A parliamentary researcher, who is well-known among China watchers, has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing. The researcher had worked closely with the security minister, Tom Tugendhat, and the chair of the Foreign Select Committee, Alicia Kearns. Both politicians are Sino-sceptics who have called for the government to recognise the threat China poses – which is likely one reason Beijing might target them. The incident raises questions about parliamentary vetting – a long process, different to security clearance, that can take months – as well as confirming, if it was necessary, the extent of Beijing’s infiltration of British politics. That there may be Chinese spies in Westminster should come as no surprise. In July, the Intelligence and Security Committee found ...

This has been a week of ghosts of politics past. It found its best expression in an unlikely place – in the grand temple of Joseph Chamberlain; the Victorian corridors of Birmingham City Council. The council of my home city has had a chequered history. Its children services department was once deemed a "national disgrace", and let down vulnerable kids in the area. Its leadership hasn’t shown the dynamism or strategic intent of those elsewhere in the country, such as Manchester or Liverpool. Unemployment, which is nearly absent in many other parts of the UK, remains relatively high. The city contains some of the most deprived areas of Western Europe. All this makes the tragedy of what has happened this week ...

Could Jeremy Corbyn prevent Sadiq Khan’s re-election as London Mayor next year? There have been rumours of Corbyn’s possible entry into the race as an independent candidate for months. Today, polling for Times Radio suggests Corbyn would win 15 per cent of the vote if he ran, which would be enough to deprive Khan of a historic third term. While Corbyn has refused to rule out a bid, he is more likely to stand as an independent candidate at the next general election in his Islington North constituency, where he has been the MP for 40 years. Regardless, the poll is a reminder that three years on from the 2019 election, Corbyn and the politics he represents retain a significant following. What ...

This was the speech that would tell us who Humza Yousaf really is. It was the moment that would ignite rocket boosters under his so-far Earth-bound government. Such was the pre-match hype. In the event, the speech did more to achieve the first of these goals than the second. The two facts are not unrelated. It is hard to see Yousaf’s first Programme for Government amounting to more than reheated Sturgeonism. Her priorities remain his, just as he shares many of her blind spots. It was notable that the predecessor he once professed to admire so much and name-checked so often was not mentioned – the ongoing police investigation into the SNP’s finances may have something to do with that. But in ...

In what is likely to be Keir Starmer’s last big reshuffle before the next general election, Labour has shifted further to the right. It’s hard to recall a Labour shadow cabinet that adheres so closely to a single flavour, Blairism. And not the early, vibrant and more plural form of New Labour, but the dryer narrower end of that era. Angela Rayner is now an isolated figure who may like to compare herself to John Prescott, but Prescott was surrounded by figures from the left such as Robin Cook, David Blunkett, Peter Hain and more. Ed Miliband is thankfully still there, but hemmed in, deep behind enemy lines. In the three and half years since Starmer was elected leader, it is remarkable ...

Have we reached the peak in the culture wars between the populist right and the liberal left? The left accuses the right of manufacturing "culture wars” to divide and rule, while the right reduces every problem to left-liberal “wokeness”. Identity politics and culture wars have fractured not just the left and right but also our shared polity. Joe Biden pins political polarisation on Donald Trump and the Republican Party, even though progressive policies of hyper-globalisation drove the Democrats’ traditional working-class electorate into Trump’s arms and won him the 2016 presidential contest against Hillary Clinton. It is rich for Trump to complain about Democratic “lawfare” impeaching him twice and now trying to jail him before the 2024 election, given that the Republicans ...

Germany's centrist parties have drawn a political firewall around the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). They do not cooperate with the far right at any level: federal, state, regional or local. We can see why they are doing this, but we also see that it is arithmetically and politically unsustainable. If you exclude a party that polls at 20 per cent, you invariably end up with four-party coalitions. Everyone else, bar one, is always in government. The more the centrist parties huddle together, the stronger the AfD will get.   A powerful political theme has emerged in Germany with the potential to tie the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), Free Democratic Party (FDP) and AfD together. All three want to go back to nuclear ...

Who can beat the Conservatives in Mid Bedfordshire? The last time it voted anything other than Conservative was 1929. Activists from Labour and the Lib Dems have been sparring on social media about who is best-placed to replace Nadine Dorries as the member of parliament. Labour’s mess-up in Uxbridge, say some Lib Dems, means it has no right to contest anything with confidence. Labour, meanwhile, is using national polling as the justification for giving this seat the party's best shot.  We have one poll, by Opinium, now two months out of date. It shows Labour ahead on 28 per cent to 24 per cent for the Conservatives. But the winning share is so low you couldn’t really make a prediction with ...