Politics

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

Tuesday

28 Oct 2025

Steerpike

Andy Burnham attacks Starmer (again)

Andy Burnham is back. After his humiliation at Labour conference, the Mayor of Greater Manchester has returned, hawking his conscience around once more. At last night’s London launch of his new book, Head North: A Rallying Cry for a More Equal Britain, co-written with Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram, Burnham attacked Starmer again. He criticised the ‘narrow and shallow’ way the Prime Minister runs his government, citing the handling of the two-child benefit cap rebellion. Though Mr S doubts No. 10 will heed Bottler Burnham’s advice… ‘No one lost the whip under Brown or Blair,’ Burnham complained when asked about the case of backbench rebel Ian Byrne. He then went further, arguing

Eliot Wilson

Is Keir Starmer right to sell Typhoon jets to Turkey?

Sir Keir Starmer is proving to be an unlucky prime minister. This week began with a demonstration of his haplessness. The Prime Minister travelled to Ankara to announce an £8 billion deal to supply the Turkish air force with 20 new Eurofighter Typhoons, beginning in 2030. Yet the political headlines in Britain were full of other more embarrassing issues: the collapsed China spy trial case, the accidental release of a convicted sex offender due for deportation, the aftermath of Labour’s humiliating loss of the Senedd seat in the Caerphilly by-election. The commercial deal with Turkey is important. Starmer described it in his strange, resentful, maundering way as ‘the biggest fighter

Steerpike

Labour polls at record low

When it rains for the Labour lot, it pours. Today’s YouGov poll for the Times shows Nigel Farage’s Reform UK with a ten point lead on the current party of government, with Labour tied with the Tories. More than that, the survey of 2,400 adults found that half of all those who supported Sir Keir Starmer’s army at the last election have since turned their backs on the reds. It’s yet another blow for Sir Keir – and his Chancellor hasn’t even announced her budget yet! The polling, carried out on 26 and 27 October, shows that almost a third of Britons would back Reform if a general election were

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Hamas’s hostage remains deception is a new low

The grotesque return of a body part falsely presented as one of Israel’s remaining hostages marks a new low in Hamas’s campaign of calculated cruelty. Israeli authorities confirmed today that the casket transferred by Hamas did not contain the remains of any of the 13 captives whose remains are still known to be in Gaza. The part belonged instead to Ofir Tzarfati, a 27-year-old abducted from the Nova music festival and buried in Israel last December. Ofir’s body had already been recovered and laid to rest in Kiryat Ata. His headstone, chosen by his grieving family, bore a line that now seems almost unbearably tragic: ‘You were a world and

Matthew Lynn

A tariff alliance won’t stop Britain’s steel industry collapsing

The British steel industry has been staggering from one crisis to another for the whole of this year. Half of the industry has fallen into effective state control, and what’s left is teetering on the edge of collapse. The government has finally come up with a plan to rescue it. In collaboration with the US and EU, it wants to create a ‘ring of steel’ protecting all the major Western industries from cheap Asian imports. It sounds simple enough, but there is just one catch. This plan won’t do anything to fix soaring domestic costs – and that is the real problem. The government certainly needs to do something to

Melisa Tourt

Farage’s parliamentary grooming gang inquiry won’t work

Nigel Farage’s call this week for parliament to seize control of the grooming-gangs inquiry sounds superficially compelling. The government’s statutory inquiry has stumbled – survivors have resigned, the chair has stepped down, and momentum appears lost. Why not, Farage argues, bypass this chaos with a parliamentary investigation that can summon witnesses, operate transparently, and confront uncomfortable truths about ethnicity that others will not touch? Unfortunately, replacing a flawed process with a fundamentally unsuitable one does not constitute progress – merely a different type of institutional failure. Farage’s proposal, unveiled alongside resigned survivor advocate Ellie-Ann Reynolds, positions a select committee inquiry as the antidote to bureaucratic paralysis. The template, though Farage

Ross Clark

Rachel Reeves is doing her best to paralyse the housing market

We are still four weeks away from the Budget and already we have had virtually every tax rise floated before us by Treasury leaks. This is presumably in the hope of managing our expectations so that if we think the Budget is going to be really, really dreadful, we will be pathetically grateful to Reeves when it turns out merely to be fairly dreadful. Is the Chancellor really intending to impose an annual mansion tax of 0.1 per cent of the value of every home above £2 million? It plays to the Labour gallery alright; maybe the idea has even come from the undead at the heart of the cabinet:

Luke Tryl

Is the rise of Reform unstoppable?

