Politics

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

Tuesday

13 Jun 2023

Andrew Bailey’s evidence session was the opposite of reassuring

‘There are obviously lessons to be learned,’ said Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey at today’s House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. It was a point he repeated many times over, in reference to the inflation crisis that has plagued Britain for close to two years now. ‘We have to learn lessons from the experiences we’ve had, of course we must… We have to work out what those lessons are.’ But despite repeating this sentiment over and over again, Bailey could not meaningfully come up with one good example of such a lesson, nor could he go into much detail on the mistakes the Monetary Policy Committee has made over the

Melanie McDonagh

Carla Foster’s case isn’t a miscarriage of justice

What’s the difference between infanticide and an abortion at eight months’ gestation? This is one of the difficult questions thrown up by the grim case of Carla Foster, the mother who’s been jailed for 28 months (in practice, it’ll be half that) for inducing an abortion outside the legal limit using pills at home. Her foetus – or baby, as most of us would say – was 32 to 34 weeks old. That’s way past the stage of development where neonates who are wanted can survive. The judge’s summing up was, in this case, lapidary. Justice Edward Pepperall makes clear that the evidence shows that Foster knew she was far

Steerpike

SNP send flowers to Nicola Sturgeon ‘as a mark of sympathy’

‘Bizarre’ is a high bar in Scottish politics these days, but the SNP has comfortably cleared it once again. The party’s deputy leader Keith Brown revealed Nationalist MSPs have agreed to ‘send some flowers’ to Nicola Sturgeon ‘as a mark of sympathy, given what she has been through over recent days’. Sturgeon was arrested on Sunday by police investigating allegations of financial misconduct. She was released without charge after seven hours. Her husband, and former SNP chief executive, Peter Murrell and the party’s ex-treasurer Colin Beattie were previously arrested and similarly released without charge. The bouquet is a nice gesture from the SNP group, but Mr Steerpike wonders what they’re going

Joanna Williams

Carla Foster’s fate shows the need to reform Britain’s abortion laws

Carla Foster spent last night in a prison cell. In 2020, after having obtained abortion pills under false pretences, the 44-year-old mother of three terminated her pregnancy at between 32 and 34 weeks gestation. This week, she was found guilty under section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 for administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion. She has been sentenced to two years in prison. Foster’s imprisonment has sparked shock and anger among commentators, campaigners and politicians. ‘There is a mechanism the government can use to show mercy to women convicted today for having an abortion – it’s a royal prerogative and was last used in

James Heale

Are ‘sinister forces’ conspiring against Nadine Dorries?

12 min listen

Nadine Dorries has hit out on various platforms saying that ‘sinister forces’ stopped her from receiving her peerage, as promised to her by former prime minister Boris Johnson. This has been met by a strong rebuke from Number 10, but do Boris and Dorries have grounds to feel aggrieved? Also on the podcast, tomorrow we will learn the Privileges Committee’s findings on whether Boris Johnson knowingly misled the House. What should we expect? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Paul Goodman, editor of Conservative Home. Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson.

Ross Clark

Don’t get too excited about deglobalisation

One difference between the rivalry with China and the cold war is that the Soviet Union was completely economically segregated from the western world. That is not the case with China nowadays: cheap goods have flooded western markets for decades. But are we heading back to the multipolar world of the 20th century? China and the West are out of step in terms of monetary policy. China’s central bank actually moved to reduce interest rates this morning, after stronger-than-expected data on wages. A short-term lending rate was cut from 2 per cent to 1.9 percent. How come? Because inflation in China is beginning to go into reverse as its economy

Lucy Dunn

Why junior doctors in Scotland voted to strike

Junior doctors in Scotland will strike for three days in July after rejecting the Scottish government’s pay offer. Two thirds of eligible junior doctors turned out to vote on the pay deal, and 71 per cent rejected the offer. The 72-hour strike will take place from 7am on Wednesday 12 July to 6.59am on Saturday 15 July unless, the doctors’ union says, ‘an improved offer that the BMA believes it could credibly put to members’ is made by the Scottish government. Last month, Scotland’s junior doctors were offered a 6.5 per cent pay rise for this coming year. It was described as a 14.5 per cent pay increase by the

