Iran 1) Regime confirms Khamenei’s death

“Iranian state media has confirmed the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Tasnim and Fars news agencies have confirmed the death of the country’s leader, hours after President Trump said that he had been killed in US-Israeli strikes. “The Supreme Leader of Iran Has Reached Martyrdom,” state broadcaster IRIB reported on Sunday morning.” – Sunday Times

• How the US pulled off the assassination of the century – Sunday Telegraph
• Trump’s bet on Iranian regime change could be his biggest gamble yet – BBC
• Iranians rejoice at death of ‘the devil’ – Sunday Telegraph
• Panic at Dubai Airport as ‘it is hit by an Iranian suicide drone’ and passengers flee wrecked terminal – Mail on Sunday
• Inside Operation Epic Fury – Sunday Times
• Corbyn joins hundreds of pro-Iran protesters in London carrying banners of the Ayatollah – Mail on Sunday
• Why is the US attacking Iran? Trump’s ‘huge gamble’ explained – Mark Urban, Sunday Times
• How the world has reacted – BBC

>Today: ToryDiary: Iranian interventions are a tricky balance of the price, the prize, and the problem with the Prince of Persia

Iran 2) Starmer calls for diplomatic solution

“Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to Donald Trump following strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader – as he urged against further escalation in the Middle East. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said Sir Keir ‘set out that the UK was taking part in coordinated regional defensive operations to protect British people and regional partners following Iran’s indiscriminate retaliatory strikes on allies in the region’. The Prime Minister had earlier said that British planes are ‘in the sky’ to ‘protect our people, our interests and our allies’ after waves of missile attacks in countries across the region. He also spoke to European leaders – with whom he issued a joint statement calling for a diplomatic solution.” – Mail on Sunday

• Starmer blocked US from using British bases for Iran attack – Sunday Times
• The world’s most evil regime is on the brink – and Britain has nothing to do with it – Jake Wallis Simons, Sunday Telegraph
• UK forces must be ready to help US against Iran’s murderous terror-backing regime – Leader, The Sun on Sunday
• Shut down Iran propaganda machine operating in Britain, Starmer told – Sunday Telegraph

Iran 3) Bolton: Trump needs Iranian commanders to turn on the regime

“When an authoritarian government begins to come apart, it can be every man for himself, both at government’s highest levels, and among the rank and file. This potential is what the resistance must seek to exploit. Find commanders, especially in the regular military and police force, but perhaps even in the IRGC, willing to split from the ayatollahs. Find even a few ayatollahs willing to call for the country’s religious leaders to withdraw from politics and return to their true vocation. Those who abandon ship from the regime may not have the purest of motives but what matters is that they defect to what they should perceive as the winning side.” – John Bolton, Sunday Telegraph

Other comment

• I want a free Iran, but deep down I don’t trust Trump to do it – Matthew Syed, Sunday Times
• Trump has opened Pandora’s box but now is our chance to shape Iran’s future – Tobias Ellwood, Mail on Sunday
• Iran strikes were 47 years in the making. They must succeed. – Leader, Sunday Times
• With the regime teetering, Trump must now finish the job – Leader, Sunday Telegraph

Simons resigns as Cabinet Office Minister

“Josh Simons, the Cabinet Office minister engulfed in the Labour Together scandal, has resigned. Simons was cleared by Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent adviser to the prime minister on ministerial standards, of breaching the ministerial code. However, Magnus said there was a risk of “distraction and potential reputational damage” if he remained in the government.” – Sunday Times

Farage calls for an end to non-British citizens voting in UK elections

“Nigel Farage has sensationally claimed that Reform UK was robbed of victory by foreign-born voters in last week’s Manchester by-election. Amid mounting allegations that voter fraud and sectarianism contributed to the Green Party’s shock win, Mr Farage makes the incendiary assertion in the Mail on Sunday that ‘Reform UK won the Gorton and Denton by-election among British-born voters’. And he vowed that if he becomes Prime Minister he will rip up rules which allow non-British citizens to vote in UK elections. Zack Polanski’s Greens targeted the Muslim vote in Gorton and Denton, focusing their campaign on Gaza and accusing Israel of genocide. The party, which released leaflets and videos in Urdu, has been accused of ‘whipping up hatred’ and exploiting sectarianism to secure victory for their candidate, Hannah Spencer.” – Mail on Sunday

