Politics

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

Monday

Ian Acheson Ian Acheson

Why Labour’s policing targets won’t work

This week, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper plans to announce new police performance targets. Perhaps the government has been stung by the growing perception that Labour’s stance on law and order consists mainly of hurty words overreach and emptying jails. But as the legacy of well-meaning but dumb crime policies introduced by the last Labour administration shows, Cooper should beware the law of unintended consequences. Back in the late Noughties, I was by day the Home Office’s senior official in South West England, accountable for crime, drugs and counter terrorism. By night, I struggled into an ill-fitting stab vest and became Special Constable 74170. It gave me a unique opportunity

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

How many farmers will be hit by Labour’s inheritance tax raid?

Tens of thousands of farmers will descend on Westminster in their tractors tomorrow to protest at inheritance tax changes that could see them pay death duties when they hand down their farms. The government doesn’t understand the fuss. It says they are just targeting wealthy land buyers trying to dodge tax. Meanwhile the farmers argue their way of life risks being wiped out. Who’s right? Two in five farmers are over the age of 60, so it’s not impossible the tax ends up having to be paid soon The government says the changes ‘are expected to affect the wealthiest 500 estates each year with smaller farms not affected’ – and

Steerpike Steerpike

British Sikhs blast Starmer’s ‘incompetence’

Another day, another Downing Street drama. This time No. 10 is in trouble with the British Sikh community after it transpired its social media accounts failed to acknowledge the religious festival of Gurpurb last week. Now over 300 Sikh groups have addressed a scathing letter to the Prime Minister, blasting Sir Keir Starmer’s blunder as ‘indefensible’. Oh dear… While the social media accounts of world leaders and political organisations – including the Labour party itself – marked the 555th birthday of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak, from Downing Street there was nothing but deafening silence. The rather unimpressed community has now come together to slam the PM’s slip-up, with

James Heale James Heale

Labour’s Trump-Xi balancing act

14 min listen

Keir Starmer today will become the first British leader to meet China’s Xi Jinping since 2018. The two leaders will meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil, and under the looming shadow of a second Trump presidency. Can Starmer strike the right balance? James Heale talks to Cindy Yu and Katy Balls. Produced by Cindy Yu.

James Heale James Heale

Badenoch brings the newbies into her team

It is just over a fortnight since the Tory leadership result and Kemi Badenoch is now putting the final touches to her first front bench team. With only 121 Tory MPs to choose from, she has worked to avoid a Truss-style scenario by promoting both loyalists and colleagues who backed other candidates. Thus, Mel Stride, her rival who backed James Cleverly, is the new Shadow Chancellor. Robert Jenrick was given the Justice brief while his ally Neil O’Brien is deputising at Education. Having reshuffled the shadow cabinet within 72 hours of being elected, Badenoch took her time to carefully fill more junior slots in parliament. But now the names of

Jamie Blackett

Britain’s farmers could revolt

Historians may already be pinching themselves in disbelief. It is looking as though Starmer’s government may be being pitched into a full-scale crisis by picking on… millionaire farmers. It turns out that outside North London the country is not as driven by spite and envy as Rachel Reeves appears to think. And the stereotype of a farmer as a rich git in a Range Rover is rapidly being debunked as a succession of authentic yokels who are asset rich but cash poor appear on our screens. They thought they were going after Sir James Dyson and have found themselves facing people like Gareth Wyn Jones. The Welsh farmer, who would

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Ukraine will make the most of its new firepower

Overnight, the news of Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles on Russian soil has been sinking in. Reports suggest that Kyiv is planning to use US-made ATACMS missiles for the first time in the coming days. We won’t know for sure until after the attack has taken place though – speaking at a press conference last night, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the news but said ‘strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.’ The White House was reportedly persuaded to grant Ukraine permission to use the missiles following the news that approximately 10,000 North Korean troops

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is it wise for Starmer to meet Xi?

Keir Starmer will today become the first prime minister in six years to meet with Xi Jinping. The Labour leader is due to meet with the Chinese president at the G20 summit in Brazil as Starmer’s government attempts a wider reset of UK/China relations. This is being pitched by Downing Street as a move to ‘stable and pragmatic engagement’ with Beijing following a cooling of relations in recent years. The last prime minister to meet with Xi was Theresa May in 2018 who hailed a ‘golden era of UK-China relations’. Since then, however, allegations of espionage, human rights abuses, the national security law in Hong Kong and the pandemic have

Sergey Radchenko

What will Putin do about Biden’s parting gift to Ukraine?

At the very moment most people seem to have forgotten of his existence, President Biden has slowly but purposefully shuffled across Vladimir Putin’s latest red line in Ukraine. After months of President Zelensky’s tireless pleas, the United States has finally given Kyiv a green light to use American missiles (ATACMS) for strikes deep inside Russia. Putin may well decide that it is safer to swallow his pride and pretend nothing has happened Reports indicate that Biden’s permission applies in the first instance only to the Russian and North Korean troops deployed in the Kursk region. It aims at helping Kyiv to hold on to the piece of the Russian territory that

James Heale James Heale

Get ready for farmageddon

Is Westminster ready for farmageddon? Tomorrow will see the greatest political demonstration for a rural cause since the passage of the Hunting Act in 2004. Thousands are expected to descend on Whitehall to protest Rachel Reeves’ changes to inheritance tax for farms. Those worth more than £1 million will face an effective inheritance tax (IHT) rate of 20 per cent from April 2026 – which rural groups fear will ‘kill’ the family farm. The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is hosting a conference event at Church House in Parliament Square from 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. Up to 1,800 members – divided into three groups of 600 – will be able to

Sunday

James Heale James Heale

Biden allows Kyiv to strike inside Russia with US missiles

Joe Biden has 64 days left in the White House – and clearly he intends to make the most of them. The President last night allowed Ukraine to use American missiles to strike deep inside of Russia. For months, Kyiv has been asking for permission to use ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) – capable of firing long range missiles up to 186 miles. The weapons – which have already been used at least once to hit targets in occupied Crimea – will enable Ukraine to target a wider range of bases, storage facilities, and logistics hubs. It comes seven months after the Pentagon confirmed the missiles’ arrival in Ukraine on

Coffee House

Full list: how will the cabinet vote on assisted dying?

