Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Freddy Gray

Susie Wiles and the rise of the Floridian right

‘Susie Wiles is a great choice for President Trump’s chief of staff,’ said Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and the man Donald Trump so humiliated in 2016. Uh oh. Bush’s approval of the second Trump administration’s first major appointment instantly rang alarm bells in some quarters of the new American right. Wiles, who ran Trump’s campaign with Chris LaCivita, is seen by some Trumpist insiders as a suspiciously old-fashioned operative, in hock to the moneyed interests who used to run the Republican party. Over the summer, we heard whispers of clashes between Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s most doggedly loyal aide, and Wiles and LaCivita over funding. Wiles once wrote

Oscar Edmondson

How does Starmer solve a problem like Farage?

16 min listen

Nigel Farage could well be the big winner in the UK from Donald Trump’s victory across the pond, with the MP for Clacton having a direct line to the most powerful office in the West. But, as Katy Balls argues on Coffee House this morning, he poses a greater threat to Labour than simply his proximity to Donald Trump. Reform UK are beginning the process of building power bases across the UK – starting this weekend in Wales – and the party believes it can take voters from Labour. Meanwhile, the US election has proven the salience of the economy and immigration as election-deciding issues: areas where Reform UK cut

Theo Hobson

Why did so many Christians vote for Trump?

It’s hard to know what to say about Donald Trump. Well, maybe it’s easy enough if you’re a fan, or if you are an opponent who’s very sure that the liberal case just needs to be reiterated more forcefully. But for the rest of us it’s difficult. It’s a special sort of difficulty, a difficulty of tone. As a liberal Christian, my main response is to be aghast that most Christians voted for him – the ratio was almost two-to-one. Why don’t these people have more respect for liberal democracy, and common decency, I am tempted to ask. Why don’t they have more fear of crude bullying and authoritarianism?  The

Steerpike

BBC under fire over Amsterdam attack coverage

Football fans are known to get a little rowdy after a game, but the horror that broke out after the Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax game on Thursday night was an entirely different matter. As Jonathan Sacerdoti wrote for the Spectator today, hundreds of Jews were hunted and beaten by mobs after the game while videos of the violence quickly spread across social media, leaving users horrified at the Amsterdam attacks. Yet for some rather peculiar reason, mainstream broadcasters were not quite as fast to report on the matter as one might have expected – with the Beeb in particular notably slow to the news, with readers taking to Twitter to

Steerpike

Labour appoints Chagos chief to run national security

In an uncertain age, who do you want keeping the nation safe? How about the guy who just bartered away the Chagos Islands? Yes, that’s right, fresh from his Mauritian shenanigans, Jonathan Powell has today been announced as the new National Security Adviser in No.10. A former career diplomat, he famously served as Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff throughout his ten years in Downing Street. And now, after a stint in banking and endless summitry around the world, he is back to help out a flailing Labour government once more. Powell’s appointment is not without controversy. As well as the Chagos farrago, he was a sometimes divisive figure in the

Steerpike

Oxford Chancellor race in new transparency row

It’s the election drama obsessing much of Westminster. No, not Donald v Kamala but rather the race to be Chancellor of the University of Oxford. The ten-month slug-fest began back in February when incumbent Chris Patten announced his intention to retire after 20 years. An early attempt to vet candidates by committee was blocked after claims of a ‘stitch up’, with 38 names eventually going forward to the first ballot. Sadly Imran Khan didn’t make the cut… On Monday, the final five for the second ballot were named: peers William Hague, Peter Mandelson and Jan Royall alongside ex-MP Dominic Grieve and Elish Angiolini, who led the Everard inquiry. Yet four

Ross Clark

Trump’s tariff plans don’t have to spell bad news for Britain

On the face of it, Donald Trump’s threat to impose general import tariffs of 10 to 20 per cent on all goods – and much higher levies on those from China – is bad news for Britain, the US and the world. That protectionism makes us poorer is a lesson which seems to have to be re-learned every generation. The last time America was forced to learn the hard way was when George W Bush tried to protect the US steel industry with punitive tariffs on imports of steel in 2002. A US government review later concluded that the tariffs had cost 200,000 jobs in US by increasing the prices

Steerpike

What does a Trump victory mean for Prince Harry?

