Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Katy Balls

Rishi Sunak rules out general election in May

Rishi Sunak has finally confirmed what most MPs already knew: there won’t be a May general election. Speaking to ITV News West Country on Thursday night, the Prime Minister was asked if there would be a general election at the same time as the local elections on 2 May. He replied: ‘There won’t be a general election on that day but when there is a general election, what matters is the choice.’ It’s been clear for some time that Tory election strategists were not keen on going to the polls in May. While there have been some in No. 10 keen on the idea previously, the fact that the UK

Jawad Iqbal

Welsh politics is in a terrible state

The contest to be the next leader of the Welsh Labour Party, and more importantly First Minister of Wales, has been something of a snooze fest. The race kicked off in December, when Mark Drakeford, first minister since 2018, announced that he was stepping down. There are two candidates – Vaughan Gething and Jeremy Miles – vying to succeed him. Voting, which began last month, has now closed, with the result due tomorrow. Only Labour members and those who belong to an affiliated organisation, such as a trade union, are allowed to choose, with an estimated 100,000 people allowed to vote. Everyone else, in a country of three million people, doesn’t get

Natasha Feroze

Rishi Sunak rules out general election in May

9 min listen

Rishi Sunak has finally confirmed what most MPs already knew: there won’t be a May general election. Speaking to ITV News West Country on Thursday night, the Prime Minister was asked if there would be a general election at the same time as the local elections on 2 May. He replied: ‘There won’t be a general election on that day but when there is a general election, what matters is the choice.’ So, when will it be?  Also on the podcast, after James Heappey became the latest MP to announce he will step down at the next election, can the Tories stop the exodus?  Natasha Feroze speaks to Katy Balls

Svitlana Morenets

Ukraine has brought the war back to Russian soil

Ukraine can’t stop Vladimir Putin’s re-election as Russian President on Sunday, but that doesn’t mean it can’t shatter the perfect image of his sacred day – by bringing the war once again to Russian soil. Throughout the week, Ukrainian drones have been striking oil refineries and energy facilities deep inside Russian territory, while anti-Kremlin Russian militias fighting on Ukraine’s side have crossed the border on tanks and started a fight with Russian forces. This incursion into Russian territory wasn’t unprecedented: last spring, exiled Russians fighting on Ukraine’s side infiltrated several Russian towns in the Belgorod region, fought for several days, and then withdrew. The dire state of Russia’s border defences hasn’t improved

Eliot Wilson

Is this the beginning of the end for Humza Yousaf?

Humza Yousaf might have hoped for a better week. On Wednesday, the First Minister gave a speech at the European Institute of the London School of Economics, setting out why Scotland’s economic future would be brighter if it was an independent country. Some in the room were enthusiastic, but the Scotsman quietly drew attention to an LSE study from 2021 which had found that ‘the economic costs of independence are two to three times greater than the impact of Brexit’. The report went on to conclude that independence would mean ‘an income loss of between £2,000 and £2,800 per person every year’ and that it would make little difference whether

Steerpike

Meghan launches new lifestyle brand

Never able to keep herself from the spotlight for long, Meghan is back on Instagram. After her Archetypes podcast series failed and her previous blog The Tig bombed, the Queen of Privacy is embarking on a new venture. Now, the Duchess of Sussex is launching a lifestyle brand which she plans to use to resurrect her image by selling cookbooks, tableware and, er, marmalade. Eagle-eyed social media users were quick to spot a brand new Instagram account called ‘American Riviera Orchard’ this week, the biography reading: ‘By Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex.’ The account name is thought to be inspired by the location of Meghan and Harry’s luxury dwelling in

Gavin Mortimer

Does it matter that Emmanuel Macron doesn’t have children?

