Politics

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

Monday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will Labour’s tuition fee row end Corbyn-mania?

As Theresa May sets off hiking in the Italian alps, CCHQ can take heart that – for a change – it’s not Conservative in-fighting dominating the headlines. Instead, it’s Labour’s dubious election promises – thanks to Jeremy Corbyn’s admission on the Andrew Marr show that his party has no plans to abolish pre-existing student debt. The reason this presents a problem for Labour is an interview Corbyn gave to NME magazine during the General Election campaign. Discussing tuition fees, the Labour leader said that on top of axing fees, he would ‘deal with those already burdened with student debt’: ‘I don’t see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during

Sunday

Steerpike Steerpike

Diane Abbott’s vanishing act

On Thursday, Diane Abbott came unstuck in an interview with ITV News after she failed to explain how Labour would pay for its policy to put 10,000 more bobbies on the beat. The shadow home secretary’s confusion was particularly telling given that she struggled with the same policy during the general election campaign – with a car crash interview on LBC. Abbott has since said that it was the broadcaster who was at fault for daring to ask her to go into specifics on a party policy. But have the powers that be taken a different view? Mr S only asks after the line-up for Radio 4’s Westminster Hour was changed last

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Jeremy Cobyn tries to explain away his student debt troubles

Jeremy Corbyn – I did not make a commitment to write off student debt This morning Jeremy Corbyn became the last interviewee on the Andrew Marr Show  before the party conference season begins in September. With a potential general election on the cards at any time, there was much to discuss. In particular, Marr chose to delve a little deeper into Corbyn’s plans for alleviating student debt after the Labour leader declared he planned to ‘deal with it’ shortly before Britain went to the polls in June: Marr: A lot of people in this country are burdened by high levels of debt because of the student loans they’ve had to

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can Theresa May make it to the end of the Brexit talks?

If the last few months should have taught us political commentators anything, it is to be wary of making predictions. So, this is more of a report on what people are thinking than a prediction. But, as I write in The Sun this morning, there is an increasing confidence among May loyalists that she can make it to the end of the Brexit talks. One of the things that gives those charged with maintaining party discipline hope that May can do this is that whenever a leadership contender is seen to be plotting, it hurts their standing with Tory MPs. The old Tory adage that he who wields the dagger,

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

How tolerant should liberals be of Islamic theocracy?

I quite enjoyed James Fergusson’s exploration of British Islam – Al-Britannia, My Country. If it is done intelligently, I approve of someone accentuating the positive, reminding us that the majority of British Muslims have successfully integrated to a large extent, and that optimism is warranted. But I have a couple of quibbles. He spends much time arguing that it is dangerously wrong to conflate conservative Islam with extremism – the alleged sin of the Prevent programme. We should tolerate those who disparage gay rights or feminism, rather than accuse them of extremism, which will drive them underground. Fair point, but I feel his argument misses a central issue. If ‘conservative

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

How Game of Thrones gave Northern Ireland a £146 million boost

I’m a huge fan of Game of Thrones, the epic television drama that has returned for a seventh season. This is a show that offers wisdom as well as bloody excitement — and parables for the Conservative leadership struggle, though I hope we’ll never have to watch Theresa May emulate Cersei Lannister’s naked walk of shame. It’s also a rich source of aphorisms for management gurus, emphasising as it does the importance of succession planning, the dangers of debt (especially to the merciless Iron Bank of Braavos), and the need to be prepared for a long economic winter ahead. But most of all, Game of Thrones shows how the UK’s strengths in the ‘creative

Friday

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

Michael Gove, ‘Green Brexit’, and what it all means for Britain’s farmers

Michael Gove’s speech this morning on his plan for a ‘Green Brexit’ is one of the first signs of what he is up to in his new role as Defra secretary. It was always a given that he would stir things up, but it remained to be seen whether his Brexit plan would be judged as a good thing or a bad thing by British famers and rural communities. So what did this morning’s speech deliver? Well, when it comes to farming, the answer is far more questions than it did answers. Of course, this was a speech to various environmental groups at the World Wildlife Fund’s headquarters, so it’s unsurprising

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What will Jeremy Corbyn do next?

The Labour party has a troubling recess ahead of it. Many of its members just won’t know what to do with themselves. This is because for the first time in two years, there is no leadership contest. Those who had eschewed beach holidays in favour of spending their summer recess in windowless rooms listening to contenders for the top job fight over who would really, really nationalise the railways now have nothing to do. Even before Labour lost the election unexpectedly well, few anticipated an immediate challenge to Jeremy Corbyn. He and his allies made it clear that he would stay on whatever the result, and even those who predicted

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Is Michael Gove really an environmental reformer?

How right Michael Gove was, in his first speech as Environment Secretary, to promise to put an end to a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which ‘puts resources in the hands of the already-wealthy’. But how bizarre that he then proposed a reform that will continue to do just that. Doing away with CAP ought to be one of the big gains from Brexit. For the past 44 years, taxpayers have been forced to fund a system which, in turn, has created food mountains, degraded the landscape, put millions in the pockets of wealthy landowners in return for doing virtually nothing and, in conjunction with protectionist tariffs from food imports from

Steerpike Steerpike

Friends reunited: Michael Gove’s tête-à-tête with Nick Timothy

Although Theresa May’s former co-chiefs of staff – Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill – both swiftly exited No 10 following the disastrous election result, there are some Conservatives who fret that her Rottweilers still hold influence from afar. So Mr S was curious to come across the latest offering to Eye Spy MP. A follower claims they spied Timothy enjoying a pint with none other than Michael Gove on Thursday night: Yesterday Nick 'n Mick down the pub. pic.twitter.com/aiszTinu1r — Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) July 21, 2017 Surely it was just a case of two old friends catching up?

