Politics

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

Thursday

Chris Mullin

Corbyn for PM?

‘The news that Harry Perkins was to become prime minister went down very badly in the Athenaeum.’ Thus begins my novel A Very British Coup, written 35 years ago and, with the narrowing gap in the opinion polls, suddenly topical again. Since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader it has been reprinted twice and, earlier this year, an e-book promotion sold 2,500 copies in a single day. The hero of my novel, Harry Perkins, is a former Sheffield steel worker who was brought to life in a subsequent TV adaptation by that wonderful actor Ray McAnally. The platform on which he was elected was more radical than Corbyn’s, although some of

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

BA’s disaster plan failed as soon as the smoke started coming out of its servers

The science of ‘disaster recovery planning’, together with the related art of ‘crisis PR’, is a core discipline of 21st-century management, both in the corporate world and for agencies of the state. Business schools teach it; consultants sell it; hospitals role play it; the Cabinet Office runs a college in Yorkshire devoted to it; every company board worth its salt has a risk committee demanding bulletproof evidence of it. So a disaster on the scale of the computer breakdown that caused much distress to British Airways passengers last weekend is not just unusual: it is completely bizarre, and nothing said by BA chief executive Alex Cruz has come close to

Andrew Watts

Duchy original

The Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow (‘sons of Cornwall’) is not contesting any seats in the general election. Its leader of 20 years, Dick Cole, said its members were ‘exhausted’ after their local election campaign — it retained four councillors at ‘County Hall’ (Cornish nationalists always put County Hall in inverted commas, to avoid the inference that the Duchy is a mere county), and were only six votes shy of getting as many seats as Labour. It did not have the resources to fight an election so soon after 2015, when all its candidates lost their deposits. You might find it less surprising to learn that Mebyon Kernow is not

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Jeremy Corbyn’s one true virtue

Enough of all these vital, apocalyptic, existential elections. They don’t half wear you out. The Scottish referendum was vital and apocalyptic, so they said, because the wrong decision would have seen Britain crack like a plate, and Scotland spiral off into insane debt, and residual Britain fade in geopolitical importance. Or, on other side, Tory rule for a millennium, which no Scot could ever want. Hmmm. Then the 2015 election was vital and apocalyptic, too, because Ed Miliband… Ed Miliband… Hang on. What was the big problem with Ed Miliband? There definitely was one. Ah yes, his dad hated Britain. Also he was incompetent. Didn’t even know how many kitchens

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Chaotic BBC debate fails to move the dial

The BBC’s seven-way election debate proved that you can’t have a proper debate with seven people in it. It was a shouty, bity affair in which no one really stood out. This meant that Theresa May pretty much got away with her decision not to turn up. Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t as good on this programme as he had been on the Sky / Channel 4 election programme on Monday night. It was also a problem for him that Caroline Lucas was delivering essentially the same argument as him, but in a more compelling way. Tim Farron, again, tried his northern funny man routine. He had some good quips; his line

The Spectator

After Theresa May’s missteps, a Corbyn victory is no longer inconceivable

On the eve of the US presidential election, experts at Princeton university decided that Donald Trump had a 1 per cent chance of being elected. Before the last general election, Populus, the opinion poll firm, gave David Cameron a 0.5 per cent chance of winning a majority. Much is made of the need to look at ‘the data’ when considering political arguments, but so often it is a wildly inaccurate guess with a decimal point at the end to give an aura of scientific specificity. So when we read that Jeremy Corbyn has just a 17 per cent chance of becoming prime minister, this does not mean that the election

Steerpike Steerpike

Battle of the pollsters: Jim Messina blasts YouGov for ‘another stupid poll’

Today Westminster has been abuzz with speculation over the general election result after YouGov analysis suggested the Conservatives are on course for an electoral upset which could see them lose their majority. The YouGov team have been busy defending the numbers behind the headline, with Joe Twyman appearing on today’s Spectator’s Coffee House Shots podcast. However, despite their best efforts, some are unwilling to accept YouGov’s findings. Step forward Jim Messina. The former Obama adviser — who did the Tory’s micro-targeting campaign in 2015 and is involved again this year — has taken to social media to brand the YouGov poll ‘stupid’: Spent the day laughing at yet another stupid poll

