Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Steerpike

Watch: David Davis attacks veteran prosecutions

It has been another bad week for the government. Growth down to 0.1 per cent, a briefing war engulfing No. 10 and now the Budget plans in crisis too. So amid all the various dramas, one story has gone somewhat under the radar. Nine four-star generals signed an open letter to the Times – timed to coincide with Armistice Day – warning that ‘lawfare’ and the erosion of soldiers’ trust in the legal system is a direct national security threat. A warning Sir Keir would do well to heed… One of those leading the charge against veteran prosecutions is Sir David Davis, the veteran Tory MP. He secured an adjournment

Matthew Lynn

The damage from Reeves's 'exit tax' idea has been done

It appears that Rachel Reeves has scrapped her plans for an ‘exit tax’ that would impose a huge levy on entrepreneurs leaving the UK – at least for now. But is anyone actually going to be fooled by that? Once the concept has been leaked, the only rational response is to get out while you still can.  With less than two weeks left before the Budget, no one seems to have any idea what might be in it, including, slightly alarmingly, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The briefings change minute by minute. Even so, it appears that plans for an ‘exit tax’ have been quietly shelved. The Treasury has worked out

Steerpike

Watch: Zarah Sultana squirms on BBC

‘Ohhhhh Jeremy Corbyn!’ Where would Mr S be without him eh? The grift that keeps on giving has been in full flow this month, with the organisers of ‘Your Party’ determined to get their operation up and running prove. At a meeting last week, poor old Jezza’s wife had to step in and wrestle the microphone of one attendee, all underneath a big banner emblazoned with the word ‘UNITED’. No wonder some of Corbyn’s allies think that some of their comrades are secretly MI5 controlled opposition… Still, if you thought the magic Grandpa was bad, that is nothing compared to his prickly spiritual offspring. Zarah Sultana, Coventry’s answer to Citizen

Ross Clark

Who do junior doctors think should fund their pay rise?

I know doctors have a long training and have to absorb a lot of knowledge before they are let loose in a surgery or a hospital ward, but still there is one extra module which needs to be inserted into their schedule: one on the public finances. In fact, maybe just give them an afternoon off to read the papers. For the past couple of months we have had almost daily briefings from Number 11 floating the ever-more desperate ways in which Rachel Reeves is flirting with raising taxes to fill her fiscal black hole. The bond markets are flickering at every suggestion, weighing up the risk that Britain is

James Heale

Rachel Reeves rips up her Budget plans

With less than a fortnight to go until the Budget, it seems Rachel Reeves has performed an almighty U-turn. At the beginning of the week, the established consensus in Westminster was that the base rate of income tax would rise, breaking Labour’s flagship manifesto pledge. The Chancellor had already rolled the pitch, holding a press conference at which she warned ‘each of us must do our bit’. But the Financial Times – Reeves’ newspaper of choice – reports today that she has ‘ripped up’ her plans. Citing two officials, the paper reports that the decision to change tack was communicated to the OBR on Wednesday. Speaking on the media round, Culture

Patrick Gibbons

Is South Korea bracing for a third Trump-Kim summit?

Donald Trump’s meeting with President Xi was the standout moment of this month’s Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit in South Korea. Yet almost as much attention focused on the rumours that Trump’s gaze had turned once again to North Korea. Addressing suggestions he would meet Kim, the American President told reporters, ‘I’d be open 100 per cent. I get along very well with Kim Jong Un.’ A meeting never materialised, but speculation – and tension – has only grown since.  Days after Trump’s departure, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived as part of his own tour of Asia. In Seoul, he became the first defence secretary in nearly eight years to visit

Druin Burch

Junior doctors' strikes are good for my wallet – but totally avoidable

Until Tuesday, I’m once again working as a junior doctor: trying to remember how to take blood, print labels, and manage being bleeped by three wards at once, two of them by mistake. For my troubles, I’ll be earning £200 an hour – a rate far above standard consultant overtime. I’m taking a fat fee from the NHS to fumble through chores a junior could do better. As you spend hours waiting to be seen by an overstretched medic moonlighting as a junior, remember this: the strikes are completely avoidable Yes, junior doctors are on strike again – and the depressing thing is how preventable this walkout is. No money

Michael Gove

Q&A: Who could replace Keir Starmer?

32 min listen

To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, go to: spectator.co.uk/quiteright This week on Quite right! Q&A: Could Britain see a snap election before 2029? Michael and Maddie unpack the constitutional mechanics – and explain why, despite the chaos, an early vote remains unlikely. They also turn to Labour’s troubles: growing pressure on Keir Starmer, restive backbenchers, and whether Angela Rayner’s sacking has boosted her chances as his successor. Plus: should the Scottish Parliament be abolished? And on a lighter note, if you won a free holiday but had to take one Labour MP, who would you choose? Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Thursday

David Spencer

Police and Crime Commissioners failed to hold useless officers to account

Few will mourn the loss of Police and Crime Commissioners following the news that the government intends their abolition in 2028. An unloved part of our democratic settlement, many of those elected as PCCs failed to capture the public’s interest in the way that was intended when Theresa May as Home Secretary legislated for their creation in 2011. PCCs were a valiant, but ultimately poorly implemented, attempt to hold Chief Constables to account for fighting crime But in the rush to celebrate their demise – and in building what replaces them – we should not forget their original purpose: to expose chief constables from behind the shroud of accountability which

Jake Wallis Simons

Labour is coming for your bicycle

As the recently departed Norman Tebbit would attest, there has long been a connection between bicycles and jobs, particularly for the working classes. It was at the 1981 Conservative party conference that he gave his famous speech describing how in the Thirties, his unemployed father had ‘got on his bike and looked for work and he kept looking ‘til he found it’. Almost half a century later, the parameters may have changed but the fundamental association remains the same. Or it did. Plans reportedly being drawn up by Rachel Reeves ahead of the Budget this month aim to sharply reduce the tax benefits available under the Cycle to Work scheme.

