Politics

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

Tuesday

The Spectator

Full text: Boris Johnson 2015 Conservative conference speech

Thank you Zac, and thank you for just showing once again that you have exactly the qualities of originality and drive that will help you win in London in May. https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/boris-johnsons-tory-conference-2015 I tell you when I knew we were going to be all right in that amazing election and it wasn’t the Ed stone — the heaviest suicide note in history — or the mysterious second kitchen. It was when I was walking one of those furiously contested high streets in North West London where one week the Tory posters went up, only to vanish next week in favour of Labour posters, and we were busy restoring the Tory posters when

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Theresa May’s immigration speech was as tawdry as it was contemptible

London, eh? What a ghastly place. A seething, impenetrable, web of humanity. A vast, choking, metropolis that is, once again, one of the dark places of the world. A vision of hell, frankly. That, at any rate, would appear to be what Theresa May, the Home Secretary, thinks. If she did not think this, if she did not consider the capital a multi-coloured blot on the face of modern Britain, she would not, I assume, have alleged this morning that “When immigration is too high, when the pace of change is too fast, it’s impossible to build a cohesive society.”  There is, she added, “no case, in the national interest, for

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Theresa May lambasts her own record on immigration. Why?

What on earth is Theresa May playing at? As Home Secretary she vowed to cut net immigration down to the ‘tens of thousands,’ only to see it increase to a record high of 330,000. A bit embarrassing: the slogans that used to adorn Tory conferences boasting ‘immigration down’ have been quietly removed, and replied by the fictional achievement ‘deficit eliminated’. If I were her, I’d just drop the whole thing. Instead, she chooses this conference to inform us that the immigration she has presided over is bad for Britain, bad for our social cohesion. In her words: ‘When immigration is too high, when the pace of change is too fast, it’s impossible

Sebastian Payne

Michael Gove: ‘social progress has always been a Conservative cause’

Michael Gove may have left the Department for Education but he hasn’t lost his reforming zeal. In his Tory conference speech, the Justice Secretary revealed that his inspiration in pursuing criminal justice reforms is Winston Churchill — and not because of his role leading Britain through some of its darkest hours: ‘The man who was, perhaps, our greatest Prime Minister was also a truly great Home Secretary. He argued that there should be “a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure, if you can only find it, in the heart of every

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory MP goes off message in radio interview: ‘George Osborne is too smooth’

Although Tory conference has so far been a rather dull affair with senior politicians sticking to the party line at all times, one of the new intake of Tory MPs did manage to spice things up last night. In an interview with Iain Dale on LBC, Heidi Allen gave surprisingly honest answers when asked who she would like to be the next Tory leader. Although George Osborne is the favourite to succeed David Cameron, Allen has concerns that he is ‘too smooth’ for the job: HA: I have to be honest I couldn’t really picture him as a future leader but I thought he did a really good job today actually. ID: Why not?

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne takes a dig at Jeremy Corbyn at Tory conference

Although Cabinet Ministers are said to be on strict instructions to refrain from insulting or mocking Jeremy Corbyn in their conference speeches, the Chancellor of the Exchequer couldn’t resist taking a dig at the Labour leader on Monday night. As Corbyn was speaking to a packed crowd of protesters across town, Osborne found room in his speech at the Enterprise Forum Business Reception to make a joke at the expense of the Labour leader over his appearance at the fringe protest event. At first, Osborne appeared to compliment Labour in his speech, praising the party for working out that they were not pro-business enough in the last election: ‘What was of course interesting about the

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The chaos of Libya returns to haunt David Cameron

‘Were we right to stop a massacre? Yes, we absolutely were,’ said David Cameron on his Radio 4 Today programme interview. But the real question is different: were we right to depose Gaddafi, given the chaos (and bloodshed) that has followed in Libya? Are things so much better for the citizens of Benghazi (and the 80,000 souls in Sirte) now that Islamic State has moved in? The Prime Minister stopping a potential massacre at Benghazi was fairly uncontroversial. But should he have then pressed on to topple the Libyan and created the vacuum now being filled with sectarian warfare and the migration crisis? https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/david-cameron-on-libya-6 We know quite a lot about all this due to the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Theresa May has ‘quite a lot of explaining to do’ on immigration before the leadership contest

