Politics

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

Saturday

Arash Azizi

Will Iran attack Israel?

The Middle East is bracing for an attack whose exact source, targets, method, timing and scope are unknown. On Monday, a suspected Israeli air strike targeted a group of Iranian officials in Damascus, Syria, and citizens of the region are now waiting to see how Iran’s regime will respond. Israel has scrambled GPS signals across the Middle East to confuse Iranian weapons – people living in places as far away from Israel as southeastern Turkey couldn’t use Google Maps on their phones this week. The GPS placed everybody in Beirut. Monday’s attacks hit the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital. Israel has staged dozens of attacks on Iranian targets in

Julius Strauss

Despite Russia’s intensifying attacks, Kharkiv carries on

Irina Kotenko, 53, was already awake when a Russian drone crashed into the roof of her three-story building at 1 a.m. last Thursday. She had heard another strike nearby and was wondering where it might have hit. The explosion blew out the windows of her home. Somehow Irina, her husband, Vitaly, 48, and her daughter Aleksandra, 21, survived unscathed. Aleksandra began to shout: ‘Mum, are you alive?’ In the next-door flat a neighbour, an older man who lived alone, was buried in rubble. Soon emergency workers arrived. Outside firemen poured water on to the roof of the building to put out a fire that had broken out. These days little

Steerpike Steerpike

Scotland’s police at ‘breaking point’ over hate law

Oh dear. As the furore around Scotland’s Hate Crime Act extends into its sixth day, there are now fears about police spending as the force looks set to struggle with the sheer volume of complaints. It is understood that, since the Act was implemented on Monday, 40 officers a day have been required to work overtime to help tackle reports. With officers being paid time and a third for working extra hours, there are concerns about overstretching the Police Scotland budget. What a mess… Over 3,000 hate crime complaints were submitted in the first 24 hours of the Act and the Scottish Tories have predicted that at this rate, over

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

How likely is Putin to target the Paris Olympics?

One thing the French seem to be learning (or, given their history, re-learning) is that the Russians are always up for a scrap. A ministerial phone call between the two countries has led to a diplomatic spat such that a stung Emmanuel Macron is now claiming that Moscow plans to target this summer’s Paris Olympics – and he’s probably right. On Wednesday, French defence minister Sébastien Lecornu had a rare phone conversation – the first since 2022 – with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu. Paris claims that, following the Crocus City terrorist attack in Moscow last month, the call was wholly about the scope for anti-terrorist cooperation, and their willingness

John McHugo

How Syria collapsed

In April 2018 I was taken on a coach through miles of war-wasted urban landscape in the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Homs. They looked much like the photos of Gaza today, except the shattered streets were always empty and sometimes there were longhand Arabic signs chalked crudely on broken concrete slabs: ‘for sale’, or ‘water disconnected’. The people had fled the crude barrel bombs. Where had they gone? The war had ended in these cities over a year before, which was why we were allowed to visit. Deaths in Gaza are counted – in Syria they were not. We only have estimates. Somewhere between 25,000-30,000 civilians and 10,000-15,000 combatants died

Natasha Feroze

J.K. Rowling vs Scotland’s hate monster

15 min listen

J.K. Rowling has been at the centre of a Twitter backlash against Scotland’s new hate crime laws which came into effect on April 1st. How has the first week of this controversial legislation gone for First Minister Humza Yousaf? And is political support for the policy dwindling? Natasha Feroze speaks to Lucy Dunn and Isabel Hardman.

James Heale James Heale

James Heale, Madeleine Teahan, Tanya Gold and William Moore

23 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: James Heale suggests that the London mayoral race could be closer than we think (1:02); Madeleine Teahan argues that babies with down’s syndrome have a right to be born (6:15); Tanya Gold reports from Jerusalem as Israel’s war enters its seventh month (12:32); and William Moore reveals what he has in common with Kim Jong Un (18:25). Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

What’s Biden’s strategy in the Middle East?

24 min listen

Suspected Israeli air strikes were launched on targets in Syria this week and Israel’s war in Gaza has entered its seventh month. Americano regular Jacob Heilbrunn joins Freddy to discuss what an escalating situation in the Middle East could mean for Joe Biden. What’s the Democrats’ strategy? And how could this impact the 2024 election? Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons. 

John Ferry John Ferry

Who’s to blame for Scotland’s ferry fiasco?

You wait eight-and-a-half years for someone to lose their job over the SNP’s ferries fiasco, then two sackings come at once. So which Scottish government minister has finally paid the price for a scandal that has left islanders without reliable ferry services, brought the Scottish government and its agencies into disrepute, and cost Scottish taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds and counting?  Not Derek Mackay, the junior minister responsible for transport when the contract was awarded in October 2015 – in a typically boosterish fashion at the SNP’s conference. He resigned in February 2020 after it emerged he had sent messages to a teenage boy. The first minister at the time the ferry contract

Matthew Scott

No, prison sentences aren’t going soft

In 1894 Maria Hermann, an Austrian-born prostitute stood trial at the Old Bailey for the murder of a client. The evidence seemed overwhelming and she faced a death sentence if convicted. But she had the remarkable good fortune to be defended by Edward Marshall Hall, the greatest criminal advocate of the day. He produced evidence of the wretched life which had led her into a life of poverty, prostitution and degradation. At the end of his closing speech Hall slowly turned and looked towards the dock. ‘Look at her, members of the jury. God never gave her a chance, won’t you?’ The jury cleared her of murder, and in convicting her of

