Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Thursday

Steerpike

Most Brits think Sir Keir should cancel his hols over riots

Wednesday night was expected to be filled with violent riots breaking out across the country – but instead of the disorder that the police had prepared for, counter-protestors filled the streets. The new Labour government will be hoping that this is the beginning of the end of a week of disruption and that their swift justice technique is paying off. Sir Keir will be especially hopeful that the ‘far-right thuggery’ looks to be coming to a close under his watch – not least because it’s thought he still has holiday plans… Reports emerged on Sunday that the Prime Minister would not be going away this week but Downing Street has

Andrew Tettenborn

Using terror laws to prosecute rioters is a mistake

Authorities encountering the kind of civil disorder that has marked the last few days in Britain are best advised to keep a cool head and quietly deploy the powers of the ordinary law to face it down. Unfortunately there are worrying signs that this is not happening. The announcement from the Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson that the Crown Prosecution Service favours on occasion invoking terrorism laws against those co-ordinating the unrest, is a case in point. True, in doing this the CPS would be strictly within its rights. In law, any action designed to influence the government and involving violence or serious damage to property with intent to

Debbie Hayton

Should the NHS really be spending money on child gender clinics?

The Tavistock’s notorious Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic in London – which prescribed puberty blockers to children – closed in March. Two replacement clinics have already opened in London and Liverpool. NHS England has now confirmed they will be joined by six more, starting with Bristol this coming autumn and a centre for the East of England by March 2025. The NHS is under immense pressure; should it really be spending money on these clinics? The correct number of NHS paediatric gender clinics is not one, nor two and certainly not eight; it is zero The waiting list for gender services is already enormous. There are currently 5,700 children

Katy Balls

Starmer’s first big test

During the election campaign, Keir Starmer confessed to taking Friday nights off. ‘I’ve been doing this for years – I will not do a work-related thing after six o’clock, pretty well come what may,’ he told a radio host. But one month into his premiership, and the Prime Minister is struggling even to take his pre-planned summer holiday. Claims that Labour’s decisive victory would make the UK a pocket of stability in a polarised world now look hubristic. Starmer leads a country that others such as Australia and Malaysia are warning their citizens not to travel to. Meanwhile he is engulfed in a very public Twitter spat with tech billionaire

Paul Wood

Can anything stop a full-scale conflict in the Middle East?

The fact that the Middle East stands on the brink of a catastrophic war can be explained by a scene from The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie’s preposterous but entertaining series on Netflix about aristocrats and sarf London drug-dealers. The dim eldest son of a duke is in trouble with a vicious gangster, who makes him dress up as a chicken and cluck and dance while the whole excruciating spectacle is filmed. Eventually the humiliation is too much for the aristo: he gets the family Purdey and blasts the gangster in the face – even though he knows that there will be terrible consequences. The government has told Israelis to stock up

Wednesday

Pooja Bhalla

Predicting a riot in Hounslow almost caused one

The police were getting ready for far-right demonstrations in 100 locations, we were told. Hounslow, a west London suburb, has a decent mix of Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Sikhs but we have never had any serious race relations trouble. This changed at 3 p.m when Hounslow’s high street became a ghost town. Panicked police officers asked shops to close down, with their shutters up, preparing for an onslaught. Locals were baffled. From whom? Where? Why us? The Hounslow Muslim Centre, a mosque, is close to the high street and word soon got out that this could be a target. Before too long there were two to three dozen people surrounding

Steerpike

8,200 Ofcom complaints submitted over Ed Balls’ GMB interviews

Oh dear. It’s not been the best week for ITV, which has seen over 8,200 Ofcom complaints about Monday’s episode of Good Morning Britain. Mr S would advise readers to cast their minds back a few days, where – after a weekend of riots – Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was interviewed by, um, her own husband. How very impartial… But that’s not the only incident that viewers have taken umbrage with. After those watching expressed their outrage at Ed Balls conducting the ‘softest interview’ with his parliamentarian wife, a number reflected back on a rather ‘dismissive‘ exchange that Balls had undertaken with suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana – on the

Cindy Yu

Will Starmer crack down on social media?

