Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Wednesday

Madeline Grant

Keir Starmer is not waving but drowning at PMQs

Benjamin Disraeli once observed that the difference between a misfortune and a calamity was that if Mr Gladstone fell in the Thames it would be a misfortune, but if someone pulled him out it would be a calamity. As the government moves indisputably from being victims of misfortune to being agents of calamity, so we might recycle the quip about Sir Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister today entered his ‘not waving but drowning’ era. And he is, to use the sort of girlboss gibbering signalling which his MPs routinely resort to, slaying it. Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was, deliciously, one of his worst yet. Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was, deliciously,

Isabel Hardman

Badenoch still has a Herculean task ahead of her

Kemi Badenoch’s good form at Prime Minister’s Questions continues. The Tory leader visibly enjoyed herself again today as she feasted on Labour’s misfortune, and she did a good job in covering the breadth of problems in the government. She used her six questions to ask about different departments and how they were faring: an approach that can often risk diluting the overall attack. But today, Badenoch had an overarching theme to those questions, which was that the Prime Minister and his colleagues are failing to meet their own promises. The way she illustrated that argument was very effective. Badenoch opened by quoting Labour MPs criticising Starmer, something that is becoming

Tom Slater

The celebrity ECHR letter is pious posturing

Would someone please think of the luvvies? While the rest of the nation is furious about our out-of-control borders and the heinous crimes committed by those who should never have been allowed to stay here in the first place, the Great and Good are furious that the government is taking even modest steps to try to clean up this mess. Justice Secretary David Lammy is meeting his fellow European ministers in Strasbourg today to discuss reforms to how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is being interpreted by the continent’s courts. In response to this, Michael Palin, Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley and assorted other celebrities have made their disquiet known to Downing Street. ‘The European

James Heale

Kemi wins PMQs

12 min listen

Kemi Badenoch’s good form continues at Prime Minister’s Questions. The Tory leader was once more visibly enjoying herself today as she feasted on Labour misfortune, and she did a good job in covering the breadth of problems in the government. She used her six questions to ask about different departments and how they were faring: an approach that can often risk diluting the overall attack. But today, Badenoch had an overarching theme to those questions, which was that the Prime Minister and his colleagues are failing to meet their own promises.  To discuss, James Heale is joined by Tim Shipman and Michael Simmons.

Lucy Dunn

Rachel Reeves: There were too many Budget leaks

There were ‘too many leaks’ ahead of the autumn Budget, Rachel Reeves admitted this morning as she faced MPs on the Treasury Select Committee. The Chancellor acknowledged there had been ‘too much speculation’ before her statement last month which was ‘inaccurate [and] very damaging’. Much of the scrutiny focused on reports that the Treasury had considered raising income tax, in what would have been a clear breach of Labour’s manifesto promises last year. In an unprecedented scene-setting speech on 4 November – three weeks before the Budget – Reeves dropped heavy hints about income tax rises. However, nine days later, it emerged this was not in fact going to happen,

Ian Acheson

Mahmood must not waste her chance to reform the police

The Home Secretary is feeling the collars of our 43 chief constables. Shabana Mahmood has let it be known that she favours a dramatic reduction in police forces in England and Wales to as few as 12. Her comments come ahead of the publication of a white paper on policing in the new year. The white paper has, in typical fashion, been delayed because – in a style now familiar to both her admirers and detractors – Mahmood wishes to be bolder than the many previous attempts to reform policing which have become stuck in the bureaucratic glue over the past few decades. We do need urgent reform in policing

Patrick West

Pantone’s 'colour of the year' isn't racist

For those of you dreaming of a white Christmas, here’s some advice: keep your thoughts to yourselves. Or at least select carefully who you share such sentiments with. That’s because there are some people today who even find the concept ‘white’ offensive and unacceptable. For those of you dreaming of a white Christmas, here’s some advice: keep your thoughts to yourselves Pantone has nominated a shade of white – ‘Cloud Dancer’ – as its 2026 ‘Colour of the Year’, describing it as ‘a symbol of calming influence in a frenetic society’. That alone would seem unremarkable, seeming to be just one of those harmless and inane corporate publicity ruses that

Danny Shaw

Could Shabana Mahmood merge the police into 12 forces?