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to the French press this week and passed on a message to the people. ‘Your children are not going to die in Ukraine,’ he said. He made his remarks 24 hours before the French parliament voted on a bilateral security agreement that Zelensky signed with President Emmanuel Macron last month. The vote, which went the way of the government by 372 to 99, is symbolic but it allowed parliament to voice their opposition to Macron’s recent belligerent rhetoric towards Russia. The left-wing La France Insoumise voted against the agreement, and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally abstained. A leader without a child is more likely to think

Katy Balls

It’s time to talk about your pension

32 min listen

When it comes to retirement, working out how much you will need to set aside can seem like a monumental task. The average person has between 8 to 10 jobs over their lifetime. People are living longer – with the median retirement age at 65 and life expectancy at 80. What should people think about when planning for their pension? And what challenges do people face? Women are the most likely to suffer from pension inequality, with single women being the poorest of all pensioners. Almost a fifth of private sector employees do not do any pension saving, and a third of people expect to retire with only a state

Nigel Jones

The enduring lesson of Julius Caesar’s assassination

In Rome today a group of ancient history enthusiasts will drape themselves in togas and re-enact that most infamous act of political murder: the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March in 44BC. The re-enactors will be able to do their anniversary deed on the actual site of the assassination, now a sunken square called the Largo Torre di Argentina. It has just been refurbished and opened as a major new archaeological site in a renovation financed by the Bulgari jewellery company. Rome’s storied civilisation was born in a torrent of blood Since it was first excavated by Mussolini’s Fascist regime in the 1930s, the site has been somewhat

Thursday

Steerpike

Could Starmer really become the UK’s ‘most unpopular leader’?

The Tory party hasn’t had the best week, what with one of their MPs defecting and their biggest donor embroiled in a racism row. But if Conservative politicians were looking for somewhere to go in Westminster this evening to lift their spirits, Mr S would not have recommended J. L. Partners’ ‘Election 2024’ event. Organised in word clouds and colourful charts, polling by the firm dubbed Rishi Sunak ‘weak’, showed the public want more ‘honesty’ in politics and revealed that a not insignificant proportion of 2019 Tory voters would rather, um, Martin Lewis the money-saving expert as their PM. It’s all a rather poor indictment of the Tories’ track record as

Max Jeffery

Will Gove’s extremism definition worsen Tory divides?

11 min listen

Michael Gove has unveiled the government’s new legal definition of extremism, which will decide whether organisations can receive government money. Conservative MPs, and three former Conservative home secretaries, have said doing would be a mistake. Is Gove doing more harm than good? Max Jeffery speaks to Katy Balls and Paul Goodman, former editor of Conservative Home.

Lara Prendergast

Will the Red Wall revolt split the right?

48 min listen

On the podcast this week: is Rishi ready for a Red Wall rebellion?  Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform is an indication of the final collapse of the Tories’ 2019 electoral coalition and the new split in the right, writes Katy Balls in her cover story. For the first time in many years the Tories are polling below 25 per cent. Reform is at 15 per cent. The hope in Reform now is that Anderson attracts so much publicity from the right and the left that he will bring the party name recognition and electoral cut-through. Leader of Reform UK Richard Tice joins Katy on the podcast to discuss. (02:23) Then:

Steerpike

Matheson breached code of conduct over iPad scandal

Back to the curious case of Michael Matheson and his £11,000 iPad bill. Despite desperate attempts by the former health secretary to stall the publication of a report into his behaviour — after Matheson tried to lump taxpayers with his ruinous roaming charges — the verdict is in. It has now been revealed that the disgraced ex-minister did indeed breach the MSP code of conduct.  Matheson’s rule-breaking charges come after he was deemed to fall short on parliamentary standards and for improper — to put it mildly — use of expenses. The investigation results, released today by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB), come ahead of the publication of the

Ian Acheson

Have the Tories finally woken up to the extremism problem?