17 min listen

Courts have started giving out severe sentences to those involved in the riots today, but there is a continued clamouring for Keir Starmer to do more. The next step seems to be cracking down on discussions online, where social media platforms such as X and Telegram could be inflaming the riots. Could the government give in to this pressure, and what do we, as a society, lose if so? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and non-affiliated peer Claire Fox. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Freddy Gray

Is Trump having a meltdown?

37 min listen

Since Kamala Harris ascended to top of the ticket, there have been reports of meltdowns in Trump world, with Republican strategists suggesting Trump is having a public breakdown. Has the era of a thoughtful, poignant Trump already disappeared? Also on the podcast, Kamala Harris’s VP pick came as a shock to many Democrats, with insiders believing Josh Shapiro was the favourite. Why didn’t Kamala opt for Josh Shapiro – the candidate the Republicans feared most? And with the left of the Democrats becoming increasingly polarised over issues like Israel-Gaza, was this part of a strategy to mobilise the base? Freddy Gray speaks to Editor-at-Large of the WSJ, Gerard Baker.

Steerpike

Hoyle says MPs can WFH as riot fears ramp up

Around 100 demonstrations are expected to break out across the country this evening, and now the Speaker of the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has waded into discussions about the safety of parliamentarians. It emerged today that GP surgeries are shutting up early, businesses are boarding up windows and private City firms are advising employees to leave the office. Politicians have also been told they should consider working from home instead of their constituency offices. In a letter to MPs, Hoyle advised those whose offices are ‘prominent and easily identifiable’ to consider their security protocols. The Commons Speaker wrote: We note the spontaneity and unpredictable nature of the disorder and would

Kate Andrews

The problem with Labour’s mini-Budget blame game

Liz Truss continues to do a lot of heavy lifting for the Labour party. The former prime minister’s mini-Budget featured more in the election – as a Labour talking point – than any piece of policy implemented by Rishi Sunak. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is determined to present the next round of spending cuts and tax hikes as an extension of Tory policy, rather than the start of Labour policy. The narrative that, under Truss, the Tories ‘crashed the economy’ is part of what’s being used to justify all the ‘tough decisions’ Labour has coming up in its first Budget at the end of October. The perceived wisdom of what the

Stephen Daisley

What is Murdo Fraser’s plan for Scotland?

With just 24 hours until nominations open in the Scottish Conservative leadership contest, Murdo Fraser has stuck his hand up. That makes six contenders so far to replace outgoing leader Douglas Ross. Fraser has stood for the post before, in 2011, but lost out to Ruth Davidson. Perhaps the pivotal reason for Fraser’s defeat was his radical proposal to scrap the Scottish Tories and set up a new centre-right party separate from the UK Tories but sitting alongside them in government and opposition. The sort of long-running coalition seen between the CSU and the CDU in Germany or the National Party and the Liberals in Australia.   There is no rule

Steerpike

Met police chief finally breaks silence on ‘two tier’ policing

Back to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who seems to have recovered from his strop earlier in the week. After Rowley was slammed for ignoring reporters who met him outside the Cabinet Office – even grabbing the microphone of one journalist – the Met boss has decided to speak with broadcasters today amidst rising fears of ‘two tier policing’. Hitting out at claims that police officers are treating some groups more severely than others, Rowley fumed: It’s complete nonsense. We have commentators from either end of the political spectrum who like to throw accusations of bias at the police because we stand in the middle, we operate independently

Freddy Gray

Is the Trump ‘meltdown’ a Democratic fantasy?

