This is a selection of the articles I wrote for Politico between 2019 and 2023. My portfolio also includes newsletters and articles for subscribers.
Scoops and features with global impact
- No private jets, no helicopters, and a bus to Westminster Abbey: VIP guidance for queen's funeral revealed
- Disgruntled leaders reject VIP buses for queen’s funeral and demand the Biden treatment
- UK rows back from ‘no cars, no private jets’ VIP guidance for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral
- The incredible shrinking Global Britain
- What Boris Johnson can learn from Pericles
- UK MPs accused of using foreign trips for sex tourism
- Britain blames Brussels for driving up UK energy bills in explosive new Brexit row
- EU citizens detained by UK after landing without work visas
- Britain and EU agree draft Horizon deal
- British Council to shut offices in Europe and beyond amid financial crisis
- EU diplomats float emergency Brexit plan to restrict Ireland’s single market access
Brexit and Britain's relation with Europe
- The incredible shrinking Global Britain
- Britain wants special Brexit discount to rejoin EU science projects
- Top EU diplomats head to the English seaside for secret Brexit away day
- Sunak and Macron hail ‘new chapter’ in UK-France ties
- Sunak and Macron: A bankers’ bromance
- Brexiteers fume as UK dampens bonfire of EU laws
- The EU and UK have a Northern Ireland deal — so what’s in it?
- Devil in the details: 5 potential snags in the UK’s big EU deal
- Inside the deal: How Boris Johnson’s departure paved the way for a grand Brexit bargain
- The EU and UK have a Northern Ireland deal — so what’s in it?
- Brexit wrecked Britain’s school holiday trips abroad. It doesn’t have to be this way
- Brexual healing? EU and Britain dream of a fresh start in 2023
- UK and Spain close in on post-Brexit deal for Gibraltar
- Liz Truss seeks her own path back to Europe
- Britain blames Brussels for driving up UK energy bills in explosive new Brexit row
- Liz Truss’ first big parliamentary battle? Brexit (of course)
- Scientists face hard choices as UK prepares to abandon EU projects for years to come
- Researchers plead with EU and UK to leave science out of Brexit battle
- Brexit will outlive Boris Johnson
- With Merkel gone, Germany gets tough on Brexit
- Tory Brexiteers will back Northern Ireland protocol bill
- UK readies summer rollout of Horizon R&D alternative amid Brexit row
- Beyond the Brexit sound and fury, a legal quagmire awaits
- Brits working in Brussels sue Commission over Brexit ‘discrimination’
- Baltics look to Britain to firm up NATO support
- Putin blows up Brexit
- EU gets tough with UK over post-Brexit citizens’ rights
- UK accused of leaving EU citizens in limbo over post-Brexit residence
- Brexit could be poisoned chalice for UK’s Liz Truss
- UK pledges to fight corruption in post-Brexit overhaul of procurement rules
- Post-Brexit Britain needs friends to halt Channel crossings
- Why Britain and France can’t stop fighting about fish
- There’s one big problem for Britain-Germany relations: Northern Ireland
- Johnson and Merkel look past Brexit (and football) with treaty plan
- EU diplomats float emergency Brexit plan to restrict Ireland’s single market access
- EU citizens detained by UK after landing without work visas
- Meet Richard Szostak: The EU’s new Brexit divorce mediator
- UK to discriminate between EU countries on fees for work visas
- Dire straits: The Rock faces a hard Brexit as Gibraltar talks drag on
- Spain and UK strike deal to avoid hard border in Gibraltar after Brexit
- What the post-Brexit Gibraltar deal means
- UK pulls out of EU’s ‘extremely expensive’ Erasmus scheme
- Brexit makes Britain ‘less useful to the US,’ says former top diplomat
- UK plan to ban fur trade sparks questions for Brexit Britain
- EU citizens struggle to claim UK benefits during coronavirus pandemic
- Computer says no to Europeans in Britain
- What Boris Johnson’s victory means for Brexit
- Gibraltar heads to the polls amid no-deal Brexit fears
War in Ukraine
- Zelenskyy blitzes Europe with fighter jet diplomacy
- Cool your jets: Why the West is making Ukraine wait for fighter planes
- Ukraine got its tanks. Now it wants jet fighters too
- UK to train Ukrainian pilots as ‘first step’ toward sending fighter jets
- UK revives proposal to get Soviet-era fighters to Ukraine
- Why Ukraine believes tanks can turn the tide of war
- Ukraine’s military recruits need training. Only one of Europe’s giants is pulling its weight
- Here’s what the leaked US war files tell us about Europe
- Russia is running short of long-range missiles, say Western officials
- Ukraine makes early ‘tactical gains’ in long battle to retake Kherson
- Smugglers’ secrets: How Russia can beat EU sanctions
- EU and UK at odds over how to coordinate sanctions against Russia