Ian Acheson

Good riddance to Police and Crime Commissioners

So farewell then, Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs). The government has just announced that this weak and useless experiment in local democracy will be terminated. Few people will notice outside the cottage industry of ineffectual crime busters who will be receiving redundancy notices. That’s part of the problem. Elected PCCs were introduced in 2010 as a flagship Conservative commitment to get police chiefs to respond to local priorities on crime. Instead, they become symbols of wasteful bureaucracy, partisan meddling and bungling oversight. They were set up to replace opaque and often toothless policing authorities composed of local councillors. It has taken 15 years to work out that replacing one set

Tim Shipman

Politics or economics – which is Labour worst at?

11 min listen

It’s been another bruising week for the British economy. New GDP figures reveal that growth has almost flatlined, inching up by just 0.1 per cent between July and August – a sign, many fear, that the UK is drifting into deeper malaise. With the budget less than a fortnight away, can the Chancellor square the circle of sluggish growth, tax pressures and a restless Labour party? James Heale speaks to Tim Shipman and Paul Johnson about the mounting economic uncertainties, the Treasury’s lack of a clear tax strategy, and the political doom loop the government now finds itself in. Are Labour’s early missteps catching up with them – and will

Sam Dumitriu

Nuclear Anglesey is something to celebrate

On the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales sits Wylfa nuclear power station. For 44 years, until its final reactor closed in December 2015, it provided over a thousand well-paid jobs and clean, reliable energy. At its peak, it generated almost half the electricity in Wales. If there’s one thing the locals want more than a third Menai Crossing – the nearest A&E is on the mainland and only accessible via two beautiful, but fundamentally not fit for purpose, bridges built in the first half of the 19th century – it is for nuclear generation to return to the island. It’s not hard to see why: after the last reactor

Jacob Heilbrunn

The Epstein files continue to haunt Donald Trump

The main thing that has made the Epstein files seem politically (as opposed to morally) significant is that Donald Trump remains obsessed with preventing them from seeing the light of day. He thus devoted much of Wednesday to importuning Republicans such as Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert not to back their release. ‘Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican,’ Trump declared, ‘would fall into that trap.’ But senior Republicans are expecting mass vote defections in the coming week as legislators prepare to vote for a disclosure bill sponsored by Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie. Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says that releasing the files is ‘not only the right thing

Ross Clark

Has Rachel Reeves crashed the economy?

If Rachel Reeves was hoping for a glimmer of good news in today’s GDP figures, she has been left disappointed. We now have a whole year of data since she delivered her first Budget, and it does not look good. Labour’s promise to put ‘growth, growth, growth” at the heart of the economy looks increasingly forlorn. She may have to rethink her standard attack line of accusing Liz Truss of ‘crashing the economy’, on the grounds that it could equally well apply to her. When Labour came to power in July 2024, economic growth was enjoying a fillip – GDP had increased by 0.6 per cent over the previous quarter.

Freddy Gray

Why does the American right take itself so seriously?

The American right has a problem: it can’t stop talking about itself. Commentators, academics and journalists of what used to be called a ‘conservative’ persuasion all tend to think that their ideas are tremendously interesting. And, in the way a difficult child becomes argumentative when he or she isn’t getting attention, they fight. They fear irrelevance and so they fall out with each other and take sides in order to prove to themselves that they have something worth saying. Things become messy and nasty and everybody gets carried away – usually in the hope of grabbing their own slice of an all-too easily distracted online audience. (Why else am I

Gavin Mortimer

A decade after Bataclan, France is more divided than ever

Ten years ago today, Islamist terrorists massacred 130 people in a coordinated attack across Paris. It was the heaviest loss of life on French soil since the second world war, and those who perished – as well as the 350 who were wounded – will be remembered today in a series of commemorations. Emmanuel Macron will visit the six sites where the terrorists struck, among them the Stade de France and the Bataclan concert hall, and the president will also inaugurate a memorial garden at Place Saint-Gervais, opposite Paris City Hall. According to the Élysée Palace, the day will be an opportunity for the nation ‘to honour the memory of

Edward Howell

Why Taiwan matters to Japan

It was only a matter of time before Japan’s Iron Lady would be targeted by China. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi mentioned how Tokyo might resort to force were Beijing to take military action over Taiwan: ‘If there are battleships and the use of force, no matter how you think about it, it could constitute a survival-threatening situation,’ she said. In response, China’s consul-general in Osaka, Xue Jian, threatened, on Monday, to ‘cut off’ the Japanese prime minister’s ‘filthy neck…without a moment’s hesitation’. Xue’s vitriolic online reaction, which he subsequently deleted from his X account, underscores how China’s wolf-warrior diplomacy has anything but abated. Yet, the incident highlights a more important

William Moore

BBC in crisis, the Wes Streeting plot & why 'flakes' are the worst

36 min listen

Can the BBC be fixed? After revelations of bias from a leaked dossier, subsequent resignations and threats of legal action from the US President, the future of the corporation is the subject of this week’s cover piece. Host William Moore is joined by The Spectator’s commissioning editor, Lara Brown, arts editor, Igor Toronyi-Lalic, and regular contributor, Melanie McDonagh. They also discuss the drama of this week’s Westminster coup plot, and Melanie’s new book about why Catholicism attracted unlikely converts throughout the twentieth century. Plus: what’s the most bizarre excuse a friend has used to back out of a social engagement?