Politics

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

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

‘I voted for Owen Smith,’ says Jeremy Corbyn’s ex-wife

Last summer as Corbyn-mania swept the country, the MP for Islington North’s appeal proved so far-reaching that even his ex-wife had high praise for him. Ahead of the election result, Professor Jane Chapman — who was married to the Labour leader between 1974 and 1979 — told the Daily Mail that her former husband had her vote as he had ‘really shaken politics in this country’ — pulling in bigger crowds than Tony Blair. Alas, what a difference a year makes. Today Corbyn’s first wife has appeared on 5 Live to announce that she voted for Owen Smith rather than Corbyn. Explaining her decision to Emma Barnett, she credited Smith’s youth

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Owen Smith all but concedes defeat in Labour leadership race

There are still a few hours left in the Labour leadership race but judging by Owen Smith’s mood you wouldn’t know it. In an open letter to supporters, Smith has all but conceded defeat in the race. He described the summer contest as a ‘long and bruising’ encounter and went on to say that the ideas he suggested during the bloody leadership bout… ‘…will remain as relevant after this contest as they have been during this contest. They are part of my vision for Labour and Britain’s future and whatever the outcome of this contest I will continue to make these arguments and do all I can to see us back

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Brexit U-turns: who is rowing back on their Project Fear warnings?

In the run-up to the referendum, we were warned Brexit would unleash misery. George Osborne suggested a vote for Brexit would lead to a DIY recession. And numerous business bosses and the great and the good piled in to add their warnings to the doom-mongering. Yet in the weeks since the referendum, their predictions of chaos have not come true. What’s more, many of those shouting the loudest about the consequence of Brexit are now furiously rowing back on their warnings. Here, The Spectator compiles the Brexit u-turns and referendum backtracking: In the aftermath of the vote, many major banks and financial institutions continued to warn that Brexit spelt bad news for the

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tom Watson’s Shadow Cabinet plans put on hold at NEC meeting

On Tuesday, Labour’s National Executive Committee met for eight and a half hours as Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson tried to steer the party in different directions. Facing the prospect of Corbyn being reinstated as Labour leader indefinitely, Watson attempted to pass a motion for the return of Shadow Cabinet elections. The deputy Labour leader’s claim that it would help ‘put the band back together’ as the party tries to heal wasn’t enough to convince the NEC. A motion to decide on the details of the plan ahead of Saturday’s leadership result was voted down, with a second motion to ensure a decision is made on Saturday also defeated. However, it wasn’t all bad news

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Tim Farron bangs the anti-Brexit drum as he reaches for the centre ground

Tim Farron’s hardest task in his conference speech today was convincing people to actually listen. A test of how successful he was will be how soon into the 6pm news tonight he pops up on screen (following Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s reported split, the signs don’t look good). So what did Farron do to try and get people to sit up? Banging the anti-Brexit drum was one of his main tactics. Farron promised… ‘Not a re-run of the referendum, not a second referendum, but a referendum on the terms of the as-yet-unknown Brexit deal’ The Lib Dem leader did, to be fair, do his best to empathise with those who

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Revealed: Danny Finkelstein was David Cameron’s stenographer

There’s a great scoop in The Times today. A political columnist, former chief leader writer of a national newspaper was, unbeknown to readers, acting as David Cameron’s chief stenographer for six years. In his columns he’d present himself as a former Tory official, retired and out of action. Full of self-deprecating anecdotes about what happened back in the day when he was working for William Hague. What he failed to disclose was that, in between writing opinion pieces for his newspaper and acting as its Executive Editor, he was scurrying off to Downing Street to take dictation for the Prime Minister on a monthly basis. He recorded Cameron’s ramblings, hoping a to use them for

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Teddy Bears for Corbyn: What is your toy’s mandate?

