Politics

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

Monday

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Conservative party conference, day two: The Spectator guide

Philip Hammond takes to the stage today at Tory party conference to discuss the Conservative’s plans for an economy that ‘works for everyone’ – echoing Theresa May’s first pitch as Prime Minister on the steps of Downing Street. We’ll also hear from Sajid Javid, Andrea Leadsom and Liam Fox in some of the other big speeches of the day. Here’s the full run-through of what’s on today: Conference: 10.30am – 12.30pm: An economy that works for everyone Business secretary Greg Clark Communities secretary Sajid Javid Transport secretary Chris Grayling Chancellor Philip Hammond 2.30pm – 4.15pm: Culture secretary Karen Bradley Environment secretary Andrea Leadsom International trade secretary Liam Fox 4.30pm – 5.30pm:

Sunday

Steerpike Steerpike

Listen: Liam Fox savages Nick Clegg at Tory conference

On Sunday afternoon both Boris Johnson and David Davis gave speeches on Brexit in the main hall at Conservative conference. Happily, their fellow Brexiteer Liam Fox was not too left out and had a chance to share his thoughts at the Conservative Voice’s ‘Brexit, Europe and the world’ reception that evening. Clearly stung after Nick Clegg suggested he didn’t have a job at a recent Press Gallery lunch, Fox went on the offensive — branding the Lib Dem leader a ‘serial loser’ for doubting his power: ‘I hear Nick Clegg said I didn’t have a job because what we were acting on was delusional. Well I’d just ask you — before

Steerpike Steerpike

Theresa May responds to Labour’s sisterhood

While Scottish Labour struggle to fill their events with supporters, the Scottish Conservatives can take heart that their resurgence is still going strong. Attendees for the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party reception queued around the bend to hear Ruth Davidson speak. Davidson spoke of her surprise that officials had put the Scots in a room where they could break things, before moving on to the F-word. After Labour’s women conference saw Harriet Harman and her comrades describe Theresa May as a non-sister, Davidson struck back — suggesting that it is the Conservatives who did the best for women’s equality. ‘People often ask what we do for women in this country, and I say

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A Boris speech that made you think

Boris Johnson’s speeches at Tory conference have normally been dedicated to making the audience laugh. As Mayor of London, he was freed from the constraints that Cabinet Ministers must labour under and so could have more fun than any other speaker. But as Foreign Secretary, Boris is constrained both by the conventions of diplomacy and a Number 10 that is keeping a particularly close eye on him. Now, Boris being Boris he didn’t totally obey the usual diplomatic niceties. He began by telling the audience how when he met the Russian Foreign Minister in New York at the UN general assembly last month, he had told him that Russia’s problems

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Coffee House Shots: Theresa May’s big Brexit speech

The Conservative party conference has started and Theresa May has kick-started this year’s gathering with her big speech on Brexit. The Prime Minister revealed earlier that Article 50 will be triggered by March next year. And when she took to the stage in Birmingham, she offered up a few more small glimmers about her Brexit plan. James Forsyth was in the hall to listen to the speech and he said the PM did her best not to talk about ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ Brexit. But was she successful? ‘I thought what was interesting about it was that she tried to say that this soft and hard Brexit distinction is wrong. But

The Spectator

Full text: Boris Johnson’s conference speech

I was at the UN general assembly in NY the other day and talking to the foreign minister of another country. I won’t say which one, since I must preserve my reputation for diplomacy, but let’s just say they have an economy about the size of Australia (though getting smaller, alas). Plenty of snow, nuclear missiles, balalaikas, oligarchs, leader who strips to the waist you get the picture. After a few tense exchanges my counterpart gave a theatrical sigh and said that any difficulties we had in our relationship were all Britain’s fault: “It was you guys who imposed democracy on us in 1990”. I was a bit startled by

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Theresa May’s ‘hard Brexit’ hint

