Politics

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

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Tories see red over Gray

Some good news at last for Damian Green. Theresa May’s onetime deputy has had a difficult few weeks what with his unsuccessful selection bid in Ashfield followed by the news that his nemesis Sue Gray is off to run Keir Starmer’s office. But Mr S hears that Green last night had a bit of good luck: the team he captained triumphed at the Tory away day pub quiz, thanks in no small part to the efforts of one Michael Gove.  The brightest minds in the parliamentary party were grilled on subjects from ‘great Conservative election wins’ to ‘great Labour scandals’, ‘Lib Dem failures’ to the ‘zeitgeist tape (for those who’ve

Kevin Toolis

Stormont isn’t worth saving

It is a question all good cardiologists must ask themselves every day: when do you stop trying to resuscitate the patient on the operating table? The same question could be asked of Stormont, Northern Ireland’s ever crisis ridden legislature: when do we stop bothering? In the latest round of life-saving treatment, His Majesty the King, Rishi Sunak and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen assembled at Windsor to proclaim a new dawn and the remaking of the Northern Ireland Protocol. And, hopefully, another end to the latest Stormont boycott. The deal unveiled this week will, we’re told, ensure the uninterrupted flow of Scottish seed potatoes and Asda sausages to

Steerpike Steerpike

Five things we’ve learned on day three of Hancock’s lockdown files

Ping! It’s day three of the ‘Lockdown Files’ and a whole new tranche of former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s WhastApp messages has just landed. Mr Steerpike has taken a look at what the Telegraph released last night: A worried Hancock told Cabinet Secretary Simon Case that the police needed to get a grip on mandating lockdown restrictions. Somewhat concerningly, the head of the civil service asked Hancock ‘who actually is delivering enforcement?’  In an attempt at humour, the Cabinet Secretary said he found imagining ‘the faces of people coming out of first class and into a Premier Inn shoe box’ funny. Hancock said they were ‘giving big families all the suites and

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What next for women in tech?

30 min listen

Women make up half of the workforce in the UK. Yet when it comes to high-skilled, high-income jobs in tech, just 26 per cent of the workforce are women and 77 per cent of tech leaders are men. Jobs in tech filter into almost every sector and women from all walks of life are discovering they don’t need a maths or tech background to retrain and reinvent themselves. Over the last five years the UK’s tech sector has seen massive proliferation and investment, but given this level of growth, where are all the women? The government’s approach to bridging the gap has focused on teaching in schools. While evidently, the

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

How long can Simon Case cling on?

It’s not been a great day for the Civil Service. First it’s announced that Partygate prober Sue Gray has been offered the role of Chief of Staff for the Leader of the Opposition. And now the Telegraph has released WhatsApps that show Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, mocking those affected by the government’s lockdown policies. Talk about classy, eh? As Britain began a forced quarantine for returning holidaymakers in February 2021, Case messaged Matt Hancock to ask ‘Any idea how many people we locked up in hotels yesterday?’ After the Health Secretary replied ‘None but 149 chose to enter the country and are now in quarantine hotels due to their

John McTernan

Hiring Sue Gray is a shrewd move by Keir Starmer

Offering Sue Gray a job as his chief of staff is one of the most consequential decisions Keir Starmer is ever going to make in his political career. For a senior politician, your chief, together with your communications director, and your campaign director, are force multipliers. They represent you in meetings and briefings you can’t attend, know your mind, report your views and relay – and enforce – your decisions. Importantly, they can tell others what you think and want – thus releasing valuable time. It is an intense relationship, but one that can last for an entire administration: consider that the two senior figures who were with Tony Blair

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Why is an Israeli politician calling for a village to be ‘wiped out’?

‘I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it.’  I have read those words and read them again – and again. I have checked various news sources to be sure there was no error in translation or transcription. I have tried to parse the words to construe a meaning other than the one I know in my gut to be true. But it won’t work. The words mean what they say. They are a call for ethnic cleansing.  The words were spoken by Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and leader of Tkuma, a religious nationalist party of the far

Natasha Feroze

Does Boris have a point on the Protocol?

