Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Brendan O’Neill

Does the TUC understand what the word ‘mum’ means?

Imagine if, in 1868, when the TUC was founded, someone had told those warriors for workers’ rights that one day they would be referring to biological males as ‘mothers’. And what’s more that they would be publicly scolding anyone who dared to dissent; anyone who said: ‘Hold on – surely only women can be mums?’ They would have thought you mad. We’re a reasoned, rational organisation concerned only with improving the pay and conditions of working people, they’d have insisted. Well, fast forward to 2023, and what do you know: the TUC, the big beast of union politics, has openly declared that men can be mothers too. A curious thing

Kate Andrews

The ‘workforce plan’ can’t save the NHS

The NHS is in crisis, but the government at last has a plan: a ‘Long-term Workforce plan’, that is, aimed at getting staffing levels up to something functional in the years to come. The £2.4 billion blueprint (which has big question marks around how it will be funded) was published today. Medic placements will be doubled to 15,000 a year and close to 25,000 more nursing and midwife places will be created by the start of the next decade. These might be good ideas but they will do little to help ease the misery of those stuck on the NHS’s enormous waiting lists. The plan comes a week ahead of

Steerpike

Does Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall think Question Time speaks for Britain?

The Court of Appeal’s rejection of the government’s Rwanda plan spells trouble for Rishi Sunak in his bid to ‘stop the boats’ – but at least one man is happy about the verdict. Step forward, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  The celebrity chef was on Question Time last night, telling viewers he is ‘delighted’ about the apparent end of the scheme to send asylum seekers to Africa. He said: ‘I was flabbergasted to hear Suella Braverman say that most Britons are disappointed by this decision. I’m absolutely sure that most people in this room are delighted by this decision.’ Mr S is surprised to hear Fearnley-Whittingstall thinks the Question Time audience speaks for

James Heale

Zac Goldsmith quits with personal attack on Sunak

One name stood out yesterday in the Privileges Committee dossier on parliamentarians who had attacked the panel over its investigation into Boris Johnson. Alongside the seven MPs whose comments were criticised was the name of one peer: Zac Goldsmith, the only serving minister on the list and a longtime Johnson ally. Rishi Sunak’s spokesman was forced to subsequently confirm that the Prime Minister retained confidence in Goldsmith as a Foreign Office minister. Goldsmith was, privately, asked by No. 10 to apologise for his comments about the Privileges Committee as they felt they were incompatible with his position as a Minister of the Crown. Instead, less than 24 hours later, Goldsmith

Lionel Shriver

The truth about ‘affirmative action’

I’ve never cared for the expression ‘affirmative action’, which puts a positive spin on a negative practice: naked, institutionalised racial discrimination – that is, real ‘systemic racism’, which was initiated in the United States long before the expression came into fashion. After all, following the Civil War, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution were expressly added to establish equality under to law for Americans of all races, and a raft of Congressional civil rights legislation has since reinforced this colour-blind principle. Perhaps I risk sounding ungrateful. Still, now the Supreme Court has finally ruled that universities in the US are forbidden from admitting students on the basis of race, my

Katy Balls

The Tulip Siddiq Edition

37 min listen

Tulip Siddiq is the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn and shadow economic secretary to the treasury. She was born into to a prestigious Bangladeshi family. Her grandfather was the founding father of Bangladesh, and her aunt is the current Prime Minister. After joining the Labour Party at 16, she studied first at UCL followed by completing a masters at Kings College London.  During her time as an MP, Tulip was prominent in campaigning for the return of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, as well as opposing Brexit. She gained national media attention when she delayed the birth of her son for a critical parliamentary vote. On the podcast Tulip talks about growing

Gavin Mortimer

France is in danger of descending into anarchy

France endured its worst night of rioting yet on Thursday as violence continued across the country. For the third consecutive evening, youths went on the rampage in most major cities, despite the presence of 40,000 police. Shops were looted, town halls attacked, police stations firebombed and vehicles were hijacked in extraordinary scenes of urban warfare. The police fought running battles with mobs and made 421 arrests, over half of which were in the capital. The epicentre of the anarchy was in Nanterre, in the west of the city, where on Tuesday morning 17-year-old Nahel was shot dead by police as he sped away from a traffic stop.  The officer who

