Politics

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

Alexander Larman

King Charles offers his support to Zelensky

This weekend marks perhaps the most turbulent 48 hours that Ukraine’s President Zelensky has ever experienced – and, given the events of the past three years, that is saying an awful lot. After his already notorious reception in Washington at the White House in Friday, and rather more emollient greeting by Keir Starmer in Britain yesterday, he has now visited Sandringham to see King Charles after attending a summit of European leaders at Lancaster House. Doubtless he is running on a mixture of adrenaline and righteous anger at his enemies – whether those of long standing or more recently acquired – but he is almost certainly in need of reassurance

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Starmer has his work cut out bringing peace to Ukraine

Keir Starmer today attempted to make the debate about Ukraine’s future one primarily held by Ukraine and European countries. This came after Donald Trump had suggested at the end of last week that it was for the US and Russia to decide. In his press conference after the summit of European leaders in London, the Prime Minister said work was now beginning on a deal to end the war with Russia, led by European countries to then be discussed with the US to ‘take it forward together’.  He also dismissed suggestions that the US was an ‘unreliable ally’, and suggested that America was at least not opposed outright to the

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Starmer rejects SNP call to cancel Trump state visit

Well, you can’t say they don’t try. With Europe still reeling from Donald Trump’s oval office bust-up with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, over in Scotland the SNP have piped up to make their feelings known about the American President. Never ones to miss a chance to try and stay relevant, the party’s leader John Swinney took to the airwaves to insist that Prime Minister Keir Starmer retract the invitation of a second state visit for Trump to the UK. ‘I cannot see how a state visit can go ahead for President Trump to the United Kingdom, if President Trump is not a steadfast ally of ours in protecting

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Starmer’s summit is high stakes for Zelensky

There is only one story dominating the news this weekend following Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous meeting on Friday with the US President in the Oval office. After the Ukrainian president’s conversation with Donald Trump and JD Vance descended into a war of words, Zelensky’s trip to the White House was cut short and a planned minerals deal between the two countries went unsigned. Now the future of the Ukraine war has been thrown into doubt as talk grows that the US could halt all military help and a deal could be off the cards. The hope will be that European leaders can come up with a united response Since then, there

Yesterday

Edward Howell

Can South Korea fix its birth rate woes?

Month after month, it just kept plummeting. The South Korean birth rate last year earned the not-so-holy prize for being the lowest in the world. The demographic crisis faced by South Korea seems hardly the hallmark of the country’s self-proclaimed status as a ‘global pivotal state’. That said, the country’s fertility rate rose incrementally to a high of 0.75 births per woman in 2024, marking the first time in nine years that any such uptick has been seen. It is too early to say whether the tide is turning. Nevertheless, South Korea faces an unholy combination of an ageing population (with the over 65 year-olds accounting for 20 per cent

Mark Taubert

Why won’t supporters of assisted dying use the ‘s-word’?

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP in charge of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill currently going through its committee stage, has repeatedly called on Tory MP Danny Kruger not to use the term ‘suicide’ in relation to proposed new laws on assisted dying. This is not the first time proponents of assisted suicide have tried to distance themselves from the ‘s-word’. But just this week, Kruger once again had to reiterate in parliament why clarity of language is so important in this debate. The dictionary defines suicide as ‘the act or an instance of ending one’s own life intentionally and voluntarily’. Throughout medical school, doctors learn the definitions,

Robin Ashenden

Britain is reliving the 1970s

Is Britain going back to the 1970s? Even under the Conservatives in 2022, the Financial Times was warning we were in danger of reliving that ‘relentlessly awful decade’. Since Starmer’s accession to power, the similarities have become only clearer.   Millionaire hotelier Rocco Forte drew the same comparison in the autumn, saying we’d ‘come full circle’ and that the new Labour government was ‘doing a lot based on socialism, but not a lot on common sense’. ‘They talk about growth, but everything they’re doing is anti-growth,’ he added. Broadsheet newspapers warn us that the return to ‘stagflation’ – that perilous mash-up of high inflation and stalling development – is taking

Patrick West

Why Henry Kelly was popular

For centuries the Irish in this country had been subject to mockery, derision and discrimination – even though there is little evidence that there were signs outside hostels bearing the specific combination of words ‘No blacks, No Irish, No dogs’. And even though levels of historical and contemporary anti-Irishness have in recent history been overplayed by the left, the Irish in Britain were a self-conscious lot. As Tim Pat Coogan wrote in his 2002 book Wherever Green Is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora, many Irish in Britain did experience outright hostility after the Birmingham bombing of 1974. But that was, for the most part, an exceptional experience –

Nicholas Hopton

Will the Gaza ceasefire collapse?

