Politics

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

Friday

15 Jul 2016

Is Theresa May rowing back on ‘Brexit means Brexit’?

Theresa May has told us repeatedly that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and Philip Hammond has been at it too: just in case you weren’t aware, Brexit really does mean Brexit. Whilst it’s a catchphrase which is meant to reassure those who want Britain to leave the EU (and those who don’t, but respect the outcome of the vote), it’s actually pretty vapid. And on her trip up to Scotland today, the PM may have shown how her phrase could easily unravel. Theresa May said she was ‘very clear’ about involving the Scottish government in the Brexit negotiations and that she was eager to ‘get the best possible deal for the entire

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May reacts to Nice terror attack

Theresa May has just given her reaction to the terrorist attack in Nice, saying that Britain would stand ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with the people of France as she condemned the ‘brutal murderers’ responsible. Here’s what she said: ‘I am shocked and saddened by the horrifying attack in Nice last night. Our hearts go out to the French people and to all those who’ve lost loved ones or been injured. While the full picture is still emerging, it seems that at least 80 people are feared dead and many others have been injured. These were innocent victims enjoying a national celebration with their friends and families. We are working urgently to establish whether

Katy Balls

Boris Johnson: Nice attack represents continuing threat to Europe

Following last night’s terror attack in Nice which left over 80 dead, the Union Jack and the Tricolore are at half mast in Downing Street. Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, has issued a short statement confirming that there will be ministerial meetings today to discuss the implications. He went on to say that the attacks — which have left at least one British national injured — represent a continuing threat to Britain and the rest of Europe. He emphasised that countries must unite to tackle this together: ‘Our thoughts are very much with the people of France and Nice, an absolutely appalling incident. If this is a terrorist incident as

Jonathan Foreman

Theresa May’s record as Home Secretary is alarming, not reassuring

Despite David Cameron’s experience as a marketing man, his skills at reputation management were feeble compared to those of Theresa May. May was not a terrible Home Secretary but she was not a good one, still less an outstanding one. Yes, she remained in office for six years. But longevity in office is hardly proof of success, even at the Home Office. Anyone who has worked in a large organisation has encountered long-serving, apparently unfireable incompetents, and one thing that the history of the Cameron administration surely proves is that being bad at your job rarely leads to losing that job. Some kind of strange magic has prompted pundits and

Alex Massie

Theresa May faces an impossible test over Scotland and Brexit

For some time now, and especially since September 2014, the SNP administration in Edinburgh has been inspired by a single, powerful, notion: govern as though you were enjoying the early days of a newly-independent state. Of course, Scotland is not – or not yet – an independent state and, for the time being at least, still has two governments, one in Edinburgh and another in London. But in attitude and demeanour, the SNP behaves as though independence has already arrived in everything except the formal recognition of that fact. This is a matter of mood and framing, for sure, but it’s also something which has consequences. It’s why Theresa May’s visit

Steerpike

Rod Liddle’s Freedom Dinner speech: Labour’s Jew-bashing, the anti-Brexit mob and Tim Farron

This week, Mr S made his way to Boisdale to watch his Spectator comrade Rod Liddle give the key address at the fifth annual Freedom Dinner. Hosted by Forest, Liddle stayed on-message at the libertarian bash — speaking freely on a range of topics from his Labour suspension to the Guardian‘s Comment is Free section. Here is the speech in full: Many thanks for inviting me here tonight. I have been told that I was picked to deliver this address from among a very large list of people, solely because I have children and am a mother. This gives me great empathy and understanding and also the right to amend my CV whenever the

Thursday

14 Jul 2016

Robert Peston

Diary – 14 July 2016

I first met a boyish, sunny Tony Blair more than 20 years ago. Our encounters have always been slightly tense since I reported some clumsy remarks he made about tax when he was still an apprentice PM — and he reacted much as Andrea Leadsom did against the Times last week (though via A. Campbell rather than Twitter). On Wednesday afternoon at Admiralty House he is a stricken caricature of how he was: painfully thin; waxy skin; astonishingly terrible teeth. He is a brilliant actor but not that good: he has been tormenting himself over Chilcot. But he isn’t sorry for the invasion, as he told me, and would do

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 14 July 2016

On Tuesday night in London, I spoke to Women2Win, a Conservative organisation dedicated to recruiting more women candidates. My title, suggested long ago, was ‘The Woman Who Won’. It referred to Margaret Thatcher. The day before my speech was delivered, another woman (and former chairman of Women2Win) won, so now there are two. Everyone seized the moment to compare and contrast them. There is a clear difference between Theresa May’s situation today and Mrs Thatcher’s in 1975. Mrs May, like Ted Heath in 1975, represents the side that just lost, Mrs Thatcher the side with a new idea about how to win. Mrs May is the establishment candidate: Mrs Thatcher

The Spectator

Barometer | 14 July 2016

Nuggets on May Some trivia about Theresa May — At 59, she is the oldest new prime minister since Jim Callaghan, 64, in 1976. — She has the shortest surname of any prime minister since Andrew Bonar Law, who held the post for 211 days in 1923. — She is the first childless PM since Edward Heath — She is one of three recent prime ministers whose fathers were preachers: Gordon Brown is the son of a Church of Scotland minister and Lady Thatcher’s father was a Methodist preacher as well as shopkeeper. In spite of her father being a Church of England vicar, Theresa May at one point attended

The Spectator

Cameron’s Legacy

Midway through his final cabinet meeting, David Cameron realised — with some horror — that it had turned into a political wake. Theresa May had just lavished praise upon him, and his eyes had moistened. Then it was George Osborne’s turn: the Chancellor was a bit more humorous, but no less affectionate: ‘Being English, David, you’ll hate all this praise,’ he said. ‘You’re quite right,’ Cameron replied. ‘I am English, and I don’t much like it.’ Fearing that every member of his government was about to deliver an elegy, he brought the meeting to an abrupt end. Defining Cameron’s legacy is an important task for the Conservatives if they are

