Politics

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

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The general election will be a vote on Scottish independence

‘Now is not the time’ except, apparently, when now is the time. The reasons for engineering a general election are many and obvious. The current government is tolerated, not welcomed. Theresa May needs a mandate of her own. A thumping Tory majority – the only conceivable outcome of any dash to the country – will not hugely strengthen her position with Britain’s erstwhile european friends and partners, but it will secure her position on the domestic front. For Labour, too, this is an opportunity to lance a boil: it will, or should at any rate, end the Jeremy Corbyn era. For their part, the Liberal Democrats should welcome the opportunity

The Spectator

Jeremy Corbyn backs Theresa May’s plan for a snap election: full text

Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour will support Theresa May’s decision to hold an early election. Here’s his full statement: I welcome the Prime Minister’s decision to give the British people the chance to vote for a government that will put the interests of the majority first. Labour will be offering the country an effective alternative to a government that has failed to rebuild the economy, delivered falling living standards and damaging cuts to our schools and NHS. In the last couple of weeks, Labour has set out policies that offer a clear and credible choice for the country. We look forward to showing how Labour will stand up for the

Will Heaven

Five times Theresa May ruled out a snap general election

Theresa May’s snap election, scheduled for 8 June, was unlikely for three big reasons. Holding off until 2020 would allow the Tories to take advantage of boundary changes that come into force in 2018. There’s a fixed-term parliament act, which is a major complicating factor (Labour will probably have to back a vote in the Commons to allow this election to take place at all). Most of all, she staked a large chunk of her credibility on not U-turning on her decision that there wouldn’t be one. Until this morning, her reputation for unwavering unflappability looked justified. Here are five occasions on which the Prime Minister personally, or her staff, denied

John O'Neill

Theresa May is heading for a general election landslide

Recent opinion polls have given the Conservatives bigger leads than they’ve had in years. So what if today’s polls were June’s General Election results? According to Electoral Calculus, Labour would lose 47 seats and the Conservatives would gain 51. The SNP may have a clean sweep in Scotland – and it still looks too early for a Lib Dem recovery. The net result? The Conservative majority would rise from 13 to 112 – plunging Labour into another leadership crisis.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Theresa May shows she is prepared to play political games

Theresa May has just announced that she’ll move a motion in the Commons tomorrow calling for a general election on 8 June. This is despite May and her team having repeatedly ruled out going to the country early. Much of the May brand, and her appeal, is built on the idea that she is a grown-up who gets on with the job and doesn’t play political games. By going for an election, and especially when the Tories have a record poll lead over Labour, she endangers that. May is clearly aware of this danger. In her statement outside Downing Street, May tried to pitch herself against Westminster. She said that while

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What a snap election means for Labour

Theresa May has taken Westminster by surprise this morning by saying she wants an early election. Tomorrow she will ask MPs to support a motion for a poll on June 8. It is pretty much certain that this will pass — any opposition MP who rejects the motion is effectively saying they want another three years of Tory rule. Tim Farron has been the first out of the starting blocks to say that his party welcomes an early election — heralding the Liberal Democrats as the only party that will fight for Britain to remain in the single market. So, what of Labour? Well, after a sluggish start Her Majesty’s Opposition have issued

The Spectator

Theresa May calls an early general election for 8 June: full speech

Theresa May has called a general election for June 8th. Making the announcement on the steps of Downing Street, the PM said that an early election is the ‘right approach’ and ‘in the national interest’. Here’s her full statement: ‘I have just chaired a meeting of the Cabinet where we agreed that the government should call a general election to be held on the 8th June. I want to explain the reasons for that decision, what will happen next, and the choice facing the British people when you come to vote in this election. Last summer, after the country voted to leave the European Union, Britain needed certainty, stability and strong leadership.

