Politics Archives

Friday

5 Jun 2015

Liz Kendall: the ‘change everything’ Labour leadership candidate?

The Labour leadership contest will heat up in the next few days. Tomorrow, the Fabian Society will host a hustings with all of the declared candidates. Liz Kendall is set for a grilling on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. On Monday, all of the candidates will address the Parliamentary Labour Party before heading to Dublin for the GMB union’s annual conference. And at noon on Tuesday, the nomination process officially begins. Each of the candidates has something to prove over the next few days. Andy Burnham needs to demonstrate whether he is standing as a reformed Blairite or a Miliband-esque defender of public services. Yvette Cooper needs to prove she has

Tim Farron

Tim Farron: I want to make the Liberal Democrats the party of small business

When you’re a smaller party I think it naturally gives you an understanding of what it feels like to be an underdog, and a passion to level the playing field. For too long, small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) – independent traders, the self-employed, local businesses – have been neglected by the two bigger parties. Labour remains in hock to the trade unions; the Tories genuflect before big business. The liberal tradition is anti-monopoly, pro-competition and supports the promotion of fairness for all. So which party will stand up for the UK’s 1.2 million small businesses? The plumber who gets up at the crack of dawn to do their accounts, the young

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Lawson: Cameron will hold Tory party together over EU

Renegotiating substantial change in Britain’s EU relationship is a problem for David Cameron. On the one hand, the Eurozone is facing an unknown challenge with a Grexit on the horizon. But many in the Tory party believe the Prime Minister’s efforts are smoke and mirrors, and he won’t achieve the change they crave. Michael Gove is one, and Nigel Lawson is another. The Tory grandee spoke to Newsnight about what he expects from the renegotiations. Not much, it seems: ‘I think that the odds are we will see a repetition of what happened in 1975. I think it’s likely that the changes that David Cameron will secure will be inconsequential, of no significance at

Thursday

4 Jun 2015

Isabel Hardman

Why not settle the issue of MPs’ pay on the floor of the House of Commons?

Now that the fashionable thing for all MPs to do is to announce that they won’t be ‘taking’ the 10 per cent pay rise planned by IPSA, the government has decided to write a letter opposing the extra £7,000, just in case anyone might accuse any MPs of having their snouts in the trough. Chris Grayling argues in his letter (below) that ‘we continue to believe that despite the welcome signs of progress, the continuing structural deficit shows the job is far from done’. This is quite a compelling argument, particularly given the ongoing public sector pay restraint. But regardless of whether you think MPs should get a pay rise

Freddy Gray

RIP Charles Kennedy, but did we really need 27 tributes in the House of Commons?

Is it too cynical to say that the tributes paid to Charles Kennedy in the House of Commons yesterday were excessive, maudlin, and more than a bit silly? Is it pompous to say that the House of Commons should be a chamber for matters of state, not a safe space for sharing grief? A former party leader’s death should be acknowledged in the House of Commons, but did we need 27 tributes? At Prime Minister Questions, there were 4 brief speeches about Kennedy, which seemed about right. In the later session, which lasted 1 hour and 13 minutes, there were 23. Much of the encomium for Kennedy was directed at the gallery, where his former wife

James Forsyth

Ed Miliband returns to the Commons as Osborne announces £3bn of more cuts

Ed Miliband has wasted little time in returning to speaking duties in the House of Commons. George Osborne came to the Chamber to announce £4.5bn of savings – made up of £3bn from non-protected departmental Budgets and £1.5bn from asset sales, including the disposal of the government’s remaining 30 per cent stake in the Royal Mail – and Miliband was in place to hear him. Once Osborne’s duel with the new shadow chancellor Chris Leslie was over, Miliband rose to speak. Unlike when he was leader of the opposition, Miliband was heard in respectful silence — Tory backbenchers, perhaps, took their cue from Osborne who declared that Miliband had earned

Steerpike

Has Mhairi Black been trespassing in George Osborne’s office?

