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Fellowship Announcement: Dr Nigel Fletcher
The Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London is delighted to announce that Dr Nigel Fletcher, the political historian and commentator, has been appointed as our latest Honorary Research Fellow.
Date added: Tuesday, April 29, 2025
'A bonfire of the quangos?': Was Wes Streeting right to abolish NHS England?
Following Wes Streeting's decision to abolish the health agency, NHS England, Patrick Diamond considers the merits of the Health Secretary's decision, how ‘arms-length’ agencies have created increasingly confused accountabilities and how Ministers could rewire our political and constitutional system.
Date added: Tuesday, March 25, 2025
The UK in the AI regulation debate: In hoc with Trump’s America or going their own way?
After the UK government decided to follow the United States in not signing the Paris Summit Declaration on AI, Nathan Critch and Darcy Luke consider what the UK government's AI strategy tells us about its 'number one mission' to improve Britain's anaemic economic growth.
Date added: Monday, March 17, 2025
Queen Mary's Mile End Institute announces ongoing collaboration with Dods Political Intelligence
Queen Mary experts are set to provide public affairs professionals with cutting-edge insights into UK politics and policy as part of an ongoing collaboration with the parliamentary and political intelligence service Dods Political Intelligence.
Date added: Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Is the Labour Party losing its grip on London?
With the Mile End Institute's latest opinion polling suggesting that Labour's lead in London now stands at just 12 percentage points, Elizabeth Simon explores what the data tells us about the Government's first five months in office and what it could mean for British politics as a whole.
Date added: Wednesday, December 4, 2024
John Prescott: A Labour Giant
After the death of the former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, was announced this morning, Tony McNulty (who served as his Junior Minister) reflects on the gravitas, personal warmth and political nous of a Labour giant.
Date added: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Biting the Bullet: Fiscal Rules and Direct Taxes
In the second of a two-part series on the forthcoming Budget, Colm Murphy and Patrick Diamond make the case for revising the fiscal rules and raising direct taxation.
Date added: Friday, October 25, 2024
'Wholesale privatisation and global competition': The end of traditional steel making in Britain
With the recent closure of the last active blast furnace in Port Talbot, Nathan Critch and Darcy Luke explore how the end of traditional steel making in the UK will affect regional economic policymaking, devolution, industrial productivity and the Green Transition.
Date added: Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Long Overdue: Raising Taxes on Wealth
In the first of a two-part series on the first Budget of the new Labour government, Patrick Diamond and Colm Murphy discuss the question of wealth taxation.
Date added: Friday, October 18, 2024
Getting a Grip? Moving on from Gray Government
After Sue Gray's dramatic resignation as Keir Starmer's Chief of Staff, Max Stafford assesses the qualities her successor, Morgan McSweeney, will bring to the role and asks whether the appointment of a political street-fighter will help get Number 10 back on track.
Date added: Thursday, October 10, 2024
The Gray Heart of Government: Downing Street's New Chief
As Keir Starmer marks two months in Downing Street, Max Stafford explores how Sue Gray has settled back into Whitehall as the Prime Minister's Chief-of-Staff, her 'fearsome reputation' and rumours of a major parting-of-the-ways in Starmer's inner team.
Date added: Thursday, September 5, 2024
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Reflections on the 'Starmer Revolution' and the early days of the new Labour Government
Two weeks after the General Election that established the first Labour government in 14 years, Tony McNulty reflects on their first two weeks in power and what this week's King's Speech tells us about Labour's approach to governing and their policy priorities.
Date added: Saturday, July 20, 2024
Should each and every vote count? Exploring Britain's 'Democratic Deficit'
A week on from the General Election, Mary Honeyball asks whether First Past the Post has had its day and argues that participation in general elections in Britain will only improve when all shades of opinion are able to have their say.
Date added: Thursday, July 11, 2024
A Staging Post for Women: Reflecting on the 2024 General Election
As the General Election draws to a close, Mary Honeyball observes that women have been severely under-represented in the media during the campaign and outlines some of the challenges facing Rachel Reeves if she becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer as she tries to 'close the gender pay gap once and for all'.
Date added: Thursday, July 4, 2024
In Britain, "Supermajorities" are the norm. And that's the problem.
