Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons is The Spectator's economics editor. Contact him here.

Friday

Michael Simmons

Why Makerfield changes everything | Tim Shipman, James Lyons, Luke Tryl & Michael Simmons

35 min listen

Andy Burnham has won what may come to be seen as the most consequential by-election in recent memory. Political journalism has a tendency towards hyperbole, but the situation is clear: Burnham is on his way to Westminster with significant backing to take on Keir Starmer; he has proved that he can beat Reform on a ‘stop Starmer’ ticket and will now look to translate that message nationally; he also appears to have united the left behind him, with the Lib Dems and Greens barely registering in Makerfield. Meanwhile, the right is splintered. Reform’s momentum has been seriously dented, while the Tories have been buoyed by a welcome by-election victory in Aberdeen South.

Why Makerfield changes everything | Tim Shipman, James Lyons, Luke Tryl & Michael Simmons
Michael Simmons

Why Andy Burnham could be tempted by a snap election

Andy Burnham has catapulted his way back to Westminster in a landslide victory, winning 55 per cent of the vote in Makerfield. The scale of that victory – and how much he trounced Reform – means it’s likely the Labour party hands him the keys to No. 10 in weeks rather than months as James Heale said on Coffee House this morning. The scale of his by-election victory is the only card Andy Burnham has to play But if I were the soon-to-be-former Manchester mayor, I would not want the keys to that particular door. An economic mess is all that awaits inside. And that mess was made worse by the latest figures on the public finances released this morning by the Office for National Statistics. They show the Treasury had to borrow £23.

Thursday

Michael Simmons

The cost-of-living crisis is not over yet

Unsurprisingly, the Bank of England has voted to keep interest rates at 3.75 per cent. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which decides these things, split 7-2 in favour of the decision. A hold in rates is welcome but had largely been priced in already, given yesterday’s cooler-than-expected inflation figures, which saw the consumer price index increase by an unchanged 2.8 per cent. Then, if it was not already a certainty, this morning’s figures on the jobs market confirmed things, with a fall in the unemployment rate – albeit caused by a jump in economic inactivity rather than job creation. The conversation now moves to when the MPC will feel able to cut rates. Talk of future hikes to control inflation is starting to become redundant.

Michael Simmons

Economic gloom is Keir Starmer’s real legacy

This week has been described by some as Keir Starmer’s ‘legacy week’. The ban on social media and the G7 summit in Evian were meant to show what this Prime Minister has been able to achieve at home and abroad for the safety of us all. No. 10 disputes that it is anything about legacy, of course, and says it actually demonstrates a Prime Minister who puts country over party and is determined to fight on. Whatever the truth, figures just released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) cement what Starmer should really be remembered for. New recruits in British firms hit their lowest level in five years, while 138,000 jobs disappeared from payrolls in the year to April and 53,000 in a single month.

Wednesday

Michael Simmons

Rachel Reeves owes Britain’s supermarkets an apology

The Chancellor will be breathing a sigh of relief this morning as inflation holds steady. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that CPI in May remained at 2.8 per cent – the same as in April. That news is welcome and goes against the grain of economic analysis, which had forecast a rise to 3 per cent. The fall in April was largely deemed to be artificial, thanks to last year’s massive increase in regulated and inflation-linked utility bills falling out of the series. However, that did not come to pass. According to the ONS, a rise in transport costs, thanks to increased air fares, vehicle taxes and petrol prices, was offset by falling inflation in meat, dairy and vegetables, in what is surely welcome news for shoppers.

Monday

Michael Simmons

DEBATE: is Starmer right to ban social media for under 16s?

18 min listen

Keir Starmer has announced his plans to ban social media for under 16s in Britain. The ban is due to come in early next year and include all main social media apps. Age-recognition and digital ID checks will be used to keep children away from social media. But when it comes to child safety, will it make a difference? And what are the unintended consequences of a ban? Michael Simmons challenges The Spectator's John Power. This episode is brought to you by Artemis Fund Managers, for more information on our fund range please click here https://www.artemisfunds.com/ .

DEBATE: is Starmer right to ban social media for under 16s?
Michael Simmons

Why Trump’s Iran deal won’t save Starmer

13 min listen

Donald Trump has announced a deal to end the war between Iran and the US, but in Westminster, the relief comes with serious questions. What does the deal actually contain? Will the Strait of Hormuz reopen quickly enough to bring down oil prices? And could any economic boost come too late to save Keir Starmer? Elsewhere, Keir Starmer has announced under-16s will be banned from social media by spring 2027. The policy may be popular with parents, but the details remain sketchy: how would it be enforced, would it require facial recognition or digital ID, and could teenagers simply get around it with VPNs? Tim Shipman and Michael Simmons discuss with Megan McElroy.

Thursday

Michael Simmons

The Waspi women are grifters

One of the things wrong with Britain is our inability to say no to campaign groups once they win a hearing on the One Show. One rare exception to that has been Starmer’s cabinet standing up to Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) – the least deserving compensation group in the history of these isles. At the beginning of this year, Welfare Secretary Pat McFadden recommitted the government to the decision to refuse compensation to the 3.6 million women born in the 1950s who claimed not to have been informed that their state pension age would rise to bring it into line with the male retirement age. McFadden was right to make that decision because the claim is beyond baseless.

How corporate woke sent Pride broke
Michael Simmons

How corporate woke sent Pride broke

For years, Pride month has been an unmissable fixture in the corporate calendar. But recently, many of the world’s biggest brands appear to be quietly backing away – toning down campaigns, dropping rainbow logos and retreating from the culture wars. The Spectator’s economics editor Michael Simmons looks at why corporate Pride is losing its commercial appeal. Is this a genuine shift in public opinion, a fear of consumer backlash, or simply a case of companies deciding that activism no longer pays? Brendan O’Neill also joins the show to discuss what the retreat from Pride says about business, politics and the changing culture of corporate virtue-signalling.

