Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Steerpike

Yousaf under fire for blasting officials in Covid WhatsApps

All has not been well in the Scottish government for some time – and the latest revelation that former first minister Humza Yousaf was slamming civil servant press officers in WhatsApp chats is hardly likely to repair relations. It transpires that hapless Humza and one-time national clinical director Jason Leitch turned on their own officials in Covid message exchanges, uncovered by the Scottish Sun via Freedom of Information request. Oh dear. In a rather ironic twist, it has emerged that Yousaf complained he was ‘not hugely impressed’ by the efforts of the comms officials working in the health department, before promising to, er, ‘sort it out’. Perhaps he should’ve taken

Lisa Haseldine

Without Navalny, Russia’s opposition is tearing itself apart

Since the death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony in February, Russia’s opposition movement has found itself in disarray. Instead of Navalny’s death uniting those exiled Kremlin critics campaigning for a democratic future for Russia, the past eight months have seen the opposition movement fracture into bickering factions, unable to collaborate on anything much at all. Now, that fighting has broken out into the open – and risks putting the cause of a future democratic Russia in jeopardy. Last week, Latvia’s anti-corruption bureau announced they had begun an investigation into allegations made by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) that Latvian law enforcement officers had had a hand in organising a

Euan McColm

The SNP’s controversial social care plan hits another roadblock

If you need proof that the SNP’s modus operandi in government is to make it up on the hoof, consider the party’s plan for a National Care Service (NCS). Announced by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, the NCS was to be a radical – even visionary – solution to growing pressure on both the National Health Service and the social care sector. By bringing sharp focus to the needs of a growing elderly population, the new care service would not only mean immediate improvements to the lives of those it was established to serve, it would also end the use of hospitals as unofficial care homes. The argument in favour of

James Heale

Cleverly gains momentum as Tory MPs prepare to vote

Tory MPs are today preparing to cast their votes in the next round of the party’s leadership contest. The final four will become three, ahead of another ballot tomorrow afternoon to produce the pair who will go to the membership. It is now four weeks since Mel Stride was knocked out and the big shift in the Tory leadership race is neatly demonstrated by the candidate that Stride has chosen to endorse. James Cleverly won his backing last night, with some MPs believing that he now has the momentum to make it to the final two. Cleverly performed poorly on the last ballot, going backwards to tie with Tom Tugendhat

Tim Dawson

The case for Kemi Badenoch is now overwhelming

For all the giddiness at Conservative conference last week, and the implosion of the Labour party since 4 July, the Tory party is in a bad way. Reform is in the ascendent, and the Tories are still polling below Labour. Given the circumstances, I am surprised that Conservative MPs are making such a meal of this leadership contest. She is the most consistent candidate, the most coherent candidate, the most courageous candidate Perhaps I shouldn’t be. These are, after all, the people who gave members a choice between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss in 2022. I thought Tory MPs should back Kemi Badenoch then, and I think they should back her

Robin Ashenden

Kemi Badenoch is a gamble the Tories must take

No, please no. Not again. Not again! As the Conservatives gear up to choose their next leader, and bookmakers place odds of 6/4 on Robert Jenrick, and just 4-1 for Kemi Badenoch, one has the most awful feeling of déjà vu. The party have already had their Jeremy Corbyn moment in choosing Liz Truss and their ‘let’s just plump for a manager’ spasm in voting in Rishi Sunak. Neither of those things, as I predicted in 2022, brought them anything but electoral wipeout, and nor did their rebuffing of Kemi Badenoch, their only obvious star.  With their measly 121 seats, what choice do Tory MPs have? Many of us (and

Steerpike

Labour lead slashed to one point

When it rains for Sir Keir Starmer, it pours. Polling by More in Common via Politico has revealed that Labour’s lead has been dramatically slashed to just one point ahead of the Tories, only three months after Labour’s landslide win. The survey, which polled 2,023 Brits, put support for Starmer’s army on 29 per cent – while Rishi Sunak’s boys in blue are close on their heels at 28 per cent. Compared to the last poll carried out by the firm a fortnight ago, the Conservatives have gained two points, while Labour has lost one. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s Reform party is in third place, on 19 per cent – just