Steerpike

Macron hobnobs with Elton John as France burns

France is in chaos after another night of violence sparked by the shooting of a teenager by a Paris policeman. Cars have been torched, roads barricaded and hundreds of people arrested. But while the country’s security forces have been struggling to keep order, France’s president Emmanuel Macron has been keeping himself busy: attending an Elton John concert and posing for backstage pictures with the star and his husband, David Furnish. ‘While France was on fire, Macron was not at the side of his minister of the interior or the police but he preferred to applaud Elton John,’ Thierry Mariani, an MEP for National Rally, said. The picture – of Macron and

Thursday

Katy Balls

Is Rishi’s Rwanda plan dead?

12 min listen

It never rains but it pours for Rishi Sunak, as the Court of Appeal has today ruled against his Rwanda plan, raising concerns about the safety of asylum seekers. It now looks as though Rishi could be set to fail in all five of his pledges. Is the prime minister heading for embarrassment?  Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Heale.  Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson. 

Joshua Rozenberg

Why judges ruled against the Rwanda plan

It’s unusual – not to say uncomfortable – for the most senior judge in England and Wales to be overruled by two of his colleagues. But that’s what happened this morning when the Court of Appeal stopped the government sending migrants to Rwanda. Lord Burnett of Maldon, the lord chief justice, agreed with the government. He thought that an agreement with Rwanda in 2022 – taken together with assurances from the Rwandan government – meant there was no real risk that asylum-seekers flown from the UK would be sent on to countries where they would face persecution or other inhumane treatment, which would contradict the Human Rights Act. But his

Iain Macwhirter

Why is Nicola Sturgeon talking about Brexit at the Covid inquiry?

Nicola Sturgeon handled the Covid pandemic rather well. You might not expect me to say that after all that’s happened this year, but it’s true. The former first minister was – or is – a highly effective communicator who managed to persuade Scottish voters that she knew what she was doing, even as she made all the same mistakes as Boris Johnson.  In her daily pandemic press conferences, she always sounded well briefed and coherent — unlike the prime minister, who often bumbled his way through his script falling back on bad jokes. Sturgeon focussed relentlessly on a single message: that social democratic Scotland was dealing with the pandemic in

Andrew Tettenborn

The Rwanda ruling is nothing to cheer about

The government’s loss in its Rwanda appeal spells trouble for Rishi Sunak. But liberals are delighted: ‘Massive result,’ said the barrister Adam Wagner after the Court of Appeal ruled that would-be asylum seekers cannot be sent to the African country while their claims are processed. Sunak plans to seek permission to appeal to the Supreme Court – but his pledge to ‘stop the boats’ looks to be in trouble. Or is it? There is more to today’s decision than meets the eye. The victory hardly resounding. Of the five grounds of appeal, ranging from super-technical ones like retained EU law and data protection issues to more general issues of conditions in Rwanda,

Steerpike

Farage: my bank accounts closed with ‘no explanation’

Life appears pretty good for Nigel Farage right now. Winning awards for his TV show, enjoying the adoration of fans and scorning the opprobrium of Remainers everywhere. But it appears the reality isn’t so rosy for the former Ukip leader. Farage has taken to Twitter today to claim that ‘the establishment are trying to force me out of the UK by closing my bank accounts.’ In a lengthy six-minute statement, he says that his current bank account is being closed, despite no reason being given. He has since tried to open a new account at seven rival financial institutions but to no avail: I have been with the same banking

Theo Hobson

If only there were more Anglicans like Wes Streeting

Why is Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, not more strident on the subject of religion and sexuality? The Labour MP has spoken in the House of Commons about his dismay at the Church of England’s feet-dragging over gay marriage. Yet in an interview with Theos think tank, ahead of the publication of his memoir, Streeting resisted denouncing the homophobes holding back the Church. Instead, Streeting was measured, and rather understated. Unlike many gay Christians, he didn’t sound evangelical about the reformist cause, but admitted that it was a profoundly difficult issue, on which people disagree in good faith. I suppose the diplomatic pragmatism of the politician is a factor