Monday

Michael Simmons

Lisa Haseldine, Michael Simmons, Patrick Smith & Toby Young – with Nigel Farage

29 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Lisa Haseldine reports from Armenia; Michael Simmons argues neoliberalism has never really been tried; Patrick Smith explains why he takes frog poison; and finally, Toby Young wonders why Nigel Farage cares if he has been banned from Desert Island Discs. Plus: the Reform UK leader reveals – exclusively to James Heale – what he would choose if he went on the show. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Lisa Haseldine, Michael Simmons, Patrick Smith & Toby Young – with Nigel Farage

Thursday

Wednesday

Michael Simmons

Henry Nowak: which leader has struck the right tone

In PMQs today, Kemi Badenoch strategically chose not to talk about the Henry Nowak case given the sensitivity surrounding the subject. Instead she opted for welfare – asking the PM why spending has grown during Labour's government. A statistic some Labour MPs seemed proud of... Nigel Farage however didn’t hold back and clashed with Keir Starmer over the police's handling of the murder of student Henry Nowak. Oscar Edmondson is joined by Noa Hoffman and Michael Simmons.

Labour's mixed mood on welfare
Michael Simmons

True neoliberalism has never been tried

Friedrich Hayek once argued that if you put the word ‘social’ in front of a noun, the meaning was negated. Social justice wasn’t about due process; social democracies didn’t safeguard freedom. For those on the left, who can never have enough social-isms, there is a more toxic prefix. If you want to damn something, stick a ‘neo’ in front. Nothing is quite as wicked as a neoconservative, but coming dangerously close is a neoliberal. Liberals were once generally supposed to be the squishiest of centrists. But listen to the men and women making the weather in British politics now, and you’d imagine that neoliberals were the horsemen of the apocalypse. Andy Burnham has blamed ‘40 years of neoliberalism’ for the problems faced by workers in Makerfield, and indeed beyond.

Monday

Michael Simmons

What the Mandelson files tell us about Labour’s predicament

The final tranche of the Mandelson files was released this afternoon – though no thanks to Lord Mandelson. A Cabinet Office note released alongside the 1,500 pages of documents covering Mandelson’s time as our man in Washington said that messages held on his personal phone would not be handed over. As this was not a statutory inquiry, the Cabinet Office concluded it ‘has no further recourse to search the personal devices of Peter Mandelson’. What they do have, though, are messages between Mandelson and members of the government who have had no choice but to comply. For those hoping for explosions, this particular minesweeper has not – at the time of writing – found much.

Thursday

Michael Simmons

Is it too late for Britain’s ‘lost generation’?

13 min listen

More than 600,000 16 to 24-year-olds are neither in work nor looking for a job. Youth worklessness is now costing Britain £125 billion a year – almost double the country’s entire defence budget. Those are the findings of Alan Milburn’s new review into youth worklessness, who warns that the UK is facing an ‘urgent national crisis’. But is it already too late? Noa Hoffman is joined by James Heale and Michael Simmons to discuss.

Michael Simmons

MPs don’t want to confront the youth worklessness crisis

‘It is hard not to be pessimistic when you examine the data,’ former health secretary Alan Milburn says in the foreword to his report into young people doing nothing with their lives. That is quite the understatement. Figures released this morning by the Office for National Statistics show that the number of those classed as not in education, employment or training (Neets) has passed one million – 13.5 per cent of all 16 to 24-year-olds. But Milburn’s review into the crisis suggests we are nowhere near the peak. Forecasting carried out for the report estimates that the rate could hit 16 per cent within five years, meaning more than 1.25 million young Britons would be classed as Neets.

Wednesday

Michael Simmons

Did Sturgeon really have nothing to do with the SNP’s finances?

Having said she would make no further comment on the imprisonment of her husband, Nicola Sturgeon’s lawyer has issued two further statements on her behalf. Aamer Anwar – a sort of Better Call McSaul – is an odd choice to represent a former first minister who wants to be left alone, given that he’s perhaps the most limelight hungry lawyer in Scotland, if not all of Britain.  His latest utterance on behalf of his client addresses the claim that Sturgeon should have clocked her husband’s embezzlement through her oversight of the SNP’s accounts. Even if she had no idea what he was up to in the marital home, so the argument goes, she should have at least spotted the discrepancies in the SNP’s finances.

Tuesday

Michael Simmons

What did Nicola Sturgeon know?

12 min listen

Peter Murrell, the SNP’s former chief executive and Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband, has admitted embezzling £400,000 in party funds. The guilty plea has revived questions about what senior figures in the SNP knew, how long the scandal had been going on, and what happens next. To discuss the story, including some of the ridiculous purchases including a couple of hairdryers (for a bald man) and £2600 salt and pepper shakers, James Heale and Michael Simmons join Megan McElroy.

Friday

Michael Simmons

Which Andy Burnham will we get this time?

16 min listen

Andy Burnham has officially launched his campaign today to be MP for Makerfield (read: Prime Minister). But what does he actually stand for? We’ve had briefings that, despite being the candidate of the soft left, he will stick to Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules and keep Shabana Mahmood’s immigration reforms. He’s flirted with nationalisation of utilities, but which exactly? What’s the big pitch? Burnham’s launch comes the day after some good news for the government, after net migration hit its lowest level since the pandemic. The number of people moving to Britain dropped to 171,000 in the 12 months to December, nearly half the figure recorded the year before. So why isn’t the government shouting about it? Oscar Edmondson speaks to Michael Simmons and Noa Hoffman.

Which Andy Burnham will we get this time?