Steerpike

Boris slams ‘greedy’ Starmer over freebie fiasco

Sue Gray may have moved on, but Sir Keir Starmer’s freebie headache isn’t going anywhere. Now former prime minister Boris Johnson has lashed out at the Labour PM over his decision to accept gifts clothing, hospitality and glasses – adding that Starmer must be ‘worth a bob or two’ due to his prestigious legal career. Indeed… It transpired over the last few weeks that Sir Keir has claimed £107,000 in donations since December 2019, including £4,000 of, er, Taylor Swift tickets. It was hardly a Cruel Summer for Starmer, eh? The Prime Minister eventually paid back over £6,000 worth of hospitality – but even that has not managed to squash

Freddy Gray

Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes interview was Prince Andrew-like in its awfulness

Somebody give Bill Whitaker a prize. In his 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, which aired last night, the CBS correspondent did what no other journalist has successfully done since the Vice President was thrust to the top of the Democratic ticket: journalism. He asked Harris challenging questions about the matters voters care about most. He was civil, unaggressive, but professional enough to push her for clear answers. And Harris just couldn’t cope. Her performance was Prince Andrew-like in its awfulness.  That caused the Harris-bot to malfunction On immigration, for instance, Whitaker asked Harris why the Biden-Harris administration had only recently started tackling the issue, after almost four years and

Kate Andrews

Is Labour’s first Budget coming unstuck?

During the general election campaign, Labour played a cautious game on tax: the party was careful not to share its bigger plans for getting more revenue into the Treasury until after the election was over. A few major tax hikes were ruled out – income tax, National Insurance and VAT – but it was quickly realised this meant all other taxes were fair game. Only a handful of relatively small tax hikes were announced in the lead-up to polling day, including putting VAT on private school fees and ending non-dom status.  Reeves must take the OBR’s calculations as gospel The softly-softly strategy seemed to work, at least for getting through

Constantin Eckner

When will Germany’s economy bounce back?

Germany was once the powerhouse of Europe; for decades, its economy has helped drive the continent’s growth. No longer. Berlin’s economy ministry plans to downgrade its growth forecast for this year. The German government now expects the economy to shrink by 0.2 per cent in 2024 – down from a previous estimate of 0.3 per cent growth, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports. Is this the medicine the German economy needs to get it back on to its feet? Germany appears to be on the brink of a second year in a row in which its economy is going in the wrong direction. German output contracted 0.3 per cent last year and the

Jawad Iqbal

Hamish Falconer and the trouble with Labour’s ‘Red Princes’

The appearance on our television screens of one Hamish Falconer, the newly-elected Labour MP for Lincoln, tells us much more about Keir Starmer’s government than meets the eye. Falconer is not exactly a household name, but has already been elevated to the role of junior minister in the Foreign Office. He is an ex-pupil of Westminster School and was elected to parliament at his first attempt in July. Just a fortnight or so later, Falconer – who spent his pre-MP career working at the Foreign Office – was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Few voters outside of Lincoln will have heard

Niko Vorobyov

Does Singapore’s death penalty really deter drug crimes?

On Friday morning, Azwan bin Bohari was marched to the gallows. The 47-year-old Singaporean, himself an addict, was convicted of trafficking 26.5 grams of heroin in 2019. Despite pleas for the Singaporean authorities to halt it, and the fact Azwan was waiting on the outcome of a legal appeal, the execution controversially went ahead. Azwan’s appeal that half of what he was caught with was for his own personal consumption – which would have placed him below the threshold for execution – was dismissed by the court. Singapore prides itself on being clean, safe and orderly, telling the world this is because when they say ‘zero tolerance’, they mean it.

