Politics

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

Wednesday

Tim Stanley

The Conservatives know they are beat

The mood at the Tory conference is grim to funereal, and for good reason. They know they’re beat. There’s a sense that something has changed in British politics and we ain’t going back. Labour is revived; the Tories are divided and unpopular. But it’s about more than just a 45p tax cut, which was a bad idea, or the U-turn, which was suicidal (if a centre-Right government can’t pass a tax cut with an 80-seat majority, it’s dead in the water). The reality is that Britain doesn’t want what the Conservative party is now selling. Their economic message is actually sound; it’s infuriating that they can’t seem to articulate it.

Steerpike Steerpike

James Cleverly blames the media for 45p tax cut U-turn

Conservative party conference has turned out to be a great opportunity – for Tory MPs and ministers alike to point the finger that is. Since Monday morning, the biggest blame game doing the rounds in Birmingham has been over who is responsible for Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s embarrassing climb-down to reverse the cut to the 45p income tax rate. This morning Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has thrown another name into the mix: ’twas, in fact, the media what done it. Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News, he said: ‘You guys were constantly talking about the 45p tax rate which is why we had to take it away.’ Clearly surprised Kay fired back:

Tuesday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

What did Kwarteng say to the free market think tanks?

When Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng entered Downing Street, laser focus was not only applied to them, but also to the free market think tanks they had worked with over the years. This evening, Kwarteng paid a visit to two of them, as the Institute of Economic Affairs and The Taxpayers’ Alliance hosted the Chancellor at Conservative party conference for one-on-one conversations. Similar to his speech yesterday, Kwarteng used the opportunity to try to take some heat out of his mini-Budget. When asked if market reaction was part of the Treasury orthodoxy he and Truss had been taking aim against for weeks, he shook his head and pointed to the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The message behind Liz Truss’s conference speech

What does Liz Truss need to say in her first leader’s speech at Conservative party conference? Faced with a restive party, economic turmoil and a feuding cabinet, MPs are already asking questions about how long she will last as Prime Minister. Rather than prove a celebratory moment, Truss’s first party conference as leader has been dominated by her Budget U-turn on the 45p tax rate and the threat of more rebellions to come, including on benefits (see The Spectator‘s rolling list here). The hope among her team is that the leader’s speech will offer Truss a chance to reassure her supporters The hope among her team is that the leader’s

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Scrapping inheritance tax is a terrible idea

There is no hole deep enough that a Conservative minister cannot muster the spadework to excavate it to even greater depths. No sooner had Kwasi Kwarteng announced that he was dropping his proposed reduction in the upper rate of income tax, than Andrew Griffith, one of his ministers at the Treasury, declared that he would like to see inheritance tax abolished. ‘I have lots of my fantastic local association [members] with me here and they will know because they asked me at my selection meeting 27 months ago which tax, if I had the choice, I would most like to see eliminated. History will record it was inheritance tax, ’he

Edward Howell

Why did North Korea fire a missile over Japan?

It was a new dawn, a new day, and a new North Korean missile test. The land of the morning calm – as South Korea is affectionately-nicknamed – awoke to the launch of the fifth North Korean ballistic missile in ten days. Over the past ten months, the international community has become accustomed to a growing number of North Korean missile launches, of an increasingly diverse range of missiles. Kim Jong-un’s determination for North Korea to become a nuclear state, and be recognised as such is only heightening. Russia and China are now more reticent than ever to side with the West and support sanctions on North Korea Last night’s

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Suella Braverman blasts Tory MPs over tax cut U-turn

Are we heading for a U-turn on the U-turn over the scrapping of the 45p tax rate? Liz Truss has said she would still like the top rate on high earners to come down, despite reversing on the policy just yesterday. Members of her cabinet agree she should bring it back: Suella Braverman has blasted Tory MPs for forcing the PM to ditch the tax cut. The Home Secretary said:  ‘I’m very disappointed that members of our own parliamentary party staged a coup effectively and undermined the authority of the Prime Minister.’  Could the 45p tax cut really make a comeback? Levelling-up secretary Simon Clarke endorsed Braverman’s comments on Twitter, commenting that ‘Suella speaks a lot

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Iain Duncan Smith joins the benefits rebels

Iain Duncan Smith is the latest senior Tory to speak out against cutting benefits by not uprating them in line with inflation. The former work and pensions secretary and party leader told a ConservativeHome fringe on Universal Credit this morning that he thought it was a ‘peculiar debate’ to be having, adding:  Almost certainly there would have to be a vote [on changing the benefits calculations] because it’s automatic. And therefore if you freeze it or change it, then that will be changing the system. My personal view is I don’t see what will be gained by it. But I do see what will be gained by making sure that they

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is Truss facing another rebellion?

