Politics

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

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

Are the Tories embarrassed by Jeremy Hunt’s speech?

Every family across the UK knows the familiar dread of hosting a party, attended by an infamous uncle who can always be relied on to say something outrageous and offend unfamiliar guests. When it comes to Theresa May’s cabinet, there could be a few contenders for the title of ‘embarrassing uncle,’ but this week, it appears to be the Prime Minister’s Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. Mr S couldn’t help but note that while the Conservatives have posted transcripts of every minister of state’s conference speech on their press website (with the notable exception of the dull Greg Clark), Jeremy Hunt’s speech is conspicuously absent. Why the cold shoulder for Hunt?

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How long will Theresa May’s conference boost last?

For the first time in months, Downing Street have little to worry about from today’s papers. After delivering one of her best speeches since becoming Prime Minister, Theresa May is enjoying some of the best front pages she has had since the disastrous snap election. Each paper carries photos of a happy PM dancing – with her promise to ‘end austerity’ after Brexit making the top line. The Daily Express calls on voters to ‘all dance to May’s tune’ while the Daily Mail has renamed her ‘Mamma May-a!’: DAILY EXPRESS: Let’s all dance to May’s tune #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/WiWIgR16Fo — Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) October 3, 2018 TIMES: May moves to end

James Kirkup James Kirkup

The march of trans rights

Your 13-year-old daughter tells a teacher that’s she’s uncomfortable with her body. She prefers trousers to skirts, football to ballet. She says she thinks she’s a he and wants to be treated as a boy at school. Would the teacher tell you your daughter wants to change gender? Your 11-year-old granddaughter comes home from school upset. Changing after gym, another girl stood watching her undress and playing with her penis. (The girl in question is transgender, so yes, she has a penis.) When your family complains to the school, what happens? In the first case, no, the teacher wouldn’t tell you. ‘All people, including children and young people, have a

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What Theresa May’s successor must do

Jeremy Corbyn used to be a punchline at the Conservative party conference. Tories believed that his election as Labour leader guaranteed them electoral success. But the picture that emerged from this year’s conference is of a Tory party that is desperately trying to work out how to counter Corbyn, and how to win a fourth term in office — something that even New Labour couldn’t achieve. Senior Tories now recognise that the questions Labour are asking deserve a response. In his conference speech, Philip Hammond acknowledged that people feel ‘that they are working for the system but the system isn’t working for them’. And on the fringe, various Tories set

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Jean-Luc Mélenchon isn’t the future of socialism, he’s an irrelevance

Jeremy Corbyn is promising to forge closer ties with his French counterpart Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the hard-left La France Insoumise party. The pair met at the Labour conference in Liverpool, and some commentators have hailed the start of a beautiful partnership. The conceit is that this pair of pensioners are together somehow the future of European socialism. Well, Corbyn might become Britain’s prime minister for all I know, although I prefer to doubt it. But should there be any doubt whatsoever on the corollary subject, I am able to assert with absolute confidence that there is a better chance that the French would elect me than Mélenchon. He

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

If Tories are ‘the party of business’, the PM should listen before it’s too late

‘Let me say it, loud and clear: the Conservative party is, and always will be, the party of business,’ declared Philip Hammond at Birmingham — a few hours after City tycoon and former Tory treasurer Michael Spencer told the BBC that the Prime Minister had ‘let herself down personally by not being a champion of business’. Were Spencer’s doubts assuaged by the Chancellor’s reassurance? I doubt it: the truth is Spencer was right. Theresa May signalled her non–championship of business in her 2016 leadership bid when, ahead of John McDonnell, she spoke of forcing companies to accept worker representatives on boards and of the ‘irrational, unhealthy’ pay gap between top

James Delingpole James Delingpole

The curse of having to go vegan

I’m on a no-alcohol, no-caffeine, no-sugar, vegan diet. It’s less fun than it sounds. Occasionally I cheat, but mostly I don’t, because I don’t want to upset the lovely doctors at the Infusio clinic in Frankfurt who gave me my stem cells for the Lyme disease treatment and who insist they need the right anti-inflammatory, alkaline diet to thrive. And besides, even though it’s horrible, I’m quite enjoying, in my masochistic way the rigour and the punishing asceticism. Also, it has given me insights into a world which I never imagined in a million years I would ever enter. Vegans walk among us. They are everywhere. But you don’t really

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Geoffrey ‘Mufasa’ Cox brings the house down

Choosing a warm-up act to introduce a big speech is a delicate balancing act. Pick someone too woeful and the crowd is deflated before you’ve even begun. But pick someone too impressive, and your own efforts begin to pale in comparison. Theresa May came perilously close to the latter this afternoon, when she asked her Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC to introduce her conference speech. Conservative members, the cabinet and watching hacks were left agape as Cox’s booming baritone voice echoed across the hall in a robust defence of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. Cox was quickly dubbed ‘Mufasa’ and ‘Gandalf’ by those watching. Mr S thinks the

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Today, we saw the best side of Theresa May

Theresa May has three faces that she shows to the world: the Brexit Boudicca, the dull technocrat (her default mode) and then what we saw today: the optimistic globalist. This act, that tends to come out only in set-piece speeches, portrays her as an open-hearted, funny and even (at times) inspiring Prime Minister. The speech today was perhaps the best she has given. Politics isn’t about governing. It’s about making and winning arguments, telling captivating stories, winning people over. And this afternoon, she told stories: of penniless migrants from the Punjab whose son went on to become (her) Home Secretary. Of a mother-to-be, soon to marry her girlfriend and still

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Matt Hancock admits to not understanding May’s Brexit strategy

