Politics Archives

Tuesday

8 Dec 2015

Government goes to war with peers over votes at 16

The government will today try to overturn a Lords’ vote that introduces votes at 16 for the EU Referendum Bill. Under other circumstances, the Conservatives could find this difficult, as there is a group of Tory MPs roughly the same size as the government’s majority who support the principle, but who do not want to rebel and cause trouble on their flagship legislation enabling the referendum they spent the election boasting about. Former minister Damian Green will abstain on the legislation, I understand, as he supports the principle. The government has invoked financial privilege on this matter, arguing that the change will cost £6 million. Speaker Bercow agrees, which means

Lara Prendergast

Not all Uber drivers are Islamists, just like not all London cabbies are John Worboys

Uber aren’t going to be thrilled to hear that Muhaydin Mire, the man who has been arrested on suspicion of knifing a man at Leytonstone station, while shouting ‘This is for Syria’, was reportedly one of their drivers. On social media, London cabbies have already started to capitalise on this, by making the case that you’re better off sticking with them if you want to avoid catching a ride with a jihadi. A new hashtag is currently doing the rounds: #HeWasAnUberDriverBruv – and the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association has been quick to adopt it, while also wondering how many more ‘TFL licensed terrorists’ are out there. While the tweet has now been deleted, it originally

Steerpike

Revealed: why Gordon Brown wasn’t always such an asset to Pimco

After stepping down as an MP ahead of the general election, Gordon Brown has taken up a role on the advisory panel of Pimco, a global investment management firm. He joins a panel of ‘world-renowned experts’ who include Jean-Claude Trichet, the former president of the European Central Bank, and Ben Bernanke, the former US Federal Reserve chairman. Pimco have released a statement speaking of their delight at their global advisory board which they say boasts ‘an unrivalled team of macroeconomic thinkers and former policymakers’: ‘The global advisory board is an unrivalled team of macroeconomic thinkers and former policymakers, whose insights into the intersection of policy and financial markets will be a valuable input to our investment process.’

Sebastian Payne

Liz Truss defends government spending on flood defences

The flooding in Cumbria is continuing to cause misery for thousands of people and as often happens in these situations, attention has turned onto whether the government has done enough to protect people. Liz Truss, the Environment Secretary, popped up on the Today programme to defend the government’s flood defence plans. She described what has happened in Cumbria as a ‘devastating situation’, which was the result of an ‘extreme event’: ‘The scale of this was absolutely extraordinary – to have half a metre more of water than we’ve seen before in any of these towns and cities in Cumbria was extraordinary’. Despite ‘an environment where overall the government budget is reducing’ Truss

Steerpike

Iain Dale’s ‘explosive’ interview with his old pal Donal Blaney

Yesterday the Young Britons Foundation called off their annual Activist Training Conference — following the suicide of Elliot Johnson in September, and the subsequent revelations of Tory activist bullying. Although six Cabinet ministers had cancelled their attendance at the event, and Elliot’s father Ray had written to David Cameron calling the YBF ‘a cult, indoctrinating young activists’, the organisation’s chief-executive Don Blaney appeared on LBC — with Iain Dale — to blame the cancellation on intrusive journalists. In the interview which LBC called ‘explosive’, Dale challenged Blaney on a number of points, though the exchange could hardly be called a grilling. Blaney spoke about his role in making Johnson redundant from his job ahead of his suicide, as well

Monday

7 Dec 2015

Sebastian Payne

Tories begin to attack Sadiq Khan for his links to Jeremy Corbyn

Now Jeremy Corbyn has passed his first electoral test in Oldham West, the Conservatives are focusing on the next one: the 2016 London Mayor election. CCHQ has launched SadiqWatch today, a new website which shows off the Tories’ lines of attack against Sadiq Khan for the first time. Just like the Not Ken Again site from the 2012 Mayoral race, the videos and graphics don’t mention they’re from the Tories, but the site’s footer does say (in small print) they are produced at CCHQ. The most striking attack line is in the standfirst of SadiqWatch: ‘Holding Corbyn’s candidate to account’. As one of the 35 Labour MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader, the

Isabel Hardman

Is David Cameron having a staged row with Donald Tusk?

