Politics

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

Tuesday

Ivan Rogers

No dealers must dream on: A conversation with Ivan Rogers

Sir Ivan Rogers was in conversation at the Institute for Government. This is an edited transcript of his thoughts on why no-deal isn’t a sustainable outcome, whether there should be a public inquiry into Brexit – and why, when it comes to negotiations, the difficult bit is still to come: Ivan Rogers: Once you get into the trade deal and the economic deal and then associated security and other deals, this is actually the complex bit still to come. It’s much more complex and involves much more of Whitehall, and should involve Westminster a lot more than the exercise to date. I’m not disparaging the exercise to date, but that’s solely

Richard Stone

Investing: Why Brexit doesn’t matter and the unexpected impacts it may have on your investments

The markets are volatile, well at least more volatile than they have been. The FTSE 100 index has already had two days this year where it has moved by more than 2%, in 2017 it only did that once, in the entire year. This has a tendency to make investors cautious and as a result potentially miss out on the benefits of that volatility. History suggests that near term volatility caused by political or economic uncertainty and sentiment has little long term effect on the stock market. The key here is that investing is a long term activity and if you take a long term view you can ignore short

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Will Theresa May vote for a no-deal Brexit?

We have a Tory Government and governing party irredeemably split on the biggest question of our age, namely how and whether to leave the European Union. And we have a Labour opposition in a disorderly civil war between backbench MPs and lords on the one hand, and a leadership team under Jeremy Corbyn over a perceived failure to cut the cancer of anti-Semitism from the party – and, perhaps worse than that, the undermining of due process by officials close to Corbyn. In other words, there is chaos on both sides of the Commons, compounded by the collapse to zero in the working majority of Theresa May’s administration following those

Steerpike Steerpike

Chuka Umunna, The Alternative

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Sajid Javid likes to refer to himself as ‘The Saj’. While the Home Secretary has repeatedly denied the claims, the tendency to refer to one in the third person appears to be catching. The Times reports that Liz Truss has been known to go by ‘The Truss’ (though ‘The Chief’ has also been used). Now it seems the latest ambitious Member of Parliament with a penchant for the third person is Chuka Umunna. Except he’s a been bit more obvious. The TIG MP’s website now includes the subtitle – ‘The Alternative’. It seems picture location faux paxs are in the Westmisnter water…

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis can never be solved under Corbyn | 5 March 2019

If racism is to succeed in corrupting institutions and countries it needs authorisation from the elite. The popular caricature of the racist as a white working-class man, or superstitious east european peasant, or shabby paranoid academic, shows not only class bias, but a lack of understanding that what transforms extremism from poisonous men muttering in corners to political movements with the power to ruin lives, is the authorisation given by leaders and intellectuals. A party can have racist members – as the Conservative party undoubtedly does. But because its leadership is not anti-Muslim their effect is constrained to personal abuse. I don’t mean to diminish it. If my experience is

Steerpike Steerpike

Fiona Onasanya loses her appeal against conviction

Today was the last chance for the former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya MP to protest her innocence, as she appealed her conviction for perverting the course of justice. The Peterborough MP was sentenced to three months in jail this January for lying to police to avoid a speeding ticket, but has since been released from jail. At her appeal this afternoon at the Royal Courts of Justice, Onasanya decided to represent herself, which is odd considering her hefty MP’s salary, and also turned up without any papers, which is strange considering that she used to be a solicitor. Mr Steerpike can, unsurprisingly, report that it didn’t end well, and the MP

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: Corbyn’s policy director defends member suspended for anti-Semitism

A fresh war broke out this week between Labour MPs and the party leadership over how impartial Labour has been when dealing with anti-Semitism disciplinary cases. The fighting began after the Observer reported this weekend that Corbyn advisor Andrew Murray had personally lobbied for the party to be more lenient toward a member accused of defending an anti-Semitic mural. Labour HQ has since hit back and insisted that ‘Any suggestion that staff in the leader’s office overturned recommendations on individual cases is categorically untrue.’ But Mr Steerpike wonders if Labour MPs are right to be worried about meddling, when Corbyn’s top advisors have shown themselves willing to defend their friends and allies

