Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Saturday

Damien Phillips

What happened to the post-Brexit free trade deals?

When people talk about the ways the Conservatives have squandered this parliament, and with it their first and best opportunity to demonstrate to voters the benefits of Brexit, they often focus on domestic concerns: the failure to tackle legacy EU red tape, or the lack of progress on levelling up. But one of the biggest disappointments of the past few years must be the United Kingdom’s dismal record on international trade. Time and again the UK has walked away from transformative deals over trivial domestic hang-ups Outside the bloc, Britain ought to have been in a good position to bolster our commercial relationships across the globe, losing the sheer mass

Laurie Wastell

Kemi Badenoch’s diversity crusade doesn’t go far enough

This week, the equalities minister and business secretary Kemi Badenoch took aim at Britain’s woke bureaucracy. The government’s Inclusion at Work panel, convened by Badenoch last year, has unveiled its new report into UK employers’ Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practices. Composed of private and public-sector experts and advised by a Harvard professor, the panel noted that 10,000 EDI jobs in the public sector are estimated to cost the British taxpayer £557 million per year. It’s high time that the government got a grip on our spiralling EDI bureaucracy According to the report, many EDI initiatives have little evidence behind them, are often ‘polarising’ and in some cases ‘unlawful’.As Badenoch

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

In praise of bin men

I’ve always had a soft spot for bin men – or refuse collectors as we generally call them these days. It used to be dustmen, as I remember from the song by Lonnie Donegan in my infancy: ‘Oh, my old man’s a dust man/He wears a dust man’s hat/He wears “cor blimey” trousers/And he lives in a council flat!’ Donegan made it sound a jolly business, but being a bin man is no picnic. The first in this country were recorded in the 1350s as ‘rakers’ and their presence coincided with the plague. It’s one of the most hazardous jobs around, probably more so than being a policeman. But then,

Marcel Plichta

How Ukraine’s drone attacks can hit Russia where it hurts

On the morning of 16 March, Ukrainian drones struck multiple refineries in the Samara region of Russia, For more than a week, Ukrainian drones have targeted Russian oil infrastructure, particularly refineries. If the attacks become regular and continue indefinitely, they will impose significant costs on the Russian economy and military.  Ukraine is presenting Russia with the same air defence dilemma that Kyiv currently faces. Russia uses missiles and Shahed drones to attack Ukrainian cities. Ukraine has to keep a massive amount of its air defence behind the frontlines. Doing so offers the Russian air force slightly more safety in the air and diverts international focus from providing Ukraine with offensive systems. A large amount

Friday

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Putin rejected US warning of terror attack

As Russia comes to terms with what seems to be the largest terrorist attack on its soil in recent times, Vladimir Putin has something difficult to explain. For some time, Western intelligence agencies have been picking up chat about potential strikes in Moscow – and the US took the unusual step of making a public warning. ‘The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and US citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours,’ ran the advice. Just three days ago, as reported by the Russian state media agency TASS, Putin branded these warnings ‘outright

Alexander Larman

The enormous dignity of the Princess of Wales

The statement, when it came, was remarkably simple and delivered with enormous dignity. Dressed simply and sitting outside, the Princess of Wales began her short video by thanking those who had sent her supportive messages, before describing her ‘tough couple of months’ after having been diagnosed with a form of cancer, which has then led to a course of preventative chemotherapy. With remarkable sang-froid, albeit delivered in a voice freighted with understandable deep emotion, Kate then went on to talk about the impact that the diagnosis has had on both her and her family, saying: ‘It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Princess of Wales asks for privacy after cancer diagnosis

After weeks of speculation over the Princess of Wales’s health since she underwent abdominal surgery in January, Kate Middleton has this evening issued a statement. In a video message, the Princess of Wales says she is in the early stages of preventative chemotherapy after cancer was found in tests. She said the news had come as a ‘huge shock’ but while it had been an ‘incredibly tough couple of months’. she is ‘well and getting stronger every day’. In the statement, the Princess says that it was after the operation in January that doctors found cancer present: ‘My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative

Coffee House

Kate reveals cancer diagnosis

The Princess of Wales this evening revealed that she has been diagnosed with cancer, and that she is being treated with chemotherapy. Read her full video message here: I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you personally for all the wonderful messages of support and for your understanding whilst I have been recovering from surgery. It has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family, but I’ve had a fantastic medical team who have taken great care of me, for which I am so grateful. In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time, it was thought that my condition was

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Should the ‘Waspi women’ be compensated?

13 min listen

The Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report on raising women’s state pension age in line with men’s has been published. It details that women born in the 1950s hit by the state pension age change are owed compensation and has advised that the government should ‘do the right thing’. Will the ‘Waspi women’ end up disappointed?  Michael Simmons speaks to Isabel Hardman and Louise Perry, host of the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast. 

Steerpike Steerpike

Kate Forbes isn’t ruling out another leadership bid

It’s the end of another rocky week for Scotland’s First Minister. Humza Yousaf has been dealing with national outrage over the hate crime bill and remains under pressure to sack one of his closest allies in the party over an £11,000 iPad scandal. So Kate Forbes’s latest intervention is the last thing he needs. On Thursday night, Yousaf’s onetime leadership rival admitted that the SNP lacks a ‘big vision’ and suggested that she hadn’t ruled out another leadership bid. Watch your back, Humza… At a Holyrood Sources podcast recording on Thursday night, Forbes told her audience that ‘people need to be inspired by leadership’, continuing:  As much as I back

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Trump vs luxury beliefs

29 min listen

Freddy speaks to Rob Henderson, author of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class, in which he coins the term ‘luxury beliefs’. These are certain beliefs held by a section of the elite which confirm and elevate the status of those who hold them. As a consequence, they can cause harm to those lower down the social strata. Is Donald Trump the antidote to America’s ‘luxury beliefs’ complex?

