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Andrew Rawnsley

Andrew Rawnsley

The Guardian

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Britain has never looked more exposed, adrift in the Atlantic in a world pulsing with perils

08.12.2024 60

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Keir Starmer’s new delivery targets are intended to give an electric jolt to Whitehall

Whatever you say about it, don’t call it a relaunch. Sir Keir Starmer will fanfare a new “Plan for Change” this Thursday and it is being bigged...

01.12.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Faced with many foes, Labour needs to get out of its defensive crouch and on to the front foot

As slogans go, it is a tongue-twister. You wouldn’t want to try organising a chant of “Starmer Farmer Harmer” with a group who had been necking...

24.11.2024 40

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Why Labour’s high command has become very obsessed with bills and borders

German politicians used to know where they were with their voters. If they gave you one term in power, they were likely to offer a second serving and...

17.11.2024 20

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Will Typhoon Orange wreak havoc on Britain? Keir Starmer has to prepare for the worst

Peas from the same pod they sure ain’t. No one is ever going to think that Keir Starmer and Donald Trump are twins who were separated at birth....

10.11.2024 20

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Kemi Badenoch’s first task as Tory leader: say sorry to the people for her party’s failings

No one who knows her describes Kemi Badenoch as a politician who is much troubled by self doubt. Yet the manner of her victory in the Tory leadership...

02.11.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Be under no illusions, Keir Starmer: a Trump presidency will be a harrowing nightmare

It is a shocker that about 100 current and former Labour party staffers are hopping over the pond to campaign for Kamala Harris in swing states as the...

27.10.2024 70

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Rachel Reeves won’t be loved for a tough budget. Her best hope is to earn respect

I have now heard so many Labour people quiver that Rachel Reeves’ looming budget is a “make or break” event that I’ve given up counting....

20.10.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Whoever becomes the next Tory leader shouldn’t assume they’ll be safe in the job

When I read people referring to the competition to be the next leader of the Tory party as “a beauty contest”, I reach for my red pen. It has more...

06.10.2024 20

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Urgent memo from his anxious ministers to Sir Keir Starmer: you need to get a grip of No 10

Over a cuppa in Liverpool, the Labour MP was getting nostalgic about the election campaign. Drivers would spot her on the street and stop their cars...

28.09.2024 100

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Give us your vision for the country, Sir Keir. Costly glasses shouldn’t be required

Should have gone to Specsavers. You don’t need £2,435-worth of designer glasses to see how corrosive it is to the government when the media,...

22.09.2024 20

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

The Lib Dems are intoxicated by election success but they’ll need to be sober about what comes next

Sir Ed Davey celebrated a highly successful election night by belting out a cover of Sweet Caroline and his party is still feeling so good, so good,...

15.09.2024 50

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

‘Iron chancellor’ Rachel Reeves faces an early challenge to her authority over winter fuel payments

I hope he enjoyed it while it lasted. From being promisingly positive when he moved into Number 10, Sir Keir Starmer’s personal ratings have soured...

08.09.2024 70

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Is Sir Keir Starmer’s cautious ‘reset’ with Europe enough to undo the damage done by Brexit?

Every prime minister has their verbal tell-tales. “Reset” is a favourite Starmerism. When he visited Berlin last week to pave the way to a...

01.09.2024 80

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Putting a stop to far-right violence is an early, defining test of Keir Starmer’s mettle

When a new prime minister crosses the threshold of Number 10, he or she receives briefings from the director general of MI5 and their counterpart at...

03.08.2024 9

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Why Rachel Reeves wants everyone to know that the Tories left the Treasury brassic

You think that the public finances are in a bad way? Tomorrow (Monday) Rachel Reeves will come to parliament to tell you different. No, the chancellor...

28.07.2024 50

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Call off the search to discover Starmerism. It is already beginning to reveal itself

When Labour was in opposition, but looking very likely to be the next government, some intrepid explorers gathered together all the food and water...

20.07.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Why Labour wants to hang the Tory legacy around the Conservatives’ necks for years

For a man whose first speech to the new parliament expressed disdain for “the politics of performance”, Sir Keir Starmer is putting on quite the...

14.07.2024 30

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Keir Starmer stunned sceptics and rebuilt Labour. Now he must do the same for Britain

David Lammy likes to tell a story about sitting at his kitchen table with Sir Keir Starmer shortly after Labour’s cataclysmic defeat at the 2019...

07.07.2024 20

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to clean up politics will come back to mock him if he doesn’t deliver

Sir Keir Starmer is prime minister presumptive. Unless the polls are more wrong than they have ever been or there is a sensational late shift in...

30.06.2024 20

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Sleazy, inept and unbelievable – this sorry Sunak campaign sums up the Tory years

I ought to have put money on it. When a downpour-drenched Rishi Sunak made his soggy start to this election, I suggested to you that the Tory campaign...

23.06.2024 90

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Sir Keir’s not here to entertain. If the media wants politics as panto, it’s playing in Clacton

From the off, this election has been Labour’s to lose – and boy does it know it. Every indicator signposts victory, but Labour is fighting it as...

16.06.2024 30

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

In all this noisy election debate, why is there a conspiracy of silence about Brexit?

It is not so much the elephant in the room as the big fat hairy mammoth. Brexit is the most consequential thing the Conservatives have done since the...

