Politics

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

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron insists Tory campaign has ‘the most positive vision there could possibly be’

There’s nothing wrong with negative campaigning in an election. If you think your opponents would damage the country, then you should point it out. What’s wrong with negative campaigning is when it’s the only sort of campaigning you’re doing, or when the balance appears to be tipping in its favour in terms of your key messages and big attention-seeking posters. The Tories are currently facing accusations that they are doing too much negative campaigning, and so today David Cameron tried to defend that campaign when he appeared on Sky’s Murnaghan programme. He said: ‘And to me, people talk about this campaign, there’s nothing more positive than saying to people: let’s

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

Andrew Marr apologises for misquoting David Cameron on foxhunting

Is foxhunting David Cameron’s favourite sport? Does he ‘love it’, as Andrew Marr quoted him as saying on his BBC show last Sunday? As I pointed out earlier this week, no, he doesn’t. The quote in question never actually existed, and certainly not in the magazine that it was attributed it to – the quarterly one of the Countryside Alliance. But, to his credit, Andrew Marr this morning apologised to his viewers for misleading them. As he said: ‘You may have noticed that the Prime Minister looked mildly disconcerted when I put to him a quote about his views on fox hunting. Well, not surprisingly. It turns out he never

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband avoids the Scottish question

On the Andrew Marr show this morning, Ed Miliband fended off questions about any post-election deal with the Scottish National Party. He had two lines of defence. First, he said he wasn’t going to pre-empt the election result and that he was fighting to win the election everywhere including Scotland. Second, he was adamant that ‘I’m not doing deals with the Scottish National Party’. But there was no explanation of how he would pilot legislation through the Commons without their support. listen to ‘Ed Miliband on the Andrew Marr Show’ on audioBoom When it came to the economy, Miliband refused to admit that the last Labour government spent too much,

Jason Pack

Miliband’s position on Libya is deeply hypocritical

What Ed Miliband lacks in charisma, he is attempting to make up for in polemic. Tragically for the UK’s future, this represents an ‘Americanization‘ of British electoral politics. In all likelihood, its origins are David Axelrod cynically taking a page out of the Republicans’ playbook. Fortunately, repeated screaming of ‘Benghazi’ as if it were a primordial voodoo incantation, is unlikely to work on this side of the Atlantic. Speaking at Chatham House on Friday, Miliband sought to pre-empt his critics by laying out a cohesive vision for foreign affairs – usually considered his weakest policy area. He preached multilateralism in quite compelling terms, shrewdly articulated the dangers of an in-or-out EU referendum, and summed up the primary threats facing

Sebastian Payne

Revealed: the Tories’ plan to up their ground game in the final 10 days with ‘Battlebus 2015’

Membership of the Conservative Party has halved under David Cameron, leaving him with fewer activists to help him in this election than were available to any of his modern predecessors. So how to fight a Labour Party that has not suffered from the same hollowing out? One answer is to bus in activists, which is being done via Roadtrip2015 — a traveling ensemble of young volunteers who move around the country en mass for a day of campaigning in a key seat. This morning, a new phase of Roadtrip is kicking off as the election campaign enters into the final 10 days. Tory activists are being persuaded to sign up to ‘Battlebus 2015’, a plan to bus

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Greek crisis is back, and this time it’s more serious than before

Amidst the hullabaloo of the general election campaign, one thing that has generally gone unnoticed in Britain’s political discourse is the worsening Greek situation. You now have European finance ministers openly talking about the possibility of a Greek default. What has changed is that there is now no goodwill and very little trust between Greece and the rest of the Eurozone. The rest of the Eurozone think that the Greeks are obfuscating and not providing the details needed. While the Syriza-led Greek government feel that the rest of the Eurozone is not providing them with the political cover they need to make a deal. They feel that the Eurozone’s insistence