As voters across the United Kingdom head to the polls, Robert Saunders reflects on the emergence of the real villain of this election - 'The Supermajority' ...
Date added: Thursday, July 4, 2024
Election Night at QMUL
As voters across the United Kingdom head to the polls today, experts from the Mile End Institute and the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary will be appearing in the media, providing expert analysis of the final hours of campaign and what this election will mean for the future of British politics.
Date added: Thursday, July 4, 2024
Election Round-up from QMUL
Over the last week, experts from the Mile End Institute and the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary have appeared in media, providing expert analysis of the twists and turns of the campaign and the main parties' policy commitments. This round-up features a selection of their work.
Date added: Thursday, July 4, 2024
Things Can Only Get Bitter? Managing the new Parliamentary Labour Party
With just under a week to go until polling day, Tony McNulty reflects on what New Labour's time in government from 1997 to 2010 can teach Keir Starmer and his team about managing the Parliamentary Labour Party in government.
Date added: Friday, June 28, 2024
How are Londoners intending to vote at the General Election, and why?
With just one week to go until polling day, Elizabeth Simon asks what our latest Savanta poll of the London electorate tells us about the General Election and the issues that will shape how Londoners vote.
Date added: Thursday, June 27, 2024
The Rise of the Far Right in Britain
With a new poll putting Reform one point ahead of the Conservative Party, Mary Honeyball argues that the rise of the 'hard right' across the EU will empower populists in the Conservative and Reform parties. With just over a week until polling day, Honeyball calls on the mainstream parties to get to grips with the growing popularity of Nigel Farage and Reform.
Date added: Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Election Round-up from QMUL
Over the last week, experts from the Mile End Institute and the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary have appeared in media, providing expert analysis of the twists and turns of the campaign and the main parties' policy commitments. This round-up features a selection of their work.
Date added: Friday, June 14, 2024
Election Round-up from QMUL
Over the last week, experts from the Mile End Institute and the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary have appeared in media, providing expert analysis of the twists and turns of the campaign and the main parties' policy commitments. This round-up features a selection of their work.
Date added: Friday, June 14, 2024
So, they made you a Minister!
As the Labour Party launches its manifesto ahead of next month's General Election, Tony McNulty reflects on the lessons of his service in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's administrations and offers some sage advice to Labour politicians preparing to walk the corridors of power for the first time in 14 years.
Date added: Thursday, June 13, 2024
The Brexit-Sized Elephant in the Room
With next month's General Election fast approaching, the former Labour MEP believes that Brexit is this election's elephant in the room. She argues that, by refusing to address the United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union, both Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak risk furthering the social and economic crises facing the country.
Date added: Friday, June 7, 2024
Meet QMUL's Election Experts
Between now and the General Election on Thursday 4 July, experts from Queen Mary will be commenting on the twists and turns of the campaign, analysing the main parties' manifestos and exploring the key political and policy questions facing the next government.
Date added: Friday, May 24, 2024
Election Round-up from QMUL
Over the last week, experts from the Mile End Institute and the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary have appeared in media, providing expert analysis of the twists and turns of the campaign and the main parties' policy commitments. This round-up features a selection of their work.
Date added: Wednesday, May 29, 2024
How to call a General Election ...
A week after Rishi Sunak fired the starting gun on this summer's general election from outside a rainy Downing Street, Philip Cowley and Matthew Bailey explore the history of this British 'tradition'.
Date added: Wednesday, May 29, 2024
The Asquithian Traits of the Next (Likely) Prime Minister
As it becomes clear the Labour Party is on course to win the next general election, the question that think tanks, journalists, and the public are increasingly asking is: who is Keir Starmer? More specifically, as Sanjit Nagi explores, what can we expect from him as Prime Minister of the first Labour government in fourteen years?
Date added: Friday, March 22, 2024
Addressing Barriers to Women's Representation in Party Candidate Selections
In her latest article in The Political Quarterly, argues the focus of discussions around gender disparities in UK parties' candidate selections should shift away from individual women toward the party structures and practices that perpetuate gender inequality.
