Politics

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

Tuesday

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Mauritius rejects Sir Keir’s Chagos deal

As if Starmer’s Labour government hasn’t had enough bad news lately, it now transpires that Mauritius has rejected the Sir Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands deal. Mauritian PM Navinchandra Ramgoolam has told his parliamentarians that the agreement was just not good enough and is now calling for improvements. Back to the drawing board… Speaking to his MPs, Ramgoolan revealed he had already spoken to UK National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell about the change in plan, remarking: Mauritius made clear that while it is still [our] belief to conclude an agreement with the UK, the draft agreement that was shown to us after the general election is one which, in our view, would

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Humza Yousaf’s top five worst Covid WhatsApps

Well, well, well. It has now emerged that the SNP government will ban WhatsApp on official devices in the wake of the Covid Inquiry. The announcement from the SNP’s deputy first minister Kate Forbes came today after the publication of an external review into the use of mobile messaging apps on government devices. ‘The use of mobile messaging apps increased during the pandemic as staff worked remotely in unprecedented and difficult circumstances,’ Forbes remarked, adding: ‘Having reflected on our working practices, we are now implementing changes to the use of mobile messaging apps.’ How curious. A number of Scottish government figures endured rather embarrassing sessions at the Covid Inquiry after

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Farage’s Musk meeting is uncomfortable for the Tories and Labour

It’s happened. To the likely dismay of both Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage has met with Elon Musk to discuss his party’s electoral prospects. The Reform party leader along with the party’s new treasurer Nick Candy spoke to the tech billionaire and close Donald Trump ally at Mar-A-Lago, in Florida, on Monday. Announcing news of their encounter as part of the pair’s stateside trip, Farage and Candy said they had enjoyed ‘a great meeting with Elon Musk’ that had gone on for an hour: ‘We had a great meeting with Elon Musk for an hour yesterday. We learned a great deal about the Trump ground game and will

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Liz Kendall’s WASPI women U-turn

Another day, another drama. Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has finally confirmed that the WASPI women will not receive pension compensation. The decision comes after women born in the 1950s began campaigning to be reimbursed for a previous rise in the state pension age, with activists claiming millions had not been adequately informed of the changes. Kendall has today said that the ‘great majority of women knew the state pension was increasing’, adding that a pay out costing up to £10.5 billion would not be ‘fair or proportionate’ – although she did accept that there had been a delay in sending letters communicating the changes. But Kendall’s firm

Ian Williams Ian Williams

How to avoid another Chinese spy scandal

As the fallout continues from the latest China spy scandal, it is hard not to conclude that Labour’s policy on Beijing – as far as one can be identified – adds up to appeasement in the vain hope of some economic crumbs from the Emperor’s table. It will certainly be seen by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a green light for stepping up what Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, has described as ‘a sustained campaign on a pretty epic scale’. ‘National security is the most important issue of our times,’ said Keir Starmer at the time of 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, a few weeks before the general

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Will higher wages lead to more inflation?

Good news for workers: wages are up. According to the latest data, released by the Office for National Statistics this morning, annual pay increased by 5.2 per cent in the three months leading up to October.  Despite inflation returning broadly to the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target, these above-inflation wage increases will be providing relief, still, for workers who are still coping with significantly higher prices as a hangover from the inflation crisis. But a positive story for employees is often more worrying news for Threadneedle Street, which insists that wage increases risk second-round inflationary effects. Today’s news has markets speculating that the Bank may slow its rate-cutting

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Why Ukraine killed Igor Kirillov

Another one down. This morning, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of RKhBZ, Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops, was heading out of his block of flats in Moscow’s Ryazansky Avenue, accompanied by his aide, when a bomb placed inside an electric scooter exploded. Both men were killed in the latest Ukrainian assassination operation targeting Russian officers accused of war crimes. The timing was hardly coincidental. The 54-year-old Kirillov has been under British sanctions since 2017, both because of RKhBZ’s activities (including supporting the Syrian use of chemical weapons) and also his role as a propagandist, spreading such falsehoods as the claim that Ukraine hosted secret western biological warfare laboratories. However,

