Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Wednesday

Boris Johnson

Full text: Boris Johnson’s Tory conference speech

It’s great to be here in Manchester at the best attended conference for years and I know that some of you may have been mildly peppered with abuse on the way in but are you abashed? are you downcast? Of course not. We are conservatives and we get on with serving the people and speaking of service I should begin by paying tribute to my predecessor Theresa, I know the whole of conference remains full of gratitude to you, and to Philip May, for your patience and your forbearance, and yes, we will continue with the work of tackling domestic violence and modern slavery and building on your legacy I have been prime minister for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris and the EU are currently too far apart for a deal

Boris Johnson’s offer to the EU isn’t nothing. He, seemingly with the DUP’s blessing, is proposing that Northern Ireland follow EU regulations on not just agriculture but also manufactured goods for at least the next four years. But his insistence that the UK must leave the EU with its customs territory intact means that there will have to be customs checks on the island of Ireland and that breaches one of the EU and Dublin’s red lines. So, what happens now? Well, I doubt that there will be a deal. I wonder even if there’ll be full-on negotiations; the two sides are just so far apart. Without an agreement, the

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Boris Johnson’s threat to MPs and the EU: ‘Back me or sack me’

In setting the scene for Boris Johnson’s first and potentially historic speech as Prime Minister to Tory party conference, Downing Street made two statements that sounded a lot like threats, both to EU leaders and to opposition MPs. In tearing up the 2107 Joint Report that underlies the so-called backstop to keep open the border on the island of Ireland – that foundation of the Brexit deal agreed by Theresa May and ditched by Johnson – Downing Street said “officials have made it clear that if Brussels does not engage with the offer…then this government will not negotiate further until we have left the EU”. In other words, Johnson wants

Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott: My heart leapt when Boris Johnson became prime minister

If Britain is to be a free country, the difficulties of leaving simply have to be faced. Now, I know that many people here in Britain think that these are daunting times, but surely they are also stirring times ,because yet again a great country is grasping for freedom. If I can say one thing above all, it is that if there is any country on earth that should be capable of standing on its own two feet, it’s Britain. The mother of parliaments, the world’s common language and the industrial revolution, three of the greatest gifts to the modern world. So I just want to make a few fundamental

Tuesday

Charles Day

Why is the EU obsessed with forcing regulatory alignment on Britain?

I still don’t quite understand the position of some ardent Remain supporters. I do not understand why allowing the UK to leave, and then starting up a campaign to rejoin was rejected. After all, that is what the last line of Article 50 invites the state to do by invoking the process in Article 49 (the process to re-join). Doing so would allow Britain to honour the democratic vote, which, contra to common perception, is what a lot of genuine believers in the EU themselves want us to do. It would end the word ‘remainer’ entirely. A word now unfortunately synonymous with a very negative campaign and a dark time

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Priti Patel turns her back on Theresa May’s legacy at the Home Office

This afternoon’s law and order theme to Tory conference did take a bit of a knock when police were called to an altercation involving one of the party’s MPs, resulting in the backbencher, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, being sent home. Not long after this incident, which sent parts of the conference centre into lockdown, Priti Patel walked onto the stage and announced that ‘today, here in Manchester, the Conservative party takes its rightful place as the Party of Law and Order in Britain once again’. Politics today is so tumultuous that it has scarcely been thought remarkable that the Home Secretary is so happy to make clear that her party lost this

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory MP kicked out of conference

Oops. The Conservative party is meant to be focusing on law and order today at its party conference, with Home Secretary Priti Patel taking to the stage to announce new money for tackling country-lines drug gangs and a new fund for the roll-out of tasers among the police. But only metres away from the main stage, one MP was getting in hot water with security staff. This afternoon, the press area of the conference venue was briefly shut down after police were called to deal with an altercation in the International Lounge. It is believed that the Tory MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown clashed with staff when he tried to enter the closed-off

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

10 questions for Remainers, from a Remainer

We told them so, didn’t we? We said it was a terrible idea and would all end in tears. We pointed out that the UK doesn’t send £350 million a week to Brussels, that Turkey was not about to join the EU, and that Britain held the weaker hand and couldn’t dictate the terms of any new relationship. Now, 30 days out from our supposed departure date, Remainers find ourselves in the strongest position yet to thwart Brexit. Parliament has been unprorogued, the government’s hands have been tied, its majority obliterated, and opposition parties have learned to work together (more or less) to frustrate ministers. But — there was always

Chris Daw KC

Corbyn’s cynical Brexit scheme will end in tears for Labour

My piece for Coffee House last week likened Boris Johnson to the naked emperor, puffed up with self-importance but devoid of real power. As the Tory party conference has got underway, I have become even more confident that Boris’s cabinet will soon be shown to be as denuded of power as their leader. But it isn’t just the Tories that are in a mess. Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit position is as untenable and, if anything, even more bizarre than Boris’s. Has there ever been a major party leader entering conference season and an election campaign, in short succession, while explicitly refusing to take a position on the most important issue of our times?

