Politics

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

Monday

Patrick West

Stop saying ‘Our BBC’

One of the most grating and nauseating verbal constructions of our times – ‘Our NHS’ – has with grim inevitability began to evolve and expand. It was only a matter of time before someone or some organisation deemed it necessary to affix that possessive determiner to another state-run organisation, and you hardly need to guess which one. ‘A GB News presenter has said the BBC should hand “several million pounds” of licence-fee payers money to Donald Trump. We must defend our BBC from those who want to destroy it.’ So ran a post on Friday on from the official X account of the Liberal Democrats. Elsewhere, its leader Ed Davey

Sunday

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: Mahmood’s migration ‘moral mission’

Tomorrow Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, is set to announce changes to Britain’s asylum system, designed to discourage those who arrive through illegal routes. Those changes will include making housing and financial assistance ‘discretionary’ so that they can be denied to those who are able to work, and increasing the length of time asylum seekers have to wait before they can apply to settle permanently to 20 years. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Mahmood how she responded to the accusation that she is being ‘panicked into a racist immigration policy’. The Home Secretary rejected the claim, saying this is a ‘moral mission’ for her as the child

Sam Meadows

Chile flirts with a rightward turn

A border ‘ditch’ may prove to be the thing that brings the right back to power in Chile. Although the communist-affiliated candidate Jeannette Jara leads the polls going into this weekend’s election, a second-round run-off seems almost certain, with a consolidated right-wing alliance – running on a platform to cut illegal immigration – likely to win the final showdown. Jose Antonio Kast, the leading right-wing candidate, is a hardliner who admires both Donald Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. He has promised to rule with ‘mano dura’ (an iron fist). He says drug dealers will be held in in solitary confinement and has pledged to construct a series of

Jonathan Spyer

Why Israel fears Turkey’s involvement in Gaza

As the Gaza ceasefire struggles into its second month, a significant difference between the position of Israel and that of its chief ally, the United States, on the way forward is emerging. This difference reflects broader gaps in perception in Jerusalem and Washington regarding the nature and motivations of the current forces engaged in the Middle East. The subject of that difference is Turkey.   The Turks have expressed a desire to play a role in the ‘international stabilisation force’ (ISF), which, according to President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, is supposed to take over ground security control of Gaza from the IDF (and Hamas) in the framework of the plan’s implementation.

Mani Basharzad

An independent Bank of England isn’t working

Andrew Bailey recently claimed that the Bank of England has saved the government £125 billion. The Bank’s governor was responding to criticism from Reform deputy leader Richard Tice that the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street has cost taxpayers a fortune. Just weeks earlier, Reform leader Nigel Farage questioned the very idea of central bank independence, suggesting he might replace Bailey if he became prime minister. So is the Bank of England too independent for its own good? Independence, once a shield against politics, has become a licence for technocracy The concept of central bank ‘independence’ has certainly morphed into something it was never intended to be. Independence wasn’t about granting unelected officials

Niko Vorobyov

Greyhound racing is on its last lap

The trap draws open. The long, slender bodies of the greyhounds bolt out in pursuit of the taunting, mechanical hare as a thunderous cheer erupts from the roaring crowd. But over the years, that roar has gotten quieter. Dog racing, once a form of public entertainment more popular than the cinema, is on its last legs. Dog racing, once a form of public entertainment more popular than the cinema, is on its last legs ‘At one time in the UK it was the second-most popular sport behind football,’ said Greg Cruttwell, director of a documentary film on the sport, Going to the Dogs. ‘It has a unique place in British

Saturday

Andrew Lilico

Starmer’s EU ‘reset’ risks playing into Reform’s hands

Keir Starmer’s ‘reset’ talks between the UK and EU are continuing. Having agreed in principle to renewing the post-Brexit diplomatic and economic relationship in May, there is now negotiation over the details. Naturally enough, some of these negotiations concern money – and specifically how much the UK will pay to Brussels. Many EU programmes require funding for complex administration – the processes and institutions agreeing, detailing and enforcing common rules – and set-aside funds to deal with contingencies. Obviously the UK isn’t seeking to rejoin the EU as a whole, so its participation in these programmes will be circumscribed and, accordingly, any financial contribution it makes will be likewise less

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Why are the worst politicians always so beautiful?

