Politics

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

Friday

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage tells mystery ‘senior figure’ to put up or shut up

Nigel Farage’s fight back has continued with an interview on Sky News this morning. Following on from his appearance on Question Time, the Ukip leader described an ‘astonishing’ level of support for him within the party. But he admitted that there is someone high up within the party trying to cause trouble or oust him as leader: ‘I mean, I’ve never had support like it. There is one senior figure in UKIP briefing every single day, consistently, and he’s now moved on to “there must be a leadership election”. ‘That individual must make his mind up whether his future is with UKIP or not. What is clear is that the sheer level of

Steerpike Steerpike

A very modern Parliament causes problems for the Tories

With 190 women elected last week and the number of ethnic minority MPs hitting record levels, Parliament is slowly beginning to look a little bit like modern Britain. Settling in, one male MP, proudly wearing a green new members’ badge, was sitting on the Terrace on his first night in the Commons. He proceeded to use his iPad to conduct a noisy bedtime video call with his wife and young children back in his distant constituency. The sweet scene did not amuse everyone however, with one member of the Tory old guard nosily tutting and harrumphing about a total lack of ‘decorum’ displayed by new Nationalist MPs. There are plenty of

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

David Cameron needs to learn how to deal with nationalists

David Cameron still has much to learn about dealing with nationalists. Theirs is a very different kind of politics – one where flags, language and choreography matters. Nicola Sturgeon is hawking a false premise: l’Ecosse c’est moi. That Scotland is her country, that David Cameron can visit (as he does today) in the same way he visits France or America. It matters to Sturgeon that the talks are presented as those between two heads of state (with the flags arranged in that way), that the premise of the talks is what more he can give her government (which she abbreviates to ‘Scotland’). And Cameron falls into her trap. The SNP

Sebastian Payne

Have Nigel Farage and Douglas Carswell reached détente over Ukip’s Short money?

The row over what to do with its Short money was the tinderbox for Ukip’s internal tensions. Although the war between Team Farage and Team O’Flynn has been bubbling away for months, the question of what to do with the £650,000 of public funds, combined with Nigel Farage’s un-resignation, kicked off a briefing war that brought these fights into the public domain. But we may have détente between Douglas Carswell and Nigel Farage on state funding. On last night’s Question Time, the Ukip leader — who put in a solid, if not particularly inspiring performance — took the radical step of promising not to take any public funds, which includes the Short money: ‘I’m going

Steerpike Steerpike

Chuka Umunna will no longer be the ‘English Obama’

Chuka Umunna has surprised many today with the news that he has withdrawn from the race for the Labour leadership. Explaining his decision he said that the ‘added level of pressure’ had not been a ‘comfortable experience’. Mr S can already hear the sighs from the many Chuka supporters who had seen him as the man to make Labour a pro-business party once more. Earlier this week the business entrepreneur James Caan, who is Chairman of the UK Government’s Start Up Loans Scheme, had confided to Mr S at the Quercus Biasi Foundation Spring Gala at Claridges, that he would support Chuka. He went on to say that he could be the ‘English Obama’: ‘I think

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 14 May 2015

Scotland’s silent majority Sir: Hugo Rifkind’s article (‘Scotland’s nasty party’, 9 May) is a first for the media. It expresses the dismay, disbelief and incomprehension felt at the rise of the SNP by least one — and I suspect many — of the silent majority in Scotland. When will the media confront Nicola Sturgeon’s claim to speak for Scotland, as opposed to allowing her to deliver an unchallenged party political broadcast? She can only speak for the SNP, who at best can speak for half of Scottish voters. Not in my name. I want no part of her strident, demanding, aggressive brand. The article did omit one issue. Thousands of young

Peter Jones

Cicero’s advice for election-losers

The great Robert Harris has defended the pollsters who got the elections so wrong by quoting Cicero on the electorate’s fickleness. Cicero certainly acknowledged the problem when he was defending one Gnaeus Plancius in 54 bc, but made a rather different point. Plancius had been accused of rigging his election to the position of aedile (a sort of joint mayor of Rome) by his rival for the post, Laterensis. But Cicero had a problem: Laterensis was a friend. Since Cicero could therefore not lay into him, he began by arguing that electoral rejection could happen to anyone in Rome: ‘For in elections the people do not always demonstrate sound judgment. They

