Politics

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

Thursday

Jawad Iqbal

Saudi Arabia’s beer ban shows why it shouldn’t host the World Cup

Football fans attending the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia will not be allowed to buy alcohol during their time there. Hands up anyone who is surprised. The sale of alcohol is outlawed in the desert kingdom, and penalties for consumption include flogging, jail or deportation. Prince Khalid bin Bandar Sultan Al Saud doesn’t come across as someone who spends much time in pubs The Saudis are also notoriously indifferent to the notion of human rights, so they’re hardly likely to respect the desire – some might describe it as a basic right – of some football fans to have a few bevvies before, during and after a match. The

Leah Pennisi-Glaser

Don’t cancel Neil Gaiman’s books

How far can Neil Gaiman fall? The acclaimed author has been accused of sexual misconduct by eight women. One of his accusers, a woman who had been babysitting Gaiman’s child, alleges that Gaiman offered her a bath before joining her in the tub naked and assaulting her. Gaiman denies the allegations against him. ‘I’m far from a perfect person,’ he has said, ‘but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.’ Whatever Gaiman did or didn’t get up to in his private life, we should separate the art from the artist Whether or not the allegations against Gaiman are true, the backlash has been swift. Gaiman’s upcoming creative projects

Jonathan Spyer

The case for ending the Israel-Hamas ceasefire

The question now facing Israel is this: will the war in Gaza recommence? The ceasefire agreement was signed less than a month ago, and it is already looking shaky.   The first phase of the deal has not yet been completed. Sixteen of the 33 Israeli hostages scheduled to be freed in this phase have been released, and so have 656 of 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. But Hamas has now announced the postponement of the release of an additional three hostages, which was scheduled to take place this Saturday. US President Donald Trump has expressed support for abandoning the phasing of the deal, and demanded that all hostages be released by Saturday at noon –

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Andrew Gwynne sacked, Trump saves Prince Harry and a £30m refund over moths

Home Andrew Gwynne was sacked as a health minister and suspended from the Labour party for making jokes about a constituent’s hoped-for death, and about Diane Abbott and Angela Rayner. Oliver Ryan, a member of the WhatsApp group where the jokes were shared, had the Labour whip removed and 11 councillors were suspended from the party. Asked about 16,913 of 28,564 medics registering to practise medicine in Britain last year having qualified abroad, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said there was ‘no doubt’ that ‘the NHS has become too reliant’ on immigration. The government issued guidance saying that anyone who enters Britain by means of a dangerous journey will normally

James Heale James Heale

Kemi vs. Nigel: who would Thatcher have backed?

It is 50 years since Margaret Thatcher was elected Tory leader and at this week’s shadow cabinet meeting, Lord Forsyth was invited as guest speaker to mark the occasion. He noted the similarities between 1975 and 2025. Back then the party was broke, reeling from defeat and facing the fallout from a reorganisation of local government. But, despite threadbare resources, Thatcher managed to rebuild to win power four years later. ‘You have the potential to do the same,’ Forsyth told Kemi Badenoch. Yet there is a crucial difference between then and now: a rival on the right. Nigel Farage’s Reform party is vying with Badenoch to inherit Thatcher’s mantle. Each

Wednesday

Owen Matthews

Trump might really be a ‘peacemaker’ in Ukraine

In a move likely to mark the beginning of the end of the Ukraine war, Donald Trump today announced that he had begun talks with Vladimir Putin. Trump has already held a ‘lengthy and highly productive phone call’ with Putin, he announced in a post on Truth Social, adding that they agreed to ‘have our respective teams start negotiations immediately’. The Biden administration promised repeatedly that no peace deal would be negotiated over the heads of the Ukrainians. But that was always, frankly, a lie. Trump at least has sufficient respect for Ukraine to be honest that the endgame of the war was always going to be decided in Washington, not

