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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)
  • Friday, 4 April, 2025
    Inside Politics
    ‘Manchester-style’ mayoralty will not work in London

    Proposals to limit the dynamism of Sadiq Khan’s office give voters less — not more — democratic control

    England’s regional mayors pose for a photo outside of 10 Downing Street
  • Thursday, 3 April, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Labour’s diplomatic achievement on tariffs will not pay electoral dividends

    Despite UK’s relatively low levy, there is little to gain from being seen to be palling up to Donald Trump

    Donald Trump greets Keir Starmer. There is a tree and a US flag in the foreground
  • Wednesday, 2 April, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Minimum wage rises do not seem to boost UK productivity

    Big increases in statutory wage floor has raised workplace intensity, shutting some jobseekers out of employment

    A close-up of George Osborne in central London
  • Tuesday, 1 April, 2025
    Inside Politics
    What should combating racial sentencing disparities look like?

    Sentencing Council’s treatment of ethnic minority status as an unchanging fact of life was the wrong approach

    A guard walks past HMP Wandsworth prison
  • Tuesday, 1 April, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    Anime lessons in the limits of AI

    Generative images show us the risks of endowing the technology with magical powers

    Ewan White illustration of two people taking pictures with their mobile phones of Mona Lisa painting.
  • Monday, 31 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Sentencing Council’s new guidelines are corrosive and unfair

    Varying pre-sentencing approach based on ethnicity risks eroding support for things we know work

    Shabana Mahmood walking out of 10 Downing Street
  • Friday, 28 March, 2025
    Political Fix podcast38 min listen
    Doom, gloom and not much headroom: Spring Statement

    Chancellor faces deepening welfare cuts row and prospect of fresh tax rises

  • Thursday, 27 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Spring Statement did not stem fiscal doom loop

    Labour’s policy mix will not break the cycle of making irreconcilable promises on tax, spending and public services

    Rachel Reeves speaking at the despatch box. Other MPs are visible behind her
  • Wednesday, 26 March, 2025
    Instant InsightUK Spring Statement 2025
    ‘Not quite enough’ may prove to be Labour’s epitaph

    Managing to do anything that could add to GDP is welcome, but it will not get the government off the hook

    Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves
  • Wednesday, 26 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Lower Thames Crossing and Old Trafford projects are welcome investments

    New infrastructure schemes show public-private partnership at its best

    Large 100,000 capacity stadium
  • Tuesday, 25 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    US officials’ leaked messages should spur Europe into action

    Comments from vice-president and defence secretary show why Europe must chart its own path on defence

    Headshot of US vice-president JD Vance looking off to the side
  • Tuesday, 25 March, 2025
    UK politics
    Wishful thinking on climate won’t make it so

    Badenoch’s ‘realistic’ approach to net zero is, in practice, that both politicians and the planet agree to put all this behind them

    Ewan White illustration of a polar bear standing on an iceberg that has melted underneath by global warming
  • Monday, 24 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Keir Starmer’s Trump act is politically damaging but necessary

    Maintaining ambiguity about the US president and Nato could make the government seem deluded

    Keir Starmer speaks to Royal Navy Submariners of the HMS Agamemnon nuclear submarine and BAE Systems apprentices outside of the BAE Systems factory in Barrow-in-Furness
  • Friday, 21 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Spring Statement will lay bare impending policy trade-offs

    Labour’s superficially good position could be rocked by the challenges coming down the track

    Farmers protest against inheritance tax in London
  • Thursday, 20 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    ‘Fiscal rules’ has become a stock phrase

    Government’s internal debate will only move forward when focus shifts to income tax or reversing national insurance cuts

    A headshot of Rachel Reeves
  • Wednesday, 19 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    No one knows why UK benefit claims have outpaced peer countries

    Asking why might well result in answers that involve spending more money

    Liz Kendall speaks during a ‘Welfare Reform’ statement at the House of Commons
  • Tuesday, 18 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    The Conservatives complicate the politics of net zero for Labour

    The Tories’ new stance that the target is ‘impossible’ will deter Labour from anything that looks politically painful

    Ed Miliband arrives at Downing Street
  • Tuesday, 18 March, 2025
    Labour party UK
    Starmer is zigging where Blair zagged

    Labour’s controversial plans to reform welfare illustrate the divide between the two

    Illustration of two ornately framed mirrors on a red wall. Keir Starmer is standing in front of one and seeing a young Tony Blair reflected back, and Blair is standing in front of the other and seeing Starmer’s reflection
  • Monday, 17 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    UK’s devolved governments can learn from each other on welfare reform

    There is no reason why the four countries can’t share information to see which approach is working

    A teacher and pupils in a classroom
  • Friday, 14 March, 2025
    Political Fix podcast47 min listen
    Starmer’s ‘Project Chainsaw’: the NHS, Whitehall, welfare

    Plus: is Reform UK imploding?

  • Friday, 14 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Starmer’s shake-up of NHS England is a brave move

    Abolishing the health authority is a big gamble by the prime minister but a welcome one

    The logo of the National Health Service on a wheelchair outside St Thomas’s Hospital
  • Thursday, 13 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    The argument would-be reformers haven’t yet made on cash Isas

    Individuals might be making the wrong savings choices for their goals

    A headshot of Rachel Reeves
  • Wednesday, 12 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Government’s employment reforms clash with its welfare plans

    Jobs market policies could threaten the part-time vacancies that ease people back into work

    A customer uses a £20 note and sterling coins to pay for goods inside a store
  • Tuesday, 11 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Runcorn by-election could be proof of concept for Reform UK

    Crucial vote is opportunity for Farage’s party to hone its election-winning machine

    Solar panels adorn the roofs of homes in Runcorn, England
  • Monday, 10 March, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Boosted defence spending will come at cost of manifesto pledges

    Government should level with public about which promises it cannot afford to keep

    British opposition Labour party leader Keir Starmer speaks at the launch of the party’s manifesto
Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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