Over ten years later, Brexit remains era-defining, indirectly toppling yet another prime minister. Starmer has resigned. A resignation catalysed by the local elections that saw Labour lose almost five times as many voters to the Greens and Liberal Democrats as to Reform UK. Pressure from the pro-EU progressives and centrists was key to the end of the Starmer project, a fact that is at the front of Andy Burnham’s mind as he plans an ascent to Downing Street and has to take o

On Friday morning, news broke that one of Britain’s most recognisable political figures, Ann Widdecombe, had died. By mid-day social media was awash with tributes for a woman whose four decades in public life had taken her from Westminster to Brussels, and, most recently, to Reform UK as the party’s spokeswoman on Immigration and Justice. By mid-afternoon, national newspapers had published obituaries, some admiring and others searing in their criticism of a politician who pos

Where just a few months ago Nigel Farage seemed invincible, his political position has grown increasingly precarious in recent months. Nigel Farage’s decision to not declare a £5 million ‘gift’ from the Thailand-based crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne remains the biggest threat to his momentum. The Reform leader claims to have “done nothing wrong”, but his failure to declare the money he received from Harborne, per rule 5 of the House of Commons code of conduct, prompte

Andy Burnham is about to become Prime Minister. His ambition has never been a secret. Unlike generations of politicians who insisted that leadership had somehow found them, Burnham has openly wanted the job. In another era, that kind of ambition might have been regarded as slightly distasteful. In 2026, it feels almost refreshing. That may be one of the defining political lessons of the past decade. We have entered an era in which voters appear less concerned with whether pol

It is somewhat rare for an election to proffer signs that are simultaneously encouraging yet brutal for a party in British politics, but the Makerfield by-election proved just that for Reform UK. The result, while confirming that the party has decisively supplanted the Conservatives as the premier force on the British right, nevertheless exposed the possibility that Reform’s rise has itself birthed a coalition capable of stopping it. The encouragement is obvious; Reform amass

The inevitable has happened. On 22nd June, Sir Keir Starmer stepped up to the podium outside No.10 and delivered a speech much of the country had been anticipating for months. Once again, the familiar image of a crestfallen prime minister appeared before the assembled press corps and television cameras. Starmer accepted “with good grace” that Labour MPs no longer wanted him to lead the party into the next general election, continuing Britain's recent revolving door of prime m

Carnage. I think that is the best way to put it. Massive council wins for Reform and an evisceration of Welsh Labour, epitomised by First Minister, Eluned Morgan, being ejected at break-neck speed from her Senedd seat, has rubbed salt into Labour’s backbench anxiety. The threshold for triggering a leadership challenge against the PM, the elusive and seemingly far-fetched 81 MPs, has been surpassed within the space of 48 hours. The only element that’s missing is a leader of th

On the surface Andy Burnham’s victory in Makerfield is unremarkable, if anything the 20% gap over second-placed Reform is a shining example of how Labour has lost significant swathes of support in the constituencies where historically the Labour vote had to be weighed rather than counted. Makerfield, an ex-mining, working class seat that has voted Labour since 1906 saw 35% of its electorate vote for a right-wing party. The result seemingly represents the phenomenon that has b

I have tended to support left wing parties, gravitating towards their ideas as regional and national politics played a growing part in my teen life. Seeking equality, eliminating poverty, helping the downtrodden and the marginalised, and defeating a self-interested elite have remained leftist constants, but the vehicle of these ideas for me has changed over time. Anarcho-communism was appealing in my early teens, then was Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. While Jeremy was never g

‘We’re living in a two-tier culture in this country where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities.’ These were the words of Nigel Farage in an ‘emergency address’ following George Nowak’s tragic killing in Southampton. It is rather rare to hear the Reform UK leader speak directly about race. He would feel much more comfortable ranting about illegal migration or asylum seekers. Farage appears especially keen to weaponise this mome

