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“You’ll be on with Rupert”

“Who?”

“Rupert, Lowe, he’s standing in Great Yarmouth for Reform”

“Oh, okay, no worries, I’ll look into him”.

“Should be a good debate James, he’s a real character”.

This conversation took place in early 2024, in the lead-up to the UK General Election on the 4th of July that year. At this point, not many people, myself included, had any idea who ‘Rupert Lowe’ was. He had been a Member of the European Parliament in the infamous Brexit Party which was seeking to further Britain’s separation from the European Union while taking up space as elected representatives in the Parliament itself. This was building on the work that Nigel Farage had done for many years.

I knew Farage well, I knew the people around him and I knew the exact type of politics they practised. I assumed Rupert Lowe would be the latest in a long-line of eurosceptic, right-wing thatcherites who dabbled in culture war issues to further their vision of a Britain dragged back to the 1950s.

I underestimated him.

Watch one of my debate's with Rupert Lowe here

I didn’t know it yet but this debate with Lowe would be the first of three I would end up doing over the following two years. In that time his profile would grow exponentially. In the past few weeks, it may have reached its zenith as Lowe appeared on one of the world’s biggest platforms; The Joe Rogan Experience (podcast).

If Lowe has a central message narrative it’s ‘ant-establishment’.

Yet another rich, right-wing, old white man with inherited wealth who is ‘anti-establishment’. But the reality is much different. Lowe is no stranger to money and status and he’s also no stranger to political parties.

Lowe was a member of the Conservative Party until 1993 when he quit over issues regarding the European Union. He stood as a Brexit Party candidate to become a Member of the European Parliament, which saw his relationship with Nigel Farage become formalised as he represented Farage’s party on the frontline of their battle with the EU. Then in 2024, he won the seat of Great Yarmouth for Reform UK, before eventually parting ways with Farage’s newest political vehicle after a huge clash of personalities with the main man himself. This has solidified Lowe as an alternative to Farage, giving many on the far-right of British Politics some hope that he is a better representation of their politics than old Nigel.

This is a hope seemingly shared by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. Musk has backed Lowe publicly on his social media platform X/Twitter, but also offered to back him financially, bringing up questions about foreign political donations to UK parties. With his social media backing alone, this has done wonders for Lowe’s political connections, especially with the MAGA movement and the US Political right-wing. This is no doubt the route to his recent Joe Rogan opportunity, which will have done wonders for his career, despite the controversy it caused here in the UK. During the long-form interview with Rogan, Lowe made claims that the only reason we don’t allow handguns in the UK is because of ‘one murder’ in the 90’s in Scotland. This was a reference to the school shooting massacre at Dunblane in 1996 where 16 children and one teacher were killed. After this horrific event, two new pieces of legislation were introduced to ban the private ownership of handguns across Britain. Lowe’s confident dismissal of this just shows how unbothered he is about things that don’t allow him to push his particular brand of bigotry.

I experienced this first-hand during my hat-trick of debates with Lowe. Despite being visibly uncomfortable when I asked him about class, he dismissed the whole notion of a British class system, while simultaneously trying to claim that the ‘working class’ agreed with him about immigration and the ‘destruction of white british culture’.

One of Lowe’s techniques to pivot away from any accusations of racism or ethnic-nationalism is to over-simplify things for his target audience, making statements such as ‘this is just common sense’, ‘I don’t know what those words even mean, I’m just a normal bloke who is sick of these things like everyone else’ or ‘I’m just saying what others are thinking’. I recognised early in our first clash that this strategy is the same used by many ‘posh’ far-right figures throughout British history. Class plays a key role in the far-right of UK politics, as it does on the left. But on the right, there is an archetype of the ‘down-to-earth gentleman’, someone who likely wears tweed jackets like Lowe, talks about the countryside and uses imagery from a rose-tinted past where Britain was all white faces, green fields and a land of milk and honey. However, ignoring his own class status and privilege, conveniently ignores the fact that for many of us, this land never existed in the first place. The irony is that it was people like Lowe who owned farms and factories, who refused to provide safety equipment for mine-workers and who pushed against requests for a two day weekend. These bosses have never been on the side of working people and they haven’t had some epiphany about their politics, they’ve just simply got better at dividing and conquering. By telling working class people that they are losing out because of migrants, two groups who have far more in common with each other than they’ll ever have with entitled aristocrats like Lowe. The landed gentry from which Lowe hails have long used the strategy of scapegoating to blame everyone but themselves for the disparity in Britain and the deprivation in deindustrialised communities.

All of this became clear to me during our debates but its not the only thing I learned clashing with Rupert Lowe. The charity ‘Hope not Hate’ labelled Lowe as ‘Britain’s most extreme politician’. I believe this label is well warranted, but its not just because of the things he says which regularly border racism, homophobia and climate change denial, but its because of his ability to make the case for bigotry effectively. He is a better communicator than even Farage. Where Farage has made a career skirting around things delicately and using scalpel-like precision to avoid accusations of hatred outright, Lowe doesn’t bother. He owns his bigotry and dresses it up as national pride, in a way that we see people like Steve Bannon in the US do, there is no shame and no attempt to conceal the reality. Because of this he earns an assessment of being ‘authentic’ by his followers, it is this that I believe makes him so dangerous.

Lowe has (literally yesterday) just made a public video statement directed at Nigel Farage in which he calls for the two to work together. He states that Britain must be saved from the ongoing ‘invasion’ and what he claims are the attempts to wipe out ‘our culture’. The irony of course being that Rupert Lowe’s culture looks nothing like mine as a working class northern man.

Lowe is dangerous and he isn’t disappearing any time soon. With his own billionaire (soon to be trillionaire) backing and a team of young communicators committed to his cause, he has all that he needs to keep growing his brand of bigotry and hatred. This latest call to Farage could lead to a collaboration that sees Lowe attempt to control the political party machinery that he lacks in his current ‘Restore Britain’ party.

Watch this space and this man carefully and if there’s one thing I would take away from debating Rupert Lowe, it’s this; dont underestimate him.

Thanks as always for reading.

I’ve been more quiet than usual recently. Here on Substack I’m doing a weekly Live show with my good friend called ‘Across the Pond’ where we focus on the US-UK political news. That’s every Wednesday.

But my writing here is taking a back seat as I focus on some very exciting developments which are due to be announced in the coming weeks. This is taking up my writing focus outside of Broadcasting and Business.

I hugely appreciate your continued support here and the paid subscribers who continue to commit funds to support my work despite regular written posts here, are really helping me build on this work.

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Please consider supporting in whatever way you can, but thank you again for taking the time to read my work. Go follow me on Instagram at @jamesmatthewsonofficial where I keep things updated most often.

Love and Solidarity,

James

The far-right in Britain have been on the rise for some time.

Arguably they never went away, not since of the days of Oswald Mosely’s British League of Fascist marched through diverse communities in London’s East End and called for Britain to ally with Nazi Germany in the 1930’s.

Like any far side of the political spectrum, they’re a factious bunch, with many different aspects of extreme right-wing views wanting to see their own brand of bigotry represented by the political movement of the day.

As someone who learnt his politics on the far-left, I recognise the pattern we have seen with Reform UK and Restore Britain in British politics of late. Reform UK was the dominant force, having pulled the ancient behemoth of the Conservative Party across to the right on issues of immigration and social policy. However, unlike the Republican Party in the USA and its relation with the wider MAGA movement, the Tories bled all their support to Reform and many of their ‘bright lights’ on their right-wing jumped ship and were given shiny new positions in Reform as it prepared for what seemed a very likely impending Government.

However, founder of Reform UK and long-term political pest Nigel Farage, was not banking on being out-right-winged in his latest conquest of UK politics. After a fall-out and lots of very bad (and very public) blood, former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, abandoned Farage and started his own political party to challenge him; Restore Britain. They have since been slogging it out, with Lowe and Restore managing to gather support from the Twitter (or X.com) crowd that once saw Farage as their only hope to build an entho-nationalist Britain where they can whinge openly about how hard it is to be a heterosexual white man who nobody wants to be around because of their medieval opinions.

If Farage had been scanning the horizon for threats in the form of political figures, I imagine Lowe was at the top of the list, topped only by the incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham who thrashed Reform AND Restore in the recent Makerfield by-election. But after seemingly not getting his fill of by-elections, Farage has now pulled a stunt that will see him force an entirely unnecessary by-election in his current seat of Clacton-on-Sea, all in an attempt to avoid scrutiny from the pending investigatons into his financial dealings; namely the many millions he has received in donations from friends and allies (some of whom are themselves criminals).

But after all of this scheming and playing of ‘3D Chess’ which his supporters have labelled as ‘a genius move’, a new threat has arisen and it may be the biggest threat yet - to his ego, if not his career.

