Politics

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

Thursday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is Shas Sheehan the “least deserving person to ever be made a Lib Dem peer?”

As well as it being rather amusing that a party officially committed to the abolition of the House of Lords has stuffed a few more of its grandees into the Upper Chamber, it’s worth looking will be wearing the ermine. There seems to have been a bit of a desperate hunt to find people. The MPs who lost their seats or stood down might be fair enough. But some party figures are scratching their heads rather at the appointment of one party member who was a councillor for just four years. Shas Sheehan did also stand as a parliamentary candidate (and lost, twice), but then so have many others in

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Could a row with Uber be taxi for a London mayoral candidate?

One of the striking things about the contest in Labour for the mayoral candidacy is how many of the candidates are keen to admonish private taxi firm Uber. Sadiq Khan has described it as a ‘problem’ and said he is ‘on the side of the back cab driver’, Tessa Jowell is ‘enormously concerned’ and doesn’t have an Uber account, while David Lammy wants to ‘protect the institution that is the black cab’ and wishes there had been a confrontation between the Mayor and Uber as there had been in Paris. But perhaps these candidates should take heed of what has happened to another mayor who confronted Uber. Bill De Blasio

Steerpike Steerpike

For sale: Jeremy Corbyn’s used coffee cup

It’s official, Jeremy Corbyn has made it. Following in the lines of all the greats, the left wing messiah has inspired such fan devotion that people are genuinely bidding on items just because he may have touched them. The item in question is a a coffee cup that his lips allegedly once met: The seller claims Corbyn gifted her the political artefact following a talk he gave in Nottingham: ‘Ok this is obviously aimed at a niche interest group but Jeremy handed me his empty coffee cup at tonight’s gathering outside the Playhouse in Nottingham. I realise most people would have put it in the bin but I asked what would

Sebastian Payne

Long-serving frontbenchers and the Spadocracy dominate the 2015 dissolution peers

The 2015 Dissolution Peerages have been announced, with many of the names floated in the press over the last few weeks duly being elevated to the House of Lords. The appointment of long-serving politicians such as William Hague, Alistair Darling, Ming Campbell and David Blunkett is not a surprise, but there are a few unexpected names. The most striking is Tessa Jowell, who is running to be Labour’s London mayoral candidate. If Jowell wins the nomination, she would end up doing a Boris and serving in City Hall and Westminster. The Spadocracy is well represented too, with former advisers James O’Shaughnessy (Conservative), Jonny Oates (Lib Dem) and Spencer Livermore (Labour) receiving peerages, while Kate Fall and Philippa Stroud

Steerpike Steerpike

Coming soon: more Lib Dem advice on how to win an election

Given that the general election proved disastrous for the Liberal Democrats, it’s surprising how many party members seem keen to revisit the experience. With Vince Cable and Norman Baker both bringing out books just in time for this year’s Lib Dem conference, reports have surfaced claiming that Nick Clegg has finally agreed to write a book. Although this is expected to be a serious tome looking into the last government rather than a salacious kiss and tell, this hasn’t stopped users frantically brainstorming ideas online for the title of the book: @elashton @richardkendall He's missing a trick if he doesn't call it I'M SORRY I'M REALLY REALLY SORRY — Patrick Smith (@psmith) August 27,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Tories should have dropped their net migration target long ago

It’s fair to say the Tories won’t be recycling their ‘immigration down’ posters for this year’s autumn conference. Net migration in the the year to March 2015 was 330,000, which is an all-time high and a 28 per cent increase on the previous year. John examines these stats here. The funny thing is that the Conservatives have made this news bad news by re-committing to their pledge to drive net migration down into the tens of thousands. They had no evidence that they would have any better chance of meeting it after the election than they did beforehand, but they stuck with it in what appears to have been a

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour asks school pupils to act as informants ahead of vote

Although Buzzfeed managed to successfully register a cat to vote in the Labour leadership election, the party remains insistent that they are successfully weeding out ‘supporters’ who are not genuine. However, in a sign that they may not have quite as good a grasp on these checks as claimed, it turns out that they are asking school children to help by acting as whistleblowers on fellow pupils. Writing in the Guardian, Tim Dowling claims that his 17-year-old son — whose six-month membership means he is ‘considered something of a senior figure in the party’ — has been contacted by Labour to offer the inside scoop on his classmates who have applied to