Donald Tusk’s letter to European Council members highlights the choice that David Cameron faces in his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe. Either he insists that EU leaders meet his demand of a four year block on benefits for new migrants, thereby delaying the process, or he drops the demand in order to get consensus on the matter and then faces the prospect of selling a ‘new relationship’ that doesn’t look all that new and doesn’t contain a key change that most voters will understand. Tusk’s letter goes through Cameron’s four demands for reform. On the first three, he is reasonably positive, suggesting room for changes in the arrangements for

Isabel Hardman

Labour moderates launch fightback against deselection threats

After Corbynite group Momentum allowed leaflets from other parties campaigning for the deselection of Labour MPs to be distributed at one of its events last week, those opposed to the new organisation are starting to hit back. Labour First, which represents the Old Right of the Labour party, is encouraging constituency Labour parties to vote on a motion calling for ‘tolerance and solidarity in the Labour Party’. This motion has been written by members of the Hampstead and Kilburn CLP, who have tabled it for their next meeting in the New Year. That motion condemns bullying of MPs over the Syria vote, and calls upon the party’s National Executive Committee

Steerpike

David Cameron: ‘you ain’t no Muslim, bruv’

Over the weekend a man attacked passengers at Leytonstone tube station, claiming he was acting in protest at the government’s decision to carry out airstrikes on Syria. One small ray of light to emerge from the incident — which left three injured — was a video of the aftermath in which a man shouts at the offender: ‘you ain’t no Muslim, bruv’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYjGaxYhDuQ Since then the phrase has gone viral, with many tweeting it online as an act of solidarity. All very well, until David Cameron decided to go one step further and quote the phrase in a speech today: ‘Some of us have dedicated speeches and media appearances and soundbites and everything to this

Steerpike

John McDonnell tweets abuse at himself

While the abuse Labour MPs — including Stella Creasy and Ann Coffey — have received since they voted for airstrikes has been much-reported, what about the Labour politicians who voted against airstrikes on Syria? According to John McDonnell, these MPs are subject to online abuse too. The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer appeared to try and prove this point over the weekend, by sharing a tweet directed at McDonnell which criticised him for showing ‘sympathy towards the cause of terrorists’. Alas, the mentioned abuse came from his own account, so he was in fact just tweeting abuse at himself: As users began to question whether he had meant to tweet abuse at himself from a

Isabel Hardman

No decision this year on airport expansion, says Number 10

There is some irony in David Cameron giving a speech claiming that ‘this is a government that delivers’ on the day that Number 10 effectively concedes that he will not be delivering his decision on airport expansion as planned by the end of this year. At the lobby briefing this morning, the Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman said he would ‘present a clear direction’ on airports policy by the end of the year, which is different to a clear decision. The spokeswoman insisted that the government was committed to ‘providing the next step forward by the end of the year’ but that the press shouldn’t get lost in semantics. The delay

Sebastian Payne

David Cameron opens up shared ownership scheme

David Cameron is marking his tenth anniversary as Conservative party leader with a speech in the West Midlands today on one of the party’s core issues: home ownership. The Prime Minister will announce an expansion of the shared ownership scheme — which allows people to part-buy and part-rent a property — by scrapping existing rules: ‘But, because it’s been heavily restricted, many of those people have missed out. We’ve had local councils dictating who is eligible, based on everything from salary to profession to where the buyer comes from. ‘From April next year, that will make 175,000 more people eligible for home ownership. It means some people will be able

Joseph Power

I used to mock non-interventionists like Corbyn, but events have proved them right

I hate to say it, but Jeremy Corbyn is right where I have been wrong. Corbyn’s protest that the Syrian intervention displays a ‘lack of a strategy worth the name, the absence of credible ground troops, the missing diplomatic plan for a Syrian settlement…’ was spot on. I am embarrassed to say that last year, I penned a rather conceited piece – for Spectator Australia, no less – in which I mocked proponents of non-intervention against the millennial, genocidal fascists of Isis. Having watched events since publication, I feel little but embarrassment. True, it makes little sense to restrict our campaign to Iraq: as James Forsyth rightly noted, Isis don’t