Theresa May will today claim that high levels of immigration make it ‘impossible to build a cohesive society’. The Home Secretary will tell the Tory conference that it’s not just about building more schools and homes to deal with immigration, but about driving those numbers down too: ‘Now I know there are some people who say, yes there are costs of immigration, but the answer is to manage the consequences, not reduce the numbers. But not all of the consequences can be managed, and doing so for many of them comes at a high price. ‘We need to build 210,000 new homes every year to deal with rising demand. We

Sebastian Payne

Conservative conference 2015: Tuesday fringe guide

Every morning throughout party conference season, we’ll be providing bur pick of the fringe events on Coffee House. The Tories’ jive in Manchester rolls on today and the fringes are filled with many of the same faces from yesterday, talking about obliquely-titled events. Nicky Morgan and Sajid Javid are popping up all over the place, but there are plenty of other speakers worth scouting out. Title Key speaker(s) Time Location Lifelong learning and training: turning rhetoric into reality Nick Boles 10:30 Novotel Centre, Rylands Suite How can this government deliver genuine competition in the energy market and keep bills low? Amber Rudd 12:00 ConHome marquee Skills to pay the bills: preparing young people

Monday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Jeremy Hunt: if only Brits worked as hard as the Chinese 

‘That sounded so much better in my head,’ said Rachel from Friends in Series 2. I suspect Jeremy Hunt is now thinking the same. He meant to say that British workers need to improve their productivity, and be weaned off work subsidies. But instead, it came out like: ‘We have to proceed with these tax credit changes because they are a very important cultural signal. My wife is Chinese, and if we want this to be one of the most successful countries in the world in 20, 30, 40 years’ time there’s a pretty difficult question that we have to answer which is essentially: are we going to be a

Sebastian Payne

Matt Hancock: we should govern for those who voted Miliband, not the egg throwers

Matt Hancock has a list of three things the Tories need to do to win again in 2020. At a Westbourne Communications fringe event, the Cabinet Office Minister (one of the few senior Tories to appear at fringes today) said the Tories should use their mandate from the 2015 election to prove they are the party of government and can be trusted to run the country over the next decade. This is how he believes they can do it: 1. Making sure we deliver effectively: Hancock said the government must show in five years time that the country is going in the right direction and some of the ‘deep seated problems’ have been

Sebastian Payne

Greg Clark’s softer approach to building more houses in a ‘Conservative way’

The most striking thing about Greg Clark’s speech to Tory conference today was how different his rhetoric was on house building to George Osborne. Osborne likes to talk of confrontation, of standing up to small ‘c’ conservative voters who block development, and of winning a battle with the shires (see today’s Mail front page). But Clark tried to use more conciliatory language, speaking wistfully of the ‘joy’ of his own homes: ‘ Close your eyes and picture all the homes you’ve lived in – then what you see is the story of your life. For me it began with my mum and dad’s bungalow where I grew up. Then the thrill

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne’s Tatton brag leaves him out of the loop

The Chancellor of the Exchequer set out his vision for a brighter Britain in his conference speech today, explaining that the party are laying the groundwork for a strong economy in the future. To show his commitment to doing just that, the MP for Tatton opted to use an example that proves how he puts the country above all else, even his wealthy constituents: ‘I am very lucky to represent a constituency just a dozen miles to the south of here full of pretty villages and market towns in the flat and lush Cheshire plain. The great writer Elizabeth Gaskell used to live there, and she drew on her life in nineteenth

