Labour Party
Varun Chandra: the most important adviser you’ve never heard of
The porousness of the Establishment, and its reluctance to advertise its activities, are illustrated by the career of Varun Chandra.…
The asylum hotel crisis will cost Labour
Yvette Cooper doesn’t do holidays, which is probably just as well since she is the minister who, this summer, holds…
How to handle the Wagner problem
There are deep ructions across Europe, as in Britain. All come down to the same thing. The societies in question…
The Online Safety Act and Labour’s ‘ancient’ institutions
After Reform promised to repeal the Online Safety Act, it didn’t take long for Labour to defend internet censorship. ‘And…
Raise the age of suffrage to 25
If I had been given the vote at the age of 16, I would have put my cross beside the…
The best deer deterrent? Radio 4
Behind the latest push for recognition of a Palestinian state – even though there is no agreement of what it…
The left-wing case for controlled immigration
Controlled immigration was once a left-wing cause. It was a basic tenet of trade unionism – not to mention economics…
‘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…
Peerless: the purge of the hereditaries
The House of Lords is very old, but not quite continuous. In 1649, shortly after the execution of King Charles…
Good Lords: the House is losing some of the best
Keir Starmer has not been the luckiest general. But, in one respect, he has bested Napoleon. The Duke of Wellington…
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…
Britain needs reform
This week’s spending review confirms that where there should be conviction, there is only confusion; where there should be vision,…
The rise of the Red Queen
‘All Labour prime ministers go gaga for the Queen,’ sighed Cherie Blair, played by Helen McCrory, in the 2006 film…
Will any party stand up for ‘Nick’?
Meet Nick. He is 30 years old, has a good job and lives in London. He keeps himself to himself.…
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…
Delightful nostalgia for political wonks: The Gang of Three, at the King’s Head Theatre, reviewed
The Gang of Three gets into the nitty-gritty of Labour politics in the 1970s. It opens with the resignation of…
Letters: The case for ‘raves in the nave’
Reality check Sir: While I share Mr Gove’s diagnosis of lodestar-less Starmerism (‘Cruel Labour’, 5 April), I cannot share the…
Labour has once again betrayed grooming gang victims
Parliament’s last day before recess is usually a dull affair. A one-line whip allows MPs to return to their constituencies…
Leave our Lords alone
Within a few months, the constitution that has served this country so well for hundreds of years will yet again…
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…
Labour’s popularity contest
A few months ago, over a plate of bone marrow, a Tory adviser was considering how best to kneecap Labour.…
Sunday shows round-up: Reeves says living standards will increase
Rachel Reeves: ‘I’m confident we will see living standards increase’ A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that…
For Rachel Reeves the worst could be yet to come
Rachel Reeves has spent the morning touring the broadcast studios as she attempts to pitch roll for Wednesday’s Spring Statement.…
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…
Kemi’s stance on net zero is courageous – and correct
Kemi Badenoch secured the Conservative leadership on the basis that she would confront her party and the country with uncomfortable…
