Politics

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

Wednesday

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Can’t the UK pay its ‘Head of Tariff Strategy’ more than £55k?

Donald Trump is back in the White House and the UK is playing catch-up once again. Whether it’s Mandelson grovelling for his job or Starmer waiting almost a week for a phone call, it risks a re-run of the President’s first term when opportunities were missed. And now, in a potential indicator that those in Whitehall were caught on the hop, the Department of Business and Trade have this week put a new job advert. The post in question? ‘Head of Tariff Strategy’. Yep, that’s right, for the whopping salary of just £55,000, you too could be bartering with Donald Trump’s tariff-loving aides. According to the 2,177-word advert, ‘you will

Toby Young Toby Young

James Tooley’s ordeal is over – but why was he ever suspended?

It’s wonderful to hear that Professor James Tooley, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, has been reinstated after a gruelling, four-month investigation. James is a member of the Free Speech Union, the organisation I run, and we’ve been helping him navigate this Kafkaesque ordeal. The KC hired by Buckingham to carry out the investigation has concluded that all the allegations against him are without substance, which raises questions about why James was suspended from his post in the first place. The police were summoned to recover the ‘firearm’ from James’s bedside table, only to discover it was a children’s air rifle Professor Tooley’s ordeal began when his ex-wife, whom

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Sadiq splurges £2.1 million on statues commission

Another day, another City Hall scandal. Mr S can today reveal that Labour’s London mayor Sadiq Khan has splurged a whopping £2.1 million on a statues commission. So much for sensible public spending, eh? In a Freedom of Information response returned to Mr S, the Greater London Authority admitted that, so far, £2,138,888 had been funnelled towards the Mayor of London’s ‘Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm’. The initiative aims to ‘lead a London-wide conversation on how to achieve greater diversity of representation across the public realm and heritage sites’ and focus on ‘increasing the presence and visibility of underrepresented groups’. Er, money well spent then? The work the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Where Kemi Badenoch keeps going wrong at PMQs

Kemi Badenoch may well have been right in the points that she made at Prime Minister’s Questions, but she managed to go about making them in the wrong way. The Tory leader focused on the many contradictions between the government’s focus on economic growth and its policies, but her phrasing of her questions and her attempts to defend the Conservative legacy made it easy for Keir Starmer to ridicule the questions, rather than answer them. The Prime Minister had also set up a planted question before his exchanges with Badenoch which meant he was already developing a theme about the Tories and the state pension before the leader of the

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Where is Ed Miliband?

It’s a busy day for the Labour lot, what with Rachel Reeves’s big growth speech this morning and Sir Keir Starmer’s PMQs at noon. But as viewers tuned in to watch the back-and-forth play out between the Prime Minister and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, there was one rather notable absence on the Labour benches. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband was nowhere to be seen. In fact, PMQs isn’t the only thing the Energy Secretary chose to skip today. Miliband decided not grace the Chancellor with his presence during her address this morning where she formally backed plans to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport – proposals that Ed had previously

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Rachel Reeves tries to reverse Labour’s economic gloom

As expected, Rachel Reeves used her big – and long – growth speech this morning to back the expansion of Heathrow and argue that Britain was taking too long to make decisions on building infrastructure, let alone getting it done. The Chancellor did devote large passages of her speech to criticising the ‘structural problems in our economy’, and to blaming the Conservatives, but she was clearly trying not to make the whole thing about what her predecessors had got wrong. This speech had to be about how Labour was going to grow the economy, after months of criticism that Reeves and Keir Starmer are taking the wrong approach. Reeves said

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Do Rachel Reeves’s growth plans go far enough?