Steerpike Steerpike

Russell Brand has endorsed Labour again – and the Tories should be worried

Back in the 2015 general election, Owen Jones became the subject of much mockery thanks to a column he wrote suggesting that Tories had reason to worry after Russell Brand endorsed Labour in the election. Given that Brand went on to claimed he had actually ‘f–ked up the election’ by inviting Ed Miliband to his house, Jones’s claim failed to ring true. But is it a case of second time lucky? As the Corbynites get excited today over YouGov analysis that suggests the Tories will lose seats come June 8, Brand has come out and endorsed the Labour leader. The comedian-turned-revolutionary-turned-comedian has penned a blog for the Huffington Post backing Jeremy Corbyn in this election: ‘A Labour government

Steerpike Steerpike

Will the BBC election debate prove ‘a bridge too far’ for Corbyn?

Oh dear. Although a YouGov poll out today suggests a hung Parliament is a very real possibility in this election, Mr S suspects that some Corbynites are still getting slightly ahead of themselves. With Jeremy Corbyn making a last-minute decision to take part in tonight’s debates, Paul Mason has taken to social media to praise his comrade’s decision. The former Channel-4-economics-editor-turned-revolutionary tweeted a video clip of the wartime film A Bridge Too Far. In this, Lt. General Horrocks — played by Edward Fox — briefs his XXX Corps on Operation Market Garden: ‘Now, gentlemen, I’m not saying that this will be the easiest party that we’ve ever attended, but I still wouldn’t

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Corbyn piles pressure on May by agreeing to BBC debate

Jeremy Corbyn has just announced that he will be doing the BBC Election debate tonight. This means that all the UK-wide party leaders will be there apart from Theresa May. Corbyn’s move is clever politics. He has little to lose, and by turning up, he’ll be able to accuse May of being both too scared to defend her record and of arrogantly taking the voters for granted. It will enable him to continue his attack on her leadership style, an attack that has more of a chance of succeeding following her social care U-turn. May being asked about why she isn’t doing #BBCDebate is the televisual equivalent of haemorrhoids for

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Listen: YouGov’s Joe Twyman defends shock election poll

Can we trust the pollsters? Bruised by Brexit and caught out by Trump, the psephologists claim they’ve finally learnt their lesson. If so, that’s a big problem for the Tories: today’s YouGov poll predicts that the party is on course for an electoral upset which could see them lose their majority. YouGov have been busy defending the numbers behind the headline this morning, and the company’s Joe Twyman has been doing just that on the Spectator’s Coffee House Shots podcast. So, given YouGov failed to get it right in 2015, why should we believe them this time? And will the pollsters end up tweaking their assumptions? Here’s Joe Twyman: ‘We are

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

YouGov poll suggests Tories could fall 16 seats short of overall majority

There’s a nasty shock for the Tories in the Times this morning, with the paper publishing a YouGov poll suggesting the party could lose 20 seats at next week’s election. The estimate says that we could be heading for a hung parliament and that the Conservatives might fall 16 seats short of an overall majority. Even more remarkably, YouGov’s numbers indicate Labour could up their tally of seats by almost 30. It’s difficult to overestimate just what a disaster such an outcome would be for Theresa May. The Prime Minister made the decision to call this election herself with only the guidance of her tightly-knit Downing Street team; if she fails

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Jeremy Corbyn survives his trial-by-sofa

It started with a fib. Jeremy Corbyn endured a trial-by-sofa on BBC One last night and he was asked if there were ‘boys jobs’ and ‘girls jobs’ in his household. He shook his head. Which is a total porkie. He’d parked his missus at home while he answered questions on prime-time television. A clear division of labour. Boys speak up, girls shut up. The presenters were so soft on him they might have been members of his campaign team. Maybe they are. He was allowed to dodge the awkward issue of Brexit. ‘What’s the biggest thing you’ve changed your mind over?’ ‘What’s the biggest change in my life?’ he mused,

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne finds that revenge is a dish best served daily

