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The war won't save Starmer - Labour's holiday from reality is already ending

While the war in Iran has diverted public attention away from the Labour Party’s continued failures, it won’t last long. Interest in the Government’s continuing scandals and broken promises will soon pick up and Starmer will pay the price. Despite the Prime Minister siding with public opinion over the war, this strategy will not boost his popularity, or Labour’s, in the long run. The war against Iran is good news for Sir Keir Starmer in only one meaningful respect: it has reduced public attention on Labour’s domestic pathologies, infighting and betrayals. Front pages, TV bulletins and social media that were chock-a-block with tales of leadership challenges and failed policies have rightly focused more on the war against Iran in recent weeks, the greatest, most significant development in global geopolitics since Russia invaded Ukraine. Given that almost all domestic news is bad news for Labour, this has granted the Prime Minister a breather. One scandal that has yet to fully capture...
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Keir knows an electoral bloodbath is comin

Keir Starmer has no response to the Morgan McSweeney phone shambles, no timeline for publishing the defence investment plan, and no strategy to shield businesses from rising energy costs. However, the Prime Minister has received one piece of good news today. After the elections, the Commons will not be sitting until the King reopens parliament on May 13, making it that much harder for would-be plotters to depose him. Once again, there is a will, but not a way. Annabel Denham, Senior Political Commentator. Daily Telegraph 27/03/26 As Britain contemplates a 1970s-style energy crisis, our Prime Minister is in Helsinki attending a summit of the Joint Expeditionary Force. Never-here will be eager to present himself as a statesman of consequence, a bridge, a broker of alliances, particularly after his very public falling out with the Man in the Baseball Cap, which may have very marginally increased his cred with the Left. Yet it is hard for Keir Starmer to sustain an image of Churchill...

NHS doctor charged with inviting support for Hamas

Dr Rahmeh Aladwan arrested at her home in Gloucestershire for breaching police bail conditions Daily Telegraph 26/03/26 An NHS doctor has been charged with “multiple counts” of inviting support for Hamas. Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, 31, of Pilning, Gloucestershire, was arrested at her home on Thursday morning for breaching police bail conditions imposed following previous arrests. The Metropolitan Police said she had been charged under the Terrorism Act 2000 for allegedly inviting support for a proscribed organisation, namely Hamas, on four separate dates from July to December last year. Dr Aladwan was also charged with using “words that were threatening, abusive or insulting intending thereby to stir up racial hatred or having regard to all the circumstances was reckless as to whether racial hatred would be stirred up” under section 18 of the Public Order Act in King Charles Street, London, on July 21 last year. She was further charged with publishing or distributing written material t...

The Prime Minister must not hide behind legalese

Sir Keir is so in thrall to the judicial process that he cannot see where the national interest lies Daily Telegraph 25/03/26 Sir Keir Starmer is a human rights lawyer who has failed to recognise that he is now a politician running the government of the country. He is so in thrall to the judicial process that he cannot see where the national interest lies, as seen with his bizarre and ill-starred decision to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. This fixation with procedure was on full display during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, the last before the Easter recess. He was asked by Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, to remove the moratorium on drilling new wells in the North Sea for oil and gas. The urgency of this decision could hardly be greater. The war in the Gulf has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz through which 40 per cent of the world’s oil and gas supplies are transported. We face huge price rises and potential shortages. The i...

Why Reeves’s claims of petrol profiteering don’t stack up

The Chancellor is painting garages as the villains, but refuses to cancel plans to raise fuel duty Daily Telegraph 24/03/26 While Donald Trump’s assault on Iran rages on, Rachel Reeves is fighting a battle of her own. In an effort to appeal to hard-up households and backbenchers, the Chancellor has vowed to stamp out “price-gouging” and crack down on any company seen to be “profiteering” from the conflict in the Middle East. Her sights so far have been set on petrol station operators, which are increasing prices to combat the soaring price of oil. Politically, it is a savvy move as she attempts to recast someone else as the villain while refusing to cancel her planned increase in fuel duty. Ms Reeves told the House of Commons on Tuesday: “Let me say again, this Government will not tolerate any company exploiting this crisis at consumers’ expense.” However, whether her accusation stacks up is another matter. Petrol stations are the final step in a long global supply chain. Th...

Reeves Faces war with Labour's big beasts

Daily Telegraph 19/03/26 Sir Keir Starmer’s dwindling circle of allies has pushed back against Angela Rayner’s criticism of what she called his “un-British” Indefinite Leave to Remain policy. In truth, Two-Tier had little room to manoeuvre – having personally authored the foreword to the white paper on “Restoring Control over the Immigration System.” Yet, it is Rachel Reeves who appears increasingly exposed, with Rayner, Miliband and Burnham all lining up to challenge the Chancellor on her own turf. Annabel Denham, Senior Political Commentator To listen to Sadiq Khan today, you’d think it was 2020. The Mayor of London has declared that “the evidence is overwhelming: Brexit has been a disaster for London and the UK”. According to Khan, rejoining the EU is now “inevitable”, which will come as news to the millions who voted the other way and the large number who’d really rather that politicians focused on the present. When pressed on the morning media round, trade minister Sir Chri...

Reeves charts a course for ‘April Armageddon’

A year after tax rises removed thousands of jobs from the economy, businesses are braced for a new set of disastrous Labour measures Daily Telegraph 20/03/26 With just a fortnight to go, the reality of a new slate of socialist measures which will land on the heads of business in Labour’s “April Armageddon” is setting in. What started a year ago when the rise in employer National Insurance contributions kicked in and thousands of jobs were kicked out of the economy will continue this April when the next set of measures come crashing down on businesses. The broader economic context could not be worse. One in six young people are now unable to find a job, GDP per capita is falling, and gilt yields are rising as we battle stubbornly high inflation and rising oil prices. Even after a year of job cuts and hiring freezes, Labour’s choices have business confidence stuck at levels not seen since the global pandemic. All of this is down primarily to a Cabinet that neither understands nor ca...