This week there has been a mix of excitement and dread in Labour circles over the announcement of the Momentum Kids initiative. The grassroots group are launching a children’s wing, which will allow protest-minded parents a time out to join the struggle while their children get their revolutionary juices flowing. While Momentum supporters have defended the venture from allegations of brainwashing, Mr S was intrigued to read about one of its first events. Set to take place this Sunday at the World Transformed festival, there will be a ‘Teddy Bear Mandate’ session: ‘Bring your favourite toy to the party where we will imagine the party it might join and lead, and what

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Jeremy Corbyn’s biscuit choice made me like the man

Personally, I should have no hesitation in identifying my favourite biscuit. It would be Bahlsen’s Choco Leibniz, which is as much chocolate as biscuit, the milk version for preference, though the dark is just fine too. It’s probably made in Germany, so it would, accordingly, be quite impossible for a British politician to identify with. I also like my own biscuits, which are way better than the shop bought sort (may I recommend Bee’s Brilliant Biscuits, a new biscuit book, for beginners?) but again you couldn’t say so if you were a party leader, because it would be too non-populist. I rather applaud Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to the biscuit question, posed –

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Labour’s internal battle is only just beginning

Not even Owen Smith is pretending that he’ll defeat Jeremy Corbyn when the leadership election results are announced this weekend. Tom Watson, Corbyn’s deputy, has told Today that it’s time for healing, time to ‘put the band back together’. The band contains Corbynite 70s metal, McClusky backing vocals and Watson indie trash – not a sound that many voters find appealing. But Watson wants to sound supportive of its lead singer. In his interview with Today he said he’d be happy for Smith to fail and added that Corbyn would make a very good prime minister – with an important caveat: ‘I think Jeremy could easily be a Labour prime minister, I think we’ve got to change what we do, how we campaign.

Monday

Sam White

Will Donald Trump have the last laugh?

‘I am getting nervous. But it’s not because Trump is good. It’s because people are stupid’. So said the (usually) very funny US comedian Bill Maher on TV recently. When I heard him say it, my first thought was: Trump’s going to win. Not because Maher is right, but because I recognised something from the EU referendum campaign, when the great and the good – from metropolitan comedians to overpaid columnists — piled in to suggest that Brexit backers were all dimwitted lemmings, marching zombie-like off a cliff. Pro-EU devotees, some from positions of astonishing privilege, were punching down. It wasn’t a good look, and it harmed their cause. The

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Jeremy Corbyn takes the biscuit on Mumsnet

Any Britain politician of note will at some point in their career face the question: what is your favourite biscuit? While David Cameron opted for oatcakes, Gordon Brown had to take a recess to consider his options — before returning to say that anything with ‘a bit of chocolate’ would suffice. Today it was Jeremy Corbyn’s turn to step up to the plate. Although the question was inevitable, the Labour leader showed little enthusiasm for any type of biscuit. Instead, he launched into a lecture on the danger of sugar: ‘I’m totally anti-sugar on health grounds, so eat very few biscuits, but if forced to accept one, it’s always a pleasure

Nick Hilton Nick Hilton

The Corbyn détente is coming

By the time Labour party conference begins on Sunday in Liverpool, the party will have announced its new leader. And it is likely to be its old leader, Jeremy Corbyn. For those who have nailed their colours to Owen Smith’s mast, it is quickly becoming clear that Corbyn is about to consolidate power. As a result, there will need to be a mass rethinking of the anti-Corbyn strategy. Most analysis of Theresa May’s decision to fight for grammar schools has focused on the internal politics of the Conservative party, but the debate has also inadvertently played into Jeremy Corbyn’s hands. Finally, after more than a year in the job, Corbyn has a domestic

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Jeremy Corbyn promises business as usual

The big question in Labour’s leadership contest is not whether Jeremy Corbyn will win, but how much he’ll win by. There is, it seems, an inexhaustible supply of Corbynistas standing ready to join the party – so the moderates who had hoped that a formal leadership challenge would be a vehicle of deposing him have had to think again. Neil Kinnock said this weekend that he’ll probably never live to see another Labour government. So Labour’s only hope, for now, is that the 67-year-old Corbyn might change. During his interview on Today this morning we’ve been offered a taste of what his leadership will look like if (or, rather, when)