Lucy Dunn

Reform declares war on renewables

It was in a plush central London office space lined with leafy wall plants that Reform UK chose to make its big economic announcement today. Attendees were warmly welcomed with a lavish spread of wraps, canapés and even beer on tap – before Nigel Farage and Richard Tice cut to their news: ‘We will scrap net stupid zero.’ Farage was quick to trumpet his party’s anti-establishment credentials, noting Westminster’s cross-party consensus on the environment. Not Reform – whose politicians are insistent they can ‘right some of the wrongs’ of the renewable sector. ‘Reform is serving notice on the industry,’ Tice told attendees. ‘We are going to win the next general

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Donald Trump says Ukraine peace talks should start ‘immediately’

Donald Trump has spoken to Vladimir Putin on the phone and agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine ‘immediately’. The US President announced details of the conversation between the two leaders on his social media platform Truth Social. According to Trump, the pair had a ‘lengthy and highly productive’ discussion, touching on AI, the Middle East, the ‘power of the dollar’ and bonded over how valiantly their two nations had fought side by side against the Nazis in the second world war. ‘But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the war with Russia/Ukraine.’ In a move bound

Alexander Horne

How to fix our immigration laws

Almost every day there seem to be new headlines about abuses of the asylum and immigration system. The latest involves the case of a Gazan family who were granted the right to remain in the United Kingdom after they applied to enter the country under the Ukraine Family Scheme visa. Unsurprisingly, the Home Office determined that the Gazan family did not qualify for the Ukrainian scheme. The government also concluded there were no compelling, compassionate circumstances to justify the family remaining in the UK. The family’s initial application was dismissed by a first-tier immigration tribunal judge in September last year. However, they were allowed to remain after an appeal to the Upper Tribunal

Steerpike Steerpike

Tories: Starmer misled the House

It wasn’t Kemi Badenoch’s best day in the House of Commons today. But amid Keir Starmer’s endless demands that the Tory leader ‘do the homework’, the Prime Minister might just have slipped up halfway through the weekly Q&A. Badenoch asked her Labour counterpart about a ruling by an immigration judge which suggests that Palestinian migrants have the right to live in the UK by applying through a scheme meant for Ukrainian refugees. Starmer replied by insisting that: She hasn’t quite done her homework because the decision, the decision in question, was taken under the last government, according to the legal framework of the last government Is that really the case? The

Oscar Edmondson

Was that Kemi Badenoch’s worst PMQs?

14 min listen

Today was the final PMQs before recess, and Kemi Badenoch had been hoping to leave on a high before the break. She started promisingly, opening with the case of a family from Gaza being granted asylum in the UK under the scheme designed for Ukrainians. Starmer replied to say he disagreed with the decision of the courts and that the Home Secretary was already looking at how to close the ‘legal loophole’ enabling that decision. But Badenoch seemingly hadn’t prepared for his rebuttal, exposing once again the weakness of her own technique. Does she risk being outshone by her own backbenchers? Also on the podcast, Kim Leadbeater is having to

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Kemi is starting to sound like Sir Keir

Kemi Badenoch has made PMQs her own. Her own what? Her own select committee. That’s how she runs it. She asks long rambling questions that exhibit her knowledge of the subject. Then she hands over to Sir Keir who rambles back at her, taking his time, feeling no pressure to answer. Not much drama or excitement at all. Kemi, with her beautiful manners and perfectly modulated English, has the air of a head girl investigating a fire at the hockey pavilion. Sir Keir answers with glib and defensive evasions that are often delivered in exasperated tones. His preening vanity is plain for all to see and yet Kemi can’t burst

Steerpike Steerpike

Who were Richard Hermer’s worst clients?

Sir Keir Starmer’s Attorney General has had a rather rocky start to his role. Richard Hermer KC has come under scrutiny over his links to Sir Keir Starmer’s controversial Chagos deal, his stance on slavery reparations and his position on Israel. And now, at Prime Minister’s Questions today, the Prime Minister had to fend off questions about his Attorney General’s rather, um, interesting list of former clients during his time as a barrister. Responding to Tory attacks, Sir Keir told the Commons: ‘We’ve long had the principle that everybody is entitled to legal representation in this country. This means lawyers do not necessarily agree with their clients.’ Of course – but