Talk of Donald Trump ‘meltdowns’ tends to be overblown. For eight years, we’ve been told, frequently, that he’s losing the plot, fuming at staffers, having tantrums and setting fire to his re-election hopes. Somehow, however, the Trump train keeps chugging on.  This week, Republican strategists are telling Politico that Trump is having ‘a public nervous breakdown’ and many Democrats are gloating that he and JD Vance just can’t handle being called ‘weird’ by Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.   The Trump campaign now believes that Walz gives them a chance to ‘reset’ It is true that, having run a surprisingly disciplined campaign for

Eliot Wilson

What’s up with Elon Musk?

It’s hard to keep track of Elon Musk. The X/Twitter boss has been busy taunting ‘TwoTierKeir’ Starmer over his handling of the UK riots, asking ‘What the hell is going on?’ in Britain. Musk has also launched legal action against a group of advertisers and major companies – including food giants Unilever and Mars – accusing them of unlawfully agreeing to ‘boycott’ X. ‘It is war,’ Musk said. Musk’s bomb throwing delights his fans, but this legal action is a mistake Although Musk’s bomb throwing delights his fans, this legal action seems like a mistake. The billionaire is a passionate advocate for free speech and must know that, even if

Charlie Gammell

Why a major war in the Middle East feels inevitable

Sun Tzu, the Chinese military strategist writing roughly 2,500 years ago, said that ‘Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.’ As we stand on the precipice of a truly frightening regional conflict, which pits a technologically advanced Israel and its allies against Iran and its allies in a war of asymmetry, this tension between strategy and tactics will be a crucial determinant of whether this war ever ends.  We are in an escalatory spiral of tactical exchanges, with both sides aiming for that elusive sweet spot of striking a blow so forceful that it deters the other side from further action, but not so

Steerpike

How well is Starmer handling the riots?

Sir Keir Starmer is having a rather testing time as Prime Minister, to put it mildly. With violent riots breaking out across the UK within his first month in the job, the Labour leader has already faced criticism from his opponents for having ‘dithered and delayed’ on the issue. Now the public have had their say – and it’s not good news for the new PM… It transpires that just under half of all Brits think Starmer is handling these riots rather badly, according to YouGov polling of over 2,000 adults on Monday. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Reform and Tory voters are most inclined to slam the new PM – while only

Stephen Webb

Why did rioters believe the lies?

Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper have set out a blunt message to rioters that they will end up in prison – but the policing response needs to step up in parallel with this robust rhetoric. It is incredible that after the outrageous threats against mosques and attacks on hotels, and other assaults, this disorder has still not been brought under control. There are fears of further violence today. This week’s riots constitute the worst public order challenge since the London riots of 2011, or perhaps even since the Miners’ strike of 1984-5. It’s time to restore order to Britain’s streets. The willingness to believe lies is a symptom of decaying

Ross Clark

Can the grid take Ed Miliband’s net zero targets?

Ed Miliband, along with those who support his ambition to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030, has long had a favourite argument with which to try to put down people who say it can’t be done: why, if it is going to be so difficult to achieve, is the National Grid ESO – the company which manages the electricity network – not more worried? It is true the company has not been protesting openly about government policy, yet it transpires that in private it is another story. ESO executives, the Telegraph reports this morning, have warned that the South East could be facing blackouts by 2028 as a result of

Gavin Mortimer

Europe is worried that Britain’s riots might spread

The riots that have erupted across England in the last week have been splashed across Europe’s newspapers and broadcast on the primetime news. There have been editorials in France’s Le Monde, video reports in Spain’s El Pais and podcasts in Sweden’s Aftonbladet. The Italian newspaper, La Stampa, published video footage of disturbances in Plymouth on Monday night, and described the rioters as a mix of ‘extremists and hooligans’. Why did the anti-immigration riots not explode first in France or Germany? Some of the coverage has been superficial. The editorial in Le Monde read: ‘The current riots raise the painful question of the underestimated influence of the far-right in the UK, in a country that likes to recall its traditions