Steerpike Steerpike

Eddie Izzard gives hope to the New European

As Brexiteers begin to worry that Theresa May could be leaning towards a soft Brexit, a number of Remain-ers are keen to make sure that Brexit doesn’t occur at all. The latest issue of the New European — the pro-Remain newspaper — claims that these die-hard  Europhiles now need a figurehead to lead the charge. So, who could be the person for the job? It turns out that they reckon a candidate who has supported six lost causes and counting might be the man for the job. Step forward Eddie Izzard. The comedian turned campaigner appears on the front of the paper in a striking image that appears to be a cross between Barack Obama’s Hope and

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

New Ukip leader says Putin is one of her heroes

Diane James, Ukip’s new leader, did her first major TV interview as Ukip leader this morning. And very revealing it was too. When Andrew Neil asked her who her political heroes were other than Vladimir Putin, she did not deny that the Russian leader was one of her heroes. She said that neither Clinton nor Trump were a hero of hers. When Andrew then pushed her on who were her heroes were, she named Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. Andrew then summed up by saying, your heroes are Putin, Churchill and Thatcher. James said that yes, they were. Here’s the clip.  So, the leader of the UK’s third political party

Saturday

Mary Waugh

How does the new political landscape affect the UK economy?

Before the Brexit vote, the majority of economists forecast economic doom for Britain outside the EU. But the economy has, so far, been doing significantly better than expected. Will Britain continue to thrive? Or will the anticipated economic consequences of leaving the EU catch up on us? And how will Theresa May’s new government help to shape the future of our economy? On 14 September 2016, The Spectator held a discussion at the British Museum on the economic prospects of the UK, attended by over 300 guests. The panel, chaired by Andrew Neil, addressed the question: how does the new political landscape affect the UK economy? Anatole Kaletsky, economist, author,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Philip Hammond, the frankest man in the Cabinet

On Thursday, the Cabinet’s Economic and Industrial Strategy committee met. There were, as I write in The Sun this morning, controversial issues on the agenda: new rules on foreign takeovers of British companies, executive pay and workers on boards. May made clear her views on these questions in the last speech of her leadership campaign. But in this meeting, the members of the committee didn’t simply echo May’s views back at her. One of those present tells me that Philip Hammond made a ‘fearless’ intervention setting out his own, distinct take on these questions. Hammond was then supported by several Cabinet colleagues. It was emphasised that in the context of

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Scottish independence has become a zombie policy

Sunday is the second anniversary of the Scottish independence referendum, the second ‘Here’s what you could have won’ day of thanksgiving. Or, if you prefer, atonement. The referendum is only over in the purest, most technical, sense. The campaign continues and it is clear to everyone that, at some point, on some day, Scotland will have to be tested again. The SNP demand a mulligan and will not cease until such time as they’re given a second chance. They haven’t gone away, you know. And, in one sense, that is reasonable. The SNP didn’t spend eighty years losing elections to give up now they’re can see the winning post at

Friday

George Osborne

George Osborne interview: championing the ‘voice of the liberal mainstream’

After just eight weeks in the wilderness, George Osborne is back – and wants to put the pressure on Theresa May to use the phrase ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and the agenda that goes with it. Here’s an edited transcript of his BBC Today Programme interview this morning with Nick Robinson. NR: We want to talk about the Northern Powerhouse, but just to be clear then, you’re not tempted to follow your now ex-leader out of politics and spend some time writing your memoirs? No, I’m not. I don’t want to write my memoirs because I don’t know how the story ends and I want to hang around and find out. And

David Willetts

Will Theresa May’s grammars undermine David Cameron’s free schools?

Grammar schools remain one of the most highly-charged issues in domestic politics. There is bound to be controversy about how to boost social mobility and educational standards. But grammar schools bring to the surface other deep undercurrents as well. Were things better in the 1950s? What was Margaret Thatcher’s role in closing so many of them and did she want to see them brought back? Does the call for more grammar schools represent the best of authentic politics shaped by our own experiences, or does evidence-based policy making mean going beyond that? And it is where the Conservative Party fights its own version of class war – those who were