Keir starmer

Yesterday

James Heale

Why the SNP can’t lose

What does a party get after nearly two decades in office, collapsing public services, an internal civil war and a £2 million police investigation? Re-election, again – perhaps with an even bigger majority. Last spring, under the hapless Humza Yousaf, the SNP’s grip on power in Scotland finally appeared to be loosening. But eight months on, the nationalists have managed a remarkable turnaround. The party now has a 15-point poll lead and it looks as though John Swinney will remain in Bute House at next year’s Holyrood elections. ‘The caretaker manager has got the job permanently,’ says one rival. The party’s change in fortunes owes less to Swinney’s skill as an

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: US and Russia talk, Chiltern Firehouse burns and Duchess of Sussex rebrands

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said that, to guarantee the security of Ukraine, he was ‘ready and willing’ to put ‘our own troops on the ground if necessary. I do not say that lightly’. Parliament would be allowed a vote on such a deployment, the government said. Earlier, Sir Keir took an unannounced telephone call from President Donald Trump of America about their forthcoming meeting. Afterwards, Mr Trump said: ‘We have a lot of good things going on. But he asked to come and see me and I just accepted his asking.’ The Chiltern Firehouse hotel in Marylebone burnt down. The Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill,

Tuesday

Oscar Edmondson

How Europe’s consensus on Ukraine broke down

14 min listen

The future of Ukraine is being decided in a meeting between US and Russian diplomats in Saudi Arabia today. So far, we understand that America will insist that Ukraine is recognised as a sovereign nation, but NATO membership remains off the table. Meanwhile, European leaders have been cut out of the conversations. In response, they held their own summit yesterday, but it didn’t seem like they were all singing from the same hymn sheet. While the UK is pushing for higher defence spending and is willing to commit troops, other European nations seem more dovish, especially Germany and Italy. This is reflected in opinion polls as well. What’s going on? 

Monday

Oscar Edmondson

Can Starmer be the bridge between Europe and the US?

14 min listen

There is lots to make sense of today in a huge week for European and world politics, with the fallout of the Munich Conference and today’s emergency summit in Paris. European powers are trying to navigate peace in Ukraine in the face of a belligerently isolationist Trump administration. The UK is caught between preserving its privileged position with the US and the desire for a European reset, as well as the need for an end to the war in Ukraine without giving in to Russia. Can Starmer bridge the transatlantic chasm that has opened up? Do the Europeans want us, and do the Americans need us?  Events in Europe will

Thursday

Daniel Hannan

Reversing our economic decline is not easy, but it is simple

Our immiseration came swiftly and stealthily. At the start of the 21st century, Britain was a prosperous country. Ambitious people fought to come here. We trusted that, over time, we would become wealthier – an expectation that had been accurate for most of the previous two centuries. Since the millennium, Britain and western Europe have pretty much stopped growing – especially if we ignore the impact of immigration and calculate GDP per head. Reversing this slowdown should be the top issue at every election, but it is surprisingly under-discussed. In theory, almost all our politicians want growth. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves keep describing it, nasally and tautologically, as their

James Heale James Heale

Kemi vs. Nigel: who would Thatcher have backed?

It is 50 years since Margaret Thatcher was elected Tory leader and at this week’s shadow cabinet meeting, Lord Forsyth was invited as guest speaker to mark the occasion. He noted the similarities between 1975 and 2025. Back then the party was broke, reeling from defeat and facing the fallout from a reorganisation of local government. But, despite threadbare resources, Thatcher managed to rebuild to win power four years later. ‘You have the potential to do the same,’ Forsyth told Kemi Badenoch. Yet there is a crucial difference between then and now: a rival on the right. Nigel Farage’s Reform party is vying with Badenoch to inherit Thatcher’s mantle. Each