Steerpike Steerpike

A brief history of Chris Grayling’s failings

Chris Grayling is back in the news – and once again it is for all the wrong reasons. The transport secretary is facing calls to quit over his handling of the Brexit ferry debacle, which led to the Government having to shell out £33m of taxpayers’ money to Eurotunnel. Grayling said ‘however regrettable the Eurotunnel court action was, we had to take a decision to protect the interests of the country in the circumstances of a no deal Brexit’. So who is to blame? The whole Cabinet, according to Grayling, who insisted the decision that led to the payout was taken collectively. Of course, this is far from the first

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

New York Times goes easy on ‘Failing Grayling’

Chris Grayling has managed to take the government’s ‘Global Britain’ agenda up a gear this week with an appearance in the New York Times. The under fire Transport Secretary is the subject of a blistering editorial in the American paper (which has developed a penchant for negative UK stories these days) titled ‘How Does He Survive? The Curious Case of ‘Failing Grayling’. The paper claims Grayling has ‘bumbled his way from one government post to another’ starring ‘in a black comedy sideshow of his own’. Yet it’s fair to say that in one respect the paper has gone easy on him. In the print article, it cites that the Labour party has

Nicholas Farrell

Italy shows that left-wing populism doesn’t work

To judge from what is going on in Italy, the only major European country where populists are in power, right-wing populism works but left-wing populism does not. The senior partner in Italy’s populist coalition government – the alt-left Five Star Movement – is haemorrhaging support, while the popularity of the junior partner – the radical-right League – soars ever higher. In regional elections in Sardinia last Sunday, Five Star got just 11 per cent of the vote compared to the 42 per cent it got on the island at Italy’s general election in March 2018. The League’s candidate, by contrast, at the head of a right-wing coalition, won with 47

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Theresa May’s bung shows she still doesn’t understand Brexit

When will politicians learn they can’t just buy off voters? You think they would have twigged this during the EU referendum campaign when the Remain camp’s Project Fear utterly failed to sway the electorate’s feelings about the EU. Every household will be £4,300 worse off, the Treasury claimed, which a) wasn’t true and b) looked to many voters like a cynical bung designed to wean them off their Euroscepticism. Such chattering-class cluelessness was on full display in the aftermath of the referendum too. How could people in regions that have received oodles of EU cash — parts of Wales, the old industrial north of England — turn against the EU,

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The lawyers are taking back control of Brexit

Should the UK’s decision to leave the UK be settled in an argument between seven male white middle-aged Tory lawyers plus one woman of Indian ancestry and – on the other side – a single white middle-aged male Tory lawyer? Because arguably that is what’s happening, in the current off-stage conversation over a possible reform to the Northern Ireland backstop between the Tory Brexit European Research Group’s “star chamber” of eight lawyers, on the one hand, and the attorney general Geoffrey Cox – whose outcome could well decide whether Theresa May’s Brexit deal, with all its massive implications for this nation’s future, is approved in the coming nine days. Because

Sunday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Are Brexiteer MPs really softening their opposition to May’s deal?

Are Brexiteer MPs about to row in behind May’s deal? This is the question that has dominated the weekend’s papers with speculation rising that the threat of a delay to Brexit – or no Brexit – means the European Research Group (ERG) are ready to soften their red lines. Sir Graham Brady – chair of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers – has used an op-ed in the Mail on Sunday to say that he is now ready to back the Prime Minister’s deal – so long as the ‘right compromise is offered’. The Sunday Times splashes ‘Brexiteers offer peace terms to May’ with news of three tests the ERG will

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows roundup: Labour ‘forced’ into backing second referendum, says McDonnell

John McDonnell – We’ve been forced into backing a second referendum With less than four weeks to go until the UK is due to leave the European Union, Sophy Ridge was joined by the Shadow Chancellor. Labour has recently made headlines with its apparent volte-face on a second referendum. John McDonnell explained his party’s new Brexit position: 'We've been forced into a second referendum by Theresa May' says shadow chancellor John McDonnell #Ridge For more Sunday politics: https://t.co/XxaMhMIGg7 pic.twitter.com/vcRGW3qJY5 — Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (@SkyPoliticsHub) March 3, 2019 JM: We said we’d respect the referendum, but we also said we wouldn’t allow Theresa May to take us out of

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Whatever happened to the great Brexit property crash?