Has Rachel Reeves got her growth? Today’s speech from the Chancellor in Oxfordshire was not this government’s first attempt to pivot towards a more business-friendly, growth-generating narrative. But it was its best effort yet.  Starting with the highlights. Reeves threw her unabashed support behind a third runway at Heathrow, insisting that the expansion was ‘badly needed’ and that the case had never been stronger for boosting trade; the airport ‘connects us to emerging markets all over the world, opening up new opportunities for growth’. Let’s not get carried away She called on proposals to be submitted by the summer, to start a process that would ensure the fastest and best-value

Jonathan Spyer

Trump has exposed the hypocrisy of Gaza’s allies

US President Donald Trump has reiterated his call for Egypt and Jordan to accept residents of Gaza into their territory, as part of arrangements to end the current war with Israel. Further explaining his idea on Monday, the President said that he would ‘like to get [Gazans] living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much’.  It’s difficult to see anything coming of this idea. Both Egypt and Jordan have already, predictably, rejected it absolutely. Hamas, which is currently re-establishing itself as the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, would obviously act to prevent any attempt to implement it.   The politics of

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Will the SNP government lose yet another health minister?

To Scotland, where today the SNP government’s embattled Health Secretary Neil Gray is in the firing line. The Scottish Tories have tabled an amendment – which will be voted on today – calling for the ‘Limogate’ minister to step down after Gray admitted to inadvertently misleading parliament over using taxpayer-funded cars to transport him to sports matches. Dear oh dear… Gray used chauffeur-driven cars to take him to nine football games between 2022 and 2024, which the Health Secretary claims he attended on ministerial business. Yet his journey to the 2023 Scottish League Cup Final between Aberdeen and Rangers raised eyebrows after Freedom of Information requests revealed that there was

James Heale James Heale

Will Marco Rubio kibosh the Chagos deal?

There’s a new sheriff in town. Trump’s election means a new Secretary of State; the world’s most powerful foreign minister is now a Republican. Out goes Anthony Blinken, Joe Biden’s longtime Francophone aide. In comes Marco Rubio, the three-time Florida Senator. Unlike some of Trump’s cabinet picks – like the unorthodox Pete Hegseth at Defence – Rubio sailed through his Senate confirmation, winning the unanimous approval of his former colleagues. This is partly because the ideological switch from Blinken to Rubio is less dramatic than in other cabinet posts. Both men are staunch supporters of Nato; both received a big thumbs up from national security establishments across the West. Europe

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Reeves blasted for backing third Heathrow runway

Growth is the flavour of the month for Sir Keir Starmer’s government, with Rachel Reeves this morning delivering a big speech on Britain’s economic potential. As the Chancellor attempts to woo the public with a number of talking points in today’s address, all eyes remain on the rather controversial matter of Heathrow’s expansion – which, Reeves announced today, is ‘badly needed’. Going on, the Chancellor insisted: We cannot duck the decision any longer. A third runway at Heathrow will unlock growth, boost investment and make the UK more open. This government supports a third runway at Heathrow and is inviting proposals to be brought forward by the summer. Golly. It

Gavin Rice

Why Britain needs growth

‘Growth’ – the focus of the Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ speech this morning – can be a confusing word. It’s intangible, obscure, hard to visualise. It happens slowly, often imperceptibly, over a political cycle – when it happens at all. The changes needed to achieve it can be tough and involve trade-offs. Often voters feel those changes will not directly benefit them, or may even make their lives worse – whether it’s new housing developments, HS2, a new runway at Heathrow (which Reeves backed) or new nuclear power stations. For anyone who stood on the doorstep during the last election, we know that making and doing more things can be a hard

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Mandelson grovels to Trump on Fox News

Oh Mandy. It’s now nine days since Donald Trump was elected – and our new man in Washington is still yet to get final sign-off. Peter Mandelson was named as the new UK Ambassador to the US last month in a move that did not go down well with all in Trumpworld. Mandelson has made various insulting comments about the new President, calling him everything from a ‘danger to the world’ to a ‘little short of a white nationalist and racist’. Trump’s campaign manager Chris LaCivita spoke for others when he dubbed Mandelson an ‘absolute moron.’ Ouch…. Now, in a belated effort to suck up to Trump, the Prince of Darkness has prostrated