Saturday

5 Dec 2015

Nick Cohen

Inside the Corbyn crack-up

Jeremy Corbyn is a rarity among politicians. All his enemies are on his own side. For the Tories, Ukip and the SNP, Corbyn is a dream made real. They could not love him more. As the riotous scenes at the shadow cabinet and parliamentary Labour party meetings this week showed, his colleagues see Corbyn and John McDonnell as modern Leninists who are mobilising their cadres to purge all dissidents from the party. Conversations with Corbyn’s aides show a gentler side to the new regime, however. They suggest the Corbynistas are unlikely to be able to control Labour MPs when they can barely control themselves. ‘Chaos’ was the word that came

Charles Moore

The Tory leadership aren’t to blame for the death of Elliott Johnson

When someone commits suicide, those close to that person naturally reproach themselves. In politics, and similarly contested areas of life, people reproach others too. So it is not surprising that when a 21-year-old Conservative party worker, Elliott Johnson, killed himself in September, accusations about Tory bullying arose. Judging from what is reported about Mark Clarke, the leader of the party’s campaign RoadTrip group, he should never have been in charge of any youth wing. But there are couple of other things to bear in mind. For some reason, it has not been reported, though it is widely said, that Mr Johnson had been in a relationship with a party colleague

Friday

4 Dec 2015

Isabel Hardman

MPs try to get their heads around ‘rabble’ Momentum

It’s not a great surprise that Ken Livingstone is a member of Momentum, the Corbynite grassroots organisation that is definitely not at all like Militant, and definitely not going to campaign for de-selections in constituencies. He revealed his membership on BBC News, saying ‘I mean, I’m a member of Momentum. Our task, the first thing we’re focusing on, is getting those two million voters who have been kicked off the voting register by the government’s new rules, getting out to them, getting them back on that register. It’s a campaigning organisation, not some nasty bit of work like the old Militant. Seb found the same when he spent an evening

Isabel Hardman

Labour’s Oldham hold is a boost to Jeremy Corbyn

Whichever way you look at it, the Oldham West and Royton by-election result is a boost to Jeremy Corbyn. His opponents in the party might not quite have gone so far as to hope the seat would be lost to Ukip (though those around the leader think that some MPs would have found a loss less devastating than they probably should), but they certainly thought that Corbyn would play very badly indeed on the doorstep. Indeed, all the reports from those on the ground in the constituency and later from MPs returning from the campaign trail were that the white working class vote was not warming to Corbyn at all.

Steerpike

Family values: Jeremy Corbyn’s brother takes a swipe at Hilary Benn – ‘a disgrace to his father’

After Hilary Benn gave a passionate speech in favour of airstrikes, many on the left praised him for his words even if they did not agree with the sentiment. Alas Alex Salmond took a different approach and instead claimed Benn had shamed his late father Tony Benn who would be ‘birling in his grave’ after his son’s pro-war speech. While Salmond’s comments were widely condemned by members of Labour — including Tony Benn’s own granddaughter Emily, the party may need to address a similar personal attack on Benn which is closer to home. Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers has taken to Twitter to criticise Hilary, claiming that he is a ‘disgrace’ to his socialist father: WELL DONE

Sebastian Payne

Labour wins Oldham West and Royton by-election with huge majority

Labour has won the Oldham West and Royton by-election. Jim McMahon has returned the seat with a 10,835 majority, down from 14,738 in May’s general election. Although there were some wobbles during the short campaign, it appears Labour has put in a very good performance, increasing its vote share by seven per cent, while Ukip has again come a distant second. Labour can attribute much of its successful to a solid local candidate, Jim McMahon, The higher than expected turnout of 40.26 per cent (two thirds of May’s general election) has definitely helped Labour. Here are the results: Labour: 62 per cent (+7.3%) – 17,322 votes Ukip: 23 per cent (+2.7%) – 6,487 votes Conservative: 9 per cent

Thursday

3 Dec 2015

Peter Jones

Puppet statecraft

‘Please do not mistake democracy for division. We’re now allowing people to express their views in a way in which they’ve never been allowed before within a political party.’ Someone could ask John McDonnell, the Corbynista shadow chancellor, when people in the UK were not ‘allowed’ to express their views. What he means, of course, is that the 250,000 who voted for Corbyn as leader will now be allowed to control Labour party policy. One wonders what parliament is for. In classical Athens, the home of democracy, no speaker ever stood up and asked the citizenry what it wanted to do so that he could propose doing it. That did not