All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Call him a tech bro’, a hustler or even – hiss! – a Starmerite. But my word, I’m keen on my MP – and recently promoted business secretary – Peter Kyle, the Honourable Member for Hove and Portslade. That doesn’t mean I voted for him last time; I wasn’t going to assist Robbie the Robot
The ‘nonce party.’ That’s how Zarah Sultana described the Labour party at a rally in Brixton last night where the independent MP for Coventry South addressed supporters of her new movement, Your Party. She claimed to have posted numerous images of Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein on her X account, but her warnings went unheeded
Is patience with Javier Milei finally wearing thin? The bombastic leader of Argentina was sent a clear message of discontent by the electorate last week when he lost the province of Buenos Aires in a landslide local election. Although the contest has little consequence for the national picture, it will be causing consternation in Milei’s
France is taking the place of Italy, it seems, as the basket case of Europe. The turn-over of prime ministers in France – five now since the start of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term in 2022 – is worse even than Italy has ever managed. Since the fall of fascism in 1945 Italy has notoriously
If I were Rachel Reeves, my absolute priority would be to incentivise high earners to work hard for as long as possible. After all, the 10 per cent of taxpayers with the largest incomes contribute over 60 per cent of all income tax receipts. So, keeping them onside and busy would, you’d have thought, be a
In October 1972, Wael Zwaiter, the representative for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in Rome, returned to his apartment building on Piazza Annibaliano. After entering the lobby and pressing the button for the lift, he was ambushed by two Mossad operatives lying in wait who shot him 11 times and left him to die in a pool of blood. Within hours, the four-man hit squad
Another Banksy appeared this week, this time on the flank of the Grade I-listed Royal Courts of Justice in London. Naturally, the world’s news agencies leapt to attention. Not because of the image – a judge walloping a protester is the sort of wit you’d find on a novelty birthday card – but because the press
Beside me, children sing the ‘Hokey Cokey’. I subconsciously put my left foot in – and out – under the desk, where I face an empty page. Willing concentration to return, I turn to a tried and tested method: staring out of the window. The small garden is a stage for white butterflies that flutter
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Donald Trump touches down in Britain next week for his state visit and political editor Tim Shipman has the inside scoop on how No. 10 is preparing. Keir Starmer’s aides are braced for turbulence; ‘the one thing about Trump which is entirely predictable is his unpredictability,’ one ventures. Government figures fear he may go off
‘This was Parliament at its best’, so went the inane and factually incorrect mantra of Kim Leadbeater as her Assisted Dying Bill made its way through the House of Commons. It did so on the back of intense duplicity about its safeguards by its sponsors and by the simple fact that the vast majority of
Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from south-west Utah, has been detained over the shooting of Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of Donald Trump. Author and anthropologist Max Horder joins Freddy Gray to discuss the cocktail of online hate and tribal divisions that’s fuelling America’s new era of political violence.
Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin is keeping a close eye on the ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ campaign, and he does not like what he sees. According to Martin, society must say no. ‘Watching what is happening in the UK, I don’t like it. We, so far, have resisted a lot of what has transpired in other societies,’ he
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The fallout from Lord Mandelson’s sacking continues. All eyes are now on Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – could he take the fall for Mandelson’s appointment? As Whitehall editor of the Sunday Times Gabriel Pogrund tells James Heale and Lucy Dunn, Mandelson and McSweeney’s relationship stretches back to New Labour. But, Pogrund warns,
George Abaraonye was elected in June to be the Oxford Union president for Hilary term 2026. He is a PPE student at University College and was the Union’s director of press when he became president-elect. The Oxford Student reported that he ran independently ‘under the #RESET slate and endorsed by the #HOPE slate’. He has certainly
To the US, where the FBI has been searching for Charlie Kirk’s shooter, after the 31-year-old was tragically killed while speaking at an Utah Valley University event. The Trump ally was a firm advocate of free speech and debate, and his death has shocked supporters across the world. The FBI has given a statement this
As with so many political assassinations across the Atlantic – the Kennedys, Martin Luther King –Charlie Kirk’s killer is likely to be some deranged individual, a lone wolf driven by fevered delusions, perhaps, or a sick, mentally ill person. His murder, though, is anything but mundane. Kirk was not just another talking head; he was