Reform UK’s burgeoning popularity has never stemmed from policy alone. A central pillar of its appeal has long rested in the promise of purification; an anti-establishment, anti-corruption party supposedly untainted by the deceitful Westminster habits that have set Labour and the Conservatives hurtling towards electoral devastation come 2029. If polls are to be believed, this gambit will reap lucrative electoral dividends for Nigel Farage’s latest insurgency project. But the

The parliamentary theatre that played out on the stage of Westminster last week, the kind this country has become so used to in recent years, has resulted in a strange and uniquely British political situation. The future direction of the government, the Prime Minister, the Labour Party and the country will depend on the votes of some 80,000 people in the suburbs of Wigan and its neighbouring towns. A by-election in the constituency of Makerfield should be a shoe in for the L

Reform UK has been bolstered over the past few years by a media sullied by millionaires selling easy answers to the less politically focused populace. This malaise has been growing in the background for many years, however, with reports of Elon Musk considering funding Reform UK, it could be a saga reaching its climax. My gripe is not just with Reform over this campaign, but also with the left-wing parties of Your Party (Jeremy Corbyn’s new home), and The Green Party. Through

As the May Local Elections approach, things look bleak for the political centre. Polling suggests Labour could lose close to 2,000 local councillors, while the Conservatives are predicted to lose around 1,000. The big winners will likely be Reform, who could gain over 2,000 councillors - with the Greens also expected to perform well, potentially gaining close to 500. There is, of course, good reason to be fed up with Keir Starmer and his government, particularly in the light

September of last year marked Zack Polanski’s irruption into the highest echelon of British politics. The Green’s new leader, imbued with the gifts of personality, pitch and popularity, bestowed upon the party an attribute they had yet to enjoy – a brand. Polanski has swiftly turned himself into the Greens’ main asset; sharper than his predecessors, more media-savvy, more combative and far less embarrassed by the prospect of harnessing populism for his party’s good. Polanski,

The BBC has increasingly found itself under fire over the last few years, with right-wing media and politicians alike finding every possible opportunity to lambast the public-service broadcaster for perceived left-wing bias. Until his departure in the summer , Gary Lineker often drew much of the media’s ire for his outspoken political views, culminating in his earlier-than-planned exit from the UK’s national public service broadcaster. Now, remarkably, the U.S. President is a

The New York Times published one of the finest long-form features in recent memory last week. The piece was a thorough chronicling of the US-Ukraine relationship and its evolution over the past 12 action-filled months. Despite the US’s off-the-cuff approach to foreign policy, the brazen contempt it shows Ukraine and the rest of Europe is consistently striking. Pressure is barely exerted on Putin, with any attempt to end his barbarous actions feeling futile. Everything is stu

Whilst the Labour Government is being hounded from outside and torn apart from inside, the Tories, who should surely be revelling in such red dismay, are largely excluded from the debate; all heads are turning, whether it’s mainstream media or twitter bubbles, to what Reform have to say. Farage has been bullying the Tories for longer than I can remember, but this is the first time that he and his party of charlatans is squatting in the centre-right voter base that the Tories

Steamrolling towards the 2010 General Election, and needing to recoup votes lost to David Cameron’s Conservatives and ‘ Cleggmania ’, Prime Minister Gordon Brown headed to Rochdale to engage with Joe Public. Unfortunately for him, it all ended up going awry, as Brown ended up committing a political gaffe of the ages following his televised conversation with 66-year-old Gillian Duffy. The exchange touched on pensions, university tuition, and immigration, as well as other topi

One of the newest episodes of the revived TV show Spitting Image , a stalwart of 1990s political commentary, made a parody of Home Alone . Instead of Kevin, it was Keir being left in Downing Street all by himself. The goons were replaced by Nigel Farage trying to break in. To be fair, he might have been coming to take a look at his next gaff. The episode asked a powerful question. How is it that a Prime Minister, elected with a landslide, is now a mockery, polling as the mo