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Humza Yousaf to step down as MSP

Well, well, well. It now transpires that hapless Humza Yousaf will step down as an MSP at the next Holyrood election, with the former first minister of Scotland making the announcement this morning. It comes after Yousaf spent a year in the top job before being ousted in April this year when he rather abruptly cut off his eco-activist coalition partners. Dear oh dear… Posting his letter to John Swinney on Twitter, Yousaf wrote that being Scotland’s first minister had been ‘the greatest honour’ of his life, going on about his time in the Scottish government: In government, I was proud to have significantly increased our budget for active travel,

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

What’s the truth about the New Jersey drone sightings?

What is going on with the drones buzzing over New Jersey in the United States? Reportedly ‘the size of cars’, sometimes flying low in formation, these mysterious semi-identified flying objects have been sighted in their thousands every night – and only at night – for weeks. They might not even be drones. Are they alien spaceships? Are they from Russia or China? Are they just planes? Are they even anything at all? I’ve watched a number of videos purporting to show these invaders. ‘What is that thing? It’s freaking huge!’ one awestruck observer can be heard over footage of what looks like a commercial passenger jet.  It’s increasingly hard to

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The hypocrisy of Hollywood’s environmental preaching

You can’t expect anything reasonable when Hollywood gets on its high horse, but really, are our pension contributions truly helping to strip the Amazon of its rainforests? That is the claim made in a short film featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, in which the actor appears in a sauna as ‘Benedict Lumberjack’, the CEO of a logging company. ‘The business of deforestation is on fire right now and it is all thanks to you,’ he says. ‘The money from your pension has helped scorch, slash and burn entire rainforests… some bits of the world are literally burning but it’s just the bits that no one cares about.’ Let’s sketch over the assertion

Lee Cohen

Trump, monarchy and the waning power of Hollywood

Donald Trump has yet to comment on the Prince Andrew ‘Chinese spy’ story, and online sleuths are already trying to join the vague dots between Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and the Duke of York. But the real story about Donald Trump and monarchy is the extent of his admiration for the British crown. At the big reopening of Notre Dame cathedral, other heads of state seemed desperate to make their impression on the President-elect. Yet for Trump, what really mattered was his encounter with the Prince of Wales.   ‘I had a great talk with the prince,’ Trump told the New York Post. ‘He’s a good-looking guy,’ the President-elect went on. ‘He

Eliot Wilson

Keir Starmer has dropped the ball on Ukraine

Has Keir Starmer dropped the ball on Ukraine? Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian former foreign minister, certainly thinks so. Kuleba, who stepped down from his post in September, had few kind words to say this week about how Starmer’s Labour government had dealt with Ukraine in the five months or so since coming to power: The Conservatives were coordinating with the Americans but they did not restrict themselves to just following the Americans. This is the change that came with Labour. They took a position they would follow the Americans. It is stirring and laudable to promise to support Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’ The immediate cause of Kuleba’s

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

German politics is a mess

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in parliament yesterday. It’s almost certain now that Germans will head to the polls for a snap election on 23 February. What is less certain is whether this will bring about the change so many of them crave. Of 717 Bundestag deputies only 207 expressed their ongoing confidence in the German Chancellor, the vast majority who did so being members of Scholz’s own party, the Social Democrats (SPD). This didn’t come as a surprise since he intended to lose the vote: Scholz’s ruling coalition collapsed last month, leaving him to run a minority government. The only way out of this stalemate

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The finger-pointing over Yang Tengbo begins

The threatened Commons drama of an MP using parliamentary privilege to name the alleged Chinese spy was dampened rather after the High Court lifted the anonymity order on Yang Tengbo. It meant the urgent question (UQ) in the Chamber this afternoon ended up being much more about the UK government’s attitude towards China generally – which made it a much more useful session than if everyone had been craning their necks to see which maverick MP was going to stand up and name ‘H6’. The urgent question came from Iain Duncan Smith, who got a scolding from the Speaker for telling the press he was tabling it. Mind you, Lindsay

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Israel is right to cut ties with Ireland

Everything that has gone wrong in modern Ireland is summed up in the fact that it is winning praise from Hamas and criticism from Israel. Last week Ireland was gushed over by that army of anti-Semites that carried out the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, while being spurned by the Jewish homeland that was the target of that barbarous assault. Listen, if you’re getting love from racist terrorists, and rejection from their victims, it’s time for some self-reflection. Israel cited Ireland’s ‘extreme anti-Israeli policies’ for its decision It was the Irish government’s decision to join South Africa’s ‘genocide’ case against Israel at the International Court of Justice that

James Heale James Heale

Rayner’s revolution enrages Reform

This afternoon Angela Rayner will unveil potentially the biggest shake-up of local government since the 1970s. The Housing Secretary will speak at 1:50 p.m. on her plans for a devolution ‘revolution’. All areas covered by two tiers of local government — generally district and county councils — will be asked to submit proposals to merge into single, unitary authorities. A white paper will be published after Rayner’s speech. The government’s line is that this move will save billions while simplifying how local democracy works. Local authorities will be expected to cover around 500,000 inhabitants, necessitating a likely cull of hundreds of councillors. Labour argues it will enable the creation of

James Heale James Heale

Could the local elections be cancelled?

14 min listen

Labour will reveal plans today to re-design local government, with district councils set to be abolished, and more elected mayors introduced across England. The plans could be the biggest reforms of their type since the 1970s, but with the May 2025 local elections set to be Labour’s first big electoral test since the general election, how will they be impacted? Local government minister Jim McMahon didn’t deny that the elections could be affected, or some even cancelled. Reform UK have called foul – what’s going on? James Heale speaks to Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls. Also on the podcast: rumours abound that a Chinese spy could be named in Parliament

Matthew Lynn Matthew Lynn

Labour will regret selling Royal Mail

It will maintain the single price ‘universal service obligation’. The government will keep its ‘golden share’. And there are ‘legally binding obligations’ to protect the company. The Labour government may feel it has negotiated enough concessions out of the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to allow his £3.6 billion takeover of Royal Mail to go ahead. Here’s the problem, though. If the company declines even further, as it almost certainly will, it will be Keir Starmer’s government which gets the blame. With approval from the government, Kretinsky’s acquisition of the Royal Mail now looks certain to go ahead. The Czech tycoon has made so many promises, it is hard to see

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Starmer receives worst rating yet as Labour leader

Another day, another bit of bad news for Sir Keir Starmer. A new Ipsos poll carried out between 27 November and 4 December has revealed that dissatisfaction with the Labour leader has reached a staggering 61 per cent – his worst rating as leader of the lefty lot. Good heavens… It’s not just Sir Keir struggling with unpopularity – overall unhappiness with the Labour government remains rather high too, with a whopping 70 per cent of Brits registering their dissatisfaction with the party in charge. And voters are feeling rather bleak about the future too, with two thirds of poll participants admitting they expect the economy to get worse over the

Sam Leith Sam Leith

The hypocrisy of Nick Candy

The property tycoon Nick Candy, interviewed in yesterday’s Sunday Times, appears to be hoping to position himself as a UK equivalent of Elon Musk – a billionaire political kingmaker for Nigel Farage just as Musk was for Donald Trump. Newly anointed as the treasurer of Reform UK, he has pledged a ‘seven-figure’ sum to the party and hopes to raise between £25 million and £40 million before the next general election. Candy indicates that he’s angling for an invitation stateside in the hopes of picking up some tips from Musk as to how he did what Candy calls ‘an incredible job for president-elect Trump [which] sort of changed the political spectrum in