What if Andy Burnham had become Labour leader in 2015? Opinion On his third try, Andy Burnham looks all but certain to become Labour leader. But what if he had taken the reins of the party eleven years earlier? Matt Kenyon imagines an alternative timeline… 2015 It’s a world that looks a lot like our own. There’s just one, seemingly minor, difference: A cluster of well-meaning [...]
Beware a desperate Prime Minister in search of a legacy Opinion From Theresa May to Rishi Sunak and now Keir Starmer’s, Prime Ministers have long sought to ban things just before leaving Downing Street, says Tom Harwood Is it too soon to write the Prime Minister’s obituary? As Keir Starmer returns from his latest bout of wining and dining with world leaders in Évian-les-Bains by Lake [...]
The Debate: Is Britain’s minimum wage too high? Opinion Rishi Sunak has confessed minimum wage hikes he oversaw were too high. But is raising wages during a cost of living crisis really so bad?
Sunak calls for minimum wage quango to be abolished May 24, 2026 Former Chancellor and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that his decisions to hike the national minimum wage backfired as he called for a quango overseeing low pay to be abolished. Sunak appeared to admit that his decision to increase the national living wage has contributed to job struggles faced by young people. In an [...]
Former deputy PM Dominic Raab moves into PR with advisory role at Kreab May 21, 2026 Dominic Raab, the former deputy prime minister, is joining the City arm of communications consultancy Kreab as a senior adviser specialising in defence and intelligence. Raab’s new role will see him advising clients on defence and security challenges, including domestic politics, public policy and international geopolitics. Kreab, a leading global strategic communications and public affairs consultancy, [...]
New HS2 budget to blow £33bn hole in public finances May 21, 2026 The government will need to find as much as £33bn in additional cash from tax and spending measures or from other departments to fund its revamped plans to deliver HS2. According to a City PM analysis, the Department for Transport’s updated proposals for the rail line require between £18bn and £33bn of additional public money [...]
Capital won’t wait for Westminster to sort itself out May 19, 2026 Britain can’t afford to spend the next six months navel gazing. We need to get serious about investing, says Katie Perrior Last month I woke up in Austin, Texas, pulled back the curtains in my hotel room and looked out across a skyline punctuated by cranes. Not just a handful of projects but dozens. Much [...]
Why Westminster’s finest keep ending up on Big Tech’s payroll March 26, 2026 There is a sense of irony in that the employees Silicon Valley’s tech giants most want to hire, are actually the ones who spent years in the public sector trying to work out what to do about them. Nick Clegg, who served as deputy Prime Minister sat through more than one anxious Whitehall discussion about [...]
Sunak pushes deregulation as North Sea pressure grows March 1, 2026 Rishi Sunak has urged Rachel Reeves to go further and faster on deregulation to revive growth, as eight former UK energy ministers call on the government to rethink its stance on North Sea oil and gas. The former prime minister wrote in a Sunday Times column that Reeves deserved credit for delivering a Spring Statement [...]
Show them the book: why politicians need to read more novels February 26, 2026 Leading historian Dominic Sandbrook has said declining reading habits of our politicians tells you everything you need to know about why they’re so inadequate. William Atkinson couldn’t agree more… Would Keir Starmer be a better Prime Minister if he went to bed with a good Trollope? That was the suggestion of Dominic Sandbrook – Britain’s [...]
