Exclusive: Labour overtake Tories as most trusted on defence, poll finds March 3, 2025 Labour has overtaken the Conservatives as the party most trusted to manage the UK’s defence and national security – and Brits overwhelmingly back the plan to fund an increase in defence spending by raiding the international development budget. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party was chosen by 27 per cent of respondents compared to [...]
The Capitalist: Tardy Tories, Heathrow’s VIP lounge and the ‘shadow DOGE’ February 27, 2025 Tory time zones, Heathrow’s new VIP lounge and a ‘shadow DOGE’. Catch up on the latest gossip in this week’s edition of The Capitalist TARDY TORIES If Reform do manage to oust the Tories from their HQ on Matthew Parker Street, they may wish to check the clocks. Reportedly, Tory aides have taken to working under [...]
Is Kemi Badenoch up for the fight? February 27, 2025 What is Kemi Badenoch for? If you’re now asking yourself “who’s Kemi Badenoch?” then she really is in trouble. In the four months since being elected leader of the Conservative Party, she has attempted to make a virtue out of vagueness. She explains, not unreasonably, that her party has to reflect on what went wrong [...]
PMQs: Starmer won’t confirm if Chagos deal money included in defence rise February 26, 2025 Keir Starmer has declined to confirm whether money spent on the Chagos Islands deal will be included in the rise in defence spending. The UK is in talks with Mauritius about handing over sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory but leasing back the strategic Diego Garcia military base, which the US uses. The Prime [...]
Move fast and break the civil service: Will Whitehall get its own Elon Musk? February 12, 2025 Whether it sees Elon Musk’s DOGE as a success or a failure, Whitehall should see it as a warning. Because institutions which won’t reform themselves can only ever be reformed by outsiders, usually in unpredictable ways, says Joe Hill In December, the Prime Minister pledged to “rewire the State”, and Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden told [...]
PMQs: Badenoch says businesses ‘abandoning North Sea’ due to Starmer February 5, 2025 Businesses are “abandoning the North Sea” because of Sir Keir Starmer’s decisions, Kemi Badenoch has claimed at PMQs, as he she criticised the “signal he is sending to investors”. Her comments came after a Scottish court ruled that green lighting the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields was unlawful, following a court battle brought [...]
Britain needs to work harder to ‘compete globally’, Chris Philp says January 31, 2025 Brits need to work harder in order to “compete globally” with rival nations, Chris Philp has argued. The Conservative shadow home secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking podcast that the UK “needs everyone to make a contribution” to keep up with states like China and India. He told presenter Nick Robinson that there were [...]
How can UK businesses prepare for Trump? Remember how he thinks January 21, 2025 The best approach to dealing with Trump? Resist the hysteria and remember how the President thinks, writes Michael Martins.
Pensions triple lock should not be kept ‘indefinitely’, says minister who introduced it January 18, 2025 The minister who first signed off on the pensions triple lock has suggested he thinks there is not a case for keeping the measure “indefinitely”. Former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Steve Webb, who served as pensions minister in the coalition government, thinks there is still a case for keeping it now, and there is still “a pretty low state pension” [...]
Local elections will be ‘quite difficult’ for Tories, says Badenoch January 18, 2025 The Conservative leader has predicted that this year’s vote will be “very bad” for the Tories compared to votes four years ago.