Coffee House

Rod Liddle, a columnist and associate editor at The Spectator, has died at 66. You can read some extracts from some of our favourite columns of his below. Meeting Abu Hamza He is, you have to say, anti-democratic, democracies being callow, man-made things, and, as a final irony, he doesn’t even agree with the concept of absolute freedom of speech. Ask him about it and his one good eye gets cloudy and he starts mumbling dark things about Salman Rushdie. Abu Hamza thinks Abu Hamza should have the freedom to speak his mind because, of course, it’s not really Abu Hamza speaking, but, in essence, God. Should we deny freedom of speech to someone who doesn’t really believe in freedom of speech? Of course not. We let them have it.

Andy Burnham has appointed his frontbench, with John Healey made Chancellor of the Exchequer. Shabana Mahmood remains as Home Secretary while Ed Miliband has been handed the keys to the Foreign Office. Louise Haigh has been named Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, while Wes Streeting becomes Defence Secretary. Yvette Cooper is Health Secretary, Alex Norris is Justice Secretary, and Pat McFadden remains Work and Pensions Secretary. Angela Rayner returns to government as Housing and Local Government Secretary, while Miatta Fahnbulleh becomes Energy and Net Zero Secretary. Lucy Powell takes over as Education Secretary, replacing Bridget Phillipson, who remains minister for women and equalities.

The results are in and Andy Burnham is on his way to Westminster having won the Makerfield by-election. But what does that mean for Keir Starmer? What does it mean for Reform? And – most importantly – what does it mean for Britain? Tim Shipman unpacks the results on Spectator TV with former No.10 head of comms James Lyons, pollster Luke Tryl, The Times' Gabriel Pogrund and Michael Simmons. Join the discussion live in the chat and send your questions for the panel.

As Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership runs out of road, contenders for the Labour crown have been busy burnishing their lists of promises to the party faithful. Andy Burnham, widely seen as the Prime Minister's main rival for the throne, has been firing off new policies for months. From slashing the number of peers in the Lords to raising taxes on homeowners, the Mayor of Greater Manchester is seeking to present himself as the transformative left-wing candidate. Wes Streeting, though far behind in support from the membership and PLP, has vowed to take Britain back into the EU and resume North Sea drilling. Meanwhile, Al Carns is still under the illusion that he has a shot at securing the keys to Downing Street, and has been busy setting out a manifesto for beefing up the armed forces.

While a Labour leadership race is not yet technically underway, shadow campaigns have certainly begun. Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham have both made clear that they intend to make a run for the crown. And for now, Sir Keir Starmer is determined to press on despite his monumental unpopularity within the party. Here is The Spectator’s rolling list of MPs who have publicly signalled support for a contender to take over - or remain in - the top job. It does not include backing for Andy Burnham solely to win the by-election, which every Labour politician will profess to support. This is specifically about those who have publicly stated their wholehearted preference for the occupant of No. 10, should a race formally begin.

A devastating set of local elections has left Sir Keir Starmer's premiership on the brink. Calls for the Prime Minister to exit stage left are growing and have now surpassed the usual hard-left Corbynite suspects. Among those now begging the Prime Minister to get out of Downing Street are four (former) ministers and (ex) Health Secretary Wes Streeting. So here they are: the Labour MPs demanding a new leader. John McDonnell – 'Keir will need to put party and country first in judging whether he is risking opening door to Farage.' Ian Lavery – 'Keir Hardie started the Labour Party... It could be another Keir – Keir Starmer - that could end the party forever.' Simon Opher –'We need to change our leader.

Counter-terrorism officers are investigating after a car crashed into pedestrians in Derby city centre last night. At least seven people were wounded in Friar Gate – a popular nightlife spot in the city – at around 9.30 p.m. Police officers were called to the scene within seconds of the attack and stopped the car, a black Suzuki Swift, seven minutes later.  A 36-year-old man, who is originally from India but has lived in Britain for a number of years, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. This afternoon, Derbyshire Police chief Emma Aldred said the suspect remained in custody but could not give any further details about him.