Stephen Daisley

What good will locking up Carla Foster do?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, a 44-year-old woman, Carla Foster, unlawfully aborted her unborn baby. She procured the necessary drugs from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) by leading them to believe her pregnancy was just over seven weeks in. In fact, she understood herself to be either 28 or 30 weeks in gestation. A post-mortem on her otherwise healthy baby girl, Lily, indicated the pregnancy was somewhere between 32 and 34 weeks. The Abortion Act 1967, as amended in 1990, sets 24 weeks as the upper time limit for lawfully obtaining an abortion in Great Britain, with exceptions where the woman is at risk of death or significant harm, or

Steerpike

Boris Johnson: ‘I’ll be back’

Boris Johnson formally resigned as an MP yesterday – but don’t expect theformer PM to throw in the towel any time soon. After a pretty unedifying slanging match with Rishi Sunak in the press about his resignation honours’ list, Johnson stepped down from his role as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. But, Boris wasn’t quite done torpedoing Sunak’s desperate efforts to preserve the fragile Tory peace since becoming leader last Autumn. Speaking to the Express last night, Boris couldn’t resist taking yet another swipe at the current No. 10 operation. He thanked readers for their ongoing support and declared: ‘We must fully deliver on Brexit and on the 2019 manifesto. We must smash Labour at the next election. Nothing less than absolute victory and total Brexit will

Damien Phillips

Putin’s anti-western oil alliance is coming unstuck

As Russia frantically attempts to hold on to its territorial gains in the face of the much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, there are early signs that it is also failing to retain its diplomatic and foreign policy advances. The anti-Western energy alliances it had constructed around the world with many of the leading oil and gas producers, which had endured despite the invasion, are beginning to fracture. Its attempts to shutdown competitors to Russian oil and gas have proved futile. It all went wrong so quickly for Russia. Back in 2016, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) expanded to include Russia as part of OPEC+. The deal, painstakingly brokered by Saudi

Gavin Mortimer

Berlusconi was the first leader to glimpse the looming migrant crisis

Silvio Berlusconi should be remembered for more than just his passion for football and sex. He was the first European leader this century to identity illegal immigration as an existential threat to the stability and cohesion of the continent. Ironically, the former Italian prime minister’s infamous ‘Bunga-Bunga’ parties reportedly owed their name to a joke once told to Berlusconi by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, a man who was also acutely aware of Europe’s vulnerability. The two leaders were close, a friendship that became politically important when Berlusconi was re-elected PM in April 2008. A significant factor in his victory was illegal immigration from Africa, which had been steadily rising since the

Andrew Tettenborn

Sunak must resist the bid to sink the ‘stop the boats’ bill

Parliamentary select committees can, on occasion, be wise, impartial and dispassionate. Unfortunately they are also vulnerable to being taken over by an unholy combination of those with an axe to grind, and members of the great and the good unwilling to rock the liberal boat. This is essentially what has happened to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (or JCHR). Its report on the Illegal Migration Bill, published over the weekend, is a case in point. The ‘Stop the Boats Bill’ aims to make it more difficult for irregular migrants to cross the Channel and then use judicial review and human rights laws as a means of presenting the UK with a fait

Steerpike

Privileges Committee prepares for Johnson judgement

Get ready for another 48 hours of Boris drama. The Privileges Committee is expected to publish its findings tomorrow into whether Johnson knowingly misled the House, some 14 months after the Commons voted for an inquiry into his statements on Partygate. The former PM claimed that he was advised by senior officials that both Covid rules and guidance had been complied with at all times in No. 10 during the pandemic. But according to the Times, the seven-strong panel of MPs has concluded that staff did not in fact advise this, despite his repeated insistences in the Commons. Whoops… In fact, Martin Reynolds – Johnson’s infamous Private Secretary of BYOB ‘party Marty’ fame

Monday

12 Jun 2023

Iain Macwhirter

Should Nicola Sturgeon be suspended from the SNP?

