UK politics

Labour won’t spend outside fiscal rules, says Reeves

21 July 2024 11:12 pm

Chancellor Reeves adamant she will ‘make sure the sums add up’ Rachel Reeves gave an interview with Laura Kuenssberg this…

Will Reeves boost public sector pay?

21 July 2024 9:02 pm

As the dust around the election settles, a question Tory MPs and supporters still grapple with is why Rishi Sunak…

What did the Tories do with power?

6 July 2024 4:46 pm

Fourteen years of Tory-led government is over. The second-longest period of dominance by one party since the war is done.…

Starmer’s ruthless efficiency has risks

5 July 2024 9:55 pm

A couple of years ago, an anecdote about Keir Starmer did the rounds at Westminster. The story was that when…

Labour’s Potemkin landslide

5 July 2024 5:35 pm

So far, something pretty big is missing from Labour’s historic landslide: voters. Keir Starmer is set to win 64 per…

The betting ‘scandal’ has gone too far

26 June 2024 11:12 pm

Thomas Macaulay, the 19th-century historian, said there is ‘no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its…

Steve Baker speaks as though the Tories have already lost

26 June 2024 1:23 am

It’s pretty unusual to hear a minister speaking during this election campaign: other than Mel Stride, the rest seem to…

What’s the real reason Jim Ratcliffe is backing Starmer?

19 June 2024 4:49 am

On the face of it, there could hardly be a better example of a turkey voting for Christmas than the…

Keir Starmer needs a better answer to the Jeremy Corbyn question

13 June 2024 7:52 am

Keir Starmer looked baffled by tonight’s questions. Rishi Sunak looked resigned. Separating the two candidates – having them face Beth…

Sunak’s manifesto is not credible

12 June 2024 2:16 am

Rishi Sunak’s manifesto launch was necessarily defensive: the Prime Minister is trying to stem the losses in this election campaign…

The Green party is terrifying

7 June 2024 7:27 pm

Is the Green party the most controversial force in British politics? It’s certainly giving Reform a run for its money. In…

Who will survive to lead the Tories?

2 June 2024 4:11 am

In spite of his conviction for falsifying business records, Donald Trump is still expected by many to make a remarkable…

The statistic that should terrify Tory HQ

31 May 2024 7:48 pm

The tightening looks on. On Tuesday, my polling firm JL Partners published its first campaign poll showing a 12-point Labour…

Starmer purges the Corbynites

30 May 2024 7:16 pm

One of the first thing Keir Starmer and his team decided to focus on after winning the Labour leadership was…

National service won’t create real soldiers

28 May 2024 4:00 pm

There are strong arguments for national service in terms of national solidarity, training and self-discipline. In the end, however, the…

Sunak is right, Britain needs national service

26 May 2024 8:33 am

The Tories have announced that, if re-elected, they will introduce national service. And it won’t be the miserable existence imposed…

Sunak: let’s bring back national service

26 May 2024 8:00 am

The first big new policy announcement of the election campaign is in from the Tories, and it’s likely to be…

The smoking ban will be back

25 May 2024 5:21 pm

Has Rishi Sunak’s surprise summer election spared Britain some nanny state interventions? At first glance it seemed so, as it…

Michael Gove leads the Tory exodus

24 May 2024 8:27 pm

When Rishi Sunak told cabinet colleagues about his decision to call a general election, Michael Gove sought to raise spirits…

Why are Scottish nationalists so thin-skinned?

15 May 2024 6:59 pm

Scottish nationalists are not happy. What’s new, I hear you ask. Did they lose another leader? Has Sainsbury’s been selling…

Who are ‘the blob’?

10 May 2024 9:49 pm

Liz Truss calls them the ‘deep state’, Dominic Cummings ‘the blob’ and for Sue Gray they are simply former colleagues.…

Keir Starmer is ashamed of his party

9 May 2024 2:58 am

Questions from backbenchers dominated PMQs. Sir Edward Leigh is keen to end unfettered immigration and he announced a way to…

Tories aren’t panicking – they expected a drubbing

3 May 2024 8:59 pm

Unsurprisingly, the overnight results from the local elections have been very bruising for the Conservatives. Local election results day is…

Lindsay Hoyle is a hooligan

2 May 2024 2:59 am

How does it feel to wake up and discover that you’re a socialist? We got the answer at PMQs where…

Brexit has not made food unaffordable

30 April 2024 11:01 pm

Imagine that for the past 30 years all food entering Britain from EU countries had been subject to stringent sanitary…