Steerpike

Sue Gray’s allies turn on Starmer

Another day, another Sue Gray-related drama. Even though the ex-civil servant has resigned from the role of Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff after becoming the story herself, she is still managing to generate headlines in her absentia. In an attempt to reboot his government, the Prime Minister swapped out Gray for Labour campaign guru Morgan McSweeney – but the negative briefings haven’t stopped quite yet. Now her allies are on the warpath, even hitting out at the PM. Oh dear. As reported by the Times, Gray’s allies have attacked claims that the former civil servant had presided over a dysfunctional culture in Downing Street. One insisted the PM’s one-time

Mark Galeotti

Vladimir Putin’s 72nd may have been his unhappiest birthday yet

Happy birthday, Mr President? With Vladimir Putin turning 72 on Monday, this has become an opportunity for the Kremlin’s spin doctors to present their ideal notion of the septuagenarian sovereign. Ambitious courtiers have been competitively performing their sycophancy, as if in an over-the-top production of King Lear. Posters were anonymously pasted up in Kyiv, vowing that ‘Putin will come and restore order’ The ponderous official paper of record, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, offered up a portrait of the diligent chief executive: ‘Russian President Vladimir Putin will celebrate his birthday in a working environment. On October 7, the head of state will meet with CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States‘) leaders who will arrive

Jonathan Spyer

Was Hamas’s massacre the Middle East’s Franz Ferdinand moment?

Travelling through the Gaza border area on the morning of October 8, 2023, I was struck by a sense of familiarity. The scenes of destruction, the burnt buildings, and the smashed-up cars by the side of the road were, of course, profoundly shocking. But they were not, at least to me, unfathomable. Unlike most of my fellow Israeli citizens, I had spent a good part of the preceding decade in close proximity to the wars in Syria and Iraq. I knew then, immediately, what had just happened in the kibbutz of Israel’s southern region was what happens when a Sunni jihadi organisation finds a way through to the helpless civilian

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Do the Tories need to worry about the winter fuel row?

How long are the Tories going to campaign on the winter fuel payment? It was their main line of attack on Monday at Work and Pensions questions in the House of Commons, with a number of Conservative MPs asking ministers to say how many pensioners were going to die this winter because of the restrictions to the benefit. The Opposition has been dogged in its pursuit of the answer to this particular question, not least because Labour produced its own analysis in 2017 which suggested there would be around 4,000 deaths. It has been the main line of attack for the Conservatives, along with Labour’s freebie culture, since this new

Isabel Hardman

Starmer insists he hasn’t stepped back support for Israel

Keir Starmer took a different tone on Israel today. That change of tone is to a certain extent to be expected, given the Prime Minister was marking the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks. He reflected in the Commons this afternoon that there were still nearly 100 hostages unaccounted for, and families across Israel still feeling ‘acute’ pain after atrocities committed by Hamas. He opened by saying the attack was ‘born of hatred, targeted not just at individuals, but at Jewish communities, at their way of life and at the state of Israel – the symbol of Jewish security to the world’. Later on, he told MPs that the

Ross Clark

What’s the truth about ‘irregular migration’ levels?

Should we trust a new study that claims that the level of irregular migration in the UK has essentially not changed in the past 16 years? That is the assertion being made in the reporting of a project called Measuring Irregular Migration, or MIrreM – a collaboration between Oxford University and 17 other universities across Europe and North America. ‘Irregular Migration to the UK and other large European countries is same as 2008, research shows,’ states a headline in the Guardian. This, needless to say, flies in the face of reports over the weekend that nearly 1,000 migrants arrived in small boats in a single day. Visibly, irregular migration appears

James Heale

Will Starmer’s No.10 reset work?

2 min listen

Who’s in charge in Downing Street? Until recently, the answer to that question would tend to reveal whether you were a Sue Gray or Morgan McSweeney supporter. Keir Starmer’s two most senior aides were viewed to be in a power struggle over the direction of the government. But with Gray’s resignation this weekend, it is McSweeney who is running the show. What direction will he take No.10?   James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson.