Politics

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

Wednesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Was ‘free trade’ really working?

29 min listen

Oren Cass, founder and chief economist of think-tank American Compass, sits down with Freddy Gray at the ARC conference in London. They react to the announcement by President Trump over the weekend of reciprocal tariffs: the decision by the US to match import duties levied by other countries.  What’s the strategy behind Trump’s decision? And what could the consequences be for American companies and for global trade? They also discuss the broad political consensus behind free trade in the US since the 1990s. Given the ‘lived reality’ that faced many American investors and companies – for example competing with Chinese Electric Vehicles – was the free trade really working anyway?

Steerpike Steerpike

Could Jeff Bezos face jail under Labour’s knife reforms?

It’s a gaffe day with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot and now the spotlight is on policing minister Diana Johnson. The Labour MP took to the airwaves this morning to sell Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s announcement that the maximum prison sentence for people selling knives to children under 18 will be increased in light of the Southport murders – from six months to two years in prison. Golly. But there’s more to it than that. Not only will those directly making the sales be punished, company CEOs are in the firing line too. If, for example, under-18s are found to have purchased knives from online shopping sites like Amazon, the

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Inflation rises to 3% – should we panic?

Prices are rising. Inflation rose to 3 per cent in the twelve months leading up to January, up from 2.5 per cent in December. It’s a bigger jump than expected, with markets and the Bank of England expecting a rise to 2.8 per cent, driven largely by higher transport costs, as well as higher costs for food and non-alcoholic drinks. Is there reason to panic? While the CPI figures are higher than expected for January, they are not far out of line with the Bank’s latest forecast, which expects inflation to peak closer to 4 per cent this summer, due to rising energy costs. As Capital Economics notes this morning,

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Are 3.1 million Brits really too sick to work?

Is it any wonder that the economy is struggling in spite of an apparently booming jobs market, with employers finding it difficult to hire recruits and average earnings rising by 5.9 per cent in the past year? Here is a shocking statistic which goes a long way to explaining the apparent paradox: there are now 3.1 million people claiming Universal Credit with no requirement to seek work – a number which has doubled in just three years. We have to be careful with the absolute numbers, because as benefit claimants are gradually moved onto Universal Credit the figures are bound to grow. But as the chart from the Department for

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Trump’s support for Taiwan has infuriated Beijing

They were only six words on a website, but they helped maintain Beijing’s fiction that Taiwan is part of its territory. Their disappearance has infuriated China’s communist leaders. ‘It gravely contravenes international law and the basic norms of international relations,’ raged Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China’s ministry of foreign affairs, on Monday. The website in question was that of the US State Department. The words – ‘we do not support Taiwan independence’ – have been removed from its ‘fact sheet’ along with a tweak to another section that implies stronger support for Taiwan’s right to join international organisations, which Beijing has consistently blocked. The changes were welcomed by the

Monica Porter

What Labour can learn from the glory days of British Rail

The Department for Transport has just launched an eight-week consultation to determine the shape of its much-vaunted Great British Railways – our renationalised railway system. Will it, I wonder, be anything like the earlier nationalised incarnation, British Rail (BR)? I do hope so. Because, although BR was disparaged for being old-fashioned and a bit creaky, inefficient and loss-making, I was very fond of those trains of yesteryear. John Major’s privatisation of the railways in the 1990s was meant to introduce competition, improve services and reduce costs. It didn’t work out that way though, did it? Trains today have never been so unreliable or so expensive. Not to mention overcrowded. So,

Eliot Wilson

Can the British army stretch to peace-keeping in Ukraine?

It has been a traumatic week for Europe’s political and military leaders. Last Wednesday, without warning, US President Donald Trump announced that he had spoken to Vladimir Putin by telephone for 90 minutes. During a ‘highly productive call’, he and the Russian leader had ‘agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately’ to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had not been informed of the conversation beforehand, much less involved. The transactional high-handedness of Trump’s approach, ignoring the injured party in the conflict and making direct and friendly overtures to the aggressor, should not have come as a surprise. But it left

Jawad Iqbal

Why did the Foremans travel to Iran?