Date added: Thursday, May 9, 2024
'Turning the intellectual page on New Labour': Rachel Reeves' Mais Lecture
In his final blog as Director of the Mile End Institute, Patrick Diamond reflects on the Mais Lecture that Rachel Reeves gave last month and explores what it tells us how Keir Starmer and Reeves will seek to forge a new political and economic settlement for the 2030s if the Labour Party wins the forthcoming general election.
Date added: Friday, April 26, 2024
Recall: A meaningful legacy, and a helpful guide
On this day in 2015, the Recall of MPs Act received Royal Assent. In this blog, Matthew Hanney reflects on his work on the Bill during his time advising Sir Nick Clegg and what those in favour of electoral reform today can learn from Recall.
Date added: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
'Coherent, characterful and often compelling': Ben Riley-Smith's The Right to Rule
In his latest piece for the MEI Blog, Jay Jackson reviews Ben Riley-Smith's anthropological account of Conservative government since 2010 and concludes that it is a coherent, characterful, and often compelling accompaniment to studies of policy and process.
Date added: Thursday, March 14, 2024
How a handful of Tory activists prevented a change in the Conservative Party's leadership rules
With the next general election fast approaching, Lee David Evans looks back to the aftermath of the 2005 election when the outgoing Conservative Party leader, Michael Howard, attempted to fundamentally reform his party's internal democracy.
Date added: Friday, February 23, 2024
Starmer's Lessons from the First Labour Government
In the week of the centenary of the formation of the first Labour government, Richard Johnson assesses the 1924 government's achievements and the 'eerily common challenges' that Keir Starmer shares with Ramsay MacDonald.
Date added: Friday, January 26, 2024
Plus ça Change, Plus c’est la Même Chose in the DR-Congo
After the DR-Congo went to the polls last month, Reuben Loffman explores what this controversial presidential election tells us about the Congolese electoral system and what we might expect from Félix Tshisekedi’s second term in office.
Date added: Friday, January 19, 2024
What is Labour for? Looking ahead to the 2024 general election
In his first piece of 2024, Patrick Diamond looks ahead to the next general election and, reflecting on two new important books on Labour's history, asks what the party is for and whether has the will and policies to bring about ‘a new age of hope'.
Date added: Monday, January 15, 2024
The Tamworth by-election: A barometer for post-Brexit Britain and where the modern Conservative Party will be laid to rest?
Ahead of tomorrow's Tamworth by-election, Jay Jackson looks back to Robert Peel's infamous 'Tamworth Manifesto' in December 1834 and asks where the Conservative Party's defining 'prudent adjustment' will take it next.
Date added: Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Breaking the Glass Chamber: The Role of the Local in Shaping Women's Political Activism
With just over a month to go until International Women's Day 2023, Micaela Panes reflects on last September's Breaking the Glass Chamber conference and highlights the important of 'the local' in women's political history.
Date added: Friday, February 3, 2023
Why do citizens petition Downing Street?
Citizens have been petitioning Downing Street for well over a century. In this blog, Henry Miller explains why delivering petitions to Number 10 has been a popular campaign tactic - even though the prime minister rarely responds - and why, despite the rise of e-petitions and digital democracy, petitioners still knock on the famous black door.
Date added: Thursday, May 25, 2023
'Return Taverne': 50 years on from the Lincoln by-election
Fifty years ago today, Dick Taverne, the former Labour MP, won the Lincoln by-election for 'Democratic Labour'. In this blog, Tom Chidwick explores Taverne's 'local difficulties' and the consequences of one of the most significant by-elections of the last century.
Date added: Wednesday, March 1, 2023
'It is no good thinking there is no life left if one is not elected Pope': Rab Butler's failure to become Prime Minister in October 1963
In the third part of his series on the Conservative Party's leadership 'selection' sixty years ago, Lee David Evans revisits the fall-out from Harold Macmillan's resignation and why his de facto deputy, Rab Butler, failed to reach the zenith of British politics.
Date added: Friday, November 3, 2023
David Cameron's Bloomberg speech: 10 years on
To mark the tenth anniversary of David Cameron's Bloomberg speech, Dr Karl Pike considers the 'pressures' Cameron faced, the consequences of his commitment to hold an In-Out referendum, and the importance of good judgement in government.