Monday

Michael Gove

Keir Starmer and the lost art of political oratory

31 min listen

From Churchill to Thatcher to Blair to Farage, Parliament has seen some truly fantastic rhetoricians over the years. But last week came the news that – in a bid to improve his own oratorical skill – Keir Starmer employed a voice coach: former actress Leonie Mellinger. Mellinger has been at the centre of a fresh COVID-19 row, as the Prime Minister considered her to be so important that she qualified as a ‘key worker’ in 2020, visiting Labour headquarters in a mask on Christmas Eve 2020 to advise Starmer. It is not an unusual practice to employ a voice coach to improve a politician’s public speaking, and on the podcast

Friday

Katy Balls

The inside story of Labour under Starmer

23 min listen

This week saw the publication of Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund’s new book Get In: The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer. It’s the second in their tell-all series of books on the Labour Party’s ups and downs and has caused quite a stir in Westminster. From the revelations about Keir Starmer’s voice coach causing a fresh lockdown row to Michael Gove’s secret dinner with Morgan McSweeney, there is a high-density of scoops and disclosures. Can Labour blame the failures of their first 100 days on Sue Gray? And is there such a thing as ‘Starmerism’? Patrick and Gabriel sat down with Katy Balls and Michael Gove to discuss. Produced by

Thursday

Michael Gove

Labour’s Irish insurgent, Germany’s ‘firewall’ falls & finding joy in obituaries

48 min listen

As a man with the instincts of an insurgent, Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, has found Labour’s first six months in office a frustrating time, writes The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove. ‘Many of his insights – those that made Labour electable – appeared to have been overlooked by the very ministers he propelled into power.’ McSweeney is trying to wrench the government away from complacent incumbency: there is a new emphasis on growth, a tougher line on borders, an impatience with establishment excuses for inertia. Will McSweeney win his battle? And what does this mean for figures in Starmer’s government, like Richard Hermer and Ed Miliband? Michael joined the

The Spectator

Letters: The army that Britain needs

Common ground Sir: Katy Balls asks ‘Lawyer or leader?’ (Politics, 25 January), but it became fairly clear which Keir Starmer is when he appointed as his Attorney General Lord Hermer, a human rights lawyer. As was mentioned, Lord Hermer has often represented those rejecting British values rather than standing up for them. Sir Keir and Lord Hermer show a clear preference for international law over Britain’s common law. They ignore the reality that common law has served the nation brilliantly over the centuries. It relies on the precise written word and precedent, being non-political, transparent, predictable and fair. British laws are enacted by our democratically elected parliament which can amend

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Shoplifting surges, Trump eyes Gaza Strip and Norway’s government collapses

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, flew to Brussels for an EU summit, sought a ‘reset’ of relations and had celeriac soup and sea bream for dinner. AstraZeneca dropped plans to invest £450 million in a vaccine manufacturing plant in Speke, Liverpool, blaming the government’s ‘final offer compared to the previous government’s proposal’. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that she supported the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport; she had already backed a third runway at Heathrow and the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield airport. Water bills in England and Wales will rise to an average of £603. Some councils will be allowed to raise their tax by

Michael Gove

Morgan McSweeney is urging Keir Starmer to go for the kill

Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, does not immediately display the demeanour of a disruptor. He speaks softly, picks his phrases with care, and cultivates an unassuming image. But underneath the sober blue suit are the scars of a streetfighter. As a young man, McSweeney came to political maturity fighting the hard left in Lambeth and the far right in Dagenham, winning back working-class voters to a Labour party that had forgotten its roots. He went on to secure last year’s landslide, gifting Keir Starmer a majority large enough to remake Britain. His style as an insurgent owes something to his background. He grew up in Ireland with parents

Monday

Cindy Yu

Is Donald Trump warming to Keir Starmer?