09.06.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

You can laugh all you like at Ed Davey’s antics if they restore the Lib Dems’ clout

Sir Ed Davey doesn’t mind acting the silly stunt. If it’s Tuesday, he’s on Windermere to demonstrate his absence of flair for paddleboarding by...

02.06.2024 70

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Rishi Sunak’s summer election gamble is already backfiring on the Tory leader

The defining image of the last general election was Boris Johnson driving a digger emblazoned with “Get Brexit Done” through a fake wall made of...

26.05.2024 40

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Rishi Sunak’s scare tactics aren’t going to work against a soothing Keir Starmer

Who scares wins. That has been the motto of many, often successful Conservative election campaigns. Fear may not be an edifying strategy for securing...

19.05.2024 70

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Urgent memo to Sir Keir Starmer: there are some offers which should be refused

I bring you exclusive news that another Tory MP is in negotiation with Sir Keir Starmer about defecting to Labour. As luck would have it, I can even...

12.05.2024 50

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

After the local election rout, will the panicked Tory herd now stampede over Rishi Sunak?

The mayoral elections demonstrated that there is a way to win for a Conservative. This is to make out that you have nothing to do with the Tories. Of...

04.05.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Keir Starmer needs to have a frank conversation with voters about the price of security

I’m not certain who minted the phrase, but it is an excellent one to describe the decade or so that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the...

28.04.2024 20

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

The Tories are playing a risky game with their relentless pursuit of Angela Rayner

James Daly, the Tory MP who pestered the Greater Manchester police into reopening inquiries into Angela Rayner, rather gave the game away when he was...

21.04.2024 80

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Don’t despair. History shows Labour even cash-strapped governments can be radical

Talking about the prospect of a Labour government, some people sound like they are preparing the obituary before they have witnessed the birth. Sir...

14.04.2024 9

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Conservative cabinet ministers, look away now: your ‘Portillo moment’ could be on the cards

Reader, I was there. It was shortly after 3am on 2 May 1997 when the Labour celebrations at the Royal Festival Hall turned from noisy exuberance at...

07.04.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Rishi Sunak’s refusal to give up the Frank Hester gold proves his principles have a price point

It has been such an atrocious six days for Rishi Sunak that his most lowering point was not Lee Anderson, the gargoyle the prime minister appointed as...

17.03.2024 70

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Rishi Sunak and his desperate party needed the budget to be a gamechanger. It wasn’t

The polls will tighten. The polls will tighten. The polls WILL tighten. This has been the drumbeat banging away in the background of British politics...

10.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Observer comment cartoon Mob rule: the Tory right has Rishi Sunak on a short leash – cartoon

02.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

The ‘mob rule’ Rishi Sunak fears most lies in the ranks of his own party

Conservatives would usually be the first to complain when police officers are diverted from their duties tackling crime and maintaining order to...

02.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

If this tawdry affair ends with a red card for the Commons ref Sir Lindsay Hoyle, it will not reflect well on our MPs

Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since a speaker of the Commons stood down from its high chair with dignity and to applause. Being appointed...

25.02.2024 20

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Keir Starmer’s had a torrid fortnight, but the big picture is bleakest for Rishi Sunak

Liz Truss, a name with which you will be painfully familiar if you have had to remortgage your home since she was prime minister, has claimed that...

18.02.2024 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Scuttling his flagship green policy, Sir Keir Starmer has imperilled his credibility

I know a dead pledge when I see one, and I’m looking at one now. Labour’s green prosperity plan is history. It’s kicked the bucket, run down the...

11.02.2024 70

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Labour mustn’t be starry eyed about its whirlwind romance with big business and the City

What was unimaginable in the days of Jeremy Corbyn has become routine under Sir Keir Starmer. The rapprochement between Labour and capitalism was on...

04.02.2024 9

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

The threatened return of Donald Trump endangers the UK’s most vital interests

A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of Donald Trump. In London, Paris, Berlin and every other significant European capital, bar Moscow, the...

28.01.2024 100

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

To hit the ground running rather than face first, Labour must prepare for power now

Sir Keir Starmer recently surprised some colleagues by telling them that he regards the time he has spent in parliament since he became a Labour MP as...

21.01.2024 8

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

The abuse of unaccountable power is at the wicked heart of the Post Office scandal

To the widely voiced reasons to admire Alan Bates, the heroically dogged leader of the campaign to achieve justice for the victims of the Post Office...

13.01.2024 9

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Keir Starmer won’t just be battling the Tories this year but also the absence of hope

It is an occupational hazard of being leader of the Labour party to receive a lot of unsolicited advice from people who think they have a better idea...

07.01.2024 7

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

With every ‘reset’ having failed, nothing is coming good for Rattled Rishi

One member of the cabinet likes to amuse himself at meetings with his civil servants by making ludicrous statements in order to test whether the...

17.12.2023 20

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Observer comment cartoon Rishi Sunak’s zombie government tries to stop the boats – cartoon

09.12.2023 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

Need a Christmas party game? Try ranking 13 years of Tory screw-ups in order of severity

What will be an appropriate epitaph to inscribe on the tombstone of this Conservative government? Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, came up with a...

09.12.2023 10

The Guardian

Andrew Rawnsley

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