Len Shackleton

Football doesn’t need a regulator

Kemi Badenoch has come out against the Football Governance Bill, and not before time. In November 2021, Tracey Crouch, the former Tory sports minister, led calls for a football regulator in her ‘Fan-Led Review of Football Governance’, and in March 2022, Boris Johnson backed the plans. Once that muddy ball started rolling, even three changes of prime minister couldn’t stop it. Keir Starmer is seemingly as much in favour as his predecessors. The enduring argument for a football regulator lies with the weird economics of professional football, which sees the majority of clubs spending well in excess of their regular revenue in the hope of winning trophies or promotion –

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory backbenchers are outshining Kemi Badenoch at PMQs

Prime Minister’s Questions is rapidly becoming a challenge for Kemi Badenoch to come up with a topic that the Tories aren’t vulnerable on so she has a decent chance of attacking Keir Starmer. Given things aren’t exactly going swimmingly for the Labour government, it shows how very weak the Conservatives are that Starmer can get through entire sessions of the most dramatic point of the parliamentary week without sustaining even a light scratch. Today, though, the weakness of Badenoch’s attack was not in the topic, but in her own technique. The Tory leader ended up on the defensive instead of the man she was supposed to be questioning.  Starmer clearly

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

OBR gloom spells trouble ahead for Rachel Reeves

Has Rachel Reeves broken her fiscal rules? It’s been speculated for some time now that the Chancellor lost her headroom when borrowing costs surged last month. Capital Economics forecast at the start of the year that Reeves’s limited headroom (about £10 billion) had been wiped out by rising gilt yields. This left the Chancellor in the uncomfortable spot of having to weigh up more tax hikes or serious spending cuts just months after unveiling her first Budget – the kind of tax-hiking Budget she insisted would not be needed again. Today, the news gets worse. The Office for Budget Responsibility has reportedly downgraded its growth forecast for the UK –

Coffee House

Read: JD Vance’s full speech on AI and the EU

Vice President JD Vance told world leaders at yesterday’s AI summit in Paris that the ‘the AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety’. Here’s the full transcript. Thank you for the kind introduction, and I want to start by thanking President Macron for hosting the event and, of course, for the lovely dinner last night. During the dinner, President Macron looked at me and asked if I would like to speak, and I said, ‘Mister President, I’m here for the good company and free wine, but I have to earn my keep today’. And I, of course, want to thank Prime Minister Modi for being

Steerpike Steerpike

Treasury silent on Chagos deal costs

How much does a sell-out cost? Mr S has been trying for months now to work out what the Chagos deal will mean for British taxpayers. The Financial Times originally reported an estimated total bill of £9bn – before the Mauritian prime minister suggested last week the sum would be much higher. With a sum of £18bn now being quoted by some outlets, Steerpike wants to know which government department will be footing the costs of the 99-year deal? When it comes to figures, the obvious place to start is the Treasury – Whitehall’s ‘central department’ to use Nigel Lawson’s phrase. A written question was put to Rachel Reeves, asking

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Is Pope Francis Rory Stewart in a frock?

Imagine living in your own holy fiefdom, with some of the strictest security on earth, and lecturing other nations about how to deal with illegal immigration. That’s Pope Francis for you. There he is in the Apostolic Palace, sentries at every door, wagging his be-ringed finger at Donald Trump’s America for its ‘mass deportation’ of undocumented aliens. Even for a Pope this is some next-level cant. You can’t help but marvel at the sheer sanctimony of Francis’s position The pontiff’s latest bout of Trump Derangement Syndrome came in a letter to America’s Catholic bishops. He said he is watching closely the ‘major crisis’ unfolding in the US, by which he

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Will flattery buy Zelensky help from Trump?

For all the efforts on every side to manage expectations, there is a sense that some kind of Ukraine deal – even if more likely a ceasefire rather than some comprehensive settlement – is coming. With the risk that this is, as Vladimir Putin would prefer, a decision made between Moscow and Washington, over Kyiv’s head, the Ukrainians are scrambling to gain traction on the process. We have already had Volodymyr Zelensky’s suggestion that the United States could get priority investment access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth. Now in a set-piece interview with the Guardian, he has offered a finely-balanced mix of flattery and entreaty in the hope that even a