17 min listen

Boris Johnson delivered his first speech since leaving No.10 and told the audience he would not be able to back Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal. Although the Windsor Framework has largely received a lukewarm reception, does Boris have a point? Also on the podcast, Sue Gray has just resigned from the civil service to become Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. What could this mean politically for both parties? Natasha Feroze speaks to Katy Balls and Sam Lowe, partner at Flint.

Steerpike Steerpike

Trans row rocks Guardian towers, again

Oh dear. It seems that life in the offices of the world’s wokest paper isn’t all its cracked up to be. For the Guardian’s sister paper – with which it shares an office – has been accused of ‘institutionalised transphobia’ by a disgruntled former writer. James Wong, the Observer’s garden columnist departed last week with a parting shot at his onetime employer. He wrote on Instagram that he left after being reprimanded by an editor for publicly criticising one of his paper’s articles about trans rights: After formally complaining about an article that likened politicians who support trans rights to alleged sex traffickers, the editor ignored my complaint and reprimanded me

Steerpike Steerpike

Is Sue Gray really a coup for Keir?

Well, there we are then. Less than 24 hours after reports emerged that Sue Gray could be Keir Starmer’s next chief of staff, the lady herself has confirmed the story by resigning from the civil service. The Partygate investigator will however have to wait at least three months before she can start working for Labour, as per government guidelines. And, deliciously, she will also have to get final approval from, er, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Will he hold the process up? Timings aside, it seems it is a fairly extraordinary decision for a senior civil servant to make. How, frankly, are ministers expected to trust their mandarins if they

William Moore William Moore

Is Putin winning?

37 min listen

This week: Is Putin winning? In his cover piece for the magazine, historian and author Peter Frankopan says that Russia is reshaping the world in its favour by cultivating an anti-Western alliance of nations. He is joined by Ukrainian journalist – and author of The Spectator’s Ukraine In Focus newsletter – Svitlana Morenets, to discuss whether this could tip the balance of the war (01:08). Also this week: The Spectator’s assistant online foreign editor Max Jeffery writes a letter from Abu Dhabi, after he visited the International Defence Exhibition. He is joined by author and former member of the ANC Andrew Feinstein, to uncover the covert world of the international arms trade and

James Kirkup James Kirkup

At least Gavin Williamson tried to keep schools open during Covid

Governing means accepting and embracing trade-offs. Almost every public policy choice involves deciding how important one set of people are, or how to balance their interests with others. Covid mitigation measures were a case study in government-as-trade-off. Time and again, ministers had to weigh up public health, NHS capacity, economic and fiscal costs, human freedom and countless other factors. Covid choices were especially stark because they very visibly involved the sickness and death of some of those people. Choices were made to prioritise several interests ahead of those of children. None of those choices were easy or simple and you shouldn’t take seriously anyone who says they were. You should

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson criticises Sunak’s Northern Ireland deal

Boris Johnson has made his first comments on Rishi Sunak’s protocol deal. In a speech at the Global Soft Power Summit in the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, the former prime minister has criticised the agreement – titled the ‘Windsor framework’ – saying he will find it ‘difficult’ to vote for it. Johnson said he had ‘mixed feelings’ about the deal, saying the original Protocol arrangement was ‘all my fault’ but querying whether Sunak’s new deal is all he claims it to be. Johnson’s intervention could lead to others such as fellow former prime minister Liz Truss speaking out Johnson said it was not the UK taking back control: ‘I’m conscious

Jawad Iqbal

The trouble with ‘microaggressions’

