Politics

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

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Nicola Sturgeon’s splurges on airport VIP services

Despite it being the SNP’s main political goal, Scotland came no closer to becoming an independent state during Nicola Sturgeon’s long tenure as First Minister. Still, for Sturgeon, the SNP being in charge had at least one perk – it allowed her to cosplay as a world leader on the global stage. Who could forget the jet setting and endless summits, complete with awkward selfies with the great and good that defined her term? Now, official spending receipts obtained by the Labour party show the extent to which taxpayers footed the bill for these foreign jamborees. According to the documents, Scottish civil servants made 58,000 bank transactions using taxpayer funded cards between

Ben Domenech

We’re living through Barack Obama’s third term

One of the big questions in Washington and across the country as Joe Biden’s very public decline has accelerated is: who’s actually running the show at the White House? There have been various answers, including former White House chief of staff Ron Klain and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice; even Kamala Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff has been touted as having outsized influence. But the one name we ought to be paying more attention to is obvious – the man who cleared the 2020 field for Joe, tapped Kamala as his running mate and now hosts regular meetings at his 8,000-square-foot house just two miles from the Oval Office he

Monday

Natasha Feroze

Should Team Truss accept resignation honours?

12 min listen

Bibby Stockholm, the government’s first migrant barge opened this morning. Intended to house up to 500 migrants, will this plan to cut the costs of putting migrants up in hotels work? Also on the podcast, Natasha Feroze speaks to Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls about the Liz Truss honours list – who are the contenders? And who may politely decline a new title…

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Scottish nationalists aren’t alone in seeing independence as an opportunity

It’s not every day a supporter of Scottish independence is in the running for a peerage, least of all from a Tory government. So no doubt the SNP will be congratulating Mark Littlewood, who could soon be Lord Littlewood thanks to Liz Truss’s resignation honours. The outgoing director of the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) has distinguished himself in the world of London think tanks, where most are as uninterested in the fate of the Union as they are uninformed about Scottish politics. Not Littlewood, who is relaxed about the prospect of the Scots breaking away.  During a February 2017 appearance on Question Time, he told the Glasgow audience: ‘I see

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Matt Hancock’s cringeworthy Barbie singalong

Can Matt Hancock sink any lower? Considering that only last year he lost the whip for abandoning his constituents to appear on I’m a Celebrity, and before that had his lockdown-busting affair exposed to the world, you would probably think not. Even so, the former Health Secretary has managed to once again plumb new depths, this time after turning his talents to lip-syncing. In a video released on his TikTok account this week, Hancock can be seen in a white shirt and shorts on a beach in an undisclosed location, singing along to the song ‘I’m just Ken’ from the recently released Barbie movie. The film sees Ken, played by

Kristina Murkett

The politics of exam results

August always means an anxious wait for results days, but this year pupils will be feeling particularly apprehensive. England’s exams regulator, Ofqual, has said that national results will be lower than last year’s and are expected to be similar to those before Covid. Some reports estimate that around 50,000 A-level students will therefore miss out on getting the A* and A grades they could have expected if they took their exams last year. They will also face intense competition for top university places given the record numbers of international students applying too. Readjusting after the grade inflation of the pandemic was always going to be painful. In 2019, 25.5 per cent of A-level results were grades

Gerry Hassan

What does Scottish Labour stand for?

North of the border, the long-anticipated by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West has finally been confirmed. This constituency is classic SNP-Labour swing territory, and though an SNP-held seat until recently, polls have shown that Labour support in Scotland is on the rise. The by-election will put these predictions to the test: can Labour’s candidate Michael Shanks not just win, but win well and capture the mood for change? Possibly, but for this to happen, Labour needs to present Scottish voters with a better vision — instead of continuing to rely on SNP failures. We can be assured that the longstanding SNP-Labour rivalry will come out in full force as the by-election

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Mick Lynch is stuck in the past

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, has never felt truly English. In conversation with Iain Dale at the Edinburgh festival, he reveals that his parents moved here from Ireland during the war and settled in the Ladbroke Grove area of London where they raised him and his four siblings. His father was ‘an archetypal Paddy’ who visited the pub six times a week including Sunday afternoons after Mass. In 1971 he went on strike for nine weeks and the family were reduced to living off jam sandwiches. His parents always referred to ‘the English’ as if they were foreigners and Lynch has never held a British passport. He’s

John Oxley

Fining landlords over illegal migrants will make renting even worse

As part of a slew of measures to freeze illegal immigrants out of the economy, the Tories have announced tougher penalties for landlords who let out properties to those with no right to be in the country. This extension of the hostile environment could, however, simply worsen the lives of legitimate renters in an era where costs and competition for housing are increasing. The plans are designed to make it harder to exist in the country without a right to be here, as well as punish those who exploit and facilitate illegal immigration. Under the proposals, fines for renting out properties unlawfully will rise from £80 per lodger and £1,000

Dalibor Rohac

Nato membership for Ukraine would guarantee peace in Europe

Although Western support to Ukraine’s defence effort continues unabated, the honeymoon between Kyiv and even its staunchest allies is decidedly over. In a recent interview, President Zelensky’s advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, said that Ukraine sees Poland as its close friend ‘until the end of the war.’ Then, he added, ‘competition between the countries will begin.’ The quote, which was immediately seized upon by Russian propaganda as evidence of a fracture in Ukraine’s key relationship, came off the back of a spat between Warsaw and Kyiv over the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain to Poland. The policy is due to remain in place until at least mid-September, even as Ukraine’s maritime export infrastructure is

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Is Alex Salmond dreaming of a comeback?