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Who will be the next Tory leader? | 21 July 2017

Summer is finally here. Tory MPs, exhausted, relieved and nervous, can retreat to contemplation. One theory says that distance from Westminster will break the magic spell that holds Theresa May aloft: they’ll go away and realise that stumbling and mumbling into full-blown Brexit is just impossible, then come back in September and put an end to her. Some are citing the IDS precedent, when summer thoughts turned to autumn deeds. But there’s a difference. Then, the party could agree on Michael Howard. Today, there is no Michael Howard figure: David Davis, Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond are all divisive and becoming more so: none has impressed colleagues in recent days;

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 20 July 2017

Smash the orange Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said the government’s Brexit plans could ‘fall apart like a chocolate orange’. But the point of a chocolate orange is that it doesn’t fall apart easily at all. Launched by Terry’s of York in 1932, many of its TV adverts have emphasised this theme: 1978 ‘Tap it and unwrap it’ — yokel shown tapping it lightly against tree trunk. 1998 ‘Whack and unwrap’ — man shown thumping it against a wall. 2010 ‘Smash it to pieces, love it to bits’ — several people struggle to break the orange, including a secretary with a phone and man who whacks it

The Spectator

Letters | 20 July 2017

Yes to Boris Sir: Get Boris (15 July)! Get Boris to be prime minister, in fact. He is the only possible candidate for the Conservatives who has the flair, the experience, the ideas and the sense of humour to rescue the party and the country from its current malaise. That he has opposition there is no doubt — but then so did Winston Churchill when he was recalled by Lloyd George in 1917 to be minister of munitions, and again in 1940 when he became prime minister. To sideline him at this time would be foolish in the extreme and a further example of the party’s ineptitude. George Burne Woldingham, Surrey

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 20 July 2017

We went to the first night of the Proms last week. Thinking it was all over, we left the auditorium just before Igor Levit came back on for a delayed encore in which he played Beethoven’s Ode to Joy (transcribed by Liszt) as an anti-Brexit gesture. We loved Levit’s earlier rendering of a Beethoven piano concerto, but were spared his political views, so it was a perfect evening. Two nights later, Daniel Barenboim took advantage of the Proms conductor’s podium to make an unscheduled speech in which he deplored ‘isolation tendencies’. All good Brexiteers deplore isolation tendencies, which is one of the reasons we don’t like a European Union with

The Spectator

Let May govern

It used to be said that loyalty was the Conservatives’ secret weapon. While other parties might descend into internecine warfare, the Tories would always, when circumstances demanded, show just enough respect for their leader. The words ‘loyalty’ and ‘Conservative’, -however, lost their natural affinity during the Major years. Since then, to borrow a phrase from the left, the leadership of the party has descended into a state of permanent revolution. After the failure of her general election campaign, Theresa May seems to have become a tortured prisoner of her cabinet. Talks of leaks are exaggerated. It’s quite true that our political editor, James Forsyth, was able to disclose a row

Andrew Willshire

Reflections on writing about welfare

Earlier this week I made my first foray into writing for Coffee House about the interactions between the tax and welfare systems in the UK. Engaging with some of the respondents on Twitter and in the comments section gave me cause to reflect. First, language matters. At one point, I highlighted that ‘increasing gross earnings from £20k to £60k only increases net income by £7k – only £130 extra per week despite trebling your gross salary.’ A quite common response was to criticise the use of ‘only’ in that sentence. Many people (rightly) pointed out that £130pw is a lot of money to some and that ‘only a Tory would

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Diane Abbott fails to do her sums, again

Here we go again. During the General Election campaign, Diane Abbott came under fire when it became apparent in an LBC interview that she had no idea how her party would pay for its policy of 10,000 extra police officers – at one point saying it would cost £300,000, working out at £30 an officer. So, surely the shadow home secretary has learnt her lesson? Apparently not. In an interview with ITV news on rising crime figures, Abbott came unstuck once again on the policy as she attempted to explain how Labour would pay for its plan for 10,000 extra officers: ‘What we have is we would find the money to recruit

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Vince Cable pitches the Lib Dems as the only force in the centre ground

So Vince Cable is now the new Lib Dem leader, after no-else opposed the 74-year-old Twickenham MP for the party’s top job. Of course, in the Lib Dems the ‘top job’ is a little less powerful than in other parties, thanks to a spider’s web of structures that mean the leader can’t always do what he (or maybe one day she) wants. But Cable clearly knows what he does want to do, which is to make up for the party’s miserable election campaign in which Tim Farron spent far too much time having to talk about gay sex, and the rest of his party spent far too much time trying

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How doing a ‘Good Thing’ can make ministers mess up

One of the few bits of legislation that the government thinks it can get past MPs is a domestic violence bill, which was announced as a draft bill in the Queen’s Speech. Yesterday the minister responsible for taking the Bill through the Commons, Sarah Newton, held a meeting with MPs, campaigners and survivors of abuse to talk about what the government is planning to do. Now, you’d think that the government might be pursuing this Bill because everyone is opposed to domestic violence and therefore no MP will vote against it. But as I’ve explained before, it’s a bit more complicated than that – both in terms of certain political

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Brexit talks reach a stalemate on EU nationals

This afternoon, David Davis and Michel Barnier gave a joint press conference to update hacks on the progress that’s been made in the second instalment of Brexit talks. However, there wasn’t all that much progress to report back on. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, said there was a ‘fundamental’ split between the EU and the UK over how to guarantee the rights of EU nationals. The disagreement rests on whether citizens’ rights should be backed by the Court of Justice of the European Union or the British courts. Barnier appeared to adopt a more hardline approach than before on the reasons for wanting the ECJ to rule on this – he