Politics

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

Wednesday

13 Dec 2023

Steerpike

Has Gary Lineker breached BBC social media rules?

Dear oh dear. Gary Lineker’s acerbic antics are coming back to bite him. The BBC’s incoming chairman Samir Shah has suggested that the football star did indeed breach the corporation’s social media guidelines this week, after the bullish Beeb pundit took to mocking Tory MPs on Twitter/X. The future chairman of the BBC told MPs at a select committee that he didn’t think it was ‘helpful’ that Lineker had signed an open letter calling to scrap the government’s Rwanda scheme: ‘It becomes another turn of the wheel of the story about Gary Lineker and the BBC.’ And who isn’t fed up with the Lineker show by now… Shah’s comments come

Joanna Williams

Why are MPs endorsing Stonewall’s rainbow laces campaign?

Our Members of Parliament are not short of stuff to do. There’s immigration – of the legal and illegal varieties – an economy on life support, post-lockdown problems with education, mental health and getting people back to work, as well as the NHS collapsing under the weight of its own waiting lists. Yet, remarkably, ten of our trusted representatives have found time amid their crushing schedules to become part of a charity’s marketing campaign. The Labour party features heavily, with Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Stella Creasy, Angela Eagle and several others putting in an appearance; Alison Thewliss and Kirsten Oswald from the SNP are game, and so, too, are a number of

Terry Barnes

Why is Australia turning its back on Israel?

In the days after the 7 October attack on Israel, Australia vowed to stand with Israel. It appears to have forgotten that pledge. When the United Nations General Assembly voted in October in favour of an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza, Australia abstained because the motion failed to explicitly mention, let alone condemn, Hamas. James Larsen, Australia’s representative to the UN, said he could not support the resolution because its failure to name the 7 October culprits meant it was ‘incomplete’. Last night, the UN General Assembly again voted resoundingly in favour of a ceasefire. This time, Australia abandoned its principles, broke with the United States and the United Kingdom, and

Isabel Hardman

Why did Sunak sound so tetchy at PMQs?

The last Prime Minister’s Questions of the year always has a festive, pantomime tone to it. That doesn’t mean it is always a cheery, comfortable experience for a prime minister, though, and it wasn’t today. At least Rishi Sunak could come to the chamber with the knowledge that his Rwanda legislation had passed its first hurdle in the Commons, rather than on the back of an angry and sizeable revolt by Tory MPs. The PM received loud cheers from Conservative MPs as he stood up. He even cracked a joke about there being a ‘record number of families’ under the Conservatives – reference to the hilarious new mafia-style branding for

Steerpike

Sunak’s popularity hits record low

It never rains but it pours. Every time poor Rishi Sunak seems to catch a break, bad news appears just around the corner. Less than 24 hours after the government won the Rwanda vote last night, the Prime Minister’s popularity has reached a record new low. Sunak is now as unpopular as his onetime-boss-turned-nemesis Boris Johnson. Talk about a comedown… Some 70 per cent of people have an unfavourable view of Sunak, new YouGov polling shows – a result which now matches the unfavourability rating of his party. Sunak’s net favorability score has dropped ten points since November to, er, minus 49. By comparison, Johnson’s was minus 46 immediately after

James Heale

Who will replace Mark Drakeford as first minister?

Mark Drakeford has announced this morning that he will stand down as Welsh Labour leader, triggering a leadership contest for a new first minister. The veteran politician pledged at the most recent Welsh elections in 2021 that he would step down mid-parliament. He has chosen to do so today on the fifth anniversary since he was sworn in as FM. Drakeford’s resignation follows growing pressure on him to announce his retirement plans. Welsh Labour is arguably Britain’s most successful electoral force, governing Cardiff Bay since the advent of Welsh devolution some 24 years ago. But in recent weeks, Drakeford has been the subject of some rare negative briefings in the

Matthew Lynn

Will Javier Milei’s ‘shock therapy’ work?

