The Spectator

The Spectator is a British centre-right political weekly, founded in 1828, which describes itself as the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language. It appears in print and online, and is owned by Sir Paul Marshall. Its politics broadly FAVOUR free markets, low taxation and scepticism of EU integration, though it keeps Independent editorial lines and has run critical coverage of figures across the right.

In 2026 its columnists and reporters supplied several of the readings that framed the year's politics. After the BBC Wales leaders' debate on 28 April it reported Nigel Farage's Welsh net rating at minus 18, with 32% saying he did well and 50% badly, a figure his opponents used to argue Reform UK had a ceiling in Wales. Fraser Nelson argued that the Institute for Fiscal Studies' rejection of all five Holyrood manifestos exposed a political class promising Westminster-level spending on Holyrood-level revenues. In July Charles Moore wrote that Andy Burnham's uncontested route to Downing Street delivered spectacle without a policy platform.

In September it reported Reform UK's £80bn spending-cut pledge and judged that the cut and a claimed £30bn interest saving both depend on gilt investors first lowering British yields. Its readership on the right makes such verdicts on right-wing parties' numbers carry weight.