Politics

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

Wednesday

Rishi Sunak

Why Robert Jenrick was wrong to resign

Robert Jenrick resigned as immigration minister this evening over the government’s plan to amend the Rwanda scheme. Here is the Prime Minister’s response to Jenrick’s resignation letter: Thank you for your letter and your service in Government. Your hard work has helped us cut boat crossings by more than a third. You have strived to cut the asylum backlog and return hotels to their communities. Your resignation is disappointing given we both agreed on the ends, getting flights off to Rwanda so that we can stop the boats. I fear that your departure is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. It is our experience that gives us confidence

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What Jenrick’s resignation means for Sunak’s premiership

Rishi Sunak used his appearance before the 1922 committee this evening to tell MPs – once again – that the choice facing them was ‘unite or die’. He argued that the only choice facing the Tory party was to get behind his Rwanda ‘Plan B’ or to lose to Labour. Alas that message appears to have held little to no sway with his former ally Robert Jenrick, who has this evening resigned from government. After rumours swirled this evening, Jenrick has confirmed he has stepped down from his post stating: ‘I cannot continue in my position when I have such strong disagreements with the direction of the Government’s policy on

Robert Jenrick

Why I resigned as immigration minister

This evening, Robert Jenrick resigned as immigration minister after disagreeing with the government’s plans to amend the Rwanda scheme. Here is his resignation letter in full: Dear Prime Minister, It is with great sadness that I write to tender my resignation as Minister for Immigration. I cannot continue in my position when I have such strong disagreements with the direction of the government’s policy on immigration. As you know, I have been pushing for the strongest possible piece of emergency legislation to ensure that under the Rwanda policy we remove as many small boat arrivals, as swiftly as possible, to generate the greatest deterrent effect. This stems from my firmly

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Home Office minister reacts to Jenrick’s exit

It was Herbert Morrison who remarked that the corridors of the Home Office are paved with dynamite. Well tonight, they’re blowing up. Just three weeks after Suella Braverman was unceremoniously fired from 2 Marsham Street, her onetime junior minister has now followed her out of the door. After two hours of speculation, it has now been confirmed that Robert Jenrick has quit the immigration brief, having made clear his objections to Rishi Sunak’s newly unveiled Rwanda legislation.One person who found out the news the hard way was, er, Jenrick’s colleague, Laura Farris. She was about to go on air with Andrew Marr on LBC before she was told the news.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Robert Jenrick resigns as immigration minister

In the past few minutes, James Cleverly has confirmed that Robert Jenrick has resigned as immigration minister. He was asked repeatedly about the position of his minister of state in the Home Office during his statement on the emergency Rwanda legislation, and he has now said it ‘has been confirmed’ that Jenrick has left his role, which suggests the Secretary of State didn’t know the position when he entered the chamber. Cleverly added: ‘Of course I speak with the ministers in the department regularly but ultimately the question of this session should be about the Bill but about the individuals in the House.’ This was swiftly followed by Mark Francois,

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Inside Sunak’s meeting with MPs on his Rwanda ‘Plan B’

Rishi Sunak made an impromptu appearance at the 1922 committee tonight as he sought to sell his ‘Plan B’ on Rwanda to restive Tory MPs. This evening the government published the Bill – which asserts that ministers have the power to ignore judgments from Strasbourg but stops short at ‘disapplying’ the ECHR. This means it doesn’t go as far as what former home secretary Suella Braverman called for. Speaking to MPs, Sunak said it was the furthest the government could go, as had they gone ‘one inch further’ and ousted the courts entirely, the Rwandan government would not have backed it and there would be no Rwanda scheme to action.

Andrew Liddle

Keir Starmer’s popularity is declining in Scotland

Once upon a time, Sir Keir Starmer was Scottish Labour’s greatest asset. In the dark days following the party’s 2019 general election drubbing, the party in Scotland remained an unlikely redoubt of Corbynism, languishing in the polls under the uninspiring leadership of trade unionist Richard Leonard. In such a context, Starmer’s election as Labour leader in March 2020 was a boon to the Scottish party, which many considered was in terminal decline.  As well as manoeuvring the ineffectual Leonard out of office and replacing him with the modernising Anas Sarwar, Starmer himself also proved an immediate hit with Scottish voters. In October 2020, for instance, Ipsos recorded an approval rating

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris argues that Covid mistakes were inevitable. Is he right?

