Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Andrew Tettenborn

Surely no MP can vote for this assisted dying bill

There’s a beguiling simplicity to the idea behind Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, published yesterday. If someone is terminally ill and likely to die within six months and wants to accelerate the process, surely it’s only kind that the state should give two doctors the ability to help them do it rather than force them to endure months of anguish and possibly severe pain. Put in safeguards against undue pressure, make sure proper legal procedures are followed by requiring the imprimatur of a High Court judge, and who can rationally complain? Well, I can. Any MP thinking of voting in favour at the second reading in

Isabel Hardman

Justin Welby quits as Archbishop of Canterbury

In the past few minutes, Justin Welby has announced he is resigning as Archbishop of Canterbury over his handling of serial child abuser John Smyth. In a statement, he said ‘it is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024’. He says he believes stepping aside ‘is in the best interests of the Church of England’. At the end of last week, Welby had said he had considered resigning, and had decided that it would not be in the best interests of the church to do so. So what changed? Like so many resignations, it came after those

Kate Andrews

Will the NHS’s £22bn cash boost disappear into the abyss?

What will happen to the additional £22 billion allotted to the NHS in Labour’s first Budget? Will it transform the service – and reduce the NHS England waiting list – or disappear into the abyss?  This remains one of the biggest outstanding questions from the Budget just under two weeks ago. Over half the tax rises announced – roughly £22 billion – went to topping up day-to-day spending in the NHS. Yet despite Labour repeatedly prompting that there would be no cash without reform, there were no new requirements or productivity improvements attached to the additional funds.  So what can the public expect? An interesting new report from the Institute for Fiscal

Ysenda Maxtone Graham

What’s gone wrong at Winchester Cathedral?

The Dean of Winchester, the Very Revd Catherine Ogle, has announced that she will be retiring on 1 May 2025. The timing is interesting, as news of Ogle’s retirement emerged just hours before the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned over the John Smyth abuse scandal. They walked out during the sermon The congregation of Winchester Cathedral started making their feelings about Ogle clear earlier this year, by going on a kind of Holy Communion hunger strike during services. Deeply unhappy about the damage being done to the musical life of their beloved cathedral under the reign of the controversial Precentor Andrew Trenier and the weak (but steely beneath her

Steerpike

Sue Gray rejects Starmer’s non-job

Goodbye Sue Gray. A mere 32 days after taking a ‘short break’ from No. 10, Keir Starmer’s ex-chief of staff has today confirmed she will not continue working for the Prime Minister. Quelle surprise. Gray, who was axed after less than 100 days in the role, was offered the consolation prize of being Starmer’s ‘envoy for the regions and nations’. Yet now, after a mere five weeks mulling over this tempting offer, she has let it be known that she has declined.  The Financial Times today quotes a ‘friend’ of the ex-Partygate enforcer who says ‘She’s taken time to think about it properly, talking to stakeholders, but ultimately she’s decided she doesn’t want

Steerpike

Watch: Ex-Blair aide takes a pop at Britain’s farmers

Farmers across the country have been in uproar since Rachel Reeves’s Budget. Just weeks ago the Chancellor announced that agricultural land and property worth over £1 million would be subject to an inheritance tax – sparking widespread outrage among family farmers fearing for the future of their businesses. Yet while Sir Keir Starmer and his Rural Affairs Secretary Steve Reed have been busy trying to placate landowners across the country, former Tony Blair adviser John McTernan opted for a somewhat, um, alternative approach on GB News. Questioned on the impact the tax could have on Britain’s farmers, McTernan pushed back against earlier comments made by former PM Boris Johnson, insisting:

Ross Clark

Keir Starmer isn’t being honest about his COP carbon pledge

‘It’s not about telling people how to live their lives. I’m not interested in that’ said Keir Starmer of his new target for Britain to reduce its carbon emissions by 81 per cent on 1990 levels by 2035. Really? In that case perhaps he would like to tell us how he does intend to reach his target. If he thinks he can do it without mandating changes to our lifestyle he must have a cunning plan indeed. His target is very much going to have to involve telling people what cars they are allowed to drive and how they are allowed to heat their homes Let’s have a look at

Steerpike

Tories overtake Labour in first poll since Badenoch victory

When it rains, it pours for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot. The polls have gone downhill since Starmer’s army got into power, and the latest More In Common survey is no exception. In the newest survey of Westminster voting intention, it now transpires that the Tories have a two-point lead over Starmer’s lefty bunch – whose time in office seems to be going from bad to worse. In good news for new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, approximately a third of Brits say they would back her party in a general election – the highest rating the Tories have seen since February – while just over a quarter would throw their

Melanie McDonagh

The great flaw in Labour’s assisted dying bill

Believe it or not, the most compelling argument against assisted dying today came from Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, usually reliably on message with every socially progressive cause. But in a BBC radio interview, he almost diffidently put forward his reservations about the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill, arguing that it would make vulnerable people feel like a burden. The mere existence of the choice changes everything Davey, who cared for his elderly mother through her final days and has a disabled son, said, in paraphrase, that if the bill became law, it could have a subtly negative effect on the elderly and disabled. He argued

Steerpike

SNP Westminster leader faces backlash over Holyrood bid

Another day, another SNP drama. This morning the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn announced he will stand as a candidate in the 2026 Holyrood election in an op-ed written for the Press & Journal. ‘I’m chucking my bonnet in the ring,’ Flynn wrote jubilantly, adding that if successful in the race to secure an MSP seat, he would remain an MP until the next general election. ‘I will not shirk from these responsibilities as an MP and, if elected to Holyrood, I do not intend to leave them behind until the next general election.’ Talk about having your cake and eating it, eh? It seems not everyone is thrilled by

Isabel Hardman

Can Justin Welby cling on?

