Politics

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

Sunday

Paul Embery

Did I witness the moment Boris became an enemy of Jeremy Corbyn?

I see library footage on a news channel of Boris Johnson slinging insults at Jeremy Corbyn over the despatch box and feel a strange sudden sense of déjà vu. I know I have witnessed this performance before. The penny drops. It is winter, 2002. I and my fellow firefighters, on strike over low pay, are shivering on a picket line outside Islington fire station. Local MP Corbyn, ever the ally to workers in struggle, is standing with us. From the corner of my eye, I spot a figure with a red face and blond hair approaching us on a bicycle, pedalling like billy-o. As he whizzes past, he throws curses

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Robert Buckland hits out at ‘unaccountable’ critics of judiciary

The judiciary has come in for a hard time following the Supreme Court’s decision that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament was unlawful. But Lady Hale and her ten fellow justices found a staunch defender at Tory party conference this evening in the form of Robert Buckland. The Lord Chancellor hit out at critics who said their decision was politically motivated. And he told those gathered at the fringe event to ignore anonymous briefings from ‘unaccountable’ people: It’s been quite a few weeks as a member of Cabinet, but I can tell you as well that our judiciary is in good heart, too, because whatever one thinks about the merits of

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Jacob Rees-Mogg: it’s time to reform the House of Lords

After a successful turn on the main stage at Conservative party conference today, Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg made his way to a drinks reception this evening to continue the festivities and to give another speech. There, the Cabinet minister began by listing the three areas where he felt the UK had been held back the most by the ‘protectionist, Bismarckian market system of the EU’: fishing, agriculture and trade. The first of which, he said, meant the government had a ‘debt of honour’ to repay to fishing communities, after the way they were treated when the UK joined the EU. The Moggster also hit out at the British establishment, before

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Dominic Grieve’s surprise turn at Tory conference

What does a Tory rebel do after they have had the Conservative whip withdrawn and then voted against the Tories having a conference recess? Go to Conservative party conference of course. Dominic Grieve has caused a stir this evening at the party’s annual meet in Manchester. The former Conservative MP – who has said he would bring down the government to prevent a no-deal Brexit – made a surprise appearance at the Tory Reform Group’s One Nation Conservative reception. Among this group of pro-EU Tories, Grieve received close to a hero’s welcome – with many attendees thanking him for his efforts to prevent no deal. However, Mr S understands that he

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Arlene Foster: I’ll look at a time limit on the backstop

At a Policy Exchange fringe meeting at Tory conference, Arlene Foster has just ruled out any regulatory checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain that extend beyond agriculture, eliminating one of the possible Brexit compromises. She did say that she’d be prepared to consider a time limit on the backstop. But she thought that Leo Varadkar wouldn’t even be prepared to entertain this. Foster made clear that she could never accept a customs border within the United Kingdom. She argued that would be unacceptable on both constitutional and economic grounds, highlighting that Northern Ireland does far more trade with Great Britain than it does with the Republic of Ireland. She

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‘Tories not welcome here’: Pictures from the anti-Tory rally

Boris Johnson came in for criticism last week for his language in Parliament, but are his critics any better? Mr S headed down to a protest in Manchester timed for the start of Tory party conference to find out. It was mostly good natured, with clowns banging drums, a Boris blimp and a decent turn out despite the miserable weather. But some of those demonstrating certainly had ruder words than ‘humbug’ on their placards.