Since the 56 SNP MPs entered Parliament, they have taken to ‘rebelling’ against the establishment in a number of ways. So far they have focussed their time on trying to nab Dennis Skinner’s seat, going against Commons’ etiquette by clapping in the chamber, and purchasing white roses for the Queen’s Speech. Now they also appear to have had enough of corridors. Stewart McDonald, the SNP MP, claims that the Commons’ youngest MP Mhairi Black has come up with a shortcut through Parliament that involves walking through the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s office: And there was Mr S thinking that Black was beginning to prove the naysayers wrong.

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage rejigs his team and hires Michael Heaver as press aide

Nigel Farage has made made some changes to his core team. After the Ukip wars, his senior aide Raheem Kassam left the party and has been replaced by Michael Heaver. From today, he will be dealing with media queries for the leader’s office and running his social media accounts. Heaver previously worked in the party’s press office, before standing as an MEP last year and subsequently running Tim Aker’s campaign in Thurrock. I interviewed him last year about what it’s like to be a young kipper. Heaver however will not be taking over all of Kassam’s responsibilities. Chris Bruni-Lowe, who was Head of Campaigns during the election campaign, will continue to

Sebastian Payne

Five things we’ve learnt from the Guardian’s profile of Ed Miliband’s campaign

Ed Miliband’s general election campaign was clearly dysfunctional, but now we have an insight into just how bad it was. The Guardian’s political editor Patrick Wintour has produced a fantastic long read on the undoing of Miliband, revealing the fear and loathing inside his operation. The piece is such a fascinating read it’s worth buying a copy of the paper for. If you aren’t able to make it to a newsagent, here’s a summary of the five most interesting things we’ve learnt from it. 1. The Edstone went through ten approval meetings The Edstone (pictured above) will be Miliband’s legacy. If he is remembered for nothing else, it will be for engraving his pledges onto a 8ft 6in piece of limestone. Incredibly, Wintour reveals that

Steerpike

Alex Salmond tells Anna Soubry to ‘behave yourself, woman’

Alex Salmond’s reintroduction to Parliament has hit a few bumps in the road this week. He was criticised on Tuesday when he appeared to use Charles Kennedy’s death as an opportunity to push Scottish independence. Now, Salmond has told Anna Soubry, the small business minister, to ‘behave herself, woman’. During a House of Commons debate last night on devolution, he stopped his speech and scolded Soubry for her behaviour in the chamber: ‘Luckily the honourable lady is on the front bench so therefore won’t be standing for chair on one of these select committees, otherwise she would have done her chances no good whatsoever. The Treasury bench should behave better in these debates,

Steerpike

Doggy Dispatch: Marriage problems afoot between Osborne and Gove

Could there be trouble in doggy paradise? Sarah Vine has previously revealed that their family dog Snowy (a Bichon ‘ish’ dog, who was the runner up in the Westminster Dog of the Year, 2015) is ‘married’ to Lola, George Osborne’s bichon frise. But could it be that Lola has been forced into this canine partnership? Word reaches Steerpike that Osborne’s pedigree pup is having difficulty interacting with other dogs. Mr S’s newshound says that she is regularly spotted being taken for walks in St James’s Park, where it has been noticed that Lola has a fear of other dogs. Perhaps it’s best not to expect a litter of Tory puppies any time soon.

James Forsyth

The march of the ‘yes’ men

Forty years ago this week, Britain voted to remain part of the European Community. That remains the only direct vote on the European question that the country has had. The promise of a say on the EU constitution was shelved when that document metamorphosed into the Lisbon Treaty, and the ‘referendum lock’ that the coalition introduced has not yet been triggered by a transfer of power to Brussels. So it’s a historic process that the government will begin on Tuesday, with the first Commons vote on its referendum bill. Straight after the election, there was much speculation that the government would opt for an early referendum on EU membership, rather

Rod Liddle

Football’s elite deserve the foulness of Fifa

My favourite moment in the crisis engulfing football’s governing body, Fifa, came with the intervention of a man called Manuel Nascimento Lopes. Manuel is the Fifa delegate from Guinea-Bissau, an African country which occupies 130th place in the Fifa world rankings but which, far more importantly in this context, punches well above its weight when it comes to institutionalised corruption. Thirteenth in the world, according to the organisation Transparency International — not a bad showing for a smallish sub-Saharan rathole which has been almost permanently engulfed in civil war since the Portuguese got the hell out. Manuel suggested that to vote against Sepp Blatter remaining as boss of Fifa would

