Politics Archives

Sunday

26 Oct 2025

Catherine Connolly’s election is a humiliation for Ireland’s establishment

‘I will be an inclusive president for all of you,’ Catherine Connolly declared as she was announced the winner of Ireland’s presidential election – a landslide victory over Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys. The independent TD received 63 per cent of the vote (with spoiled ballots excluded) to become Ireland’s tenth president. The result was officially confirmed early yesterday evening, but Connolly’s victory was clear from the moment counting began. ‘Catherine will be my president,’ Humphreys conceded, having received just over 29 per cent of the vote. Connolly defeated Humphreys in Ireland’s first head-to-head presidential race since 1973. Jim Gavin had entered the race but withdrew after revelations of a decades-old

Nigel Jones

Dick Taverne was the last social democrat

Lord Dick Taverne, a one-time Labour Minister turned Lib Dem peer, has died at the great age of 97 – and with him has passed the once leading force of social democracy in British politics. A Charterhouse and Balliol College Oxford educated intellectua, Taverne was a barrister who entered Parliament as Labour MP for Lincoln at a by-election in 1962, and quickly rose to be a minister in Harold Wilson’s government of the late 1960s, serving as a Home Office minister and chief secretary to the Treasury. Taverne had the distinction of being both the first social democrat to leave Labour because of its swing to the left, and (apart from

Saturday

25 Oct 2025

Liz Walsh

Catherine Connolly’s election is a low for Ireland

As predicted, the radical far-left has emerged victorious from Ireland’s farcical presidential election, leaving the ruling coalition parties humiliated and obliterated in a shambles of their own making. Catherine Connolly, Ireland’s 68-year-old answer to Jeremy Corbyn, will be Ireland’s next head of state. But large swathes of middle and rural Ireland who feel disenfranchised by this two-horse derby are seething. The number of deliberately spoiled votes reached a historic high, and in some constituencies, outpolled the Fine Gael candidate. This points to a dangerous polarisation for which the Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Tanaiste Simon Harris are entirely responsible. The backlash, when it came was as swift, harsh and deserved. Peadar

Oscar Edmondson

Has Starmer misled parliament? Plus Lucy Powell wins

14 min listen

We thought when we organised this podcast that there would just be the newly announced deputy Labour leader to discuss – Lucy Powell beat Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson by 87,407 votes to 73,536. But instead we also have evidence the Prime Minister may have lied to Parliament over the collapse of the China spy case, and there is a manhunt under way to recapture a dangerous criminal released by mistake. Bad news clearly comes in threes for No. 10: Lucy Powell was not their pick for the job; lying to Parliament is the kind of thing that the ministerial code is quite clear on; and the criminal in question is

James Heale

Lucy Powell wins Labour deputy leadership race

Lucy Powell has won Labour’s deputy leadership election, beating her rival Bridget Phillipson. The result was announced this morning after a low-key, five-week contest. Having led in each of the various membership polls, Powell duly triumphed with 54 per cent of the vote to Phillipson’s 46 per cent. A worryingly low turnout of just 16 per cent of the 970,000 eligible Labour members and affiliate voters speaks to the level of discontent and dissatisfaction among the party faithful. In her victory speech, Powell delivered a textbook mainstream soft left script. ‘My politics have always been shaped as a proud Mancunian’, she said ‘and Labour through and through’. Setting out her

Freddy Gray

A short history of America – Simon Jenkins

35 min listen

In this episode of Americano, Simon Jenkins joins Freddy Gray to discuss his new book, A Short History of America. They explore how the United States became the world’s dominant power, the myths that shaped its identity, and why Britain has always struggled to understand its transatlantic cousin.

