Politics Archives

Tuesday

28 Oct 2025

Labour is living in a fantasy Britain

What imaginary country does Labour’s new deputy leader, Lucy Powell, live in? When Powell was crowned as the official thorn-in-the-side of Keir Starmer – as if he needed one – this weekend, she painted a picture of a Britain frustrated at the slow pace of change that Labour is delivering. It’s always enjoyable hearing about the place that senior Labour politicians think they inhabit ‘Division and hate are on the rise,’ she said. ‘Discontent and disillusionment widespread. The desire for change, impatient and palpable. People are looking around, looking elsewhere for the answers … we have to offer hope, to offer the big change the country is crying out for.

Henry Donovan

Only honesty can kill the rise of Germany’s AfD

As Germany braces for economic hardship and the mounting danger of confrontation with Russia, its leaders appear preoccupied with the wrong battle. The coalition government, the social democratic SPD party, and even Chancellor Friedrich Merz seem more intent on finding ways to muzzle the AfD party than on facing the realities before them. Yet none of them has the slightest notion of how to succeed. Their so-called strategy has descended into farce – a self-inflicted culture war that barely exists. It is clear: the handling of the AfD by Germany’s centre political parties and the media is a disaster of historic proportions. Precisely because it is not an accident, not

Monday

27 Oct 2025

James Heale

Revealed: how PM Farage wants to govern

Six weeks after his defection from the Tories, Danny Kruger will tomorrow set out his thinking on how a Reform administration would function. The East Wiltshire MP is billed as the party’s ‘head of government’ unit and is charged with working out how to overhaul the British state. In a speech, he will set out his critique of Britain in 2025: nothing works anymore, taxes are too high, public services are crumbling and our governing class has willingly outsourced the tools to fix our ails. In a five-point plan, Kruger will explain how he wants to empower Nigel Farage as Prime Minister. His speech will stress the importance of a

Madeline Grant

Calamity Lammy had no answers on the migrant sex offender debacle

Hadush Kebatu’s Magical Mystery Tour of North London was the subject of this afternoon’s debate in the Commons. In a scandal which may as well have been permanently accompanied by the Benny Hill theme tune, the police and prison service conspired accidentally to release the Ethiopian schoolgirl-botherer onto the streets of Chelmsford on Friday, followed by a two-day tour of the capital’s parks. I wonder what trip Mr Kebatu has planned next? A wander around Windsor? Inevitably this raised questions in Parliament. Kebatu isn’t alone: both Channel migrant numbers and accidental releases of the mad, bad and dangerous have risen precipitously under Labour. Perhaps given the people they allow to walk about

John Power

Has there been a cover-up of London grooming gangs?

When the grooming gang crisis came under renewed scrutiny at the beginning of this year, the former Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall asked Sadiq Khan eight times during mayor’s questions whether or not grooming gangs were operating in the capital. His response was odd, to say the least. Instead of directly answering the question, Khan repeatedly asked Hall to ‘define what she means by that’, and accused her of being nervous about speaking clearly. After some back and forth, Khan stated that there were issues in London with young girls being groomed in county line drug gangs, for which there was already a plethora of programmes and ‘hubs’. A month later,

James Heale

Is the Home Office fit for purpose?

14 min listen

With the news that the Home Office has spent billions of taxpayers’ money on asylum hotels – and following the accidental release of the Epping sex offender – Tim Shipman and James Heale discuss this most shambolic of government departments. Is it fit for purpose? Can Shabana Mahmood fix the cursed department? And, if not, who will voters turn to instead? Produced by Megan McElroy and Patrick Gibbons.