Boris Johnson had clearly come to the Covid Inquiry intending to be magnanimous about everyone, even advisers like Dominic Cummings who had ended up causing him so much grief – and who had not been at all complimentary about him in their evidence to the inquiry. He largely stuck to that persona in the first of his two lengthy evidence sessions today, with another to come tomorrow. He repeatedly praised Matt Hancock as doing a good job in difficult circumstances and who ‘was a good public communicator’. He even tried to politely explain away the more vicious behaviour of aides within government as variously being just the sort of thing

James Heale James Heale

Sunak unveils his ‘emergency legislation’ on Rwanda

Three weeks after the Prime Minister’s ‘emergency legislation’ to make the Rwandan scheme viable, tonight it is finally here. The seven-page Bill was published shortly before Rishi Sunak’s address to the 1922 Committee and James Cleverly’s statement to the House of Commons. The Bill’s solution to the Supreme Court verdict last month is to disapply elements of the Human Rights Act which would have exposed the government to legal challenges, while also declaring in law that Rwanda is a ‘safe country.’ It will let ministers override European Court of Human Rights edicts to block planes from taking off – like the so-called ‘pyjama injunctions’ of June 2022. However, it stops

Oscar Edmondson

Boris faces the music at the Covid inquiry

12 min listen

It was a big day in the Covid inquiry as Boris Johnson gave evidence for the first time. Just as Johnson launched into an apology during his opening statement, protestors off-camera made their presence known. There were also revelations concerning the attention he paid to Sage minutes and Cobra meetings and the former prime minister defended his decision not to lock down sooner. What else did we learn? Was this a turning point in the perception of the inquiry?  Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Michael Simmons. 

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Suella Braverman’s deadly warning for the PM

While it would be unfair to suggest that Tory MPs only care about holding onto their seats at the next election, equally it would be wrong to say that it isn’t a very important consideration for many. So when Suella Braverman declared in her personal statement in the Commons today that the Conservative party is ‘heading for electoral oblivion’ if it introduces yet more deficient legislation that fails to stop the boats – it probably amounted to her most persuasive point in the eyes of colleagues. Gulps all round. Mrs Braveman said what was at stake was the principle of ‘who governs Britain?’, the British people and their elected representatives

Jawad Iqbal

Boris is right about the Covid WhatsApps 

It is hard to feel much in the way of sympathy for Boris Johnson, whose questionable leadership during the pandemic has come under renewed scrutiny during today’s much-anticipated appearance at the  Covid Inquiry. Even so, Johnson made a valid  point – too easily dismissed amidst all the guffawing and glee at the exposure of the derogatory comments in WhatsApp messages. He said that his government was no different from any other when it came to private feuding. Johnson suggested, under questioning from lead counsel Hugo Keith KC, that if WhatsApp messages were available from the Thatcher government showing what its members thought of each other, some of them would have been

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Sir Keir’s style is too legal to land a blow on Sunak

The Rwanda treaty has established two new norms in politics. First, the Supreme Court acts as a revising chamber with the power to change government legislation. Secondly, Labour is terrified of Rwanda.  At PMQs, Sir Keir thought he was on a winning ticket and all he had to do was mock the relocation scheme and score an easy victory. He began with a joke: three Tory home secretaries have been sent to Rwanda but not one refugee.  Rishi ignored that and updated the house on Labour’s policy which is to ‘scrap the scheme if and when it is operational,’ he said. He concluded that Sir Keir ‘finds himself on the

