Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Richard Ekins

Can Britain strip Alaa Abd El-Fattah of his citizenship?

Does the government have the power to strip Alaa Abd El-Fattah of his recently acquired British citizenship? Sources within government reportedly say no. But the relevant legislation is in fact highly permissive. The government cannot avoid taking responsibility for deciding to exercise or not exercise the power to deprive him of his citizenship. The government may decide not to exercise its power here. But it cannot maintain that there is simply no power to act El-Fattah was registered as a British citizen in December 2021, in the course of the campaign against his imprisonment in Egypt. Successive UK governments made efforts to secure his release from prison in Egypt. He was released in September and was

Andrew Tettenborn

The Fuad Awale case shows what's wrong with the ECHR

Another new year, and another controversial human rights victory for a criminal. Fuad Awale was a violent thug and Islamist serving a life sentence for drug-related murder. In 2013, he took a prison officer hostage in an attempt to force the release of Islamic hate preacher Abu Qatada. After this episode he was moved to a close supervision centre, a unit meant to contain fanatical prisoners like him. There, his rights of association with other prisoners were understandably severely restricted, particularly as regards other Islamists (he had asked, for example, to chum up with the Islamic fanatics who had murdered Private Lee Rigby, a request that did not go down well).

Andrew Gilligan

The real Alaa Abd el-Fattah scandal

The real scandal of Alaa Abd el-Fattah is that it is nothing new, and that not enough has changed. For decades, in dozens and dozens of cases, the British state has legitimised, worked with, empowered or funded extremists and bigots; people with values deeply opposed to Western democracy; people who sometimes literally seek our destruction. Periodically, some new bad guy – in this case Abd el-Fattah – is exposed by the media or thinktanks. There’s a row. The person or body concerned is sometimes jettisoned, sometimes not. But the basic operational failure keeps happening. As a No. 10 adviser, I was several times lobbied by MPs who plainly knew nothing about the things

Clarissa Hard

The trouble with Khan’s New Year’s fireworks

Despite the pyrotechnic glories of London’s New Year fireworks, 2026 started off with a whimper rather than a bang. The display, organised by Sadiq Khan and the Greater London Authority, was painfully predictable, trotting out the usual tired clichés about England as a global melting pot and diversity as the jewel in the nation’s crown. The fireworks engaged head-on with the Year of the Flag, responding to ongoing debates about national identity The fireworks engaged head-on with the Year of the Flag, responding to ongoing debates about national identity. A chummy voiceover explored ‘what England means’, while the display showed national flags from around the globe coming together to form

Today

Gavin Mortimer

Britain has lost faith in Labour's ability to 'smash the gangs'

More than 41,000 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats in 2025, a number surpassed only by the 45,000 who made the voyage in 2022. In total, 41,472 people reached England from France, a 13 per cent increase on 2024. The weather was a factor: according to the Met Office, last year provided Britain with the most hours of sunshine – 1,622 – since records began in 1910. But of greater significance is the ineptitude of the British government in stopping the small boats. A spokesperson for the Home Office described the 2025 figures as ‘shameful’, adding that ‘the British people deserve better’. They would say that, wouldn’t they? It

Ross Clark

The RMT has doomed the Oxford-Cambridge railway

Thank God for HS2. The scandal of the ever-more expensive and ever-delayed rail line from London to Birmingham (and now no further) has taken the heat off another of Britain’s tortured rail projects: East West Rail, linking Oxford and Cambridge. East-West rail has the distinction of being even older than HS2, having first been proposed in 2006. It shouldn’t have been that big a project, given that Oxford and Cambridge did once have a rail connection, which was closed in 1967. Much of the trackbed remained in place and parts of it have remained in use throughout. Yet still it is proving a little too much for Britain’s miserable infrastructure

Mani Basharzad

Iran wants its monarchy back

There are protests in Iran again. But this time, something is different. In the uprisings of 2019, 2022 and 2023, the dominant slogan was negative: what Iranians did not want. ‘Death to the dictator’ echoed through the streets. Today, the country has moved beyond rejection. Now there is affirmation. A name is being chanted: Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. More than ten Iranian cities have risen up in recent days, from the most conservative quarters of society to elite universities. Across Iranian cities one hears slogans: ‘Pahlavi will return’, ‘Javid Shah’ – the Persian equivalent of ‘Long live the King’ – and simply, ‘King Reza Pahlavi’. For the first time since

John Curtice

John Curtice: what to expect in 2026

21 min listen

James Heale sits down with Sir John Curtice, the doyen of British polling, to take stock of an extraordinary year in UK politics and to look ahead to what 2026 might hold. Curtice explains why the rise of Reform UK during the spring local elections marked a historic turning point – establishing the longest period in polling history where a party outside the traditional Conservative–Labour duopoly has led nationwide and assesses Labour’s continued slide, the unprecedented collapse in support for both major parties, and the growing influence of the Greens under new leadership. John also explores why Britain has entered a new era of multiparty politics, how cultural divides now