Steerpike

Housing Secretary refuses to rule out mansion tax

There’s less than a month until Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils her autumn budget and speculation is abounding about what taxes will make the cut. This morning, Housing Secretary Steve Reed came under pressure on LBC, as interviewer Nick Ferrari grilled him on the introduction of a possible mansion tax. Anxious homeowners will not be reassured by Reed’s response – after the Labour man refused four times to rule out a mansion tax. How curious… There have been suggestions that that the Chancellor could impose a 1 per cent tax on the portion of property values over £2 million. Those owning homes worth £3 million would pay £10,000 a year, with

Steerpike

Katie Lam’s trans musical raises eyebrows

This month, a Sunday Times headline dubbed the 34-year-old MP for Weald of Kent, Katie Lam, the ‘Tories’ new hope’. The piece described the new parliamentarian as a ‘shiny presence’ that, in some circles, is already being touted as ‘ potential leader-in-waiting and saviour of conservatism’. But Lam is more than a politician: as the Kent MP discussed with the Spectator’s Tim Shipman on Coffee House Shots, she has written five plays and is currently working on a sixth. ‘None of them are political,’ she assured him – but that hasn’t stopped eyebrows being raised at revelations one of these is a ‘joyful trans story’. How interesting… Lam has written

Rebecca Chapman

Since when did we ‘install’ an Archbishop of Canterbury?

Just before graffiti-gate in Canterbury Cathedral kicked off a few weeks ago, it hosted the announcement of the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury-designate: the Rt Revd Dame Sarah Mullally. Or ABCD, as it is rumoured she is being called at Lambeth Palace. Lord knows, we love an acronym in the Church of England these days. It helps, at least, make the CofE seem accessible. But has the push to make our new Primate seem like just a regular Joe (or Jo!) gone too far? Lord knows, we love an acronym in the established church these days It was confirmed this morning that our new Archbishop will finally take up her role, in a service also

Stephen Pollard

Milei’s medicine is working. Labour should take note

Barely a month ago, the received wisdom was that the Javier Milei experiment in Argentina had effectively collapsed. The self-styled ‘anarcho-capitalist’ president was elected in December 2023 after a campaign in which he waved a chainsaw at rallies, symbolising his promise to slash public spending and destroy the ‘political caste’. But with the peso on the slide, unions leading effective campaigns against the spending cuts and corruption allegations around his sister, the wiseacres – and polls – suggested that it was all about to cave in around Milei. Milei’s La Libertad Avanza won 40.8 per cent in the midterm elections, widely seen as a referendum on his term so far

Matthew Bowles

Rachel Reeves should focus on cutting welfare

Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering a 2p increase in income tax, taking the basic rate from 20 to 22 per cent. That might seem modest by historic standards, yet it would be a clear breach of Labour’s manifesto promise, made just over a year ago, not to raise any of the big three taxes. More importantly, it underscores the scale of the structural pressures facing Britain’s public finances – pressures that cannot be addressed by minor tax tweaks alone. If Reeves truly wants to strengthen Britain’s economic foundations, she should turn her attention to welfare reform – not as a matter of cruelty but of common sense. Britain’s welfare state

Max Jeffery

Max Jeffery, Sam Leith, Michael Henderson, Madeline Grant & Julie Bindel

37 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Max Jeffery examines Britain’s new hard left alliance; Sam Leith wonders what Prince Andrew is playing; Michael Henderson reads his letter from Berlin; Madeline Grant analyses the demise of the American ‘wasp’ – or White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant; and, Julie Bindel ponders the disturbing allure of sex robots. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Jimmy Nicholls

George Monbiot’s constitution is anti-democratic

Recent years have not been kind to the politics of George Monbiot. The journalist’s column records growing dismay at the inexorable march of neoliberalism, the growing list of Brexit benefits, and the West’s reluctance to disarm Israel and leave it to the tender mercies of its neighbours. But contra Labour’s favourite party tune, things can always get worse. And faced with the prospect of Nigel Farage entering 10 Downing Street by 2029, Monbiot has come up with a canny solution. Writing in the Guardian, he has pleaded with the government to change the constitution so that the deplorables at the gate cannot implement their agenda. The irony is that nothing

