Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Ian Williams

The mystery of China’s missing ministers

Two down and who knows how many more to go. This week, Defence Minister Li Shangfu became the latest of China’s top leaders to vanish, reportedly caught up in a corruption scandal. He has not been seen for three weeks and his disappearance comes three months after that of foreign minister, Qin Gang, and follows a purge at the top of China’s Rocket Force, which oversees its rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal. Li lasted just six months in the job, having been appointed in March. At a security forum in Beijing late last month, one of his last public appearances, Li said the world was entering a period of ‘instability’ –

Jawad Iqbal

How many more MPs will follow John Bercow and sell out to TV?

John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons and one of the most divisive figures in modern politics, has signed up to to appear in the US version of the hit series The Traitors. Anyone struggling to understand how or why probably doesn’t know that video clips of Bercow arbitrating Brexit parliamentary debates and PMQs have made him something of a cult figure in the eyes of American viewers. The show, set in a castle in the Scottish Highlands, sees players secretly divided into the ‘faithful’ and a smaller group of ‘traitors’. The few, who cannot be trusted, have to eliminate the other contestants to win the £205,000 cash

James Heale

Why can’t Hunt cut taxes?

11 min listen

Jeremy Hunt said yesterday that it would be ‘virtually impossible’ to cut taxes in 2023. James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews about why the government has decided to spent more, rather than cut levies, and about whether Hunt and Sunak’s economic plan will come under criticism from Tory MPs at the Conservative party conference in a few weeks.

Kate Andrews

Is Jeremy Hunt right that tax cuts are ‘virtually impossible’?

No one was expecting a big tax cut this year. Rishi Sunak’s government has been clear that 2023 is for the ‘difficult decisions’. If the Tories are to offer up a tax cut, it is much more likely to be announced in the Budget next March. Still, that didn’t make Jeremy Hunt’s comments on LBC last night any cheerier. Speaking to Andrew Marr, the Chancellor said that tax cuts were ‘virtually impossible’ due to soaring interest payable on government debt.  Hunt has a point: one of the many painful consequences of soaring inflation and higher interest rates has been the impact on public finances. In July, interest payments reached their highest

Matthew Lynn

Labour will regret handing more power to the OBR

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will have to sign off on any changes to taxation. It will need to run its slide rule over any spending plans. And it will be mandated to commission an independent panel of experts to approve the Chancellor’s lunch, checking it for nutritional standards, and competitive pricing.  Okay, it is possible that I made that last one up. But the rest are right: the Labour party has just promised to vastly increase the powers of the OBR, allowing it to scrutinise the government machine in minute detail. In effect, it will surrender control of its economic programme to the same grey bean-counters who have

Svitlana Morenets

Can Poland and Ukraine end their grain spat?

Poland has said it will no longer supply Ukraine with weapons, that it may cut aid to refugees and that it could restrict the import of a larger number of agricultural products. Polish president Andrzej Duda has compared Ukraine to a ‘drowning man’ capable of dragging his country ‘into the depths’. A month ahead of the Polish elections, it’s worrying language for Ukraine from a country that has, for so much of the war, been one of its staunchest allies. Ukraine needs Poland more than Poland needs Ukraine. Since the onset of the full-scale war, Poland has spent more than £2.5 billion to support Ukraine with weapons and financial aid, often prioritising

Steerpike

John Bercow takes on The Traitors

Just when we thought we had seen the last of John Bercow on our screens, the news has broken that the former speaker of the House of Commons is joining the line up of the US version of the hit game show The Traitors.  Currently being filmed in Scotland, the show will see Bercow join the likes of Love Island’s Ekin-Su and a whole host of other reality TV stars to be divvied up into ‘traitors’ and ‘faithfuls’. The traitors will have to kill off the faithfuls one by one to get to the hefty £205,000 cash prize, while the faithfuls do their best to root out the traitors at a

Thursday

Andy Coulson

What happens after Rupert Murdoch?

Orderly, understated and out of a clear blue sky. From a comms point of view, Rupert Murdoch’s retirement bombshell was more The Waltons than Succession: a family love-in that truly marked the end of an era. There won’t be another Rupert Murdoch. There won’t be another risk-taking entrepreneur who’ll put their time and money where their mouth is, in support of newspapers in the way Rupert did for more than 70 years. The question those who work on those newspapers will now be asking, of course, will be: ‘How long have we got?’ When it comes to the printed page, Rupert’s departure will accelerate the inevitable countdown of doom. Yes,

Tom Slater

The danger of politicians trying to demonetise Russell Brand 

We must have the most unprincipled, illiberal crop of politicians ever to grace Westminster. Within hours of the House of Lords passing the Online Safety Bill, clamping down on freedom of speech online, Caroline Dinenage, chair of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, seemingly decided that due process should be next on the chopping block.  Yesterday, Dinenage wrote a letter to Rumble, a free-speech alternative to YouTube, demanding to know if Russell Brand was making any money from the videos he posts on the platform – and if so, whether or not the company was considering cutting that money off. Under the letterhead of her committee, sporting the

William Moore

Italy’s new wave: Europe’s escalating migrant crisis

45 min listen

This week: Christopher Caldwell writes The Spectator’s cover piece on Italy’s new wave of migrants. This is in light of the situation in Lampedusa which he argues could upend European politics. Chris joins the podcast alongside Amy Kazmin, Rome correspondent at the Financial Times, to debate Europe’s escalating migrant crisis. (01:23) Also this week: In his column, Matthew Parris writes about Australia’s Voice vote, a yes/no referendum being held on whether to establish a new body which will advise parliament on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is a source of real controversy in the country, and Alexander Downer – former Australian minister for foreign affairs and leader of the