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Andy Burnham and ‘posh coffee’ – a brief history

This evening, Andy Burnham has whipped social media into a frenzy after the Labour MP decided to wade into ‘barista-gate’. Following reports that the Home Secretary is considering plans for ‘barista visas’ — which would allow young Europeans to work in the hospitality industry after Brexit — Burnham has taken to Twitter to let it be known that he is unimpressed. The former shadow home secretary says the ‘right-wing’ policy is bizarre as ‘God forbid the idea of waiting longer in the morning for their posh coffee’. Bit bizarre hearing these right-wing calls for a "Barista Visa". God forbid the idea of waiting longer in the morning for their posh coffee.

Sunday

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Christianity is at the heart of Britain’s shared values

Theresa May does a decent job of saying that Christianity is at the heart of our shared values. It’s a difficult thing to say without sounding disparaging of non-Christians, but I think it’s something worth saying. Some will say that the Prime Minister should stick to politics, especially when there’s so much politics to do, and stay away from religion. If she wants to give us a headmistressy pep-talk, fine, but keep it strictly secular. I don’t agree. It’s for each prime minister to decide whether to veer into religious territory. (There’s no constitutional bar to him or her getting all happy-clappy – not a danger with this glumly cautious

Saturday

Rose Asani

Will Turkey dare to vote ‘No’ in Erdogan’s referendum?

Istanbul The Istanbul skyline is famous for being punctuated by mosques. Great domes of worship, with minarets reaching towards the heavens. The most famous is the mesmerising Blue Mosque. Built under the reign of Sultan Ahmet I, it was used as a symbol to reassert Ottoman power. Most people gasp in awe at its ornate ceiling, but I’ve always been fascinated by another feature; its minarets. There are six in total and in Turkey that’s unique, or at least it was. A few miles up the milky blue waters of the Bosphorus, another now stands to equal it. On the hills of Camlica on the Asian side, President Erdogan has

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris was right on sanctions

Boris Johnson has received a bit of a kicking this week. There have been no shortage of people wanting to say he has been humiliated by the G7’s refusal to back his call for further sanctions on Russia and Syria after the chemical weapons attack. But I argue in The Sun today, that the real story is the weakness of the EU members of the G7. To be sure, Boris got too far forward on his skis on sanctions. But the bigger issue, by far, is the weakness of those members of the G7 who wouldn’t back them: principally, Italy and Germany. Lenin used to say “Probe with a bayonet;

Charlotte Gill

Forget the ‘nasty party’, Theresa May has turned the Tories into the zombie party

Watching Education Secretary Justine Greening discuss grammar schools this week, I felt exasperated and in desperate need of a cognac. And it wasn’t because I’m opposed to grammar schools. No, there was something else bothering me: the cold air as Greening stared into the camera. It was the sort of look that could kill you slowly over time, especially when paired with such mechanical, uninspiring words. It left me as cold as Paul Nuttall’s head. And it was then I realised something: this is all Theresa May’s fault. She might have worried about the Tories being seen as the ‘nasty party’. She need not have done. Instead, she’s in danger of turning them

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Former Bush aide: Corbyn is Trump’s secret weapon

As if Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t already getting it from all sides on the home front, the beleaguered Labour leader has come under a fresh line of an attack from a former Bush aide: propping up Donald Trump. Yes, speaking on The Spectator Podcast, David Frum – senior editor at The Atlantic and former Bush administration staffer – accused the 21st century socialist of aiding Trump’s influence on the UK government… by failing to provide an adequate opposition. He said that ‘if Britain had a functioning opposition party… a Leader of the Opposition would be slamming the Prime Minister every day in the House of Commons’ for failing to condemn Sean Spicer’s accusations of British collaboration in

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne finds there’s no rest for the wicked

With George Osborne set to start his new part-time job as editor of the Evening Standard next month, the former chancellor could be forgiven for taking things easy for now and just focussing on his two other big jobs — as an advisor for Black Rock and the MP for Tatton. However, given that this is George – ‘six jobs’ – Osborne, it was never going to be the case. The latest register of interests shows that Osborne has been busying himself of late giving speeches in Britain, Europe and the Middle East. And how much money did he earn in the process? A cool £155,136 for just 11 and a half