David Shipley

Accidental prison releases are all too common

Yesterday His Majesty’s Prison Service released a sex offender by mistake. That would be bad enough on its own, but this particular sex offender was Hadush Kebatu, the Ethiopian migrant whose assault on a 14-year-old girl sparked weeks of protests in Epping. Kebatu was only sentenced last month, receiving a 12-month sentence for two sexual assaults which he committed just eight days after arriving in the UK. Kebatu had been held at HMP Chelmsford, and was due to be handed over to a Home Office operated immigration removal centre before his deportation from the country. Instead of doing this, the prison released him this morning. According to the Prison Service,

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The searing testimony of Eli Sharabi

Now that the remaining live hostages have been freed, and the remains of those killed are slowly being located and returned to their families, we can think more on the details, the testimonies, and the traumas which we couldn’t fully comprehend as the war raged within our minds. Those former hostages now search for recovery and familiarity back home, as they emerge into a world vastly and for ever changed. The same is true for those of us who have never spent a day in a filthy, airless Palestinian tunnel. We didn’t experience the fear, the violence, the hunger or the torture they did. But our world, too, has shifted

John Kennedy

Prince Andrew’s titles cannot be simply stripped

Back-bench MPs are again discussing how to ‘strip’ Prince Andrew of his titles. The frenzy and impulse is public-facing and moral, and while motivations may differ, the method proposed is mostly constitutionally illiterate and impossible. Royal dignities are legal instruments. They are not decorative honours that parliament may remove by political motion. Each exists in law in a distinct way and must be addressed by the procedure appropriate to it. The United Kingdom has clear mechanisms for doing so, but they are formal and precise, which is exactly why they work. Prince Andrew holds three peerages: the Dukedom of York, the Earldom of Inverness and the Barony of Killyleagh. All

Friday

24 Oct 2025

Tom Slater

The fall of Jess Phillips

Is Jess Phillips okay? I can’t be the only one wondering. The safeguarding minister’s increasingly erratic, shirty performances at the despatch box would suggest she is crumbling under the scrutiny. Scrutiny that she and her government have brought entirely on themselves. This week, she lashed out at Tory and Reform MPs for daring to criticise Labour’s woeful handling of the grooming-gangs inquiry, which is disintegrating following the resignation of five victims from its liaison panel, some of whom accuse Labour of trying to engineer a ‘cover-up’. She dismissed this as ‘political pointscoring’ and told Lee Anderson to ‘question his own morality’. Despite Jess Phillips’s supposedly unimpeachable feminist credentials, her principles have

James Hanson

There’s no such thing as a ‘free’ breakfast club

‘Parents shouldn’t be out of pocket by setting their kids up for school’. So boasted Downing Street, as the government touts its expansion of ‘free’ breakfast clubs. Except, as with everything the state provides, they’re not ‘free’. They are paid for by taxpayers. Call me a selfish, hard-hearted miser if you wish, but why should I pay for someone else’s child to eat breakfast? Isn’t that, perish the thought, the parent’s role? Call me a selfish, hard-hearted miser if you wish, but why should I pay for someone else’s child to eat breakfast? Isn’t that, perish the thought, the parent’s role? Not that we should be surprised by Labour’s latest

Lloyd Evans

Dominic Cummings: why the elites keep getting politics wrong

Last night, Dominic Cummings was interviewed at the O2 by the activist start-up, Looking for Growth. Cummings walked on stage in his trademark T-shirt and baseball cap and made a series of predictions about UK politics. A general election is unlikely before 2029, he said. ‘It won’t be earlier. The MPs will postpone the nightmare that’s coming to them.’ He warned that Keir Starmer’s time is limited. ‘If Labour keeps losing voters to the Greens, Starmer will be got rid of next year.’ He made the same prediction about the Tory leader. ‘Kemi’s going to be got rid of after the May elections.’ Cummings chuckled over the idea that, ‘the

Steerpike

NHS slammed for sharing Sandie Peggie data with SNP

Oh dear. NHS Fife has come under fire yet again after it emerged that the health board shared details of nurse Sandie Peggie with the Scottish government. Peggie was suspended in January 2024 after complaining about sharing a changing room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton. The nurse then lodged a harassment complaint under the 2010 Equality Act – prompting a trans tribunal against NHS Fife – before earlier this year Dr Upton accused her of bullying and harassment. In July, Peggie was cleared of all gross misconduct allegations – and it has now emerged that NHS Fife briefings sent to SNP ministers contained unredacted details about the A&E nurse.

