Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Thursday

Senay Boztas

Have the Netherlands rejected Geert Wilders?

With the most dramatic result in the history of Dutch elections, the liberal democratic D66 appears to have inched ahead of populist Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom, winning an election for the first time. On Thursday morning, both parties were projected at 26 seats out of the 150-seat chamber, neck-and-neck but with a 2,000-vote lead for D66. Under its dynamic 38-year-old leader – and former junior athlete – Rob Jetten, the progressive party made a last-minute sprint in the final week of the campaign, when a third of Dutch voters make up their minds. It has almost tripled its current nine seats and scored the best result in

Mark Galeotti

Why is Putin obsessed with nuclear 'wonder weapons'?

I don’t think it’s accurate or helpful to think of Vladimir Putin as some Bond villain figure – but he certainly does make it harder to hold this line sometimes. In particular, his enthusiasm for ‘wonder weapons’ – often of questionable strategic value – does suggest a certain grandiose vanity. Some have genuine military utility, but others seem more useful in psychological than actual warfare. Last week, the Russians announced a successful test of the 9M730 Burevestnik (‘Storm Petrel’), a nuclear-armed and -powered cruise missile. Its reactor allows it to travel further than any regular cruise missile, manoeuvring at altitudes as low as 50 metres. This would mean that it

Lara Brown

Why Jess Phillips can’t confront the reality of grooming gangs

In May 2015, the newly elected MP for Birmingham Yardley gave her maiden speech in the House of Commons. Jess Phillips vowed to improve Britain’s ‘response to victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse in all its forms’. In the years since, Phillips has certainly made a lot of noise about discrimination and sexual abuse. She has attacked select committees for not having enough female chairs; threatened to resign from the Labour party over its response to sexual harassment allegations against her colleagues; and, annually, read out the names in Parliament of every woman killed by a man in the previous 12 months.  Perhaps decades of intersectional fourth wave

Steerpike

Powell takes a pop at McSweeney

To central London, where the Spectator’s Parliamentarian Awards are taking place. There were plenty of jibes at Labour from host James Cleverly and a number of Reform digs from politicians of all stripes – but Mr S noticed a rather scathing dig from new Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell at the party leadership. The gloves are coming off… The new deputy leader of the Labour party took to the stage – the disruptor of the year, as nominated by the Spectator – to thank, er, Sir Keir Starmer’s campaign team. ‘I’m obviously collecting this ward on behalf of a man because I am a proxy for a man, obviously, in

Tim Shipman

The gym, the hairdresser, the campaign trail: the inside story of Kemi's first year

On the day of the local elections in May, when the Tories suffered a historic setback, Kemi Badenoch went to the gym and got her hair done. A screenshot of the Tory leader’s diary, leaked by a disgruntled Conservative, shows she planned a Harley Street dental appointment at 9 a.m., followed by 90 minutes at a boutique pilates gym at 11 a.m., followed by an hour-long visit to the hairdresser at 1 p.m. Plenty of politicians take it easy on election day, but the leak is significant because it shows someone still wants to wound her. For her internal enemies, she remains on probation. ‘Thousands of loyal Conservative party activists went out

James Heale

Which party has the crypto factor?

He helped ‘break’ the Bank of England – but now Scott Bessent is helping to shape its future. As a young hedge-fund manager, he served in George Soros’s firm when it made $1 billion on Black Wednesday. But as Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary, he has overseen an explosion in cryptocurrencies this year which has left many in London looking on enviously. While the use of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin has trebled in Britain since 2021, this country’s governing framework has struggled to keep up. A shortage of political bandwidth has meant the UK lacks a national equivalent to Europe’s MiCA rules or America’s Genius Act, passed in July. Our policy

Wednesday

Steerpike

Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year 2025, in pictures

In 2025, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government has had a tough time. From U-turns to freebie fiascos to by-election losses the party of government has been having a pretty rough ride. New Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, however, won the audience with a pithy speech that was almost just rivalled by Ed Miliband. You can’t say they don’t try, eh?  It was a cross-party affair, with Liberal Democrats, Reform MPs and even the Greens seeing awards coming their way. Guest of honour James Cleverly gave a fantastic performance and insisted that it was not him but, er, Robert Jenrick, that is angling for a leadership challenge. There’s always room for both,