Dear oh dear. Donald Trump’s presidential victory has not thrilled everyone – and, Mr S suspects, least of all Prince Harry. The president-elect has suggested the royal could be, er, deported from the States. The suggestion came after the publication of Harry’s book Spare, in which the prince claimed he once dabbled with drugs like cocaine, cannabis and magic mushrooms. Under US law, a visa can be rejected if the person making the application has taken drugs – and Trump has suggested that Harry should not receive ‘special privileges’ if he was found to have lied on his visa form. During a visit to Scotland in August, Trump’s son Eric

Katy Balls

How does Starmer solve a problem like Farage?

Who is the biggest winner in the UK from Donald Trump’s victory across the pond? The answer may be Nigel Farage. While Labour ministers have so far rejected the Reform party leader’s offer to act as an intermediary, the MP for Clacton can boast to have a direct line to the so-called leader of the free world. This means that like it or not, the Prime Minister may end up discovering what Trump thinks about various issues from Farage interviews rather than the diplomatic service. Trump’s victory is adding to Labour’s nerves However, there is another perhaps bigger problem Farage poses to Starmer – and it’s an electoral one. Today,

Terry Barnes

Could Kevin Rudd’s Trump tweets cost him his career?

If British Labour ministers and officials find dealing with President Donald Trump 2.0 a formidable challenge, their Australian Labor cousins may find the task of working with a president with an elephantine memory for slights even more daunting. As ministers – including Foreign Secretary David Lammy – are rediscovering to their chagrin, you can delete embarrassing social media posts, but they never disappear. That’s something that may cost former Australian prime minister, and now Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, his diplomatic career. Rudd has been posted to Washington for the best part of two years as current Labor prime minister Anthony Albanese’s envoy to the Biden administration.

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Amsterdam has failed its Jews

Last night in Amsterdam, a scene unfolded that should send shockwaves across Europe: hundreds of Jews were hunted and beaten by mobs following a football match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax. Whether a spontaneous flare-up or organised assault, terrified fans were forced to jump into the city’s canals to escape violence. At least ten were injured, and three remain missing. As Israel dispatched emergency flights to evacuate its citizens, one must ask: how long until this happens in London or elsewhere in the UK? The Netherlands must confront this issue immediately, not only for the safety of its Jewish residents and visitors but for the stability of its own

Gavin Mortimer

Jewish football fans are not safe in Europe

Israeli football fans were attacked in Amsterdam on Thursday evening and three supporters are listed as missing this morning. It is reported that the assailants yelled ‘Free Palestine’ as they kicked and punched the Jewish supporters. According to the Israeli foreign ministry, a group of masked men, some of whom were draped in Palestine flags, ambushed the Israelis after their Europa League match against Ajax. A dozen supporters were injured and three are still unaccounted for on Friday morning. The fear in France is that next Thursday won’t be so passive when the Israeli team are in town The Times of Israel reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has despatched

Katy Balls

The Shivani Raja Edition

31 min listen

Shivani Raja holds two Parliamentary honours: the youngest Tory MP and, in Leicester East, the only Conservative gain at the recent election; she is also the first of the new 2024 intake to appear on Women With Balls. With a background in science and business, not politics, she fought a whirlwind election campaign – not just against the Labour Party, but against her two most recent predecessors.   On the podcast, Shivani talks to Katy Balls about how she got into politics, why she is proud of Leicester’s multiculturalism, and about challenging her colleagues’ perceptions of ‘young people’. Shivani introduced James Cleverly at his leadership launch in September – what

