Politics

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

Friday

Alexander Horne

Labour’s cynical House of Lords reform

This week, the House of Commons is focusing its attention on proposed reforms to the House of Lords. MPs backed plans to get rid of the remaining 92 hereditary peers on Tuesday, while a second bill which will increase the number of female bishops in the Lords had its second reading on Thursday. The contrasting nature of the two bills highlights the rather problematic way Labour is pursuing constitutional reform. The Labour party’s 2024 manifesto made a number of promises on House of Lords reform. It pledged to remove hereditary peers, instate a mandatory retirement age, and included a commitment to introduce ‘an alternative second chamber which is more representative

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Trump’s RFK Jr appointment is going to cause trouble

Of all Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments this week, his selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is in some ways the least surprising. Yet it could prove the most controversial. RFK Jr’s mistrust of Big Pharma and Big Food resonates widely If confirmed, RFK Jr will oversee a sprawling federal agency of some 80,000 employees. HHS shapes which drugs Americans can access, the food they consume, and directs billions of dollars into medical research. Given Kennedy’s radical views on the downsides of processed foods, certain vaccines and widely prescribed medicines, his leadership could place a Republican administration in direct conflict with

Matthew Lynn Matthew Lynn

Andrew Bailey will regret reopening the Brexit debate

Business taxes are soaring. Employment rights have been massively extended, the trade unions are getting more powers, companies are too dependent on low-skilled immigrants, and the planning system still makes it impossible to build anything. There are plenty of challenges facing the British economy that the Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey could have drawn attention to in his Mansion House speech last night. And yet, instead he decided to reopen the Brexit debate. That was surely a mistake. There are two big problems with Bailey’s decision to reopen that can of worms Addressing the City alongside the Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Thursday, Bailey argued that relations with

Steerpike Steerpike

Led by Donkeys gets it wrong (again)

Good old Remainiacs: where would be without them? It is eight years now since the UK voted to quit the EU and nearly five since we actually left – but a small band of Hiroo Onoda-impressionists are still refusing to accept those basic facts. Chief among them is ‘Led by Donkeys’, the self-identifying ‘satirists’ who claim to bravely be speaking truth to power. Now it hasn’t escaped Steerpike’s attention that the group is extremely selective in who it judges to be the powerful. The group tends to pick Tories as its targets, such as ex-MP Liz Truss, rather than, er, the actual Labour government who run this country today. Still,

Steerpike Steerpike

Downing Street finally apologises for Diwali debacle

Oh dear. It is more than a week since Steerpike broke the news of Downing Street’s Diwali debacle. Many Hindu attendees at the No. 10 reception were horrified to be served alcohol and meat at the event, which aimed to improve the links between Labour and the British Indian community. When Mr S first Downing Street on this story there was no apology, despite multiple requests for comment. But now the government line belatedly has changed. Eight days after the story broke, No. 10 has now issued a grovelling statement admitting its error: A mistake was made in the organisation of the event. We understand the strength of feeling on

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Labour’s first growth figures are seriously disappointing

Forecasts are one thing, results are another. It’s a tough morning for the government, as the Office for National Statistics publishes the first quarterly growth figures since Labour entered Downing Street. The figures are disappointing: the UK economy only managed to grow by 0.1 per cent between July and September, lower than had been expected (market consensus was 0.2 per cent). Furthermore, GDP fell by 0.1 per cent in September this year, with production output – which contracted by 0.5 per cent – acting as the main contributor to the fall. The news lands just after Rachel Reeves’s first Mansion House speech, where free trade, city regulation and pension reform were

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Rachel Reeves is turning into Gordon Brown

Rachel Reeves is beginning to look awfully like Gordon Brown. Study the actions of this government so far and you would hardly say that deregulation was its big idea. True, Keir Starmer did claim at his investment summit last month that he was going to slash red tape. Angela Rayner wants planning laws relaxed to allow new homes on the green belt and Ed Miliband wants wind farms, solar farms and pylons just about everywhere – without the locals being given much of a say. Reeves did not elaborate on which regulations she intends to tear down in her quest to boost the City of London But look at the

Robin Ashenden

Kemi Badenoch’s early troubles are no reason to despair

A consensus seems to be forming, with unreasonable speed, that Kemi Badenoch isn’t exactly smashing it at Prime Minister’s Questions. Much of the harsher criticism comes from expected quarters – ‘Tory Gloom as Gaffe-Prone Kemi Badenoch Endures Another Miserable PMQs’ says a headline in the Huffington Post, while John Crace snarks in the Guardian that ‘Kemi Badenoch is turning out to be the gift that keeps on giving… to the Labour party.’  On the James O’Brien show there was a ‘more-in-pity-than-contempt’ snigger-fest between the host and political editor Natasha Clark: ‘Are we flirting with the possibility that she actually did better last week?’ the host chortled gleefully. Such pundits, of

Thursday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

I have no time for Radio Four’s dross

I switched the radio on in my car today and it went straight to the BBC World at One on Radio Four. I thought I’d tuned it to Radio Three but instead of a mellifluous tune I got Sarah Montague. I was on the bit of the A66 in Middlesbrough where it merges with the northbound A19 and it is a tricky interchange, with narrow lanes and huge growling lorries. I am mentioning all this as a means of explaining why I didn’t change channels straight away. I wanted to make sure I was on the Tees Viaduct and not headed to Teesport, you see. I needed to concentrate. That’s

William Moore William Moore

Elon’s America, Welby’s legacy & celebrating Beaujolais Day

45 min listen

This week: welcome to Planet Elon. We knew that he would likely be a big part of Donald Trump’s second term, so it was unsurprising when this week Elon Musk was named – alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – as a co-leader of the new US Department of Government Efficiency, which will look at federal government waste. When Musk took over Twitter, he fired swathes of employees whose work was actively harming the company, so he’s in a perfect position to turn his sights on the bloated federal government. It is, writes Douglas Murray, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strip a whole layer of rot from the body politic. But can he

James Heale James Heale

Will Reeves’s pensions shake-up really boost growth?

