Annabelle Dickson

United Kingdom

Senior Political Correspondent at POLITICO Europe

Inhabits Westminster for @PoliticoEurope. Senior political correspondent and Sunday Cruncher. https://t.co/OXmC22mq0D…

Articles

Reaching Reform

6 days ago | politico.eu | Annabelle Dickson

POLITICO’s weekly newsletter on campaigning, lobbying and political influence in the U.K. By ANNABELLE DICKSON Hello and welcome to another POLITICO London Influence.
How to lose an MP in 10 emails

1 week ago | politico.eu | Annabelle Dickson

POLITICO’s weekly newsletter on campaigning, lobbying and political influence in the U.K. By ANNABELLE DICKSON The sun is shining, and we get to stay up all night thinking about 23 council elections. Could life get any better?
Fear of Farage risks leaving Labour’s left flank unguarded

3 weeks ago | politico.eu | Annabelle Dickson

BUNGAY, England — Nigel Farage has Britain’s Labour Party on the run. Now some MPs think an excessive focus on the right-wing populist is opening the party up to fresh attacks from the left. The Greens had their best-ever general election result last year, landing four parliamentary seats, including one each for co-leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer. That leaves the left-wing outfit — long used to getting fewer column inches than Farage — equaling Reform UK in House of Commons seats.
UK Supreme Court rules ‘woman’ means biological female

4 weeks ago | politico.eu | Annabelle Dickson |Andrew McDonald

The long-running legal challenge was brought by the For Women Scotland campaign group — who argue sex is biological, binary and can’t be changed — against the Scottish government. The case dates back to 2018 when the Scottish administration, led by then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, passed legislation to establish gender quotas to get more women serving on public boards.
Why Keir Starmer’s British Steel sugar rush threatens a hangover

4 weeks ago | politico.eu | Annabelle Dickson |Dan Bloom

The same person said focusing on homegrown heavy industry really will help Labour fight Farage, but argued it is “not a political decision” in itself — rather “a reaction to the geopolitical realities” of a looming global trade war. The direction Britain’s industrial policy should now take has been a live discussion at the highest levels of the Labour Party.
UK Labour’s newest split? Town vs. city

1 month ago | politico.eu | Esther Webber |Annabelle Dickson

LONDON — Keir Starmer leads a Labour Party that appears too big to fail. But nine months after it stormed to victory with an overwhelming majority, dividing lines in his army are beginning to emerge. First apparent was a clash between upstart new MPs and longer-serving stalwarts, both of whom thought they were entitled to a bigger stake in Starmer’s government.
Britain’s lawmakers are obsessing about European courts … again

1 month ago | politico.eu | Annabelle Dickson |Dan Bloom

LONDON — Bashing European laws used to be a favored pastime of right-wing British lawmakers. It’s now going mainstream. Months after inheriting responsibility for Britain’s borders, the U.K.’s center-left Prime Minister Keir Starmer is taking aim at the application of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which he says is being wrongly used to circumvent Britain’s own immigration rules.
UK wants investigation into Israel’s killing of Gaza aid workers

1 month ago | politico.eu | Annabelle Dickson

LONDON — The Israeli army’s killing of 15 humanitarian workers in Gaza last month must be investigated, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday. Asked about the deaths of the emergency workers in south Gaza on March 23, Starmer told members of parliament: “There’s got to be an investigation into that.”The Israeli military has been criticized for killing the medics and for changing its story around the incident.
Labour’s welfare reform headache is now a migraine

1 month ago | politico.eu | Annabelle Dickson |Esther Webber

LONDON — Rachel Reeves was already facing a hard sell on welfare reform. Her job just got a whole lot more difficult. Britain’s top finance minister was on Wednesday forced to set out social security cuts which will go further, and ultimately save less, than billed just a week ago, after the U.K.’s independent spending watchdog cast a skeptical eye over the government’s initial plans.
No Plan B? Labour’s Project Growth still isn’t paying off

1 month ago | politico.eu | Dan Bloom |Annabelle Dickson

LONDON — Rachel Reeves bangs the “growth, growth, growth” drum again Wednesday. But her Labour colleagues are starting to wonder what happens if the music dies. Reeves, Britain's top finance minister, is banking on an economic turnaround to hand her the space to improve straining public services. But forecasts released alongside the chancellor’s spring statement Wednesday are set to halve projected U.K. GDP growth in 2025 to around 1 percent.