MPs are getting involved in the row over Justin Welby’s position as Archbishop of Canterbury, with Conservative MP Nick Timothy requesting an urgent question in the Commons today. Pressure for Welby to resign has been building from various quarters within the Church of England’s General Synod and the wider church. As in politics, some are focused on specific issues, while others have broader grievances with Welby. How will the Church and other institutions commit to meaningful change? The current pressure stems from the Makin Review’s report on the Church’s handling of ‘serial child abuser’ John Smyth, a barrister and Christian leader who is said to have abused boys in a

Freddy Gray

Can Trump really end the war in Ukraine?

31 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to the Spectator’s Russia editor Owen Matthews about Trump’s plan for Ukraine. How much leverage does he have in negotiations with Putin? Plus, what does a Trump presidency mean for the future of NATO itself?

Steerpike

Coutinho blasts Miliband’s energy claims as ‘total nonsense’

While Sir Keir Starmer faces the world’s media today at Cop29 in Baku, his Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is on the airwaves fielding questions from the UK press. As the cost-of-living crisis persists, Miliband has been keen to assure listeners that, under Starmer’s army, his clean power by 2030 plan will not drive up household energy bills – but it seems the lefty Labour MP hasn’t managed to quite convince everyone of the veracity of his claim… Quizzed on ITV’s Good Morning Britain about how much energy bills will first increase before coming down under Labour, Miliband insisted: ‘It is not about bills going up as a result of our

Leon Mangasarian

Germany has a bleak future thanks to Olaf Scholz

The demise of chancellor Olaf Scholz’s lacklustre coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and the liberal Free Democrats is unsurprising. The ideological blend fits Germany, as Stalin might have said, ‘like a saddle fits a cow.’ The election that may truly define Germany’s future will be held in 2029 Scholz seems almost to have modelled himself on Liz Truss; though it took him longer to damage the world’s third-largest economy, he has done a thorough job. Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, is expected to contract for a second consecutive year in 2024. Ludwig Erhard, the architect of the West German economic miracle, must be spinning in his grave. The Bundestag is likely

Katy Balls

Has Trump already derailed Reeves’s first Budget?

When Rachel Reeves went out to sell her £40bn tax-raising budget on the airwaves, she offered a message of reassurance: ‘We don’t need to come back and ask for more.’ The Chancellor suggested that last month’s fiscal event would be the one and only big budget – she was making the tough decisions early on so the Labour government wouldn’t have to keep coming back and asking for more. However, as ministers get their heads around the incoming Trump presidency, doubts are growing as to whether Reeves will be able to stick to her pledge. The problem is twofold. First, borrowing costs. If Donald Trump is true to his word

Gavin Mortimer

Ursula von der Leyen is Europe’s Kamala Harris

European farmers have called for a day of protest in Brussels on Wednesday, 48 hours before the EU is expected to sign the Mercosur trade deal. The agreement, which has taken two decades to negotiate, will give Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay access to EU markets. It will be good for the German car industry, and disastrous for European farmers, particularly smaller farms. The president of one farmers’ union in France, Véronique Le Floc’h, has said the deal will likely lead to the ‘death’ of French farming. In an interview at the weekend, Annie Genevard, the minister of agriculture, said: ‘It’s a bad agreement, which will bring a flood

Michael Simmons

There are now seven million migrant workers in the UK

For the first time ever there are seven million migrant workers in Britain’s job market. Figures released by the ONS this morning show that more than one in five jobs in Britain is now filled by someone born overseas – despite a fall in EU workers since Brexit. Overall, that’s an increase of 183,000 – equivalent to a town the size of Warrington or a city the size of Southend – since the election, and up over one million since the first lockdown. The rest of this morning’s ONS release suggest the jobs market could be about to face a slowdown. The ONS stats show employers reducing hiring. Above inflation pay

Eliot Wilson

RAF chief puts pressure on Starmer over Storm Shadows

I don’t know what the Ukrainian for ‘Well, duh’ is, but it might well have been heard in Kyiv yesterday. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, observed that Ukrainian forces resisting the Russian invaders needed to be able to strike at their enemies well behind the border. ‘Ukraine cannot put up a shield to protect themselves against the 30,000 glide bombs lobbed into the Kursk oblast. Instead, what they need – and what we would need – is the ability to strike the aircraft launching these bombs on the ground.’  When he was asked to respond, the prime minister was

John Keiger

The irony of Starmer’s Armistice Day visit to France

Yesterday morning, the British Prime Minister travelled to Paris at the invitation of the French President to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe. Sir Keir Starmer was the first UK leader to attend an Armistice Day ceremony in Paris since Winston Churchill did so alongside General de Gaulle in 1944. Yet there is a degree of irony in these displays of Franco-British unity marking the war’s end. Despite having fought side-by-side for the conflict’s duration, and notwithstanding the integration of their economies to an unprecedented degree, at the war’s end the two countries reverted to traditional rivalry. One of the areas where

Monday

Steerpike

Gary Lineker to leave Match of the Day

After years of tweaking the tail of BBC bosses, it seems that Gary Lineker has finally had enough. The left-wing centre forward is reportedly stepping down from Match of the Day at the end of this season after 25 years in post. The 63-year-old is currently the Beeb’s highest-paid star, earning more than £1.3m a year. So at least the accountants will be cheering eh Gazza? The former Leicester City star is likely to be spending more time with his millions, thanks to his wildly successful ‘Goalhanger’ series of podcasts. He will now be freed from the Corporation’s impartiality rules meaning, at long last, we can finally know what Gary