Politics

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

Friday

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

The truth about Boris Johnson’s ‘betrayal’ myth

These are testing times indeed for longstanding members of the ‘Boris Johnson is nothing like Donald Trump’ fraternity. Once again, the British blond bombshell is at the centre of a giant political controversy in lock step with the American one. And once again he seems perfectly happy to make politics all about himself. As a longtime Brexiteer, I am one of those who will always be grateful to Johnson for the courage, vision and single-mindedness he showed in getting Brexit over the line following its attempted betrayal by Theresa May and hundreds of MPs in the ‘rotten parliament’ of 2017-19. Boris recognised that British democracy was in very great trouble. He

Coffee House

MPs react to Boris’s resignation

Boris Johnson has announced that he is resigning from Parliament ‘at least for now’, after the Privileges Committee recommended his suspension as an MP for ten days. The Committee had been investigating whether the former PM misled the Commons about parties in Downing Street. Now that he has stepped down, Boris will trigger a by-election in his Uxbridge constituency. Here’s how MPs have reacted so far: Priti Patel, former Home Secretary: ‘Boris Johnson has served our country and his constituency with distinction. He led world in supporting Ukraine, got Brexit done, and was our most electorally successful Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher. Boris is a political titan whose legacy will stand

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is it really over for Boris Johnson?

It’s Boris day in Westminster. First, the publication of his resignations honours list and now a resignation from the man himself. This evening Boris Johnson has released a statement announcing that he has ‘today written to my Association in Uxbridge and South Ruislip to say that I am stepping down forthwith and triggering an immediate by-election’. Johnson adds that he is ‘very sorry’ to leave the ‘wonderful constituency’. His decision comes after he was passed a draft report of the Privileges Committee, which is understood to recommend a suspension of more than ten days: the length that could spark a by-election. Referencing the findings of the report, Johnson says he

Boris Johnson

Why I quit parliament

I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament. They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons. They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister. They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister -including the current

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson quits parliament

Boris Johnson has announced he will be standing down from parliament with immediate effect, after the Privileges Committee recommended a ten-day suspension for his conduct over partygate.  There will be a by-election in his constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Johnson will not contest his seat. In his resignation letter, the former prime minister attacks the committee, saying it has made clear to him in a letter ‘that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament’. He insists that ‘they have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons’, and that ‘they know perfectly well’ that he

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Is Boris’s honours list a lesson in cronyism?

11 min listen

Boris Johnson has published his resignation honours list, proposing a number of supporters, long time loyalists and even young staffers to be given peerages and honours. But is this an abuse of a system which should, instead, be about rewarding people for their public service? Cindy Yu talks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson’s honours list is a loyalty test

Finally the day has come. After countless reports over the contents of Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, the names are out. The Prime Minister has approved Johnson’s list. It includes a peerage for former No. 10 special adviser Charlotte Owen, who at 29 will become the youngest ever life peer. There are also knighthoods for Simon Clarke and former Tory chairman Ben Elliot. This is a slimmed down version of the original list – reported to include Johnson’s father Stanley – which officials advised the former prime minister to trim after it came in at nearly 100 names. It is still not without controversy. The sitting MPs – Nigel Adams,

Coffee House

Full list: Boris Johnson’s resignation honours

Nine months after Boris Johnson left Downing Street, his list of resignation honours has today finally been finally published. Here is the full list of those who have received honours: Order of the Companions of Honour. Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Sir William Nigel Paul CashChair of the European Scrutiny Committee. For political and public service. Order of the British Empire Dames. Commander of the Order of the British Empire Andrea Marie Jenkyns MPFormer assistant whip and Minister for Skills. For political and public service The Right Honourable Amanda Anne Milling MPFormer Minister without Portfolio. For political and public service. The Right Honourable Priti Patel MPFormer

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The betrayal of Annecy

The Green mayor of Annecy, François Astorg, declared a fortnight ago that his town in the south-east of France was ‘a land of resistance against fascism, a land of solidarity, a refugee town for those fleeing war, misery and the unhappiness in the world’.   On Thursday, Astorg, expressed his ‘immense sadness’ and his ‘anger’ hours after a Syrian refugee ran amok in a park in Annecy, stabbing six people including four toddlers. ‘It’s the first time this has happened in Annecy,’ declared Astorg. ‘It’s unacceptable’.   The mayor has said that there will be a rally to bring the town together; the cynic is entitled to ask ‘what is the point?’ No

Steerpike Steerpike

Nadine Dorries does Rishi Sunak one final favour

There has never been any love lost between Nadine Dorries and Rishi Sunak. The former holds the latter responsible for bringing down Boris Johnson and has made her feelings clear in multiple angry tweets. During last summer’s leadership race, she attacked him for his expensive clothes and shoes; she complained that his premiership had seen Johnson’s legacy washed ‘down the drain.’ And today Dorries has given Sunak one last leaving present: announcing her intention to immediately quit the Commons and trigger a by-election in her safe seat of Mid-Bedfordshire. In 2019, the Tories won here with a majority of 24,000. But Labour are currently 15 points ahead in the polls