Count Binface is a character created by British Comedian Jonathan David Harvey. He has stood in lots of elections since 2018, from General Elections (usually standing in the seat belonging to the incumbent prime minister) and by-elections when they have appeared unexpectedly. He has been known of for many years in political circles because of this, but nothing could have prepared him for the exposure he has received in the past 48 hours since announcing his intention to stand in Farage’s sham stunt election in Clacton.

This is because of all mainstream political parties (and even Restore Britain) taking the decision to not stand against Farage in this by-election he has triggered. Each party has described the move as a stunt and an attempt for Farage to avoid, delay or distract from the investigation into his financial affairs by the Parliamentary commissioners. Because of this, Farage now faces the humiliation of standing in a by-election alone, wasting the tax-payers money and looking completely foolish in doing so.

Enter Count Binface, who has thought that rather than let Farage face the humiliation alone, he will help add to it. He is now mounting a campaign to stand against Farage in the hope that every other vote, the voters opposed to Farage, will coalesce behind him, saying simply that if this happens; “the bin can win”.

My take is simple. Farage is cancer in British politics as his own self-serving attitude to public office, his hatred of scrutiny and transparency and his allyship with dangerous people and forces risks giving the UK its own MAGA nightmare to live through. Seeing him disgraced even further and forced out of his seat by a man dressed as a bin is something so beautiful that even history’s greatest writers couldn’t imagine it.

It may seem a distant hope at present, but if we have learned anything from politics in recent times its that unpredictability is alive and well. Wouldn’t it be nice for once if it went our way?

James

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Thanks again for all your support. I’ll be over on ’s channel for our weekly show of ‘Across the Pond’ tomorrow for a very special episode about the rise and spread of Christian Nationalism with a very special guest.

In the meantime, don’t forget to follow me on instagram where I post most regularly; https://www.instagram.com/jamesmatthewsonofficial

It was 11:33am yesterday morning at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, England.

The central hall of this venue was packed with people from politicians to press. The door on the left side of the hall was open, which was the perfect symbolism for the situation which had drawn the eyes of the world to this unique location.

As Andy Burnham, the newly-elected Labour MP for Makerfield and the former Mayor of Greater Manchester strode through the door, applause spread as the heads turned. I had never seen so many Labour Party members smiling in the same room, after all they haven’t had much to smile about in recent times.

Burnham made his way up to the stage wearing his trademark dark t-shirt and black blazer combination, with his Manchester bee badge on his lapel and his stylish black-rimmed glasses. He looked happy, energised and at-ease. It’s rare to see a politician on the brink of the biggest moment of their career not looking desperate or anxious, or anxiously desperate. Burnham carries himself with confidence and a relaxed manner that puts most people around him at ease but also helps to boost his presence and perceived charisma.

He’s among friends in this room and while the message is for many of them, it’s also focused on those at the back of the room - the press and the media. This was to be his first speech as would-be Prime Minister after winning the by-election that returned him to Parliament as an MP. The briefing to those invited was that this would be the start of his laying out of the vision he holds for high office.

Communicating with the press and media gathered there was clearly a priority, as well as with those not in the room, whose eyes and ears were transfixed on his words back in London, around the rest of the UK, throughout Europe and beyond.

This isn’t just a Labour MP talking, this is the next Prime Minister of the UK.

The road ahead is now clear for Burnham. Keir Starmer is going, he has set his timeline for departure, few are weeping for him, and now Burnham has the support of most Labour MPs in his endeavour to become party leader and thus, Prime Minister. Someone could in theory put themselves forward and trigger a full contest, delaying the inevitable by months, but no one wants to become a complete pariah and be loathed by their colleagues. I would also suggest it would be nigh impossible to find 80 other Labour Members of Parliament to support such an effort, which is the requirement to stand.

I listened to Burnham’s words over the zoom call I was connected to with the BBC whose political panel I had just been contributing to live on air as Burnham strode onto the stage. We had paused and producers informed me they would be covering the entirety of the speech and then coming back to us for comment after.

Because of this, the muted TV coverage I had on in the background was out of sync with the words I could hear coming over the call. But I could see Burnham, standing with confidence, joking during his speech, laughing and smiling - which can be a powerful thing in Politics, just ask Zohran Mamdani, the Mayor of New York City.

But I heard what everyone else heard when Andy Burnham announced his plans for a ‘Number 10 of the North’, basing himself part time as Prime Minister in the nation’s iconic and historic residence in London, but also for the first time in British history, in a new office in the North of England. His newly established Number 10 (the address where the PM lives in Downing Street, London) would signal clearly that he sees his premiership as not being focused on London and the beating heart of political power there, but in the regions of the country, the very same regions that have for a long time felt neglected by those in power.

He went on to explain that he plans to give more power away from ‘the centre’ of british politics and focus more on Devolution (read more about devolution here), allowing people to see more decisions made closer to home in their local communities. Burnham has seen the success of this model during his time as Manchester’s Mayor, one of the UK’s most powerful regional offices.

My take? This is excellent news… if it happens. I wouldn’t go as far to say that I’m sceptical about it, it’s just after many years of being burned by allowing myself to hope, as may other British progressives have, it’s hard to fully embrace something immediately when we are yet to see how it plays out.

But in principle, these are excellent ideas and exactly the sort of thinking I want to see from those in power. Burnham faces some other challenges still with immigration on the right and things like foreign policy (aka gaza and US relations) on the left. If he is able to lead with his principles and values and they are widely progressive, he will be able to solve those other challenges through policy-making. But for now, he seems confident, clear-headed and committed to change - that’s enough for me until he’s into Downing Street (in London AND in Manchester) and he has until the 20th July to sort out the rest of his plans for the Governance of the United Kingdom, easy right?

Thanks for reading

James

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It’s 3600 miles away from Washington DC.

It’s most famous for its 18th century production of locks, hinges and nails.

But this week, it might be about to write a new chapter of its history, a chapter which could go on to shape not just the UK’s, but international politics too. Here’s how:

Lancashire is a county in the North West of England.

The most well-known cities near Lancashire include Manchester to the East and Liverpool to the South West. The history and heritage of this area is rooted in the industrial revolution with coal-mining, textile mills and metal-working being the historic industries and trades of this region. The people of Lancashire learned their politics from fighting for basic rights in inhumane workplaces and striving to be recognised by those in power, out of sight in places like London.

This map, above (courtesy of the BBC) shows the Makerfield Parliamentary Constituency.

650 such constituencies exist across the UK and each is represented by a Member of Parliament (MP) who all sit in the House of Commons in Westminster, London. It’s their job to form Governments based around their parties, to vote on legislation in Parliament and of course, to represent their local communities often holding regular ‘surgeries’ with their constituents to hear about issues ranging from broken street-lights to international affairs.

Makerfield, in its various boundary forms over the years, has been solidly Labour. The Labour Party was formed in 1900 to stand up for communities exactly like those that make up Makerfield. Ashton-in-Makerfield, is the biggest town and population centre in the constituency today. An even bigger town, Wigan (known for its love of the sport Rugby League and the local art of serving pies inside bread rolls) sits to the north of the constituency but is not included in the boundaries.

In 2024, Josh Simons was elected as the Labour MP for Makerfield. It was amidst a huge victory for the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer. Josh Simons was an unknown character, a brand-new Labour MP in a pond of over 300 newly elected. His name didn’t stand out then and it wasn’t until he made a decision a month ago that his name got a lot more recognition than it had done in the past two years he has sat in Parliament.

On 14th May 2026, Josh Simons decided to stand down as the MP for Makerfield, triggering a by-election, which takes place when an election must be held in a constituency outside of the usual General Election timeline. This can be because an MP has resigned in disgrace, been forced out by a (pretty rare) petition by local residents, or died. Simons however, was choosing to stand down because he wanted someone else to take his place as the Labour MP for Makerfield.

That someone was Andy Burnham. I won’t give you a full history of Andy Burnham but as I try to write for everyone; from those of you politically engaged and those deliberately disengaged, here’s the essential need-to-know:

• Andy Burnham is a born-and-bred northerner, from the North West of England.

• He was a Labour MP for a constituency near Makerfield from 2001 - 2017.

• During that time he was a Government Minister in various roles.

• He left Parliament to become the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

• During his time as Mayor he re-branded his image to match the relaxed, pop-culture focused vibe of Manchester. This earned him the (game of thrones inspired) nickname; the King in the North.

Burnham has been in the wings of the Labour Party for some time and as Keir Starmer’s leadership has continued to plummet in popularity, talk of a Burnham return to challenge him has been constant.

However, in order to challenge the leader of the Labour Party (who is also Prime Minister - remember, the party is elected not the person americans!), you must first be a Member of Parliament.

Josh Simon’s resignation solved that problem for Burnham and once the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) authorised him as the candidate (they had blocked him previously in other constituencies to protect Keir Starmer), it was go-time for Burnham.