The bloody ideological instability of the United States – demonstrated this week by the horrific killing of Charlie Kirk – has a root cause that is not widely discussed, except in shallow and polemical ways. The nation of the United States was built on a faultline It is theopolitics. That means the relationship of religion
What do Ireland and Spain have in common? This week, the answer is Jews. On Monday, Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, came out with a truly bonkers – bonkers shocking, that is, rather than bonkers amusing – statement while announcing sanctions against Israel. Sánchez was angry that he couldn’t nuke the Jews (sorry, Israel): “Spain, as you
Lord Peter Mandelson is to the “Third Way” what Roger Stone is to populism – an alte kameraden from the freewheeling early days. A pinstriped broker and fixer. Whatever ultimately comes of the association with Jeffrey Epstein that has just cost him his job as ambassador to the United States, that such a figure was ever appointed
Robert Jenrick has had a good summer. Back in June, the shadow justice secretary caused a social media stir when he clipped a video of himself confronting Tube passengers walking through barriers. The minute-long piece – in which one fare dodger threatens the Tory MP with a knife – received millions of views and helped
Keir Starmer should be thankful for Lord Mandelson. Were it not for scandal over the Mandelson’s connections with Jeffrey Epstein, more people might have noticed an even greater disgrace this morning. The Prime Minister’s promise of ‘growth, growth, growth’ has ploughed spectacularly into the ground. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) reports today that there
Happy Friday, one and all. It is a big day in the House of Lords as peers gear up to scrutinise Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill. A potentially record-breaking 191 peers have put their names to speak, with many expressing concern about the legal, political and moral consequences of the Bill. Among those scheduled to
How things change. Five years ago few electors cared about the UK’s membership of the ECHR. Today that same convention, with its baneful effect on our ability to police our borders and keep out undesirables, is fast taking centre stage and becoming Concern Number One with burgeoning numbers of voters: voters who, as the government
The Ginger Pimpernel – as the world will probably not be calling the Duke of Sussex – has popped up once again. It was widely assumed that, after his surprisingly successful quasi-royal visit to Britain this week, he would be returning to Montecito and his family, but he has wrongfooted everyone by instead hopping over
Angela Rayner’s failure to get proper tax advice on her house in Hove could be one of those ‘butterfly effect’ moments, where a seemingly trivial incident (like the flap of a butterfly’s wings) sets off a chain of events with precipitous consequences. It could well lead to Keir Starmer’s removal as Labour leader. This is
There is a unique, and bitter, flavour to the corruption of the men of the 1990s. Peter Mandelson – who was yesterday sacked as UK ambassador to Washington – Tony Blair, and the former German and US leaders Gerhard Schroeder and Bill Clinton came from the left, and offered a hard but plausible message to their
Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was shot dead while taking questions at Utah Valley University. Kate Andrews speaks to eyewitness and reporter Eva Terry about the chaos on campus, the reaction across America, and what comes next.
Oh dear. It’s not just in Westminster that Keir Starmer’s party is having trouble. Welsh Labour are also having a meltdown as they prepare to face their next electoral test. The Caerphilly by-election – called after the tragic death of Hefin David – has kicked off in earnest, ahead of polling day on 23 October.
I can’t remember when I last wrote anything as reckless, but the last week has been a good one for Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives, perhaps the best since she won the leadership last November. After months of ineffectual performances (not least the week before when Badenoch missed an open goal on Angela Rayner’s stamp
‘Oh, Mandy Well, you kissed me And stopped me from shaking And I need you today Oh, Mandy’ So sang Barry Manilow. I can imagine at one point, looking into his bathroom mirror, in the early days of his leadership, so did Sir Keir Starmer. Today, however, the government needed Mandy like a hole in
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Another week, another departure. Conservative MP Neil O’Brien – who serves in the shadow cabinet as minister for policy renewal and development – was granted an urgent question in Parliament this morning, to question the government about Peter Mandelson. Then the news broke that Lord Mandelson had been sacked by Keir Starmer following further disclosures
A day is a long time in politics. On Wednesday Keir Starmer said during PMQs he had full confidence in the UK’s ambassador to the US, Lord Mandelson, despite concerns about his relationship with American paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Less than 24 hours later, Mandelson has got the sack. Life comes at you fast, eh? While the