The Sydney Morning Herald logo

UK politics

Advertisement
New Green Party MP Hannah Spencer.

How a firebrand plumber triumphed for the Greens and infuriated the UK right

Hannah Spencer walked through communities each day with a big smile, bright clothes and her four greyhounds. She was an antidote to the anodyne political class.

  • David Crowe

Latest

Peter Mandelson is arrested by Metropolitan Police.

Ex-British cabinet minister Peter Mandelson released on bail amid Epstein leaks probe

The UK Labour insider was earlier arrested at his London home on suspicion of misconduct in public office, days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was detained on similar grounds.

  • David Crowe
LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 04:  Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to take PMQs, on February 04, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)

Ministers back Starmer after rebels call for leader to quit over Mandelson

The British PM is fighting a Labour rebellion after the head of the party’s Scottish wing called on him to stand down, sharply escalating the pressure for new leadership.

  • David Crowe
Former SA premier Jay Weatherill is now Australia’s ambassador to the UK.

The ultimate Labor insider stepping into London’s hot seat

The Australian government’s man in the UK is trying to bring two governments closer together even as one of them tears itself apart.

  • David Crowe
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in October.

In its fury at Trump, Europe can learn from China

There is an anger beneath the careful reaction in Europe over the US president’s demand for Greenland – and it is hardening opinions about how to respond.

  • David Crowe
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s polling numbers are poor, as are those of his Labour government.

Westminster woes deepen for UK Labour. Sussan Ley should take note

UK politics is fracturing left, right and centre with febrile speculation about an imminent challenge to the PM Keir Starmer.

  • George Brandis
Advertisement
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (right) with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London in May.

Sex, money and politics: how a taboo subject could trip up the left

Labor and Labour governments aim to make voters feel like they receive more from the government than they put in. But eventually, it’s “ordinary people” who “pay a little bit more”.

  • Parnell Palme McGuinness

Britain is now impersonating Australia. It’s all it can do to fend off the far right

British politics seems like a strange echo of our 2010s: that era when our major parties kept axing sitting prime ministers, and asylum seekers were never far from the centre of political debate.

  • Waleed Aly
It’s the hardest job in the British Labour movement: selling a Republic.
Video icon1:13

A British Republic?

It’s the hardest job in the British Labour movement: selling a Republic.

King Charles’ inherited superiority is the opposite of equality.

Will the sun ever rise on a British republic?

Despite the royal family’s latest trials and tribulations, Britain’s republicans are still struggling to sell the idea of a future without the monarchy.

  • David Crowe