In a successful conference speech, Theresa May finally laid out to members and the public the direction she wanted to take the country. But did she make the most difficult part of premiership, her Brexit plan, any clearer? Judging by how well her cabinet understands her Chequers strategy, Mr Steerpike doesn’t think so. After her speech concluded, Stewart Jackson, former chief of staff to David Davis, nobly attempted to define what May’s next steps were in the Brexit negotiations. After he concluded his explanation, presenter Jo Coburn asked Health Secretary Matt Hancock if ‘Stewart assessed that correctly?’ Hancock responded: He gives every impression of knowing more than I do, so I

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Theresa May lifts her party’s spirits – but it won’t last long

Theresa May delivered one of her best conference speeches. In normal times, the political boost she’d get from this would carry her through to Christmas. But these are not normal times—and Brexit will soon reassert itself. There’s a European Council in two weeks time and that will soon dominate everything else. The speech was authentically Theresa May. She cast herself as a centre ground politician, keen on civility and motivated by the national interest. She emphasised how much of a break from the Labour tradition Jeremy Corbyn was, to try and persuade voters that a Corbyn government would be very different from a typical Labour government. On Brexit, she said

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The three achievements of Theresa May’s speech

Theresa May would never sell herself as a great orator. But that was a good speech, perhaps the most significant of her lifetime in Tory politics. It was an address that achieved three things. It confirmed that she is sticking to her Chequers Brexit strategy – not that she even once uttered the controversial ‘C’ word. And she tried to acquire some wiggle room from sceptical members, so that she can offer the rest of the EU compromises on both the future trading relationship with them and the insurance policy, or backstop, to keep the Ireland border open. Second, it planted the Tories in the centre of politics, with a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Theresa May exorcises her Tory conference speech demons

Theresa May appeared comfortable on the conference stage today for the first time. It wasn’t just her Dancing Queen entrance or her references to the various nightmares that beset last year’s address. It was also that she was able to defend what she was doing with real passion and conviction.  She also offered a good dissection of the Opposition, claiming that it wasn’t Labour but “the Jeremy Corbyn party”, and contrasting the approach of today’s frontbench with that of Labour’s greatest figures such as Attlee and Callaghan. Similarly, her section on national security didn’t just include her arguments in favour of the decisions she has taken over the past year,

Theresa May

Full text: Theresa May’s Conservative conference speech

Thank you very much for that warm welcome. You’ll have to excuse me if I cough during this speech; I’ve been up all night supergluing the backdrop. There are some things about last year’s conference I have tried to forget. But I will always remember the warmth I felt from everyone in the hall. You supported me all the way – thank you. This year marks a century since the end of the First World War. Just a few hundred yards from this conference centre stands a Hall of Memory, built to honour the sacrifice of men and women from this city in that terrible conflict. Inscribed within it are some familiar words: ‘AT THE GOING DOWN

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How Theresa May could be toppled by cock-up rather than conspiracy

James Duddridge has chosen to take advantage of the run-up to the Prime Minister’s conference speech to announce that he’s sent a letter of no confidence in Theresa May to the chairman of the 1922 Committee Graham Brady. This is, to state the obvious, a stunt. I doubt it presages a more serious effort to get to 48 letters and by sending it in before May has even spoken, he has made it clear just how pre-meditated it all is. Right now, the more senior figures in the ERG, the main Brexiter lobby in the party, don’t want a vote of no confidence in May. They calculate, correctly, that she

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory MP drops a bombshell ahead of Theresa May’s big speech

Poor old Theresa May. The Prime Minister hasn’t even got on stage to deliver her speech at Tory party conference and already things are not going quite to plan. Tory MP James Duddridge has announced this morning that he thinks it is time for Theresa May to step down – and that Boris’s speech was a turning point in his decision. He said that he had sent his letter to the 1922 committee urging the PM to go: ‘I felt the time has come for her to go. I don’t think she has performed well, I don’t think she is leading us into a strong Brexit and increasing number of

Tuesday

Tim Morris

Why Brexit could be a boom time for Britain’s ports

Anyone who has followed the news over the past 18 months could be forgiven for thinking that, in our ongoing debate around Brexit, Dover is the only port currently operating within the UK. Its fate, it seems – and by implication, the fate of our other ports – is tied so closely to the outcome of our negotiations that if the right deal isn’t struck, every port in the country will become inert, with roads throughout the UK gridlocked with queues of lorries. Perhaps there’s something symbolic in this focus on Dover, our closest connection to the continent and, for many people, their route of holiday travel to Europe. But

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What Theresa May plans to say in her speech

How does Theresa May plan to reinvigorate her party and send it out, united and happy, after this week’s conference? If the extracts of her speech that have been trailed tonight are anything to go by, it’s not clear that the Prime Minister knows how to answer that question, either. It’s either the case that May is holding back a series of announcements for the speech itself or for individual newspapers, or that she is planning to make motherhood and apple pie look controversial in comparison to the epithets she is going to deliver. The Prime Minister will tell the country that ‘our best days lie ahead of us and

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why Theresa May will care more about what Brady, not Boris, thinks

If Theresa May’s sole goal for the Tory conference is to survive it, then she’ll likely be less interested in what Boris Johnson was up to at his big ticket rally this afternoon, and more concerned about any comments made by the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Graham Brady. Brady is famously the man who keeps the letters calling for a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister, and was introduced at a drinks event earlier in the conference as ‘the man who knows where the bodies are buried’. He is effectively the general secretary of the Tory backbenchers’ trade union, which makes him extraordinarily powerful. Brady and his