The Spectator

Cameron’s new mission

As David Cameron lined up beside Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband at the Cenotaph on the day after the general election, he said that he had thought he would be the one writing a resignation statement that day. He may also have imagined how history would have judged him: as a so-so Tory leader who didn’t quite manage to win an election against the reviled Gordon Brown and was booted out after one term. A leader who was good at balancing a coalition but who didn’t stand for (or achieve) very much himself. It would have been a miserable legacy. Luckily he now has the chance to reshape it. The

Zoe Williams

Diary – 14 May 2015

For the 2005 general election, I had a party featuring a gigantic cheesecake with differentiated segments by allegiance. It contained no purple, which you could call leftie bias, but it genuinely didn’t seem necessary. It certainly wasn’t because I couldn’t think of a purple fruit. The Lib Dems did badly out of that, but mainly because you should never put banana on a cheesecake; they did fine in 2010, when I represented them with lemon macaroons. No colourful theming for 2015; the stakes were too high, and I decided that it was a waste of soft fruit. Just booze and crisps and, by 10.15, depressed people; exactly like 1992, in

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: the end of Miliband and the Tories’ one nation challenge

Ed Milband and his team were not ready for their major defeat on election night. On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Dan Hodges discusses the final days of Miliband’s leadership with Andrew Harrop of the Fabian Society. What were the majority mistakes of the Labour campaign? Was vital polling information about his seat kept from Ed Balls? Will Labour be able to regenerate into a party ready to govern within five years? Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth also discuss the first week of the new Conservative government and the challenges facing David Cameron. Few in the Tory party were expecting a majority, so how will the ideological vacuum be filled?

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The final flourishes have been made to the new government

The chaos in Ukip and the Labour leadership race has allowed Number 10 to quietly finish off the task of constructing a new government without too much attention. The distribution of ministerial posts has gone down as well as can be expected. Enough people have been brought back and rebels brought in to give most MPs hope, which is one of the main purposes of reshuffles. Today’s appointments are particularly astute. The economist and former Goldman Sachs banker Jim O’Neill becomes a Lord and the Treasury minister in charge of city deals, which should ensure that George Osborne’s northern powerhouse continues to move forward. While George Bridges, a veteran of John

Nick De Bois

London can be Blue again

In the midst of a glorious election night for the Conservatives on 7 May, London stubbornly resisted the swing across the rest of the country and went a darker shade of red. Why is that and why does it matter when overall we have a majority Conservative government for the first time in 18 years? The loss of four London seats (including mine) to Labour may have been offset by the high profile gain of Vince Cable Twickenham, and by us retaining Labour’s number one target of Hendon after a spectacular result from Matthew Offord. But to ignore what is going on elsewhere would simply put future working Conservative majorities

Sebastian Payne

The ‘save Nigel Farage’ operation is underway, but is it too late?

It is touch and go whether Nigel Farage can survive as Ukip leader. With key figures such as former leader Roger Knapman, donor Stuart Wheeler and treasurer Hugh Williams saying it’s time for a change, the operation to ‘save’ Farage has begun in haste. Ukip’s deputy leader Paul Nuttall, who is seen as Farage’s anointed successor, has released an ambiguous statement of support, which doesn’t mention Farage by name, nor explicitly endorse him as leader: ‘The general election was a great success delivering 4 millions votes in the bag. The 2020 vision is on course. UKIP have the best communicator in British politics leading this party and who will play a vital