Sebastian Payne

Watch: Boris Johnson takes on James Cracknell’s rowing challenge

The Mayor of London dropped by the Policy Exchange tent this afternoon to take on rowing champion James Cracknell. As you can watch below, Boris Johnson claimed he wasn’t even trying but was still beaten in a 200m sprint by only four seconds. Cracknell did it in 35 seconds, Boris in 39 seconds. This makes him the fastest MP to undertake the challenge: WATCH: @BorisJohnson vs. @JamesCracknell at Policy Exchange rowing challenge. Cracknell won by just 4 seconds #cpc15 https://t.co/rZQ9VY4HFA — Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) October 5, 2015 The stunt was to promote a new report about obesity. Johnson said he was ‘fit as a fiddle’ but ‘highly doubted’ he had

Ed West Ed West

The left’s hatred of ‘Tory scum’ is both stupid and self-defeating

Plenty has been written about the hatred some on the left feel towards their ‘enemies’, something on display at the moment in Manchester, with journalists being called ‘Tory scum’ for covering a party conference. I’ve bored for Britain on the subject of political hatred of the left, but less has been written about how self-defeating it is. For example, one of the best things that could happen to the Tories is for the Labour faithful to convince themselves that Corbyn was defeated only because of a biased, Tory-dominated press. This means that, rather than brutally analysing their weaknesses after Corbyn goes, they’re more likely to retreat into their own comfort

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

George Osborne’s local devolution revolution

George Osborne is the man of the moment, the future Tory leadership contender who is riding high right now. So it was rather clever that instead of offering a showy speech to the Tory conference, the Chancellor announced a rather technical but big reform as his speech ‘rabbit’. His refrain throughout the address to conference was that ‘we are the builders’, and to underline that, he announced his National Infrastructure Commission which was trailed overnight. But he also announced reform to local government funding. This will see the abolition of the local government grant (it will be phased out), and in return councils will be able to keep all the

The Spectator

Full text: George Osborne’s 2015 Conservative conference speech

Let me tell you how proud I am to stand before you the first Conservative Chancellor in a Conservative Government to address a Conservative Conference in eighteen years. If I’d told you twelve months ago that the Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood was going to come onto this stage and speak in our economy debate you’d have called security. Andrea, your win capped off a night that no-one here will ever forget. Can you all remember where you were when that exit poll came through? I certainly can. I was just a few miles away from here, waiting to go to my count at the Macclesfield leisure centre.

Sebastian Payne

The Good Right paves the way to a greater majority in 2020

The Tories may have won the general election but that doesn’t mean they have won the argument. The Good Right, a project setup by Times columnist Tim Montgomerie, hopes to offer guidance on where the Conservative party can go over the next few years. Last night, Montgomerie hosted a dinner at Old Trafford to examine what Conservatives are doing to tackle poverty featuring four of the most interesting thinkers in the party — Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith, Sajid Javid and Ruth Davidson. They all argued that the Tories need to do more to show their compassionate side as well as understand why people dislike them. Each of of the speakers had different areas of emphasis but the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Low key atmosphere in Tory conference hall for low key leadership contest

The cavernous hall housing the Tory conference speeches is not particularly conducive to a good atmosphere. All of the speakers so far this morning, including rising star Sajid Javid, haven’t raised the roof, and the applause and standing ovations have felt rather polite and perfunctory, rather than excited and inspired. This might also be because a large number of delegates have spent a rather long time stuck in the rain waiting for someone to scan their bags in the security tent. Or it could be because none of the ministers speaking wants to appear too exciting, as too exciting means you are a threat to George Osborne, which tends to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Sajid Javid positions himself as a Thatcherite and Eurosceptic

Sajid Javid might be downplaying it at this conference – when asked by Andrew Neil yesterday if he would throw his hat into the leadership ring, he said ‘of course not’ – but he is seen by many as a future Tory leadership candidate. Javid’s life-story has marked him out. He is the son of a bus driver who came to this country from Pakistan, had a successful business career and rapid rise up the greasy pole – he was the first member of the 2010 intake to make Cabinet. His speech to conference this morning wasn’t a tub-thumper. But it was striking how he positioned himself as both a Thatcherite,