Date added: Friday, January 20, 2023
Budgets: The Local and the National
Ahead of tomorrow's Spring Budget, Greg Stride from the Local Government Information Unit explores the state of local government funding, arguing that there is little evidence that Jeremy Hunt will make significant changes in England.
Date added: Tuesday, March 14, 2023
The Gray Revolution: 'Bombproofing' Sir Keir
In our final entry for 2023, Max Stafford considers the impact that the former civil servant Sue Gray has had on the Labour Party and its preparations for government since becoming Sir Keir Starmer's Chief of Staff in September.
Date added: Thursday, December 21, 2023
Consolidators versus Transformers: The New Dividing Line in Labour's Politics?
Following the launch of our new pamphlet at the Labour Party's conference in Liverpool this week, Patrick Diamond reflects on Labour's image, its internal strategic disagreements, and how transformational the Party's programme for the next election will be.
Date added: Thursday, October 12, 2023
'Back to Basics': 30 years on
30 years after John Major gave his infamous call to go 'Back to Basics' at the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool, Tom Chidwick revisits his speech and considers the similarities between Major's campaign for 'commonsense and competence' and Rishi Sunak's desire to make 'Long Term Decisions for a Brighter Future'.
Date added: Saturday, October 14, 2023
Our New Pamphlet: Governing in Hard Times
Ahead of this year's Labour Party conference, which starts in Liverpool on Sunday, the Mile End Institute is publishing its new pamphlet on the urgent questions facing Labour and the wider centre-left.
Date added: Friday, October 6, 2023
Drama at Party Conference (Blackpool, 1963)
As this year's Conservative Party conference draws to a close, Lee David Evans looks back to the dramatic conclusion to one of its most consequential conferences - sixty years ago.
Date added: Wednesday, October 4, 2023
How has the UK's agricultural policy changed since Brexit?
In the next in a series of pieces from the European Journal of Public Policy's recent special edition on British Policymaking After Brexit, Wyn Grant and Alan Greer consider the extent to which the UK has developed a distinct agricultural policy since Brexit, after years of British politicians criticising the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.
Date added: Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Why 'taking back control' of environmental policy is easier said than done
In the next in a series of pieces from the European Journal of Public Policy's recent special edition on British Policymaking After Brexit, Viviane Gravey and Andy Jordan explore why 'de-Europeanising' Britain's environmental policy presents such a challenge and consider how the devolved administrations' approach has differed from that of the UK Government.
Date added: Monday, September 25, 2023
How Brexit became an exercise in 'muddling through'
In the first in a series of pieces from a recent special edition of the European Journal of Public Policy, Patrick Diamond considers how the British state's response to Brexit became an exercise in 'muddling through' and argues that our governing structures and processes are increasingly coming under strain.
Date added: Monday, September 18, 2023
Labour's cautiousness just won't cut it when it comes to 'Levelling Up'
Lisa Nandy's replacement by Angela Rayner as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities signals more caution from Keir Starmer's office. In this blog, Jack Newman and Dave Richards argue that 'Levelling Up' is an area where caution is potentially damaging, and real ambition is needed to deliver much-needed economic growth across England and the UK as a whole.
Date added: Thursday, September 7, 2023
Harold Macmillan's Controversial Resignation Honours
In his first contribution to the MEI Blog, Lee David Evans explores the controversial resignation honours list that dogged a Conservative Prime Minister's last days in office - sixty years ago.
Date added: Tuesday, August 1, 2023
Major Clean Bowled: the Maastricht Confidence Motion 30 Years On
30 years ago today, John Major's government was trapped in a pincer movement orchestrated by Conservative rebels and the Labour Party's frontbench. David Ward explores how the Prime Minister decided to table a motion of confidence in his own government, the part that John Smith played in this dramatic episode in parliamentary history, and how it revealed the near ungovernable state of the Conservative Party.
Date added: Monday, July 24, 2023
Governing in Hard Times: Overcoming the obstacles to a Labour government
Following our conference on the urgent political and policy questions facing the centre-left ahead of the next general election, Patrick Diamond considers the obstacles facing the Labour Party and how they might formulate viable political strategies to overcome them.