The rise of Reform UK has at times seemed to defy gravity. From winning four million votes at the general election last year to emerging as the largest party at this year’s local elections, they have broken through ceiling after ceiling. What’s more, as the only party regularly hitting 30 per cent in the polls, in an era of mass electoral fragmentation, Reform could secure a landslide election victory, as across the UK seven parties split the vote between them. Is Reform’s rise unstoppable? Granted, we are still likely some three years out from another general election, but the contours of that vote do already seem to be coming into view,

Gareth Roberts

Labour is living in a fantasy Britain

What imaginary country does Labour’s new deputy leader, Lucy Powell, live in? When Powell was crowned as the official thorn-in-the-side of Keir Starmer – as if he needed one – this weekend, she painted a picture of a Britain frustrated at the slow pace of change that Labour is delivering. It’s always enjoyable hearing about the place that senior Labour politicians think they inhabit ‘Division and hate are on the rise,’ she said. ‘Discontent and disillusionment widespread. The desire for change, impatient and palpable. People are looking around, looking elsewhere for the answers … we have to offer hope, to offer the big change the country is crying out for.

Henry Donovan

Only honesty can kill the rise of Germany’s AfD

As Germany braces for economic hardship and the mounting danger of confrontation with Russia, its leaders appear preoccupied with the wrong battle. The coalition government, the social democratic SPD party, and even Chancellor Friedrich Merz seem more intent on finding ways to muzzle the AfD party than on facing the realities before them. Yet none of them has the slightest notion of how to succeed. Their so-called strategy has descended into farce – a self-inflicted culture war that barely exists. It is clear: the handling of the AfD by Germany’s centre political parties and the media is a disaster of historic proportions. Precisely because it is not an accident, not

Monday

27 Oct 2025

James Heale

Revealed: how PM Farage wants to govern

Six weeks after his defection from the Tories, Danny Kruger will tomorrow set out his thinking on how a Reform administration would function. The East Wiltshire MP is billed as the party’s ‘head of government’ unit and is charged with working out how to overhaul the British state. In a speech, he will set out his critique of Britain in 2025: nothing works anymore, taxes are too high, public services are crumbling and our governing class has willingly outsourced the tools to fix our ails. In a five-point plan, Kruger will explain how he wants to empower Nigel Farage as Prime Minister. His speech will stress the importance of a

Madeline Grant

Calamity Lammy had no answers on the migrant sex offender debacle

Hadush Kebatu’s Magical Mystery Tour of North London was the subject of this afternoon’s debate in the Commons. In a scandal which may as well have been permanently accompanied by the Benny Hill theme tune, the police and prison service conspired accidentally to release the Ethiopian schoolgirl-botherer onto the streets of Chelmsford on Friday, followed by a two-day tour of the capital’s parks. I wonder what trip Mr Kebatu has planned next? A wander around Windsor? Inevitably this raised questions in Parliament. Kebatu isn’t alone: both Channel migrant numbers and accidental releases of the mad, bad and dangerous have risen precipitously under Labour. Perhaps given the people they allow to walk about

John Power

Has there been a cover-up of London grooming gangs?

When the grooming gang crisis came under renewed scrutiny at the beginning of this year, the former Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall asked Sadiq Khan eight times during mayor’s questions whether or not grooming gangs were operating in the capital. His response was odd, to say the least. Instead of directly answering the question, Khan repeatedly asked Hall to ‘define what she means by that’, and accused her of being nervous about speaking clearly. After some back and forth, Khan stated that there were issues in London with young girls being groomed in county line drug gangs, for which there was already a plethora of programmes and ‘hubs’. A month later,

James Heale

Is the Home Office fit for purpose?

