Election

Read the latest General Election news, views and analysis.

Gavin Mortimer

Was Farage inspired by the rise of Le Pen?

The last time Nigel Farage stood for parliament was in 2015. He wasn’t elected, and it was his seventh failure to win a seat, as his many enemies love to point out. What has inspired Farage, the new leader of the Reform party, to have an eighth shot? The state of the domestic opposition, perhaps, and also maybe the rise in the last decade of European politicians who, like him, were once considered freaks, failures and fascists. A decade ago, even Farage considered Marine Le Pen too extreme to form any form of alliance in the European parliament. It was specifically her party’s history of ‘anti-Semitism and general prejudice in its DNA’

Steerpike

Keegan’s campaign launch confusion

Another day, another Conservative campaign gaffe. This time it involves Education Secretary Gillian Keegan who has enthusiastically thrown her support behind the Tory candidate for Winchester, Flick Drummond. And so excited was Keegan about Drummond’s prospects she turned up to the launch event, um, several hours early. Talk about getting ahead of yourself… Drummond’s launch event was actually scheduled for 2.30pm on Tuesday afternoon, leaving a rather confused Secretary of State with some unanticipated free time on her hands this morning. Recovering quickly from her false start, Keegan decided to spend her morning talking up Drummond anyway — who was most recently the Tory MP for Meon Valley, split up

The Tories aren’t serious about protecting biological sex

Kemi Badenoch has announced that sex is biological – yes, and rain is wet, and the election is soon. So what? Are we seriously expected to celebrate this statement of obvious fact? A woman is an adult human female. She is not a piece of paper, she’s not an idea in a man’s head and she does not have a penis. Everybody with half a brain, male or female, can see the Tories’ move for exactly what it is: opportunistic grandstanding. Many of them will also know that all the fine talk from Kemi about biological sex and common sense is worthless without full repeal of the 2004 Gender Recognition

James Heale

What will Tory leadership hopefuls do about Farage?

What comes next? That is what many Tories are asking as they stare down the barrel of defeat. Even before Nigel Farage’s re-entry into the election campaign, most had privately conceded that the election was lost. An MRP/YouGov poll out yesterday suggested that the Tories are on course to win just 140 seats – the worst result in the party’s history. Penny Mordaunt, Grant Shapps and Jeremy Hunt are among those set to lose. If such a result came to pass, which of the survivors would be best placed to succeed Rishi Sunak and start the slow, painful process of building from such a meagre base? ‘Nigel Farage is still

Julie Burchill

The glorious downfall of Lloyd Russell-Moyle

It’s always handy for parents to have someone they can use to put their children off any particular profession. ‘Don’t be a comedian, son – you’ll end up like that Eddie Izzard!’ ‘Don’t be a journalist, my girl – you’ll end up like that Julie Burchill!’ Quite a few politicians have vied for this inverted ‘top spot’ – that Jeffrey Archer, that Matt Hancock and that Jeremy Thorpe come quickly to mind. But on balance, I believe that Lloyd Russell-Moyle may come to top parents’ precautionary playlist. For those who believe in women’s rights, Christmas has come early, no matter who wins the election What a ghastly creature he is. Some people

The significance of J.K. Rowling’s defence of Kemi Badenoch

The opinion polls might be projecting a massive Labour majority, but there is a dynamic to this election that could yet derail Keir Starmer’s plans for government. Yesterday, J.K. Rowling spoke for many women when she fired off a volley of tweets on sex and gender. Her frustration was palpable, but also notable was her defence of Kemi Badenoch. While pointing out that ‘Kemi Badenoch and I might not agree on a lot’, Rowling chose to support the Tory minister for women and equalities, who was in turn under fire from Ian Dunt and Alistair Campbell. It felt personal as Rowling added: ‘And what’s the issue with her [Badenoch’s] manner, Ian? Did she fail

Freddy Gray

What Farage gets about politics and entertainment

Towards the end of last year, Nigel Farage set tongues wagging as he entered the jungle for I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Yesterday he announced his return to electoral politics – and the national conversation about him now is curiously similar to what it was then. Will the masses actually vote for him? Will people find his rhetoric refreshing – or racist? And is this good or bad for GB News?  We’re used to talking in a slightly superior English way about Donald Trump, the former host of The Apprentice, as the reality TV president across the pond. But Britain is not so different. Our politics is not just downstream from

The Scottish leaders debate won’t have changed voters’ minds

When Alex Salmond was leader of the SNP he used to complain bitterly to the broadcasters that it was unfair to stage TV debates with three unionist party leaders – Labour, Conservatives and the Lib Dems – against the one nationalist. In last night’s Scottish leaders debate though, the unionist imbalance hardly figured. That is because independence hardly figured.  Anas Sarwar arguably won by sheer persistence, though his robotic delivery might have alienated some voters. The Tory leader, Douglas Ross got in his customary line about the SNP’s ‘obsession’ with separatism and the SNP leader, John Swinney, agreed that independence remained ‘line one, page one’ of the SNP manifesto, but

Fraser Nelson

Are the Tories telling the truth? A look at the data

A quirk of the UK system is that the requirement to tell the truth in adverts does not apply to politicians. This is, in effect, a license to lie – or, at least, to stretch the truth until the elastic snaps. The Conservatives have given some examples in their first campaign video an indication. It shows the Union Flag flying upside down, often taken as a sign of distress. The gist is that Rishi Sunak ‘is making progress’ with his plan, but when it lists that progress it says much that is – how to say? – at variance with the actualité. All can be checked on The Spectator’s data hub,

