Keir Starmer isn’t Labour’s biggest problem
Keir Starmer has turned a drama into a crisis. The local elections were always going to be difficult for Labour.…
Why the Tories mustn't give in to the Nimbys
A 15-point YouGov poll lead and last week’s election performance suggests that things look good for the Tories in England.…
Can Labour survive the next election?
Keir Starmer is having a torrid time. Today brings another poll showing his personal approval rating falling. The Labour leader…
Could the Tories lose the South?
The coming Batley and Spen by-election — triggered by the incumbent MP’s election as the first mayor of West Yorkshire — is currently attracting a…
Westminster must avoid the Sturgeon trap
The challenge for the UK government in the coming months is to make Nicola Sturgeon look like a constitutional obsessive.…
Andy Street's success is part of the English political realignment
Andy Street won the West Midlands mayoralty in 2017 by the slimmest of margins, with 50.4 percent of the vote…
Can the UK government navigate the SNP's calls for a second referendum?
The Unionist tactical voting in Scotland makes it tempting to see the country as split down the middle between pro-independence…
What’s next for the Union?
The Union faces two simultaneous challenges in Northern Ireland and Scotland that both look set to worsen in the coming…
The nightmare: Boris’s battles are just beginning
While Johnson and Cummings attack each other, a bigger problem is looming
Putin’s on manoeuvres – are we ready?
‘What follows plague?’ I asked a medieval historian at the start of the pandemic. ‘War,’ he replied. In recent days,…
How the Tories can tackle generational inequality
Covid is far more fatal for the old than the young. But it is the young who have borne the…
Can Boris beat the vaccine passport rebels?
No prime minister wants to be dependent on the opposition to get the government’s business through the House of Commons.…
Boris will need Labour support for vaccine passports
No prime minister wants to be dependent on the opposition to get the government’s business through the House of Commons.…
The fightback: it’s time for the West to take on China
Western democracies must unite against China’s economic bullying
London's mayoral race is a warning to Tories nationwide
The London Mayoral election is more of a procession than a race. The only real question is whether Sadiq Khan…
Why is New Zealand afraid of criticising China?
It is becoming harder and harder to ignore China’s aggressive behaviour. As I say in the magazine this week, China…
Sturgeon fights on – but at what cost?
A year ago this week Alex Salmond was acquitted on all 13 charges in his sexual assault trial. In normal…
MPs facing Chinese sanctions deserve our solidarity
The sanctions that China is imposing on various politicians, academics and think tanks in the democratic world are designed to…
Sturgeon's rush for a referendum could backfire
The Holyrood election campaign kicks off with Nicola Sturgeon buoyed by James Hamilton’s report concluding that she did not break…
Unopposed: why is Keir Starmer making life so easy for the PM?
The dangers of the Starmer-Johnson double act
Is Sturgeon losing support for Scottish independence?
Every politician likes to say that they don’t pay attention to opinion polls. In my experience, this is almost universally…
Boris, Biden and the era of big government
Bill Clinton’s declaration that ‘the era of big government is over’ summed up the late 1990s political zeitgeist. Centre-left political…
Can Boris sustain his royal silence?
Boris Johnson is clearly determined to avoid being dragged into this Harry and Meghan story. At his press conference this afternoon,…
What Rishi Sunak could learn from the vaccine rollout
Barely a year has passed since Rishi Sunak’s first Budget. Its centrepiece was a £30 billion stimulus designed to calm…
Immigration is no longer a political problem
Ask voters what the most important issue facing Britain is and just 2 per cent say immigration. Even when you…