There are less than three weeks to go until MPs vote on Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying private members’ bill. Cabinet Secretary Simon Case wrote to ministers last month to say that, while they ‘need not resile from previously stated views when directly asked about them, they should exercise discretion and should not take part in the public debate’. Below is The Spectator’s list of ministers in favour of the change, along with those against and past statements from their cabinet colleagues. They include the 22 full cabinet ministers plus the other four (Campbell, Jones, Hermer and Dodds) who attend weekly meetings: In favour: Likely to vote in favour: Likely to

Joe Bedell-Brill

There is a culture of ‘fear’ in the Church of England, says Bishop of Newcastle

Louise Haigh: ‘If we hadn’t taken the action, the fare cap would have been lifted entirely’ With the current £2 bus fare cap due to expire at the end of this year, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh defended Labour’s decision to guarantee an increased £3 cap until December next year. Haigh said the government’s new £1 billion subsidy would improve the frequency and reliability of buses, particularly in rural areas. Kuenssberg pointed out that bus fares would be going up for lots of people who would struggle to afford the change. Haigh said £3 would be the maximum, and in urban areas bus fares would only increase in line with inflation.

Michael Evans

The sad death of the Eurofighter Typhoon

Britain’s fighter jets are running missions into Syria, dropping bombs on the Houthis in Yemen, patrolling over Estonia, Lithuania and Romania, close to Ukraine, and guarding our shores from interloping Russian bombers. And yet, the Typhoon final-assembly production line at Warton in Preston has effectively come to a halt. There are no new orders from the Ministry of Defence, and there is a battle going on between Typhoon supporters and those who want Britain’s military to have more American Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft instead. The government is saying nothing because there is a strategic defence review underway. It’s an old, old story, rehearsed so many times in the past. Do

Paddy Stephens

Can Kent’s hop industry survive?

There is something quintessentially English about hop fields. Rows of ten foot wooden stakes rise from the grass, perhaps three feet apart, holding up a network of wires. In the summer, hops grow up these wires like vines, forming a fragrant, uneven wall of green shades: darker leaves with soft lime-green cones. The industry has shaped Kent for centuries with terraces of former pickers’ cottages lining the lanes, and dark clay cone-shaped oast houses – remnants of a time before hops were dried industrially – dotting the landscape. Local museums preserve the testimonies of poor Londoners who escaped here from the East End in the early 20th century to spend

Mark Taubert

The uncomfortable truth about assisted dying

This week, the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater finally put forward the much-awaited bill on assisted dying, which will likely be discussed in the coming weeks. Supporters of the bill have been campaigning on the issue for years, with legislation on the topic most recently rejected by the House of Commons in 2015. This bill, however, is little better. Above all, in its vagueness it fails to outline what drugs can legally be administered to help someone end their life. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, as it is officially known, simply states that ‘the Secretary of State must, by regulations, specify one or more drugs or other substances

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Donald Trump’s style of politics originated in Europe

A headline in a recent Washington Post op-ed declared that: ‘The Trump contagion is already in Europe – and it’s spreading’. The Post‘s European Affairs columnist, Lee Hockstader, who wrote the article, described the president-elect as ‘a dangerous role model to a rising cadre of European wannabes’. Sorry, Post. Europe may have given the USA blue jeans, burgers, and bubble wrap, but Trump’s form of political leadership originated in Europe at the turn of this century. Its initial purveyors were Pim Fortuyn of Holland, France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Jörg Haider of Austria. They also knew, like Trump, how to engage with the masses, tapping into anger at the liberal

Rebecca Chapman

The parable of Justin Welby

When Channel 4’s Cathy Newman summed up the Church of England’s John Smyth scandal as showing that ‘the church had neither process nor kindness’, Justin Welby agreed. It was hard for the Archbishop of Canterbury not to. Welby’s downfall was in no small part due to his neglect of the right process, one which puts victims and survivors first. As Welby – who resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury this week – said: ‘You can have kindness without process and nothing happens’. Welby’s relaxed approach, but iron will, elevated him to the position of Archbishop The Makin review into the church’s handling of the abuse allegations against Smyth shows what happens

Saturday

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Without America, Britain’s economy will stall

The comments by Stephen Moore, Donald Trump’s economic adviser, should not really be controversial. ‘I’ve always said that Britain has to decide,’ he said from Florida, where he is preparing the new administration’s economic policy. ‘Do you want to go towards the European socialist model or do you want to go towards the US free market? Lately it seems like they [Britain] are shifting more in a European model and so if that’s the case I think we’d be less interested in a free trade deal.’ He is right. Britain absolutely does have to decide whether it wants to be closer to the US economic model or to carry on

Michael Gove

Taxes, tariffs and Trump: What lies ahead for Labour?

63 min listen

The Spectator’s Michael Gove, Katy Balls, and Kate Andrews are joined by Paul Abberley, Chief Executive of Charles Stanley, to discuss and unpack Labour’s first budget in 14 years. Now the dust has settled from the policies, key questions continue to arise. Can Labour create the growth it desperately needs? Why are farmers so upset with the budget? And can they define a working person yet?