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

The Tories are resigned to an almighty defeat

The herd of Conservative MPs is on the move again, this time obediently setting off towards the abattoir in which the careers of most will meet a grisly end. When historians come to write their accounts of the Conservative administrations of 2015-24, they will have a bewildering variety of ‘worst weeks’ to choose from, but the past seven days will have a strong claim to mark the moment when the fight went out of the parliamentary Conservative party and it became resigned to its fate. Rishi Sunak achieved one thing of note this week Two MRP polls with huge samples offering the possibility of constituency-level projections have offered a new

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

The curiously quiet reaction to Oppenheimer in Japan

Finally, eight months after its US premiere and a month after it triumphed at the Oscars, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has opened here in Japan. The film had been mysteriously delayed and there were rumours it would never be screened in the only country to suffer the consequences of a nuclear bomb. No definitive explanation was ever given for the lengthy hold up, but it was almost certainly due to concerns about the subject matter, especially since Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is a native of Hiroshima and lost relatives in the blast. Timing may also have been a factor, as the buildup to the worldwide release coincided with Kishida’s hosting of

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Second Tory MP admits he was Westminster honeytrap target

A second Tory MP has admitted that he was a target of the Westminster sexting honeytrap. Luke Evans, who represents Bosworth, revealed this evening that he was sent a photo of a naked woman on WhatsApp. ‘Here’s a video I didn’t expect to make on a Friday evening,’ Evans said in a Facebook video. ‘A month ago I was a victim of cyberflashing and malicious communications, and blew the whistle by reporting it to the police and the parliamentary authorities as soon as this happened.’  He went on: ‘The first set of messages I got was on a day I was with my wife and I got a one-time open

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Is William Wragg a victim?

9 min listen

On Thursday night, Conservative MP William Wragg admitted that he handed over the phone numbers of MPs, aides and a journalist to a man he met on a dating app. William Wragg will retain the whip after apologising for his actions. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak is eager to talk about the National Insurance cut that comes into place tomorrow – has this given him political credibility? Cindy Yu speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Heale. 

Eliot Wilson

The recklessness of William Wragg

Everyone makes mistakes, but they are seldom as monumental as William Wragg’s. The Tory MP has admitted handing over the phone numbers of colleagues to a man he met on Grindr, a gay dating app. The vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee said he offered up the details after sending intimate pictures of himself. Wragg deserves some credit for coming clean. ‘I was scared. I’m mortified,’ he has said. But there’s something troubling about the speed with which Wragg’s colleagues are defending him – and the insistence that he shouldn’t lose the Tory party whip. Wragg must face up to the consequences Anyone who has worked in Westminster will feel a

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Why is Putin still blaming Ukraine for the Moscow terror attack?

In the fortnight since four Isis gunmen stormed Crocus City Hall in the Moscow suburbs, Vladimir Putin has done his best to dodge as much of the blame as possible. Speaking at a trade convention in Moscow on Thursday, Russia’s president once again reiterated the implication that Ukraine, and not the Islamist terror group, was responsible for the atrocity. But there are growing questions not only about what Putin knew in advance of the attack, but also the Russian president’s willingness to face up to who was responsible. ‘We have every reason to believe that the main goal of those who ordered the bloody terrorist attack in Moscow was to

James Heale James Heale

Will the Tories remove the whip from Will Wragg?

Who else was caught up in the sexting honeytrap? That’s the question Westminster is asking today. It follows last night’s revelation that William Wragg, vice chair of the 1922 committee, was the source responsible for passing on MPs’ phone numbers to a man he met on the gay dating app Grindr. This man then used the numbers to target at least a dozen others. Among them are believed to be three MPs including a serving minister, four political staffers, a former Tory MP and two political journalists. They were sent unsolicited flirtatious texts from senders calling themselves ‘Charlie’ or ‘Abi’ in a suspected spear-phishing attack. Two of the MPs are reported to

John Keiger John Keiger

The plot to stop Marine Le Pen could backfire badly

At first, French elites haughtily dismissed the Rassemblement National (RN) and its voters. Then they were in denial about its rise. Now they are scrambling to block its path to victory in 2027 by all manner of subterfuge. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the RN and front-runner in the 2027 presidential election, will go on trial this October, with other RN party members, for the misuse of European parliamentary funds. Whereas members of Macron’s coalition were recently found guilty of similar misdemeanours, in the case of Le Pen the stakes are particularly high: a likely guilty verdict will see her declared ineligible for political office and thus eliminated from

Iain Macwhirter

Scotland’s Hate Crime Act may have done us all a favour

Scotland’s Hate Crime Act (HCA) has, by common agreement, been an unmitigated disaster. Less than a week old, there are already calls for it to be repealed – like the equally misconceived but more awfully named Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012. The police are now clearly hesitant of arresting anyone for hate crime The police have been swamped with thousands of complaints, many vexatious, all of which they are pledged to investigate. JK Rowling has blown the doors off with her ‘arrest me’ tweets, but the First Minister, Humza Yousaf, attracted more hate crime complaints in the first two days than she did. SNP Ministers like Siobhan Brown have been ridiculed for misrepresenting their own

Andrew Tettenborn

Civil servants can’t down tools if they don’t like Israel

Britain in the nineteenth century pioneered the idea of the professional, impartial civil service independent of politics. In the twenty-first, that same civil service is unfortunately pioneering the notion of a body increasingly independent of the state that employs it, and apt at times to follow its own remarkably political agenda without much control from anyone. Following your conscience is a good deal less impressive when you are doing it on someone else’s dime British companies export a good deal of military equipment to Israel. To do so, they require export licences from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Yesterday, it emerged that a group of civil servants in