There’s not one damn thing I like about New York’s mayor Zohran Mamdani. I don’t like his politics, his religion, his flagrantly daft promises. And I absolutely hate the fact that – while not my type – he is, objectively, extremely good-looking. Aren’t there any politicians I like who look good? Is it just me, or is it always irritating when people whose politics you hate are easy on the eye? Justin ruddy Trudeau – again, not my type, but so cardigan-catalogue male-modelly that he could even get away being caught in blackface again by going on TV and simply looking sad. That Canada’s ex-PM has ended up with Katy

Rosa Freedman

What UCL’s blood libel lecture says about Britain

This week at one of Britain’s most prestigious universities, an academic has been accused of sitting in front of a room full of students and recounting a blood libel. Dr Samar Maqusi allegedly used a University College London classroom to teach that in 1840 Jews killed a monk in Damascus to use his blood to make food for Passover. This is the state of UK universities in 2025. Since 7 October, Jewish people have been under grim and regular attack at Britain’s universities. Their assailants didn’t just want the war in Gaza to end; they don’t just want to see a Palestinian state. Their true aim is the removal of

Nigel Jones

Did Hitler really have only ‘one ball’?

Everyone knows the rhyme about Adolf Hitler. The popular ribald wartime song, beloved of school children, has it that: ‘Hitler has only got one ball/ The other is in the Albert Hall/ Himmler is very similar/ And poor old Goebbels has no balls at all!’. The rhyme works, but is it right? A two-part Channel 4 documentary airing tonight suggests the verse about the Nazi dictator might not be entirely fictitious. Now that same science has been deployed to help explain the deeds of the biggest criminal of them all: Adolf Hitler Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator uses an analysis of his DNA to suggest he suffered from Kallmann

Charlie Taylor

Why are so many prisoners accidentally released? With H.M. Chief Inspector of Prisons

15 min listen

Britain’s prisons are a legislative problem that has beset successive governments. New revelations show 91 accidental early releases in just six months, the latest in a growing pattern of administrative chaos across the criminal justice system. Between drones delivering drugs, crumbling Victorian buildings, exhausted staff and an ever more convoluted sentencing regime, what is the cause of so many blunders? And what will Labour’s promised reforms actually fix – and are more crises inevitable? James Heale speaks to Charlie Taylor, H.M. Chief Inspector of Prisons. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Megan McElroy.

John Power

John Power, Madeline Grant, Ysenda Maxtone-Graham, Calvin Po & Gus Carter

33 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: John Power examines the rise in drug abuse and homelessness on British streets; Madeline Grant explains the allure of Hollywood radical Sydney Sweeney; Ysenda Maxtone Graham laments the rise of the on-the-day party flake; Calvin Po warns of a war on Britain’s historic architecture; and Gus Carter reads his Notes on the brasserie chain Browns.

Friday

Tim Shipman

Keir Starmer’s omnishambles government

What a week. Seven days ago, we were wondering what Rachel Reeves was up to with her pre-Budget messaging. At the start of this week the future of the Prime Minister was seriously called into doubt with a bunch of calamitous late-night briefings to the media. At the end of the daftest seven days in British politics since 2022, it’s as if the Chancellor called up No. 10 and said: ‘Hold my beer.’ At 10 p.m. yesterday, the FT – the constitutionally expected route through which the Treasury leaks – revealed that Labour is ditching plans to raise income tax by 2p in the pound. One Labour MP noted: ‘We rolled the

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The Jewish blood libel is back. Its return should trouble us all

It’s back. The lie that led to the slaughter of so many Jews has returned to public life. The calumny that caused so much anti-Jewish persecution, expulsion and bloodshed has stirred, zombie-like, from its historic slumber. Jews drain the blood of Christians and use it to make bread – incredibly, unconscionably, this most appalling falsehood has returned. It is obscene that such words are being uttered on a university campus in 2025 At University College London (UCL) this week, a lecture was given in which it was allegedly suggested that Jews murder Gentiles and use their blood in perverse rituals. The comments were made by Samar Maqusi, a US academic.

