Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Thursday

Katy Balls

Inside Kemi Badenoch’s first shadow cabinet

At her first shadow cabinet as Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch walked into the room and declared that there were ‘still too many people’. Various advisers hastily left. It was an indication of how she plans to do things differently. Even the invitation list for politicians has been slimmed down – the shadow attorney will not attend, and some roles have been axed, such as deputy leader. No ‘readout’ of discussion topics was emailed to hacks afterwards to update the lobby on what happened. Kemi Badenoch can start off her leadership by pitching herself ason the same side as rural voters The reason? Badenoch wants shadow cabinet meetings to be a

Wednesday

Matt McDonald

Kamala Harris finally concedes defeat

US Vice President Kamala Harris finally took the stage at her alma mater, Washington, DC’s Howard University – a day later than anticipated, to deliver a 12-minute concession speech. She walked out at 4:24 p.m. ET Wednesday, somewhat ironically, to the chorus of Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’: Freedom, freedom, I can’t loseFreedom I can’t lose ‘The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for – but hear me when I say that the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting’, Harris said. She added: ‘I am

Svitlana Morenets

Ukrainians brace for Trump’s return

‘Donald Trump is like the light at the end of the tunnel’, an American told me last night at the only Washington DC bar throwing a pro-Trump election party. For many Ukrainians, though, he’s more like the end itself. Trump has called himself ‘good friends’ with Vladimir Putin. He said ‘Ukraine no longer exists’ and that ‘even the worst deal [with Russia] would be better than what is now’. Ukrainians got the hint and hoped for a Kamala Harris’s victory. But Americans have chosen, and now Kyiv will bend over backwards, trying to convince its biggest military backer not to abandon Ukraine.  Trump has called himself ‘good friends’ with Vladimir

Lisa Haseldine

Olaf Scholz calls time on Germany’s traffic-light coalition

Just as Germany, along with the rest of Europe, begins to process what Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mean, more instability is heading its way – this time domestic. This evening, German chancellor Olaf Scholz fired the finance minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner, kicking the FDP party out of government and bringing Berlin’s traffic-light coalition crashing down. The result: Germany is probably off to the polls. Speaking at a hastily called press conference in the Bundestag following Lindner’s dismissal, Scholz announced that that he would be holding a vote of confidence in himself on 15 January. If that goes badly, the federal election – originally planned

Kate Andrews

Lionel Shriver on the election that smashed identity politics

29 min listen

News that Kamala Harris has called Donald Trump to concede defeat means that the US election is all but over. Of the seven crucial swing states, Trump has so far won North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Republicans have taken the Senate back from the Democrats. How did things go so badly for Kamala Harris? Is this the end of identity politics? Lionel Shriver, author and columnist, joins The Spectator’s economics editor Kate Andrews to reflect on what happened, and how she’s feeling now considering she disliked both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as candidates.

Lloyd Evans

Kemi’s childish PMQs debut left a lot to be desired

Slightly childish and she didn’t win. That’s how Kemi Badenoch fared during her first bust-up with Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs. She began with a snippy reaction to his gag about the Tory party’s penchant for changing its commander-in-chief. Sir Keir said that Kemi was the fourth leader he’d faced in less than five years. She took this personally. ‘Thank you for that almost warm welcome,’ she carped. She then quoted David Lammy’s comment about Donald Trump. ‘A neo-Nazi woman-hating sociopath,’ Lammy had said, before his promotion to foreign secretary. She asked Sir Keir to apologise. An easy question to duck and Sir Keir took the opportunity to pose as

Michael Gove

Badenoch’s Trump card

16 min listen

It’s happened. The scenario Labour politicians hoped would not come to pass is now a reality: Donald Trump is heading back to the White House. The official line from Labour is that everything is fine – they will work with whoever hold the office of president. That was the message from Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions as he congratulated president-elect Trump, and made a point of mentioning they had recently had dinner together. However – Kemi Badenoch focused on David Lammy’s past criticisms of Trump at PMQs. Is this a unique tension for the Labour government? James Heale discusses with Michael Gove and Katy Balls.

Steerpike

Full list: the Cabinet members who blasted Trump

Donald Trump has won the US election, and will become the 47th president of the United States. But while the Republicans celebrate, the Labour lot may not be quite as happy. Starmer’s army has a history of being less than cordial about the president-elect, as new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch noted today at PMQs. Did Foreign Secretary David Lammy apologise for his comments about the US leader? Would Sir Keir Starmer apologise on his behalf? Er, not quite. And no wonder – there are more than a few comments to apologise for. To jog readers’ memories, Mr S has assembled a list of the things Cabinet members have said about

James Heale

Badenoch puts the punch back in PMQs

It was a strong start for Kemi Badenoch in her debut performance at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). After the obligatory pledge to be a ‘constructive’ opposition, the newly-crowned Tory leader began by asking Keir Starmer about the day’s big story – the American election result. Badenoch’s first three questions were variations on the theme of Trump and how much Starmer was looking forward to working with him. She raised the perennial question of David Lammy. Had the Prime Minister apologised to Donald Trump for the Foreign Secretary’s ‘derogatory’ and ‘scatological’ past comments about him? Starmer, predictably, did not answer. A score draw then – but a decent outing by the

Steerpike

SNP members slam Swinney’s support of Kamala

It’s not been First Minister John Swinney’s year. Not only did his Westminster group fail fantastically at the July poll to cling onto their seats, now the SNP leader has found out he backed the wrong horse at the US election. Talk about a bad bet! Last month, Swinney lent his support to Kamala, telling Scottish voters: People in the United States of America should vote for Kamala Harris, and I have not come to that conclusion only because Donald Trump is opposed to Scottish independence. And with today’s result comes criticism of the First Minister’s decision to wade into the matter at all. Stewart McDonald, former SNP defence spokesperson,

Lisa Haseldine

Why is Putin not congratulating Donald Trump?

