Keir Starmer
Can Labour’s reset see off Reform?
Arriving on stage to accept ‘Newcomer of the Year’ at The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards, Nigel Farage gave…
Portrait of the week: Storm Bert, Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and Putin gives cockatoos to North Korea
Home A white paper outlined measures to counter economic inactivity (which had risen by September to 41.2 per cent among…
Labour’s Chinese takeaway
I was thrilled to learn that our government intends to enjoy an ‘open’ relationship with China – one of my…
Assisted dying is becoming Starmer’s mess
In the months before the general election, the Labour party had an internal debate about starting a ‘national conversation’ on…
Keir Starmer’s choice of Attorney General should concern conservatives
Of all Keir Starmer’s appointments to government, none have been so personal or politically significant as his choice of Attorney…
Will Keir Starmer get me banned from football games?
Last Saturday, I made the 400-mile round trip to Burnley with my 16-year-old son Charlie to see Queens Park Rangers…
Starmer’s first 100 days: the commentariat turns
Oh dear. Keir Starmer today marks his first 100 days in 10 Downing Street, but he has little cause for…
Portrait of the week: Sue Gray resigns and the Chagos Islands are handed back
Home Sue Gray resigned as chief of staff to Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister. She will become Sir Keir’s envoy…
Labour’s first 100 days: the verdict
This Saturday marks Labour’s 100th day in office. But they are unlikely to be popping champagne corks in Downing Street…
Can Morgan McSweeney reboot the government machine?
The Queen is dead: long live the King. This week brought an end to Downing Street’s unhappy experiment in dyarchy.…
Plutarch’s lessons for Labour
The lives of those daily in the public eye are bound to attract attention, especially when they are politicians telling…
Does Keir Starmer have a soul?
One of the main arguments against hereditary peerages is that talent and ability are not always passed down across generations.…
Meeting the Chagos islanders of Crawley
Departing Gatwick train station, with nine minutes till Crawley, I tried to get in the head of a Chagossian. In…
Where are all my after-dinner speaking gigs?
How excited are you to hear the Prime Minister talking tech with Eric Schmidt, an American billionaire who used to…
The joy of opposition
By rights, the Conservative party conference in Birmingham ought to have been a funereal affair. It was the first time…
The Mad Men theory of drunk decision-making
In electing this government, we seem to have picked the worst of both worlds: higher taxation combined with austerity in…
What would the Romans have made of Keir Starmer’s freebies?
An ancient Greek, counting up the value of the gifts that Sir Keir Starmer had received over his spotless political…
Inside Labour’s love affair with Lord Alli
As a peer who hates publicity, Lord Alli might have been expected to dodge the Labour conference – given the…
Nigel’s next target: Reform has Labour in its sights
At this weekend’s Reform conference in Birmingham, the opening speech will be given by a man who wasn’t even a…
Labour vs labour: how can the government claim to be promoting growth?
Growth, growth, growth: that was what Keir Starmer told us would be his government’s priority in his first press conference…
Why do the Starmers need a personal shopper?
Well, colour me disappointed. I was among those – mugs, the uncharitable will be quick to call them – who imagined that…
Why is no one marching against VAT on school fees?
How passively we respond to revelations of Labour’s real direction of travel. As millions of pensioners brace for the confiscation…
Starmer’s specs appeal
No doubt Lord Alli should not have been given a 10 Downing Street pass, but that is true of most…
My time on Hinge
Back to work, back to school, back to politics: the French call it la rentrée and my own summer idyll…
What ‘rot’ is Keir Starmer talking about?
With the elections over, it might be time to reflect on what Sir Keir Starmer means by ‘rot’ in the…
