Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Jake Wallis Simons

Israel’s Rafah operation is tragically necessary

There is, as Ecclesiastes reminded us, a time for war and a time for peace. In its 76-year history, Israel has rarely selected the time for war, almost always reinforcing its position and responding in self-defence to Arab attacks. The invasion of Rafah will be another such tragic chapter in the tragic history of the Jewish state. Hamas has made it a time for war. The tanks went in after volleys of rockets were fired by Hamas Has it started already? Last night, Israeli tanks entered the southern town after a last-ditch ceasefire proposal from Hamas was rejected as inadequate. But the operation has so far fallen short of a

Steerpike

Milei asks: who is Liz Truss?

Since coming to office in December, Javier Milei has won right-wing fans across the world for his bombastic rhetoric and fervent championing of libertarian ideas. Among them is Liz Truss, who sees Milei as very much an ideological ally. In a recent interview to promote her book, she was asked by GB News to name her favourite Tory leader other than ‘Churchill and Thatcher’. Truss thought for eight seconds and then replied ‘Well, I like Javeir Milei.’ Sadly for her it seems that the admiration is not mutual. For Milei has just done a sit-down interview with the BBC’s Ione Wells at which he was informed of the former PM’s

Gavin Mortimer

Macron is deluded if he thinks he can persuade Xi to change

Try as he might Emmanuel Macron and his party are unable to arrest the popularity of the National Rally. A month out from the European elections, the latest poll has their principal candidate, Jordan Bardella, on 32 points, double the score of Macron’s representative, Valerie Hayer. The latest head of state with dubious ethics to be courted by Macron is Xi Jinping Hayer and Bardella have clashed twice in recent days in live television debates, and on both occasions Hayer has condemned as ‘shameful’ the National Rally’s benevolence towards Vladimir Putin in the years leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That this strategy doesn’t appear to be working for

Euan McColm

Will John Swinney end the SNP’s war on business?

Accepting the leadership of the SNP on Monday, John Swinney said his political priority as Scotland’s seventh First Minister would be the eradication of child poverty. If he is sincere in his desire to achieve this ambition, then Scotland’s economic growth – just 0.2 per cent last year – needs be a great deal better. As soon as Swinney gets his feet under the First Ministerial desk, he must throw open his doors to Scotland’s business leaders and show them the love his party has been withholding for the last decade. Shortly after the SNP won its first Scottish parliamentary election in 2007, new First Minister Alex Salmond fired off

Steerpike

Greens embroiled in anti-Semitism row

Oh dear. The Green party is in hot water after it emerged that one of its newly-elected councillors labelled a rabbi a ‘creep’ and a ‘kind of animal’. The party is under fire for failing to suspend Mothin Ali, who was elected to Leeds city council in last week’s elections, after the new councillor was revealed to have directed an angry tirade at a Jewish chaplain during a self-made YouTube video recorded in February. Ali labelled rabbi Zechariah Deutsch an ‘absolute low-life’, ‘absolutely disgusting’ and ‘shameful’ in the clip he made three months ago about the rabbi’s return to his IDF unit. On the day of the 7 October attack

James Kirkup

What Rishi Sunak can learn from Gordon Brown’s golden mistake

Gordon Brown is a historian by education, so he might just appreciate the fickleness of posterity. Over a decade at the Treasury from 1997 to 2007, he did many things that he might believe should be widely remembered. Yet few, if any, of his decisions live as clearly in memory as ‘Gordon Brown sold the gold’. Brown sold the gold. He raided pensions. He put 75p on pensions Exactly 25 years ago, Brown’s Treasury stunned the gold markets by starting to sell of much of the UK’s gold reserves. In total, 395 tonnes of gold were sold over three years, yielding $3.5 billion (£2.8 billion) in revenues. That’s a big number, but

Monday

Limor Simhony Philpott

Can Netanyahu afford to reject Hamas’s ceasefire deal?