It’s long been assumed that Donald Trump is Russian president Vladimir Putin’s preferred opposite number in Washington. So it might come as a surprise to learn that the discussion in the Kremlin this morning has been whether or not Putin should congratulate the new president-elect on his victory at all. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters he had no idea whether the president planned to send his regards to Trump. Whether or not he did, Peskov said, would have little difference: ‘It is practically impossible to make things worse; relations are historically at their lowest point.’ America, he reminded the press pack, was still an ‘unfriendly country that is

John O’Neill and Michael Simmons

How Donald did it: the road to the White House in charts and graphs

Donald Trump has become the first president since Grover Cleveland to be elected to non-consecutive terms in the White House. But how did he do it? Pollsters and pundits had predicted a close-run thing with Harris ahead in key states but in the end, the betting markets were right: Donald Trump swept to victory. When Big Ben bongs at 10 p.m. on election night in the UK we’re told straight away who the next prime minister will be. American exit polls don’t quite work like that. Instead, AP and Fox News’s exit poll showed us that the economy and immigration were the top issues for voters. But another poll for

Owen Matthews

Donald Trump’s win marks the beginning of the end of the Ukraine war

Donald Trump’s election victory heralds the beginning of the end of the Ukraine war – and is likely to leave Vladimir Putin in control of most, if not all, of the territory he has seized in nearly three years of bloody conflict. To many Ukrainians, such an outcome will be a betrayal of their struggle, a stab in the back by the West that will sow decades of anger and resentment. To others, though, a swift end to the conflict before more land is lost and tens of thousands more young Ukrainians die represents the best hope of actually salvaging a decent future for their country before their infrastructure, economy,

Katy Balls

Three challenges Trump poses for Starmer

It’s happened. The scenario Labour politicians hoped would not come to pass is now a reality: Donald Trump is heading back to the White House. The official line from Labour is that everything is fine – they will work with whoever hold the office of president. That was the message from Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions as he congratulated president-elect Trump, and made a point of mentioning they had recently had dinner together. However, privately there have long been nerves and concerns as to what a Trump comeback would mean for the Starmer government. It’s already well documented that steps have been taken to try to mitigate the risks.

Patrick O’Flynn

Will Trump listen to Starmer?

Here is a sign of how weak Keir Starmer’s relationship is with the new leader of the free world. Nigel Farage has repeatedly offered to act as a bridge between the UK Labour government and the incoming Donald Trump administration. And for the second time, Farage is celebrating a Trump presidential election victory with the man himself, while the entire British political establishment is out in the cold. Last time round the relationship’s low point occurred when a disobliging assessment of Trump by the then UK Ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, was leaked. Thereafter Trump refused to deal with him and Darroch ended up resigning. This time, things are

Eliot Wilson

Nato should be worried about Donald Trump

When it comes to Donald Trump’s relationship with Nato, there are two principal schools of thought. The first, articulated by Trump’s own former national security advisor, John Bolton, is that the president-elect is hostile to the alliance at an elemental and instinctive level. The second, proposed by those who are favourable to him, argues that Trump’s inflammatory language about Nato’s failures is a performance, which in the past goaded fellow member states into increasing their defence spending. Look not, they say, at what he says, but at the results. It is indisputable that the financial commitments of member states to Nato now are much higher than when Trump first assumed

Simon Heffer

Labour’s war on the countryside

Two miles from where I am writing, the neighbouring village is plastered with posters demanding ‘Say No to Pylons’. The object of loathing is a 112-mile power line from Norwich to Tilbury that would carry wind-generated electricity from the North Sea to a supposed 1.5 million homes. As a concession to the famous landscape of Dedham Vale on the Essex-Suffolk border, the cabling will run underground for 3.3 miles. But because of John Constable’s inexplicable failure to paint the rest of the route, people living near the other 108.7 miles must have their vistas ruined by 160ft pylons. The developers claim it is twice as expensive to bury power lines

Matthew Parris

In defence of the liberal elite

You can hear it already. Rising from the tents of the dejected Democrat camp comes the whimper of self-reproach. It’s all our fault. Liberalism created this monster. There’s a distinct whiff of mea culpa in the air. Nostra culpa, nostra maxima culpa for the alienation of half the American people.  Donald Trump and his mob? It’s the fault of liberals for not feeling Trump-America’s pain. We fed their despair. Nigel Farage and his Reform party? Liberal Britain’s fault for being too stuck up to take Red Wall voters’ concerns seriously. Noses in the air (apparently), deaf to the woes of all those deplorables, and babbling about trans rights, preferred pronouns

Kate Andrews

Why Donald Trump won and the real reason Kamala Harris lost

33 min listen

Donald Trump has won the election and will be 47th President of the United States after winning the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. ‘America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,’ the Republican candidate told supporters. ‘This is a magnificent victory for the American people, that will allow us to make America great again,’ he said at the rally in Florida. It has been total victory, with the Republicans also winning Senate and the popular vote. Kate Andrews is joined by Sarah Elliott and Rick MacArthur to unpack a historic election night. 

William T. Vollmann

My friends who vote Trump

On 13 October 2024, I jaunted 20 minutes south down Interstate-5 to the Cosumnes Nature Preserve, whose toy swamp I used to visit with my parents and my daughter Lisa; they are all dead now, and so was my pleasure on that Sunday, thanks to a haze that looked merely dirty until I opened the car door and realised it was smoke again, more smoke, my eyes beginning to burn and my chest to ache: poor sad California! In recent years I sometimes wake up choking; is the house on fire? Oh, no, merely the planet. One of my homeless Republican friends (who stopped speaking to me once he realised