Politics

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

Monday

Robert Peston Robert Peston

May’s ‘delusional’ promise to deliver Brexit by 29 March

Here is what members of the cabinet said to me when I pointed them towards a statement made in the Sunday Telegraph by the Prime Minister that she is ‘determined to deliver Brexit and determined to deliver on time – on March 29 2019’. ‘Farcical’ said one. ‘Total delusion’ said another. ‘Verifiably untrue’ said a third. It’s not that they doubt Theresa May is working to take the UK out of the EU. It’s just they cannot see how it is remotely possible that departure can be achieved in the less than eight weeks remaining before the official leaving day. And unless she is explicitly saying that she is now

Sunday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Andrew Marr calls out EU leaders over TV no-shows

When was the last time an EU leader gave an interview to British TV to talk about Brexit? If you’re scratching your head to remember, you’re not the only one. Andrew Marr raised just this point on his programme this morning, calling out the likes of Donald Tusk, Michel Barnier and Jean-Claude Juncker for their persistent failure to appear on his programme. Here’s what Marr had to say: I just want to say one thing about our line-up of interviews. We are at a moment where negotiations with Brussels are absolutely critical and it has been a long moment. And week after week I get the chance to cross question

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: UK ‘will still be a very safe country’ after no deal, Javid says

Sajid Javid: No-deal UK ‘will still be a very safe country’ This morning Andrew Marr was joined by the Home Secretary Sajid Javid. With the possibility of a no-deal Brexit on the horizon, the interview turned to the implications that could have for the UK’s national security. When Marr asked if security could be diminished, Javid avoided a direct answer, repeatedly telling Marr that ‘we will still be a very safe country’: #Marr: If we leave with a no deal #Brexit, will things get worse for security? Home Secretary Sajid Javid: “We will still be a very safe country”https://t.co/QVithizp1U pic.twitter.com/zu35kC3H8l — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) February 3, 2019 SJ: There will

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

There’s something very un-Conservative about warning about civil unrest

There’s a famous (or infamous) method of negotiation or interrogation called ‘Good cop, bad cop’. You’re probably familiar with the idea. An individual whose cooperation is sought is approached by an apparently reasonable negotiator whose friendly advice is to co-operate because if he doesn’t then his colleague, who has a nasty temper, may fly into a rage — in which case our friend cannot answer for what this dreadful fellow might do. The good cop holds himself out as anxious to protect the individual from somebody much worse than himself. He does not of course condone this person’s behaviour in any way, but he’s sadly beyond his control. I notice

Charles Moore Charles Moore

MPs know if parliament is ever to command respect again, Brexit must happen

The House of Commons does work better than it seems to, I promise you. When a big subject comes up, it spends weeks, months, even years, posturing and sparring, but it has a way of working out when a choice is truly important. Brexit has taken years, and is truly important. We saw the first signs of this realisation dawning on Parliament when it rejected Mrs May’s original deal so decisively. We saw the second signs on Tuesday night. As that series of covert Remain amendments — most notably Cooper-Boles — fell, a pattern became apparent. Enough MPs now understand that if the institution of parliament is ever to command

Saturday

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

If Eurocrats really cared about Irish farmers, they’d chuck the backstop altogether

When politics goes round in circles, the columnist inevitably revisits issues that would have been sorted if only everyone read The Spectator. So: back to the Irish border — a demarcation that takes up no geographical space, but has still mysteriously dominated a dozen years of my life. Oh, well. What’s one more afternoon, then? Derry’s recent car bomb underscores a curious omission in all the Brexit argy-bargy about a ‘hard border’. Throughout, neither May, nor Barnier, nor even Varadkar ever utters the letters I, R and A. Yet the scummy residue of this vanquished potato blight lies at the heart of the hysteria about hypothetical border infrastructure that could

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Don’t expect much on Brexit before Valentine’s Day

Don’t expect much movement on Brexit this side of Valentine’s Day, I say in The Sun this morning. There are two reasons for this. First, EU leaders are irritated with Theresa May. She signed off on a deal with them, assured them it could get through the Commons and then lost by a record margin. They are now sceptical when the British indicate that this or that change could get the deal through parliament. Despite the Brady amendment passing, the EU are still doubtful about what would get a deal over the line. But there is another reason beyond their irritation why the EU are holding off from engaging with

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Why I’m not worried about no-deal fruit and veg shortages

What to do about the coming shortage of green groceries of which several supermarkets warned yet again this week if there is a no-deal Brexit on 29 March? I am just old enough to remember when fresh fruit and veg were in short supply at this time of year. People used to know how to store things to mitigate the problem: apples would be carefully laid out on straw-strewn shelves. We ate lots of root vegetables and not much greenery. If ever you saw a strawberry out of season it came, for some reason, from Israel. Perhaps it is time for a Brexit recipe book, like those comforting wartime rationing

Friday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Is it time for a Brexit recipe book?

What to do about the coming shortage of green groceries of which several supermarkets warned yet again this week if there is a no-deal Brexit on 29 March? I am just old enough to remember when fresh fruit and veg were in short supply at this time of year. People used to know how to store things to mitigate the problem: apples would be carefully laid out on straw-strewn shelves. We ate lots of root vegetables and not much greenery. If ever you saw a strawberry out of season it came, for some reason, from Israel. Perhaps it is time for a Brexit recipe book, like those comforting wartime rationing

Thursday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 31 January 2019

The House of Commons does work better than it seems to, I promise you. When a big subject comes up, it spends weeks, months, even years, posturing and sparring, but it has a way of working out when a choice is truly important. Brexit has taken years, and is truly important. We saw the first signs of this realisation dawning on Parliament when it rejected Mrs May’s original deal so decisively. We saw the second signs on Tuesday night. As that series of covert Remain amendments — most notably Cooper-Boles — fell, a pattern became apparent. Enough MPs now understand that if the institution of parliament is ever to command