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Labour has abandoned workers. Trade unions must avoid doing the same

I’m not a member of a trade union, but I should be. As a freelance journalist, my employment situation is precarious — yet it still wouldn’t occur to me to join the National Union of Journalists. My reasons are both personal and political, but mostly practical: the NUJ talks tough but, in the end, seldom achieves more than a few quid extra in your redundancy package. Still, the union movement seems bent on wooing me; at least that’s how I’m interpreting Gerard Coyne’s campaign to oust Len McCluskey as Unite’s general secretary. Coyne’s manifesto touches on expected areas — better value for membership dues; a Brexit focus on training and

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: It’s time to stop blaming Brexit

What does a spike in hate crime, a slump in sterling, supermarket price hikes, rising inflation and a squeeze on living standards have in common? The answer is simple, according to some: Brexit is to blame. But it’s time to stop pointing the finger at Brexit, says the Sun, which argues in its editorial that the vote to leave in last year’s referendum has ‘wrongly copped the blame for every negative development since’. Now that it has emerged that inflation has ‘outstripped’ pay for the first time since 2014, the same thing is happening. It’s true, the Sun admits, that the slump in Sterling is pushing up prices. But there’s

Steerpike Steerpike

Spot the difference: BBC’s varying approaches to IndyRef2

Although Nick Robinson claims the BBC no longer has a duty to be balanced over Brexit now the referendum has been won, what about Scottish independence? With ‘IndyRef2’ on the horizon indefinitely, Mr S was curious to note the approach Andrew Marr took to interviewing the SNP’s Alex Salmond compared with unionist Ruth Davidson. When Davidson — the leader of the Scottish Conservatives — appeared on the Andrew Marr show last month, the BBC presenter gave her a grilling on her objections to the SNP’s call for ‘IndyRef2’. As Davidson tried to argue that there was no appetite for a second referendum in Scotland, Marr interrupted her at several points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZElNjDldh4 Among

James Kirkup James Kirkup

United Airlines prove Corbyn’s point about bad business

The French have their uses, don’t they? They offer us their food, their wine and their bankers, and they also offer some reassurance. No matter how demented our politics may seem, things are never quite as dramatic, as emotional, as they are over the Channel. The best Britain offers Nigel Farage is an embarrassed slap on the back in the hope he’ll move down the bar to tell his war stories to someone else; the French are considering making Marine Le Pen head of state. As if that wasn’t mad enough, they’re now taking Jean Luc Melenchon, the Gallic Chavez, seriously, or at least seriously enough to ruffle the markets. More proof

Wednesday

Peter Jones

Osborne and the Athenians

As a result of George Osborne taking up five jobs on top of his role as MP for Tatton, an ethics watchdog wants to know what the public thinks about MPs having other jobs. One problem is that people’s low opinion of MPs makes balanced judgment difficult. The same was true in the ancient world. There were no ‘parties’ with ‘policies’ in democratic Athens, only ‘speakers’ (the equivalent of our ‘politicians’) at the weekly Assemblies, often holding some office, and attempting to persuade the listening citizens to vote for their solution to whatever problem the Assembly was facing. Comic poets obviously laid into them, characterising them all as ‘robbers’ and

The Spectator

Parting on good terms

Many EU officials would like to present the Brexit negotiations as a case of one nervous member, weak at the knees, appearing before a menacing and united panel of 27. But that ignores the political and ideological rifts which are already apparent in the EU. Britain’s departure not only necessitates the creation of a new relationship between us and them; it fundamentally shifts the balance in EU politics. As Angela Merkel has been worrying aloud in recent weeks, the northern European countries which have always tended to take a liberal position on economics and trade are going to have a harder job fighting off the protectionist instincts of the south.