Alex Salmond is hosting a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this week. It’s called ‘The Ayes Have It’ and features special guests such as old mucker David Davis, trusty lieutenant Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and former Commons sparring partner John Bercow. SNP notables Kate Forbes and Fergus Ewing are popping up and there will be a guest appearance from former first minister Henry McLeish. Salmond, some suspect, might be dreaming of a political comeback – but is a return realistic? Salmond is probably the only independence supporting politician in Scotland who could mount a show like this without fear of outright ridicule. By contrast, former first minister and festival regular Nicola

Matthew Lynn

Sunak can’t blame landlords for not stopping illegal immigration

Small companies will face massive fines for not checking the papers of everyone they hire. Landlords will be put out of business for renting rooms to anyone without permission to be in the UK. With its Rwanda policy stalled, and with the numbers of illegal immigrants still at record highs, the government has a big new idea for trying to stem the numbers of people coming into the country. It will get small businesses to police the system. The only trouble is, that will damage the economy, and we will all suffer from that.  The government’s latest big idea for controlling immigration is to make it a lot harder for

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Suella’s Ascension Island plan doesn’t go far enough

There is nothing new under the sun. The idea of opening an asylum processing centre on the British overseas territory of Ascension Island has been knocking around for 20 years, but reports in today’s papers suggest it is suddenly all the rage again. Ministers are scrambling to find a ‘plan B’ in case the Supreme Court confirms the Appeal Court’s controversial view that the long-delayed Rwanda policy is unlawful. Way back in 2005, the Conservatives made a commitment in their manifesto that ‘asylum seekers’ applications will be processed outside Britain’. In the run up to that year’s election, Mark Reckless, then a researcher at Conservative Central Office, conducted a scoping

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Could Corbyn derail Sadiq’s mayoral campaign?

Since the election date for next year’s London mayoral election was announced, Sadiq Khan has been putting on a show of confidence that his re-election is in the bag with his supporters pointing to polling that suggests Labour enjoy a 40-point lead in the capital. However, the Ulez expansion – which Keir Starmer blamed on his failure to take Uxbridge in last month’s by-election – has certainly put a spring in the step of his Tory mayoral opponent Susan Hall. Now could a fresh nightmare be heading his way? It appears the incumbent Mayor of London might have an unwelcome challenger at next year’s election in the shape of none

Steerpike Steerpike

Inside the tussle over the Truss gongs

Another month, another resignation honours list. It was a row over Boris Johnson’s peerages that led to Rishi Sunak facing multiple by-elections last month – with one still to follow, should Nadine Dorries ever get round to quitting. But when it comes to Liz Truss’s honours list, the row is not so much about the vetting process that saw Dorries and others knocked off as who would want to be on it in the first place. Truss’s rumoured list of 14 appointees (an honour for every three and a half days of her 49-day premiership) is currently thought to be going through vetting. However, some in her team wanted their names

Robin Ashenden

Navalny exposes the truth about Putin’s ‘strong man’ image

The 19-year extended prison sentence handed out to Putin opponent Alexei Navalny on Friday may seem, to many, meaningless and the stuff of Kremlin fantasy. Putin himself is unlikely to be with us in 2042, and his regime will be history long before that. Nor do we know whether his successor will issue an amnesty to those Putin has singled out for persecution or take an even harder line with them. Rarely has the Russian future seemed so elastic – yet the conditions under which Navalny will be incarcerated now are anything but. Navalny’s ongoing, astonishing self-sacrifice is once again front page news and will continue to be so Sentenced

Sunday

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Russian military chief lets slip the cost of invasion

When it comes to disclosing the true cost of the war in Ukraine for Russia, the Kremlin has rarely, if ever, chosen to be honest. But occasionally, things slip out. Last Wednesday, Mikhail Teplinsky, commander-in-chief of the Russian Airborne Forces, congratulated his troops on the anniversary of the division’s founding. He said how proud he was of the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine and reeled off the number of soldiers honoured as ‘Heroes of Russia’, as well as the 30,000 who had received other honours from the state. A video of his speech, below, was posted to the Russian ministry of defence’s social media channels and website. But the video

Steerpike Steerpike

Five of the worst Gary Neville moments

Having previously been known simply as ‘that footy pundit off the telly’, over the past year Gary Neville seems to have been trying to manoeuvre his way into politics. The former Man Utd captain signed up as a Labour member, conducted a cringeworthy Q&A with Keir Starmer at last year’s party conference, and has consistently called for the Tories to be removed from office. But is Neville a true comrade of the workers’ movement? Mr S thought he’d do some digging into the right back’s past… Qatari hypocrisy Having been a consistent critic of the Qatari government, their human rights’ abuses and stance on gay rights, Neville then, er, became

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

Rishi Sunak, the ‘Swiftie’

Taylor Swift mania has hit Los Angeles this weekend as the best-selling songstress takes her sold out Eras tour to the Sunny State. It means local residents are on high alert that there is a chance they cross paths with Swift. So spare a thought for the young woman who headed to an early morning Taylor Swift-themed spin class only to see security everywhere. In a video on TikTok, she explains that she had the ‘biggest heart attack of my life’: ‘my mind immediately goes “holy sh– Taylor Swift is about to be riding in my 7am Soul Cycle class”‘. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Rather than Swift, the ‘VIP’

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Do chess players make for better politicians?

11 min listen

Rishi Sunak is apparently looking to expand the teaching of chess in schools, and to install chess sets in public parks, and will unveil the policy alongside a giant chessboard in the No. 10 garden. What is the Prime Minister thinking? And what does it say about Sunak’s idea of education?  Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, a former special adviser and Westminster chess hustler.