With Theresa May currently experiencing a rough patch in her election campaign, the Prime Minister is discovering fast who her friends really are. Unfortunately for May, her old Cabinet colleague George Osborne doesn’t appear to be on that list. Now that the former Chancellor is the editor of the London Evening Standard, the paper’s editorials have become a constant source of criticism for the government. Today’s was no exception. On the state of the Conservative campaign, the paper says the ‘campaign has meandered from an abortive attempt to launch a personality cult around Mrs May’. The editorial also described the 2017 Tory manifesto as the ‘most disastrous’ in recent history: ‘The

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Fact-checking what Nicola Sturgeon told Andrew Neil about education

I’ve been on the campaign trail in Scotland, and was struck by how often education was raised by voters – underlining a trend of the SNP’s domestic record catching up with Nicola Sturgeon. She had come prepared for her interview with Andrew Neil on this point, but how reliable were her answers? Ms Sturgeon’s tactic is to drag any discussion about education into the land of acronyms and statistics, knowing that the best way to get out of a tight spot is to make the subject sound dull, or parochial. But online, we have infinite space to team up with people who know these briefs, and scrutinise politician’s answers. The result is

The Spectator

Theresa May attacks Jeremy Corbyn on Brexit, full transcript

Did you see the TV debate last night?  I have to say I thought Jeremy was an impressive performer and a tough adversary.  Well-prepared.  On top of his brief.  Knew the policy inside out.  Persistent to the last, he never gave up.  Yes, Jeremy Paxman definitely still has it. The strange thing about general election campaigns is that you don’t often get to see your opponent close up.  But last night, I did.  I saw Jeremy Corbyn close up on television and what I saw was revealing. Despite being a Member of Parliament for 34 years, despite being the Leader of the Labour Party for the last two years, he’s simply

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Corbyn wants a kinder politics. Try telling that to some of his fans

Jeremy Corbyn must be furious about his interview with Emma Barnett on Woman’s Hour. Not because of the contents of that interview, because presumably he doesn’t mind people thinking he doesn’t have a clue how he’d fund his promise of state-provided childcare. After all, if he thought stuff like that was important, he’d have taken 30 seconds to read the brief about his own policy before announcing it, right? No, I mean he must be furious about what happened after that interview, and happened to Emma. Within minutes, she was subjected to the full spectrum of abuse online from people unhappy about a journalist doing her job and asking a politician

Charlotte Henry

Theresa May’s willingness to change her mind is a good thing

‘When the facts change, I change my mind,’ John Maynard Keynes is (wrongly) claimed to have said. Whatever the origin of the quote, Theresa May seems to be taking it to heart – and, as a floating voter, I’m delighted. But it seems there aren’t many who share that view, given that May’s shifting stance on certain issues became such a major focus of her interview with Jeremy Paxman last night. I used to be a Lib Dem so I am fully aware of the kind of horror that a U-turn on major policy can bring. However, sometimes it can also show a quite sensible approach. After all, we all regularly change our

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Jeremy Paxman has become a national bore

So who came off worse in The Battle for Number 10, last night’s Channel 4 / Sky stand-off between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn? It was Jeremy Paxman. May and Corbyn were paragons of patience and sense in contrast with this oafish, boorish barker of rude and even pointless questions. Watching Paxo was squirm-inducing. He’s the angry drunk uncle who ruins every barbecue by yelling ‘BALLS’ at anyone who disagrees with him. I’m convinced Corbyn or May would have instantly won tens of thousands of new voters if they had told him to bugger off. It’s amazing how knackered Paxman’s schtick felt. Did we really lap this guff up in

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

In the digital age, terrorists have far more places to hide

We learn this morning that MI5 has launched an internal inquiry into how they didn’t catch Salman Abedi, the Manchester bomber. He was reported to them five times, apparently, even by his imam – the spooks looked into him, but after a while discontinued their investigation. Perhaps we will learn that there has been an egregious intelligence failure but I doubt it. I suspect that in time, we’ll learn every detail about the case of Salman Abedi and it will likely expose the grim realities of counter-terrorism. And also that, as I argued in my most recent Daily Telegraph column, we’re about as safe as we’re ever likely to get.  Yes,