Ethan Croft
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Articles by Ethan Croft
Burnham's course correction finally frees his MPs to address the disasters of Brexit
Politics AE Burnham and his chief of staff James Purnell share rare history at Westminster.
The Saturday Read: Scandal rains
Good morning. Welcome to the Saturday Read. Here is the best of the New Statesman to read this weekend. If you’re not subscribed, you can get 2 months for £2 here. A senior Reform figure said Dan Jukes “will be back” Will Dunn investigates. Steinem did what she wanted. And she also made it possible for millions of other women to do the same, writes Jill Filipovic. Rachel Millward believes her party needs to prepare for power.
Morning Call: Rayner cleared as Westminster waits on Streeting
Good morning. Rachel Reeves has welcomed an unexpected 0.3 per cent uptick in GDP as the first quarterly estimate dropped this morning (economists were expecting the economy to shrink). In the same breath she warned that a Labour leadership election would “put that at risk by plunging the country into chaos”.
Morning Call: Where are we now?
Good morning. At least 81 Labour MPs have now called for the Prime Minister to leave office. The manner in which they would like him to depart gives some indication of their allegiances – and of whom they would like to replace him. As we try to decode the language, those advocating an “orderly transition” or a “fair” contest can broadly be read as favourable to Andy Burnham, who would be able to return to parliament and contest a leadership election under such conditions.
Morning Call: The edge of destruction
Good morning. Keir Starmer will try to save his political career this morning by giving a speech in which he will admit mistakes and say “incremental change won’t cut it”. The most immediate consequence of the speech will be whether it makes Catherine West – the backbencher threatening to launch a leadership challenge this morning – think twice. West has said she might step down her plot if Starmer shows sufficient rhetorical fire in his belly.
Morning Call: Goodbye to all that
Good morning. The counting has begun in the English local and Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections, and with a long weekend ahead, I approach today’s email with a degree of trepidation. What we know so far – with only a few dozen English councils having declared, and most of them electing only a third of their seats – is that Reform UK is performing strongly across the North and Midlands of England.
Morning Call: Why can’t we be friends?
Good morning. I’ve just cast my ballot in the English local elections. If you haven’t voted yet, remember to bring photo ID. Subscribe to the New Statesman and save 75 per cent with our special spring offer With the lack of overnight counts, particularly in Scotland and Wales, I will be getting a good sleep tonight before waking up to the first results early tomorrow. The NS politics team will be taking you through the fallout blow by blow on our website over the weekend so stay tuned for that.
Morning Call: Reform UK doesn’t like you
Good morning. The Prime Minister will convene a summit in Downing Street today to address anti-Semitism following a series of attacks on British Jews. The terror threat level has been raised to “severe”, and the Prime Minister is expected to announce £1.5m in new funding to protect Jewish communities and tackle anti-Semitism. Subscribe to the New Statesman and save 75 per cent with our special spring offer Reform UK announced a new policy over the weekend.
Morning Call: If you gotta go, go now
Good morning and happy International Worker’s Day. Today marks the commencement of the Renters’ Rights Act, a major rebalancing in the relationship between landlords and private renters. This should be a red-letter day in the life of this government as it fulfils one of its big pre-election pledges to a key voter group. Instead the papers are full of speculation about Keir Starmer’s future as we approach a potentially disastrous set of elections on Thursday.
Morning Call: Starmer relies on fed-up but not mutinous MPs
Good morning. We are now getting a glut of further evidence about the appointment of Peter Mandelson to Washington, as the Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry into the affair continues. The government is also facing a crunch vote today on whether the prime minister will, like his predecessor Boris Johnson, face a sleaze probe by the privileges committee.
Morning Call: PM will not go gently
Good morning. First thanks to Ailbhe for kindly covering Morning Call for me on Friday while I was up in Lincoln on a reporting trip, of which more later this week. On Friday morning she asked one of the most important questions in the current Labour turmoil: what does the Prime Minister think?
Morning Call: The pain that's still to come
Good morning. Donald Trump is extending his ceasefire with Iran again as a lasting peace deal in the Middle East remains elusive. In Westminster, the Labour party is reeling from Olly Robbins’s Foreign Affairs Committee appearance yesterday in which he revealed “constant pressure” on the Foreign Office from No 10 to fast-track Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador without proper checks.
