Politics

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

Wednesday

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

Why Kashmir’s jihadists are targeting tourists

At least 26 tourists were killed in a militant attack on the town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday. Responsibility for the massacre at the popular tourist destination has been claimed on social media by a militant group called the Resistance Front (TRF), reportedly as a response to ‘Indian settlement’ in the region. According to eyewitnesses, the militants verified the religion of their victims, before eliminating non-Muslims. The massacre was a throwback to the jihadist violence of the 1990s that saw the cleansing of Kashmir’s local Hindu population from the Muslim-majority region. The attack has overlapped with US vice president J.D. Vance’s trip to New Delhi, and Indian prime

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Starmer refuses to apologise to Rosie Duffield

Well, well, well. The Prime Minister’s nonsensical flip-flopping on the trans issue has been laid out for all to see and yet Sir Keir Starmer is still refusing to apologise for his dithering on the gender debate. More than that, he has today refused to say sorry for his emphatic opposition to the views (with which he now apparently agrees) of his former colleague and women’s rights campaigner Rosie Duffield. In a strong PMQs performance this afternoon, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch tore into Starmer over his gender U-turn. And despite the PM being given multiple opportunities to apologise for his earlier claims that it was ‘not right’ to say only

James Heale James Heale

What did Robert Jenrick mean by his Tory-Reform ‘coalition’ comments?

Robert Jenrick just cannot stay out of the headlines. Today, the shadow justice secretary is under-fire for comments made to UCL students last month in which critics claim he endorsed a potential Tory-Reform ‘coalition’. In remarks first reported by Sky News, Jenrick said that: [Reform UK] continues to do well in the polls. And my worry is that they become a kind of permanent or semi-permanent fixture on the British political scene. And if that is the case, and I say, I am trying to do everything I can to stop that being the case, then life becomes a lot harder for us, because the right is not united… I

Oscar Edmondson

St George’s Day: who is the most patriotic leader?

15 min listen

Happy St George’s Day! To celebrate, we thought we would discuss who is the most patriotic political leader — and why some struggle to communicate their love of country. Keir Starmer declared in an interview with the Mirror this morning that Labour is ‘the patriotic party’. This follows a more concerted effort from those within the party to become more comfortable with the flag. But is Keir Starmer actually a patriot? How will the ‘battle of the Union Jack’ play out at the local elections? And does Reform have a point to prove when it comes to patriotism? Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Claire Ainsley, former executive director of policy

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour minister admits to PM’s ‘confusion’ over trans issue

Ding ding ding! Sparks were flying this morning on Sky News as host Wilfred Frost interviewed the rather combative Home Office minister Diana Johnson about last week’s Supreme Court judgment – which backed the biological definition of a woman. The duo entered into a tense back-and-forth on Sir Keir Starmer’s belated reaction to it all – six days after the ruling, as Mr S noted yesterday – with Johnson eventually admitting that the PM’s dithering on the definition of a woman had contributed to the ‘confusion’ around the trans debate. Better late than never, eh? Today’s interview follows last Wednesday’s news that Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled that ‘woman’ and

Matthew Lynn

Donald Trump has bowed to the markets

A deal will be worked out with China to reduce the tariffs. The chairman of the Federal Reserve won’t be fired. Over the last 24 hours, President Trump has softened his stance on two key planks of his economic policy. It is not hard to work out why. For all the bluster, Trump is ultimately a pragmatist – and that makes him a president the financial markets will live with.  The financial markets have soared today, and the dollar has recovered, while gold, the safe haven in troubled times, has dropped by $100 an ounce. The reason? A dramatic shift in American policy. In China, the escalating trade war had

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Is net zero possible without slave labour?