14 min listen

With the news that the Home Office has spent billions of taxpayers’ money on asylum hotels – and following the accidental release of the Epping sex offender – Tim Shipman and James Heale discuss this most shambolic of government departments. Is it fit for purpose? Can Shabana Mahmood fix the cursed department? And, if not, who will voters turn to instead? Produced by Megan McElroy and Patrick Gibbons.

Steerpike

Housing Secretary refuses to rule out mansion tax

There’s less than a month until Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils her autumn budget and speculation is abounding about what taxes will make the cut. This morning, Housing Secretary Steve Reed came under pressure on LBC, as interviewer Nick Ferrari grilled him on the introduction of a possible mansion tax. Anxious homeowners will not be reassured by Reed’s response – after the Labour man refused four times to rule out a mansion tax. How curious… There have been suggestions that that the Chancellor could impose a 1 per cent tax on the portion of property values over £2 million. Those owning homes worth £3 million would pay £10,000 a year, with

Steerpike

Katie Lam’s trans musical raises eyebrows

This month, a Sunday Times headline dubbed the 34-year-old MP for Weald of Kent, Katie Lam, the ‘Tories’ new hope’. The piece described the new parliamentarian as a ‘shiny presence’ that, in some circles, is already being touted as ‘ potential leader-in-waiting and saviour of conservatism’. But Lam is more than a politician: as the Kent MP discussed with the Spectator’s Tim Shipman on Coffee House Shots, she has written five plays and is currently working on a sixth. ‘None of them are political,’ she assured him – but that hasn’t stopped eyebrows being raised at revelations one of these is a ‘joyful trans story’. How interesting… Lam has written

Rebecca Chapman

Since when did we ‘install’ an Archbishop of Canterbury?

Just before graffiti-gate in Canterbury Cathedral kicked off a few weeks ago, it hosted the announcement of the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury-designate: the Rt Revd Dame Sarah Mullally. Or ABCD, as it is rumoured she is being called at Lambeth Palace. Lord knows, we love an acronym in the Church of England these days. It helps, at least, make the CofE seem accessible. But has the push to make our new Primate seem like just a regular Joe (or Jo!) gone too far? Lord knows, we love an acronym in the established church these days It was confirmed this morning that our new Archbishop will finally take up her role, in a service also

Stephen Pollard

Milei’s medicine is working. Labour should take note

Barely a month ago, the received wisdom was that the Javier Milei experiment in Argentina had effectively collapsed. The self-styled ‘anarcho-capitalist’ president was elected in December 2023 after a campaign in which he waved a chainsaw at rallies, symbolising his promise to slash public spending and destroy the ‘political caste’. But with the peso on the slide, unions leading effective campaigns against the spending cuts and corruption allegations around his sister, the wiseacres – and polls – suggested that it was all about to cave in around Milei. Milei’s La Libertad Avanza won 40.8 per cent in the midterm elections, widely seen as a referendum on his term so far

Matthew Bowles

Rachel Reeves should focus on cutting welfare

Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering a 2p increase in income tax, taking the basic rate from 20 to 22 per cent. That might seem modest by historic standards, yet it would be a clear breach of Labour’s manifesto promise, made just over a year ago, not to raise any of the big three taxes. More importantly, it underscores the scale of the structural pressures facing Britain’s public finances – pressures that cannot be addressed by minor tax tweaks alone. If Reeves truly wants to strengthen Britain’s economic foundations, she should turn her attention to welfare reform – not as a matter of cruelty but of common sense. Britain’s welfare state

Max Jeffery

Max Jeffery, Sam Leith, Michael Henderson, Madeline Grant & Julie Bindel

37 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Max Jeffery examines Britain’s new hard left alliance; Sam Leith wonders what Prince Andrew is playing; Michael Henderson reads his letter from Berlin; Madeline Grant analyses the demise of the American ‘wasp’ – or White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant; and, Julie Bindel ponders the disturbing allure of sex robots. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.