Politics

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

Friday

Ross Clark Ross Clark

What happened to the post-Covid roaring twenties?

It has become customary for Budgets to unravel within 48 hours of being delivered. Rachel Reeves didn’t have much in the way of fiscal announcements to deliver on Wednesday, but even what she did have to say seems to be falling apart. It has since transpired that the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) did not take into account any risks from a transatlantic trade war when downgrading its growth forecast for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. This is an additional risk which is almost certain to erode her newly-clear fiscal headroom and lead to more tax rises in the autumn Budget. If Reeves was hoping for

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Kim Leadbeater Edition

35 min listen

Kim Leadbeater has been an MP since winning the Batley & Spen by-election for Labour in 2021. She was elected to the constituency that her sister, Jo Cox, had served until she was murdered during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign. Having pursued a career in health and fitness, Kim hadn’t initially intended on a life in politics, but she went on to champion social and political cohesion through the Jo Cox Foundation and the More in Common initiative. More recently, she has led the campaign to legalise Assisted Dying. The Bill is currently making its way through Parliament and has been described as the biggest social reform in a generation. On

Eliot Wilson

Britain’s underfunded army is letting down Nato

The British army is overstretched. This is not breaking news to anyone who takes an interest in defence. Although its budget has grown in real terms over the last decade, it has faced a complex network of problems. In only six of the last 25 years has recruitment exceeded outflow, meaning that the army has been consistently under strength. Meanwhile, two of its three armoured vehicles, Ajax and Boxer, are badly behind schedule. Consequently, the new ‘Future Soldier’ reforms have been disrupted, and the gifting of equipment and ammunition to Ukraine has severely depleted stockpiles. The flair for improvisation shown by good soldiers has done much to conceal the worst

Henry Donovan

What Denmark’s social democrats could teach Germany’s SPD

Despite suffering their worst electoral humiliation since the 1890s, Germany’s Social Democrat party (SPD) is displaying a remarkable combination of arrogance and delusion. Having collapsed to a mere 16 per cent in last month’s election, the party has nonetheless strong-armed Friedrich Merz’s victorious CDU into abandoning fiscal discipline and embracing ruinous debt policies. This audacious blackmail would be impressive if it weren’t so dangerous for Germany’s economic future. Yet amidst this parliamentary chess game, the SPD remains stubbornly blind to the fundamental reason for their historic decline: they refuse to acknowledge that their traditional voter base, the German working class, has decamped completely to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Rachel Reeves should leave ISAs alone

Voters won’t want to thank Rachel Reeves if the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) turns out to be right in its forecast for zero real growth in earnings in 2026 and 2027. But static earnings could turn out to be the least of problems for households. They will take an even dimmer view of the Chancellor if they wake up to find half their savings have evaporated. But that is what may well happen if, as Treasury documents suggest, Individual Savings Accounts – or ISAs – are reformed in the next Budget to discourage people from holding cash and encourage them to stuff their savings into the stock market instead. 

Dwayne Ryan Menezes

J.D. Vance’s trip to Greenland is deeply insensitive

This afternoon, Vice President J.D. Vance is set to touch down in Greenland after deciding to join his wife Usha on her trip there. In a video on X, he explained that: ‘There is so much excitement about Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I did not want her to have all that fun by herself, so I am going to join her. I’m going to visit some of our guardians in the Space Force on the northwest coast of Greenland and also just check out what is going on with the security there of Greenland.’ Vance accused previous US administrations and Denmark of having ignored

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Coffee House Shots Live with Maurice Glasman, David Frost and James Kanagasooriam

70 min listen

Join Katy Balls, Michael Gove, Lord Glasman, Lord Frost and pollster James Kanagasooriam as they unpack the highly anticipated Spring Statement and its implications for national policy and global security. Listen for: Michael’s plan for how to deal with the Donald, and why the Treasury is not fit for purpose; Maurice on his influence in the White House, and what’s wrong with the current political class; David’s reflections on why Brexit was ahead of its time; and James’s explanation for Britain’s lost sense of community.