We had heard a great deal of Theresa May’s Brexit speech to the Conservative party conference before – to the word, in fact, with the Prime Minister using the same scripted soundbites that she’s deployed as a shield against having to answer questions about Brexit directly. ‘We will not be able to give a running commentary or a blow-by-blow account of the negotiations,’ she told the hall, warning that ‘history is littered with negotiations that failed when the interlocutors predicted the outcome in detail and in advance’. It was difficult not to think of the most recent negotiation where this has happened: David Cameron’s attempt to change Britain’s relationship with

The Spectator

Full text: David Davis’s conference speech

Ladies and gentlemen, on the 23rd of June the British people voted for change. And this is going to be the biggest change for a generation: we are going to leave the European Union. It was we, the Conservative Party, who promised the British people a referendum. It was David Cameron, a Conservative Prime Minister, who honoured that promise. And now it will be this government, a Conservative government that will lead the United Kingdom out of the European Union and into a brighter and better future. This must be a team effort. And I am proud to count myself part of Theresa May’s team. I don’t know what it

The Spectator

Full speech: Theresa May on ‘Britain after Brexit’

81 days ago, I stood in front of Ten Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister, and I made a promise to the country. I said that the Government I lead will be driven not by the interests of a privileged few, but by the interests of ordinary, working-class families. People who have a job, but don’t always have job security. People who own their own home, but worry about paying the mortgage. People who can just about manage, but worry about the cost of living and getting their kids into a good school. And this week, we’re going to show the country that we mean business. But

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Why didn’t Theresa May campaign for Brexit?

According to Theresa May, interviewed by Tim Shipman in today’s Sunday Times, Brexit will make the United Kingdom ‘a sovereign and independent nation‘ once again. I know we are all supposed to be impressed by our new Prime Minister and much enthused by her Matron Gragrind approach to politics that is, again, such a refreshing change from the soft-furnished Call me Dave years but, really, can we pause for a moment to note that this is twaddle. Because if it were true – and if it were true that Mrs May believes this – then we are asked to believe that Britain was not, before its blessed liberation in June, a sovereign or independent nation. And if she

Steerpike Steerpike

Lord Feldman attempts a comeback

What a difference a year makes. This time last year Lord Feldman was giving a speech as party chairman to welcome Conservative party members to Tory conference. Now no longer chairman, Feldman is out of government along with the majority of the Notting Hill set. However, this hasn’t stopped Feldman from attending this year’s event in Birmingham. While David Cameron has decided to chillax and give the event a miss, Mr S hears his old chum is in town. A little birdy tells Mr S Feldman is here to make the case for his review into the party. The report — published in March — suggested a need for a more diverse selection of candidates and

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Chris Grayling suggests Britain will leave the customs union

Good news for Liam Fox. It looks as though the Secretary for International Trade may have a job after all. After No.10 failed to confirm that Britain would leave the EU customs union as part of Brexit, a number of naysayers — including Nick Clegg — suggested Fox’s department could be left unable to strike any trade deals with the rest of the world. Today on Sunday Politics, Chris Grayling gave the strongest hint yet that Brexit would require Britain to leave the customs union. In an interview with Andrew Neil to discuss May’s great repeal act, the Transport Secretary said that Brexit means ‘we do our own trade deals’: AN: For Brexit to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Chris Grayling: UK won’t set out its negotiating position when it triggers Article 50

So, what will be in the UK’s Article 50 letter? Boris Johnson had previously implied that the document would set out the UK’s aims for the negotiations, detailing the kind of relationship that this country wants with the EU in the future. But Chris Grayling just told Robert Peston that when Theresa May triggers Article 50, which she has said she will do before the end of March next year, she won’t set out the UK’s negotiating position. If this is the case, it is a mistake. Business and industry need to have a sense of, at least, what the UK government is trying to achieve. Without that, it will

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Theresa May: Brexit will begin in March 2017