Michael Gove has a reliable track record for sounding the alarm on ideological hatred, so are his latest proposals on redefining extremism a cure for what ails us? The communities secretary has unveiled a plan to broaden the definition of extremism. The new official meaning aims to ban those with a ‘violent or intolerant’ ideology from government links and funds. Gove named several organisations that could fall foul of the new definition: the Muslim Association of Britain, Mend and Cage were groups, he told the Commons, that could be held to account. Predictably enough, critics have taken to the air to condemn this crackdown, seeing it variously as unnecessary, unwieldy

Iain Macwhirter

The scandal of Scotland’s illiberal hate crime law

From next month in Scotland you’ll be able to drop into a sex shop, make an anonymous accusation of hate crime against someone you dislike and potentially see your bete noir locked up. You think I’m joking – that this is an April Fool come early. I only wish it was. In two weeks’ time, this will be the law of the land in Scotland under the SNP’s iniquitous Hate Crime Act which makes ‘stirring up hatred’ a criminal offence punishable by 7 years in jail.   The sex shop in question is an LGBTQ-friendly establishment in Glasgow’s Merchant City. It is a ‘third-party reporting centre’ set up by Police Scotland to make it

Katy Balls

Tory MPs worry Michael Gove’s extremism crackdown could backfire

Michael Gove’s extremism crackdown has been the talk of the Tory party for weeks now, with three former Conservative home secretaries warning ahead of today’s official announcement not to use the issue to score political points. Gove, the Levelling Up secretary, has drawn up a new definition of non-violent extremism which, he told the Commons this lunchtime, would include ‘the promotion or advancement of…violence, hatred or intolerance’. Gove argued that the new definition is ‘more precise and rigorous’ than what came before. The announcement follows Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street speech after George Galloway’s Rochdale by-election, in which the Prime Minister warned that Islamist extremists and far-right groups are ‘spreading a

Steerpike

Abbott blasts ‘abusive’ Labour party officials in racism row

The Tories have had a tough week trying to find their line on comments made by their biggest donor Frank Hester. But the Labour party hasn’t escaped unscathed either. Independent MP Diane Abbott has taken her side of the story to the papers — and delivered a blistering attack on her former party. Abbott revealed in the Guardian that she had been planning to ask the Prime Minister about Frank Hester’s remarks in the Commons. But despite attempting to get the Speaker’s attention almost, er, 50 times, Abbott wasn’t successful. Turning to the column pages, she described how she had been ‘upset but not surprised’ by Hester’s comments and slammed

Ross Clark

How WFH engineers caused an air traffic control meltdown

How lovely that engineers working for National Air Traffic Services (Nats) can work from home rather than having to slog it in to the company’s headquarters at Swanwick, Hampshire. Lovely, that is, for the engineers rather than for air passengers. A report by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has revealed the reason behind the meltdown in air traffic control which led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights last August Bank Holiday, inconveniencing millions of passengers. The system need to be reset by a ‘level 2’ engineer, but none were actually working in the office that day, so one had to be called in – which took 90 minutes. Such is

Steerpike

Gove in extremism muddle over Tory donor

Back to Westminster, where Michael Gove has revealed his brand new definition of extremism today in a bid to push back against fanaticism. The communities secretary has offered assurances that there will be a high bar for defining a group as extremist, and that a ‘rigorous process’ would be followed when identifying group of concern. Affected organisations will miss out on government grants and ministerial meetings. Critics have suggested the broader definition could have a ‘chilling effect’ on free speech however and some rather, er, unusual alliances have formed in protest at the move. The communities secretary found himself in a tight spot this morning on the morning round. The

John Ferry

Humza Yousaf fails to make the economic case for independence

Try to start a speech with a joke to warm up your audience. That’s always good advice. And so Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, began his speech at the London School of Economics this week by light-heartedly pointing out that the LSE might be a world-class institution but it only came fourth in a recent newspaper ranking of Britain’s best universities. Scotland’s St Andrews University, on the other hand, he said, came out in first place. He went on to say he was reminded of a ‘famous saying’ that there are two types of people in this world: ‘Scots, and those who want to be Scottish’. I’m guessing you’ve never heard of