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Watch: Jacob Rees-Mogg’s revealing summary of the state of British politics

Jacob Rees-Mogg has just given a pretty accurate summary of the state of British politics. The leader of the House of Commons pulled no punches as he addressed the Tory faithful at party conference. Mogg said Corbyn is a ‘weak man’, likened shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer to Brutus and said the Lib Dems were ‘extremists’ over their Brexit stance. Still, at least Mogg did have some kind words to say about one politician: his sister, Annunziata: Like Gulliver tied down at Lilliput, we are tied down by a ragtag, motley collection of feeble, fickle, footling politicians. All in desperate pursuit of a single ignoble aim – to renege on

The Spectator

Full text: Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Tory party conference speech

It is a great honour to be speaking at this conference. I, like many of you have belonged to this party since I was a mere youth – and I was once a youth. I have sat in these seats since the days conferences were held at the seaside and I am glad that the members are once again rightly the focus of these sessions. It was here in Manchester that Disraeli captured the essence of Conservative principles in his 1872 speech at the Free Trade Hall, when he set out our priorities for the constitution and the condition of the people, especially their health. He also noted that the

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Why Margaret Beckett could become caretaker prime minister

Dame Margaret Beckett – the former Labour deputy leader and ex-foreign secretary – is emerging as the most likely compromise candidate to be caretaker prime minister, according to sources involved in opposition talks about ousting Boris Johnson. As I mentioned last week, the Scottish National Party would be prepared to accept Jeremy Corbyn as temporary PM, with the express purpose of securing a three month Brexit delay and holding a general election. But it has become clear in talks between the opposition parties that the Lib Dems and expelled or self-exiled Tory MPs won’t agree to install Corbyn as PM. “We cannot win a vote of no confidence if Corbyn

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Boris insists no-deal Brexit still possible

Boris Johnson – Death threats against MPs are not ‘humbug’ With the Conservatives gathering in Manchester for their party conference, the Prime Minister was Andrew Marr’s big guest of the day. After an eventful few weeks, Marr was not short of topics to discuss. He began with the furore created during the recall of Parliament, when Johnson appeared to dismiss complaints about safety by the Labour MP Paula Sherriff as ‘humbug’. Johnson responded that he took MPs’ security concerns seriously, and that his remarks were taken out of context: BJ: I want to make a very important distinction between… threats and abuse directed at MPs, which is totally unacceptable… and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris Johnson won’t surrender the metaphor

In a feisty interview on The Andrew Marr Show, Boris Johnson defended his use of the term ‘surrender act’, calling it a ‘martial metaphor’ of the type that has long been used in British politics. He said that he had been a ‘model of restraint’ in his own language. He did, however, express regret for sounding so dismissive of the Labour MP Paula Sherriff’s concerns about death threats. It was clear that Boris Johnson had three intentions in this interview. First, to ram home his message that the Benn Act is a ‘surrender act’ – I lost count of the number of times he used the phrase. Second, to try

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

When Brexit is done, this is the party to vote for

We may still be small, but we have better speakers at our conferences than the major parties. At the Social Democratic party AGM on Saturday in Leeds we heard from, among others, Brendan O’Neill, Ben Cobley, Mo Lovatt, our leader William Clouston and the excellent Patrick O’Flynn. And me obvs, with the usual tirade of bile ((co) Emily Maitlis). Attendance for the AGM tripled on last year. We will be the focus on campuses for anti-woke students, the party of freedom of speech and we will continue to be the only party which wishes to reduce immigration, disavows all this gender fluidity nonsense and fights against identity politics and in

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Countdown to Tory conference, sponsored by a People’s Vote

The Conservative party may have improved its use of social media in recent years, ditching the staid pictures of Cabinet ministers at party conference for cheerful images of young activists and campaigners, but it appears that it still might be struggling when it comes to marketing its events. This week, in an Instagram post counting the days down to Conservative conference, the party released a chirpy photograph from last year’s event, of a young man smiling, stamped with the message ‘Get Brexit done’. Perfect branding some might think. Rather unfortunately though for the Conservative party press team, it appears that the man photographed was actually Amatey Doku, a Vice President

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Liz Truss interview: ‘It’s important that we have robust honest debate’