Jim Lawley

Trump’s triumph has infuriated the Spanish left

‘Everybody’s lost but me,’ mutters a teenage Indiana Jones emerging from a cave in the middle of the desert to find that the boy scouts with whom he arrived have now disappeared without trace. Spain’s left-wing prime minister might be excused for thinking much the same. Relentlessly upbeat about the benefits of immigration, Pedro Sánchez now finds himself more or less alone in the European Union. And just when he was hoping that fellow progressive Kamala Harris would win the US election, he finds instead that he’s going to have to contend with Donald Trump.  ‘We will work on our strategic bilateral relations and a strong transatlantic partnership,’ Sánchez said, presumably

Philip Patrick

Kamala Harris and the death of the celebrity endorsement

Poor old Bruce Springsteen. The legendary rocker bet the farm on an endorsement of Kamala Harris and may well have alienated about half his audience as a result. The ‘Boss’ who had built his career on empathising with the hard-grafting, blue-collar, Bud-swilling ‘deplorables’ with his anthems of white working-class alienation, recorded a folksy recommendation from the counter of a (real or staged – who knows?) diner. ‘Freedom, social justice, equal opportunity, the right to love who you want’ are on the ballot, pleaded Springsteen, adding that Trump’s ‘disdain for the constitution’ should disqualify him from office. Harrison Ford followed suit in two ads run just before polling day. The Star

Thursday

Steerpike

Is Rishi Sunak off already?

It’s less than a week since he formally handed over the reins of power – but Rishi Sunak is wasting no time. On Wednesday, just five days after he formally resigned the leadership of the Conservative party, Sunak and his wife Akshata registered their latest venture on Companies House. The newly-incorporated ‘Office of Akshata Murty and Rishi Sunak Limited’ follows similar vehicles being set up by Sunak’s four Tory predecessors. David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss all established their own eponymous outlets shortly after leaving office. Clearly Sunak, the Peloton-loving premier, is in something of a hurry. Cameron waited a month after quitting as an MP to

Lara Prendergast

Trump’s comeback, Labour’s rural divide, and World of Warcraft

37 min listen

This week: King of the Hill You can’t ignore what could be the political comeback of the century: Donald Trump’s remarkable win in this week’s US election. The magazine this week carries analysis about why Trump won, and why the Democrats lost, from Freddy Gray, Niall Ferguson and Yascha Mounk, amongst others. To make sense of how Trump became only the second President in history to win non-consecutive terms, we’re joined by the journalist Jacqueline Sweet and Cliff Young, president of polling at Ipsos (00:58). Next: is Labour blind to rural communities? The changes to inheritance tax for farmers are one of the measures from Labour’s budget that has attracted the

Kate Andrews

Are we about to see Trump unleashed?

32 min listen

Kamala Harris has delivered her concession speech, signalling the start of the Democrat post-mortem. Donald Trump has secured a total victory, the kind which gives him a mandate to make some pretty radical reforms. Americano guest host Kate Andrews is joined by Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest, to discuss what a second Trump term will look like: from domestic to foreign policy. And what about the Democrats? Where do they go from here? 

Steerpike

Guardian staff get therapy for Trump triumph

While Republicans across the US celebrate Donald Trump’s victory and eagerly await his return to the White House, those that backed the wrong horse appear to be struggling to come to terms with it. Mr S is still waiting to hear whether certain lefty celebrities are going to follow through with their plans to leave the country over the result, and a number of pundits are still recovering from their fantastically inaccurate predictions about the race. But we should also spare a thought for some of those hit hardest by the announcement: Guardian journalists. It now transpires that the newspaper has reached out to its employees to offer, er, Trump

Katy Balls

US election: how did the polls get it so wrong?

18 min listen

The post–mortem has begun on the US election with the Democrats desperately trying to figure out what just happened. To make sense of the result, Katy Balls is joined by Kate Andrews and James Kanagasooriam, chief research officer at Focaldata. On the podcast they discuss: how an election that seemed to be on a knife–edge ended in a landslide; how the Democrats misjudged the issues that matter to their core voter coalition; how global election trends and the ‘incumbency problem’ played a part; and how the term ‘asymmetric realignment’ can describe the voting patterns we saw yesterday. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.