The end of February, which coincides with the start of Ramadan, was meant to mark the conclusion of the initial exchange of Israeli hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. However, rather than engaging as planned on what should happen, how, and when in the second phase, the ceasefire appears to be stalling and the parties sliding inexorably towards stalemate or renewed conflict. So far, the ceasefire that started on 19 January, the day before President Trump’s inauguration, has defied the expectations of many. The conflict in Gaza stopped and more deliveries of humanitarian aid were allowed to reach displaced and desperate Palestinian refugees. Twenty-five Israeli hostages

James Snell

The troubling truth about ‘witchcraft’ in modern Britain

Witchcraft, and accusations of witchcraft, are returning to Britain. We might think of witchcraft as a thing of the past; sadly, this isn’t the case. In multicultural Britain, folk practices like witchcraft and sorcery are more common than you might expect. Alongside the practice of witchcraft, there is also its opposite: accusations that others, particularly children, are witches, or demons, or possessed by spirits. In the last decade in Britain, 14,000 social work assessments have been linked to false accusations of witchcraft. Between March 2023 and 2024 alone, there were 2,180 such assessments connected to witchcraft, according to research carried out by the National FGM Centre. An accusation of witchcraft

Elisabeth Dampier

Why even parts of Berlin are moving right

‘Berlin is more East than West’, said Thilo Sarrazin. A member of the centre-left SPD, in 2010 he published Germany Abolishes Itself, a book which warned about the impact of mass immigration. It sold over one million copies in a year but it went down less well with his own party, which tried to kick him out for writing the book. In 2020, after three attempts, the party finally succeeded, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. Over the course of those ten years, the SPD’s grasp on Berlin, which they had ruled since reunification, slipped away from them, as mass immigration not only changed the country but also its politics.

Saturday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

What Europe can learn from the White House clash

The Trump-Zelensky summit is a geopolitical Rashomon. Some saw a lying, maniacal bully and his snarling sidekick berate a patriot for telling the truth about his nation’s attacker and refusing to surrender to him. Others witnessed a bratty ingrate haughtily shaking his begging bowl while dictating to his benefactors the terms on which he would accept their charity. Or you might, like me, have watched a medley of the two, a war-worn leader grown impatient with diplomacy and unwilling to tell the great despotic lump in front of him whatever he wanted to hear. It’s possible to sympathise with Volodymyr Zelensky’s desperate situation, and his nation’s larger cause, and still

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Did Zelensky fail his nation?

Volodymyr Zelensky fought for Ukraine’s security guarantees so fiercely last night, it was as if he’d been invited to sign a surrender to Russia, not a mineral deal with the US. It was neither the time nor the place to take on Donald Trump and JD Vance for parroting Kremlin talking points – a fact Zelensky seemed to acknowledge later on Fox News. Looking visibly distressed, he admitted such matters should be handled behind closed doors. There was regret, but no apology to Trump’s camp. ‘I respect President Trump and the American people, but I’m not sure we’ve done something bad. We must be open and honest’, Zelensky said. The

Natasha Feroze

Was Zelensky ambushed at the White House?

16 min listen

Zelensky’s much anticipated meeting at the White House finished in an angry clash between the Ukrainian President, JD Vance and Donald Trump. The Vice President accused Zelensky of leading ‘propaganda tours’ and culminated in the Ukrainian President leaving the White House without a signed minerals deal. Was Zelensky ambushed? European leaders quickly scrambled to show their solidarity for Ukraine, whilst attempting to maintain good relations with America. How high are the stakes for Starmer ahead of the peace summit held by No.10 on Sunday?

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Can J.D. Vance be part of the peace talks?

Practically every aspect of that Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky was surreal. The blow up at the end was certainly the most shocking, but watching the American President repeatedly bite his tongue – until he didn’t – was also very strange.  Holding back opinion is not normal behaviour for the American President. Yet we watched Trump speak very cautiously throughout the meeting, refusing to take sides, but more importantly, resisting the urge to push back when Zelensky insisted there would be no compromise to end the war or highlighted that the rare earth deal did not go far enough to ensure Ukraine’s safety.  Trump’s deliberate attempt

Debbie Hayton

The legacy of Covid will stay with children for life

Five years ago in March 2020, schools fell silent as Covid-19 swept across the world. At first, there was a tinge of excitement among some students and staff; it was as if, perhaps, we had been told that the whole country was going to be snowed in for six weeks.  Had the restrictions thawed within a couple of months, the impact on at least some children’s education might even have been positive. New experiences stretch the mind, after all. But it didn’t work out like that. While pubs, restaurants and hairdressers re-opened on 4 July, schools stayed on remote teaching until September. This generation of children was let down badly

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Coffee House Shots Live with Robert Jenrick and Jonathan Ashworth

