Politics

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

Tuesday

Daniel DePetris

Can Joe Biden maintain his lead over the fall?

It was Labor Day in the United States yesterday, which can only mean one thing—now that the barbecues and swimming at the beach are over, Americans will be tuning in to the 2020 Democratic presidential primary a lot more often. The candidates are entering a fall campaign season that could prove pivotal for their operations, in both good ways and bad. In terms of polling, the numbers have been quite static. Former Vice President Joe Biden is still the man to beat, having sustained a double-digit lead over his competitors throughout the dog days of summer despite numerous mistakes that would have been fatal to any other candidate. Biden, whose first run

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris tries to charm Tory MPs in Commons tearoom

The Tory rebels on tonight’s motion are in the process of losing the party whip. There were many more than the whips had expected, but this may well be seen by those around Boris Johnson as being a way of getting rid of the sort of MPs who would always be a thorn in the Prime Minister’s flesh. There is little point in having an election to get a majority if that majority turns out to be hollow, with a large group of backbenchers who won’t actually back the government on the key issue of the day. All this might be true, but the Conservative party tonight is in a

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Government loses vote – Boris Johnson looks to early election

Boris Johnson tonight suffered his first government defeat in his first Commons vote since becoming Prime Minister. Tory rebels joined forces with opposition MPs to take control of the agenda tomorrow – the first stage of their attempt to pass a law to legislate against no deal. The Commons voted 328 to 301 – meaning the government lost by 27 votes. This was on the high end of Tory expectations. 21 Tory MPs rebelled tonight, including Ken Clarke, David Gauke, Rory Stewart and Nicholas Soames. A No. 10 spokesman confirmed that this group will now have the whip removed: ‘The Chief Whip is speaking to those Tory MPs who did not vote

The Spectator

Full list: the Tory MPs who rebelled against Boris Johnson

Rebels against the government have succeeded in their first step of stopping a no-deal Brexit this evening, as MPs voted (by 328 votes to 301) to seize control of the Commons order paper. The House of Commons will now debate a bill tomorrow aimed at preventing Boris Johnson taking the UK out of the EU without a deal, while Boris Johnson will attempt to call a general election. 21 Tory MPs voted against the government tonight, defying Boris Johnson’s threat to deselect them at the next election if they rebelled. Number 10 has confirmed this evening that every one of these MPs will lose the whip. Below are all 21

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Boris may now accept rebel motion – then call an election

I have belatedly worked out that Boris Johnson can and probably will accept the legislation delaying Brexit as the price of going to the country in a general election – because he would campaign on a manifesto of leaving the EU on 31 October. So if he wins the clear Commons majority he seeks, he could repeal that legislation in a single day before 31 October and could insist that the Lords do not block repeal (because repeal would have been in the Tory manifesto). So we are heading for a general election as a proxy for a referendum, with Tories campaigning to Brexit, deal or no deal, on 31 October.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris’s no-deal immigration plan

Tomorrow the government will say what will happen to free movement in the event of a no-deal Brexit. I understand that free movement will be replaced by a three-year temporary Leave to Remain Scheme for EU nationals who arrive in the UK before 31 December 2020 and register with the EU settlement scheme. Their three years would start from December 2020. So, in other words, if you are an EU citizen who arrives in the UK in March 2020 you would be entitled to stay until at least December 2023. This is a significant change from previous government plans to end free movement on 1 November in the event of

Steerpike Steerpike

Phillip Lee’s promise to respect the Brexit vote

In a dramatic move earlier this evening, the MP Phillip Lee crossed the House of Commons floor to join the Liberal Democrats, in protest at Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy. The MP, who represents Bracknell (a constituency that voted Leave in 2016), blasted the government in a statement for ‘using political manipulation, bullying and lies’ to achieve its agenda. But Mr S wonders if perhaps Lee should look a little closer to home before he criticises others… Back in 2016, before the EU referendum, Lee spoke at the Frontline Club and emphatically promised the audience and his constituents that ‘if the country votes to leave I will represent the public’s view and

Mark Gettleson

Could the Tory rebels win back their seats at the next election?

Imagine that you’re a Tory MP who wants to vote against the government today – and you’re going to be deselected if you do. What do you do about the next general election? Do you stand as a Gaukeward squad independent? Do you do a Phillip Lee and move over to the Lib Dems? Or, like Justine Greening, give up on Westminster altogether? The answer, and what Boris Johnson’s deselection threat means to potential rebel MPs, is complex and highly dependent on the political outlook of each MP’s seat. For some MPs, Boris Johnson’s threat is very real, and potential rebels will have chosen to walk back from the brink

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Phillip Lee crosses the floor to sit with the Lib Dems

Dr Phillip Lee, the MP for Bracknell, has left the Conservative party to join the Liberal Democrats. In the middle of Boris Johnson’s statement to the House of Commons this afternoon, the ex-minister crossed the floor to sit beside the Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson. In a statement coinciding with his dramatic defection,  Lee blasted the government for ‘manipulation, bullying and lies’, adding ‘the party I joined in 1992 is not the party I am leaving today.’ Meanwhile, everyone’s favourite party-hopper, Chuka Umunna, patted Dr Lee on the arm as he took a seat next to his new colleagues. Mr S is sure Lee will appreciate the support of an MP

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

There’s nothing brave about the so-called ‘Tory rebels’

I have a real problem with the term ‘Tory rebels’. Because it’s questionable, to put it gently, that either of these words apply to the Conservative Party MPs who are threatening to side with Labour and the Lib Dems in tonight’s parliamentary battle against no deal. They don’t sound much like Tories. And rebels? Do me a favour. Phillip Hammond, Ken Clarke, David Gauke, Phillip Lee and the others — the ‘Gaukeward Squad’, as some refer to them — pose as valiant insurgents against Boris and his overreaching executive. The media madly flatter these pretensions by talking up the MPs as the bravest politicians in living memory. They’re referred to as