Steerpike

Cleverly shares his diplomatic tips

To the House of Lords, where last night the neophyte neoliberals of the Adam Smith Institute were toasting three centuries of Scotland’s greatest economic thinker. And while Rishi Sunak preferred to spend his night cracking jokes about Boris Johnson at the nearby Policy Exchange party, his Foreign Secretary was on hand to offer some much-need soundness instead. Bright young things and old survivors gathered together to hear James Cleverly, who delivered a rousing endorsement of Smith’s philosophy: Adam Smith didn’t just talk about competition and free markets. He was a great pragmatist in terms of international relations. He recognised that in terms of international relations we had to deal with

Lara Prendergast

After Putin: how nervous should we be?

37 min listen

This week: In the magazine we look at the Wagner Group’s failed coup and its implications for Putin’s reign. The Spectator’s Russia correspondent Owen Matthews examines why the Kremlin permits the existence of private armies such as Prigozhin’s Wagner Group, and joins the podcast alongside Jim Townsend, former deputy secretary of defence for European and NATO policy under the Obama administration. (01:15) Also this week: The Spectator’s special projects editor Ben Lazarus writes this week about the claims made in the recent Mirror Group phone hacking trial, and the man orchestrating many of the accusations, Graham Johnson. He is joined by Neil Wallis, commentator and former deputy editor of the News of the World,

Steerpike

The curse of Zahawi strikes again

Who could have seen it coming? Daniel Korski’s shock decision to drop out of the London mayoral race yesterday took most of Westminster by surprise, coming after he had spent several days trying to rebut allegations of inappropriate sexual misconduct. But Mr S can reveal that he, exclusively, knew it was all over for Korski several days before the official announcement came. How so? It’s simple: Nadhim Zahawi, the unluckiest man in Tory politics, had backed him for the role. On Monday, the former Chancellor threw his weight behind Korski, praising his ‘grit, experience and ideas’ and ability to bring a ‘can-do-attitude to fixing London’s problems’. Just a few hours

Isabel Hardman

The privileges committee was right to scold Boris’s supporters

Did the privileges committee really need to bother with a report scolding a number of Boris Johnson’s supporters for what it has called a ‘co-ordinated campaign of interference’ in its work? Today it has published its verdict on seven MPs and one peer, Lord Goldsmith. This special report finds ‘disturbing’ examples of behaviour designed to pressure, intimidate and undermine the committee. None of these examples took place within the Commons, as the Speaker had made a ruling against abuse of the committee. Instead, the report says, there was a ‘campaign waged outside parliament’ which ‘used newspapers and radio and there was extensive use of social media’.  Discipline isn’t about ignoring

Lisa Haseldine

Has Putin had Sergei Surovikin locked up?

When Evgeniy Prigozhin started his armed insurrection, it was clear that he had allies within the ranks of the Russian military. His Wagner Group walked unopposed into Rostov, the HQ of the Russian military in the south and they were almost entirely unmolested as they came within 120 miles of Moscow. Vladimir Putin granted him amnesty, in return for retreat and exile, but a hunt seems to be on for those who might have backed him.  The Moscow Times is reporting the arrest of Sergei Surovikin, a general who until recently led the assault on Ukraine and had been close to Prigozhin. Citing two sources close to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the

Patrick O’Flynn

How will Rishi Sunak ‘stop the boats’ now?

If Rishi Sunak’s five key pledges already looked in terrible shape at the start of the week – which they did – then today’s events have placed one of them on its deathbed. The promise to ‘stop the boats’ was administered its last rites in the Court of Appeal this morning when Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett announced: ‘The High Court’s decision that Rwanda is a safe third country is reversed. Unless and until the deficiencies in its asylum processes are corrected, removal of asylum seekers to Rwanda will be unlawful.’ So the only country thus far identified as a destination for those many illegal arrivals to the UK who