Lara Prendergast

The 'boring twenties', population decline & happy new year

35 min listen

A far cry from the ‘roaring twenties’ of the early 20th Century, the 2020s can be characterised as the ‘boring twenties’, argue Gus Carter and Rupert Hawksley in our new year edition of the Spectator. Record numbers of young people are out of work but even those with jobs face such a dire cost-of-living situation that they have no money left over to spend on fun. Traditional cultural outings – like going to the theatre – are increasingly confined to older, richer generations. This is long-standing issue, but compounded by Labour’s economic policies. A slightly downbeat start to the new year here at the Spectator, but at least the episode provides a free dose

Yesterday

Tom Goodenough

Dominic Cummings on Whitehall's plan to destroy Nigel Farage

Dominic Cummings has warned Nigel Farage that Whitehall will break the law to prevent Reform winning power. Speaking on The Spectator‘s Quite Right! podcast, Cummings said: ‘They’ll leak medical records, they’ll leak tax records. They’ll bug his phone and leak that. They’ll do anything that they need to’. The former Vote Leave campaign boss and ex-chief aide to Boris Johnson said that Farage’s political opponents were determined to learn from their mistakes in the Brexit referendum – and ensure that Reform doesn’t win the next election. He told Michael Gove and Madeline Grant: ‘The people around Starmer and all through the upper echelons of the Whitehall system are looking at

Michael Gove

Dominic Cummings: what I told Farage & why the system will ‘do anything’ to stop him | part two

42 min listen

This is the second of a two-part discussion with Dominic Cummings, in which he reflects on his time in government – what he got right and what he regrets – and what he believes must change for the country to thrive. In part two, Dominic diagnoses the ‘pre-revolutionary’ mood of British politics, marked by voter rage, economic stagnation and institutional failure. He dismisses government promises on immigration as ‘total nonsense’, attacks the political class’s handling of the cost-of-living crisis and the war in Ukraine, and delivers a sobering account of why the Conservative Party is ‘completely dead’. Dominic also assesses the prospects of Reform and Nigel Farage, warns of an

Angela Epstein

How to break your phone addiction this New Year

As we finally emerge from the food coma of the Christmas blowout, our attention turns to New Year’s resolutions – and how to keep them. Usually they’re the stuff of tea-towel slogans: eat less, exercise more, be kinder to your mother, be kinder to his mother. But increasingly, added to the list is a very zeitgeist-y acknowledgement of our addiction to technology: less absence, more presence. If you’re going to attempt a digital detox, it has to be set up for success, not failure On this point, even King Charles joined the chorus in his Christmas address, urging us to prise ourselves away from our phones and attempt a digital detox for

Wednesday

Steerpike

The Steerpike Awards of 2025

So. Farewell then 2025. The Chinese Zodiac calendar called this ‘The Year of the Snake’ – and my goodness Westminster has had more than its fair share these past 12 months. Such is the level of one-way traffic from the Tories to Reform that even the Labour party press office struggles to keep count of the number of defective, sorry, defector, onetime Tory MPs now changing sides. Abroad, hurricane Trump has blown through the world, hurling tariffs aplenty, sending Europe into a spin, refashioning the Middle East and upending elections in Canada and Australia too. At home, we have endured the continued flounderings of our less-than-inspiring PM, whose plummeting approval

Mark Galeotti

Do Putin's New Year platitudes suggest he is tiring of ruling Russia?

Russia is still known for a great deal of innovative programming, but one area where there is concern it is falling behind is in AI. Judging by Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s Eve address, there are no grounds to worry, as this year’s was of a such blandness that it could have been generated by a large language model. Everything felt much more low-energy in Putin’s address than previous years, from rhetoric to delivery In his 1999 New Year’s speech, former president Boris Yeltsin made the shock announcement that he was standing down, and his recently-appointed prime minister, the relatively unknown Vladimir Putin, would become acting head of state. We haven’t

Miriam Cates

Sophie Winkleman is right: parents can't tackle the screendemic alone

The actress Sophie Winkleman has been honest and punished for it. As one of Britain’s foremost campaigners against the digitalisation of childhood, Winkleman regularly takes to the airwaves to speak about the multifarious ways in which the screendemic is harming children. Eyebrows were therefore raised when, earlier this week, Winkleman told the Times that, despite her passionate convictions, she had ‘failed’ and given her twelve-year-old daughter a mobile phone. Winkleman said that, despite her passionate convictions, she had ‘failed’ and given her twelve-year-old daughter a mobile phone Winkleman was clear that her daughter has no access to social media on the device, but the admission, shared as a gesture of

Catherine Perez-Shakdam

Are we witnessing the end of Iran's Islamic Republic?