Tim Shipman

What is going on in the Treasury!?

15 min listen

With less than a fortnight to go until the Budget, it seems Rachel Reeves has performed an almighty U-turn. At the beginning of the week, the established consensus in Westminster was that the base rate of income tax would rise, breaking Labour’s flagship manifesto pledge. The Chancellor had already rolled the pitch, holding a press conference at which she warned ‘each of us must do our bit’. But the Financial Times – Reeves’ newspaper of choice – reports today that she has ‘ripped up’ her plans. Why the sudden change of heart? Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Tim Shipman. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Patrick West

Why can’t the BBC just say sorry?

A famous pop star once sang that sorry seemed to be the hardest word. Almost fifty years after Elton John uttered those sentiments, nothing has changed. Saying sorry for your own errors or moral transgressions remains for many individuals and organisations an almost impossible task. Saying sorry for your own errors or moral transgressions remains for many individuals and organisations an almost impossible task The BBC’s reputed apology to Donald Trump, for having spliced a speech of his from January 2021, is an instructive example of how and why people will dodge this substantial and consequential word. ‘While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was

Henry Donovan

Why German conscription should worry Britain

For years, Germany, like Britain, has drifted through history as though nothing could ever again disturb its peace. The world outside was assumed to be orderly, rational, restrained. Conflict was something that happened elsewhere. The Bundeswehr, neglected to the point of embarrassment, became a case study in strategic complacency. Germany’s political class preferred moral posturing to the dull, necessary business of national defence. Some fear that conscription is merely a prelude to sending Germany’s youth into war And as long as Russia was merely grumbling at its neighbours rather than invading them, Berlin convinced itself it could go on like this forever. Those days are over. And Germany, finally –

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: David Davis attacks veteran prosecutions

It has been another bad week for the government. Growth down to 0.1 per cent, a briefing war engulfing No. 10 and now the Budget plans in crisis too. So amid all the various dramas, one story has gone somewhat under the radar. Nine four-star generals signed an open letter to the Times – timed to coincide with Armistice Day – warning that ‘lawfare’ and the erosion of soldiers’ trust in the legal system is a direct national security threat. A warning Sir Keir would do well to heed… One of those leading the charge against veteran prosecutions is Sir David Davis, the veteran Tory MP. He secured an adjournment

Matthew Lynn

The damage from Reeves’s ‘exit tax’ idea has been done

It appears that Rachel Reeves has scrapped her plans for an ‘exit tax’ that would impose a huge levy on entrepreneurs leaving the UK – at least for now. But is anyone actually going to be fooled by that? Once the concept has been leaked, the only rational response is to get out while you still can.  With less than two weeks left before the Budget, no one seems to have any idea what might be in it, including, slightly alarmingly, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The briefings change minute by minute. Even so, it appears that plans for an ‘exit tax’ have been quietly shelved. The Treasury has worked out

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Zarah Sultana squirms on BBC

‘Ohhhhh Jeremy Corbyn!’ Where would Mr S be without him eh? The grift that keeps on giving has been in full flow this month, with the organisers of ‘Your Party’ determined to get their operation up and running prove. At a meeting last week, poor old Jezza’s wife had to step in and wrestle the microphone of one attendee, all underneath a big banner emblazoned with the word ‘UNITED’. No wonder some of Corbyn’s allies think that some of their comrades are secretly MI5 controlled opposition… Still, if you thought the magic Grandpa was bad, that is nothing compared to his prickly spiritual offspring. Zarah Sultana, Coventry’s answer to Citizen