John O'Neill

Immigration hits a record high

There must be an element of masochism in Theresa May that leads her to promise the electorate something she cannot give them: net migration in the tens of thousands. Figures released today show that the balance of people coming into the county rose to 330,000 in the year to March 2015, putting the Home Secretary further than ever—further than any Home Secretary in history—from the target. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/6xuHX/index.html”] An increase of 84,000 in the number of people coming the UK, and a fall of 9,000 in the number of people leaving the country made up the 94,000 increase in net migration on the previous year. The balance of migrants from within the EU increased by

Mary Wakefield Mary Wakefield

The contagious madness of the new PC

It’s becoming pretty clear, as the year rolls on, that some of our brightest youngsters have gone round the bend. It’s as if they’ve caught a virus, a mental one, a set of thoughts and ideas that might loosely be called political correctness, but seem to me weirder and more damaging than that. Back in the 1990s, PC students would stamp about with placards demanding equal rights for minorities and talking about Foucault. This new PC doesn’t seem to be about protecting minorities so much as everyone, everywhere from ever having their feelings hurt. It came from America, this virus, incubated in the closed minds of the Land of the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s new army of Tory loyalists

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thereturnofassisteddying/media.mp3″ title=”Isabel Hardman and James Cleverly MP discuss the 2015 Tory intake” startat=1121] Listen [/audioplayer]Time was when the Conservatives believed that a small majority — which puts a government at the mercy of backbench rebels — would be worse than no majority at all. They dreaded the prospect. But now, well into their third month celebrating a majority of just 12 seats, it’s clear they’ve forgotten their fears about how precarious things could be. They talk as if they can now do anything — including implementing their manifesto in its entirety. It won’t take long for David Cameron to discover the truth. In any controversial vote, people will rebel

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Powder to the people

It’s Notting Hill Carnival this weekend. Two days of skanking, dutty dancing and daggering (the dance, rather than the weapon). No carnival experience would be complete without rum punch and jerk chicken, or for that matter crime, cannabis and cocaine. Drugs are part of the fun at Europe’s biggest street festival. There were 76 drug arrests at the festival last year, and 88 arrests made before the party even started as part of a dawn raid seizing machine-guns and crack. Not that partygoers are about to let a little thing like the law get in the way of their bank holiday. A survey earlier this summer from the European Monitoring

James Delingpole James Delingpole

If On the Road’s great, what else have I missed?

This week’s column is dedicated to all those of you who have never read Catcher in the Rye and who, what’s more, are unhealthily proud of the fact. It’s OK: I understand. I was one of you myself till a couple of weeks ago when, at Boy’s insistence, I wearily set aside some of my valuable beach time to plough through this hideously overrated and tiresome ‘classic’. Why the reluctance? Well, for the obvious reason that Catcher in the Rye — like To Kill a Mockingbird or On the Road — is one of those books you just don’t need to have read because everyone else has done it for

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Ukip wars threaten to reignite over mayoral race

Nigel Farage is trying to block Suzanne Evans from becoming Ukip candidate for Mayor of London with a covert campaign to install a less threatening, loyal party colleague in her place, sources have told Coffee House. Ukip will select its mayoral candidate this weekend. Evans is the bookies’ favourite and the best-known outside the party. But it has moved from a one member one vote system within the London party for picking its choice for the mayoral elections to a private selection. The six-strong panel for the selection includes a number of Farage loyalists, including Chris Bruni-Lowe, Paul Oakden and Mick McGough. Party insiders are furious that this panel seems to

Sebastian Payne

Corbyn’s ‘women-only rail carriages’ points to his coming battle with Fleet Street

Has Jeremy Corbyn jumped the shark already, or have we witnessed the first Fleet Street ‘smear’ against him? Today’s i newspaper has splashed with ‘Corbyn backs women-only train carriages’, which at first glance sounds like a divisive policy. The story has come from Corbyn’s new End street harassment document, which includes a ‘Consultation on public transport’: ‘Some women have raised with me that a solution to the rise in assault and harassment on public transport could be to introduce women only carriages. My intention would be to make public transport safer for everyone from the train platform, to the bus stop to on the mode of transport itself. However, I would consult with women and open it up