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Why Grant Shapps shouldn’t accelerate the ban on petrol and diesel cars

How fortunate that electric vehicle technology has moved on to the extent that transport secretary Grant Shapps is able to announce he in looking at bringing forward to date on which petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2040 to 2035. Or maybe not. On closer examination, it isn’t battery technology which has advanced – only the political pressure for being seen to act on climate change. It is possible, of course, that some as-yet unknown technology will arrive to make it feasible to ban all petrol and diesel vehicles from 2035. But we are no nearer discovering it yet. Without it, the government is heading for a very

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Boris’s ‘disposable cup’ gaffe

Boris Johnson survived his morning broadcast round without dropping any clangers but he did nearly get caught out on the floor of Tory conference. The Prime Minister was passed a cup of coffee by an aide, only for it to be quickly snatched back from the PM. The reason? ‘No disposable cups’, according to Boris’s staffer. Looks like Boris will have to wait for his caffeine fix…

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Boris has five days to make a Brexit deal

The prime minister is about to launch himself on the most important and arduous challenge of his time in office, and arguably of his life. In the course of just the next five days he will try to secure a Brexit deal from an EU deeply sceptical he is prepared to make the compromises they say they need, and with a British Parliament largely hostile to his vision of life outside the EU. As I mentioned yesterday, he’ll announce the big headline of what he wants in his conference speech tomorrow. A day or two afterwards, he’ll publish his alternative to that backstop, hated by Tory Brexiter MPs and Northern

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s message to Brexiteers: you can trust Boris

Could the EU ride to Boris Johnson’s rescue over the coming weeks, not by offering a new Brexit deal but by ruling out an extension altogether? It would certainly be one way for the government to get around the Benn Act, which requires the Prime Minister to request an extension if he doesn’t get a deal by 19 October but doesn’t dictate what the EU will say in response. The Prime Minister suggested this morning that a refusal to grant an extension could be what the government is hoping for, telling the EU on the Today programme: ‘I think it would be a mistake to keep the UK bound in

Steerpike Steerpike

Listen: Dominic Grieve heckled at conference event

They may no longer be Conservative MPs, but that did not hold back several members of the Gaukeward squad from heading to the Conservative party conference yesterday in Manchester. Former Tory MPs Dominic Grieve, David Gauke, and Alistair Burt took part in a fringe event outside the main conference area, organised by ‘Conservative group for Europe’. And although the audience which had gathered was generally supportive of the ‘rebel alliance’ (and replete with EU flag berets), some in the crowd were less than happy with Dominic Grieve’s plans to hold a second referendum. At several points the former Tory MP was interrupted as he gave his speech, with one member of

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why senior Conservatives are talking about a Brexit extension

Will the UK have left the EU by October 31st? At the Conservative party conference, ministers, MPs and activists are keen to repeat the event slogan: ‘Get Brexit done’. However, many are unsure as to when exactly Brexit will get done. Johnson has promised to take the UK out of the EU by 31 October “do or die” – he has repeatedly said “extension means extinction” for the Tories. But with parliament passing legislation to try to force him to seek an extension, and opposition MPs refusing him an election until that extension is secured, senior Conservatives are starting to contemplate a world in which Brexit isn’t done at the end

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris Johnson’s conference speech will be quickly overshadowed

In a lengthy interview on the Today programme this morning, Boris Johnson denied that the UK’s plans for the Irish border will require checks a few miles from the border. When asked if the UK was proposing a ‘hard border’ a few miles in from the border, he said ‘absolutely not’. But he did say that it is ‘just the reality’ that there will have to be checks somewhere.  Given that Ireland and the EU have made checks anywhere on the island of Ireland a red line, there is going to have to be movement from one side or the other if there is to be a deal. Boris Johnson

Will Heaven

The problem with ‘Islamophobia’ and the Tory party

On Sunday, Policy Exchange held three events at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester – one on the Irish backstop with Arlene Foster, Leader of the DUP; one with Michael Gove talking to Iain Martin on how to deliver Brexit; and one on the subject of Islamophobia. There were some fascinating moments throughout the afternoon. But the most memorable speech of the day was at the session on Islamophobia – an event which is now being horribly misrepresented on Twitter, including by the NUS president, Zamzam Ibrahim, who claims that it denied ‘the existence of anti-Muslim bigotry’. She could not be more wrong. The event was chaired by Trevor Phillips,

Steerpike Steerpike

Mark Francois: Why I won’t buy David Cameron’s book

It perhaps isn’t much of a surprise that Mark Francois won’t be buying David Cameron’s book. But his reason for not splashing out on ‘For the Record’ is somewhat unusual. The Brexiteer revealed that he won’t be putting it on his Christmas list for the simple reason that he doesn’t appear in it. Francois told a Tory conference fringe event: ‘I went to the index, i went down to F, and I looked for my name and it wasn’t there so he can keep his £25 quid.’ Mr S isn’t quite sure how Francois’s refusal to buy the book means that Dave gets to ‘keep’ his money works…

The Spectator

What’s on today at Conservative conference: The Spectator guide | 1 October 2019

Priti Patel is the big draw on the main stage at Tory conference today. But there is plenty happening on the fringes too. Here are the highlights on day three: Main agenda: 10.00 – 12.15: Forging Stronger Communities 14.00: Social Justice in Action 14.45: Shaun Bailey, Tory London Mayoral candidate 2020 15.00: Toughening Up Our Criminal Justice System Robert Buckland Brandon Lewis Lucy Frazer  15.45: Priti Patel, Home Secretary   Fringe events: 09.00: With one month to go until Brexit, how prepared are Britain’s key transport links? Chris Heaton-Harris; Doug Bannister (chief executive, Port of Dover); Manchester Central: Central 5 09.15: Moggcast Live Jacob Rees-Mogg; Paul Goodman; Manchester Central: Conservative

Monday

Alexander Pelling-Bruce Alexander Pelling-Bruce

The Oliver Letwin speech that first revealed the Benn Act game plan

On Coffee House last week, I wrote that the judgment of the Supreme Court shows that the Benn Act is unconstitutional. It is more than that: it constitutes a revolution in the way in which Britain is governed. Oliver Letwin, who helped draft the Act, made this abundantly clear when speaking in the House of Commons on 14 February. His speech came in the run up to the first time Parliament took control to direct Government policy by legislation. But it also reveals the game plan that ultimately led to the Benn Act and the topsy-turvy situation we now find ourselves in. Letwin describes it as “astonishing turn of events”