Morning Call: Olly Robbins reveals “constant pressure” from No 10 over Mandelson
Good morning. This morning, the papers rake over Keir Starmer’s extended despatch box performance yesterday afternoon. In the wake of the latest Mandelson revelations, the PM updated the House of Commons and took questions for a grand total of two and a half hours. The verdicts range from damning, among his fiercest critics in the right-wing press, to sceptical.
Morning Call: Keir Starmer is angry again
Good morning. There is really only one story dominating today, despite possibly being on the brink of a peace agreement in the Middle East, and that’s the latest extraordinary development in the Mandelson affair. This is a nightmare for the government – one that there seems no chance of waking up from any time soon.
Morning Call: Is this yet another Labour faction?
Good morning. As a peace settlement in Iran remains elusive, and the government is continuing to plan for the future. The Times reports today on some worst-case scenario analysis, conducted at the request of the Prime Minister, which reportedly projects shortages of some foodstuffs as soon as the summer if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed.
Morning Call: Andy Burnham’s people are making plans
Good morning. The government is facing great criticism over its defence spending. Last night George Robertson, the author of its strategic Defence Review, spoke about “corrosive complacency” in Labour, and Rachel Reeves is reportedly planning an unambitious rise in military spending. Meanwhile Donald Trump continues to send mixed messages about the possibility of a peace deal with Iran.
Morning Call: Kemi Badenoch wants to be Britain’s Peter Magyar
Good morning. Donald Trump has ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. He hopes restricting shipping there will hurt Iran enough to force it to accept US terms after peace talks in Pakistan broke down over the weekend. Subscribe to the New Statesman and save 75 per cent with our special spring offer This morning, I switched from BBC Radio 4 to BBC Radio 5 Live to hear Kemi Badenoch’s pitch to a broader audience ahead of the local elections.
Morning Call: Labour looks at strategy as well as tactics in face of Green threat
Good morning. The US-Iran ceasefire already seems to be wobbling after the Iranian government described Israeli attacks on Lebanon as a “grave violation” of the agreed terms. Subscribe to the New Statesman and save 75 per cent with our special spring offer Labour meanwhile remains at odds over the Green challenge as the clock ticks down to election day on 7 May. Our political editor Ailbhe Rea has written the politics column this week on the internal debate about the Greens within Labour.
Morning Call: Nigel Farage faces a Nigel Farage problem
Good morning. The United States and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire and the temporary reopening of the Strait of Hormuz after Donald Trump threatened to destroy “a whole civilisation” unless his demands were met. Trump will now attempt to present the past month of war in Iran as a great success, despite it failing in its explicit aims, causing a global energy price shock and splitting his own political movement down the middle.
Morning Call: One month to go
Good morning. Donald Trump has once again threatened to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure unless the country’s government agrees to his terms, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. His latest deadline for Iranian submission expires at 1am tomorrow UK time, though he has delayed before and may do so again. Such attacks could constitute war crimes and draw condemnation from other Western countries, as Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure have.
Morning Call: The Battle of Burnham Would
Good Morning. It’s Ethan here filling in for George, who is busy with an exciting interview that you will be able to read this weekend.
HS2 ‘prioritising diversity over cost-cutting’
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Labour’s abolished value for money office to cost taxpayers £1.6m
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HS2 ‘prioritising diversity over cost-cutting’
HS2 has been accused of focusing on diversity over cutting costs. In a report on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at the beleaguered rail project, diversity officers explained how they had spent tens of millions of pounds on resources from “diverse-owned suppliers”, on surpassing ethnic minority employment targets, and on participating in mental health and racial equality awareness projects.
Labour’s abolished value for money office to cost taxpayers £1.6m
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Labour’s abolished value for money office to cost taxpayers £1.6m
Rachel Reeves announced the creation of the Office for Value for Money at her first Autumn Budget - Oliver McVeigh/Getty Images Rachel Reeves’s Office for Value for Money is forecast to have cost taxpayers £1.6m before it is closed down later this year, it has emerged. The quango was set up by the Chancellor in her first Budget to save taxpayers money, but it is due to be shut down in October a year after it was formed.
