Politics

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

Steerpike

Tom Watson’s gambling hypocrisy

When it was announced that the crackdown on fixed-odds betting machines could be delayed for up to two years, Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson made his feelings loud and clear: ‘The state of this government. It’s pathetic,’ he tweeted. That outburst wasn’t the only time Watson has called for action against the bookmakers. Here he is describing gambling as Britain’s ‘hidden epidemic’ and urging football clubs to cut their ties with the bookies: ‘Kids more than ever are exposed to gambling adverts, and it’s no surprise to me then…that gambling addiction has gone up by an estimated third in recent years. There is a problem: the current arrangements are not

Steerpike

Two years on: six of the worst Brexit predictions | 25 June 2018

It’s just over two years since the UK voted to leave the European Union in what proved to be a shock result that caught both politicians and commentators off guard. Unlike Lord Ashdown’s hat-eating, or Matthew Goodwin’s book eating after the two most recent General Elections, many didn’t get held accountable to their off the mark Brexit predictions. Happily, Mr S is on hand to correct that. Steerpike has compiled a list of some of the Brexit predictions that failed to come true: 1. JP Morgan: Scotland will leave the UK and get a new currency Days after the EU referendum, investment company JP Morgan announced in an email to

Katy Balls

What is Jeremy Hunt up to?

‘What you can see is someone who has the instincts of a Brexiteer, but the cautious pragmatism of a Remainer, which is where I think the British people are.’ This is how Jeremy Hunt tried to sell Theresa May’s leadership on the Andrew Marr sofa this Sunday. After a choppy few weeks for No. 10, the Health Secretary made clear that he felt May was still the right person for the job of Prime Minister. Perhaps it’s just pure coincidence then that one could also substitute Hunt’s name with May’s in that endorsement. Like May, Hunt is a Remainer turned Brexiteer. A point he also proved on Sunday when he

Steerpike

Greg Hands makes life difficult for the Foreign Secretary

With a key vote on Heathrow’s third runway due later today, the bulldozers ominously loom whilst the Foreign Secretary is missing in action. The once anti-Heathrow Boris Johnson will helpfully miss today’s vote though the exact whereabouts of Johnson remain unknown – with the Prime Minister saying last Thursday that ‘[he] will be what I would describe as the living embodiment of global Britain’. Alas not all of Johnson’s colleagues seem so impressed. Robert Halfon hypothesised on Daily Politics that he might be in India or China ‘to buy a cheaper bulldozer’ than the one he previously threatened to lie down in front of should Heathrow expansion occur. Meanwhile, Greg Hands

Katy Balls

Heathrow vote: Conservatives attempt to look decisive

Today Parliament is expected to finally give plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport the green light. The vote will not be without its dramas. The Conservatives (along with their friends the DUP) are on a three-line whip to vote for it. This decision has seen Greg Hands resign as a trade minister and Boris Johnson mysteriously absent for the vote – thanks to Foreign Office business. Given that the Foreign Secretary once said that he would ‘lie down in front of those bulldozers’ were the expansion to happen it may be that his protest will come later. As for Labour, Jeremy Corbyn’s party have been granted a free vote

Steerpike

Tory MPs turn on Gavin Williamson

Despite the good weather and England’s good World Cup result, it hasn’t been a relaxing weekend for all. Step forward Gavin Williamson. The ambitious defence secretary has found himself in the line of fire, with the Mail on Sunday splashing on reports that he has threatened to topple the prime minister unless defence spending is increased by £20bn. Given that Theresa May doesn’t yet have a firm plan in place to fund her £20bn NHS pledge, it’s hard to see her signing up to this anytime soon. Allies of Williamson – known as Private Pike in the Treasury – have moved to deny the reports. However, regardless, the incident has not

Steerpike

Anti-Brexit protesters turn on Labour leader: ‘Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?’

This time last year, Jeremy Corbyn was standing on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury to adoring chants of ‘Oh-Jeremy-Corbyn’. Last weekend, Corbyn-mania attempting a resurgence at JezFest – Labour’s very own music festival – but failed to deliver the Labour leader another Glastonbury moment – with only faint chants to be heard. Happily, Corbyn can take heart that his name was chanted en masse this weekend. Only it wasn’t for the reason that his supporters had in mind. At the anti-Brexit People’s Vote march in London, protesters angrily chanted ‘where’s Jeremy Corbyn?’ https://twitter.com/Jack_Slater/status/1010519215034560513 It turns out that Corbyn was busy visiting a refugee camp. However, the point remains that had Corbyn

Why has Brexit made some people uncontrollably angry?