A British couple detained in Iran have been charged with espionage, according to the Iranian judiciary news agency. Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been accused of entering the country ‘under the guise of tourists’ and of being ‘affiliated with intelligence services’. No actual evidence to back up the spying charges has been provided by the regime in Tehran, which has a habit of ignoring such legal niceties.  The Foremans were arrested last month during a round-the-world motorbike trip. After staying in the cities of Tabriz, Isfahan and Tehran, they travelled to Kerman in the centre of the country, where they were detained. According to their social media feed, the couple were in

Matthew Lynn

Does it matter if Rachel Reeves fibbed on her CV?

Rachel Reeves is in the headlines again, for all the wrong reasons. The Chancellor’s entry in Who’s Who lists her as a contributor to the Journal of Political Economy. The problem? Reeves has, in fact, only published a single article in a far less prestigious publication, the European Journal of Political Economy. At this rate, it is hard to feel confident she is actually called Rachel The latest revelations follow claims that Reeves exaggerated the amount of time she spent working for the Bank of England. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as working at Threadneedle Street for nine months longer than she actually did. Reeves has also previously said she

Sam Meadows

The crypto crash haunting Javier Milei

When Javier Milei took power in Argentina there was one group whose ears pricked up with interest: the global crypto bros. After all, here was a president who seemed perfectly aligned with their values. A lover of economic freedom who harbours a deep hatred for state regulations and government spending. Surely this ‘anarcho-capitalist’ was a fan of cryptocurrencies? Twitter filled with threads about why Milei’s election victory was a ‘big moment for Bitcoin’. Once in power, however, he did not seem all that interested. That is until Friday, when he took to his X account to post about a new crypto coin that was ‘dedicated to boosting the growth of

Tuesday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

The US and Russia must not force Ukrainian elections

After four hours of talks in Saudi Arabia, Russian and American negotiators have reportedly come up with a three-stage plan to end the war in Ukraine. According to Fox News, the plan includes a ceasefire, elections in Ukraine and the signing of a final agreement. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who was neither informed nor invited to the talks, said that Russia and the US are discussing the same old ultimatum Moscow set at the start of full-scale war. ‘I wonder – if we didn’t accept such ultimatums in our most difficult moment, why does anyone think we would now?’, he said. Back in February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin said he

Catriona Stewart

What’s behind Scottish Labour’s gender U-turn?

At long last, Scottish Labour has clearly and decisively set out its position on gender self-identification. Party leader Anas Sarwar and his deputy Jackie Baillie have now robustly stated the case that Scottish Labour supports single-sex spaces based on biological sex. Good, clear, precise messaging of the type entirely absent from the SNP leadership – and long overdue. Yet that clatter you hear is the sound of jaws dropping violently at the audacity. Shock at this astonishing volte face by Sarwar will be most keenly felt by two of his MSPs, Claire Baker and Carol Mochan, who were forced to resign their frontbench posts in the Scottish parliament when they declined to

Oscar Edmondson

How Europe’s consensus on Ukraine broke down

14 min listen

The future of Ukraine is being decided in a meeting between US and Russian diplomats in Saudi Arabia today. So far, we understand that America will insist that Ukraine is recognised as a sovereign nation, but NATO membership remains off the table. Meanwhile, European leaders have been cut out of the conversations. In response, they held their own summit yesterday, but it didn’t seem like they were all singing from the same hymn sheet. While the UK is pushing for higher defence spending and is willing to commit troops, other European nations seem more dovish, especially Germany and Italy. This is reflected in opinion polls as well. What’s going on? 

Alexander Larman

Does anyone buy Meghan’s sweet tooth?

