Politics

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

Friday

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

China is hitting back with even more tariffs

China has retaliated against Donald Trump by raising duties on all American imports to 125 per cent from 84 per cent, declaring that it has no interest in responding further to what it calls a ‘joke’ policy. The higher rate will come into force from tomorrow. The announcement comes after the White House’s clarification that tariffs on Chinese exports have climbed to 145 per cent this year – a move China’s commerce ministry described as ‘economically meaningless’ and a tool for ‘bullying and coercion’. The world’s two largest economies exchange goods worth around $700 billion annually. Beijing has made it clear that it considers American goods effectively unmarketable within its

Lucy Dunn

The economy is growing!

11 min listen

Finally, some good news for your Friday: the economy is growing! Just when everyone seems to be revising down expectations of growth, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that GDP grew by 0.5 per cent in February. It also revised January’s figures upwards to give growth for the last quarter of 0.6 per cent, and annual growth of 1.4 per cent. It looks – for now – that the Reeves recession has been put on hold and that Labour’s growth agenda could be working. That said, Labour cannot afford to celebrate just yet. There is reason to believe the figures could be overstated, and there are some trust issues

Steerpike Steerpike

Scots charged over £150 to see Sturgeon live

You’d think if your political leadership had led to the fracturing of your party with key figures investigated as part of a finance probe, you’d keep your head down. Not Nicola Sturgeon. The SNP’s former Dear Leader seems to be rather enjoying her time in the spotlight – with the sitting MSP hosting a number of literary events across Scotland and endlessly promoting her soon-to-be-published memoir. Now it transpires that the politician is set to be interviewed in October at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall – with attendees charged a hefty sum of £150 if they want to meet the former first minister before nabbing a front row seat for her Q&A.

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Will the EU crumble under Trump’s tariffs?

In the escalating trade war between America and China, the European Union risks being stranded in no man’s land. Donald Trump has raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 per cent with Beijing imposing their own tariffs of 84 per cent. The American President remains bullish that America and China can thrash out a deal, saying: ‘I’m sure that we’ll be able to get along very well…I think that we’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries.’ The EU will hope so because the trade war threatens to create dangerous fault lines within the bloc of 27 nations. On Thursday, Ursula von der Leyen postponed the

Gray Sergeant

Europe must resist China’s advances

Since Trump’s inauguration in January, not a day has gone by when supporters of a liberal international order have not sunk their heads deep into their hands. The global trade war that has erupted between the US and the rest of the world is just the latest episode in the American President’s mission to overturn the old order (despite the unexpected 90-day pause announced on Wednesday for everyone but China). If this was not disturbing enough, liberal internationalists also need to contend with what will replace it. What rules and norms will prevail, or rather whose? Disconcertingly, some Europeans appear to be buying the charm offensive The People’s Republic of China

Sam Dumitriu

Is Britain finally going nuclear?

As late as 1965, Britain had more operational nuclear reactors than the rest of the world combined. Yet, Britain hasn’t built a new nuclear reactor in almost 30 years. France and South Korea now standout as the world leaders in building nuclear power stations. Indeed, when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, we rely on France to send us some of their excess nuclear power to keep the lights on. Nuclear power is vital for our energy security. It runs whatever the weather. It makes us less reliant on the volatile gas market. It’s clean too – producing power without CO2 emissions. And unlike renewables, nuclear has

Nigel Jones

The case for uniting the right

In just three weeks, voters in some 20 local council areas and in the Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary by-election go to the polls. It’s the first major test of voter opinion since the election of the Labour government in July, yet despite Labour’s increasing unpopularity, the official Tory opposition is braced for yet another thumping defeat. Far from anticipating victory, party leader Kemi Badenoch has warned of ‘difficult’ results ahead  – code for ‘defeats’ and the loss of Tory controlled councils and seats to Labour, the Lib Dems and the insurgent Reform UK party. The latter is fielding many former Tory defectors as its candidates, including at Runcorn and in Lincolnshire where

Nicholas Farrell

How Italian communists tried to indoctrinate King Charles

Dante’s Beach, Ravenna On the final day of their state visit to Italy the King and Queen were in Ravenna to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the area in 1945 by the British Eighth Army. What they probably did not realise is that Ravenna is a left-wing stronghold in a region – the Romagna – which was the birthplace of Italian revolutionary socialism at the end of the 19th century. Mussolini, a revolutionary socialist before he invented fascism, was born elsewhere in the region. From 1945, Ravenna, like everywhere else in red Romagna, was run by the Italian communist party – the PCI – until the fall

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Rachel Reeves has managed to grow the economy

Just when everyone seems to be revising down expectations of growth, real world data starts pointing in the opposite direction. The Office for National Statistics estimates this morning that GDP grew by 0.5 per cent in February. It also revised January’s figures upwards to give growth for the last quarter of 0.6 per cent, and annual growth of 1.4 per cent. That is almost looking healthy – although less so when you consider the growth in the population is thanks to high migration. What’s more, growth was reasonably balanced, with the production sector growing by 1.5 per cent in February and construction by 0.3 per cent. Even car manufacturing had

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Lindsey Hilsum Edition

34 min listen

Lindsey Hilsum is the International Editor for Channel 4 News, where she has worked for over 25 years. Having started her career as an aid worker in Latin America, she transitioned to journalism, and she has now reported from six continents for over three decades. She has covered many major conflicts including Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and across the Middle East during the Arab Spring. Her third book I Brought the War with Me: Stories and Poems from the Front Line is out now. On the podcast Lindsey tells Katy Balls about starting out her career in Guatemala and in Kenya, what it was like being the only English-speaking journalist in Rwanda

