Politics Archives

Saturday

15 Feb 2020

What the reshuffle means

As the dust settles, it is clear that the big story of the reshuffle is that Boris Johnson has created the most powerful central government operation in living memory. He has yoked together Number 10, the Treasury and the Cabinet Office. As I say in the Sun this morning, no department or agency will be able to resist the power of this new centre. The rationale behind this move is simple. Boris Johnson’s view is what is the point of being in power if you are not actually in charge. He wants to bring an emphatic end to a decade of weak government. He believes that this new set up

Katy Balls

What will Rishi Sunak do as Chancellor?

Boris Johnson ends the week with a new Chancellor in tow after Rishi Sunak replaced Sajid Javid in the role. Prior to the reshuffle, Sunak had expected to remain Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Although the Tory rising star had been tipped at one point to be given his own department to run, he had privately made it known that he wanted to stay put and help the Chancellor with next month’s Budget. Sunak got his wish in part. He is staying in the Treasury. It’s just that he is now the one in charge. So, what does Sunak’s appointment mean for the direction of this government? As I say

Katy Balls

Emily Thornberry knocked out of Labour leadership race

The Labour leadership contest has become a three horse race. Emily Thornberry has been eliminated after failing to win enough Constituency Labour Party nominations to pass through to the final round. The shadow foreign secretary did come close to reaching the required number – she was two short at 31 nominations to the 33 required by Friday evening. Of the candidates who have made it through to the membership stage, Keir Starmer won 374 nominations, Rebecca Long-Bailey164 and Lisa Nandy 72. Thornberry’s leadership campaign has been uphill from the beginning. She struggled to amass support among parliamentary colleagues and she did not win backing from a single union or socialist society

The Spectator

With Sajid Javid gone, will Boris now start a Gordon Brown-style spending splurge?

The nature of the Johnson government is still not clear, but has become more so with the announcement this week that HS2 is to go ahead in its entirety. Until recently, it had seemed that the project would be, if not dropped altogether, cut back in order to rein in its ever-accelerating budget. This is what most Tory MPs,cabinet members and even the Chancellor had wanted. But instead, the Prime Minister has decided that it will be built in its full £106 billion form. Not only that, he threw in £5 billion for buses and cycleways, as well as the promise of a £39 billion high-speed line from Manchester to

Ross Clark

The government’s plans for a pandemic are both reassuring and alarming

Like the Trumpton fire brigade, Britain’s disaster planners have had precious little opportunity to show off their skills over the past few decades. Plans for a nuclear war merely gathered dust. Global pandemics failed to arrive, as did a no-deal Brexit. Just about the only crisis requiring nationwide emergency planning concerned foot and mouth disease in 2001 when six million animals were slaughtered and Labour ministers announced ‘the countryside is closed’, killing off rural businesses, yet still failed to prevent the spread of the disease from Cornwall to Northumberland. But with UK cases of coronavirus rising from four to eight this week, there is a faint chance that the Hughs,

Fredrik Erixon

The death of the centre in European politics

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Leo Varadkar. He positioned himself as Ireland’s champion and even ended up with a decent deal. He expected some kind of electoral dividend in the snap election as he urged voters to stay away from the dangerous fringes occupied by Sinn Fein. Instead, they turned to Sinn Fein in record numbers — ending the two-party system that has governed Irish politics for a century. In Ireland, this is unprecedented, but it fits a trend for Europe as a whole. Voters have been rebelling against old, established ‘centre-ground’ politics, and all around Europe, established politicians have responded by attacking voters. They’ve called their own

Douglas Murray

Why I’ll never become an MP

Every now and then someone asks me if I have ever thought of becoming an MP. My response tends to be a laugh so deranged that the question answers itself. When I manage to verbalise the answer it usually goes something like this: ‘No, because I enjoy saying what I think is true.’ Occasionally my conversationalist will persist: ‘But MPs have a huge variety of opinions. Parliament is not filled with silent types.’ Throughout such interactions various names and images flash through my head. I think of Sarah Champion, for instance — the Labour MP for Rotherham. Ms Champion got her seat in 2012 and among the problems she inherited

James Forsyth

Boris wants a 2024 election – and wants to start his building boom now

‘The clock is ticking.’ It is surely only a matter of time before Michel Barnier returns to his notorious catchphrase from the Brexit talks. The EU’s chief negotiator is already warning that if a trade deal cannot be agreed ‘within the constraints of the time limits imposed by the British PM’, then there will be ‘consequences’ as the UK and EU will end up trading on World Trade Organization terms. Or, as the Prime Minister prefers to call it, an Australia-style deal. Last time around, because Theresa May had no majority in parliament, Barnier was able to throw the British side into confusion: it was quite possible that Brexit could

Martin Vander Weyer

Never mind the numbers – the boardroom gender battle has barely begun

It’s the way the world’s going, but still it looks quite impressive that the number of women directors of FTSE100 companies has risen from 135 in 2011 (when Vince Cable, as Business Secretary, began agitating on the subject) to 349 today — representing a third of all blue-chip boardroom seats. It’s not long since that proportion was below 10 per cent. But is the corporate patriarchy truly in retreat, or is this still a matter of reluctant window-dressing by the old boys’ network who have prime responsibility for populating boards? I’m reminded of a FTSE boss I once lunched with who said: ‘Oh yes, Vince wrote us a pretty stiff

Charles Moore

Sinn Fein’s success doesn’t make a united Ireland more likely

It is obviously true that Sinn Fein’s success in the Irish Republic will increase nationalist pressure for a united Ireland. It does not automatically follow, however, that such pressure will make a united Ireland more likely. A powerful Sinn Fein in the South is a strong recruiter for Unionism in the North. The possibility of nationalists in the North winning a border poll has just receded. This is an extract from Charles Moore’s Notes, which appears in this week’s Spectator