The Argentinian peso has been devalued by 50 per cent overnight. Controls on exports have been scrapped, and the country’s ministry of culture is to be closed down. The health, labour, social development and education departments are also facing the chop. Argentina’s president Javier Milei – who vowed to deliver economic ‘shock treatment’ in his first speech on Sunday after formally taking office – has started a radical overhaul of the economy and begun what is by far the most interesting experiment in economics in the world right now. True, Milei may not have gone as far as some people might have expected. The plan to replace the peso completely

Steerpike

Watch: James Cleverly fumbles Rwanda victory lap

It was a good win last night for the Prime Minister and Home Secretary James Cleverly. The government managed to keep the number of Tory abstentions down in order to enable the Rwanda Bill to progress to its next stage. But on this morning’s media round, Cleverly has not been quite as fluent as last night’s whipping operation. On Good Morning Britain, Cleverly faced a barrage of questioning from Ed Balls — and struggled to hold his own, tripping over his words like nobody’s business. When asked for specifics on the bill, the Home Secretary appeared more than a little, er, discombobulated… Then came the turn of Sky News. But

Steerpike

Security minister takes a jab at David Cameron

David Cameron probably wasn’t expecting to be trolled by his own security minister when he posed for his latest photo. The Foreign Secretary was photographed with Sebastien Lai, whose father Jimmy Lai remains imprisoned in Hong Kong. ‘The UK opposes the National Security Law and will continue to stand by Jimmy Lai and the people of HK,’ the tweet from the Foreign Office account said. But the FCDO’s assurance didn’t go down well with everyone. Security minister Tom Tugendhat couldn’t resist taking a jab, tweeting: ‘I guess the golden era is over.’ Miaow… Mr S can’t blame Tugendhat for being confused. Cameron was, after all, famously pictured in 2015 having a pint with

Ross Clark

Cop’s pledge to move away from fossil fuels is a farce

So, a deal has been reached. The world has agreed on what Cop 28 president Sultan al-Jaber has called a ‘robust action to keep 1.5 Celsius in reach’. The world is to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels. And meanwhile, back in the real world? If the world really had just made a meaningful commitment to end the use of fossil fuels, you might have expected shares in oil companies to have crashed this morning. But have they heck. Shell, BP, all are unmoved. It is expansionary business as usual. The UAE has invested $150 billion (£120 billion) to increase oil production by half to five million barrels a day by 2027. In the

Kate Andrews

Is Britain’s economy ‘going backwards’?

Has the UK economy come to a standstill? This morning we learn that the economy contracted by 0.3 per cent in October, far worse than the zero per cent change to GDP that was expected by economists. Furthermore, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals there was no overall growth in the three months to October. These figures are even more disappointing after the economy grew by 0.2 per cent in September, as they are the first indication that growth could flatline in the final quarter of the year. Health and social activities did increase – rising by 0.4 per cent, as there were fewer strikes in October than September

Daniel DePetris

Why isn’t Biden being straight with Zelensky?

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington a year ago was a love-fest, characterised by standing ovations from American politicians, lavish praise from president Biden and a commitment to keep the aid flowing. His visit this week, however, occurred in a much different atmosphere. The politics of Ukraine aid have changed, with a growing number of Republican lawmakers wondering whether sending more taxpayer dollars to underwrite a stalemate is a wise course of action. While Ukraine’s cause has received a better hearing in the senate, Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, is intent on using the Biden administration’s $106 billion (£85 billion) national security supplemental request (more than half of which is

Patrick O’Flynn

Rishi Sunak will never stop the boats

Do not let the relatively comfortable margin of victory for the Rwanda Bill’s second reading fool you: we have now moved squarely into the ‘third Brexit’ stage of British politics. The first British exit from looming European control over key policy levers came when eurosceptics beat off a plot to take the country into the single currency. The second Brexit, obviously, was actual Brexit, when we voted to ‘take back control’ of our laws and especially our borders by leaving the EU and ending free movement obligations. During each of these two mighty and protracted struggles, both of which almost tore the Tory party apart, those resisting the movement of

Tuesday

12 Dec 2023

Katy Balls

Sunak wins the Rwanda vote – but the battle is far from over

7 min listen

The government has won this evening’s vote on the ‘safety of Rwanda’ bill comfortably at 313 votes to 269 against. This means Rishi Sunak has managed to pass his bill at second reading after a day of negotiations with the various Tory tribes. Not a single Tory MP voted against the bill but 38 conservative MPs abstained. Katy Balls and James Heale discuss what comes next.