Rupert Murdoch

Why I’m stepping down

The following email was sent to Rupert Murdoch’s staff today Dear Colleagues,  I am writing to let you all know that I have decided to transition to the role of Chairman Emeritus at Fox and News. For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles, knowing that we have truly talented teams and a passionate, principled leader in Lachlan who will become sole Chairman of both companies.  Neither excessive pride nor false humility are admirable qualities. But I am truly proud of what we have achieved collectively through

Steerpike

Rupert Murdoch quits as News Corp chair

Big news from the media world. Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as Chairman of Fox and News Corp as of November, with his son Lachlan succeeding him as sole chair of both. Murdoch will assume the title of Chairman Emeritus of each company, after seven decades in the print and broadcast industries. The Sun king, aged 92, wrote in a note to employees that: Our companies are in robust health, as am I. We have every reason to be optimistic about the coming years – I certainly am, and plan to be here to participate in them. But the battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been

Kate Andrews

Have interest rates finally peaked?

The Bank of England has voted to maintain interest rates at 5.25 per cent, rather than opt for a 15th consecutive hike. Reports that the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee decision was on a knife edge this week were bang on: the MPC voted 5 – 4 to hold the rate, with four members voting to increase it by 0.25 percentage points. The decision was down to a battle between data sets released this week; wage growth and the latest inflation figures. The Bank places a lot of weight on both sets when making its base rate decisions – but for this month’s meeting, they yielded conflicting results. Wages, for the

Katy Balls

What is Sunakism?

11 min listen

Rishi Sunak is being attacked by Conservative and Labour politicians for choosing to delay some of Britain’s climate commitments. But is his new approach to policy really a welcome one?  Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and Rupert Darwall, a senior fellow at RealClearFoundation.

Steerpike

Kemi Badenoch goes for Zac Goldsmith

If you want a bruiser, send for Badenoch. Following Rishi Sunak’s net zero announcement yesterday, the Business and Trade Secretary was deployed to do the morning media round. Asked about Zac Goldsmith’s criticisms of the move, she told Nick Ferrari on LBC that the peer ‘is somebody who cares very much about the environment, he is a friend of mine, but the fact is he has way more money than pretty much everyone in the UK.’ Punchy stuff… And Kemi had clearly had her cornflakes, judging from another punchy exchange on Sky News. The Saffron Walden MP clashed with host Jayne Secker over the decision to delay the 2030 ban

Theo Hobson

Why don’t we talk more about sexual morality?

The Russell Brand story shows, once again, how sexual morality is only usually debated in relation to allegations of abuse made against male celebrities. I’m tired of the way this happens – and think it’s a pity that ethics around sex aren’t talked about more widely. The status quo means that the scope of the discussion is narrow, and its tone self-righteous.  To widen the scope is dangerous, of course. It means admitting that our culture is in a major muddle about sex, and it’s a muddle that affects us all: there’s no enlightened camp. We don’t know what sex is. Can it be safely separated from committed relationships? Can

Kate Andrews

Can Rishi Sunak afford a pre-election tax cut?

Will the government have room for tax cuts before an election? Politically, it’s thought to be non-negotiable that they must. Having put the tax burden on course for a post-war high by the end of this Parliament, Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are going to have to relieve some of that pressure on taxpayers before going head-to-head with Labour next year. But will the public finances allow for it? On the surface, today’s update from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) appears to offer up some good news: public sector net borrowing in August came in at £11.6 billion. That’s £3.5 billion higher than August 2022, but £1.4 billion below the Office for

Steerpike

Listen: Rishi Sunak clashes with Nick Robinson over net zero u-turn

Rishi Sunak defended his net zero u-turn during an acrimonious interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson on the Today programme. The Prime Minister, who yesterday pushed back the ban on new petrol and diesel cars to 2035, insisted that: ‘I believe in net zero and I want to deliver it’. But Sunak came in for a tough time answering questions about plans to scrap proposals – including a meat tax – which have never been formally announced: Nick Robinson: ‘Hold on a second, PM. You stand up with the authority of Prime Minister in this building and you say you’re scrapping a series of proposals and when I ask you

Andrew Tettenborn

Poland’s relationship with Ukraine reaches breaking point

Poland is Ukraine’s best friend in Europe. But no alliance can ever be entirely unconditional, and this is as true of the Poland–Ukraine bond as of any other. Poland, which has supplied Ukraine with tanks and fighter jets since the start of the war with Russia, has now said it will stop supplying weapons. The reason for the fall out is one that has been simmering for months: Ukraine’s grain. Since Russia withdrew its Turkish-negotiated free pass for grain exported from Ukraine ports in July, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s grain infrastructure at Odesa and elsewhere. As a result, while some neutral vessels are still carrying export cargoes (a laden

Wednesday

Steerpike

Five of the most extreme reactions to Sunak’s speech

So there we have it. Rishi Sunak’s big announcement this afternoon was, er, a not entirely unreasonable five-year delay in the ban on petrol cars and gas boilers. Snap polling suggests it has gone down well with the public, who back the measure by 50 to 34 per cent. But judging from some of the more extreme reactions on Twitter/X, you would think the Prime Minister’s decision to bring the UK into line with the EU on a 2035 ban for internal combustion engines amounted to a massacre of the firstborn. Below are five of the more excitable responses to Sunak’s announcement today… ‘Totally evil’ For calm and reasoned moderation,