Sebastian Payne

Raheem Kassam un-sacked as Nigel Farage’s senior adviser

Raheem Kassam, senior adviser to Nigel Farage, has not been ‘sacked’ from Ukip after all. It was reported earlier this afternoon that he had left the party today — as Patrick O’Flynn appeared to be asking for. But the party is being careful with its language. The party’s press office are simply saying: ‘Raheem Kassam is no longer working for Ukip’ This is technically correct: he is not ‘working’ for Ukip as he is currently on holiday in New York. Kassam has released his own statement, pointing out that he was only employed for the election campaign and his contract was due to finish at the end of the month: ‘I was GE2015 staff. My

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The one thing sadder than an ex-MP

Tonight at midnight, something will change in Parliament. All the MPs who lost their seats in last week’s elections will have their passes cancelled, to be replaced by a pass giving them more limited access to the Parliamentary estate. They’ve been sneaking through Westminster over the past few days to clear out their offices and make their staff redundant. Some look eerily cheery as they do this. Others scuttle along, avoiding conversation. As the new intake of MPs look up excitedly at the ornate ceilings and take pictures of Big Ben on their phones, swelling a little with excitement and pride, the old MPs keep their eyes fixed firmly down on

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The three groups of voters that Labour needs to win back

Labour is in a more difficult position now than it was after its defeat in 1992. In ’92, the electorate had sent Labour a clear message: move to the centre, don’t say you’ll put up taxes and get a better leader. But this time round, the message Labour has been sent is more complicated. There are three groups of voters that Labour failed with at this election, I argue in the magazine this week. Aspirational voters who went Tory, the left behind working class who went Ukip in England and SNP in Scotland and Nationalist-minded ones north of the border. What the Labour leadership candidates have to explain is how

Steerpike Steerpike

Lib Dem leader hopeful Norman Lamb wins a celebrity backer

Although Labour’s celebrity endorsements from Martin Freeman, Robert Webb and Russell Brand did little to help the party in the election, Norman Lamb will be hoping his new backer will help him win the Liberal Democrats leadership contest. Dappy, the N-Dubz singer, has come out as backing Lamb to be the next leader of the Liberal Democrats: Although Lamb, who helped fund Tinchy Stryder’s music career when the rapper was starting out, appears to have the musician vote, his rival Tim Farron is cleaning up when it comes to his fellow Lib Dems. Farron has pointedly retweeted a tweet pointing out that Lib Dem supporters of Nick Clegg are backing him: Still, no word

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How Tory ministers could sneak out policies the House of Lords blocked

Now that we can’t brace ourselves for the SNP ruling over Westminster and the Labour party as we’d been warned (though they still seem to be having a bit of fun), the House of Lords has become the location of potential uprisings against the Tory government. The bulk of Lib Dem and Labour peers, along with a good number of cross benchers, who could work together to defeat a government bill does look rather threatening, though it’s worth remembering that even on a good day, attendance in the Lords isn’t anywhere near 100 per cent, and crossbenchers do tend to pull back rather nervously from anything that they think is

Ian Fleming

If I were prime minister, by Ian Fleming

This article was first published in The Spectator on 9 October, 1959. I am a totally non-political animal. I prefer the name of the Liberal Party to the name of any other and I vote Conservative rather than Labour, mainly because the Conservatives have bigger bottoms and I believe that big bottoms make for better government than scrawny ones. I only once attended a debate in the House of Commons. It was, I think, towards the end of 1938 when we were unattractively trying to cajole Mussolini away from Hitler. I found the hollowness and futility of the speeches degrading and infantile and the well-fed, deep-throated ‘hear, hears’ for each mendacious

Sebastian Payne

Does Patrick O’Flynn actually want a new leader for Ukip?

Patrick O’Flynn has surfaced to explain his remarks about Nigel Farage and the team around him. On Sky News, O’Flynn denied he was gunning for Farage’s position, describing him as ‘my political hero’, but blamed a ‘couple of people in his inner circle’ who he said are ‘wrong ‘uns’: ‘The advisers he’s got around him have got an awful lot to account for… some people around him who would like to take Ukip in the direction of some hard right ultra-aggressive American Tea Party-type movement. ‘Ukip will prosper and has prospered when it positions itself in the common sense centre of British politics, as we did with our excellent election