Keir Starmer
Make Trump Britain’s prime minister
When I was a young man, the claim that Britain was in danger of becoming the 51st state was a…
Can anything stop Reform?
A close associate of Nigel Farage received phone calls from three civil servants in the past week, asking how they…
The pointlessness of ‘smashing the gangs’
‘Smash the gangs’ is the fascinating slogan that Keir Starmer’s government has settled on for tackling illegal migration. What is…
‘Let Keir be Keir’: inside the cabinet’s away day
Labour ministers face a range of terrible political choices, but when the cabinet met for an away day at Chequers…
Where did ‘husband’ come from?
‘Am I housebound?’ asked my husband as I was discussing with him the complicated history of the name for his…
Corbyn’s new party is Starmer’s creation
Have you ever been to an activist meeting? A proper one, not a cocktail party for potential donors. If Keir…
The reign of Rayner
Angela Rayner declined an invitation to a hen do last weekend where the entertainment included axe-throwing. ‘She was worried about…
How Labour governments always end
Couldn’t we just skip to the end? I’m old enough to have seen this so often: must I sit through…
The politics of pips
‘What larks!’ exclaimed my husband archly, assuming that a connection between personal independence payments and Pip in Great Expectations would…
The politics of ‘rocket boosters’
Sir Keir Starmer said the other day that he wanted to put rocket boosters under AI. It’s not the only…
Starmer’s war zone: the Prime Minister is in a perilous position
Sir Keir Starmer was alerted in the early hours of Friday by his national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, that Israel’s…
Portrait of the week: Liverpool parade crash, Starmer sacrifices Chagos Islands and an octopus invasion
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, announced that ‘more pensioners’ would qualify for winter fuel payments, but did not…
Starmer vs the workers: the real Brexit betrayal
Keir Starmer looked blank. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, seemed confused. Only the old Stalinist Seumas Milne seemed really to…
Labour must learn to love Brexit
The problem with Keir Starmer’s approach to Brexit is that it fundamentally misunderstands the country. It isn’t that the Leave-voting…
Keir Starmer’s intellectual barrenness
Keir Starmer’s appearance before Labour MPs on Monday was a crowded affair. Such was the level of excitement that organisers…
Reform and the problem with the Overton window
In the space of about one month a further 9 per cent of the electorate has decided that the views…
Kemi Badenoch and the Tinkerbell Tories
Market choice has long been an article of faith in the Conservative party. But the Tories are less keen on…
The changing face of Nigel Farage
On Monday night, a hundred Reform staff and donors met at a Marylebone pub to toast the local election results.…
Reform vs Labour: who’ll win the battle for the north?
When MPs and peers were recalled to parliament for an emergency debate on renationalising British Steel, one man was the…
How Starmer plans to weather Trump’s storm
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Keir Starmer has struggled to set the agenda. The latest attempt came…
Keir Starmer must look beyond adolescent politics
An industry poll by the British Film Institute in 2000 to find Britain’s best television programme put Fawlty Towers first…
Labour needs a sense of social justice
Clement Attlee, in the words of Winston Churchill, was a modest man with much to be modest about. Labour’s postwar…
The shape-shifting Labour party
It is difficult to gauge who is the more discombobulated by the Labour government’s recent Damascene conversion to a political…
Starmer’s tribes are at war
Labour MPs these days are experiencing whiplash. When in opposition, the party attacked the Tories’ proposed benefits cuts for ‘effectively…