Steerpike

Lammy loses Chevening residence

Sir Keir Starmer’s September reshuffle proved a blessing for some people and a curse for others. Take Shabana Mahmood, for example, whose promotion from Lord Chancellor to Home Secretary has seen her profile grow almost exponentially. Then there are others, like the beleaguered David Lammy, who lost the Foreign Secretary title in his move to justice. Lammy was also made Deputy Prime Minister after Angela Rayner was forced to resign over her tax affairs, but the largely ineffective role isn’t much of a silver lining. And there’s more bad news for the new Justice Secretary – it transpires he will be losing his Chevening resident too. A written question submitted

Stephen Daisley

Why doesn't Kate Forbes want the SNP to talk about currency?

What’s the Gaelic for ‘Streisand effect’? I would guess buaidh Streisand but someone should ask Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes, who is experiencing first-hand what the ‘The Way We Were’ singer learnt the hard way two decades ago: attempts at censorship only bring attention to the material you wish to keep secret. The deputy first minister, it is claimed, told a meeting of her local SNP branch two months ago: ‘We must avoid publicly talking about currency. The priority is an element of stability, and then move to a Scottish currency.’ And so, naturally, the purported quote has been leaked to the Times, with the SNP declining to

John Kennedy

What is the point of kicking Andrew out of Royal Lodge?

When the Chancellor declares that it is important Prince Andrew ‘pays his way’, in reference to his living arrangements at Royal Lodge, it is difficult not to wince. For the saving at stake is, by any serious reckoning, paltry – about £367,000 a year in additional income to the Exchequer, by my calculations. Not nothing, certainly, but a rounding error in the nation’s accounts, and a curious fixation for a Minister of the Crown who has managed to turn a £20 billion fiscal gap into one nearer £50bn within a single season of ministerial arithmetic – a hole in the nation’s finances that grows every time she opens her mouth.

Steerpike

Ex-SNP MP Mhairi Black makes comeback in detective drama

Those who claim to despise the limelight always seem to end up being drawn back into it one way or another. Former SNP MP Mhairi Black is a prime example. The former nationalist politician claimed to feel uncomfortable about the scrutiny she received as a politician – and yet she frequently drew attention to herself in the Commons by, for example, being the first MP to use the ‘c-word’ in a speech. Charming! Black didn’t stand in the 2024 general election and, instead of retreating to the more normal life she claimed to crave, she went on to try her hand at comedy at Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival. Her journey from

James Starkie

Labour’s attack on Brexit won’t work

In life, as in film, you need a baddie. Whether it’s Dr No, Nurse Ratched or Voldemort, without someone to root against you have no story. In government, the bad guy (domestically at least) tends to be your predecessors. The Conservatives spent the best part of 14 years blaming the Labour party, with a pitstop in between to dump on their erstwhile coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats. Labour certainly didn’t help themselves by leaving that infamous note, meant in jest, declaring ‘there is no money left’; the Tories in turn left the mini-Budget for Keir Starmer. Soon, however, we will have a new (old) villain. Labour has apparently briefed that

Steerpike

Migrant sex offender paid £500 to leave UK quietly

The case of Hadush Kebatu has plagued the Labour government for months. In summer, it emerged the Ethiopian asylum seeker was facing charges of sexual assaulting a 14-year-old girl. This sparked the Epping protests outside Essex’s Bell Hotel which amplified nationwide outrage about asylum seeker hotels. Kebatu was found guilty – but last week it transpired the sex offender had been accidentally freed from prison. He was found some days later and has now been deported £500 richer. Alright for some! The Prime Minister’s spokesperson explained that Kebatu was ‘forcibly deported’ to Ethiopia after being put on a flight on Tuesday evening. But it transpires that the asylum seeker didn’t

Madeline Grant

Have you heard Keir Starmer’s grating new catchphrase?