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The Asda equal pay ruling that could wreck the UK’s labour market

I don’t know what it is like to work as a checkout assistant in Asda, still less in an Asda warehouse. But if I did work in a company’s shops and I learned that there were better-paid jobs available in its warehouses I am pretty sure I know what I would do: apply for a job in the latter. It wouldn’t occur to me to pick up the phone to a lawyer and claim I was a victim of discrimination. But then perhaps I am not suited to life in the age of grievance politics. Today, the Court of Appeal has ruled that Asda may be guilty of sexual discrimination

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Whitto’s awkward turn on Channel 4

Oh dear. It’s been a rollercoaster for the European Research Group of late. Once heralded as the Machiavellis of Brexit, the group of backbench Eurosceptics have lately become the subject of some mockery thanks to their botched attempts to oust Theresa May as Prime Minister. However, things appeared to turn in their favour again this week when the group – led by Jacob Rees-Mogg – managed to get May to change her Brexit strategy – and confirm that she wished to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement. Alas Mr S suspects the turn of John Whittingdale on Channel 4 news in the aftermath will have done little to cement an image of professionalism.

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour’s double standards over fast-track university courses 

This week, after regulations passed through the House of Lords, parliament approved legislation which will allow universities to offer fast-track degrees which are only two years long – allowing students to graduate earlier and save twenty per cent on tuition fees if they opt for shorter courses. The news, you might expect, would have been greeted by champagne corks popping in Labour HQ. Back in 2016, it was Labour’s education team, backed by the shadow higher education minister Gordon Marsden, who pushed for fast-track degrees to be offered to students. Labour’s Roberta Blackman-Woods tabled the original amendment which called for ‘fees for a 3 year degree to be charged over

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Theresa May should back a People’s Vote — with one condition

Writing for The Spectator, I am already at grave risk of being expelled from the liberal elite, doubly so as a Remainer who (wearily, sceptically, fearfully) accepts the democratic mandate for Brexit. Soon I won’t be able to pick up breakfast at my local vegan food truck without the guy shrieking, ‘OH, DOES ROD LIDDLE LIKE SMASHED AVOCADO ON RYE TOO?’ So I embark on this, a thought experiment and not a serious proposal, with some trepidation. Here is the problem: the country voted to leave the European Union but MPs are not thrilled about the idea. They voted down the Prime Minister’s deal with the EU on the terms

Katy Balls Katy Balls

MPs have their holidays cancelled – but will they have anything to do?

After much speculation, Andrea Leadsom has confirmed that the February recess will be cancelled. This means that – in theory – MPs will be deprived of any ski holidays scheduled for the week of 18 February. It’s still up in the air what Commons business – if any – will take place that week given that Parliament is in a state of deadlock. However, the view was that regardless of Brexit progress, it would be an incredibly bad look for MPs to trot off on holiday at the time of an approaching constitutional crisis. So, will they have anything to do? The problem is the government does have a lot

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Jess Phillips’ speech on parliament’s high earners

With all the dramatic votes this week, it could easily have been missed that an important debate about immigration also took place in the chamber on Monday, on the government’s new proposals to limit immigration after Britain leaves the EU. Pulling no punches was the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, Jess Phillips, who used a speech to pour scorn on the fact that people who earned under £30,000 would be classed as unskilled under the new proposals, and therefore would find it more difficult to emigrate to the UK. But it was Phillips’ remarks about her colleagues in the House of Commons that caught Mr Steerpike’s attention. Pointing out that she

James Forsyth James Forsyth

May’s final mission

Theresa May will soon arrive in Brussels with a series of unlikely demands. She must tell the European Union that she wants to re-open a deal that she was hailing as not just the best, but the ‘only deal possible’ a few weeks ago. Parliament has now made her eat her words. It is a testament to her predicament that this counts as a triumph for her. She has narrowly avoided a far worse fate. Had parliament voted another way — rejecting Graham Brady’s amendment and passing Yvette Cooper’s — she would have been sent into the negotiating chamber with nothing to say. She wouldn’t have been able to tell

Christopher Caldwell

Europe’s blind spot

In Paris in December, I sat with a journalist friend in a café on the Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui and listened to him explain to me why a no-deal Brexit would be a catastrophe for Britain. It had to do with an article his newspaper had published about the Mini. You might think they were typically British cars, he said, but the plant where they were made in Cowley belonged to BMW! The steering wheels were assembled in Romania! The tail lights came from Poland! So? I asked. Brexit was about leaving the EU, not making globalisation un-happen. Who do you think wants to close the Mini plant? Britain does not want

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Salute the rich who choose to pay their taxes

Paying tax — which many of us have been doing this week before HMRC’s 31 January deadline — is a citizen’s duty, not an act of virtue. But for the very rich it is also a choice, since with the help of expensive advisers they can duck it or pay very little of it by using complex avoidance devices and offshore havens. So if they stay onshore and pay up, we should salute their good citizenship — if only to encourage others like them who might lighten the tax burden for the rest of us. In that context I was pleased to see two of this column’s controversial heroes of

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Those who warn of Brexit unrest invite it

There’s a famous (or infamous) method of negotiation or interrogation called ‘Good cop, bad cop’. You’re probably familiar with the idea. An individual whose cooperation is sought is approached by an apparently reasonable negotiator whose friendly advice is to co-operate because if he doesn’t then his colleague, who has a nasty temper, may fly into a rage — in which case our friend cannot answer for what this dreadful fellow might do. The good cop holds himself out as anxious to protect the individual from somebody much worse than himself. He does not of course condone this person’s behaviour in any way, but he’s sadly beyond his control. I notice