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How the Tory party is changing under Boris Johnson

The Conservative party has undergone significant change in the past 24 hours. As a Brexit showdown looms – and reports of an imminent early election rise – a number of Conservative MPs have announced they will not be seeking re-election. Justine Greening was the first to go today. Announcing her decision, she said her party had become the Brexit party and argued the Conservative party was ‘narrowing down its appeal’ to people across the country. Alastair Burt – the former Foreign Office minister – has also made clear he will not seek re-election. Keith Simpson is also stepping down. However, the MP for Broadland in Norfolk puts this down to reaching

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Phillip Lee joins the Lib Dems – and Boris loses his majority

Phillip Lee, a Tory MP, has just left the party in the most dramatic way possible. He crossed the floor of the House of Commons while Boris Johnson was speaking. For a few seconds the House didn’t realise what was happening, then, as Lee took his new seat next to Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, cheers broke out, drowning out Johnson. The Prime Minister’s statement was, at this stage, largely about the rainforests and conservation, which seemed rather at odds with what was going on politically. The government has just lost its working majority. Lee has been on defection watch for months. It is not a huge surprise that he

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The rebel MPs don’t know what they want

Was there ever such a principled stand over a such a feeble cause? If today’s Tory rebels were intent on overturning the 2016 referendum result because, in all their conscience, they could support a policy of leaving the EU, I would not agree with what they were doing, but I would have some grudging respect for it. Instead, what is the great issue at stake in today’s vote? Another extension of Article 50 to 31 January. Yep, another three whole months in the EU. But to what purpose? The rebels can’t come up with a more specific demand because they do not know or cannot agree on what they want.

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Downing Street has lost the right to be trusted

As a rule, it is naïve to hope that the thuggery of our masters will rebound and the wicked will suffer for their misdeeds. The good don’t end happily and the bad unhappily in modern Westminster. Still, as the Brexit crisis intensifies I am happy to tell you there are a few hopeful signs that the wages of sin are, if not political death, then at least political torture. In a report of the highest significance this morning, Peter Foster of the Daily Telegraph showed that all Boris Johnson’s blustering that giving him a free hand was the only way to get a deal out of the EU was so much bull.

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Prepare for Brexit history to be made tonight

Brexit history and constitutional history may be made at 10 tonight. Because the number of Tory rebels is holding firm at around 20. And that means Sir Oliver Letwin’s motion under Standing Order 24, which would have the effect of handing control of business in the Commons to backbenchers tomorrow, could well pass by around five votes. Which in turn means that the Bill to ask EU leaders to delay Brexit until January 31, would almost certainly become law by Sunday night. And that is why Boris Johnson would tomorrow try to force a general election – because he has said he will never ask the EU to delay Brexit

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Philip Hammond vows to fight any deselection attempt

When Boris Johnson announced that Tory MPs who rebelled against the government this week to stop a no-deal Brexit would be deselected at the next election, the prime minister was clearly hoping that the raised stakes would deter at least some of his colleagues from rebelling. This morning though, it seems that the threat has not worked on the most hardline members of the anti-no deal faction in his party, who are not going down without a fight. Former Chancellor and Gaukeward squad ringleader Philip Hammond was on the Today programme this morning, and in his harshest rebuke yet, hit back at the prime minister’s decision, saying he intends to stand

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The silence surrounding grooming gangs

Who is allowed to be part of the #MeToo movement? I ask because on Friday five men were found guilty of horrific sexual crimes against eight girls and yet the case hasn’t trended on Twitter. There have been no hashtags. The girls’ suffering hasn’t been widely talked about. There have been very few declarations of solidarity from feminists. There’s pretty much been silence. It isn’t hard to see why. The problem for the mostly middle-class, well-connected feminists who make up the #MeToo movement is that this case involved both the wrong kind of victim and the wrong kind of perpetrator. The victims were working-class girls, under the age of 16,

The Spectator

Full list: the Tory MPs rebelling against the government

The full list of Tory MPs who rebelled against the government in tonight’s vote is here. This week is shaping up to be the ultimate battle between parliament and Number 10, as rebel MPs attempt to stop a no-deal Brexit in law before parliament is prorogued next week. On Tuesday the rebels are expected to table an emergency motion to seize control of the parliamentary timetable, and if they succeed, they will then put forward an anti-no deal bill and try to rush it through the House of Commons and Lords. It is likely that several Tory MPs will rebel against the government on Tuesday, to give parliament the opportunity to stop

Monday

David Paton

What type of general election does Jeremy Corbyn want to fight?

The current obsession with Boris Johnson’s decision to marginally reduce Parliament’s sittings days has had the side effect of taking the spotlight off the tricky strategic decisions Jeremy Corbyn faces over the next two months. Up until now, Corbyn has been content to continue attacking the prospect of no deal largely on the basis of the threat to workers’ jobs. The sight of him lining up on the same side as the big business forces of Remain is somewhat incongruous, whilst his description of no deal as a ‘bankers’ Brexit’ looks odd given how much funding Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and the other international banks gave to the Remain campaign

Ivan Rogers

Ivan Rogers: the realities of a no-deal Brexit

As so often in the last three years, much of our political debate is ducking the central strategic questions and is obsessing, in increasingly hysterical fashion on all sides, about tactical ones. We face the most explosive political week for years, perhaps decades. But remarkably little of the debate is about our real options. We should be thinking 10 to 20 years ahead, not 10 weeks. The primary issue with a ‘no deal’ Brexit is not, and never has been, how far our domestic contingency planning enables us to mitigate the short-term shock. That is hugely important. If ‘no deal’ happens, the day to day consequences – malign or benign