Politics

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

Friday

James Heale James Heale

John Healey hails Rolls-Royce’s £9bn nuclear submarine deal

A £9 billion deal for nuclear submarine reactors was announced this morning between the Ministry of Defence and Rolls-Royce, the biggest-ever agreement between the two. The eight-year contract, called Unity, is to design, make and provide support services to nuclear reactors that power the Royal Navy’s fleet of submarines. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, says the deal will make British reactors both greener and more efficient. A difficult battle looms between John Healey and Chancellor Rachel Reeves ‘It’s a boost to British jobs, British business. It’s a boost to our nuclear deterrent,’ he told Sky on a visit to the Rolls-Royce plant in Derby. ‘It really shows the way that

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Trump gives the establishment some respite at Davos

We’ve heard more from the 47th President of the United States this week than we heard from his predecessor over many months. But Donald Trump has always loved the spotlight: especially when he gets to rile up all his favourite people. This was on full display this week when, rather than winding down from his inauguration speech, the President ramped up his message in a video call to Davos. The establishment was on high alert all week, well aware that the annual Swiss gathering of politicians and CEOs kicked off on the same day Trump was sworn in for a second time. They were right to be worried. Trump did

Niko Vorobyov

What’s the real reason Trump pardoned Ross Ulbrich?

US president Donald Trump has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the cybercriminal mastermind who founded Silk Road and pioneered the drug trade’s move into cyberspace. Ulbricht was serving life without parole after he was found guilty in 2015 of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking. On Wednesday, after over a decade in the dungeons, Ross finally came home. After over a decade in the dungeons, Ross has finally came home “Free Ross” had become a rallying cry for the libertarians and cryptocurrency enthusiasts whose vote Trump had been courting. But his pardon exposes some glaring contradictions in American politics. Ross launched the Silk Road, named after the ancient trade route

Eliot Wilson

Did Axel Rudakubana deserve a harsher sentence?

The murder of three young girls in Southport last July by Axel Rudakubana was an act of extreme savagery and calculated evil. Six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were victims not only of a brutal killer but also of a system of policing, intelligence and criminal justice which failed at several points: they did not need to die. Rudakubana pleaded guilty at the beginning of his trial this week to all sixteen charges against him: three counts of murder, ten of attempted murder, one count of possession of a knife, one of ricin production and one terror-related charge. But he showed no remorse,

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

What will Trump’s crypto world look like?

19 min listen

Cryptocurrency became a key feature of the American election and the Trump universe. Not only did Trump and Melania launch their own coins, but the President has also appointed venture capitalist David Sacks to be the AI and Crypto ‘czar’. Freddy Gray is joined by podcaster and owner of Bedford FC Peter McCormack to discuss whether Trump can decentralise finance, why voters are turning to the fiat market, and whether Peter is a Bitcoin maximalist. 

Matthew Lynn

Two big problems with the Sainsbury’s job cuts

You won’t be able to get a cup of coffee. Nor will you be able to pick up something from the patisserie or the pizza oven. A trip to Sainsbury’s was hardly the most exciting thing in the world, but it is about to get a little bit duller, with the grocery chain set to get rid of its last remaining cafes, as well as speciality counters. And the Labour government is to blame for that. Sainsbury’s had already closed its fresh meat, fish and deli counters, and announced this week that it was closing down the cafes and counters that used to be a regular feature of its stores

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Rachael Maskell Edition

37 min listen

Rachael Maskell has been the MP for York Central since 2015. With over two decades experience working in the NHS, and as a trade unionist, she has championed causes on the left from improving healthcare to combating climate change. Yet, she has not been afraid to take what she says is an ‘evidenced approach’ to political issues, even when it has put her in opposition to the position of the Labour leadership. Most recently, she was a leading voice against the assisted dying bill as Chair of the Dying Well parliamentary group. On the podcast, Rachael talks to Katy Balls about the influence of politics around the dinner table and

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Why are so many MPs still clueless about the cost of net zero?

Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Change Agreement for the second time and reiterated his desire that America should ‘drill, baby drill’. The US president’s decision exposes the naivety of MPs in Britain who, in 2019, nodded through a legal commitment to reaching net zero by 2050, with the hope that it would inspire other countries to follow our example. The Climate and Nature Bill risks taking Britain back to the dark ages In fact, Britain is pretty well alone in voluntarily choosing to ‘leave it in the ground’, as anti-fossil fuel activists like to put it. The US has been following an unashamed policy

Hamish McRae

Why Starmer needs Trump

Do we have to choose between prioritising European or American trade? Let’s hope we don’t, because we need both. But the question has sharpened this week for two reasons. The less important one is that Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s new trade commissioner, has suggested that the UK might join the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention, a group of 23 countries with economic ties to the EU, including Norway and Switzerland, but also Ukraine, Turkey, Israel, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and so on. It’s not a free trade area or anything like that, merely an agreement to foster trade by streamlining things like rules of origin. Our relationship with the EU will toddle along, but that is

Thursday

David Shipley

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana deserves to die behind bars

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana will serve a minimum of 52 years in prison for the horrific murder of three young girls. But despite the lengthy sentence handed to the teenager at Liverpool Crown Court today, it’s hard to say that justice has been served. Rudakubana should die behind bars, yet the law prevented the judge, Mr Justice Goose, from handing Rudakubana a whole-life sentence. It is possible that Rudakabana will be a free man at the age of 70. This is abhorrent. To see why the possibility that Rudakubana may ever be released is such a grave injustice, it’s worth revisiting the horrific details of the case. It is possible

Steerpike Steerpike

Reform MP: Execute Southport killer

This afternoon, the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in jail – for the murder of three young girls and the attempted murder of ten other people at a dance class last summer. The 18-year-old murderer also admitted to producing ricin and being in possession of terrorist material and a knife. The harrowing details of the case were heard in court earlier today – from the events of the attack to Rudakubana’s lack of remorse afterwards, reminding the country of an attack that shocked the nation. Many of those following the case have taken to social media to express their shock at the

Matthew Lynn

Industry tragedy, Trump vs the Pope & the depressing reality of sex parties

42 min listen

This week: the death of British industry In the cover piece for the magazine, Matthew Lynn argues that Britain is in danger of entering a ‘zero-industrial society’. The country that gave the world the Industrial Revolution has presided over a steep decline in British manufacturing. He argues there are serious consequences: foreign ownership, poorer societies, a lack of innovation, and even national security concerns. Why has this happened? Who is to blame? And could Labour turn it around? Matthew joined the podcast, alongside the head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Paul Nowak. (1:05) Next: the Pope takes on President Trump The Pope has nominated Cardinal Robert McElroy to be

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Reeves vs Miliband

10 min listen

After last week’s bond market jitters, the Chancellor pledged to go ‘further and faster’ to improve the UK’s anaemic economic growth. It looks as though Rachel Reeves’ hunt for growth could come at the expense of Labour’s green agenda. Reeves is poised to make a series of announcements over the next month, starting with a softened stance on non-doms and approval for Heathrow’s third runway – as well as expansions at Gatwick and Luton airports. The move indicates a shift in priorities, with economic growth taking precedence over climate targets. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, is believed to be privately opposed to the airport expansion scheme. What happened to the

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Gary Neville ducks Trump questions in Davos

Well, well, well. The former footballer and pundit Gary Neville has been spotted on the streets of Davos during the 2025 conference of the World Economic Forum. The ex-BBC presenter is not known to keep quiet about his views, with the former sports star keen to highlight his Labour membership and speaking up on British politics – without, most of the time, being asked. But a rather baffling clip has emerged on Twitter, showing the usually-ebullient Neville refusing to take quite straightforward questions from a Canadian media outlet. The ex-footballer insisted he had ‘no comment on [Donald] Trump and [Elon] Musk and all of that’, said he hadn’t been ‘across’