‘That’s the difference a Labour government makes!’ The Prime Minister has taken to ending the self-congratulatory rants he deploys in lieu of answers in the House of Commons with this irritating catchphrase. As if the colony of gremlins currently running the country are to be advertised to us like 1950s household goods. One can imagine Sir Keir, strapped into a pinny, removing a burned cake from the oven, turning to the camera and saying, ‘that’s the difference a Labour government makes!’ He wheeled out this supremely annoying verbal tic a number of times at Prime Minister’s Questions. The problem with it, of course, is that most of the differences a

Isabel Hardman

Why Starmer is back to attacking the Tories at PMQs

Once again, the key takeaway from today’s Prime Minister’s Questions is what Keir Starmer didn’t say, rather than what he did. Kemi Badenoch wanted to use the session to tee up the Budget, or more specifically to tee up the tax rises that Labour is going to have to announce in that fiscal event. And Starmer wanted to use his answers to avoid the questions, while also trumpeting what he saw as Labour’s achievements on the economy. For once in a good long while, the Tories were getting their share of attacks from the Prime Minister too Badenoch was ready for Starmer dodging the question of whether he still stands

Steerpike

Watch: Starmer blasts Reform as 'Putin-friendly'

It was a punchy Prime Minister’s Questions session today, with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch landing some punches on the PM over the economy. Sir Keir Starmer refused to say whether Chancellor Rachel Reeves would break Labour’s manifesto commitment to not raise income tax, national insurance contributions or VAT, and would not be drawn on whether she would freeze thresholds in next month’s Budget. How interesting… Sir Ed Davey took a different tack, with the Lib Dem leader probing Starmer on Russia. Davey brought up the ex-Reform Welsh leader Nathan Gill who was found guilty of accepting bribes from Russia during his time in the European parliament. The Lib Dem man

Tim Shipman

Who will 'take back control' of the economy?

14 min listen

Kemi Badenoch continues to look more confident at PMQs – although there are always going to be some easy goals when you lead on the economy. Today she pressed the Prime Minister on Labour’s manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance – which he dodged – as well as repeating her offer to work with Labour towards a cross-party solution to the welfare problem. What do we know about the Budget at the end of next month? And are we any closer to understanding what a ‘working person’ actually is?  Lucy Dunn speaks to Tim Shipman and Michael Simmons. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Euan McColm

Police Scotland have treated Susan Smith terribly

Susan Smith is a contemporary feminist heroine, a staunch defender of women’s rights against the increasingly unhinged demands of trans activists. As a founding member of the campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS), Smith was at the forefront of the fight against SNP plans to introduce self-ID. And, boy, was she effective. Along with her FWS colleagues Marion Calder and Trina Budge, Smith brought a case against the Scottish government which saw the supreme court rule in April that, when it comes to the law, sex is a matter of biology rather than feelings. That ruling, applicable across the UK, killed off the fantastical notion that trans-identifying men are women.

Brendan O’Neill

The Uxbridge killing is the final straw

His name was Wayne Broadhurst. He was 49 years old. He reportedly worked as a refuse collector. He was by all accounts well liked in his local town. And yesterday his life was ended in the most savage manner imaginable. He was stabbed to death as he walked his dog on a brisk, bright Tuesday afternoon. The suspect is a 22-year-old Afghan national, who came to Britain on the back of a lorry in 2020 and was subsequently granted asylum. Which politicians will say Wayne Broadhurst’s name today? Which of them will say his life mattered? The attack took place in chill, suburban Uxbridge, a part of outer London I

Ross Clark

Why was Hadush Kebatu paid £500 to leave Britain?

We don’t yet know what Rachel Reeves is planning to do with the welfare bill in her Budget. Will she propose more cuts to personal independence payments, or remove the two-child benefits limit? And what will she do about the new benefit which the Home Office has just invented? It is called – or at least I am calling it – Foreign Sex Offender Benefit, and it consists of a one-off payment of £500 in return for not complaining about being deported. That sum has just been made to Hadush Kebatu, the Epping sex offender who was jailed, accidentally released, captured and finally put on a plane back to Ethiopia