‘The 43-force structure is no longer fit for purpose. In the interests of the efficiency and effectiveness of policing it should change.’ That was the conclusion of a review of the police service of England and Wales in September 2005 conducted by the independent policing watchdog, then known as HMIC. The findings led Tony Blair’s government to attempt a massive reorganisation of policing which at one stage would have involved merging police forces to create 12 larger ones. However, the merger plans became mired in controversy before being abandoned and the ‘change’ recommended by HMIC never happened. Twenty years on, the lessons from that botched reform process must be learned

Steerpike

Reform support in Scotland rises again

Another day, another bad poll for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party. With less than six months until the Scottish parliament election, pollsters are ramping up their research north of the border. The latest Holyrood voting intention poll to have dropped is from Ipsos Scotland, carried out between 27 November and 3 December, which shows the gap between SNP and Scottish Labour has widened further. Constituency voting data shows that the Nats are consistently picking up more than a third of the vote on 35 per cent – while Labour has dropped seven points since June to sit 16 per cent. Crikey! And that spells good news for Reform UK –

Alexander Horne

Keir Starmer's call for ECHR reform is a risky gamble

Ahead of a Council of Europe summit in Strasbourg today to discuss the future scope of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Keir Starmer has called for ‘practical action’ to fix the asylum system and deal with irregular migration. In a joint letter with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, Starmer argued that ‘modernisation’ of the ECHR is essential and that the Convention system needs to ‘evolve to reflect the challenges of the 21st century’. The two leaders acknowledged that responsible progressive governments need to ‘control our borders’ in order to ‘protect our democracies’. This is a tacit admission that Labour is concerned that Conservative and Reform UK proposals

Terry Barnes

Will Australia's social media ban work?

It’s all too easy to get hooked by the online world, to fall headlong into it, to spend hour upon hour immersed in it. Cyberspace has its good, but also much bad. Staying in control of their social media lives is difficult enough for many adults, but for children it can be an especially dangerous world in which to dwell. Too often children are glued to their phones and devices, staring, scrolling, disengaged from the world around them. Too many children are exposed to online harm, including bullying, grooming and shaming. Appallingly, too many children are emotionally and psychologically damaged from social media exposure. Terribly, and tragically, some have taken

Owen Matthews

Europe’s kind words and bear hugs can't save Zelensky

If bear hugs were army divisions and brave words cash euros, Volodymyr Zelensky would have ended his tour of European capitals this week the best-armed and best-funded leader in the world. Zelensky faces the danger that giving too much to Putin would make Ukraine ungovernable ‘We stand with Ukraine,’ vowed Sir Keir Starmer after hosting a summit for President Zelensky and top European allies at Downing Street on Monday. ‘We support you in the conflict and support you in the negotiations to make sure that this is a just and lasting settlement.’ Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that ‘nobody should doubt our support for Ukraine’ and that ‘the destiny of

Joanna Williams

Harry Potter doesn't need a trigger warning

Take my advice and steer clear of your local university. It is not just the flu that’s spreading on campus. Last month, an outbreak of trigger warnings occurred at the University of Essex. Up they popped, warning literature students about ‘violence, slavery, racism, and suicide’ in Hamlet, A Clockwork Orange and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Those infected showed signs of ignorance and hysteria. Now the plague has spread to Glasgow. Students at this ancient university are being warned that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first in J. K. Rowling’s series about the boy wizard, contains ‘outdated attitudes, abuse and language’. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Treasure Seekers

Michael Simmons

Post-Budget briefing: what will it mean for your finances?