Despite calls for Sturgeon to be suspended from the party, Humza Yousaf has said today that he will not do so, telling BBC Scotland that he sees ‘no reason’ to suspend a party member who has been released without charge. Not all SNP politicians agree with him, though. Angus MacNeil, the MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, tweeted yesterday: ‘This soap opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less! Time for political distance until the investigation ends either way.’ Michelle Thomson, the SNP MSP who was suspended herself despite never being under police investigation, has called on Sturgeon to ensure her

Boris Ryvkin

Could a backdoor deal end the Ukraine war?

As the second world war entered its final months, Anglo-American forces advanced into Nazi Germany to finish off Hitler’s Reich. In the East, the Red Army attacked up the Danube toward Vienna. Meanwhile, at the Yalta conference in February 1945, Stalin moved to cement his post-war political control over Eastern and central Europe. Germany’s defeat was imminent, but western leaders began to worry about how much Stalin’s forces would seize before the final surrender. As Russia continues to endure heavy casualties in Ukraine, we’re in a similar predicament today. The war shows no signs of ending any time soon – and casualties continue to mount on both sides. But might

Nigel Jones

Italian politics will be duller without Silvio Berlusconi

There’s an irony in the timing of Silvio Berlusconi’s death at the age of 86, coming on the same weekend that saw the (at least temporary) exit from politics of Boris Johnson. For in many respects, the Cavaliere (‘Knight’) as he was universally known in Italy, was an even more flamboyant role model for our former prime minister. Berlusconi, who led four Italian governments, blurred the lines between showbusiness and politics until they became all but invisible – in much the same way Boris Johnson has in Britain. True, Boris may not yet be as wealthy as the billionaire Berlusconi, who was Italy’s third richest man. Boris’s short reign at the

Steerpike

Flashback: six badly-aged reactions to Sturgeon’s resignation

Cast your minds back, to a simpler time. It was many moons ago in, er, February of this year, back when the blessed Nicola resigned as First Minister of Scotland. Back then, she was hailed by self-regarding sensibles across the land: a decent, rational progressive who got Covid right (even though England and Scotland’s death rates were near-identical). Sturgeon was the LGBT ally brought down over trans rights; the well-meaning liberal who led a better class of government than wicked Boris Johnson and his bunch of venal Tories. Below are six badly-aged reactions to Sturgeon’s resignation which best capture that long-forgotten time in British politics… Ian Blackford – SNP MP

Steerpike

Final three drawn up by Tories for London mayoral clash

Sound the trumpets! Get out the pitchforks! CCHQ is – allegedly – at it again! There is a great hue and cry this morning from London Tories at the final shortlist of names to run for City Hall. Members must pick from one of Daniel Korski, Susan Hall AM and Mozammel Hossain KC to be their next mayoral candidate. This after neither of the two widely-tipped frontrunners – Paul Scully MP and Samuel Lasumu – made the final list, amid accusations that CCHQ blocked one or both men. What exactly is going on? Kasumu, a former aide to Boris Johnson, posted a statement on Saturday claiming ‘for a number of

Cindy Yu

Sunak comes out fighting over Boris honours row

12 min listen

This morning Rishi Sunak has delivered a direct rebuke of Boris Johnson over the resignation honours row, during an interview at London Tech Week. Is this the Prime Minister going into fighting mode? Do his comments go some way towards heading off a Johnson-led rebellion? Also on the podcast, Nicola Sturgeon was released from custody yesterday evening after seven hours of questioning. What’s the latest? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale. Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson.

Stephen Daisley

Will Scots forgive the SNP and Sturgeon for the party’s legal troubles?

Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest by police investigating the SNP’s finances would seem to be a gift to her opponents and those of her party. Labour, in particular, saw the weekend begin with the resignation of Boris Johnson, the man who drubbed them so thoroughly in 2019, and ended with police questioning the woman who seized almost all their Scottish seats in 2015. Sir Keir Starmer is certainly having a remarkable streak of good fortune, though mostly because his rivals are seemingly bent on electoral self-destruction. Even so, it is unclear whether the woes beleaguering the Scots Nats will lead them into a similar political death spiral as that engulfing the Conservatives.