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

As a northerner, I’m fed up of Andy Burnham’s northern stereotypes

Northerners are easy to stereotype: working class, beer, flat caps, Labour, trade unions and football. In the same way all southerners aren’t stuck-up opera-goers and every Scot isn’t a miserly chip-guzzler, this portrait of a typical northerner is insultingly inaccurate — but it is one that some love to propagate. One of those people happens to be Andy Burnham, who is running for Labour leader. As a northerner, I’m not sure that I can take much more of his schtick. It is frustrating to listen to how much of his leadership has been about being northern. Sure, Liz Kendall frequently namedrops her Watford upbringing but Burnham’s whole persona is based on his Liverpudlian

Sebastian Payne

Harriet Harman: we are not purging Corbyn supporters

The summit on the integrity of the Labour leadership contest is over and interim leader Harriet Harman described it as a ‘routine’ and ‘useful’ meeting. Although she is ‘confident that there won’t be questions over the integrity of the result and there aren’t any bases for legal challenges’, some of the numbers released on the number of infiltrators are pretty high. 3,000 ‘cheats’, as Harman described them, have been excluded from voting so far but the final number could be substantially higher. Harman has suggested the selectorate would be ‘fewer than 600,000. It will be over half a million’ — meaning there are tens of thousands of rogues still to be weeded out. Around 60,000 people are expected to

Sebastian Payne

New poll shows challenges for all Labour leadership candidates

ComRes has released a new poll which outlines Labour’s present plight (as with all post-election opinion polls, treat these numbers with some caution). Just 20 per cent of the public say they would be inspired by any four the leadership candidates to vote Labour. Jeremy Corbyn and Andy Burnham coming joint top on 22 per cent, Yvette Cooper on 21 per cent and Liz Kendall last on 18 per cent. And for those who think candidate would persuade them not to vote Labour, Kendall and Corbyn are joint top on 58 per cent — not surprising given they have the most strident views. The characteristics of each candidate are also examined: Burnham is scored

Steerpike Steerpike

Andy Burnham: Labour will have a female candidate when time is right

Andy Burnham’s leadership bid hit a stumbling block this morning. Burnham — who bills himself as both the anti-Westminster candidate and the candidate who can unite the party in Westminster — made a slip when asked whether he agreed that it would be great for the party to have a female candidate. Speaking on Radio 5 Live, he responded that it would be ‘when the time is right’. Liz Kendall was quick to offer him a role as her deputy, given that the time is right. A point that was not lost on listeners: https://twitter.com/nickfthilton/status/636097107204698112 @derekrootboy Does anyone know what he stands for #AndyBurnham-lost all respect 4 him-his attitude 2 women

Sebastian Payne

It is too late to stop a shadow hanging over the Labour leadership result

Concern about how the Labour leadership contest has been run is spreading throughout the party. The former home secretary Charles Clarke, who has voted Kendall 1st, Cooper 2nd and Burnham 3rd, told Newsnight he was very disappointed in the contest and raised the prospect of legal challenges to the result: ‘I think it’s been a disaster unfortunately. I am very sad about it. I wrote about it immediately after the election — it was very important to get through to have a process where people had confidence in the election process. ‘We’ve got legal challenges, I think there may be still further legal challenges about the process; issues about who can, who

Monday

Sebastian Payne

An evening with Andy Burnham and his conventional Labour supporters

Andy Burham’s rally this evening had only one similarity with Jeremy Corbyn’s last week: it was held in a place of worship. At the St Pancras Parish Church in London, close to 1,000 people turned out to hear Burnham and take part in a Q&A session. There was no socialist magician, folk singer or rock band — just a few politicians and a lectern. It was a throwback to how Labour politics was done before Corbynmania blew onto the scene. Keir Starmer, the local Labour MP, opened proceedings by explaining his desire to win in 2020 and party unity were his reasons for backing Burnham. John Prescott was wheeled out next in his