A day after it seemed that a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel was all but dead, the terror group has issued a surprise statement announcing that it has accepted the deal offered by Egypt and Qatar. Optimism, though, would be premature at this point. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under considerable public pressure to reach a deal that will secure the release of Israeli hostages, has said the proposal for a new Gaza ceasefire is ‘far from Israel’s basic requirements’. Meanwhile, late on Monday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said it was conducting targeted strikes against Hamas targets in eastern Rafah. Despite this military action and Netanyahu’s

Nick Rogers

Susan Hall’s defeat was avoidable

It didn’t have to end this way.  In more than two decades of campaigning I never encountered a politician more personally unpopular than Sadiq Khan. Even Labour voters seem lacklustre in their support. Against a backdrop in London of rising knife crime, hollowed-out night life, unpopular driving charges, increasingly unaffordable homes, endless divisive protests and a failing police force, it was easy to understand why.  Sadiq Khan, seeking a third term, was beatable. That the Conservatives pulled defeat from this potential victory makes me, a former Conservative Member of the London Assembly and an activist for over two decades, both sad and angry. This was avoidable. Victory in London would

Steerpike

John Swinney’s three worst moments in office

And so we have it: a nationalist coronation, as yet another First Minister resigns. John Swinney, formerly Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy FM and onetime leader of the SNP himself, has been elected – unopposed – as the new leader of the Scottish National party. Thought to have been parachuted in by the party establishment, Swinney’s coronation was almost foiled by ‘flatulence in a trance‘ SNP activist Graeme McCormick who, by some quirk in the SNP’s constitution, had enough nominations to stand against the MSP for the leadership. But, at the eleventh hour, the renegade backed down after having ‘lengthy and fruitful’ talks with Swinney himself. Branded the ‘unity’ candidate, the new

Jonathan Spyer

Hamas is playing for time

Israeli, international and Hamas officials are currently awaiting the decision of Yahya Sinwar, the terror group’s military leader on a proposed ceasefire deal. Egypt has put forward a phased release of Israeli hostages and a temporary end to the fighting in Gaza. Sinwar is looking at the deal. As the talking and the diplomatic manoeuvring continues, two IDF combat divisions, the 98th Airborne and the 162nd Armoured, are making their final preparations for entry into Rafah. Failure to reach agreement on Egypt’s proposal is likely to set an IDF operation into motion. Egypt’s proposition would commit Israel to a long and open-ended ceasefire. Over time, Israeli hostages would be swapped

Limor Simhony Philpott

Israel is committed to fighting on in Rafah

As last week drew to a close, it seemed that the intense efforts of Egyptian and American mediators might result in a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel being reached. Then on Saturday, a ‘high ranking source in the Israeli government’ announced that Israel would invade Rafah whether a deal was reached or not, meaning an agreement would only delay an operation into Hamas’s last stronghold. In response, Hamas hardened their position. They demanded further guarantees from mediators that the deal would lead to a permanent ceasefire allowing the terrorist organisation to keep control over Gaza and to continue attacking Israel. Israel cannot allow Hamas to keep control of Gaza

Gavin Mortimer

Draft dodgers are undermining Ukraine’s plea for help

Emmanuel Macron warned recently that Europe is in ‘mortal danger’. The French president said that Russia cannot be allowed to win its war with Ukraine. He reiterated the idea he first floated in February of sending soldiers to Ukraine, saying: ‘I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out.’ Macron’s comments come amid reports of an upsurge in draft dodgers in Ukraine. They are frightened because their government has launched a crackdown on men avoiding the draft. In November last year it was reported that as many as 650,000 Ukrainians of military age have left the country since the war began. ‘Some men paid

Sam Leith

Suella Braverman has made herself look silly

Did Suella Braverman run her latest op-ed by No. 10 for approval? That was the question asked at the end of last year when the then Home Secretary wrote an inflammatory article accusing the Met of being biased towards left-wing protesters. The answer then was that she hadn’t, and she lost her job (for a second time).   This time round, nobody needs to bother to ask the question. She doesn’t have a job. No. 10 will have been dismayed but probably unsurprised to read her article in the Telegraph yesterday in which she blamed the Prime Minister for the catastrophic local election results. She implied he should have been dumped

John Keiger

Aukus is becoming a potent alliance

Compare and contrast the frenetic, largely unwanted and unnecessary manoeuvres to create a common EU defence union, with the methodical, steadfast construction of Aukus as a formidable Indo-Pacific entente to counter the Chinese threat. Only this week, South Korea signalled its intent to join the alliance and share advanced military technology with the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Aukus began in September 2021 between Australia, the UK and USA to supply Canberra with a fleet of nuclear-propelled submarines better able to confront Chinese regional expansionism. Building on their near eight-decade ultra-secret intelligence sharing agreement, Five Eyes, the three core members of Aukus now partner strategically and technologically in

Sunday

Katy Balls

What does Andy Street’s defeat mean for Rishi Sunak?