40 min listen

In the wake of an extraordinary Budget – leaked an hour before the Chancellor addressed Parliament – The Spectator brings clarity to a turbulent political and take stock of how the announcements will impact you. Michael Simmons speaks with John Porteous of Charles Stanley and James Nation, formerly of the Treasury and No. 10, to discuss how the events unfolded and the deeper implications for long-term financial planning, taxation and market confidence. The conversation explores whether the government’s approach represents a credible fiscal strategy, what savers and investors should infer from changes to ISAs and pensions, and whether concerns about a growing UK ‘brain drain’ are justified. This podcast was

Michael Gove

Has Reform peaked? – racism allegations & Farage's toughest week yet

45 min listen

After a summer in which Nigel Farage seemed to bend the news cycle to his will, Michael and Maddie ask whether the party’s momentum is slipping. Do the allegations dredged up from Farage’s schooldays mark a decisive turning point – or, perversely, strengthen his outsider appeal? And with questions over Reform’s election spending, defections from the Conservatives, and the small matter of finding 500 people to staff a government, is the insurgent right entering its moment of vulnerability? Then: two stories that lay bare a crisis in women’s healthcare. Baroness Amos’s damning interim review of maternity services and the astonishing employment tribunal ruling in the Sandy Peggie case raise the

Tuesday

James Heale

Farage and Bardella's small boats pact

What will European politics look like in 2029? Nigel Farage is hoping that it resembles something like the pictures he posed for in London today, shaking hands and flashing smiles with Jordan Bardella, the president of France’s National Rally (RN). Both men are part of a pan-continental trend of radical parties challenging their established rivals to gain power in the years ahead. For Bardella, the crunch year is 2027, when President Macron’s term in the Élysée is up. Polls show Bardella is the RN frontrunner, with Reform keen to learn the lessons of best practice. The two men had never met before but they shared a convivial lunch at 5

Steerpike

Stella Creasy’s bizarre job advert

Labour MP Stella Creasy is hiring for a senior campaigns manger, and the job specifications are quite something. The Walthamstow parliamentarian is looking for someone who can help her ‘make change happen’ (where have we heard that before?), is opposed to ‘rage bait TikToks’ and understands why politicians have their ‘flaws and frustrations’. Handy knowledge if you’re planning to work for a Labour MP, eh? The rather bizarre advert is offering a salary of between £45,000-£50,000 a year for a ‘creative and campaigning’ worker who enjoys using Canva. The description lists the following attributes as desirable: An understanding of why ragebait tik tok videos are no substitute for evidence and

Isabel Hardman

From grooming gangs to maternity safety: how the British state is failing

Is anyone happy with the latest maternity safety report, published by Baroness Amos today? The former UN diplomat says the standard of care that she has found so far in the NHS has been ‘much worse’ than she’d anticipated. This is quite striking, given the appalling findings of the many reviews that have already taken place into failings in maternity units across England. You might expect this review to merely have confirmed what has already been uncovered. From grooming gangs to maternity safety to unsafe housing, the intrays of Whitehall are groaning under ‘recommendations’ But many campaigners have responded to Amos’s interim report with a weariness and frustration. Victims of

Druin Burch

Is racism to blame for the NHS maternity crisis?

‘Nothing prepared me,’ said Baroness Amos as she released her ‘reflections and initial impressions’ about England’s maternity and neonatal services, ‘for the scale of unacceptable care that women and families have received, and continue to receive, the tragic consequences for their babies, and the impact on their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing.’ Amos’s words today paint a bleak picture of English maternity services, staffed by people who often don’t care, don’t listen, and deliver worse outcomes for the working class and people who aren’t white. It’s a picture that many parents – including myself – recognise. But is it right to suggest that black mums are being discriminated by the

Steerpike

Plaid and Welsh Labour strike Senedd deal

December is a time for spirits aplenty. But has the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come visited early this year? Over in Cardiff Bay, it seems that a deal has been struck to pass a budget in the Welsh parliament. After a humiliating thumping in the Caerphilly by-election, the incumbent Labour government currently lacks a majority to push through its legislation. But now Plaid Cymru has ridden to the rescue. The two sides are believed to have sketched out an agreement, which should mean Labour avoids a defeat when their spending plans are put to a vote in January. This is a likely precursor to what we can expect next