Andrew Liddle

Ed Miliband’s green policies could cost Labour the next election

Almost a decade on from Scottish Labour’s 2015 general election wipe out, a spectre is once again haunting the party in Scotland – the spectre of Ed Miliband. Apparently not content with his role in leading the party to near oblivion in Scotland eight years ago, the shadow secretary of state for climate change and net zero is now determined to stifle its recovery as well. Miliband’s latest manoeuvres began more than a week ago, when he engineered an announcement that a future Labour government would not grant any new licences for oil and gas production in the North Sea. The announcement caused consternation not just from the industry itself,

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Rowing back on his climate plan, Starmer is in it to win it

Over almost 30 years in and around Westminster, I’ve noted some persistent and essential differences in the culture and mindset of our two big political parties. Tories generally want to win elections, and are prepared to subordinate pretty much all else to that objective. How else to explain their regular mutation into a new form of political life every few years? Today’s hybrid with a right-populist body and a technocrat-centrist head is just the latest example. Labour, by contrast, always has an ambivalent attitude to winning. Buried in the party’s soul is the fear that winning means compromising on principles, and is therefore to be avoided. How else to explain those

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s donations are drying up

Given declining membership, internal divisions and the failure to deliver a referendum, it’s hardly surprising that the coffers of the Scottish National party appear to be emptying rather rapidly. The Electoral Commisson records that the SNP received only £4,000 in donations in the first quarter of 2023, down from over £90,000 in the same period last year. The Scottish Labour party raised £100,000 in those months — as did the Scottish LibDems. The last time a living person made a reportable donation to the party was in 2021. The SNP has always relied disproportionately on individual donations rather than corporate money from business or wealthy trade unions. That £4,000 came

Steerpike Steerpike

Carole Cadwalladr loses, yet again

What happens when you lose in court? Lose, lose and lose again. Carole Cadwalladr has today suffered yet another setback in her never-ending war against Brexit ‘bad boy’ Arron Banks. The Court of Appeal has denied the Observer journalist’s request to appeal her most recent libel loss to the Supreme Court. In its decision the court said an appeal to the UK’s top court is only granted in cases which raise ‘an arguable point of law of general public importance.’ Unfortunately for Carole, ‘this decision does not do so.’ Cadwalladr wasn’t challenging the fact that Banks was successful overall or that English costs law had been properly applied. Indeed as

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Will the tax burden finally start falling?

Is the government ready to start cutting taxes? After taking the burden to a post-war high, it seems ministers are preparing to change direction – in one area, anyway. This morning Jeremy Hunt announced that the energy levy on oil and gas companies, known as the ‘windfall tax’, will come to an end in 2028 – a direct response to growing fears that the effective 75 per cent tax on profits was driving business and investment out of the country. Divestment from the North Sea has become a heavily contested topic. Keir Starmer announced that Labour would ban all new production in the North Sea, perhaps putting into perspective for

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Would Jesus really have joined the Bristol bus boycott?

St Mary Redcliffe church, in Bristol, has removed four stained-glass windows dedicated to the slave trader Edward Colston, he whose statue was recently toppled and sunk. So far, so good. It is set to replace them with four new images of Jesus. Sort of. Most of them are not exactly images of Jesus, but modern scenes in which he is present, identified by a halo. In one, he is a child on an overloaded migrant dinghy. In another, he is hanging out in Bristol with some multicultural neighbours. In another, he is joining a racial justice protest – Bristol’s famous 1963 bus boycott. The fourth is more traditional: he is

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Rachel Reeves backtracks over Labour’s £28bn climate plan

Rachel Reeves has just rowed back on a flagship Labour policy. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, the shadow chancellor watered down her earlier pledge to spend £28 billion a year on climate investment ‘for each and every year of this decade’ – Labour’s version of Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Explaining her decision to delay the spending, Reeves insisted that a Labour government would still hit the figure eventually. Reeves promised to ‘ramp up’ the investment over time to reach a total of £28 billion a year in the second half of the parliament at the latest. So, what’s behind the change of approach? It comes after the policy

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

What happened to Kim Darroch?

34 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Steve Edginton, video comment editor at the Telegraph and host of the Off Script podcast to discuss curious case of Sir Kim Darroch. A former civil servant has accused the government of an attempt to cover up “crimes” by the former British ambassador to the US, who he claims leaked intelligence to his lover. What has this done to the Anglo-American relations on the week Rishi Sunak visited Washington? 

Matthew Lynn

Sunak has hitched a ride on Biden’s climate gravy train

Sometimes it helps to have a banker as Prime Minister. They have plenty of faults. They can be dry, calculating, and they are typically far too rich to connect with ordinary people. But if they have one thing going for them it is this: they can spot free money when they see it. And Rishi Sunk has seized a chance for the UK to take a percentage of the unlimited cash that President Biden is spraying at American industry.  Hundreds of billions in corporate bungs are available, and because it is all in tax credits there is hardly any oversight Most people will dismiss the Atlantic Declaration that Sunak negotiated

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

America is trapped in Trump legal groundhog day

Insanity, they say, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If that’s true, then what the American justice system is doing to Donald Trump is barking mad.  Yes, he’s been indicted, again – on seven federal criminal charges. It’s all unprecedented, again – he’s the first president ever to face, blah, blah, blah. We’re all familiar with the ‘Trump facing…’ news loop by now. America is stuck in Trump legal groundhog day — he’s remorselessly prosecuted, over and over, on so many fronts. He always responds the same way, protesting his INNOCENCE in capital letters on Truth Social, saying he can’t believe this is happening