Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Thursday

Stephen Pollard

Sacking Jenrick has made Badenoch stronger

The most important thing about Robert Jenrick’s sacking isn’t Robert Jenrick. It’s that it is yet another demonstration of Kemi Badenoch’s increasing stature as Tory leader. The Tory leader was presented with a gift – a sacking that was both necessary, obvious and politically useful to her, further cementing her standing as leader For most of her first year – Badenoch Mark I, as it were – the mood music was all about when she would be deposed. The assumption was that her replacement would be Jenrick. That changed pretty much overnight at last year’s Tory conference, when Badenoch Mark II emerged. She made a stomper of a speech that was clear

Tim Shipman

Is Jenrick joining Reform?

8 min listen

Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the Tory whip and suspended his party membership. In a video on X she claims, ‘I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible’. The Tories compiled a bundle of evidence that included a dinner between Jenrick and Nigel Farage last month, and the fact that he had discussed switching to Reform with at least two allies. It is understood that he left a copy of his defection speech lying around, which included passages criticising Conservative colleagues. Is this – as we all

James Heale

Kemi sacks Robert Jenrick

Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the Tory whip and suspended his party membership. In a video on X she claims she was ‘presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible’. The Tories compiled a bundle of evidence that included a dinner between Jenrick and Nigel Farage last month, and established that he had discussed switching to Reform with at least two allies. It is understood that he left a copy of his defection speech lying around, which included passages criticising Conservative colleagues. Nick Timothy is also understood to be

Jonathan Spyer

How America could help bring down Iran's Islamist regime

The near-total internet blackout imposed by the regime in Iran has now continued for nearly a week. Behind the veiled effort to cut the country off from the world, sufficient evidence has emerged to establish a clear picture of what the authorities are attempting.  In a move wearyingly familiar to all observers of the contemporary Middle East, the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran are seeking first to isolate the masses of protestors now in the streets demanding an end to their regime. Then, under the cover of the resulting darkness, they are slaughtering a sufficient number of them so as to drive the remainder back into a terrified silence. 

Michael Simmons

Britain’s economy is standing still under Labour

Britain’s economy is standing still. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show GDP grew by just 0.1 per cent in the three months to November. The numbers were dragged down by the construction sector, which saw a contraction of 1.1 per cent – its largest fall in nearly three years. GDP grew by just 0.1 per cent in the three months to November There were much better figures for the month of November alone though, which saw growth of 0.3 per cent following a fall of 0.1 per cent in October. That was thanks to services growth of 0.3 per cent and production growth of 1.1 per

Sharron Davies

The Supreme Court’s trans athlete ruling matters to women everywhere

Women are losing trophies and, in some cases, suffering serious physical harm when male athletes are permitted to compete in female sports categories. What was once viewed as a fringe issue has undoubtedly grown into an internationally recognised matter of public concern. But, finally, the fightback against this infringement of women’s rights might be on. This week, the United States Supreme Court heard two cases – West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox – that go to the heart of this debate. Though they arise from American law, the questions they raise are global: can women’s sport continue to be organised around biological sex, or will sex-based categories be legally redefined out

Sam Olsen

Iran, the Shah and the revival of kingship

Earlier this week in Los Angeles – home to the largest Iranian community in the United States – thousands gathered in solidarity with protests unfolding in their homeland. Amid the sea of national flags and chants against the Islamic Republic, some demonstrators carried Lion and Sun banners and invoked a return to the pre-1979 monarchy, signalling a strand of sentiment that looks back to Iran’s last Shah. The rally took a darker turn when a truck drove into the crowd, underscoring the depth of division within the diaspora debate over Iran’s future. For some Iranians, particularly in the diaspora, the monarchy represents a lost period of national pride and state

Wednesday

Michael Simmons

Who's to blame for Britain's water crisis?

24 min listen

Thousands of homes across the South East have been without water for four consecutive days. South East Water’s record on water supply interruptions is one of the worst in the sector. Ofwat, the regulator, has placed it in the bottom three companies for disruptions each year from 2020 to last year. What has happened to the water industry in the past decade? And would nationalisation fix it? Michael Simmons is joined by The Spectator’s business editor Martin Vander Weyer.

Madeline Grant

Starmer’s ‘jokes’ make him sound like a creepy uncle

Another week, another U-turn! This time the PM had chosen to make Prime Minister’s Questions even more torturous for himself by beating an ignominious retreat on the issue of compulsory digital ID. The climb-down was inevitable. The government has totalitarian aspirations that would make Brezhnev blush, but is sadly fated to be run by people for whom the ‘Do Not Eat’ instructions on Playdoh are designed.  The gap between Labour’s authoritarian instincts and its actual abilities has enormous comic potential. Indeed I’m sure that in time Sir Keir will be considered to have added greatly to the gaiety of nations: just not the one that has to suffer him as

Freddy Gray

What’s really going on in Iran?

24 min listen

Spectator contributor and author Charlie Gammell and Freddy Gray discuss what is really happening as protests play out on the streets of Iran. They discuss imams turning on the Shah, whether Trump could actually be seeking talks rather than war, what the Middle East wants from a fractured Iran, and what issues could arise from replacing the regime with Reza Pahlavi.