• A grave threat to our democracy – Leader, Mail on Sunday
• Family voting is a monstrous attack on our democracy – Nigel Farage, Sunday Telegraph
• The invisible man whose millions are transforming British politics – The Observer
• A culture war with the Greens will only harm Reform – James Frayne, Sunday Telegraph
• ‘Unlike the Tories, Reform MPs aren’t constantly at each others’ throats’ says Jenrick – Sunday Telegraph

Peers 1) Docherty suspended by Labour after sixth-form college group sexual liaisons

“One of Sir Keir Starmer’s new peers has been suspended by Labour after it emerged that he resigned from a sixth-form college group after conducting sexual liaisons during working hours. Joe Docherty became Lord Docherty of Milngavie last month after being nominated by the prime minister. He was stripped of the party whip on Saturday, pending an investigation.” – Sunday Times

Peers 2) Limb to delay taking up her seat

“One of Sir Keir Starmer’s new peers has said she will not take up her seat until revelations relating to her past are resolved. Dame Ann Limb, an education expert, admitted lying about having a PhD following a Sunday Times investigation last month. She now faces fresh allegations related to her time at City & Guilds, a historic charity which she chaired. She oversaw the sale of the charity’s assets in a secretive deal that saw two executive receive bonuses in excess of £1 million.” – Sunday Times

By-election 1) Starmer still “up for a fight”

“Starmer is certainly keen to project an image of being “up for a fight” with Reform, arguing that despite the Gorton & Denton result, when it comes to a general election the Greens will not be a serious proposition and Labour will still be the rallying point for the majority of the country that wants to stop Farage. “In the last few weeks we’ve seen Keir taking fights on,” says the person close to Starmer. “Taking on Jim Ratcliffe. Taking on Elon Musk. He feels this is the existential fight for our times and he’s at his best when his back is to the wall. This guy’s not going anywhere.” – Sunday Times

• Green surge at next General Election “will topple at least five Labour cabinet ministers” – The Sun on Sunday
• Starmer must now accept the game is up. Forget talk of another relaunch or how voters were duped by an alliance of hard Left activists and drug-addled eco-warriors – Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday
• Labour must stop channelling Reform and unite with progressives. That’s the lesson from Gorton and Denton – Sadiq Khan, The Guardian
• Starmer’s response to the Gorton and Denton debacle should be a government that truly, finally, reflects him – Tom Baldwin, The Guardian
• Reeves wants her spring statement to calm Labour. Good luck. – Jason Cowley, Sunday Times

By-election 2) Colvile: The real winners may be Kemi Badenoch and Ed Davey

“The rise of the Greens will inevitably drag Labour to the left. Just as the by-election thumping in Chesham & Amersham in 2021 killed any pretence that Boris Johnson was leading a reforming government, so Gorton & Denton is likely push Sir Keir Starmer, or whoever succeeds him, down the same route of desperate and relentless pandering to activists and backbenchers. That, in turn, will open up space in the middle, because many of the things that Labour activists and backbenchers want to do are either bad or unpopular or both. Which could be good news for both the Tories and the Lib Dems, depending on whether Davey can peel off more disillusioned Labour voters than he loses to the Greens, as the new face of protest.” – Robert Colvile, Sunday Times