Ferghane Azihari

Is Macron scared of Algeria?

Emmanuel Macron couldn’t have been clearer about why he wants to boost defence spending: ‘We want to protect peace in Europe and thus deter anyone from attacking us,’ France’s president said last week. After years of hesitation, during which the Russian threat was underestimated, at least in Western Europe, it’s about time France is taking defence seriously. Algeria’s rulers are clear on what they think of France. But Macron, who talks tough on Russia, stops short of retaliating Macron wants to raise defence spending to 3 or 3.5 per cent of the country’s GDP, up from 2.1 per cent. But Macron’s resolute stance against the Russian threat would look more

Stephen Pollard

Three cheers to Wigmore Hall for breaking free from Arts Council England

Tonight, I’m going to hear Joyce DiDonato, one of the greatest living sopranos, sing Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise. On Saturday afternoon, I’ll be at a masterclass given by Gautier Capuçon, a glorious cellist. And on Sunday night, I’m seeing him play all five of Beethoven’s cello sonatas. I tell you this not (just) to make you jealous, but because all three concerts will be at London’s Wigmore Hall, which this week told Arts Council England (ACE) where it could put its annual grant of £350,000. ACE really does suggest that the problem with opera is that it is a form of classical music The Arts Council was the successor to

Thursday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

How could Holyrood not mourn Christina McKelvie?

A parliament is an odd place. It’s the arena where clashing worldviews come to cross swords and there’s low and ugly skullduggery. In most other workplaces, political differences are a topic to be avoided, but the job of a parliamentarian is to spend day after day with colleagues whose values they abhor and whose ideas they consider harmful. For all the florid patter back in 1999, about how the Scottish parliament’s electoral system, working practices and even semi-circular chamber would fashion a more collegial politics, Holyrood has proved every bit as factional and partisan as the House of Commons. Yet, like the Commons, exposure and proximity to political foes engenders

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Sue Gray turns on Starmer

Talk about a belated Ides of March. It was less than 100 days before Keir Starmer sacked his first No. 10 Chief of Staff Sue Gray. To console the lifelong civil servant, Sir Keir rewarded her with a peerage, enabling her to spend the rest of her days making laws on the benches of the Upper House. And it seems that the noble Baroness of Tottenham has wasted no time in making the most of her new-found privileges, judging by her maiden speech in the Lords today. Gray offered an unashamed defence of ‘the Blob’ in her remarks before the House today, telling fellow peers that ‘When we hear the

William Moore William Moore

The age of the strongman, Tesla under attack & matinee revivals

35 min listen

This week: welcome to the age of the strongman ‘The world’s most exclusive club… is growing,’ writes Paul Wood in this week’s Spectator. Membership is restricted to a very select few: presidents-for-life. Putin of Russia, Xi of China, Kim of North Korea and MBS of Saudi Arabia are being joined by Erdogan of Turkey – who is currently arresting his leading domestic political opponent – and Donald Trump, who ‘openly admires such autocrats and clearly wants to be one himself’. ‘This is the age of the strongman,’ Wood declares, ‘and the world is far more dangerous because of it.’  Despite their bombast, these ‘are often troubled characters’, products of difficult childhoods.

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

What Jordan Bardella is doing in Israel

In September 1987, during a radio interview with RTL, the late Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the French National Front, stated that the gas chambers were ‘a detail of the history of the second world war.’  This week, Jordan Bardella, the president of the Rassemblement National, the National Front’s rebranded successor, visited the hallowed Yad Vashem holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and declared, ‘Concentration camps were the pinnacle of barbarism. No one will be able to forget what was the worst genocidal enterprise ever conducted.’ Bardella, heir to Le Pen, also visited the site of the October 7, 2023 massacre at the Nova music festival, where he met survivors and attentively