As Conservative conference begins, we are finally starting to find out a little more about what Brexit means. But only a little. In her interview on Marr this morning, Theresa May confirmed that she would trigger Article 50, which starts the process of taking Britain out of the European Union, before the end of March 2017. She said: ‘I’ve been saying that we wouldn’t trigger it before the end of the year so that we get some preparation in place. But yes, I will be saying in my speech today that we will trigger before the end of the March next year.’ But when it came to hard vs soft

Douglas Murray

The ‘academics’ criticising the Prevent strategy are nothing of the sort

This is how the madness spreads. While some politicians of the left continue to pretend that the situation in the Labour party and on the British left in general is salvageable, they seem not to realise that all their sluices are up. Take a piece in Thursday’s Guardian written by Alice Ross. The headline is ‘Academics criticise anti-radicalisation strategy in open letter.’ Of course only in the Guardian does an ‘open letter’ by such ‘academics’ as these merit a newspaper article. For only in the Guardian would the reporting be so piss-poor that the ‘academics’ in question would include people who are not even academics. And I don’t just mean

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Conservative party conference, day one: The Spectator guide

The opening day of party conferences can often be a dull affair – not so at the Conservative’s annual gathering this year. Theresa May will be giving a speech on ‘Making a success of Brexit’ this afternoon. And while the Prime Minister has vowed not to provide a ‘running commentary’ on negotiations, we should expect a few more glimmers of detail to emerge about the Government’s Brexit plan. Boris Johnson and David Davis will also be following in the footsteps of the Prime Minister and taking to the stage today. Here’s the full run-through of what’s on today: Conference: 2pm – 4.30pm: Welcome to Conference: Conservative party chairman Patrick McLoughlin Global Britain: Making a

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Theresa May’s love of class politics shows she’s no heir to Blair

One of the professional drawbacks of coming from Scotland and then moving to London is that I don’t really know an awful lot about England. True, I spent a few years in East Anglia on my way south, but it was a particular part of East Anglia that possibly has rather more dreaming Gothic spires, rusted bicycles and robotics labs than the norm, so I’m not sure it was wholly representative. Still, I know the cities. I have spent enough time in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, say, to know that they are not so terribly different from Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness or even the bits of Edinburgh without the

Saturday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Theresa May’s ‘Great Repeal Bill’ is about continuity, not change

Six years ago, Matthew Parris suggested in The Spectator that David Cameron’s first act of parliament should be the Blanket Repeal of Legislation (Failure of New Labour, 1997-2010) Bill. That would have been a repeal bill worthy of the name. Theresa May’s proposed ‘Great Repeal Bill’ is not. Brexit we know about: that decision was taken on 23 June. But beyond Brexit, the Bill won’t repeal anything. On the contrary, it will ‘convert existing EU law into domestic law’ so it is about continuity, rather than annulment. It should really be called the Great EU Regulation Continuity Bill. Nothing wrong in that; it’s necessary legislation. But why spin it as radical change? The main question is whether the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

May’s Brexit offering

Theresa May’s biggest conference dilemma was what to say about Brexit. She doesn’t want to trigger Article 50 yet, or even say when she will do so. Why, because the government hopes that the longer it waits, the more the rest of the EU will be inclined to have preliminary discussions before the actual negotiations start. But May had to have something to say to conference on Brexit. So, May’s team have come up with an announcement that doesn’t involve Article 50 but does enable her to show ‘momentum’, and to claim she is getting on with things. It is a ‘Great Repeal Bill’ which will repeal the 1972 European

James Forsyth James Forsyth

May will have to say more on what Brexit means — and soon

Theresa May will receive a rapturous reception from Tory activists tomorrow. She is not just their new leader, but—as I say in The Sun today—someone they see as one of their own. She joined the party as a teenager, met her husband at a Tory disco and still goes out canvassing most weekends. She’s also much closer to the activists in age than Cameron was when he became leader: she turns 60 today, Cameron was 39 when he became party leader. But May should enjoy the applause on Sunday because her job is about to get harder. She is taking the unusual step of speaking on the opening day of