Steerpike Steerpike

Ed Miliband’s Heathrow turnround

Growth, growth, growth is back on Rachel Reeves’ agenda – having been conspicuously absent in her first Budget last October. Still, no matter, the Chancellor now insists she is storming ahead with pro-business plans. Speaking at Davos – where else? – Reeves heavily hinted this morning that she will next week back a third runway at Heathrow when she makes her big speech talking about all the wonderful things the government will do for growth. The news has got a big thumbs up from industry – but Labour MPs are less enthused. Some, like Ruth Cadbury, cite local opposition; others such as Clive Lewis worry about the environment. No less

Steerpike Steerpike

Sadiq Khan’s ex-night czar cashes in

Sadiq Khan may have collected a knighthood – but he is still missing a czar. It is now three months since Amy Lamé announced she was standing down as the Mayor’s ‘Night Czar’ and a successor is yet to be found. Lamé role was to champion London’s nightlife – so it is a shame then that, on her watch, more than a quarter of the capital’s nightclubs closed. Still, that didn’t stop Khan from signing off multiple inflation-busting pay-hikes, including a 40 per cent increase just after the 2021 mayoral election. Lamé’s final salary – after eight years in the role – eventually topped out more than £132,000 a year.

Matthew Lynn

Rachel Reeves is getting an expensive lesson in economics

It may prove to be just the first of many screeching U-turns. Whilst hobnobbing among the plutocrats in Davos this week, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted that she may have to tweak her clamp-down on non doms, to make it less punitive for anyone who isn’t British, and happens to have a bit of money, to live in the UK. Sure, it is good that Reeves is learning from her mistakes. The only trouble is it is going to prove a very expensive education for the rest of us.  It is only a couple of months since Reeves’s Budget introduced tough new rules for non doms, but it already

Dalibor Rohac

The EU’s decarbonisation plan can’t survive Donald Trump

As in a more delirious version of Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office, again. In a thinly-veiled attempt to mend Beijing’s relations with Europe, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman commented: “Climate change is a common challenge facing all of humanity. No country can stay out of it, and no country can be immune to it.” Whatever their views on climate change, Europeans and British would do well to realise that decades-long effort to reduce emissions through multilateral deals is over. Continuing on one’s own – after America’s explicit repudiation of the COP framework, and in light of the track record

Yuan Yi Zhu

The assisted suicide bill’s shameful lack of scrutiny

Last November, when the House of Commons voted on her assisted suicide legislation, Kim Leadbeater told her colleagues that the Bill would face ‘further robust debate and scrutiny’, including ‘line-by-line scrutiny in Committee’. But judging by the disgraceful scenes at her Bill committee’s first formal sitting on Tuesday, Kim Leadbeater and her supporters have given up on any pretence of caring about scrutiny and fairness. The procedural shenanigans began much earlier. First, Leadbeater, who gets to choose the committee’s membership as the sponsor of the Private Members’ Bill, subject to approval by the committee of selection, stacked it with strong supporters of assisted suicide (including five co-sponsors of her Bill and two government ministers who voted in

John Foreman

What the Russian spy ship exposed

Britain is heavily dependent on its underwater infrastructure. Ninety-nine per cent of our digital communications overseas are carried through subsea fibre optic cables. Significant damage to them at the hands of malign actors would jeopardise our way of life. Defence Secretary John Healey reported to parliament on an incident last November when a Russian spy ship, Yantar, was detected ‘loitering over UK critical undersea infrastructure’ off Cornwall, a chokepoint for trans-Atlantic underwater communications. After the rapid deployment of ships, aircraft and submarines by Britain, Yantar took the hint to leave and is now, after a spell in the Mediterranean, on her war back home with the Royal Navy closely monitoring