After any major interview, I turn with great interest to discover from Twitter whether I am currently a sinister Marxist undermining the Tories; a foam-flecked believer in the hardest of hard Brexits; or a mildly outdated Blairite propagandist. Maybe, I’m all three. Or, just possibly, I ask the questions, rather than taking responsibility for the answers. Our job at the BBC is not to denounce, lampoon, deride or sneer at elected politicians but to ask them, politely, direct and relevant questions — pause — and let the viewers decide. The number of viewers watching the show suggests the majority understand this. But there’s no doubt that the vote to leave

Charles Moore

Dealing with Question Time’s left-wing claque

The departure of David Dimbleby from Question Time is certainly sad from the point of view of the panellist. He was, in recent years, one’s sole protector. Calm, humorous, very slightly bored (but too polite to show it), David reminded one by his mere presence that there is a world of sane and civilised people outside the studio. He cheered me in adversity, rather as I once felt when I discovered Château Latour for £12 in an otherwise unremarkable hotel in Blackpool during a party conference. I also got no sense of his politics. Because he is rich, successful and on the BBC, I assume he must be mildly left-wing; but he

Melanie McDonagh

How Balkan politics dominated the Switzerland-Serbia game

Enjoying the football? The politics of it, obviously. The Switzerland-Serbia game was a cracker in this context. The innocents in the BBC box obviously bought the fiction that this was a Swiss team though the two Swiss goals should have put paid to that notion. The hand gesture from Shaqiri when he scored his goal, replicating the more subtle version by Xhaka may have escaped the unfortunate pundits who were focused solely on the sport, but it was, obviously, the Albanian eagle – flapping fingers, got it? And the gesture certainly wasn’t lost either on Serbian observers or on the crowds going nuts over the game in Pristina. This was

James Forsyth

How the EU’s migration crisis is making Brexit more difficult

Next week’s EU Council will see little progress on Brexit. As I write in The Sun today, migration—not Brexit—is the biggest issue on the agenda for the EU 27. Migration is roiling European politics again. Angela Merkel’s coalition is threatening to break apart over the issue. While in Italy, the new government is threatening to close its southern border—blocking migrant rescue ships from landing—and open its northern border, encouraging illegal migrants and asylum seekers to head north to Germany and Sweden. So worried is the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that he is hosting a mini-summit this Sunday to try and come up with some policies that can ease Merkel’s

How Spain’s socialist leader is winning over reluctant voters

Spaniards didn’t ask for their new prime minister, but it seems that they’re starting to like him. The most recent polls reveal that Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists, who now make up Spain’s minority government, are the most popular party in the country. Less than a month ago, the PSOE slumbered in third place, behind the then-ruling Conservative Popular Party (PP) and centrist Ciudadanos. The Socialists have leapt two places up the rankings, even though their seizure of power was seen as illegitimate by many Spaniards. What’s gone so right for Spain’s Socialists?   Sánchez’s surge in popularity can perhaps be partly explained by the diversity of his cabinet; made up of eleven

Steerpike

Love Island education: A beginner’s guide to Brexit

When Love Island contestant Hayley Hughes used a conversation about Brexit to ask whether there would still be trees after Britain leaves the EU, there was widespread ridicule. With the reality star now out of the ITV2 villa, Hayley appeared on Daily Politics to be given a Brexit education via the BBC’s Adam Fleming. ‘I’m finding it really interesting,’ she mused. Given the disagreement over the past few weeks about what a meaningful vote really means and what a backstop is, Mr S suspects that the number of people confused by the whole thing goes well beyond the Love Island cast.

Diary – 21 June 2018

At Chequers last week to interview the Prime Minister, I hear some sad news of Churchill’s mouse. The story goes that the rather fine painting there by Rubens and Frans Snyders, illustrating Aesop’s fable of the lion and the mouse, was ‘touched up’ by Winston himself. During the war, staring at the painting, Churchill decided that the mouse was hard to see properly. Never a man for whom self-doubt was a crippling disability, he promptly picked up his paints and improved the rodent. That, at least, was the story put about by Harold Wilson. As I was waiting for Mrs May and her NHS figures, I was told the painting

Isabel Hardman

Hands off, Hollingberry in: does anyone notice ministerial resignations any more?

Are ministerial resignations even interesting any more? There are more of them in Theresa May’s government than there are solid policy announcements or indeed any sort of decision at all. Today it was the turn of Greg Hands, who announced that he was stepping down as a junior trade minister in order to vote against Heathrow expansion. The vote on building one more runway at the airport finally comes on Monday, and Tory MPs will be whipped to support it. Hands, always a loyalist, was very polite when he announced he was off, describing it as an ‘honour’ to serve Theresa May and previously David Cameron, but he needed to

James Forsyth

Could Article 50 end up being extended and Brexit delayed?

The 30th March 2019 is the date in every Leave-backing MP’s mind. It is the first day Britain will be legally outside of the EU. But as I say in the magazine this week, Cabinet Brexiteers are concerned that this date may slip. One tells me that the UK is ‘likely to face at some point soon a huge amount of pressure to extend Article 50’. At first, this seems surprising: why would the EU want to do that? After all, the ticking clock favours them in this negotiation. But this minister explains that the EU’s aim would be to extend Article 50 further without guaranteeing the UK the transition

Katy Balls

Treasury X Factor: Tory MPs belatedly summoned to find the money for NHS pledge

How do you find the money to pay for a £20bn NHS funding pledge? Usually such discussions – and eventual calculations – would be made before the money was announced. However, Theresa May decided to ditch the rulebook this week when she unveiled her government’s funding package to boost health spending by an average of 3.4 per cent over the next five years. Far from a fully costed pledge, May referred to a rarely-sighted Brexit dividend, potential borrowing and future tax rises. The uncertainty has led to criticism from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour – not usually known for fiscal restraint. But happily it seems the Treasury now has a plan – or