For the past few weeks, Andy Burnham has been leading a campaign on the ground in Makerfield and focusing on the population centre of Ashton as part of this.

The by-election is scheduled for Thursday 18th June (this week).

And given that he’s currently polling 10 points in the lead, you may think it’s a given that he will not only become the next Labour MP of Makerfield, but go on to challenge Starmer and become the next Prime Minister of the UK.

HOWEVER, this is politics, the art of the possible and if things were that certain you and I would be making money on a sure bet. Burnham’s main opposition are the young, upcoming far-right political party Reform UK. Led by Nigel Farage, Reform came close at the last General Election in Makerfield and that was before their surging even further in the polls as Starmer has continued to drag Labour downwards.

Farage is one of the most well-known british political figures in the world. The man who has ran several different political parties, all of which he started and bankrolled by millionaire and billionaire donors, this former banker turned political campaigner, is credited as the force behind Brexit (Brtain’s exit from the EU).

A close friend of Donald Trump, he has set Reform UK up to emulate much of what the MAGA movement did with the Republican Party. Now his ranks are full of former Conservative Party Ministers - highlighting that he has taken an insurgent political movement into the mainstream and now become the main right-wing party in Britain.

I probably don’t need to tell you at this point that I am opposed to everything Reform UK stands for. Much of my broadcast debating in recent years has been focused at tackling Reform and their supporters in the media and the UK political sphere. They have worked hand-in-glove with MAGA influencers and advisers in the US to champion ideas like the creation of a British ICE force to ‘re-migrate’ millions of people. Their various candidates and representatives have expressed racist, misogynistic, homophobic and bigoted opinions, in fact too many to mention. And much to the benefit of Andy Burnham, their candidate in Makerfield is no different.

Enter Rob Kenyon.

Again, for the sake of time, here’s my very biased write-up on Rob Kenyon;

• A plumber who was born in Makerfield and lives locally.

• A self confessed ‘sexist’ according to facebook comments.

• A man who has made racist, misogynistic and bigoted comments all over various social media platforms in the past decade.

• Believes abortion is used by women as an alternative contraception.

• Has very little policy platform other than ‘end immigration’.

Farage thought Kenyon would be the perfect candidate, being able to flash his ‘working man’ credentials about the place as a Plumber. However, after very weak performances in places such as BBC’s Question Time, it seems that the shine has come off Rob Kenyon and hopefully that has left just enough doubt in the mind of swing voters to allow Andy Burnham to clinch the victory.

But here’s where I think it gets interesting.

The Greens, who have been the rising force on the left of British Politics for some time now under the new leadership of Zack Polanski, haven’t really been hitting Makerfield hard. They are standing a candidate but they aren’t pulling out all the stops. I would suggest this is because they have something to gain from a Burnham victory but this comes at the cost of losing something else.

The Greens have risen from the space vacated by Starmer’s Labour Party on the progressive side of Politics. Starmer trying to sound tough on Immigration one minute and anti-welfare the next has left lefties like me politically homeless only a couple of years after voting for his Government. Starmer isn’t idealogical though, so this drift to the right need never have happened, it is simply ill advised in my opinion, by people in the Labour-centric Labour Party who thought that the support for Reform and strong talk about Immigration in Northern working class communities meant they needed to ape Reform and Farage to curry favour.

The problem is, people see things. They know Labour dont really represent right-wing beliefs and no matter how big the anti-immigration hat is that they throw on, it’s not enough to take votes away from the real article; Nigel Farage and his comrades on the right of British politics. The entire time Labour have continued to try and bang this drum, I have seen right-wing voters continue to call them ‘marxist’ and ‘communist’, so not only does it have little to no effect on the Government’s attempts to pass its business in Parliament, but it does very little to convince the electorate either.

The Greens were beneficiaries of this and a Burnham leadership righting the ship would presumably take that opportunity away from them. However, Burnham has long been a supporter of changing the UK’s voting system - something he has in commons with smaller political parties like the Greens and Liberal Democrats. A new system called ‘proportional representation’ wouldn’t see constituencies like Makerfield decide who they are sending to Westminster, but would give each party a proportionate share of the national vote, meaning smaller parties would get better and fairer representation in Parliament. This wouldn’t benefit Labour, but Burnham sees it as essential to change our politics and look toward a new era of likely coalitions. It is because of this that I believe the Greens have slowed down deliberately in Makerfield, allowing Burnham to glide to victory (possibly).

As for the international impact of a Burnham victory, this is interesting to me on two particular fronts. Firstly, Starmer’s relationship with Trump has been mortifyingly embarrassing. It began with scraping and bowing as a strategy to appease Trump, despite been cautioned that this may get you smiles and handshakes in the meantime, but ultimately it makes the Predator President believe you are someone he can push around and he will.

It then continued with all sorts of characters around Trump’s leadership from Vice President JD Vance to Tech villain Elon Musk loudly criticising Starmer and his leadership in a way no ally should tolerate.

Burnham as Prime Minister is a much stronger figure and character, I cannot see him agreeing to a strategy that sees him look weak, we could see him take a Love Actually approach, but even if that is just wishful thinking, I believe Trump will have a much stronger push-back from Andy Burnham who knows thats what most British people would like to see.

Secondly, Burnham winning in Makerfield this week would slay the Reform UK dragon and see him prove that he can be the first person to resist their rise and fight back with progressive values that cut-across all communities. This will seriously worry Farage and his donors, as Burnham will be able to take that fight into Government and nation-wide. But more than this, the democrats, who often work closesly with the UK Labour Party, will be able to learn from his successes. We could see international progressive collaboration that works in not only fighting back against Reform and the British far-right, but also the MAGA movement and whatever will be unleashed after Trump’s rape of America comes to a close.

So, whatever happens on Thursday, I the implications could be much wider than just the North West of England. But also, these implications could be felt in the White House and throughout Europe, not to mention in pivotal places such as Gaza and Ukraine. Things really could be about to change.

On Thursday night I’ll be taking part in coverage of the Makerfield by-election, as well as analysis the following day. You can watch that coverage across the BBC and Sky News as well as other broadcasters such as LBC. Many will have live streams on youtube for internatonal audiences. Results expected to be clear around 1am - 2am.

And thank you for your patience loyal subscribers! It’s been nearly 4 weeks since my last post. I promise more are coming with a return to regularity, but I have some very exciting book-related news to come soon as well as a lot of work on other projects that have required my focus. I appreciate you as always and love to hear your feedback.

In solidarity,

James

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This past week has felt long and it may be one of the busiest I’ve had since leaning into work as a broadcaster full time over 3 years ago. After spending over 24 hours awake at studios in London for the coverage of the Scottish, Welsh and English local elections last Thursday, I thought that the week following the results would be quieter or at least slower. However, the only thing that has been slow this week, is the rate at which Keir Starmer’s Government has been falling to pieces.

Yesterday I did 22 broadcast appearances in one day. The day before I did 17. I feel like I have never been away from the BBC studios, where I have just returned from again (Friday) after dissecting the current political situation on the breakfast radio programmes from 6am onwards.

This weekend, I intend to have a break and actually turn down (yeah right) most broadcast requests. But before I log off tonight and come back next week refreshed and reinvigorated , I wanted to write you, my lovely substackers, a report on what has happened and what might happen next in the political circus that UK Politics has become since those elections last week.

While this Substack was never intended to report the news to you, it is intended for me to share my take on things as they develop, especially things I don’t have the time to delve into on broadcast media.

The Situation

Let’s quickly recap the major events that have happened since the elections here in the UK and I’ll give you my take on the current situation before briefly exploring what could happen next.

• After the devastating set of election results for the Labour Party, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was not considering his position while also accepting the results were terrible and very difficult for his Government.

• A relatively known Labour MP called Catherine West called for Starmer to resign and for the Cabinet to re-appoint someone else without a leadership contest. She gave them until Monday (11th May) to do this or she said she would seek the 81 nominations (20% of the Parliamentary Labour Party) to trigger a leadership election.

• On Monday night, as Starmer wasn’t budging, 4 junior Government Ministers resigned while calling for him to go. Because of their close connections to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, it was believed he would be resigning and challenging Starmer once he found the 81 names to nominate him. But Wes didn’t make a sound. Instead, the weekly Cabinet Meeting rolled around at 9am on Tuesday morning and the media gathered outside Downing Street.

• Reported afterwards, at Cabinet, Starmer told his Ministers that he wasn’t going anywhere and that there was a process for challenging a leader and no one had triggered it. He told any of them to come to see him if they had an issue. Then promptly moved on to talk about the situation in Iran.

• Following Cabinet, Wes Streeting left in a hurry and booked a meeting in with the PM for the following morning. Starmer’s loyal ministers came out to meet the press and the cameras and echoed his calls for unity and continuation.