The local elections results are in, and the Conservatives have lost more than 450 council seats. After a full recount, Labour’s Richard Parker beat Andy Street to become West Midlands mayor, with only around 1500 votes in it. What does his loss mean for Rishi Sunak, and where do the overall results leave him? Katy Balls and James Heale speak to Megan McElroy. Produced by Megan McElroy. 

John Curtice

Things look bleak for the Tories

Thursday’s local elections almost inevitably produced a cacophony of information. That presented the parties with plenty of opportunity to cherry pick results that appeared to present their performance in a better light – thereby potentially distracting attention from less convincing performances. If Reform had fought these local elections more widely, the picture might have looked even bleaker for the Conservatives As the results gradually flowed in, the Conservatives pursued this strategy with vigour. They trumpeted their successful defence of the Tees Valley mayoralty. And they pointed out that Labour had failed to gain overall control of one of their target councils, Harlow. Unfortunately, that strategy came rather unstuck on Saturday

Eliot Wilson

Could Andy Street be a future Tory leader?

Andy Street was a political outsider when he was chosen as the Conservative party’s candidate for mayor of the new West Midlands Combined Authority in 2016. He was 53 and had enjoyed a successful career in retail, latterly as managing director of John Lewis and Partners. This weekend, after seven years as mayor, he was narrowly defeated by Labour’s Richard Parker, the margin just 1,508 votes out of a total of 600,000. Street has become a considerable figure in Conservative politics Street has become a considerable figure in Conservative politics, seen as straightforward and practical, an effective champion for his region. Partly this has been a result of his status

Steerpike

Watch: Galloway hangs up on LBC

The fall-out from the local elections continue. In the West Midlands, Labour pulled off a shock upset to unseat Andy Street by 1,500 votes. The Starmer army’s triumph there was all the more impressive when one considers that the pro-Palestine independent Akhmed Yakoob finished third on 11 per cent. Yakoob, who won the votes of many traditional Labour voters in the Muslim community, was backed by George Galloway, whose Workers’ Party of Britain is trying to cause Labour headaches across the UK. Invited on to LBC to speak about the result, Galloway clearly thought he would be on something of a victory lap. But his mood quickly turned sour after

Rakib Ehsan

Akhmed Yakoob’s West Midlands result should worry Labour

While Labour has gained councillors across England, and won bellwether councils such as Nuneaton and Bedworth and Milton Keynes, it has also lost some of its traditional Muslim support to George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain (WPB) and pro-Palestine Muslim independent candidates. From the industrial Lancastrian town of Blackburn to inner-city Bradford in West Yorkshire, the ‘Palestine’ effect has seen a surge of independent Muslim councillors elected – largely at the expense of Labour. But arguably the independent pro-Gaza challenger who has landed the fiercest uppercut to Labour’s chin is one who was not even elected: the West Midlands mayoral candidate Akhmed Yakoob. While Labour won the mayoralty from Andy Street, Yakoob managed to

Steerpike

Suella Braverman: we will be lucky to have any Tory MPs soon

So, it didn’t take long for the recriminations to begin. After Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives were subject to a massive drubbing in this week’s council elections, and were hit with the loss of the West Midlands mayoralty last night, the blame game is well underway. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman certainly wasted no time in giving Sunak both barrels. Appearing on Sunday with Lura Kuenssberg, the MP laid into the PM for the disastrous results, and predicted that the party was heading for a wipe-out in the next election, saying: ‘The plan is not working … at this rate we will be lucky to have any Conservative MPs at the next