Katy Balls

Sunak wins the Rwanda vote – but the battle is far from over

The government has won Tuesday’s vote on the ‘Safety of Rwanda’ Bill comfortably at 313 votes to 269 against. This means Rishi Sunak has managed to pass his Bill at second reading after a day of negotiations with the various Tory tribes. Not a single Tory MP voted against the Bill. Thirty-eight conservative MPs abstained in total of which 29 Tory MPs abstained on principle. If the 29 had all voted against the Bill, this would have been enough to block it at second reading. The result comes after various sceptic Conservative factions – including the European Research Group (ERG) and the New Conservatives – advised their members to abstain.

Isabel Hardman

There’s no good option for Sunak over the Rwanda Bill

There is a lot more trouble to come on the Rwanda Bill, whatever happens tonight. When James Cleverly told MPs earlier that the emergency legislation complied with international law but was ‘very much pushing at the edge of the envelope’, he was trying to suggest that there was something for everyone. So far all the speeches in the debate on the second reading have suggested that there will be a lot of abstentions, with no Tory MP yet saying they will vote against. The five groups of traditional Tories have just said they ‘cannot support the bill tonight’ – which again is not an instruction to vote it down, and Mark

Steerpike

Danny Kruger proves to be a thorn in Sunak’s side

Oh dear. For a while now, Danny Kruger has established himself as one of the more troublesome Tory MPs from No. 10’s perspective. The 2019 MP served as political secretary to Boris Johnson before entering parliament. Yet in recent months he has tended to adopt positions that cause Downing Street a headache. He helped found the ‘New Conservatives’ – a Tory caucus largely made up of 2019 intake MPs in red wall seats. While Kruger’s seat is very much in the blue wall category, he has warned repeatedly that Sunak must keep the 2019 election coalition of voters alive. This morning, Kruger was one in a group of ‘New Conservatives’

Kate Andrews

The Tories created this Rwanda Bill mess

Climate change minister Graham Stuart is flying back to Britain from the UAE for a matter of hours so he can cast his vote tonight for the Safety of Rwanda Bill. It’s not a great look from the green perspective, and even worse from the political one. The government is so concerned about the numbers tonight that every vote must count. This includes flying one in. Even the best case scenario for Rishi Sunak this evening is rife with problems (Katy Balls lays out all the possible outcomes here). If the Bill passes today, it will face more hurdles at the committee stage. Neither the right nor centre is particularly

Isabel Hardman

Robert Jenrick tears into the Rwanda Bill

Robert Jenrick has just given a furious speech against the Rwanda Bill in the Commons. It was a very well delivered speech, and highly persuasive. The former immigration minister not only took apart the flaws of the legislation as he saw them: he also explained why he had apparently adopted a much harder line while working in the Home Office. He said he had been to Dover to see ‘constituents whose homes have been broken into and whose lives have been ruined by illegal migrants’, and to Bournemouth, where an asylum seeker who posed as a child was convicted of murder. Jenrick framed this Bill as being one of the

Steerpike

Net zero minister forced to fly back for crunch vote

It’s been a rather difficult week for Rishi Sunak, and it’s still only Tuesday. After being grilled by the Covid Inquiry yesterday, today Sunak is having to fend off a right-wing rebellion on his Rwanda plan. And now the government’s net zero minister Graham Stuart has been forced to fly back from Dubai’s COP28 for tonight’s vote before, er, flying back again afterwards. So much for those environmental commitments… Stuart’s departure means that the UK now has no ministerial representation at the international conference as final talks commence. And Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has cottoned on to this somewhat sub-optimal set of events. She mocked the hasty return

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