• The next day came and it wasn’t just any old day, it was State Opening of Parliament, which happens at the start of every new Parliamentary term. The King comes to the House of Lords to read a speech written by the Prime Minister outlining his ambitions for this Parliament. It was as embarrassing as you would expect but perhaps because of this, no moves were made until that evening when rumours circulated that Wes Streeting was planning to resign.

• Thursday started with silence from Streeting but news from Angela Rayner, the former Deputy Prime Minister long expected to run for leader too. Angela had been held back by her former resignation over unpaid tax allegations relating to a home she purchased. Her news on Thursday morning (well timed) was that she had been cleared of wrongdoing in the investigation and was clear to stand for election if she so wished. Silence continued from Streeting until eventually he did resign, saying he had lost confidence in Starmer but crucially he did not trigger the leadership election formally (supposedly because he lacks the names). No other resignations followed and Streeting was replaced by a different Minister.

• Then the closest thing Britain has to a celebrity politican; Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, announced he had found an MP (Josh Simons) to stand down and trigger a by-election that Burnham would then seek to be Labour’s candidate in. Last time he tried this, Starmer blocked him and was criticised heavily for it. Burnham is seen as a king over the water, awaiting a coronation as the labour leader if he returns to Parliament (you have to be a member of parliament to lead the party and the country).

• Starmer announced he wouldnt back burnham and to face the reality with projected dignity and ‘inclusion’ Wes Streeting agreed that Burnham should return and then have a leadership election where they all slug it out together.

• So as it stands, Burnham is standing to become a Labour MP again (if he gets selected as labours candidate and then crucially, wins, what will be a tough by-election as Reform UK are only 5000 votes behind labour in this seat)

• The sitting Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in office but not in power. Wes Streeting is preparing his campaign to be leader and Angela Rayner is considering her options, as she favours Burnham over even herself.

Here’s my brief opinions on this situation:

• Wes Streeting bad. No core beliefs or values driving his politics. Empty, opportunistic and ambitious in all the wrong ways. Would pull Labour even further to the right.

• Angela Rayner, excellent candidate, I like her a lot and would support her leadership but doesn’t seem confident in going for it. I think could play a big role in a Burnham leadership.

• Andy Burnham, if he can beat Reform UK in the Makerfield by-election, he can do it as Prime Minister and would be my choice. But there’s a road ahead for him with several hurdles on it before that can happen.

• Keir Starmer, needs to get out the way and leave office with grace and dignity. However, he seems oblivious still to the political reality that he is finished.

We await more developments but I will be back to my usual schedule (possibly even busier) from next week and will no doubt be writing up some thoughts as we go.

In the meantime you can follow me at jmatthewsonofficial on instagram where I post regularly with updates about my broadcast work and other writing.

I hope this very brief update from this very tired guy is helpful and my advice for keeping up to date with these developments is always for Sky News and check out articles and polling being published at Labour List to get an insight into which candidates could come forward in the weeks and (probably) months ahead.

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I was in a rush to catch a train at 4pm and needed to cast my vote in the 2026 scottish parliamentary elections before I left the city and the country behind to travel to London.

Because I was rushing, I thought it would be a good idea to run down a concrete bank above the polling station where I was due to vote. I instead fell head first down the bank, grazed both my palms and badly bruised my knees. This was not a good start to the night.

However, I cast my votes, jumped in a taxi and headed to Waverley Station in the centre of Edinburgh. After spending the next 4.5 hours on a train, I arrived at Kings Cross in London around 8.30pm.

There was a long night ahead and I decided to get dinner and prepare for my first appearance of the night. The major panels I was due to take part in were on Sky News Television and LBC Radio (with a live visual broadcast going out too). Election coverage is a busy business and often the exact times of certain interviews, panels and segments shift around and there can be no guarantee of getting a set amount of airtime.

However, after doing Sky News’ election show I was lucky to stick with LBC for most of the night, between 1.30am and 5am, after which I then took a peaceful walk along the River Thames at sunrise before completing another BBC hit followed by the first of two appearances on Sky News Australia. All in all it was a busy night.

The Results

Overnight on Thursday 7th into Friday 8th, the only results that were being counted were council elections in England.

The Parliamentary elections in Scotland (in which I voted as a resident of Scotland) and in Wales were due to be counted during the day, they wouldn’t start coming in until much later when I would be back in Edinburgh ready to comment on them from the comfort of my home.

The story of the night was one of sweeping success for Reform UK, often referred to as the British MAGA party. Their anti-immigration messaging alongside their bold and brash ‘anti-establishment’ image is seen by many as the UK’s answer to Trumpism. But, like Trump’s 2016 campaign, it worked.

English Councils

Below is a breakdown of the results for the English Council elections.

Notes from me: not all English council’s were up for election, some run on a different timescale just to confuse things further. But these results still give a clear indication of the electorate’s opinion when it comes to the Labour Government.

As you can see, Reform gained 1451 councillors, Labour (in government) lost 1496 and the Tory party (Conservatives) lost 563.

This puts Reform as the big winners and mapped onto a General Election, the same votes and turnout would result in Reform being the biggest political party seeking to form a government (possibly in coalition with the Conservatives).

My general takeaway from this is that Reform will now have to deliver in the councils that they have won control of, because you can only be ‘anti-establishment’ while in opposition. My hope is that the more people experience these Reform representatives, the more they will realise they are lacking in substance and are made up almost entirely of culture-war rhetoric.

Scottish Parliament

To the north, the Scottish Parliamentary elections threw up some similar but also uniquely challenging results for Keir Starmer’s Government.

Unlike the English results, these gains and losses are of MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament).

To form a Government in Scotland (devolved from the UK Government) a party requires 65 seats (a majority).

The SNP (Scottish National Party) who were previously in Government will now form another administration, led by the former First Minister John Swinney.

Swinney and his party are regarding this win (despite their lack of majority) as a clear signal from the Scottish voters for a second referendum on Scottish Independence (commonly referred to as Indy-ref 2).

Independence will be Starmer’s biggest challenge with Scotland and with his Labour Party being tied with Reform for second place, he can’t even boast of being the official opposition in the Scottish Parliament.

The UK Government have been clear they will deny any requests for a second referendum and as they have to sign off on it, the SNP (and the Scottish Greens backing them up with the independence question) will continue to condemn Starmer and his Government for ‘blocking the will of the people’.

Interestingly enough, the situation in Wales isn’t too dissimilar…

Welsh Assembly

Once the heartland of the Labour Party, Wales has now fallen.

It’s been a long-time coming and a lot has changed since the glory days of coal mining communities across the welsh valleys and cities like Swansea and Cardiff returned solid Labour results year after year.

The Welsh Assembly (known as the Senedd - pronounced Senn-eth) is now packed with pro-independence plaid cymru MS’ (Members of Senedd).

But Labour isn’t even the opposition to these nationalists who seek to see Wales leave the UK and be its own nation entirely. The Labour Party is now barely in third place behind Reform UK who alongside Plaid have replaced Keir Starmer’s Party.

So, with Plaid Cymru short of a majority, they will be forming a minority-controlled Welsh Government - like the SNP in Scotland.

This means that for the first time ever, three of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (governed currently by the republican Sinn Fein party), are all being led by pro-independence political parties. This gives Keir Starmer (and whoever is likely to replace him) a huge headache.

United in their cause to break-away from the (not so) United Kingdom, these parties and the devolved Governments they control, will be doing everything they can to frustrate the relations between their distinct nations and the Labour Government in Westminster. Let’s face it, no one wants to be the Prime Minister who oversaw the break-up of the very country they are elected to lead.

But what’s next for Starmer and the country…

What comes next?

This week starts with the devolved Parliaments in Scotland and Wales forming their new Governments.

Meanwhile in London, Keir Starmer will make a speech today, supposedly outlining his vision for taking the country forward and remaining as the Prime Minister.

But unfortunately for him certain back-bench Labour MPs are already circling and planning to try and trigger and leadership challenge. But it sounds like there is little appetite among some of the obvious challengers to move just yet.

The pressure from Farage and Reform, as well as Zack Polanski’s Green Party on the left, will also be renewed. In short, Starmer has never faced as much pressure as he will now be under and there is no sign there will be any respite.

This week will be crucial and while I am obviously hugely disappointed by the widespread success of Reform UK, we could start to see the change needed in this Government to move forward.

In the meantime, I’ll at least have plenty to write about and my usual broadcast schedule will be even busier, so make sure to follow me over on Instagram to keep updated on what I’m doing.

And look out for my other appearances such as the weekly podcast ‘That’s Class’ with me and my friend Craig Stewart, you can stream episodes (including a special election epsiode from last night) on all the usual streaming services and Youtube where we livestream: That's Class - Youtube

I’ll be back again this week with my friend for our weekly show; Across the Pond with plenty to talk about in the world of UK - US relations, including analysis of these election results.

But for now I will leave you all with the photo that I took during my sunrise walk along the River Thames. I hope it makes you pause and reflect. There’s a long road ahead but we will walk it together.