13 min listen

The Chancellor is giving her first Mansion House address tonight, and she will be majoring on pensions, suggesting that public sector pension funds need to be expanded. But is this the road to growth? James Heale talks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Ike Ijeh

What has Labour got against beautiful buildings?

Is an anti-beauty coalition building in the heart of government? Back in August, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) controversially deleted “beauty” as a strategic priority in a National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) update, effectively removing it as a specific, statutory requirement for new houses. Labour’s Achilles’ heel has often been a default to centralised utilitarianism Next, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner dismissed the word “beautiful” as “subjective” and broadly meaningless. Now, we learn that the Office for Place – the government body created to ensure design quality in new housing – has been scrapped. In a move that will likely alarm anyone wary of civil servants appointing

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Will Elon Musk Make America Great Again?

28 min listen

As Donald Trump selects his new cabinet, Elon Musk has been chosen to head up the new efficiency department. Douglas Murray, Spectator columnist, joins Americano host Freddy Gray to discuss. How will their relationship shape Trump’s presidency? What will Musk’s ownership of X, formerly Twitter, mean for free speech? And will their newfound friendship last the stretch of Donald Trump’s second term?

Steerpike Steerpike

Parliament shells out £900k on cobblestones

Whether it’s falling masonry or rats, staff in the Houses of Parliament have to put up with a lot in their workplace. Since 2020 they have to endure the daily delight of navigating New Palace Yard in various states of repair. Parly bosses boast that this is to ‘deliver better and more inclusive accessibility, enhanced security, improved vehicular access as well as optimising and preserving the heritage of this historical part of the Palace of Westminster.’ Fair enough – but are they really getting bang for their buck? Mr S has done some digging to try to unearth the cost of four years of work. Commons staff weren’t too keen

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Resignations alone won’t fix the Church of England

Will there be more resignations following the departure of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury? The Church is, as on everything else, split on the issue, with some bishops saying that there needs to be wider accountability, and the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell saying that no more resignations are necessary. Given part of the criticism of the Makin report that triggered Welby’s departure was that he did not ensure that others performed their responsibilities around trying to stop Smyth, it would be odd for there not to be some wider ramifications.  The report repeatedly refers to Church officers knowing of the abuse that Smyth was still perpetrating, but not

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Haka protest disrupts New Zealand’s parliament

To New Zealand, where parliamentary proceedings have become rather, er, heated during discussions on the Treaty Principles Bill. During a debate about the relationship between Māori and the crown tabled by the libertarian Act party – in which the minority coalition partner is seeking to remove principles from the treaty of Waitangi that protect Māori rights – parliament was suspended after Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke led a haka in opposition to the bill. It’s certainly one way to protest… Here's a better angle that shows the @Maori_Party performing the haka right up in David Seymour's face. He looks shit scared. https://t.co/VM0Qx76P34 pic.twitter.com/JdBe6B5GlR — Nick (@StrayDogNZ) November 14, 2024 But anger

Steerpike Steerpike

Clifton Suspension Bridge quits Musk’s Twitter

First they came for the Guardian, and then they came for the Clifton Suspension Bridge. In a move that will surely come as a blow to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s global social media platform, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and Museum has announced that it too will boycott the online messaging site over a ‘rise in appropriate content’. Announcing the move on, er, Twitter, the organisation lamented: X (formerly known as Twitter) has been a wonderful place to engage with our audience over the past 15 years. But the changes made to the platform in recent times have caused us to reconsider our use of it. With the rise in inappropriate

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Will Rachel Reeves’ pension shake-up really boost growth?

As Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver her first Mansion House speech in the City of London tonight, one word is set to be emphasised: growth. ‘Last month’s Budget fixed the foundations to restore economic stability and put our public services on a firmer footing,’ she will tell her audience of bankers and City workers. ‘Now we’re going for growth.’ Her sights are set on pensions. The Chancellor is expected to announce what is being billed as the ‘biggest set of reforms to the pensions market in decades,’ with the Treasury estimating these changes could unlock up to £80 billion in additional investment for Britain. Not everyone is convinced about

Steerpike Steerpike

Will Justin Welby lose his Lords seat?

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby this week announced he will resign from the top job after the pressure piled on from Church of England bishops. The move follows the publication of the Makin Review’s report on the Church’s handling of ‘serial child abuser’ John Smyth – which suggested Welby did not deal with complaints well enough at the time. But the Archbishop’s resignation isn’t quite enough for everyone. Now politicians and pundits alike are calling for Welby to lose his seat in the House of Lords. Richard Tice has blasted the Archbishop over the matter, with the Reform MP slamming Welby’s position on GB News. ‘I think his position is

Ross Clark Ross Clark

My radical proposal for the civil service 

I’ve got a better idea for the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which is demanding civil servants be allowed to work just four days a week for no loss of pay, claiming that a shorter working week is ‘essential for a happy and healthy life’. Why not put civil servants on a zero-day week? That would surely be even happier and healthier for them. It would certainly be happier and healthier for taxpayers. Virtually no private business would have allowed employee numbers to get so out of control It would be little wonder if the civil service can do in four days the work it used to do in