As the Tories gather in Manchester for their annual conference, Boris Johnson hopes to use the event to push post-Brexit opportunities – saying that if the government can get Brexit done, a bright future awaits. Among those opportunities are the new relationships the UK can forge with countries outside of the EU. On the latest episode of the Spectator Women with Balls podcast, I spoke to International Trade secretary Liz Truss about her current brief along with her new role of women and equalities. Truss – who describes herself as a ‘Destiny’s Child feminist’ – says that when Johnson appointed her International Trade secretary he referenced her infamous 2015 conference

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Tories get another rude welcoming in Manchester

When the Tories last came to Manchester for their party conference, delegates were greeted by a ‘Hang the Tories’ protest banner. Mr S is sad to report that the welcome this time from some is not any friendlier. ‘130,000 killed under Tory rule. Time to level the playing field’, declares a banner in Salford above two effigies of hanging figures: Will those who condemned Boris Johnson for his language in parliament this week also speak out about this?

The Spectator

What’s on today at Conservative conference: The Spectator guide

Conservative party conference kicks off today in Manchester with a speech from Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Michael Gove, Liz Truss and Jacob Rees-Mogg will also be taking part in panels on the main stage. Here are the highlights today: Main agenda: 14.00: Welcome to Conference James Cleverly and Pamela Hall 14.20: Building a Safe and Prosperous Britain Ben Wallace MP, Alok Sharma MP, Liz Truss MP 15.05: Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs speech Dominic Raab MP 15.15: Delivering Brexit Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, Michael Gove MP, Stephen Barclay MP 16.30: Meet the Chairman   Fringe events: 12.45: The Future of Conservatism: How to win back younger voters Rt Hon Robert Jenrick

Saturday

Tom Hodgkinson

John McDonnell and the importance of being idle

Amid the headline-grabbing antics of the Prime Minister this week, some stories coming out of Labour party conference got buried. The most significant of these was shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s surprising promotion of idling. McDonnell said that a 32 hour working week should become the norm in ten years and that we should “work to live, not live to work”. In heralding the joys of doing nothing in particular, he has resurrected a forgotten tradition in the socialist movement. McDonnell’s praise of idleness comes as a welcome rejoinder to the assumption that hard toil is at the centre of life. We all remember David Cameron’s praise of “hard-working families”. This is a uniquely

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

The stock market has become an enormous bubble

I don’t usually get up early just for an appointment at a bank. Yet last Tuesday in New York, I lost sleep in order to slam a trove of savings into a certificate of deposit. Surely I could have delayed the quotidian chore for any old day. What was the hurry? I wanted to ensure that the cash would earn a Great Big Two Per Cent. As expected, the next day the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, made its second 0.25 per cent interest rate cut in three months. More cuts are to come — though starting from a miserable 1.75 per cent, it won’t take much whittling before we’re

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Tories only have themselves to blame for Labour’s threat to Universal Credit

The Labour Party is buzzing about in Iain Duncan Smith’s constituency today, threatening both to unseat the former Conservative leader and scrap the reform he introduced: Universal Credit. Jeremy Corbyn made the promise, saying the changes to the benefits system have been an ‘unmitigated disaster’. The party will first get rid of the most controversial aspects of UC – including the fitness-to-work tests, the two-child limit, and sanctions which dock benefits from claimants who miss appointments – before scrapping it entirely. This has naturally prompted protests from the Tories, including some of the many MPs who served as work and pensions Secretary at one point or another. But the truth

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The message behind this year’s Conservative party conference

The Conservatives head to Manchester for an unconventional party conference. After opposition MPs vetoed plans for a conference recess, the Tories will meet while parliament sits. No 10 is bullish that it will not let opposition MPs ruin its moment. Expect cars and helicopters on standby to ferry politicians at the last minute if a surprise vote is called. With a working majority in the region of -40, Conservative MPs are fairly sanguine about the practicalities. ‘Frankly, it doesn’t matter if we are in London or Manchester. We can’t win votes even if we are all in Westminster,’ says one cabinet minister. Ministers and MPs are determined to use the