Melanie McDonagh

Theresa May’s reshuffle defies any logic

When I went to work at Foyle’s Bookshop as a student, when the owner Christina Foyle still ran the place, she would interview you and ask very kindly what your interests were: history, literature and cooking, you’d tell her. Then you’d find you’d been put at the cash till at some distance from all these departments. It was the same for everyone: economists ended up in fiction; pop fiends in natural science. It’s rather the impression you get from the reshuffle. The metaphor is normally used in the most offhand way, but it really does seem as if the PM has simply shuffled the jobs and distributed them pretty well

Steerpike

Theresa May’s purge of the posh

It’s not a great day to be an ambitious Tory who attended a private school — let alone Eton. After Theresa May promised to work to build a society with a focus on helping the working class rather than the rich, she has started by implementing this approach in her Cabinet. George Osborne, Nicky Morgan, Theresa Villiers and Oliver Letwin are among the privately-educated politicians to face the axe today. Meanwhile, the majority of the high profile briefs have gone to state school educated politicians. Alongside May, the Chancellor — Philip Hammond — and the Justice Secretary — Liz Truss — attended a state school. Meanwhile Justine Greening has made history by becoming the

Charles Moore

Why Brexit better mean Brexit

‘Brexit means Brexit’, says our new Prime Minister, but that does not tell us what she thinks Brexit would involve. Given the immense resourcefulness of the EU in perpetuating itself, one must guard against solutions which appear to satisfy Brexit conditions, but leave reality little changed. They might resemble how France withdrew from the military command of Nato in 1966. This assertion of French sovereignty by De Gaulle involved, among other things, the withdrawal of non-French Nato troops from French soil. In reality, however, the secret Lemnitzer-Ailleret accords between the United States and France ensured that France remained bound into participation in Cold War hostilities. Over time, French self-exclusion became

Ross Clark

Was Michael Gove punished for being too soft on crime?

Of today’s corpses piled up in Downing Street, none has caused more shock than that of Michael Gove. That Nicky Morgan, who signed Gove’s nomination papers to be leader, has also gone hints at some kind of personal animosity. But might the explanation be more straightforward than that – simply one of his policy and approach as justice secretary? Gove acquired a reputation as a great reformer during his time at the Department for Education, facing down huge opposition from teachers’ unions in the process. He incurred considerable personal cost for doing this, with David Cameron shifting him to the whips office before the last election on the instructions of Sir

Theo Hobson

Labour needs to rediscover its religious vision

One of our main political parties is at an immense disadvantage. Labour is tied to a form of idealism. Socialism is a strong form of idealism. It can only gain and hold power by diluting this idealism, mixing it with realism. This is psychologically difficult, existentially unstable. When it finds a way of gaining power, it is not calmly at ease with itself, but divided. And this intensifies after a period of power: purists seek revenge on those behind the ‘successful’ compromise. Blair’s Iraq war adventure is incidental to why he is so hated by the left. He is really hated for winning all those elections. How has such a party survived

Charles Moore

Andrea Leadsom’s line about children? Thatcher did it first

Philip Sime

Theresa May’s first day and Boris at the Foreign Office: How the foreign press reacted

A new British Prime Minister is always big news on the continent and around the world. This time around, with Mrs May tasked with redefining Britain’s relationship with the EU, the foreign press has taken a special interest in recent events in Downing Street. One of the big stories aside from Britain’s new Prime Minister taking up her role is Theresa May’s decision to make Boris Johnson Foreign Secretary. Here’s how the press around the world reacted to the news: France: With France bracing itself for a protracted period of arduous negotiations with the UK, Britain’s new Prime Minister is big news across the Channel. Le Figaro goes as far

Steerpike

BBC staff ‘whoop and cheer’ John Whittingdale’s sacking

During John Whittingdale’s tenure as Culture Secretary, the Tory MP has proved to be the thorn in the BBC’s side. So, it’s safe to say that some Beeb employees will be breathing a sigh of relief that Whitto has today been sacked from the Cabinet. However, it appears that staff at the Beeb have actually gone a bit further than just expressing mild relief. A BBC journalist claims that the newsroom actually erupted into ‘whoops and cheers’ on hearing the news that Whitto had lost his job: Although the hack has since deleted his tweet, this will only fuel concerns that the impartial Beeb isn’t so impartial after all when it comes to the Conservative government. Update: The

Steerpike

Liam Fox celebrates his new job

While today’s political climate might not be great for the country, the watering holes of Westminster are certainly doing okay out of the tumult. Mr S hears that Liam Fox was in a celebratory mood on Wednesday night after being appointed Secretary of State for International Trade. Steerpike is informed that the MP stayed close to a table loaded with the House of Commons’ finest fizz. What’s more Mr S hears a whisper his good old pal Adam Werritty was on hand to help Fox celebrate. At a time when too many politicians are gloom-mongering after Brexit, Mr S is pleased to hear the good doctor has lost no time in his new

Boris Johnson

The Boris archive: Africa is a mess, but we can’t blame colonialism

This article was published in The Spectator on 2 February 2002 by Boris Johnson, the new Foreign Secretary and former editor of the magazine. You would need a heart of stone not to have been moved by the little Aids-ridden choristers. We sat under a mango tree, before a dancing-space of packed red earth, and what a preposterous delegation we were. There was Mr Rod Liddle, the big white chief of the Today programme, not looking especially kempt. There was Vicky Scott of Unicef, and there was your correspondent, addressed repeatedly by the pleasing title of ‘Mr Honourable Johnson’. And as we sat in our armchairs, as though at some durbar,

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