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Labour will regret extending the BBC licence fee

The BBC licence fee is dying as millions of Britons realise that they do not need a television; they can get all the entertainment and news they want on the internet. But don’t assume that it will go quietly. On the contrary, we could end up with something even worse. Bloomberg is reporting today that the government is considering extending the requirement to buy a TV licence to people who use streaming services. In other words, download a film from Netflix and you would have to pay the BBC. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, apparently denies that the idea is under ‘active consideration’, along with the idea of funding the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The NHS isn’t solely to blame for its failure to reform

Can the NHS reform itself? MPs on the powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) say it doesn’t know how to. It has published a stinging report this morning, accusing both NHS England (NHSE) and the department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) of ‘complacency’ and blaming external factors for the poor financial position of the health service. In return, the NHS has lashed out at what it calls a ‘flawed’ report which contains ‘basic factual inaccuracies’.  The select committee report complains that the health service is relying on overly optimistic projections of the improvements to productivity that it can achieve, and that it ‘was unable to convince us that it has a

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Like the Louvre, Macron’s presidency is falling apart

Emmanuel Macron has promised to return the Louvre to its former glory in an ambitious renovation project that is forecast to cost between €700 and €800 million (£586 and £670 million). The French president outlined details of what he called his ‘New Renaissance’ project on Tuesday as he stood in front of the Mona Lisa. As part of the revamp, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece will have its own room and visitors will pay for the privilege of seeing the enigmatic smile. Other initiatives include a second entrance – to ease the current congestion of 30,000 visitors a day – and a new entrance fee from next January that will require

James Hanson

Hollywood luvvies have become Donald Trump’s useful idiots

In events that were foreseeable to anyone outside America’s cultural elite, the actress and popstar Selena Gomez is facing an online backlash to her now-deleted Instagram post decrying Donald Trump’s immigration policy. The offending video featured a sobbing Selena, who has Mexican heritage, wailing into her phone camera that ‘all my people are being attacked’ and that ‘I wish I could do something but I can’t’. It was a performance of such histrionic hamminess it’s little wonder Miss Gomez missed out on an Oscar nod for Emilia Perez. The reaction has been swift and unforgiving. Many were quick to point out that, contrary to Gomez’s assumptions, Trump’s plan to deport unlawful

Matthew Lynn

Why Rachel Reeves’ growth plan is doomed

The wait is over. After six months in government, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has decided that today is the day to step forward and pull the big lever marked ‘growth’. In a widely-trailed speech, she has outlined all the different ways her government is going to get the economy moving again. There is just one snag. The lever isn’t attached to anything. In reality, Reeves doesn’t have a clue where growth comes from – and that means her big speech this morning won’t change anything.  Reeves has, at least, finally got round to detailing how she plans to make the UK the fastest-growing economy in the G7. Cynics might wonder why

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Reform is on the up – but it could easily come unstuck

British politics is in a new place: the combined polling score of Labour and the Conservatives is below 50 per cent for the first time in living memory. The latest polls have Labour averaging 26 per cent and the Tories 23 per cent. This is a nine point reduction on the terrible combined score of 58 per cent that the two traditional main parties obtained on polling day last year – the lowest ever recorded at a general election. The picture becomes even worse for the traditional duopoly if one drills down to public perceptions of them on the main political issues. Looking at YouGov’s regular series of ‘which party

Connor Leahy

DeepSeek shows the stakes for humanity couldn’t be higher

What is DeepSeek, the Chinese AI system that’s shaken the world, and what does it reveal about our future? While DeepSeek has been around since 2023, what shocked the world was the release on 20 January of their DeepSeek-R1 AI model, a Large Language Model (LLM) that is just as intelligent as American giant OpenAI’s latest AI o1, but was far cheaper to create. The increased efficiency comes from the artificial intelligence underlying R1. DeepSeek claims it only cost them a mere $6 million, while US companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have spent more than ten times as much to create comparably smart AIs. DeepSeek’s success is due to many