Iran’s clerical establishment has spent nearly half a century insisting – always with that brittle certainty peculiar to ideologues – that history culminated in 1979. That the Shah is a hushed embarrassment, monarchy a quaint relic, and the very notion of a crown something to be packed away with mothballs and other discarded finery. Yet politics, like biology, evolves in defiance of official catechisms. And Iran, in these final days of 2025, looks less like a regime in command than a contraption still whirring chiefly because no one has yet found the off-switch. Iran, in these final days of 2025, looks less like a regime in command than a contraption

Julie Burchill

A New Year 'Honour' is nothing to be proud of

I’ve long loathed the idea of the ‘National Treasure’. Even typing the words made my eyes briefly cross with extreme crossness. You know the type, they are wheeled out every Christmas as we huddle around the television. Though they can be anything from actors to zoologists, they will have one loathsome character trait in common; they were all massively ambitious when young, but they like to pretend that their success was somehow organic and that only other – shallow, grasping – people are driven by attention-seeking and greedy for money. Anneliese Dodds, the former Labour Minister for Women who was unable to explain what a woman was, has been made

Leon Mangasarian

Shoot an elephant to save Africa

Africa’s elephants are out of control, and the continent’s people, and plants, are paying the price. Far too many elephants, with far too little territory – surrounded by ever more people and with culling hampered by Western animal rights groups and green activists – risk contributing to a wildlife-induced forest ecocide. Millions of mopane, baobab and other trees, are being pushed over, devoured or shredded into bushes. Great national parks are in danger of being transformed into desert-like scrubland. Elephant numbers have exploded in Kruger over the past century During a week hiking in what should be forest but now is a degraded bushland near the Olifants River on the

Paul Goodman

Debate: is 2026 Kemi's year?

16 min listen

Regular listeners will remember back in May we recorded a podcast debating whether Kemi Badenoch was the right fit for Tory leader. At that point in time the Conservatives were falling in the polls and she was facing allegations of laziness and a lack of a political vision. Spool forward to the end of the year and she is in her strongest position ever. She looks more assured in PMQs, her conference speech was a hit and her media game is much improved. But is she actually getting better, or is Starmer getting worse? And will this modest bump in fortunes translate to success at the local elections? James Heale

Tuesday

David Shipley

Tags for asylum seekers are a huge distraction

There’s a strange pattern in how the UK discusses policy, and once you notice it you realise it’s everywhere. What happens is that there’s a problem, often something which makes us less safe. The problem will be fundamentally a result of policy, and often something we’re ‘forced’ to endure because of laws we have created. No one feels able to step outside our existing legal or conceptual framework, and often they don’t even really feel able to name the problem. So they propose a weird solution which just creates more costs and burdens, often falling on law-abiding Brits. Then the entire debate will take place within this limited space, ignoring

Michael Gove

‘Boris didn’t care!’: Dominic Cummings on lawfare, lockdowns & the broken British state | part one

47 min listen

In this special two-part interview, Michael and Maddie are joined by Dominic Cummings. After starting his political career at the Department of Education, Dominic is best known as the campaign director of Vote Leave, the chief adviser in Downing Street during Boris Johnson’s premiership, and one of the most influential strategists of modern times. Whether you consider him a visionary reformer or (as David Cameron once said) a ‘career psychopath’, his ideas – on government, technology, the blob, education and the future of the right – continue to provoke debate. In part one, Dominic diagnoses Britain’s institutional decline and takes us inside Whitehall’s ‘heart of darkness’. He explains that ministers

Mani Basharzad

The worst thing about being an Iranian in Britain

What’s the most annoying thing about being an Iranian in Britain? Since coming to the UK a year ago, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard one particularly irritating comment. I’ve been told it by Oxford students and professors, Uber drivers and friends. It has felt like a shadow following me. No, it’s not a racist remark; I’ve never encountered this in Britain. It’s being told: ‘I support what your government is doing.’ The greatest challenge has been not losing my temper when someone says it People say it because they oppose Israel, back Palestine or enjoy resisting US imperialism. Of course, they know little of life

Monday

Steerpike

Reform offer removal van to Tory HQ

It is the season of goodwill to all men. So, in the spirit of brotherly love, Reform staff have today made a kindly Christmas gesture to their Tory rivals. Two removal vans rocked up at Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) with an offer to help Kemi Badenoch’s staff move out ahead of their expected departure from Matthew Parker Street in 2026. Unsurprisingly, the Tories are yet to take up Nigel Farage’s team on such a generous offer… The ‘Reform Removals’ vans are billed as offering a ‘premium removals service’ for struggling political forces. ‘Major movers for minor parties’ is the slogan emblazoned on both sides of each van. A senior Reform

David Shipley

Could Alaa Abd el-Fattah have his British citizenship revoked?

It’s a difficult Monday for the Prime Minister. Shortly after Keir Starmer expressed his ‘delight’ that Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd el-Fattah had arrived in the UK, it emerged that the PM’s ‘top priority’ apparently hates Jews, white people and the English most of all, if his past tweet are anything to go by. As a result, the government is now facing demands from Nigel Farage, Kemi Badenoch, and even senior Labour MPs to strip el-Fattah of the citizenship he was granted in 2022 while a prisoner in Egypt. How plausible is this? In fact, although such demands are very unusual in British politics, the deprivation of citizenship is a long-established