So, Ed Miliband has relented, and decided that after all it is not a good idea to build his green energy revolution on the back of slave labour in the Uighur region of China. Miliband had refused to back a Lords amendment to the Great British Energy Bill, first reported by Steerpike, which would have forced the putative government-owned green energy company to address the use of slave labour in its supply chains – Labour MPs were ordered to vote against it. Now the Energy and Climate Change Secretary has produced his own amendment to much the same effect. It is a victory for campaigners against modern slavery and also

Alexander Larman

Putin’s tacky gift to Trump reveals his dark sense of humour

For all his many faults, Vladimir Putin is not without a jet-black sense of humour. The Russian president has given Donald Trump a painting. Many might have expected this to be a traditional piece of Russian art, depicting some rural scene, or perhaps something more avant-garde, from the contemporary Moscow movement. But no; Putin has instead sent Trump a picture of the aftermath of his assassination attempt last July. The portrait, by Russian artist Nikas Safronov, is not what most people would call tasteful or accomplished. It depicts the president (notably slimmer and younger-looking than in reality) holding up a clenched fist in a gesture of defiance. Trump stands in

Steerpike Steerpike

When will Starmer apologise to Rosie Duffield?

It is Prime Minister’s Questions today and there is certainly much for Kemi Badenoch to go on. From increased government borrowing to the IMF’s UK downgrade, there is a veritable smorgasbord of failure for her to choose from. But Mr S wonders if there might be a more personal angle for Badenoch, following Keir Starmer’s six-day silence over the Supreme Court trans ruling… For yesterday in the House of Commons, Badenoch used Bridget Phillipson’s statement – a masterclass in gaslighting – to turn her guns on Labour. She noted Starmer’s years of flip-flopping on gender issues and raised the specific question of Rosie Duffield: one of the ‘few female Labour

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Britain’s borrowing is spiralling out of control

Britain borrowed nearly £152 billion in the financial year to March – almost £21 billion more than at the same point in the last financial year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The latest public finance figures reveal that borrowing in March was the third highest since records began in 1993. Crucially, it’s also nearly £15 billion more than what the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had expected for this point in the financial year. The £9.9 billion headroom Rachel Reeves left herself at the Spring Statement already looks to be in serious doubt. The current budget deficit, which is borrowing to fund day-to-day spending and the metric

Terry Barnes

Could Trump cost Australia’s Liberals victory?

Since Australia’s general election was called by Labor prime minister Anthony Albanese at the end of March, the contest for the 3 May poll has been an uninspiring one. Voters must choose between a mediocre Labor government that overpromised and woefully underdelivered since coming to office in 2022, and an underprepared and underpowered conservative opposition. Just two months ago, it seemed the electorate’s anger with Labor was going to do what has not happened in Australia since the height of the Great Depression: turf out a first-term federal government. Liberal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, effectively had set the national agenda since Dutton opposed Albanese’s 2023 divisive referendum to give Aboriginal

Debbie Hayton

Starmer’s words about ‘trans women’ are too little, too late

When will Keir Starmer finally show some leadership over the most fundamental distinction in human society: the difference between men and women? The Prime Minister’s silence after the Supreme Court judgement last week had been deafening. The ruling – which stated that sex is binary – brought clarity and restored sanity; it’s a pity the same could not be said about the PM’s thinking when it comes to defining what a woman is. When put on the spot by ITV News in an interview yesterday, and asked: ‘Do you believe a transwoman is a woman?’, Starmer could not give a straight answer. The correct response, of course, is ‘no’ and

Owen Matthews

Why London’s Russia-Ukraine ceasefire talks will fail

There’s one key thing that one should know about Ukraine peace talks scheduled to begin in London today, and that is that they will fail. The reason is simple: Volodymyr Zelensky is being asked to concede Russia’s legal possession of the Crimean peninsula which Moscow annexed in 2014. And Ukraine’s president has said, in the most emphatic possible terms, that he will not do it. Zelensky cannot accept it because such a concession will be political suicide That’s not because Zelensky is pig-headed, a warmonger, or refuses to accept the reality that there is no way for Ukraine ever to recover the lost peninsula. Zelensky cannot accept because such a

Jacob Heilbrunn

Why Trump won’t fire Pete Hegseth – yet

On Monday, the liberal outlet National Public Radio reported that Donald Trump’s administration was looking for a replacement for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. This report may in fact have helped shield Hegseth from being sacked for having arranged a second Signal chat group about impending war plans for Yemen that apparently included his wife, Jennifer, his brother, Phil and personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore. The White House has embarked upon a full-scale offensive to defend Hegseth as a victim of a nefarious deep-state plot intent on undermining the President and his aides. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was first off the mark. She depicted Hegseth as a figure of valour.

