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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, 10 January, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Labour’s economic reality check approaches

    Rising cost of borrowing piles pressure on UK fiscal rules and government’s promises, but politics make cuts complicated

    Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves campaigning before the general election this year
  • Thursday, 9 January, 2025
    Inside Politics
    The key question underlying Badenoch’s call for grooming gangs probe

    Tory leader says there was a failure to ‘join dots’, taking a different view to police on how to address issue

    Kemi Badenoch in the House of Commons
  • Wednesday, 8 January, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Schools bill risks harming decades of progress in England

    Changes to system that has driven up teaching standards need to be made with great care

    Keir Starmer visits a primary school
  • Tuesday, 7 January, 2025
    Inside Politics
    The slow path to reliable data on child sexual abuse

    Publishing limited statistics is still vital to ensure scrutiny and transparency as people end up speculating anyway

    The Conservative front bench
  • Tuesday, 7 January, 2025
    Workplace diversity & equality
    Dungeons & Dragons shows that modish guff doesn’t serve diversity and inclusion

    Tweaks to the cult game’s rule book are an object lesson in how not to promote change

    Ewan White illustration of a medieval knight in armour looking in a mirror, perceiving himself as a saint with a halo
  • Monday, 6 January, 2025
    Inside Politics
    Musk and the red lines of rightwing politics

    Tory calls for new national probe into child rape gangs — that it did not make in government — expose opposition anxieties

    Kemi Badenoch gives a speech
  • Friday, 3 January, 2025
    Political Fix podcast44 min listen
    2025: Labour’s year of pain?

    Plus, the Tories vs Reform – who’s the real opposition?

  • Friday, 27 December, 2024
    Games industry
    What gaming really tells us about the human condition

    From Mesopotamia to our kitchen tables, our love affair with games is undiminished

    An ancient wooden board game that features interlinked squares decorated with geometric patterns
  • Tuesday, 24 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    Rules of thumb for understanding UK elections

    Historical trends point to recurring wins for the Tories and the importance of party leaders in shaping the contest

    Keir Starmer speaks at the Welsh Labour Conference 2024, gesturing with his hand.
  • Thursday, 19 December, 2024
    Political Fix podcast41 min listen
    Quizmas special: Political Fix’s nerd out!

    Lucy Fisher puts the pod’s wise men and women to the test

  • Thursday, 19 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    What I got wrong in 2024: part two

    Sadiq Khan’s landslide mayoral win showed candidates matter though other factors can change the outcome

    Sadiq Khan speaks at a podium after winning a third term in the London mayoral election. Susan Hall stands to his left
  • Wednesday, 18 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    What I got wrong in 2024

    Rishi Sunak’s decision to call election earlier than needed highlights that candidates and personal traits matter

    Rishi Sunak is seen delivering a speech
  • Tuesday, 17 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    Size matters in English devolution

    Proposals for larger, single authorities target economic growth but risk losing the community connection

    Angela Rayner launched the English Devolution White Paper in Leeds alongside metropolitan mayors
  • Monday, 16 December, 2024
    UK schools
    The case for school uniforms is compelling

    Sensibly enforced, they can have an equalising effect in the classroom

    Ewan White illustration of chess board with a white pawn on a black square and a black pawn on a white square; however the white pawn’s shadow is in the shape of a king piece, whereas the black pawn’s shadow conforms to the pawn outline
  • Monday, 16 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    Why numeric migration caps fail

    Previous Tory governments kept breaking promises and eroding trust — would setting a range of targets be any better?

    Keir Starmer in a hard hat at a construction site
  • Friday, 13 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    Kemi Badenoch, sandwiches and appealing to UK voters

    She is right to remind us we should not take British stability for granted, but needs to make this part of her leadership

    Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch
  • Thursday, 12 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    Farage may disrupt the story of UK elections, but not its usual ending

    Labour polls poorly now because it is taking unpopular decisions, but history points to a second term in power

    Nigel Farage and property tycoon Nick Candy
  • Wednesday, 11 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    Winners and losers of Labour spending review

    Funding tug of war looms between Treasury and Downing Street as party’s political machinery tightens

    Keir Starmer leaves number 10
  • Tuesday, 10 December, 2024
    Working It19 min listen
    Best of: How to survive the office Christmas party

    … and how to recover if you’ve already embarrassed yourself

  • Tuesday, 10 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    Lisa Nandy’s baffling theory for TV success is all stick, no substance

    Culture secretary’s push for greater diversity speaks to Labour’s misguided belief that ‘being nice’ delivers growth

    Lisa Nandy
  • Monday, 9 December, 2024
    UK politics
    Good ideas know no borders

    There is something narrow-minded about criticising a British politician for being ‘America-brained’

    Ewan White illustration of a magician pulling a lightbulb out of a hat
  • Monday, 9 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    Civil service reform must tackle pay and promotion

    Frozen public sector wages and tax thresholds create unhelpful incentives, leading to recruitment woes on Whitehall

    Civil servants demonstrate outside the department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the department of Revenue and Customs in London
  • Friday, 6 December, 2024
    Inside Politics
    How Starmer wants to sharpen Whitehall is unclear

    PM speech may herald a Starmerite era of public sector reform mirroring that of Tony Blair, but it faces economic challenges

    Keir Starmer gives a speech at Pinewood Studios
  • Thursday, 5 December, 2024
    Political Fix podcast38 min listen
    Will Starmer’s new milestones become millstones?

    In a live event of the show, the team reviews Labour’s first five months

  • Thursday, 5 December, 2024
    UK politics
    Missing: a clear direction for Starmer

    Labour’s obsession with winning the next election is distorting government

    Illustration of Keir Starmer hanging from the clock of Big Ben, pushing back the minute hand
Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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