Thanks for reading

James

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So it’s no surprise that there would be last minute policy announcements from the political parties who are contesting these national and local elections in Scotland, England and Wales.

After over a decade working in and around Politics, there is very little that surprises me still. I’m sure that anyone who has followed the news cycle since 2016 feels the same. However, two days ago, Reform UK (Nigel Farage’s increasingly popular right wing party) released a video that managed somehow to shock me.

Zia Yusuf, the millionaire Reform UK politician, was filmed walking along the beach front at Brighton wearing an expensive suit and designer sunglasses. In this video, released across Reform UK’s social media channels, Yusuf (a one time Goldman Sachs banker) speaks to the camera almost exclusively in buzz words.

He then casually goes on to utter one of the most threatening and alarming statements I have ever heard issued by a British political party maybe ever. He claims that those voters who do not support his party and instead choose to support progressive political parties such as the Greens, deserve to face the consequences of their actions. He then announced Reform’s official policy to build the many ‘migrant detention centres’ needed to carry out their programme of deporting ‘possibly millions of migrants’, but exclusively in communities that did not vote Reform.

Watch the Reform UK policy announcement here

Now, we have long known that political parties often target their own supportive regions / communities / constituencies when it comes to investment or development opportunities. But I have never seen an example of a British political party intending to target those that did not vote for them. This is an act of political punishment and ten years ago this would have been completely unthinkable. However, thanks to America’s MAGA movement, this sort of language (especially around migration) has become completely normalised.

But let me spell out exactly what this means for our society and our democracy. A political party, which (according to the latest polling) stands to gain possibly 1000+ councillors in England alone, has decided that it will use its power to attack opposition and democratic freedom. Punishing people because of how they voted and being willing to do so openly in advance of an election at one time would have been a death sentence for any politician. Thanks to Donald Trump, that old world of responsibility and standards is dead and with it the accountability we should demand as an electorate has died too. Reform’s threats to voters that don’t choose them is, in my opinion, a clear indication of a movement that seeks to abuse power before it even has it. Any of their voters and supporters who in the future declare that they ‘didn’t know’ what they would do once in power, has no excuse at all. It’s clear, it’s telegraphed and anyone incapable of seeing what this means or where it leads is simply choosing not to look directly at it.

Like all successful American money-making enterprises (McDonald’s, Starbucks etc) MAGA was always destined to reach pandemic status and cross borders, infecting other nations with its specific strain of tacky, toxic arrogance. The disregard for democracy at the heart of Reform UK comes directly from this multi-national experiment in flexi-fascism. Farage has studied his friend Donald’s playbook on how to push the limits, testing his base and coming to the realisation that fortune favours the bold and when it comes to unapologetic bigotry - the bolder the better.

It’s pretty much a certainty that Farage and his merry band of british MAGAlites will do well at these local and national elections, with very few communities in Britain (save for London) seeming to resist the right-wing tide. My only hope is that through the ability we have to gaze westward across the Atlantic, like studying a crystal ball, voters in the UK will be able to recognise the same patterns and their ugly conclusions playing out in Washington DC.

I’ll be unpicking the results of these elections, both on Broadcast media (I’ll be live across various broadcast media through the night Thursday-Friday) and I’ll be writing up my official review right here on this Substack. Make sure to subscribe if you aren’t already and you’ll get my analysis direct in your inbox.

In the meantime chins up and as always, thanks for reading.

James

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In England, 4850 councillors will be elected in counties and boroughs across the country. You can read more about which councils are up for election here: read more

In Scotland, 129 members of the Scottish Parliament (or MSPs) will be elected. This is a devolved Parliament with a Scottish Government that takes responsibility for some things (e.g. education and healthcare) and not others (e.g. defence, immigration and taxation).

In Wales, 96 members of the Senedd (the Welsh devolved Parliament, pronounced Sen-ETH) will be elected, which is a big increase from 60 MS’ (members of the Senedd) previously. Like with Scotland, this will determine which party forms the Welsh Government (with similar powers to the Scottish Government but less controls over certain things).

The UK Government and Parliament is not being elected and the votes cast on the 7th May will not decide who governs the UK as a whole.

However, growing movements for independence in both Scotland and Wales (Americans: think of these ‘devolved governments’ like States in the US. And the UK Government would be the Federal Government), may be furthered by the outcome of these elections.

The Scottish National Party are looking to win a majority (and have declared in advance that this would be a clear signal that the people of Scotland would like a second independence referendum, following the previous attempt which failed in 2014). Similarly, Plaid Cymru (translation: The Party of Wales) have been pushing hard for a referendum on Welsh Independence from the UK and any big gains for them could be taken as a shift toward this in national sentiment.

But, despite these independence parties, the rising smaller parties (Liberal Democrats, Green Party etc) and the two titans which are increasingly unpopular (Labour & the Conservatives), there is a new kid on the block that threatens to disrupt the political landscape in all three of these regional elections.

Reform UK was born from The Brexit Party, created and now led again by Nigel Farage. Reform is often simplified as the UK MAGA movement with Farage described as a British Trump, but despite the similarities and the connection/friendship between Farage and Trump, there are always nation-specific differences that make direct comparisons more complicated.

Reform are threatening to continue taking votes from both Labour and the Tories (Conservative Party) and they are proving to be especially effective in de-industrial working class heartlands which have long been disaffected with the ‘political class’.

Much of Reform’s messaging to win over these communities centres on the Trump playbook. In the same way the Trump campaign in 2016 targeted rust-belt communities in the US, Farage knows that he can drive a wedge between areas in Britain that have suffered years of Austerity and stripping back of public services by blaming Immigration and an ‘out of touch’ establishment. The irony however of Farage’s party being ‘anti-establishment’ is laughable. This is the first question you should be asking of any Reform UK candidate who comes knocking at your door.

Whether you’re electing a local council representative in England, an MSP and devolved government in Scotland or an MS and devolved government in Wales, here are the three things I think you should be asking Reform if they ask for your vote.

1. Where did you get your money from?

Serious questions are being asked about the funding behind Farage’s party. Similarly to Trump in the US, Reform have attracted some very wealthy donors and especially those who have a lot of money invested in the future of cryptocurrency.

In the past 2 years alone, the biggest single donation in British political history was made to Reform by a billionaire based in Thailand who owns cryptocurrency companies. This donation was an eye-watering £12 million.

In addition to this, the same individual; Christopher Harborne, gifted Farage a personal donation of £5 million. The question you can ask your local Reform representative is; just what is Mr Harborne getting for his £17 million invested into Reform UK?

On top of this, Reform UK just happen to be calling for less regulation on cryptocurrency. This is very much following in the footsteps of the Trump family who have made staggering personal wealth from crypto and given political access to billionaires who are looking to influence the levers of power in all Governments.

Shout out to Anna Isaac at The Guardian who revealed this web of donations as an exclusive, you can read about it in more detail here; https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/29/revealed-nigel-farage-was-given-undisclosed-5m-by-crypto-billionaire-in-2024

2. Do you support re-migration?

Reform’s main focus being immigration is well documented.

For many voters it is their main appeal.

However, Reform isn’t just seeking to ‘stop the boats’ (the trademark expression calling for an end to asylum seekers crossing the English channel from France). Reform figures including Nigel Farage have supported calls for ‘re-migration’, this is about removing people already settled in the UK. This and some of their calls for a British version of ICE has understandably alarmed many people, myself included.

From the BBC:

Reform UK proposes a, radical, five-year “remigration” programme aiming to remove hundreds of thousands of “illegal” migrants and those deemed to have entered unlawfully, targeting over 600,000 individuals, including “Boriswave” arrivals. Key proposals include life bans on re-entry, leaving the ECHR, creating a UK Deportation Command, and using detention centres to process five daily flights, aiming for a £42 billion net saving.

Core Components of Reform UK’s Migration Policy:

• Mass Deportation: A “UK Deportation Command” to track, detain, and deport.

• “Illegal” Migrant Focus: Immediate detention of small boat arrivals, removing them to Rwanda, Albania, or returning them to France.

• Permanent Residence Restrictions:

  Replacing indefinite leave to remain with visas requiring renewal every five years, applying to hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrived after 2021.

3. What does ‘woke’ mean?

Reform UK have ridden the wave of ‘culture war’ issues with support from a rising tide of new reform-favouring media such as GB News and Talk TV / Radio.

Invented issues such as ‘children identifying as cats’ and constant attacks on Trans people, Feminism, the wider LGBT+ community and of course Muslims.

If you speak to most people in the country, they will have broadly similar opinions on most of these ‘issues’ and it’s because they are not issues. But exaggerated or even invented headlines relying on anecdotal information about ridiculous extremes are being used to scare people into believing there is some great conspiracy to change things dramatically for people throughout the country.