Wednesday

3 Jun 2015

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn to stand for Labour leadership

Jeremy Corbyn is to stand for Labour leader. Those scoffing at the idea of the very rebellious backbencher entering the contest to lead a party he often disagrees with have rather missed the point. Corbyn doesn’t think he can win. He doesn’t even want to win (he is one of the few MPs who I’ve interviewed who I really believed when they said they really didn’t want to be promoted). What Corbyn wants is to make a point that so far none of the candidates represent the faction of the party from which he hails: that is, the ones who identify strongly with the editorial line of the Morning Star and

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: And they’re back

‘Don’t gloat’. Cameron trotted along to the Commons today with this commandment ringing in his ears. He nearly managed it. But his manner betrayed his state of mind. There was an audible zing, an irrepressible sunniness in his voice as he inaugurated his second term. ‘This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others.’ Rarely has that formula held such a fizzy, cocaine kick. Labour’s acting leader, for now, is Harriet Harman. Is she about to pack it in? She seemed passionless and out of sorts. A scowl kept stealing across her lips as she delivered her joke-free lines. She was like a disgruntled lady mayoress opening a fete

Isabel Hardman

Tory rebels are already starting to cause trouble

David Cameron might have had an enjoyable session teasing Labour at Prime Minister’s Questions, but as soon as he’d finished doing so in his head-to-head with Harriet Harman, he was reminded that winning an election with a majority that is so small means he can’t have fun all the time. Andrew Mitchell stood up to press the Prime Minister on human rights reform, expressing concern about any moves to leave the European Convention on human rights: ‘My right hon. Friend will be well aware that there is considerable concern on both sides of the House at the proposition that Britain might withdraw from the European convention on human rights. Will

James Forsyth

Cameron has a PMQs trump card – he won the election

The first PMQs after an election victory is a moment to savour for a Prime Minister. He knows that the result gives him a trump card he can play again and again. So, it was unsurprising that Harriet Harman made little progress against Cameron. He treated it as a gentle net session, meeting each question with a slightly more aggressive and expansive answer. He did, though, seem slightly discombobulated by Ed Balls’ absence. Early on he made a joke about Balls’ defeat and then looked over to where Balls used to sit to drive the point home, but Balls – of course — wasn’t there. The main event today, though,

Steerpike

SNP and Conservatives find a common cause

Ever since the 56 SNP MPs arrived in Parliament, their main focus seems to be battling Dennis Skinner for his seat. Happily, the Scottish Nationalists appeared to have a night off from pestering the 83-year-old MP yesterday, with Angus MacNeil teaming up with the Conservatives to take on the Lords in Macmillan Cancer Support’s annual Parliamentary Tug of War: Although the battle was close, the Commons men, captained by Mike Penning MP, came out on top over the Lords, who were led jointly by Lord Dobbs and Lord Collins of Highbury. With the House of Commons taking victory over the House of Lords for the sixth year running, Dobbs was in no laughing mood today when Mr

Steerpike

The war of Skinner’s seat: SNP allow Dennis to stay

The first PMQs of the new Parliament will kick off shortly and Commons watchers will be looking to see if Dennis Skinner remains in his usual spot. The socialist firebrand, along with fellow members of Labour’s so-called awkward squad, has previously occupied the second opposition front bench — until the SNP’s 56 MPs came along and attempted to oust him. But it appears that peace has broken out. The Sun’s Kevin Schofield reports that an agreement has been done to allow Skinner and Father of the House Gerald Kaufman to remain on the front bench, alongside SNP members. Other members of the awkward squad are not so lucky. As one

Binita Mehta

Here’s why the Tories convinced one million BME voters to support them

One of the funnier moments of the election involved Ed Miliband assuming that a turban-wearing Sikh gentleman he met on the campaign trail would, naturally, be helping him get the Sikh vote out for Labour. In fact, the man was a Conservative parliamentary candidate. It seemed to exemplify the extent to which Labour assumed ethnic minorities would vote for them – but all that is changing. New research from British Future shows that 1 million BME voters helped keep David Cameron in Number 10. This means that one in three minority ethnic voters supported the Tories, which is the party’s best result to date. I was brought up in a pro-Labour