James Heale James Heale

Badenoch overhauls gender recognition list

Ahead of Suella Braverman’s big statement this afternoon, it was the turn of another Brexiteer to face the Commons. Kemi Badenoch appeared before the House in her capacity as Minister for Women and Equalities, to update MPs on people who have changed gender under different regimes abroad. Under plans announced today, foreign citizens will be forced to comply with tougher British rules if they move to the UK. This includes providing medical reports to get a gender recognition certificate. The change, in Badenoch’s words, was ‘long overdue’ with the list last updated in 2011. Over the past dozen years, much of the Western world has significantly altered their systems for

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Diane Abbott gets shut down on anti-Semitism

Diane Abbott has been shown up once again. This time it is by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, during a meeting with the Home Affairs Committee this afternoon. On the pro-Palestine marches, Abbott told the CAA rather patronisingly: I have actually been on these demonstrations, you haven’t. And I have to tell you, on both the big London demonstrations I have been on, I have not seen a single solitary soul glorifying Hamas… Are you saying that you want marches of this kind completely banned? CAA chief executive Gideon Falter wasted no time in shutting down the independent MP, responding dryly: We also know very well that you didn’t see any

Suella Braverman

Full text: Suella Braverman’s departure speech

This afternoon, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman gave her departure speech in the House of Commons after she was sacked by Rishi Sunak last month. Here is her speech in full: It is no secret that I support leaving the ECHR and replacing the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights Madame Deputy Speaker, I’m very grateful for the opportunity to make this statement and I’d like to put on record my wishes to Mr Speaker that he makes a speedy recovery. Madame Deputy Speaker, serving in cabinet for just under four years has been a true honour and I’m thankful for the opportunity and grateful to the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Does Keir Starmer stack up?

Few Labour politicians have anything nice to say about Margaret Thatcher, so when Keir Starmer wrote an op-ed over the weekend praising her for bringing ‘meaningful change’ he was looking for a reaction. The left of the party obliged, calling her legacy destructive and chastising Starmer. Even some former Blairites stepped in to say the Labour leader had gone too far. His comments were part of his ongoing pitch to win over former Tory voters who feel, as he puts it, ‘disillusioned, frustrated, angry, worried’. But for those who are trying to get a sense of Starmer and his plans for the country, his article is unlikely to have helped.

James Heale James Heale

Sunak is stuck in a migration minefield

At last week’s Spectator Parliamentarian Awards, Suella Braverman was awarded ‘Disruptor of the Year’. In her speech, which seemed to preview her Commons statement on Wednesday, the former home secretary joked that the prize ought, instead, to go to the man responsible ‘for disrupting my plans to cut the [immigration] numbers and deliver our manifesto pledge – the Prime Minister’. Rishi Sunak’s assembled supporters didn’t laugh. On the issue of migration, battle lines have been drawn between the Tory tribes. The night before Braverman’s speech to the Commons, a trio of right-wing groups assembled to plot their strategy. Members were drawn from the European Research Group, the Common Sense Group

The Spectator

The Covid Inquiry is a case study in how not to learn lessons

Two years ago, a new strain of Covid emerged and with it came calls for a Christmas lockdown. The Omicron variant was said to spread far faster than previous iterations of the virus and Imperial’s Neil Ferguson warned that it was no less deadly. The call for lockdown began and Britain came very close to implementing it. A press conference was called and Rishi Sunak, then chancellor, returned from a trip to California to try to stop what he thought would be another needless social and economic calamity. In the end, another lockdown was avoided. Cabinet members had come to realise that the Sage ‘scenario’ graphs were indefensibly misleading. The

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

When it comes to education, Scotland is an example of what not to do

Scots have, in the past, bragged about having the best education system in the world. Scottish sixth-formers study a broader range of subjects and aren’t forced to specialise too early. And look at our history: the literature, the Enlightenment, our universities, all due to world-class schools. But however true this may once have been, it’s hard to make the same claim now. Scottish education is in crisis. Confirmation came this week with the PISA international league tables for school pupils in 81 different countries. Up to 10,000 pupils in each system sit tests in maths, reading and science, and the results are a gold standard in comparing schools. Scotland has