70 min listen

The Spectator’s Katy Balls, Michael Gove and Kate Andrews were joined by special guests Robert Jenrick and Jonathan Ashworth for a live podcast, recorded at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster. The main topic of discussion was, of course, Donald Trump, whose inauguration has ushered in a new world disorder. His ‘shock and awe’ foreign policy has sent Europe scrambling as it tries to work out who will be responsible for ensuring its security in the future. We have seen a move away from the idealism that has defined foreign policy in the last decade and towards ‘realism’, with countries committing to boots on the ground and greater defence spending. Are

Thomas W. Hodgkinson

What Kierkegaard tells us about Bridget Jones

The scene is a well-appointed drawing room in Copenhagen in September 1840. A fresh-faced girl in her late teens is playing the piano in an attempt to soothe the troubled spirit of her boyfriend, a slender, bouffant-haired philosopher in his late 20s by the name of Søren Kierkegaard. Suddenly, he grabs the score from her and claps its pages shut before exclaiming, ‘Oh! What do I care for music? It’s you I want!’ Upon which, he proposes marriage, and soon after, the young Regine Olsen accepts. Immediately, Kierkegaard has second thoughts. Being an existentialist, he doesn’t deal in casual doubts. His are devastating. When Regine bumps into him in the

Ian Acheson Ian Acheson

Gentler stop and search tactics won’t keep Britain safe

What sort of mojo do you want your police officer to bring with them the next time you’re stopped and searched? The Metropolitan police asked Londoners to help them use this procedure better: one quoted consultation response was to stop using ‘bad energy’ in such an encounter. Perhaps the answer to London’s awful street crime problem is more astrology than criminology. Such comments have influenced the creation of a new ‘charter’ eighteen months in the making, which signals the advent of kinder, gentler frisking in the nation’s capital. Of course, most people reading this piece will never have reason to be approached by a police officer in the street, detained and

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Was Starmer’s love-in with Trump really such a triumph?

Opponents of Keir Starmer would be well advised to concentrate on his many real weaknesses rather than inventing non-existent disasters just to bolster their own prejudices. The British radical online Right spent the last 48 hours not only hoping for the UK Prime Minister to be humiliated by Donald Trump, but then pretending he had been even when he clearly hadn’t. The reality is that Starmer’s visit to Washington DC was very successful, at least in the short-term.  As well as establishing an unlikely public rapport with Trump, the Prime Minister advanced a promising dialogue on tariffs and trade and got the President to endorse his Chagos Islands deal. British

Friday

Owen Matthews

Zelensky knew who he was dealing with. And he misstepped

Seldom in modern times has the fate of a whole nation been so dependent on a single meeting and on a single relationship. When Volodymyr Zelensky entered the Oval Office on Friday he had one job: to repair a deep and catastrophic rift between him and Donald Trump, who the previous week had called the Ukrainian president a ‘dictator’. Zelensky held the future of US support for his country’s defence against Russia in his hands.  But instead of a reconciliation, the meeting turned into an epochal diplomatic train wreck. So disastrous was the exchange that by the end Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington Oksana Markarova was holding her head in her

Jawad Iqbal

Zelensky made a fatal mistake in going toe-to-toe with Trump

What possessed the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump in a verbal wresting match in the White House? It makes almost no sense as a diplomatic strategy. It is well documented that the US president, notoriously thin-skinned and egotistical, likes to be showered with compliments and treated as an all-knowing, all-seeing master of the political universe. All that Zelensky was required to do was behave in a simpering manner while the cameras were rolling, before moving on to the substantive negotiations behind the scenes. Indeed, only 24 hours earlier, Sir Keir Starmer provided a useful primer on how to go about pandering to Trump in order

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Zelensky’s White House visit turns sour

Keir Starmer will have been pleased on Thursday after his meetings with Donald Trump managed to avoid any major gaffe or diplomatic incident. There was some relief when Trump chose not to repeat his past comment that Volodymyr Zelensky was a dictator. However, the same cannot be said of Friday’s meeting between Zelensky and the US president. Trump met the Ukrainian president at the door of the White House where he gave reporters a thumbs up ahead of his arrival. However, the mood quickly turned sour when they sat down for initial remarks ahead of talks and a press conference where the pair were expected to sign a US-proposed minerals

Ben Domenech

The Donald Trump interview

56 min listen

In a wide-ranging conversation at the White House yesterday evening, Donald Trump was in the mood to talk about everything under the sun – from the speedy success his second administration has had putting fear into the hearts of bureaucrats and Eurocrats, to why he believes there is a path to a balanced budget. He spoke to The Spectator’s Ben Domenech for the first magazine interview of his second term, following a major day of international politics with his meeting with prime minister Keir Starmer.