Friday

14 Feb 2020

Kim Thomas

I stand with Kate Scottow

Why are the police wasting time arresting Twitter transphobes when they could be tackling knife crime? That was the question asked by Boris Johnson in an article for the Daily Telegraph last February, in which he lambasted officers for arresting a mum for sending some rude tweets. A year on, Boris Johnson is Prime Minister. And now that mum has a criminal record. Today’s judgement was a hard sight to bear: a 39-year-old mother of two children, one of whom is autistic, listened as the judge at St Albans Magistrates’ Court found her guilty, under the Communications Act (2003), of using a public communications network to “cause annoyance, inconvenience and

Ross Clark

Mark Carney is finally realising the benefits of Brexit

Given what he has previously said about Brexit it would be a bit much to expect departing Bank of England governor Mark Carney to say that leaving the EU is a good thing for Britain. Nevertheless, it is still a bit of pleasant surprise to hear him in what – in Carney-speak – is presumably the next best thing. In an interview with Reuters, he has just described Brexit as a ‘conceptual positive’ for the UK economy. If you are not quite sure what one of those is, he did go on to spell it out in a little more normal language: It is a major reordering of our relationship

Patrick O’Flynn

Sajid Javid’s departure doesn’t matter

Much of the reaction to Sajid Javid’s departure yesterday, alongside the sacking of several other Cabinet ministers, would have you believe that it is a very big deal. ‘Moderate reshuffle morphs into major crisis,’ said Sky News political editor Beth Rigby. Rory Stewart tweeted out a picture of Theresa May’s Cabinet from the middle of last year, with the chiding question: “How many are still in the Cabinet today?” (The answer, by the way, is only about half a dozen out of more than 30.) Jon Sopel on the Today programme this morning said Javid’s replacement, Rishi Sunak, was in a very powerful position because the Prime Minister could not

James Kirkup

Jake Berry is the real hero of the reshuffle

OK there are bigger stories in the reshuffle, but the tale of Jake Berry is an important one. He quit to spend more time with his family – and really meant that. Berry was minister for the northern powerhouse. He is also one of Boris Johnson’s oldest allies in the Commons. These days (almost) everyone is the PM’s friend, but not long ago there were only two: Berry and Ben Wallace. So when Berry says he was asked to stay in government, believe him. And why is he not a minister today? Because he was offered a job that would have taken him abroad a lot when his children are

Stephen Daisley

Will Boris come to regret his Treasury power grab?

Has Boris Johnson made the first major error of his premiership? Choosing his adviser over his Chancellor could be seen as a bold gamble of the sort that won him a sweeping election victory and got the UK out of the European Union. We of little faith in the commentariat have often misread this prime minister and have been left looking like chumps as a result. But where Boris has succeeded is in defying the rules of politics and the circumstances of Sajid Javid’s departure have more to do with the rules of governance. Robert Peston says: ‘The PM and [Dominic] Cummings believe the success of the government in these

Thursday

13 Feb 2020

Lara Prendergast

Is Europe’s centre-ground shrinking?

41 min listen

As Sinn Fein enters coalition talks with Fianna Fail, economist Fredrik Erixon writes that the encroachment of fringe parties on the mainstream is a part of a wider European trend. What’s more, he argues that the only the mainstream parties that adapt can survive. On the podcast, Fraser Nelson bats for Fredrik’s thesis, and debates with Anne McElvoy, senior editor at The Economist. Plus, is citizenship a privilege that can be revoked, or a right to anyone who identifies as British? Earlier this week, a group of Jamaican nationals – all of them holding criminal records – were due to be deported. A last minute judicial review saved some from

James Forsyth

The message behind Boris’s reshuffle

14 min listen

Sajid Javid

Sajid Javid: Why I quit

After quitting as Chancellor earlier today, Sajid Javid has published his letter of resignation to Boris Johnson. Here’s what he wrote: Dear Prime Minister, It has been a privilege to serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since being elected as the MP for Bromsgrove ten years ago I have had the huge honour of holding several ministerial roles – running five departments, including two of the Great Offices of State. I regret that I could not accept the conditions attached to the reappointment While I am grateful for your continued trust and offer to continue in this role, I regret that I could not accept the conditions attached to the reappointment.

James Forsyth

Boris has tightened his iron grip on government

This is the LDC reshuffle: loyalty, discipline and competence. Number 10 wants to ensure this government is all singing from the same hymn sheet. The desire for a joint Number 10 / 11 operation is the product of that. Sajid Javid’s refusal to sign up to the scheme made Number 10 think he wasn’t on board with this, which led to his resignation. This joint Number 10 / 11 operation creates a very powerful force at the centre of government. Number 10, the Treasury and the Cabinet Office are now effectively yoked together. Under this set-up, no department will have any chance of resisting what the centre wants. Expect this new power

Steerpike

Watch: Sajid Javid takes a pop at Boris Johnson

Sajid Javid has just taken a pop at Boris Johnson following his departure from the cabinet earlier today. The ex-chancellor said no ‘self-respecting minister’ would have been able to accept the terms presented to him by the PM if he wanted to stay in the job. He told the BBC: ‘The conditions that were attached…I was unable to accept those conditions. I don’t believe any self respecting minister would accept such conditions, and therefore I felt the best thing to do, was to go…’ Javid also said that his successor as chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has his full support. Mr S isn’t convinced…