Sebastian Payne

Tories are doing well in key marginals — but Ukip is on the edge

Lord Ashcroft has released his latest round of marginal polling, looking at some of the constituencies vital to the Conservatives’ hopes of remaining in power. Across the six competitive seats he has polled, there is a swing away from the Tories but this doesn’t mean they will lose them. Three of the seats polled are likely to remain blue: Bristol North West, Colne Valley and High Peak. The interactive chart above shows the findings from each survey. These seats were three-way marginals in 2010 and the Tories thought that the substantial Liberal Democrat vote would be the hardest to tackle. But Charlotte Leslie in Bristol NW has campaigned hard to hold onto

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Spectator subscriber event: Mayday pre-election briefing

Our last five Spectator debates have sold out, so we’re adding a new one at short notice – only for our subscribers. It’s an election briefing on Friday, 1 May where James Forsyth and I will go through the campaign as it looks so far, discuss the latest polling (and how to interpret it), what the campaign chiefs are thinking – and then talk about what lies ahead. There’ll be a cash bar, and we may need the drink. Normally, the events are about £40, and even then they sell out. But this one will be at a special subscriber rate of £12, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the gorgeous Corinthia Hotel, where it will be held. It’s just

Steerpike Steerpike

Video: David Cameron bizarrely switches his football allegiance to West Ham

The Prime Minister’s claim that he supports Aston Villa has never been quite believed by football fans. And today, it seems, he has changed his allegiance – telling an audience (above) that they should support West Ham. CCHQ has not, as yet, come up with an explanation as to why he didn’t say Aston Villa (other than the fact that he’s no more a Villa fan than Gordon Brown was an Arctic Monkeys fan – his biography has plenty references to villas, but none to Aston Villa). But when the explanation comes, Mr S will update. UPDATE: The Prime Minister may have been exaggerating his attachment to football. Here are some quotes, before

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour is pledging a £1m handout to Scottish foodbanks. Why not English ones?

Gordon Brown is saying some strange things. He is being chased out of Fife by the nationalist genie that he pulled out of the bottle, but snarling at the SNP as he does so. He made an extraordinary pledge yesterday when speaking in his soon-to-be-abandoned home of Kirkcaldy. ‘We can’t wait beyond May 8 so within 24 hours a Labour Government will trigger an emergency plan to tackle hunger in Scotland and immediately pay £1 million to ensure food banks across Scotland are better stocked. This is odd: why not give cash to English ones too? Or can they wait beyond May 8 because they’re, em, English? Mr S has asked about, and there

Julia Hartley-Brewer

Ed Miliband should be careful when discussing foreign policy errors

If someone accuses you of doing something that you haven’t done, there’s a really easy way of convincing them that you are not in fact guilty. The first thing you can do is deny the accusation. Very clearly, emphatically and categorically. Let me give you an example taken completely at random: ‘Are you accusing David Cameron of being personally to blame for the refugee crisis in Libya and hence the deaths of hundreds of desperate people in the Mediterranean?’ Now, can anyone think of a good way of answering that question which would be unequivocal and make it clear beyond any doubt whatsoever that this is not in fact what you

Sebastian Payne

Who is rallying behind Ed Miliband: the undecided voters or Labour supporters?

As polling day nears, everyone is trying to work out which way undecided voters will break. Contrary to what many predicted, Labour and Ed Miliband have had a pretty decent short campaign, although this hasn’t yet led to a polling lead. But the key question is whether Miliband is winning support from the undecided voters. A recent poll from ComRes showed that the Labour leader isn’t viewed particularly well among this group. 28 per cent said they would want to see David Cameron run the country, compared to 16 per cent for Ed Miliband. This isn’t much of a change since before the campaign began. In March, 12 per cent of undecided voters said they would

Steerpike Steerpike

Has the BBC painted its website red?

Dare Mr S suggest the BBC election website is a little skewed towards the red corner? Miliband’s foreign policy foray leads the hub, yet fails to give much coverage of the fact that his ‘attack’ has been criticised from all sides. Of all the top stories, only one could be construed as vaguely supportive of the Tories, while a call from a minor Welsh nationalist to organise an ‘anti-Tory’ coalition is considered more important by the editors than the launch of the first-ever English manifesto by David Cameron and William Hague. And one does wonder why ‘the abuse case’ peer’s party allegiances are not deemed headline worthy? For the record, he’s Labour…

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

This is a social media election. But in the most miserable, sinister way

A friend of mine was notorious at university for photoshopping every single photo of her that went onto Facebook. Every snap in a nightclub or lounging on the beach went through the same changes in RGB levels so that her tan appeared better. And she did look good, at first glance. To those who knew and loved her, though, she seemed rather sad and brittle, so uncomfortable in her own skin that she thought a warmer glow to her pictures might make people respect or like her more. Four weeks into the official election campaign, and the main parties are behaving in the same brittle manner. They hope that the

John O'Neill

Have the Tories given up on taking seats from Labour?