Iain Macwhirter

Reform and the SNP have much in common

“Storm clouds are gathering. We can all see them.” No, not Winston Churchill on the rise of the Nazis in Europe, but John Swinney on the march of the “far right” in Scotland. Today, the First Minister will host a “mobilisation of mainstream Scotland” against Reform and its “racist” leader, Nigel Farage, who he says, in all seriousness, could be “the next Prime Minister.” The man the Scottish left loves to hate will no doubt be at a bar toasting Swinney’s prediction Swinney’s breathless scaremongering is because Reform is making progress in his own backyard. A Survation poll places them at 17 per cent in the constituency vote for the

Robin Ashenden

Is Labour taking Britain back to the 1970s?

As the Birmingham binmen’s strike, full on since 11 March, grinds well into its second month, there is talk of similar action spreading nationwide. A crop of lurid headlines have been appearing in the press: ‘My Mercedes was destroyed by rats’, exclaims the Daily Telegraph, while the Daily Star announces that ‘Psycho seagulls and super rats team up to spread disease in Birmingham trash mountains.’ Residents, meanwhile, have begun to complain about marauding urban foxes, and of infestations of cockroaches and ‘rats as big as cats.’ With Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner calling in the army to help with the crisis, there is, as so often with Keir Starmer’s government, a

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Kemi eviscerates Labour over trans u-turn

Talk about a turn-up for the books. In an unusual breach with convention, it was Kemi Badenoch rising for HM Loyal Opposition this afternoon to respond to Bridget Phillipson’s statement in response to the Supreme Court ruling last week. But the Tory leader – whose conviction on same-sex spaces has been applauded by JK Rowling among others – certainly made it a moment to remember as she tore into the government for its cowardice on this issue. Badenoch said: I could not believe my eyes or my ears this afternoon. In 2021 the prime minister said it is not right to say only women have a cervix. In 2022 he

Henry Hill

Social care funding is broken

Kemi Badenoch, pressed on the Today programme about the leisurely pace of her policy agenda, and the looming council elections, insisted on Tuesday morning that ‘welfare is not a local government issue’. On the ballot instead, she suggested, were such issues as ‘who’s fixing the roads, potholes, [and] adult social care’. This answer seems plausible, and that tells us much about what has gone so wrong with local government, and the increasingly huge democratic deficit in our local politics. For adult social care is a welfare issue. It is true that town halls do not govern capital-W Welfare, narrowly conceived in terms of Universal Credit, Pension Credit, et al. Nor

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: James O’Brien’s bizarre migrant stats rant

Another day, another rant by lefty loudmouth James O’Brien. Today LBC’s eviscerator-in-chief has decided to take issue with Labour’s decision to publish migrant crime league tables, fuming that ‘I don’t know what else this is designed to do but to feed hatred’ before demanding: ‘Are they going to publish the fact that the massive majority of crimes in this country are committed by non-foreigners?’ Talk about missing the point… Home Office Yvette Cooper has instructed government officials to publish the first detailed breakdown of offences committed by foreign criminals in the UK while they await deportation. The upcoming data dump will help shed light on some of the worst foreign

Natasha Feroze

Does Starmer know what a woman is?

12 min listen

Parliament is back after the Easter holiday and the Supreme Court ruling over what is a woman continues to dominate talk in Westminster. The Prime Minister has changed his tune on trans, declaring he does not think that trans women are women. This has caused some disquiet in the party, with a number of senior MPs breaking rank over the weekend. Was Starmer right to row in behind the ruling? Also on the podcast, as we edge closer to the local elections, they look increasingly important for the two main parties. Pollsters are forecasting a good result for smaller insurgent parties such as Reform and the Greens, with big losses