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    Stephen Bush

    Columnist and Associate Editor

    Stephen Bush is an associate editor and columnist at the Financial Times. He writes a daily newsletter, Inside Politics, charting the course of politics and policy in the United Kingdom, and a wide-ranging weekly column. You can subscribe to Inside Politics here.

    Email Stephen Bush @stephenkb  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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    • Monday, 4 December, 2023
      Inside Politics
      What to expect as parties shift into election gear

      Voters will notice that the Lib Dems exist, while Labour must defend against Tory attacks over tax-and-spend

      new
      Ed Davey
    • Saturday, 2 December, 2023
      UK general election
      Why politicians in your inbox are not a bad thing

      New proposals to allow unsolicited political texts and emails could be important for national awareness

      A Jonathan McHugh illustration of red, blue and yellow blocks floating through the air, with a blue block appearing on the mobile phone of a man who is standing under the deluge
    • Friday, 1 December, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Alistair Darling’s legacy and Labour’s debated story of its past

      Praise for former chancellor among party’s opponents speaks to a broader change in mood and political circumstances

      Alistair Darling
    • Thursday, 30 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Losing BBC Newsnight’s investigation arm is bad decision

      Funding squeeze risks dulling the power of its dogged reporting in holding the broadcaster to account

      A woman walks past a set of TV screens broadcasting the news
    • Wednesday, 29 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      ‘Safest graveyard’ phrase will stick amid Tory worry about financial regulators

      Also in this newsletter, why row over Parthenon Sculptures is not a ‘dead cat’ strategy by Rishi Sunak

      A view of City of London
    • Tuesday, 28 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Sunak snubs Greek PM in dispute over 2,500-year-old Elgin Marbles

      Also in this newsletter, the British Medical Association has recommended to striking consultants they accept the government’s latest pay deal

      Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis shakes hands with Labour leader Keir Starmer on Monday
    • Monday, 27 November, 2023
      Social affairs
      Our embrace of the end of privacy comes at a cost

      I was wrong to assume that liberal indifference to our actions would be the ultimate consequence of online living

      Illustration of a person spying from above on a woman who is looking through a window, watching a man sitting at a bus stop looking at his phone.
    • Monday, 27 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      UK general election options remain unchanged

      It does not seem as if the Autumn Statement has made it any more likely that the government will go to the polls early

      Jeremy Hunt gives Autumn Statement at the House of Commons
    • Friday, 24 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Sunak faces an ungovernable party that wants it all

      Amid record UK immigration, MPs are calling for immediate action while failing to engage with trade-offs

      Rishi Sunak at the cabinet table
    • Thursday, 23 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Tax cuts today, impossible spending cuts tomorrow

      Rather than protecting public services, chancellor puts his fiscal harvest towards ‘retail offers’ and passes pain to Labour

      Singer Charlotte Church and protesters demonstrate against austerity and spending cuts in 2015
    • Wednesday, 22 November, 2023
      UK politics
      Starmer and Sunak must remember the coalition government’s radicalism

      We cannot ignore the fact that Cameron and Osborne oversaw significant tax cuts and a shrinking of the state

      Illustration of George Osborne and David Cameron
    • Wednesday, 22 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Knotty task of adding up public finances will lie with Reeves

      The problem created by cutting income taxes is likely to trouble a future chancellor facing strained services

      Rachel Reeves
    • Tuesday, 21 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Explosive Covid testimony can hardly harm Rishi Sunak further

      Dredging up the past may not form part of Labour’s attack given prime minister’s already sunken personal ratings

      Former prime minister Boris Johnson and ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak in a restaurant on June 26 2020
    • Monday, 20 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Will Tory income tax gambit do enough to change the narrative?

      Cut to personal rate could be seen as thin gruel, or spark criticism about who benefits most from such a change

      Jeremy Hunt at the Conservative party conference this year
    • Friday, 17 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Tories’ dream of a 1983 Geoffrey Howe giveaway jars with reality

      Party wants Hunt to unleash tax cuts even though its 2019 promises on improving public services remain unfulfilled

      Geoffrey Howe, former chancellor, alongside ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher at the 1981 Tory party conference
    • Thursday, 16 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Setbacks for both Sunak and Starmer may store up trouble

      Rebellion over Gaza stance posed no threat to Labour leader’s position but could presage more internal wrangling

      Rishi Sunak
    • Wednesday, 15 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Braverman sinks as Tory right torchbearer, while Priti Patel rises

      By only revealing Rishi Sunak’s broken pledges after being sacked, former home secretary opens herself up to more criticism

      Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak at the cabinet table
    • Tuesday, 14 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Sunak offers up Cameron 2.0 to woo back Tory voters

      Prime minister’s biggest risk will be failing to match shift to centre ground with actions after ditching his ‘change’ strategy

      David Cameron
    • Thursday, 9 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Sunak should ditch running campaign on five pledges

      Options to show public Tory renewal are falling away as party trails Labour by 20 points in polls

      Rishi Sunak
    • Wednesday, 8 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      King’s Speech: Sunak’s strategy is divorced from reality

      Plus, the first frontbench Labour MP quits over Starmer’s Gaza stance

      Rishi Sunak speaks during the debate on the King’s Speech in the House of Commons
    • Tuesday, 7 November, 2023
      UK universities
      No appetite to boost university funding leaves sector wooing more overseas students

      Non-UK tuition fees are crucial but growing numbers of undergraduates haven’t been matched by accommodation

      A member of a picket holds a placard ‘honk for higher education’ during a strike over pay and pensions by the University and College Union in London in February 2023
    • Tuesday, 7 November, 2023
      Social affairs
      Will you marry me? (Warning: comes with a risk of social contagion)

      The way in which we are influenced by others is far greater than we give it credit for

      Ewan White illustration of two hands holding glasses full of champagne. There is a laptop in the glass on the left and an engagement ring in the glass on the right side.
    • Monday, 6 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Sunak’s dash to pull the ‘don’t know’ bloc of Tory voters on side

      New policies draw dividing lines with opposition, though retaining Conservative 2019 backers at next election will be tough

      Conservative party conference delegates in Manchester last month
    • Friday, 3 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Sunak’s AI summit succeeded, but not in the way the UK hoped

      Bletchley Park event helped drive forward agenda, but US moves highlight how Britain is some way off from leading field

      Rishi Sunak at the AI Safety Summit
    • Thursday, 2 November, 2023
      Inside Politics
      Media today stops politicians facing both ways on divisive issues

      Keir Starmer’s defiance of ‘album culture’ — where group members buy into a collective set of values — speaks to broader shift in politics

      Keir Starmer in the House of Commons
    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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