The Spectator is delighted to be at Conservative party conference in Manchester this year. Join us in Exchange 11, MCCC. Our schedule is below: Sunday 5 October Coffee House Shots Live – welcome reception  3.30-4.30pm Join The Spectator’s team to kick off party conference with a glass of wine. Meet Michael Gove, Tim Shipman, James Heale and subscribers from across the country to toast the start of three days of stimulating discussion and debate. Private drinks reception: The Spectator in association with Santander  5.30-7pm The Tories have traditionally prided themselves on being the party of small business. But is that still the case? Ahead of Rachel Reeves’s second Budget, Sir Mel Stride will argue that it is.

This afternoon, the assisted dying bill has passed with a majority of 23 votes, with 314 in favour and 291 against. The last few months have seen both heartfelt debate and outbursts of anger expressed from politicians across the Chamber as Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s controversial private members bill made its passage through the Commons.  While the bill has passed today, it hasn’t been plain sailing. A number of legal and medical professionals have been vocal in expressing their concerns about the proposed legislation, while so many amendments were tabled by politicians that not all of them were able to be heard.

This is an edited transcript of a conversation between Jordan Peterson and Nigel Farage at the 2025 Arc Conference. Jordan Peterson: At the Arc conference yesterday, Scott Tinker outlined a vision of the future, and it’s not a net zero vision, I can tell you that. It’s a vision where we cooperate to do everything we possibly can to drive energy prices down as low as they can possibly be, using everything at our disposal. Nuclear, coal, gas, oil, solar, wind, whatever can compete. Because the most effective way of enriching the absolutely poor and serving long-term environmental needs is to make people wealthy so they can afford to care about the future, especially in the developing world.

Western civilisation is in crisis. Our ideas and our culture have dominated the world for well over two centuries. This is not a crisis of values. It’s a crisis of confidence that has set in at exactly the same time that we face existential threats on the left. This self-doubt manifests as an embarrassment of the West’s legacy and in extremists, a hatred of western history and even its culture. But what about the right? We know that the West has given the world amazing ideas and values, from democracy and free markets to our banking systems. Yet around us we see so much cultural and economic decline. We doubt ourselves. We doubt our ability to build like our predecessors did. We doubt liberal values of tolerance or free trade demanding a post-liberal world.

Here’s a full transcript of the speech that JD Vance gave at the Munich Security Conference this afternoon. One of the things that I wanted to talk about today is, of course, our shared values. And, you know, it’s great to be back in Germany. As you heard earlier, I was here last year as United States senator. I saw Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and joked that both of us last year had different jobs than we have now. But now it’s time for all of our countries, for all of us who have been fortunate enough to be given political power by our respective peoples, to use it wisely to improve their lives.

Vice President JD Vance told world leaders at yesterday’s AI summit in Paris that the ‘the AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety’. Here’s the full transcript. Thank you for the kind introduction, and I want to start by thanking President Macron for hosting the event and, of course, for the lovely dinner last night. During the dinner, President Macron looked at me and asked if I would like to speak, and I said, ‘Mister President, I’m here for the good company and free wine, but I have to earn my keep today’. And I, of course, want to thank Prime Minister Modi for being here and for co-hosting the summit, for all of you for participating.

Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson, Senator Thune, Chief Justice Roberts, justices of the United States Supreme Court, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, President Biden, Vice President Harris and my fellow citizens: The golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation. And we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unfair weaponisation of the Justice Department and our government will end.

This afternoon the House of Commons voted to support assisted dying for the first time. By a majority of 55, MPs decided to back Kim Leadbeater's Private Members' Bill, with 330 recorded 'Aye' votes against 275 'Nays.' More than a third of the cabinet were against the move which the Prime Minister, Chancellor and Home Secretary all decided to support. Some 234 Labour MPs voted for the measure, with 147 against. By contrast, 92 Tories voted against it, with 23 – including Rishi Sunak – backing the measure. The party most in favour was the Liberal Democrats, with 61 of their 72 MPs supporting Leadbeater's legislation and just 11 against.

There is a week to go until MPs vote on Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying private members’ bill. Cabinet Secretary Simon Case wrote to ministers last month to say that, while they 'need not resile from previously stated views when directly asked about them, they should exercise discretion and should not take part in the public debate'. Below is The Spectator's list of ministers in favour of the change, along with those against and past statements from their cabinet colleagues. They include the 22 full cabinet ministers plus the other four (Campbell, Jones, Hermer and Dodds) who attend weekly meetings: In favour: Keir Starmer, Prime Minister: 'I personally do think there are grounds for changing the law.