Daily Politics from the New Statesman

Journalist Peter Oborne claims both Labour and Conservatives have fallen short on their response to Israel's war in Gaza.

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Peter Oborne is a journalist, author and commentator. He was the political editor of The Spectator, a commentator for the Daily Telegraph and now writes for Middle East Eye.

A long-time conservative, Oborne joins Oli Dugmore to explain why he believes the Conservative Party have abandoned their principles, and to discuss the role that successive British governments have played - or failed to play - in dealing with genocides around the world.

Peter Oborne's book "Complicit: Britain's role in the destruction of Gaza" is out now.

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In this week’s episode of You Ask Us, one listener wonders, is the media infatuated with Zack Polanski?

And another challenges our journalists to listen to the Liz Truss podcast.

You ask, we deliver. 

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Rachel Cunliffe.

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Wes Streeting denied plotting to oust Keir Starmer.

Ailbhe Rea met the Health Secretary to learn what he's really thinking.

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Ailbhe writes:

Labour is in danger of presenting itself as the “maintenance department for the country”, he says. “The problem with that kind of practical, technocratic approach is that if someone else comes along and says, ‘Well, I’ve got a maintenance company too, and mine’s cheaper,’ why wouldn’t people go, ‘OK, well, we’ll give that maintenance team a try’?” He doesn’t name Starmer, but the critique of the Prime Minister’s “practical, technocratic” leadership is clear.

Streeting has denied plotting against the Labour leader. But when we speak, he strikes me as someone planning for what may lie ahead. I meet a cabinet minister ranging beyond his brief, thinking seriously about what his party needs to do to win the next election – and beginning to outline an alternative to that “maintenance department” approach.

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Ailbhe Rea joins Anoosh Chakelian on Daily Politics from the New Statesman to discuss her interview with Wes Streeting, including the behind-the-scenes parts she couldn't reveal in her article.

📚 READ

Wes Streeting: "I'm pretty frustrated, to be honest"

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/12/wes-streeting-im-pretty-frustrated

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If you are raped in London today, you could be waiting until 2030 for a trial. 

Justice secretary David Lammy has stated that 60 per cent of rape victims drop their cases whilst waiting for the trial. Rape Crisis estimates 1 in 6 women go to the police.

Oli Dugmore is joined by Labour MP Natalie Fleet, who has written for the New Statesman on the fight for justice for victims of rape.

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Why does the Reform leader spend so much time in the US? Freddie Hayward has been speaking to him to find out.

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Winston Churchill had an American mother. Boris Johnson was a dual citizen. But if Nigel Farage makes it to Downing Street, he’ll have closer ties to the US than any other British PM.  

That’s the argument of our correspondent Freddie Hayward, who joins Oli Dugmore on Daily Politics.

He's been speaking to Farage and the MAGA figures he calls friends to find out how the Reform leader hopes to bring Trump tactics to British politics - and rekindle the most "special" of relationships.

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