Labour MP under investigation over travel spending
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Labour MP under investigation over travel spending
Parliament’s expenses watchdog has opened an investigation into Labour MP Kate Osborne for taking a large number of taxi journeys. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) said it had opened an investigation into whether Ms Osborne, the Jarrow and Gateshead East MP, had breached spending rules. Announcing the investigation on Tuesday, IPSA said the investigation related to spending on travel and subsistence costs and “miscellaneous costs and financial assistance”.
Former Tory MPs ‘won’t get free run’ at next election under new rules
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Former Tory MPs ‘won’t get free run’ at next election under new rules
Former Tory MPs “won’t get a free run” at the next election under a tightening of party rules for the selection of candidates. There will now be no “automatic right” for former Conservative MPs to stand as candidates in the next general election, according to party sources familiar with the changes. Previously the party has had a habit of allowing defeated MPs to stand again, but under changes to the process a senior party source said “everyone will be screened”.
Labour accused of hypocrisy after raising age of party officials to 18
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Would-be leaders of Palestinian state are extremists, Starmer told
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Labour accused of hypocrisy after raising age of party officials to 18
Labour has been accused of hypocrisy after voting to stop 16 and 17-year-olds standing in some party elections. This week, the party’s ruling body voted to raise the age at which party members could stand for key roles to 18, despite Sir Keir Starmer vowing to lower the voting age in general elections to 16. The Prime Minister and Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, were both present at the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting when the vote was passed.
Would-be leaders of Palestinian state are extremists, Starmer warned
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that recognition of a Palestinian state will “lay the groundwork for the next Oct 7”. The Prime Minister is under pressure to reconsider the move amid concerns that Palestinian children are being radicalised. A report by an Israeli-founded non-profit organisation warned that the Palestinian Authority (PA), the current government in the territories, is “indoctrinating” children with school textbooks that “glorify terrorism”.
Recognising Palestinian state would destabilise international law, Starmer told
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that recognising a Palestinian state would “destabilise” the international legal order. Malcolm Shaw KC, a leading lawyer, said that the recognition plan “would create a troublesome precedent and could well challenge and ultimately destabilise an international system founded upon a common understanding of what it is to be a state”.
Recognising Palestinian state would destabilise international law, Starmer told
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Recognising Palestinian state would destabilise international law, Starmer told
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that recognising a Palestinian state would “destabilise” the international legal order. Malcolm Shaw KC, a leading lawyer, said that the recognition plan “would create a troublesome precedent and could well challenge and ultimately destabilise an international system founded upon a common understanding of what it is to be a state”.
Reeves making bigger mistakes than Truss, says Badenoch
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Hamas refuses to disarm until Palestinian state recognised
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I’ll protect ‘pavement pints’
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Reeves: I’ll protect ‘pavement pints’
Rachel Reeves has promised to slash red tape on pubs and bars to “protect pavement pints”. The Chancellor said that a new licensing framework would encourage al fresco dining and street parties “not just for the summer, but all year round”. Ministers have also pledged to make it easier to open new bars, music venues and cafes as part of plans to rejuvenate the high street. The new licensing arrangements will fast-track permissions for outdoor dining in dedicated areas, ministers said.
Give grooming victims role in Islamophobia definition
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Give grooming victims role in Islamophobia definition
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Recognising Palestine would reward murder and rape, says Israel’s ambassador
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Recognising Palestine would reward murder and rape, says Israel’s ambassador
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Give grooming victims role in Islamophobia definition, suggests Badenoch
Ethan Croft Sat, July 26, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. UTC 3 min read Grooming gang victims should help draft the Government’s definition of Islamophobia, Kemi Badenoch has suggested. The Conservative Party leader has urged the Prime Minister to suspend the current “secretive process” to draft the definition and introduce “full public scrutiny”.
Recognising Palestine would reward murder and rape, says Israel’s ambassador
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Recognising Palestine would reward Oct 7 murderers, Starmer told
Sir Keir Starmer will “reward” the Oct 7 terrorists if he recognises a Palestinian state, Israel’s ambassador to the UK has said. Tzipi Hotovely has described proposals for recognising a Palestine state as “nothing less than a reward for terrorism”. The ambassador, writing for The Telegraph, said that “Palestinian recognition would be a reward for hostage-taking, for rape, for murder, for burning innocent people alive”.
Palestinians have inalienable right to statehood
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I’m sad about lack of British interest in Ukraine
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