Charles Moore

The UK is an undeveloping country

Returning from Pakistan on Monday, I sat at my desk and looked out at the pouring rain while the latest news explained that 30,000 homes in our part of Sussex and neighbouring Kent are ‘still without water’. Then I opened the pile of post. A letter from South East Water, the culprit in the case, enclosed a note which began: ‘From 1 April 2025, the amount you’ll pay for drinking water will go up.’ Since we are now in January 2026, I assume they either misprinted the date, or accidentally stuck in last year’s explanatory letter. Anyway, the increase is real enough – £655.23 was due in July 2025; £875.11

James Heale

Starmer’s gags fail to save his PMQs

It used to be said that Keir Starmer had a magic lamp, such was his fortune in opposition. If this genie did exist, it has long since crossed the floor. The U-turn on digital ID last night gave Kemi Badenoch yet another stick with which to beat Starmer at today’s session of PMQs. The Tory leader took full advantage of it with relish. ‘Can I start by saying that I welcome the Prime Minister’s U-turn?’, she began. ‘I feel like I say that every week’. Starmer’s response was to seek refuge in humour, deploying a series of gags to mixed effect. ‘They had more positions in 14 years than the

Tim Shipman

The second coming of Gordon Brown

At a Christmas party I witnessed a showdown between two Labour movers and shakers, one a devoted Starmerite, the other an unrepentant Blairite, over whether the Prime Minister can turn things around. They didn’t agree on much – Keir Starmer’s vision or lack of it, Europe, immigration, you name it. When I commented to another leading figure in the party that Blairites, with the exception of Jonathan Powell (now running foreign policy) and Alastair Campbell (whose podcast has moved him leftwards), seem to have lost faith in this government, this former minister said: ‘Of course they have, because this is the second term of Gordon Brown.’ Among Brownites, it is

Rod Liddle

The age of absolutism

A Labour MP was prevented from visiting a school in his constituency because the teaching unions and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign do not like the fact that he believes Israel should have a right to exist. The MP in question is Damien Egan, who represents Bristol North East and who is vice-chairman of the Labour Friends of Israel caucus – or, as it is almost certainly referred to within the party, Labour Friends of Genocide. We haven’t heard from Egan just yet – perhaps he is less cross about it than I am, or simply doesn’t want to make a fuss. The school in question is the Bristol Brunel Academy,

Joanna Williams

Samuel Pepys’s school should be proud, not ashamed, of its ex-pupil

‘I know not how to abstain from reading,’ wrote Samuel Pepys back in the seventeenth century. Were he by some miracle still alive, Pepys would discover that this is a problem entirely alien to most people today. Indeed, his own diaries, avidly pored over by generations gone by, have now been condemned by today’s moralists and seem destined to be ignored. This ‘new evidence’ seems to have prompted Hinchingbrooke School to review its association with Pepys. But why? Almost four hundred years after he was a pupil, Pepys is in trouble at his old school. Following a ‘comprehensive consultation’, students at what is now Hinchingbrooke School, but was then known

Ross Clark

Ed Miliband’s wind power delusion is costing us a fortune

Remember the summer of 2022 when politicians from Ed Miliband to Boris Johnson went around telling us that wind energy was ‘four times cheaper’ than electricity generated by gas. It wasn’t true then – even at the top of the spike in gas prices which followed the Ukraine invasion. But it looks like an absurd claim now. Miliband, in his latest auction for offshore wind farms, has just committed energy consumers to paying a wholesale price of £90.91 for their electricity, rising with inflation for the next 20 years. Where does that fit with the Energy Secretary’s promise to save us £300 a year on our energy bills? No one

Michael Simmons

The SNP’s Budget was nothing but cynical spin

Yesterday, Shona Robison, Scotland’s finance minister, delivered her tax and spending plans for the coming fiscal year. The headline message from the SNP was the following: the majority of Scots will pay less tax than those living in the rest of the UK. That’s thanks to a very slight lifting of the threshold freeze on the lower tax bands, resulting in whopping tax cuts of less than £1 per week for the lowest tax-paying earners. The result is that those taxpayers at the bottom of the rung will find themselves £24 a year better off than if they lived anywhere else in the UK. By contrast, those earning £70,000 are

Madeline Grant

The tragedy of Keir Starmer

For someone who likes to present the general public with the idea that he doesn’t have a personality, Sir Keir ‘I don’t dream’ Starmer has actually provided plenty of insight into who he really is. From his occasional flashes of fury when thwarted in the Commons to his chronic lack of authenticity when out bothering voters, a picture emerges of a man who doesn’t much like the ‘people’ side of politics. Perhaps the most revealing example was when, in opposition, he unhesitatingly told Emily Maitlis that he preferred Davos over Westminster. By his own revealed preferences and statements, Starmer is an aspirant technocrat, not an enthusiastic democrat. In the source

James Heale

What's the future of the Scottish Tories?

19 min listen

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Russell Findlay MSP, sits down with James Heale to look ahead to May’s pivotal Holyrood elections. He pushes back against the threat from Reform, arguing that Nigel Farage is trying to be ‘all things to all people’, and he is scathing about the lack of loyalty shown by those who have defected from the party – not just to Reform, but to the Liberal Democrats too. But with the collapse of the support Labour received in the 2024 general election – which Findlay calls their ‘loveless landslide’ – why aren’t the Tories benefitting more? Plus, how did being the victim of a vicious acid

David Shipley

The public are right: citizenship is a privilege, not a right

Keir Starmer is, in many ways, a remarkable prime minister. He is remarkably uncharismatic and remarkably unable to discern the mood of the nation he governs. He is remarkable in his unpopularity, with the British public now even preferring Nicolas Maduro to Our Man From Islington. He is remarkable in his number of U-turns, digital ID being the latest. And Remarkable Starmer has even managed to unite the country with his ‘delighted’ decision to welcome Egyptian dissident, anti-white activist and recent British passport recipient Alaa Abd el-Fattah to our land. By a margin of two to one, the British public think that citizenship is a privilege which should be revocable