betrayal has tipped him over the edge, and we are delighted to welcome him to our ranks.’ Rosindell is a longtime champion of the British Overseas Territories, an ardent Brexiteer and – at the time of his defection– a serving member of Priti Patel’s shadow foreign affairs team. Two factors are understood to be responsible for his defection. The

Lloyd Evans

The rebellion will have a craft stall

A new party has entered UK politics. Take Back Power seeks to ‘tax the rich and fix Britain’ and they’re planning a revolution that will replace parliament with ‘a house of the people’. Once the regime has been overthrown, Take Back Power will divide the country’s wealth in favour of the poor. About 300 supporters showed up at their launch event last Saturday in a semi-derelict municipal building in Tower Hamlets. Their media game is pretty good. The hall was dominated by a big screen that beamed pithy slogans and memorable statistics to the crowd. ‘James Dyson hoovered up £13.3 billion.’‘John Ratcliffe is hoarding £17.04 billion.’ Their marketing team know that precise

Felice Basboll

Why young Danes are still having sex

Gen Z, as is well known, is having significantly less sex than their parents. They also drink less, smoke less, and have fewer close friends. The rise of the internet is often blamed for this development – the anxious generation is having less sex because they are porn-addled and distracted. But a new report shows that, alone in the West, the Danes are bucking the trend. Young Danes between 15–25 are not having less sex than previous generations; in fact, the rate has remained more or less constant since the 1970s. Most people report satisfaction with their sex lives. In Denmark, the sexless Zoomer has been proven a myth. The

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: Tice says Jenrick ‘ a great new asset to Reform’

Lisa Nandy: The future of Greenland is ‘for the people of Greenland’ President Trump has escalated his rhetoric over Greenland, threatening NATO allies, including the UK, with tariffs if a deal to buy the territory is not reached. The president reacted to NATO countries sending troops to Greenland by calling it ‘a very dangerous situation for the safety, security and survival of our planet’. On Saturday evening, Keir Starmer called Trump’s tariff threats ‘completely wrong’, and this morning on Sky News Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy echoed the prime minister’s words. Nandy said the future of Greenland is for Denmark and Greenland to determine ‘alone’, and that the US and its