Welcome to the divisive and somewhat sinister world of racial ‘microaggressions’. Loosely defined as ‘a subtle slight or action that leaves people from a minority group feeling upset, offended or uncomfortable,’ the person who has delivered the insult might even be oblivious they have caused offence. The latest manifestation of its chilling effect on workplace relationships came in an employment tribunal case brought by Christabelle Peters, a black British academic.  Peters, a lecturer in American cultural and political history, sued Bristol University over a series of microaggressions. One of her complaints was that the nameplate on her door did not have her ‘Dr” title on it. Her grievances included claims

Steerpike Steerpike

Another day, another SNP controversy

No wonder they didn’t want to let cameras in at last night’s hustings. Not a day goes by it seems without a leading SNP politician embarrassing themselves in one forum or another. Today’s hapless half-wit is MP John Nicolson, who has found himself accused of racism after tweeting a video shortly before appearing on the BBC’s Debate Night. Preparing to go on air, the member for Ochil and South Perthshire tried his hand at social media influencing, giving his very own ill-thought make up tutorial in the green room. Addressing the camera in the video captioned ‘Politicians that do their own makeup tend to “tandoori” themselves’, Nicolson declared: ‘Now I

Lucy Dunn

Are Sturgeon’s successors making the same errors?

Independence was the main focus at the first hustings of the SNP leadership race last night. Humza Yousaf called for a slower route to separation. Ash Regan clarified the workings of her ‘voter empowerment mechanism’. But Kate Forbes unveiled a more radical approach: announcing she would fight for another independence referendum within three months of the 2024 general election. ‘For too many years, we’ve become the party of referendums,’ Forbes said, ‘rather than the party of independence.’ But, in an apparent contradiction, she then pledged to ‘fight for the right’ to hold an independence vote within three months of the next general election. When pressed later, she confirmed that her

Debbie Hayton

Humza Yousaf’s gender muddle

The SNP’s ill-fated gender reforms shaped Nicola Sturgeon’s last days as First Minister, but if Humza Yousaf has learned from the experience, he is not showing it. The SNP’s crown prince – or perhaps clown prince – is tying himself in knots over the sex of a double rapist who has just been sentenced to eight years. ‘Is Isla Bryson a man or a woman?’ Sky News asked him. You would think any serious contender for the top job in the Scottish government would have prepared a convincing response to such a predictable question. Not Yousaf; the best he could come up with was that Isla Bryson was ‘at it’.

Steerpike Steerpike

Tories gear up for away day jolly

After two years of planning, Tory MPs are finally having their long-awaited away day today. Rishi Sunak and the whizz kids at CCHQ have booked a fleet of buses to whisk the members of his parliamentary party away to Windsor for a 24-hour away day. They’ll be put up in the luxury hotel where Sunak unveiled his ‘Windsor framework’, with even Boris Johnson reportedly set to attend. Talk about happy families eh… On the agenda for today is an exciting range of talks, breakout sessions and even a jolly old pub quiz. Chats on political strategy and beating the Lib Dems are planned alongside sessions on ‘demonstrating delivery to your

Andrew McQuillan

Rishi Sunak’s Protocol could tear the DUP apart

Will the Windsor Framework prove the undoing of Jeffrey Donaldson and the DUP? The mood music amongst some of the louder elements of this fractious political tribe points to trouble ahead.  The premature champagne corks released in London and Brussels earlier this week were greeted with stony silence in the unionist heartlands. The party’s public position – and that of its leader – is that it is still chewing through the document. Though Donaldson did not issue an outright no, he did say some issues remained with what had been agreed by the UK and EU.  However, the pressure on Donaldson to respond in the negative has been cranked up

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The public have a right to know about the lockdown files

Having read thousands of Matt Hancock’s messages, I can see why he doesn’t want this discussions to become public. It’s embarrassingly clear that no one on that WhatsApp thread ever thought they’d be scrutinised by the rest of the cabinet, let alone parliament, let alone the rest of the country. They had all thought the official Covid inquiry would serve as a device of cover-up, kicking this all into the long grass at least until after the general election. Hancock says Isabel Oakeshott abused his trust by taking the material he gave her to ghostwrite his diary and putting it into the public domain. I have no idea what the