16 min listen

Starmer and Trump have finally spoken, with a 45 minute phone call taking place between the two leaders. The pair reportedly discussed the ceasefire in Gaza, and trade and the economy, with Starmer attempting to find common ground by talking up his plans for deregulation. Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews about their relationship. Do these early signs suggest it will be wholly positive, or are there thornier issues to come?  Also on the podcast, Rachel Reeves is set to deliver a speech this week outlining her plans for growth – just how important is this week for her? Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Cindy Yu.

Friday

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

Thursday

Rod Liddle

The truth about Southport

When I first saw the headline I was highly optimistic. Sir Keir Starmer had identified the threat to society posed by ‘young men in their bedrooms’. What would follow, surely, must be a polemic in the style of Robert Baden-Powell or John Harvey Kellogg on the dangers of masturbation. It’s about time this was politicised, I reckoned – the terrible sapping of a young man’s strength and soul by the indiscriminate spillage of his precious bodily fluids. Perhaps Sir Keir would demand that parents order their wayward teenage offspring to put down the Kleenex, open the bedroom door, come downstairs and either eat a bowl of nutritious cornflakes or join

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Trump’s inauguration, Israel-Hamas ceasefire and cardboard humans comfort lonely fish

Home Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to the murder of three girls in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at Southport on 29 July 2024, and to ten attempted murders as well as possessing al Qaeda literature and producing the poison ricin. He had been charged with murder on 31 July but police insisted then that the incident was not being treated as terror-related; the culprit was charged with two terrorism offences on 29 October. From 30 July, rioting had swept the country for a week. Now it was disclosed that the murderer had been referred three times to Prevent, the anti-terrorism programme, when he was 13

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Labour’s Richard Hermer problem

Keir Starmer surprised his colleagues during his first week in power when he appointed his old friend Richard Hermer KC as Attorney General. Emily Thornberry, the holder of the role in opposition, was banished to the backbenches. Senior Labour figures had sensed something was afoot. ‘Sue [Gray] was keeping those transition talks under lock and key,’ recalls one Labour bigwig. The idea was that Starmer would have a trusted, authoritative voice to turn to on legal matters. The pair are old pals; Starmer even gave a toast when Hermer took silk in 2009. His appointment, however, has come with baggage. Hermer’s former clients include Sri Lankan refugees to the Chagos

Thursday

Michael Gove

The answers Starmer must give

It will probably only damn me further in the eyes of many, but when I was a government minister I often used to ask Labour predecessors for advice. Tony Blair especially. He may have felt it was a forlorn exercise ever offering me his wisdom, especially when I went on to back Brexit, support parliament’s prorogation under Boris and defend Dominic Cummings against all comers, but I always appreciated his insights, even when we disagreed. No position is so strong, no policy so perfect, that it cannot benefit from being tested by critics. If those critics have experience of office, know its powers and limitations, so much the better. And

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Why was everyone fooled by Rachel Reeves?

It is some time since I could claim any close acquaintance with the daily skirmishes of workaday Westminster. From risers and fallers on the stock exchange of parliamentary esteem I stand somewhat aside these days: no longer a war correspondent sending back dispatches from the battles between tribes in the febrile atmosphere and smelly carpets of that suffocating fake-gothic palace. Such warfare needs to be reported, but in this I yield to colleagues better placed to report. It seemed Starmer and Reeves had allowed themselves to be persuaded that what they were not was enough If I’ve had any useful contribution – if as a commentator I’ve shed any light

Dot Wordsworth

Does Keir Starmer know what a ‘drag anchor’ does?

The language of sailing ships is as treacherous as a lee shore. Words seldom mean what they suggest or are pronounced phonetically. So if you climb the ratlines, you may reach the top by means of the futtock shrouds, unless you can use a lubber’s hole. When Sir Keir Starmer insisted last week that the NHS waiting-list is ‘a drag anchor on our economy and our country’, his metaphor was obscure to his listeners and unhelpful to his argument. A drag anchor is a useful thing: a device towed underwater by a sailing ship in order to keep it pointing into the waves and to lessen leeway. In other words,