The advocating of Trans rights is not being done at the cost of anyone else, least of all children. Likewise, standing against Islamophobia is not done at the cost of supporting anti-semitism.

Because all of these arguments made by right-wingers are based on nonsense and rely on a divide existing between communities, they quickly fall apart when people simply engage with each other in good faith. So to counter that they have instead relied on the word ‘Woke’ to encapsulate all of this into one ‘world-view’.

All it does is seek to mask bigotry and hatred. There are many examples of Reform UK members and representatives making homophobic comments including calling the pride flag ‘perverted’ and calling gay men ‘paedophiles’. In the councils they have been running since the last round of local elections there has been an obsession with ending local authority support for pride events and removing LGBT+ flags and symbols. They point to ‘DEI’ as an evil that must be tackled, when it’s very clear this is about trying to roll back the progress made in supporting marginalised communities.

However, I have found that if you simply ask these people what ‘woke’ means, they struggle to define it and their world-view quickly unravels when it becomes evident they are opposed to progressive values.

These are of course just a few examples of areas that we must hold Reform UK to account on, but there are numerous examples of seriously concerning and extremist politics from this rising political party. Having the conversation with relatives who have voiced support for Reform is something that can take a lot of patience and effort but there are many resources online you can research to ensure that you can patiently present facts to family members who haven’t been entirely lost to the rhetoric.

Meanwhile, I will be covering this election through the night on LBC Radio and Sky News among others in-studio. You can follow me on instagram for further updates on these appearances ahead of next week (@jmatthewsonofficial).

Thanks for reading

James

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As were the references to his family history and the American War for Independence.

But perhaps some of his more subtle comments were not prepared for by the representatives of the Trump Administration, two of whom sat behind King Charles III as he made his address to the US Congress tonight.

Vice President JD Vance and house speaker Mike Johnson weren’t going to let any of those very deliberate references effect their composure and smiling faces. Not even when The King spoke of the ‘rise of fascism’ in the 1930’s and 40’s, America and Britain’s ‘shared values’ and in the importance of inter-faith tolerance and compassion. Some of his references were less subtle, including melting ice caps in the polar arctic, putting the spotlight for a moment on climate change in a country where the President doesn’t believe it’s happening.

Anyone who has watched Charles over the years will know that the environment is something he cares about deeply and it was always likely he would mention environmental issues. However, seeing progressive causes like environmentalism being promoted by an unelected Monarch from a ‘divine dynasty’ nearly 1000 years old, just serves to show us all how far our politicians have fallen in the fight to improve our planet and ourselves.

I’m no Monarchist. As a Republican (in the true sense of the word), I should be more in favour of the structures of US democracy than our own here in the UK. But unfortunately, all man-made systems have flaws and while ours may differ (largely because of how historical events have played out), the increasingly authoritarian Trump administration is making an ancient European monarchy look forward-thinking and progressive.

While Trump’s ‘respect’ for the Royal Family seems to be keeping the UK barely in the good graces of his ever-shifting mood, on the other hand he is still happy to openly criticise Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the actual democratically elected British representative. There’s no surprise with this, of course Trump prefers to deal with people who inherit power, titles and wealth, it is the world he knows.

However, with the UK Government directing the King and signing off his speech, this tactic is deliberate. Starmer is happy to play the bad cop (albeit mildly) as Charles plays the good cop, in the way that only an individual who could in theory outlast Starmer, Trump and whoever comes after them both.

As Members of Congress gave him a standing ovation mere minutes ago, some of The King’s final words were still hanging in the air. He quoted Lincoln at Gettysburg when he warned that the world listens to America’s words (undoubtedly a reference to insults thrown at allies) but more importantly, remembers America’s actions;

‘The world may little note what we say, but will never forget what we do’

Talking about NATO too, he reinforced the importance of it and covered the most crucial features of the Anglo-American relationship.

I, and others in the UK who do not support the monarchy, will still be happy with this speech and the diplomatic efforts that are clearly strewn throughout it. Let’s hope it has the intended effect and that the US-UK relationship can outlast the damage of the most damaging President in the US’ short but significant history.

Happy 250th Anniversary America.

Take it from a Brit when I say; keep away from Kings.

In Solidarity

James

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The child stares into my soul and casually wounds me in a way that only a child can.

“Nah, it’s not really my thing, I’ll stick with the traditional media I do. I’m working hard on a book at the moment.”

“Yeah but if you did well on Tik Tok you could actually get loads of book deals and your own TV programmes. No one probably knows who you are because no one watches the news on TV anymore.”

And with that final twist of the knife, the 13 year old who had stayed behind to ‘tell me something’ strode confidently out of the classroom.

I turned to the Teacher who had invited me to talk to her class about Broadcasting and Politics. She gave me a sympathetic smile and thanked me again for my time. As I sat in the car and processed what was a really engaging session talking to kids who seemed genuinely interested, that final interaction hung over me like a cloud.

“I don’t want to be a fucking content creator” I said to myself. But I do want book deals and I do want to be ‘successful’ and I want my hard work to mean something and to pay off.

Why had the words of a child pissed me off this much? On one hand it made sense because while I enjoy celebrating the success of others, the rising tide of people who make videos on TikTok or Instagram being offered mainstream opportunities was at times irritating. At one time, it seemed like a one-off, here and there, but now (as this kid had demonstrated), it seemed like the logical and even preferred path to success - in any world and in every industry.

The possession of a captive audience via a social media following is marketable to almost every single creative industry in the world. I don’t begrudge those who monetise this asset, every single person would do the same. However, there has been an increasing cross-over of these people into spaces that others are trying to reach without taking the path of ‘creating content’ online, whether it be comedians or artists, writers, journalists or those involved in politics.

No matter what it is you are trying to do, the world seems saturated with too much of everything and that can feel like a barrier to even attempting to do something, especially if you are consuming social media content daily that shows other people well ahead of you in pursuing the exact same goals or dreams. Apathy toward ambitions is (I suspect) at an all time high.

I recognise that I am also speaking from a position of advantage, as the 40k + followers I have on instagram have likely benefited me at times. However, it means that people expect you to begin creating content solely for that audience, as if that is the goal. For me, my social media channels (now only Instagram) exist purely to give me an online presence and promote the work I do in the ‘real-world’.

But after starting a substack following the advice of my friend , I am keen to grow an audience here, even though that feels already too close to ‘content creation’. But as a writer, being able to write regularly gives this platform an additional appeal, without having to worry about pitching every single idea to editors at different publications as I had to do previously. But starting a regular Live show on Substack with Ahmed and also launching a new podcast / live-stream (called ‘That’s Class’) on youtube with another great friend (and excellent online creator) Craig Stewart; Check it out here, has given me a different perspective. I can respect the need to create platforms that belong entirely to us, especially in this age of increasing media insecurity - you can no longer rely solely on producers, editors, studios and networks if you wish to reach an audience regularly.

However, the process of building an audience can still be hard work and frustrating. And I say this as somebody with the advantage of an existing media career and broadcasting platform. To then log into social media and see somebody being offered a 5 star book deal because they have been making 20 second videos of themselves impersonating dogs in their back garden can be disenchanting (to say the least). But I don’t want to do that, nor do I want to play the game and I understand fully that in doing so, you are limiting yourself. But I don’t ENJOY it, and that’s the crucial part here. It’s not about cringe or embarrassment or confidence, I don’t WANT to do that. I want to Write and I want to Broadcast and in order to grow my career in doing so, I need to focus on myself rather than the rapid and seemingly disproporiatne success of online influencers, because it does come from a place of envy and that in itself can be ugly. But for all of you out there wanting to stick to the paths you enjoy and maintain your trajectory in whatever industry or area of interest you have ambitions, I say this to you; keep your side of the street clean. Consume less of that social media content and you won’t feel as concerned about not creating it. There are many paths to ‘success’ and whatever yours looks like, there is no wrong way to do it. Likewise to those creating content online, if you are doing so because you enjoy it, keep going. I am certain there is enough space, even in this world that feels oversaturated and bursting at the seems, for us to enjoy our journey, regardless of the final destination.

So no, I don’t want to be a content creator, and you can’t make me.

Thanks for reading.

James

It was upstairs in a small pub that sold fish and chips for £15 (prices that made this northerner’s eyes water at the time).

I was attending an event running parallel to the main business taking place in the conference hall, which was on the shore front of one of England’s most iconic seaside cities. It was a warm September day and the windows were thrown open in the second-floor event space which was very sparsely attended.

The event was being organised and hosted by a prominent legal justice group. There was a panel made up of speakers and each of them was a legal expert, including a well-known former Labour Minister and we were told there may be a surprise guest ‘popping in’ to say hello during the proceedings.

After about half an hour I was already bored as shit. I’m not and will never be a lawyer and the way these lawyers were talking about issues that I was moderately interested in was far too lawyerly for me. This happened a lot at Labour Conference, you would take a chance on some fringe event and if it ended up being bad, at least there was free food.