Brendan O’Neill

All politics is now about stopping Farage

Who really won the by-election in Caerphilly? I know officially it was Plaid Cymru, and I wouldn’t want to diminish that funny little party’s glee. Congrats, etc. But the true victor was a far newer party. An angry party. A party of the fretful and anxious. A party so fresh it doesn’t even have a name yet. I say we call it Not Reform. Farage is now the behemoth of British politics, so much so that pretty much all elections now boil down to this question: Reform UK or Not Reform UK? I think it is pretty clear that it was this nameless entity that propelled Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle

Freddy Gray

Why is Tara Reade in Moscow?

35 min listen

In this episode of Americano, Freddy Gray speaks to Tara Reade — the former Senate aide who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault and now lives in Moscow after seeking political asylum. She discusses her allegations, why she left America, and how she views the war in Ukraine.

David Shipley

Rudakubana’s school knew he was trouble

Quietly, day-by-day, the inquiry into the Southport killings is revealing how disastrous failures of the British state led to Axel Rudakubana murdering young girls in August 2024. Yesterday it was the turn of the killer’s former headteacher, Joanne Hodson, to give evidence. She first met Rudakubana in 2019 when he enrolled at the Acorns School in Lancashire, aged 13. The boy was sent there after taking a knife into his previous school. Acorns is a specialist school solely for children who have been permanently excluded from mainstream education. It’s also a good example of such a school, getting many of its pupils into work or further education after their time

Tim Shipman

Caerphilly by-election: ‘a tale of two faces’

16 min listen

On the face of it, the Caerphilly by-election result is a disaster, a drubbing and a humiliation for Keir Starmer’s Labour party. A once secure bastion of the Welsh Labour heartlands fell without a squeak from the governing party. Their vote collapsed to a miserable 11 per cent, while Plaid Cymru won with 47 per cent and Reform surged to second place with 36 per cent. The result suggests Labour is on course to surrender a boatload of seats at the 2029 general election, both to Reform and to whatever protest party is best suited to beat the government around the head – be it Plaid, the Greens, the Corbynites,

Ross Clark

Welcome to Balkan Britain

Never has a Welsh Senedd election seemed so interesting; the Caerphilly by election marks a true turning point in history. It is the moment when the duopoly that has ruled British politics for the past century finally crumbled. The question was never: could Labour hang on in the face of a challenge from an up-start party? Many by-elections have asked this. Rather, the question was this: which up-start party could benefit from Labour’s demise? Voters have shown that they are just as determined to do to the Labour party what they did to the Conservatives at the 2024 general election. This the Balkanisation of UK politics, and it is going

Tim Shipman

Why Caerphilly may be good news for Starmer

On the face of it, the Caerphilly by-election result is a disaster, a drubbing and a humiliation for Keir Starmer’s Labour party. A once secure bastion of the Welsh Labour heartlands fell without a squeak from the governing party. Their vote collapsed to a miserable 11 per cent, while Plaid Cymru won with 47 per cent and Reform surged to second place with 36 per cent. The result suggests Labour is on course to surrender a boatload of seats at the 2029 general election, both to Reform and to whatever protest party is best suited to beat the government around the head – be it Plaid, the Greens, the Corbynites,

Sam Meadows

Is it curtains for Milei?

Javier Milei never professed to be humble. But publishing a book about his presidency entitled Constructing the Miracle? Fronting a rock concert to launch it? Singing ‘I am the king’ to the crowd? He did all this on 7 October, and well, it was a step up. Perhaps Milei should be more humble. In recent weeks he borrowed some $20 billion from Donald Trump and the United States to prop up the remnants of his ‘miracle’. Despite being lauded internationally for much of his first two years as president for reining in inflation and delivering a fiscal surplus, the cracks Milei has been papering over have now become chasms. Milei