Gareth Roberts

Even Nigel Farage will struggle to make this election exciting

Unlike Brenda from Bristol, I usually love elections – but not this one. Theresa May’s self-destruction in 2017 was one of the most fascinating events I’ve ever seen. The high-stakes tension of Boris vs. Corbyn in 2019 had me gripped to the TV. Even as a child, I couldn’t get enough of the high drama of politics: on Friday June 10 1983, I threw a sickie from school just so I could sit at home and read all the newspapers about Thatcher’s triumph: it was my pitiful idea of fun at fifteen years old. Yet Sunak vs. Starmer feels like even more of a foregone conclusion than 1997, when Tony

Isabel Hardman

Labour comes out of Scottish debate on top

There is a truism in British politics that things would be much more civil if there were more women in the room. Tonight’s all-male Scottish leaders’ debate undermined that: the exchanges were far less vehement and aggressive than they had been when Nicola Sturgeon was SNP leader and when she was facing other female leaders. The real reason for this had nothing to do with the gender of the leaders standing in the STV studio, or indeed much to do with a new era of kinder, more civil politics and everything to do with the fact the wind has gone out of the SNP’s sails. John Swinney reminded the audience

Patrick O'Flynn

Nigel Farage knows the Tories are there for the taking

The one thing that had gone right for Rishi Sunak in the election campaign to date has now gone wrong. Nigel Farage has been so energised by the first ten days of the election that he has taken back the leadership of the Reform party and decided to stand for parliament in Clacton after all. Tory staffers who had expected to be running a ‘Stop Farage’ operation but were then stood down will now have to be stood back up again. Farage has discerned that this time round, the Tories are truly there for the taking. They have drifted so far from their base on immigration, taxation, crime and net

Katy Balls

Rishi’s nightmare: YouGov MRP predicts Labour super majority

It never rains but it pours for Rishi Sunak. Less than an hour after Nigel Farage performed a shock U-turn, announcing he will not only stand for election but take over the leadership of the Reform party, YouGov has released its first MRP poll of the election campaign. It does not make pretty reading for the Tories. The MRP poll says that were an election held today, Labour would win back a whopping majority of 194 seats – a bigger landslide than 1997. YouGov estimate that in, an election held now, Labour would win 422 seats in total and the Tories would be left with just 140 seats. Ed Davey’s

James Heale

Why Farage is back as Reform leader

He’s back. After all the teasing and all the rhetoric, Nigel Farage has finally announced his return as Reform leader. Having initially pledged that he would not stand at this election, he told a 100-strong room in Westminster: ‘I’ve changed my mind.’ He will now stand as Reform’s candidate in Clacton – the only seat Ukip ever won in a general election, back in 2015. ‘I cannot turn my back on the people’s army’ he said to the room. ‘I cannot turn my back on all those people who voted for us… I can’t let those people down, I won’t let those people down.’ If this is to be a change

Isabel Hardman

George Galloway: Labour is the ‘number one enemy’

George Galloway would be happy if his Workers’ Party of Britain denied Labour the chance of an outright majority at the election because it would mean that whoever was in power would have to listen to the smaller parties. That was his message today when interviewed by Andrew Neil on Times Radio: the former Labour MP does not see a Labour government as being at all worthwhile over and above a Conservative one. He is standing in Rochdale, which he won in a by-election earlier this year after Labour messed up with its own candidate.  ‘We are a threat to Labour in at least 100 places. We can either beat

James Heale

What is Nigel Farage planning?

Nigel Farage continues to tease Westminster with his endless ‘will he, won’t he?’ dance. The former Ukip leader is hosting an ‘emergency press conference’ at 4pm amid speculation that he will announce he is standing as a candidate for Reform. It’s been a rollercoaster fortnight for Farage. His initial response to the election was to rule himself out from running, preferring instead to focus on the United States. In the days that followed, Farage expressed his ‘huge regrets’ about that decision. His commitments stateside seem less extensive than many first thought, with Farage expecting to only do one event for Donald Trump in Detroit. His two speeches for Reform last week, meanwhile,

Starmer’s ‘national security’ pitch looks insecure

Still haunted by the memory of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Keir Starmer has devoted today to reassuring the electorate that he is committed to maintaining nuclear weapons. The Labour leader is determined not to be seen as unreliable on defence and national security, so has announced that HIS government will introduce a ‘triple lock’ on the nuclear deterrent. A ‘triple lock’ is a tedious phrase, beloved by politicians who have been so careless with promises that they have to engage in a linguistic arms race. If they say they will do something, voters simply don’t believe them, so instead they must create the impression of an inviolable pledge, a measure that will be permanent and

Steerpike

SNP leader’s bizarre funding plea

The SNP will soon have more election campaign launch events than predicted Westminster seats if it continues at the rate it is going. The party’s latest launch — the third this year — was held in the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Glasgow on Sunday afternoon, where party activists and political candidates gathered to hear a series of speeches ahead of the looming general election.  Marketing itself as the party of ‘change’ (Mr S doesn’t have to look far to know where that’s been stolen from), the Nats slammed ‘continuity Keir’ as the ‘most right-wing Conservative Labour leader’ to date. But while the SNP is pledging to ‘eradicate’ child poverty