I was sat at the back, as I had already learned it was the best way to make a quiet exit if things ended up being boring, as they indeed were at this event. I was waiting for my brain to send the message to my legs that I wanted to leave when I was aware of someone standing to my right. I looked up at Sir Keir Starmer, Member of Parliament, Knight of the Realm, former Head of the Crown Prosecution Service and Shadow Brexit Secretary (responsible at the time for Labour’s position on how best to exit the European union after the result of the referendum).

He looked a bit red in the face, his silvery-grey hair was falling out of the slick back style it had been fixed into. He was smiling and smiled at me and said “I hope I’m not late”, he then stepped forward, now being noticed by the event moderators who made a big display of welcoming him and the member of staff he had in tow (who I recognised as a former Labour HQ staffer I once got stuck in a lift with in Nottingham). As Starmer took to the floor, the 9 of us in attendance perked up and my thoughts about leaving were temporarily suspended.

Over the next 15 minutes, Starmer gave a general overview of how lawyers and legal experts were providing the foundation of the work Labour is doing to prepare for being in Government. He was clearly in his element discussing legal frameworks and legislative details, he seemed genuinely interested in it. But when asked about something to do with the internal workings of the Labour Party a few minutes later, his interest very clearly dissipated. He said something that I would remember but not care about until 8 years later; “I don’t care about Politics, I care more about Law”.

After the event, he hung around for a little bit longer than expected and I chatted to him, telling him who I worked for and chatting a little bit about politics, he knew enough about the party and about seats, but he still definitely carried the energy of someone who had learned this information dutifully, because he had to for this job. I’ve bumped into him a few times since then and he remembered me and my name, especially since my broadcast work, which I found to be a good sign for leadership. Someone who actively tries to remember people is often paying attention to good and effective communication with others.

I began thinking back to this the other day when I was asked on air what I thought of Starmer’s ‘lack of interest’ in the political details surrounding the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador (which led to his current crisis). It explains most of Starmer’s predicaments and his reliance on others around him to do the political legwork when he has prioritised peace-making on the world-stage. A Prime Minister of course is needed to be an international leader but Starmer’s focus on projecting that image has led to neglect for domestic issues and that perception growing among the British electorate - something Starmer cannot afford to forget about.

During his election campaign Starmer relied on the man who is often credited for his entire political career; Morgan McSweeney . The Irishman started his own career as a campaign organiser for the Labour Party so he always kept one eye on the electorate, on public opinion and polls. When Starmer replaced his Chief of Staff with McSweeney not long after winning the election, it was evident that he trusted this man with anything and everything, including the direction of governance for the country he would now be running. I have long made the argument that McSweeney wasn’t suited to Government, despite being the person to win it. Winning elections and governing are two completely different jobs that require two completely different skill-sets; which is a problem created by democracies and faced by many leaders throughout history.

After McSweeney was allowed to resign by Starmer, he has been left cleaning up the mess with the legacy of Peter Mandelson’s appointment and the scandal of his vetting tying Starmer’s Government up in the monumental fallout of the Epstein Files.

No matter how good the work of Starmer on the world-stage or in the backrooms of international diplomacy, the narrative which surrounds him is one of incompetence and incuriousity, which I don’t think is entirely fair, but politics is about image and opinion and once that perception has taken hold, it’s very difficult to unwind it.

Starmer’s lack of interest in politics and his subsequent trust of people like McSweeney has made him vulnerable from the start. It has meant that his domestic platform has lacked vision, purpose and direction and it has also meant that he has been wide-open to scandal. It’s just his unfortunate luck that one of those people who took advantage of this opportunity was tied directly to Jeffrey Epstein and because of his lack of interest, he failed to see what was clear to everyone else.

With Starmer’s premiership likely nearing an end (I predict some time after the elections on 7th May), if he were to throw aside the delusion that he will carry on indefinitely he would have a real chance to shape his legacy, but sadly that will require him to face reality and I do not see any sign that the man who ‘doesn’t care about politics’ is going to start caring anytime soon.

Thanks for reading

James

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Another speaker on the panel I’m about to join has taken the words right out of my mouth.

I chime in; “yeah, it’s constant isn’t it”.

We both look to the other guest, a conservative party MP who is my main target for disagreement in this Scottish Radio debate.

“Not really. Maybe it’s the weather?”.

The first speaker, a fellow progressive from a think tank looks at me and raises her eyebrows and I return a sympathetic shrug of the shoulders;

“Must be nice”.

It wasn’t long into this debate at the BBC studios in Glasgow when I realised why the right-wing member of our discussion panel wasn’t feeling too concerned about the state of the world.

Somewhere between him arguing against disability benefits for people with genetic conditions and arguing for an increase in funding to go to Israel to continue their genocide in Gaza and murderous invasion of Lebanon, it clicked.

The state of the world and its politics is only traumatising right now if you care about the suffering of others. And of course I realise this sounds like the self-righteous opinion of a lefty trying to claim the moral high ground. But I’ve argued with enough people on my own side of the political spectrum to know that despite that being a very real problem on the left, there are enough people hardening their hearts to every single issue and pretending as if the millions of lives at the mercy of our Governments and Governors are simply a matter of logistics and inconvenience.

Regardless of your own particular brand of politics, if you are someone who takes in the suffering of others and concerns yourself with those who are being impacted by the choices made in political theatres around the globe, you’re probably going through it right now. Of course, you may (like me) be living a life of privilege and safety in a developed nation which is far more likely to be one of the countries causing the suffering rather than experiencing it. But that doesn’t make us immune from being impacted by those decisions, especially when they’re taken on behalf of us.

Some nations are facing this sort of guilty / shame complex more than others, but anyone with half a heart is looking in horror at places like Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, Yemen, Iran and of course the streets of the USA, where the Trump administration’s domestic cruelty is still being played out.

This is combined with the daily insanity of developments in the Trump Presidency, the rise of the far-right in Europe (despite encouraging news from Hungary recently), the lack of spine of many of our politicians in facing down these combined threats and of course the usual regressive forces of hatred, division and bigotry that continue to press their advantage. All of this together is overwhelming and overstimulating in the extreme. It’s no wonder that there is also an increase in apathy, in people wanting to turn away and not face the reality of these situation; especially when so many of us are powerless to do anything about it.

The truth is, we are traumatised. Political trauma is real and anyone who tries to remain informed and stay up to date with current events will at the very least be overwhelmed and in this case of those of us who care, are likely traumatised by what we have watched unfold since around 2015/16. I often hear people saying they wish things could just return to ‘normal’ but the bad news is, this has become our normal. We can regain stability and move back toward an era of sensible and boring politics - I’m sure of it. But it isn’t here yet and every day a new horror seems to rear its head.

So in the meantime, I ask you to acknowledge the fact you are likely traumatised too. And in the fashion of the therapised white man that I am, please create space for yourself to feel that. We must treat our political selves more as we would our emotional selves generally. Preserve and protect your peace where you can but dont let that stop you from speaking out and holding to account the injustices that appear to be everywhere at present. Just remember that we cannot win this fight as progressives if you are burnt out and traumatised.

Face the facts, process your own political trauma and make sure you are where you should be mentally and emotionally. That doesn’t mean feeling less but it does mean finding the balance. Brighter days lie ahead but in the meantime, find your balance and keep fighting that good fight.

In love and solidarity,

James

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Once there, the direct descendent of George III (main antagonist of the american revolution), will be hosted by a man who has modelled himself and his presidency on monarchs and autocrats.

There are few institutions that Donald Trump respects and even fewer people. The British Royal Family however seems to be an exception to that rule. I am sure that, like anyone, they are not beyond being the target of Trump’s insecurity-fuelled rage, but so far they have managed to keep him relatively happy even in spite of his almost daily attacks on their UK Government and Prime Minister.

The President’s surface-level respect for an unelected head of state is in sharp contrast with the language he has used to describe the democratically elected UK Government and its Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.

Trump has long criticised Starmer’s policies and referred to him disparagingly as ‘too liberal’ and made entirely fabricated claims about the UK being ‘overrun’ with illegal immigrants while also taking aim at the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. However, last month the tone shifted and Trump started referring to Starmer as a ‘Loser’, with more and more strain being put on the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the USA. And the latest of these attacks came after a phone call between the President and Mark Stone from Sky News just 24 hours ago.

https://news.sky.com/story/trump-swings-from-gushing-praise-for-king-to-scathing-criticism-of-starmer-in-five-minute-call-with-sky-news-13531954

Mark Stone’s conversation is detailed in the above article and makes for shocking reading, even compared to the usual comments Trump makes about the UK. The part of this call that has caused the most panic among the British establishment, is the threat from Trump to possibly tear up the flagship trade deal agreed between the US and UK as a punishment for not joining his war in Iran.