Ross Clark

Labour is as much to blame for the migrant hotel scandal as the Tories

Imagine if a government had set out deliberately to stir up the public over illegal migration, or perhaps to do as one former Tony Blair aide said of his government’s policy, to ‘rub the noses of the Right in diversity’. Could it have done a better job than the past two governments have managed by putting up thousands of asylum seekers in hotels, at an average cost of £145 per person per night – hotels whose owners, some owned by companies linked to the Chinese Communist party – have raked in a fortune thanks to poorly-negotiated contracts? If we haven’t already passed a watershed of public opinion on the issue

Steerpike

Kamala Harris: I could run in 2028

Well, well, well. It seems Kamala Harris has finished licking her wounds after her defeat in last year’s presidential race and she, er, wants to do it all over again. Speaking to the BBC, the Democrat told Laura Kuenssberg that she might run again for the White House: ‘I am not done.’ Whether the polls are quite as optimistic about her chances is another issue… In her first British interview since losing to current US President Donald Trump, Harris told the Beeb: I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones… If I listened to polls I would have not run for my

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The Palestinian question can no longer be ignored

The war in Gaza has not ended; it has changed its shape. What began as a brutal confrontation has now hardened into a political and geographic experiment, one whose contours may define the region’s next decade. Beneath the surface of ceasefires and reconstruction plans lies a deeper transformation: the reappearance of the Palestinian question, after years of deliberate absence, as a central axis in the regional and global conversation. For nearly two decades, Israel and much of the Arab world succeeded in marginalising that question. Strategic normalisation, economic incentives, and the pursuit of calm made it possible to sustain the illusion that the conflict could be frozen indefinitely. That illusion

Laurie Wastell

Labour’s attack on Sarah Pochin reeks of desperation

The wall-to-wall chorus of condemnation of Sarah Pochin’s remarks last week about woke advertising has been hysterical even by the left’s standards. ‘Sarah Pochin’s comments were a disgrace’, fulminated Labour’s X account, ‘and Nigel Farage’s silence is deafening.’ David Lammy said the remarks were ‘mean, nasty and racist’ and wants her sacked. Health Secretary Wes Streeting used his weekend media rounds to repeatedly barrack the Runcorn and Helsby MP, even arguing her intervention proves Reform are ‘not fit to govern’. Backbenchers no one has ever heard of are calling for Pochin to lose the whip. Pochin’s intervention began with what was admittedly rather poorly chosen language. On Friday, Reform’s second

Melanie McDonagh

Catherine Connolly’s victory was no landslide

Query: what kind of electoral landslide is it when most of the electorate doesn’t turn up? Not quite a landslide, I’d say – more the shifting of shingle. To put it another way, in the Irish presidential election, fewer than half of voters turned out (45.8 per cent). Three in four electors did not vote for Catherine Connolly, the United Left candidate. There wasn’t much of a turnout in the previous election, of course, but that was because the sitting president, Michael D. Higgins, was such a shoo-in. This time, the stay-at-homes, at 55 per cent of voters, were way ahead of those who could be bothered. It was a

Sunday

26 Oct 2025

Michael Simmons

Should Reeves raise income tax?

Rachel Reeves is reportedly looking at a 2p increase in income tax. The hike to the basic rate – paid on earnings between £12,571 and £50,270 – would take it from 20 per cent to 22 per cent. That’s still quite low by historic standards, despite the overall tax burden heading towards record highs. But it would also mean a clear and significant breach of Labour’s manifesto commitment, made just 14 months ago, not to raise the big three taxes. Would it be enough to get the Chancellor out of her fiscal hole? The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently put the size of that hole – that needs to be

Brendan O’Neill

The ‘anti-racism’ marchers are the real extremists

What’s more scary? A gaggle of old UKIP voters gathering to vent their spleen about mass immigration? Or a march of hulking young men, all masked and clad in black, hollering ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Zionist scum off our streets’? At the risk of being branded with that cheap and meaningless slur of ‘Islamophobe’, I’m going to say it’s the latter. Something extraordinary happened in London this weekend — there was a ‘counter-extremist’ protest that felt more extremist than the thing it was countering. Their target was UKIP, around 75 of whose supporters had assembled in Whitehall to agitate for remigration. Yet it was the anti-UKIP side that felt properly menacing.