Strange though this might seem to long-term Spectator readers, I am beginning to warm to Meghan Markle. Not because she has done something worth celebrating, or indeed anything that has shown her to be anything other than self-obsessed, hypocritical and a poseur, but because she is showing an indomitable strength of character that means that, whenever bitter and twisted journalists (guilty as charged) write something derogatory about her, she comes forward with some new act of hubris or attention-seeking that reduces us all to speechless disbelief. I have, like many of you, been looking forward to the much-delayed launch of America Riviera Orchard, Meghan’s previously announced lifestyle brand. Not because

Richard Ekins

The Lady Chief Justice has no right to condemn Starmer

The Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr, has told reporters that she is “deeply troubled” by a recent exchange between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition during Prime Minister’s Questions – and that she has written to the Lord Chancellor to complain. This is an extraordinary, and extraordinarily ill-advised, intervention in the political process, which the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition should firmly rebuff. There is no evidence that occasional ministerial criticism of judgments imperils judicial independence The parliamentary exchange to which Baroness Carr took exception concerned a recent decision of the Upper Tribunal allowing a Palestinian family in Gaza, who had a relative living in

Steerpike Steerpike

Scottish Labour U-turns on trans stance

Well, well, well. Gender is back on the agenda in Holyrood again after the ongoing Sandie Peggie v NHS Fife case sparked outrage across the country. Scottish politicians held off on declaring their support for the female nurse, who took her health board and transgender doctor Dr Beth Upton to a tribunal over harassment allegations, until the weekend when Scottish Tory and SNP MSPs began to tweet that they ‘stand with Sandie Peggie’. Scottish Labour, however, remained rather quiet on the issue. That is, until now… Speaking to the Holyrood Sources podcast today, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and his party’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie have finally pledged their support

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Can Germany rise to the challenge of protecting Europe?

When European leaders discussed their response to US-Russian negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz felt ‘a little irritated’. France and Britain suggested sending European troops to secure a peace deal. Days away from an election likely to boot him out of power, Scholz found this an ‘inappropriate debate at the wrong time’. It will likely fall to his successor to shoulder Germany’s fair share of responsibility for European security. US and Russian officials have today held the first of peace talks in Saudi Arabia, forcing European countries to determine their role as a matter of urgency. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said ‘European nations

Steerpike Steerpike

Top judge blasts Starmer over migrant case

Dear oh dear. Sir Keir Starmer hasn’t caught a break since his party took power last July – and this week is no exception. Now the UK’s most senior judge has taken a pop at the Labour leader over ‘unacceptable’ criticism of an immigration judge who allowed Gazan refugees entry to the UK. Even the lawyers are turning on the former DPP! The remarks of the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Sue Carr followed a rather heated exchange at PMQs last Wednesday. Both Starmer and the Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch blasted the judge’s move to allow a Palestinian family to come to Britain via the Ukrainian refugee programme. Sir Keir

Yuan Yi Zhu

There is still no rationale for our Chagos surrender

The government’s iron determination to surrender the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is puzzling. Why are ministers so keen to hand over territory that has been British since 1814, which is home to a critical UK-US military base, to a country thousands of miles away? And why does Britain need to pay Mauritius a reported £9 billion for the privilege of giving up its own territory? Initially, the government stuck to making vague noises about international law. The deal with Mauritius was necessary, parliament and the public were told, because the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had said that the UK had to hand over the islands, never mind that the

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Britain’s banks never cared about net zero

Several weeks ago, just in advance of Donald Trump’s second presidency, there was a mass withdrawal of US financial institutions from Mark Carney’s Net Zero Banking Alliance – which committed members to adopt policies of reducing lending to fossil fuel companies and to take other measures aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Are UK banks now preparing the ground to do the same? The senior executives of Barclays and NatWest have decided that they would rather that their annual bonuses were not based on climate targets. Both have removed sustainability metrics from the formulas used to determine the size of their bonuses. Although both banks will still use climate targets in