Starmer responded to questions about this threat in the House of Commons yesterday during Prime Minister’s Questions, with an uncharacteristically defiant tone. His team are undoubtedly aware that every time he takes a stand against Trump, his dismal approval rating increases. If I were managing Starmer’s comms, I would be praying for these moments so that they can be used to make political PR hay.

However, knowing Starmer, I imagine he is resistant to the idea and more than hesitant to do anything he thinks will fly in the face the strategy he has stuck to up until now. That strategy has been one of appeasement and has been the motivation behind the sycophancy we saw with Starmer’s hand-delivered letter to Trump with his invitation to a second state visit (which then took place last year). However, that strategy has proven to do little to keep Trump sweet when it comes to his opinions of Starmer’s Government.

This would be dangerous regardless, as it does nothing for international diplomacy. However, it is even more risky considering that Trump has a friend and ally in Nigel Farage who is leading the rising opposition to the Labour Government with his political party Reform UK. Farage benefits from Trump’s attacks on the sitting Government and there are several examples of collusion between many aspects of the MAGA movement in the US and Reform’s activities in Britain. Starmer cannot afford to keep giving those opportunities up to an opposition that didn’t even exist a few years ago and is clearly increasing its popularity while being simultaneously divisive.

As the Royal Family get their marching orders from the UK Government, I believe the only right action would be to cancel the King’s planned state visit to the US. After the constant disrespect of the country by Trump but also his recent threats to ‘destroy civilisation’ in Iran, it is not appropriate for such a visit to go ahead and would be seen as excusing all of his many heinous actions in recent months. With his recent comments about the Pope being another example, we cannot afford to see greater leadership from a spiritual leader than we see from our elected representatives.

I wouldn’t just stop at the state visit cancellation though. As the visit is intended to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence from Britain, I think a clear message must be sent to the American people. Recording an address from Buckingham Palace, Charles should tell the citizens of the US that he is celebrating their anniversary from afar and while passing on his congratulations, he should explain that due to tumultuous events and unfortunate choices, he feels unable to attend in person.

If the trade deal is to be torn up regardless and the relationship to continue being degraded, we may as well take a stand, as others such as Canada have done. In doing so I think we would quickly realise that TACO Trump does indeed always chicken out. While this speech will likely never happen and I’m sure the Royal Family (an institution I am opposed to anyway) already cannot wait for it to be over.

We will watch closely and see how it unfolds in the coming weeks. You’ll also be able to hear my thoughts throughout the process, as long as you subscribe below! Consider becoming a paid subscriber too to receive even more content as I react live to the increasingly insane politics developments in our world.

Thanks for reading.

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This time a poll conducted by Politico (https://www.politico.eu/article/poll-eu-countries-us-bigger-threat-than-china/) has found that only 12% of people asked in Poland, Spain, Belgium, France, Italy and Germany, would consider the US a close ally.

This poll has been titled ‘The European Pulse Survey’ and it was undertaken by Cluster17, a french opinion research institute. These results showed that respondents from four EU countries regarded the threat from Washington to outweigh the threat from Beijing.

The only other country that unified those responding in its level of threat was Russia, with 70% across the board regarding Putin’s state to be an immediate risk to their safety.

While the Cold War years are clearly behind us, I still find it difficult to process the fact that public opinion across Europe has come to see the USA in a similar light to the Russian Federation. Of course, the US wasn’t exactly adored prior to the Trump administration, with anti-american sentiment not being uncommon in most countries on earth in the post-vietnam, post-iraq, post-Afghanistan era. However, it is clear that during his first term in office Trump degraded that trust even further. But the difference between then and now is mind-boggling, with the biggest threat to Europe or the rest of the world from Trump’s first term probably being withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords (https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/paris-agreement) which one could argue was threatening because of the threat that climate change poses to the entire planet.

But now, we are all playing a completely different ball game being barely half way through Trump’s second (and hopefully final) term. It started off with threats to NATO allies including a threat of invasion to Greenland and threats of military action against Denmark. Then of course we saw the imperial vision of Trump and his cronies unfolding as they took action in Venezuela to assert their authority over ‘their hemisphere’. And now of course the actions in Iran and the backing of Israel’s conquest in Lebanon and its genocide in Gaza can leave little doubt that we are living in a new era of colonialism and empire-building (pursuits that most European countries abandoned some time ago after the second world war).

This latest polling aligns with most anecdotal evidence I have heard across the UK. And with mainland Europe being seen as generally more progressive than Britain, it comes as no surprise that the relationship between these nations and Trump’s US is at an all-time low. Barely 80 years since the liberation of mainland Europe by US, British and allied forces, the MAGA movement and Trump’s own ego have managed to leave what were once powerful bonds in tatters.

Yet still, some European leaders are attempted to force a normality on the situation in hopes of bending reality back to something recognisable. The UK Government led by Keir Starmer has been mocked almost weekly by Trump (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/06/trump-starmer-neville-chamberlain-iran) and has thus far refused to bite back in a characteristically sensible manner (he being a former human rights lawyer). But even after all of that, the British Government seems determined to continue as planned with the state visit of King Charles to the USA this month.

Many people in the UK media, myself included, have called for the state visit to be cancelled. Because despite being a republican (in the true sense of the world; anti-monarchy), the British crown is a political tool that I want to see tax-payers get the most value out of. Using the Royal Family to aid diplomatic relations is a vital part of that and by letting this visit go ahead as planned, shows a willingness to submit to Donald Trump’s will and there are countless examples of doing so leading to more threats and abuse.

For now, we do what we can to hold that fragile Anglo-american relationship together at a diplomatic and professional level. But the majority of the population in the rest of the world is waiting anxiously for the end of the Trump nightmare and will join those Americans in rejoicing when that time finally comes.

In solidarity,

James

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Donald Trump, Author of the ‘Art of the Deal’, legendary negotiator, just managed to lose a war he started himself.

At the eleventh hour, the US President blinked first. Knowing he had backed himself into a corner, he demonstrated that his ego ceases to function when people refuse him. His tactic; exacerbate and exaggerate the stakes, shout louder and louder until the other side gives in out of either fear or boredom.

In the short history of the United States of America, there has never been a president who has openly threatened to commit war crimes and claim that ‘civilisation will die tonight, never to be rebuilt’. But that’s how Donald Trump decided to start the day, with his deadline of 8pm EST approaching without any sign of Iran backing down.

However, mere hours later, after an intervention from the Pakistani Prime Minister, Trump announced to the world that he was accepting the proposed 10 point plan, including a ceasefire for two weeks and Iran gaining control of the Strait of Hormuz, allowing oil shipments to freely flow once more.

So - to put this clearly;

• Trump started a war most US presidents have avoided for nearly 50 years.

• Caused the deaths of an estimated 1600+ civilians and lost the support of the Iranian people who are trying to overthrow their government.

• Had US jets shot down and US allies attacked continuously by Iranian missiles.

• Had the flow of oil halted causing an international fuel shortage and price increases damaging economies worldwide.

• Threatened to destroy civilisation in Iran and then hours later, backed down, allowed Iran to declare victory and gave them the power to have even more control over oil supplies than they did before.

And people are expected to believe this is a ‘victory’?

History has been made and whether or not Trump is buying time to stack the region with more and more troops, he has lost the opportunity to do what his most hawkish supporters hoped he would do.

Let me be clear, Trump is a bully, a narcissist, a sex offender, a criminal and a morally reprehensible individual. What we can also certifiably add to that list now is that he is scared of consequences on the rare occasion he has to face any. In his world of privilege and protection, he’s been cushioned from consequences his entire life. However, facing an enemy that will not blink (something any US intelligence officer could have told him would happen), he just simply does not know what to do.

He was desperate for an off ramp and he’s been given one mercifully by the Pakistanis, although the Iranian’s clearly see this as vindication of them holding out. One person who will be disappointed tonight at the ceasing of hostilities is Benjamin Netanyahu, whose blood lust has been seemingly insatiable.

We will see in the weeks ahead what the ultimate outcome is here, but my guess is that the Trump administration will now attempt to package this as a victory and they will claim that the real objective was ‘stopping Iran from having Nuclear weapons’, despite that not being a threat after last year’s targeted strikes of its Nuclear program. Following that action Trump had claimed the nuclear program was finished and of course now he has needed to resurrect it as a zombie decoy to give him cover for his entirely pointless conflict.

I’ll be joining my good friend over on his Substack Live for our weekly ‘Across the Pond’ show tomorrow (Wednesday 8th April) to discuss this and more in detail, so be sure to join us then to hear more as the world faces the fallout of tonight’s developments.

I’ll also be taking part in various UK media appearances during the day tomorrow. You can keep up to date with these on my Instagram: @Jmatthewsonofficial

In the meantime, please consider subscribing as a paid subscriber or upgrading your membership if you can manage to support my written work. I appreciate every single subscriber regardless, I couldn’t do this without your support.

James

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