Whatever happened to the great Brexit property crash? The stock market has been pummelled on occasion since the referendum in 2016 but none so much as housebuilders’ shares. They suffered one downward loop immediately after the Brexit vote. Then again, as the chances of a no-deal Brexit increased towards the end of 2018, it was housing shares which suffered the most, with Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and several others plunging by 30 per cent, as rumours of sliding house prices took hold. And then? One by one, as housebuilders’ results came through, they turned out to be actually rather good. When Barratt reported on 6 February, for example, revenue was up

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Corbyn wants Brexit to happen, but be badly done

I have praised in print before Mr Corbyn’s magnificently opportunistic handling of the Brexit issue. His aim is to ensure that Brexit happens, but that it is very badly done, and can therefore be attacked as a ‘Tory Brexit’. Who can say he’s failing? His apparent conversion to a second referendum looks to me like a variation on the old theme. Highly qualified support for a ‘People’s Vote’ calms down some possible defectors to the Independent Group without changing the reality much. The unreality of the thing is reflected in Emily Thornberry’s idea that ‘Remain’ could be on the ballot paper. It implies, obviously, that we shall not have left the

Alan Johnson

Don’t blame the BBC for scrapping free TV licences for over 75s

The BBC is grappling with a dilemma forced upon it by George Osborne when he was chancellor. From 2020 the Corporation will be forced to fund the full £745 million cost of providing a free TV licence to households where one resident is over 75. One of the most significant achievements of the Blair government was its success in tackling pensioner poverty. When Labour took office in 1997 there were more than two and a half million pensioners living in abject poverty. By 2004, the Institute for Fiscal Studies was reporting that for the first time in recorded history, being old was no longer associated with being poor. This transformation

Saturday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Four cost-saving tips for Liam Fox’s £100,000 podcast

As The Spectator‘s podcast editor, I’m all for spending more money on podcasts. There are now six million adults in the UK who listen to podcasts, every week. If growth continues on that path, podcast listenership will be on par with total Radio 4 listenership in just another five years. With a trajectory like this, it’s no wonder that everyone wants in on the game. Trade secretary Liam Fox is the latest to join the club. But it looks like he’s been too enthusiastic. The Department for International Trade podcast series – ‘Local to Global’ – is funded by the taxpayer and has cost over £100,000 to produce and promote.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

10 days to save Brexit

MPs have 10 days to pass Theresa May’s Brexit deal or calamity strikes, I say in The Sun this morning. May’s deal is far from perfect. But what will happen if it doesn’t pass is truly appalling. If May’s deal hasn’t won a Commons vote by March 12th, the Commons will vote on whether to proceed with no deal. The parliamentary arithmetic is such that no deal will almost certainly be defeated. The next day, parliament will then vote on whether to request an extension from the EU. This vote will almost certainly pass. At this point, the United Kingdom would be in the weakest position it has ever been

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Ministers have been allowed to condemn no deal

One could smell a rat in the fact that so many ministers have recently been allowed publicly to break with government policy and condemn ‘no deal’ flat-out, and even threaten resignation. Three ministers co-wrote an article in Tuesday’s Daily Mail (over the undead body of Paul Dacre) in this sense. They would never have dared to do so unless they had been sure that they would go unpunished by the government. If you follow the sequence of how a variety of ministers emerged on this subject, you will see orchestration. Mrs May’s spin doctor, Robbie Gibb, ex-BBC, briefs programmes like Newsnight all the time: the official line was to say