Petroc Trelawny

Petroc Trelawny, Gareth Roberts, Tom Lee, Leyla Sanai and Iram Ramzan

28 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Petroc Trelawny reads his diary for the week (1:14); Gareth Roberts wants us to make book jackets nasty again (6:22); Tom Lee writes in defence of benzodiazepines (13:44); Leyla Sanai reflects on unethical practices within psychiatry, as she reviews Jon Stock’s The Sleep Room (19:41); and, Iram Ramzan provides her notes on cousin marriages (24:30).  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

James Tidmarsh

Donald Trump is taking on China in Africa

Donald Trump has opened a new front in his trade war with China, deploying a family confidant to Kinshasa to challenge Beijing’s control of critical minerals. Almost unnoticed amid the tariff battles, Trump is working to reclaim the mineral supply chains that power the modern world – starting in the Democratic Republic of Congo at Africa’s heart. His plan is to give US military assistance to the beleaguered government of President Félix Tshisekedi in return for access to cobalt and copper reserves worth trillions. Congo produces 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt – used in electric vehicles, smartphones, and advanced weaponry. It also exports copper, tantalum and lithium – everything

Thursday

Jane Stannus

Trump is making showers great again

Sometimes it’s the little things. Get ready, world. America is back – with shiny, clean hair, glowing skin and a faint aura of L’Occitane Cherry Blossom. And all thanks to Donald Trump, who has just signed an executive order unleashing the power of the American showerhead. The order rescinds an Obama era rule which limited the flow of water, as part of ‘a radical green agenda that made life worse for Americans’, as the White House puts it. 2.5 gallons per minute, did you hear? That’s the big, beautiful volume of water roaring through America’s waterpipes now – or at least, it will be, once the freest people in the world have

Eliot Wilson

Why did the British defence chief visit China?

On Wednesday, the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, gave a speech to students at the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) National Defence University in Beijing. Take a moment to think about that. Radakin also met General Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the joint staff department of the Central Military Commission, the operational headquarters of the PLA. The Ministry of National Defence reported that: The UK’s attitude towards China is already deeply confused The two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on China-UK relations and mil-to-mil [military] relations, international and regional situations and issues of common concern, and had communication on strengthening exchanges and cooperation between the two

Stephen Pollard

Who cares if Kemi Badenoch has watched Adolescence?

Watching Kemi Badenoch being interviewed this morning on the BBC, I couldn’t help but think of one of the public shamings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution: confess your crime, woman who refuses to watch Adolescence. Breakfast hosts Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty asked the Conservative leader whether she had finally watched the Netflix drama about a teenage boy who kills a classmate, which has now been adopted as a sort of sacred artefact by much of the left. It has even been the subject of a Downing Street summit, during which the prime minister suggested that it be shown by every school in the country. Their question followed Mrs Badenoch

Steerpike Steerpike

Hamas appeals against ‘terrorist’ label

Does partaking in mass killing, raping and hostage-taking make one a terrorist? Hamas isn’t so sure. In a mind-boggling development, it transpires that the Palestinian Islamist group is employing lawyers to fight its designation as a proscribed terrorist group by the UK government. Instead, it argues, Hamas is a ‘Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project’. That’s certainly one way to reframe the atrocities it has committed… Twenty years after Hamas’ military wing was proscribed in the UK, its political wing – which runs Gaza – was also proscribed in 2021, making it a criminal offence to express support for

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour MP ditched Birmingham bin strikes for Japan

Dear oh dear. As the Birmingham bin strikes rumble on and rubbish continues to pile high on the city’s streets, some of the area’s residents can’t get out of there quick enough – including the, um, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, Liam Byrne. The senior Labour politician has found himself in the spotlight after he was accused of abandoning his constituents by taking an extravagant trip to Japan during the crisis. Alright for some! As revealed by the Mail, Byrne flew to Asia with seven other politicians on the business committee at the end of March. But at the same time the parliamentarian was enjoying his business

Katy Balls Katy Balls

‘The art of the deal’?

15 min listen

Two days ago, talk of a 90-day pause on Donald Trump’s ‘reciprocal tariffs’ was branded ‘fake news’ by the White House. But yesterday, the President confirmed a 90-day pause on the higher tariff rates on all countries apart from China. There is some confusion about whether this was The Donald’s plan from the start – although the safe assumption is that it wasn’t, and that someone senior in the White House sat him down and explained the market chaos he has caused. Is this ‘the art of the deal’? Regarding China, the President wrote: ‘Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Don’t expect much from Wes Streeting’s waiting list purge

Well, that’s one way to reduce NHS waiting lists: to kick off a load of patients whom you have decided don’t need to be on them. New NHS chief executive John Mackey has ordered that everyone on a waiting list must be ‘validated’ – with the aim of removing 300,000 of the 7.43 million names on them. Examples given are people who have already been seen privately and have no further need for NHS treatment, people who have instead sought help in A&E, people who no longer have symptoms or those who could be seen ‘in the community’ instead (i.e. at GP surgeries or clinics). Many of the names which have

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Badenoch blasts Beeb over Adolescence questions

The progressive class’s obsession with Adolescence continues – and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is having none of it. When Badenoch appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning to discuss her party’s local election campaigns, presenters were quick to quiz the parliamentarian on her thoughts on the Netflix series, which has been lauded by Labour MPs – including the Prime Minister himself – for highlighting the perils of toxic masculinity. But the Conservative leader was quick to dress down her interviewers for their preoccupation with the, er, fictional show… While Sir Keir Starmer praised Netflix bosses earlier this month for making the drama free to watch in high schools, the Conservative party