Ashcroft: Voters think Badenoch has earned the right to a hearing

“The unveiling of Nigel Farage’s senior team illustrated the issue. Some were not sure the line-up of familiar faces from the Johnson-Truss-Sunak years was the change they were looking for. ‘It wasn’t the original plan, was it, to be a load of failed Tories?’ one observed. But the exodus is also an ongoing headache for the Conservatives, signalling the defectors saw little prospect of imminent recovery. Though creeping slowly up, the numbers saying the Tories have changed since their electoral defenestration remain low. Here there is a contrast with Kemi Badenoch herself, who continues to gain recognition with her feisty performances in the Commons and elsewhere. With her most dangerous internal opponent gone, she has begun to rally disheartened Tories and pique the interest of the broader public. Voters think she has earned the right to a hearing. The question is what she is able to do with it.” – Lord Ashcroft, Mail on Sunday

Blair’s Institute warns of minimum wage rise increasing youth unemployment

“Sir Tony Blair’s institute has warned a Government plan to raise the minimum wage for youngsters would choke off the economy. Ministers want to remove age restrictions so that workers aged from 18 to 20 would earn the same as the over-21s. But the Tony Blair Institute says any changes in policy should be “explicitly conditional on economic conditions”. It predicted more rises could “choke off the churn that underpins economic dynamism”. And it claimed higher employer taxes and prioritising Net Zero targets over bills hurts growth. It comes amid warnings the Government’s policies are fuelling record youth unemployment.” – The Sun on Sunday

Poilievre says British Conservatives can learn from Canada

“I ask him about the big debate on the right of British politics: should Reform merge with the Conservatives in Britain, as they did in Canada in 2003 — a move that fundamentally shifted the country’s politics, and led to the new party’s leader Stephen Harper winning three consecutive elections? He pauses, saying he doesn’t want to cast himself as an “oracle that can dictate to our British friends what they should be doing”. He can, however, talk about the journey he was on, having joined Reform in his teens. How do two parties on the right come together? “You start with a Venn diagram of the things that you agree on, that across the coalition you have agreement on. Harper said, ‘Look, we all agree with lower taxes, smaller governments, balanced budgets, tougher criminal justice laws, a stronger military, and so let’s focus on those things as relentlessly as possible’.” By focusing on that, the “tribalism of the different parties kind of melted away … that’s what we did in Canada, and I would say that any conservative coalition today anywhere in the western world has to be very fiercely pro-worker and pro-working class.” – Interview with Pierre Poilievre, Sunday Times

Other political news

• Starmer’s Chagos deal facing legal challenge from Maldives – Sunday Telegraph
• Private schools lose legal challenge over VAT changes – BBC
• Can Anas Sarwar win the Holyrood election with ‘quiet optimism’? – Sunday Times
• Rayner to speak at landlords’ conference about property tax rules in move branded ‘wind up’ – The Sun on Sunday
• Britons in Gibraltar win back lost EU freedom of movement rights – Sunday Telegraph
• Professor who stopped Pathways puberty blocker trial recused over ‘bias’ – Sunday Times
• Man, 38, charged after vandalism of Winston Churchill statue – Sunday Telegraph
• Bank for ultra-rich warns Reeves over entrepreneur exodus – Sunday Telegraph

Hannan: Adam Smith started a revolution 250 years ago. There’s still time to rescue it.

“The best way to soothe these doubts is to read Smith’s book. If you don’t fancy taking on both volumes, Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute is marking the anniversary by bringing out a short, graphic version, like an Asterix book – which, trust me, is much more gripping than I have made it sound. Smith writes about the world as it is. His work, as we might pretentiously put it, is empirical rather than normative. He could not be less like Karl Marx who, while purporting to be scientific, wrote about an imaginary and, as we now know, impossible world. You have your book, comrades, and we have ours; and ours works in real life, as can be seen by comparing East and West Germany, or North and South Korea.” – Daniel Hannan, Sunday Telegraph

News in brief

• The Iran strikes might be Trump’s Sarajevo moment – Jacob Heilbrunn, The Spectator
• Will Iran’s Islamic Republic survive the US onslaught? – Nicholas Hopton, New Statesman
• Gorton and Denton has changed everything – William Atkinson, CapX
• How Poland forged its economic freedom – Harry Phibbs, Foundation for Economic Education
• Reform can’t make Britain Christian again – Jimmy Nicholls, The Critic