James Snell

Why the Houthis are targeting Jerusalem

Sirens blare across Israel, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. They have been triggered by a barrage of missiles, launched from Yemen, purportedly by Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis. The Israel Defence Forces claim to have intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen, while Israeli emergency services say that at this time, there have been no injuries reported. This threat is only a new one in the most technical of senses. Israel already lives within the range and under the constant threat of missile attack – from Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, from Iran itself and from Iranian proxies in Iraq (and formerly Syria, before the fall of the Assad

Steerpike Steerpike

The truth about the Paddington statue

When two inebriated RAF engineers broke a Paddington statue in half in Newbury earlier this month, they could not have predicted the scale of the reaction. But in the UK of 2025, a crime against Paddington is not simply an act of drunken vandalism, but an egregious offence against whichever collection of buzzwords is today being defined as ‘British values’. As the sentencing magistrate declared on Tuesday, Paddington ‘represents kindness, tolerance, and promotes integration and acceptance in our society’. The actions of the airmen ‘were the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for.’ The pair have been ordered to carry out unpaid work and pay £2,725 each to cover the cost

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Are tax hikes on the horizon?

Tax rises are almost certainly coming, Britain’s leading fiscal think tank has said. Those taxes are most likely to fall on pensioners and the wealthy, according to Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). ‘There is a good chance that economic and fiscal forecasts will deteriorate significantly between now and an autumn Budget. If so, she will need to come back for more, which will likely mean raising taxes even further,’ the IFS director said. The tax burden is already just a year away from reaching its highest level in history – beating levels not seen since 1948. Reeves continues to blame a ‘changing world’ for the economic

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Trump has Britain in a bind over car tariffs

The government has less than a week to decide how to respond to Donald Trump’s announcement of 25 per cent tariffs on car imports to the US. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves still seem to think that Trump might exempt Britain, but there is little sign of that coming out of Washington. Unless Peter Mandelson turns out to possess rather more diplomatic skills than most people will credit him with, the Prime Minister will be faced with an uncomfortable choice: does Britain retaliate, thus risking an escalation of the transatlantic trade war, or does it suck it up and watch as Britain’s beleaguered car industry suffers even more than it

Joanna Williams

Why are firefighters painting their nails to ‘redefine masculinity’?

Call me old-fashioned but if I ever have the misfortune to be stuck inside a burning building, I want a fireman to come to my rescue. As the temperature rises, I won’t give two hoots as to whether my particular fireman is black, white, gay, straight, male or female. I just want someone brave enough to ignore the flames and strong enough to carry me down flights of stairs. A bit of Stoicism might be good too; I don’t want to have to hand out tissues to my weeping saviour. But a firefighter with a decent manicure? I’ll be honest, that comes way down my wish list. Perhaps I have

Eliot Wilson

Don’t count on Trump defending Poland from Russia

The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, has warned Russia that the alliance would defend Poland against any aggression and would do so without restraint. On a visit to Warsaw, he said: When it comes to the defence of Poland and the general defence of Nato territory, if anyone were to miscalculate and think they can get away with an attack on Poland or any other ally, they will be met with the full force of this fierce alliance. Our reaction will be devastating. This must be clear to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and anyone else who wants to attack us. Would Nato’s ‘full force’ be brought to bear against Russia if

Oscar Edmondson

Reeves goes on the defensive

14 min listen

It’s the morning after the afternoon before, and Rachel Reeves has just finished her broadcast round, where she has faced tough questions and negative splashes in the papers. The Daily Mail brands Reeves ‘deluded’, while the Daily Telegraph warns of ‘five years of record taxes’. The Guardian splashes with ‘Reeves accused of balancing books at expense of the poor’, while the Financial Times says, ‘Tax rise fears cloud Reeves’s fiscal fix’. She is navigating two main issues: first, the additional welfare reforms have caused disquiet in the Labour Party, with a potential rebellion on the horizon; second, the conversation has already turned to whether she will have to return for further tax rises in the autumn. Meanwhile, her