- Ukraine calls for Nuremberg-style tribunal to judge Vladimir Putin
- British diplomacy gets a frosty reception in Moscow
- Under US pressure, UK Tories pledge to change tack on dirty money
China
- Rishi Sunak treads fine line on China in foreign policy refresh
- Why Britain’s Pacific trade deal is about more than just trade
- Submarine scramble: Tech issues could threaten 3-nation megaplan for the Pacific
- Global Britain pivots to Asia
- Secret Chinese ‘police stations’ to be investigated around Britain
- Why China’s police state has a precinct near you
- UK and Australia launch pact against Chinese economic ‘coercion’
- UK spy chief: Britain must invest more to counter China’s tech dominance
- UK orders sale of Newport microchip plant by China’s Nexperia on security grounds
- UK response to attack on Chinese consulate protester branded ‘wholly inadequate’
- UK summons senior Chinese diplomat over violent attack at Manchester consulate
- UK asks China to waive immunity for officials responsible for Manchester assault
- 6 Chinese diplomats leave UK after alleged assault
- Xinjiang governor cancels controversial trip to UK
- UK tools up against China’s intel gathering
- China moves in as UK retreats on overseas aid
- Commission seeks to block China from sensitive joint science projects
Science and technology
- UK’s Rishi Sunak lines up £1 billion chips strategy
- Scientists face hard choices as UK prepares to abandon EU projects for years to come
- UK readies summer rollout of Horizon R&D alternative amid Brexit row
- Boris Johnson set to break science funding pledge, officials say
- UK’s new blue-skies science agency to be given huge freedom to take risks
- UK’s ‘science superpower’ dreams need cash, Royal Society chief warns
- Commission seeks to block China from sensitive joint science projects
- Europe’s no-moon-shot space program
- UK tries to get ahead in European space race
- ‘Star wars’ risk to EU’s space plan, says agency chief
Immigration
- EU warns Rishi Sunak against plan to bypass human rights courts
- UK’s Rishi Sunak wants migrants return deal with the EU
- Why Britain’s migration problem isn’t going away
- UK home secretary fights for survival … two weeks after she was last forced to quit
- Spike in Albanian nationals traveling to Britain on small boats
- UK courts could ignore interim ECHR decisions under new human rights plan
- UK seals deal with Rwanda to offshore asylum seekers
- UK Home Office doubles down on migrant pushback tactics despite criticism
- UK wants more asylum seekers returned to Europe
- UK shuts the door to unskilled migrants
- Catalonia calls for EU ‘protection’ from Pegasus cyber snooping
- Catalan spyware scandal prompts soul searching in Madrid, Brussels
- UK readies summer rollout of Horizon R&D alternative amid Brexit row
- UK courts could ignore interim ECHR decisions under new human rights plan
- Spain pardons nine Catalan independence leaders as PM Sánchez seeks to calm tensions
- Spain seeks to increase diplomatic and economic ties in Africa
- Catalan separatists reject Socialist-led government
- Spain’s Pedro Sánchez adopts more hands-off approach to second coronavirus wave
- Catalonia in turmoil after Supreme Court removes president
- Spanish court ruling paves way for Catalan leader’s removal
- Catalonia faces convulsion if Spanish court removes president
- Split over new tough coronavirus measures for Madrid
- Spain divided on pandemic response as coronavirus spreads
- Pedro Sánchez’s support for Spain’s monarchy risks alienating supporters
- Spain to EU: Forcing debt on members will deepen crisis
- A new Moncloa Pact for Spain? Not everyone’s sure
- Spain’s coronavirus truce is over
- Coronavirus: Catalonia prepares for the worst
- Lockdown rules baffle Europeans: From dinosaurs taking the rubbish out to people walking crabs, quarantine has certainly been weird
- Spanish government under fire after defective testing kits fiasco
- Devolved Spain struggles for unity against coronavirus
- Spanish PM calls for EU ‘Marshall Plan’ to stop the coronavirus
- Coronavirus: Spain braced to become the next Italy
- The new faces in Spain’s coalition government
- Pedro Sánchez’s governing manifesto explained
- Sánchez clears last hurdle to rule Spain with far left
- Pedro Sánchez presents program for ruling Spain in coalition with far left
Interviews
- John Healey: Labour urges ‘realism’ on UK’s Indo-Pacific military ambitions
- José Manuel Albares: Spanish foreign minister presses EU to retrain focus on migration
- Arancha González Laya: Forcing debt on EU members will deepen crisis
- Adrian Smith: UK’s ‘science superpower’ dreams need cash, Royal Society chief warns
- Jan Wörner: ‘Star wars’ risk to EU’s space plan, says agency chief
- Roxanne Tahbaz: UK accused of ‘abandoning’ citizen still imprisoned in Iran