Date added: Friday, June 23, 2023
'Talent in high places': A prime ministerial friendship
To mark the thirty-forth anniversary of the former Conservative Prime Minister's appearance on Channel 4's After Dark programme, Tom Chidwick chronicles Sir Edward Heath's friendship with the actor and UNICEF ambassador, Peter Ustinov.
Date added: Saturday, June 10, 2023
Urgent Questions for the British Centre-Left
Ahead of our conference on the centre-left this Thursday, Colm Murphy maps out the formidable challenges that the Labour Party - and its potential governing partners - must overcome to prevail in the next election and successfully govern a divided country in a disorderly world.
Date added: Monday, June 12, 2023
Creating an Inclusive Education System for all
Following a collaborative event, held in conjunction with the Disability Policy Centre last week, Lyndsey Jenkins considers how the voices and rights of disabled people can be put at the heart of the education system in England and the rest of the UK.
Date added: Tuesday, May 30, 2023
What does Dominic Raab's resignation tell us about the current state of Minister-Civil Servant relations?
In the wake of Dominic Raab's resignation as Deputy Prime Minister after two claims that he bullied civil servants were upheld by an independent investigation, Patrick Diamond and Dave Richards consider what this saga can teach us about current relations between ministers and civil servants.
Date added: Saturday, April 22, 2023
The Failure of Remain: the remarkable mobilisation and limited efficacy of the anti-Brexit movement
Following the referendum in June 2016, there was a mass mobilisation of anti-Brexit activism across all parts of the UK. Based on their recently published book, The Failure of Remain, Stijn van Kessel and Adam Fagan examine this movement and the 'politicisation of Europe' by a grassroots social movement.
Date added: Thursday, March 30, 2023
Rebuilding the 'governing marriage' between Ministers and the Civil Service
Following Moazzam Malik's revelatory article in The Guardian about the deteriorating relationship between Ministers and Civil Servants, Patrick Diamond reflects on the rise of political appointees in Whitehall and assesses how reforming the machinery of government can repair the 'governing marriage'.
Date added: Friday, March 17, 2023
The Return of Sue Gray
After news broke yesterday that Sue Gray, the author of the 'Partygate' inquiry, has been appointed as Keir Starmer's new Chief of Staff, Max Stafford considers what Gray will bring to the Opposition, ACOBA, and Labour's transition to government.
Date added: Friday, March 3, 2023
Mission: Possible. Keir Starmer is preparing for Government
After Keir Starmer unveiled his '5 Missions' last week, Wes Ball and Alan Wager consider the transition from opposition to government, the dangers of 'unforeseen policy gaps', and how to translate 'campaigning poetry' into 'Whitehall prose'.
Date added: Thursday, March 2, 2023
Showing Ambition: The challenge for Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer has some big choices to make about the government he wants to lead. Karl Pike argues that whatever he decides, the Labour leader cannot afford to be unambitious.
Date added: Friday, February 24, 2023
'The formidable and lasting power of multilateral partnerships': Ernest Bevin's continued relevance in 2023
Despite rationing and hardship at home, working-class voters in postwar Britain understood the need to provide aid to Europe and beyond. Ryan Henson and Alice Palmer argue that Ernest Bevin, more than any other politician, was the reason why.
Date added: Monday, February 6, 2023
Labour's Commission on the UK's future: towards a 'new politics'?
Following the publication of Labour's Commission on the UK's Future in December 2022, David Richards and Patrick Diamond reflect on the Report's recommendations, the need to tackle the UK's weak productivity and anaemic growth, and how Labour can maintain the momentum for constitutional reform.
Date added: Tuesday, January 24, 2023
A unique opportunity? How Keir Starmer can change the conversation on drugs
Jay Jackson argues that Keir Starmer has a unique opportunity to seize the drug policy reform agenda and concludes that, as a former Director of Public Prosecutions, the Labour leader has the experience and credibility to bring the public with him.
Date added: Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Brentry at 50: How postwar Britain joined the European Community and the implications for today
Three years on from the 2019 Brexit election, debate over the UK's relationship with the European Union may have abated but shows no signs of disappearing. To mark the recent anniversary of the EU's 'first enlargement' (when Denmark, Ireland, and the UK all became members), Dr Daniel Furby revisits the circumstances that enabled post-war Britain to join the European Community and considers the prospects for re-accession.
Date added: Monday, January 9, 2023