Stephen Webb

How activism swept the civil service

The Scottish parliament’s decision to ban its staff wearing campaigning lanyards may seem like a small step. But could it set a precedent for rolling back a trend for tolerating staff activism that has spread throughout the civil service in recent years? In an email to staff, the move was justified ‘to minimise the risk of perceived bias and avoid any perception that wearing such items may be influencing our own decision-making.’ But the problem of staff activism goes further than this.  The real change came since George Floyd and the rise of trans ideology I have recently left the civil service as a director after a 30-year career in four departments. Traditionally, civil

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: Reform leader issues letter of complaint to ‘out of touch’ Mail group

Richard Tice is on a mission to crack down on ‘defamatory and libellous’ slurs against his party as the election draws closer.  First, the Reform UK leader forced the BBC to issue a correction and an apology for using news agency copy that labelled Tice’s party as ‘far right’.  Now, he’s got his sights set on DMG Media — the parent group of the MailOnline, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. After the BBC blunder, Tice warned publications that his lawyers ‘are also in touch with other news organisations who repeated the BBC line’ — including the MailOnline, which fell foul of the same mistake and is now reportedly issuing an apology to Reform

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Police investigate Tory donor’s Diane Abbott comments

The Tory racism row looks set to run on for some time. West Yorkshire Police today launched an investigation into alleged racist comments made by top Tory donor, Frank Hester. Officers are to investigate reports that Hester, a Leeds businessman who has given £10 million to the Tories, said former Labour MP Diane Abbott made him want to ‘hate all black women’. Sunak has been accused of handling the situation badly The alleged comments date back to a meeting at Hester’s headquarters in 2019. Hester has since apologised for making ‘rude’ comments but insisted they were not racist as they ‘had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Keir Starmer is right to ignore Doreen Lawrence

Is Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer right to have limited the access to and sway held over him by Baroness Lawrence, the mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence? Lady Lawrence, a Labour peer who was made the party’s race relations adviser by Starmer after he became leader early in 2020, is in no doubt that this is what has happened in recent weeks. According to the Times, she told a meeting with shadow ministers and senior party officials, ‘I wish Keir listened to me’ and blamed ‘gatekeepers’ around the Labour leader for obstructing her work. Baroness Lawrence seems only to have one approach when it comes to race relations

David Cohen

Why is New Zealand’s deputy PM rowing with Chumbawamba?

In their musical heyday, the English anarchist punk band Chumbawamba enjoyed a reputation for having an irreverent attitude towards those in political authority. Twelve years after they musically packed it in, a political figure abroad is making even more of a name for himself for his own irreverence towards Chumbawamba. The group has asked New Zealand’s deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, to stop using their best-known song, ‘Tubthumping’, as a curtain-raiser at his rallies and in his fulminations against the woke peril. The populist politician, though, is vowing that the show will go on. It doesn’t help that the 78-year-old Peters is not only his country’s longest-serving parliamentarian but one

Eliot Wilson

Nike should leave the St George’s Cross alone

England’s football kit has changed dramatically over the years but one feature typically remains unchanged: the cross of St George. Nike, which is designing the England kit for this summer’s Euro 2024 tournament in Germany, has redesigned the red and white flag in navy, light blue and purple. Why did it think doing so was a good idea? The backlash has been predictably swift: Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the St George’s flag was a unifying symbol which should not be changed: ‘We just need to be proud of it. So I think they should just reconsider this and change it back.’ Rishi Sunak said the flag should not

Steerpike Steerpike

Fake Labour minister polls better than real frontbenchers

While the polls continue to predict a Labour victory at the next election, it’s not all rosy for Sir Keir Starmer. It transpires that his Labour party is still struggling to make a dent in the public consciousness. When quizzed on the big personalities at the top of the Labour Party, the good people of Great Britain weren’t particularly bowled over. In fact, polling for Times Radio found that one of Starmer’s more popular MPs was, er, entirely made-up. The general public appears to be rather in the dark about who makes up Keir Starmer’s top team. Almost half of all respondents felt that they knew the fabricated frontbencher Fiona

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will Fine Gael call an election?

14 min listen

Leo Varadkar resigned as Ireland’s Taoiseach this week, and as Fine Gael leader. ‘Personal and political reasons’ informed his decision, he said. Will his party now call an election? Katy Balls speaks to Ben Scallen, from Gript Media, in Dublin. 

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Douglas Murray schools Al Jazeera journalist on Israel-Gaza conflict

When you’re interviewing an expert, it never hurts to come prepared. But when Al Jazeera journalist Jane Dutton quizzed Douglas Murray on the conflict in the Middle East, the unsuspecting interviewer quickly became the interviewee in a rather humiliating twist… ‘You’ve got to inform your viewers of the facts, and you just misled them,’ Murray told Dutton during a heated debate about the Israel-Gaza conflict. First discussing the definition of genocide, the Al Jazeera reporter quickly moved on to state that there was an illegal occupation of Gaza by Israel, adding that ‘Israel is internationally recognised as an occupying state’. ‘No, no, it’s not at all. That’s your view,’ Murray