David Cameron and George Osborne’s campaigning is focused on seats the Tory party wants to hold onto, while Ed Miliband is taking the fight to seats Labour wants to win from them. That’s the view in Labour HQ, and they’ve got figures to back it up: Since 30 March, when the ‘short campaign’ began, Cameron and Osborne have made 61 campaign visits between them, Labour says. More than half have been to Tory-held seats, many of them on the ‘40/40’ list of seats that the Tories need to keep and win in order to end up with a majority. Here’s where they’ve been: Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, Labour says,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Do Labour voters hate the SNP enough to save the Lib Dems?

For someone who might be about to lose her seat, Jo Swinson seems very perky as she walks the streets of Bishopbriggs in her constituency. The Lib Dem, who is standing for re-election in East Dunbartonshire in Scotland, is busy trying to persuade people who have received their postal votes this week to back her. The weather is sunny and warm and the Business and Equalities Minister cheerful, but the outlook isn’t quite so good when you take a glance at the numbers. A poll by Lord Ashcroft last week put the SNP on 40 per cent, with Swinson trailing behind on 29 per cent. That’s a 19.5 per cent

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband thinks Libya’s failure is so obvious he’s barely mentioned it until now

With less than two weeks until polling day, it’s nice to see that Ed Miliband has discovered foreign policy as an important issue worth discussing. The Labour leader will attack the Tories today on a failure of post-conflict planning for Libya which has contributed to the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. The Conservatives have decided to get very cross about this, claiming that the overnight briefing on this included Labour spinners saying the Tory party was responsible for the deaths. They have decided to make this about Miliband’s fitness to be Prime Minister. Liz Truss called his speech ‘absolutely offensive’, ‘outrageous and disgraceful’, and said ‘Ed Miliband feels like he’s

Sebastian Payne

Campaign kick-off: 13 days to go

For the first time in this campaign, foreign affairs are not only being discussed but also dominating today’s agenda. Ed Miliband is set to criticise the coalition’s record on foreign policy, putting at least some of the blame for the Libyan migrant crisis on David Cameron. To help guide you through the melée of stories and spin, here is a summary of today’s main election stories. 1. The Libya blame game At Chatham House this morning, Ed Miliband will deliver a speech on Britain’s international role and responsibilities. Before Miliband has even taken to the podium, a row has broken out over whether he is accusing the government of abandoning

Steerpike Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Liberal Democrats struggle with the small print

As the Liberal Democrats fight for survival in the general election, word reaches Mr S that things in the yellow camp may be even more dire than first thought. Mr S received this Lib Dem leaflet from one of his sources, the small print of which seems totally incomprehensible. Surely things can’t be so bad that the party can no longer afford spaces between words? As you can see, it’s pretty hard to read: Even when you get closer: And closer: Mr S is getting election fatigue just looking at it. Maybe it’s just best not to read the small print.

Thursday

Peter Jones

Plutarch and Aristotle vs Lynton Crosby

Attack Ed Miliband and sing up the long-term economic plan: that is the now obviously useless scheme devised by the Tory party’s strategy adviser Lynton Crosby, against the best advice of Plutarch and Aristotle. The Greek biographer Plutarch (c. ad 100) could have advised him against the attack-dog tactic. In an essay entitled ‘Turning enemies to one’s advantage’, he pointed out that the presence of enemies kept one sharp; to distress the enemy who hated you, ‘be a man, show self-control, tell the truth, treat those who come into contact with you with generosity and fairness’. Likewise, by understanding what it was about you that gave enemies the chance to