11 min listen

Liz Truss is coming under pressure over another of her policies. Should she increase benefits payments in line with inflation, or in line with earnings, as she would prefer? Will the PM change her mind again? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth. Produced by Max Jeffery.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Why Penny Mordaunt’s pre-rebellion matters

Another day, another Tory rebellion. Liz Truss needs to think of ways to constrain spending and tough decisions lie ahead. One option is to increase benefits in line with average salaries (6.2 per cent), rather than CPI inflation (9.9 per cent). Her aides are preparing the argument. Why should someone on welfare see their income rise faster than someone in work? And with public sector wages rising at just 2 per cent, can government really give a near-10 per cent rise to those on benefits – while saying that there’s not enough money to do the same for nurses, teachers etc? Those around the PM think that, unlike the 45p

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Liz Truss walks into another row

With a wearying inevitability, Liz Truss has gone from one row to another. One of her own cabinet ministers, Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt, has warned her against cutting benefits. She told Times Radio:  ‘I’ve always supported – whether it’s pensions, whether it’s our welfare system – keeping pace with inflation. It makes sense to do so. That’s what I voted for before.’  In the parties and bars in Birmingham last night, the 45p reversal hadn’t really calmed Tory nerves This is the kind of cabinet indiscipline that you’d expect in the weakest and latter days of a premiership, not the first few weeks. Mordaunt joins a growing list of

Steerpike Steerpike

Full list: Tories against the PM’s benefits plan

Another day, another backbench rebellion brewing for Liz Truss. Having U-turned over the 45p tax rate cut following a revolt from Tory MPs, the Prime Minister is once again facing trouble. This time it’s her plan to raise benefits in line with earnings rather than inflation that is going down badly. Below is The Spectator’s running tally of the Tory MPs who have voiced their concerns: 1. Penny Mordaunt: it ‘makes sense’ that welfare should rise in line with inflation (4 Oct, Times Radio interview) 2. Michael Gove: ‘my basic position, my starting position is, yes, Boris was right (that benefits should rise in line with inflation)’ (4 Oct, Times Radio) 3. Damian Green: to

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

Why can’t MPs let Truss be Truss?

Our common culture – the huge audiences that tv, film and pop music used to attract – has evaporated. Politics is about the only thing remaining where we are all on the same page. It’s perhaps inevitable then that public reaction has become ever more febrile and volatile. Poll percentages now go crashing and soaring with a regularity that’s disturbing to those of us who can remember the prelapsarian age when we were the only people who gave a stuff about politics and that we were considered odd because of it. The marked outlandishness of British party politics has been evident since that day in September 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn became

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What does Michael Gove want?

Tory conference has long been more stage-managed than other party meetings, but this year the official speeches from ministers have also been condensed into a very strange late afternoon slot lasting just two hours. The rest of the time is free for fringe meetings and plotting. Ministers and their aides have been told they have to keep their addresses to the hall announcement-lite, which makes those two hours feel largely pointless. Kwasi Kwarteng didn’t announce very much at all, even though his two U-turns have dominated the day’s agenda. This morning, the Chancellor dropped the plan to abolish the 45p rate of tax, and this evening it has emerged that

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

It’s no surprise eco zealots targeted Captain Tom

What drives someone to do something as morally depraved as throw human faeces on a monument to Captain Sir Tom Moore? The video allegedly showing a climate-change campaigner dousing a likeness of Sir Tom, in what was reportedly a mixture of urine and excrement, is deeply chilling.  The person in the video is part of a pressure group called End UK Private Jets. The woman allegedly executed the vile stunt in order to raise awareness about the polluting impact of private jets. Quite how defiling a monument to a national treasure in such an appalling way is going to raise the public’s eco-awareness is anyone’s guess. It’s far more likely

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Are the Tories in the business of managing decline?

11 min listen

Kwasi Kwarteng has just spoken at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham defending his mini-Budget, despite having u-turned on the cut to the 45p tax rate this morning. Will his speech have calmed his fellow Tories and, more importantly, the markets?  Katy Balls speaks with James Forsyth, Kate Andrews and Isabel Hardman.  Produced by Max Jeffery and Oscar Edmondson.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Are the Tories in the business of managing decline?

Kwasi Kwarteng’s speech to Tory conference was an attempt to get his party back behind him after his U-turn on the 45p rate. He acknowledged it a number of times in his address, opening by saying it had been a ‘tough’ day, but insisted that the government needed to keep going. The members in the hall laughed as he referred to ‘a little turbulence’ and insisted that ‘we are listening’. After the U-turn, it was quite audacious to insist the government had an ‘iron commitment’ to anything After the U-turn, it was quite audacious to insist the government had an ‘iron commitment’ to anything, but his commitment today was to

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Everything’s under control, says Kwasi

You could tell Kwasi Kwarteng was aware of his words and tone as he delivered his Conservative party conference speech to a hall full of Tory members this afternoon. It was a delicate set of circumstances, with him having had to U-turn on his plan to abolish the 45p tax rate only this morning. But perhaps more importantly he learned a lesson after the mini-Budget: his words can move markets. And he’d be loathe to push them into freefall again. Kwarteng worked hard to compensate for the total lack of lip-service he had paid to fiscal discipline in his mini-Budget. He praised the UK’s status of having the ‘second lowest

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

74 Years of the NHS: Can its crisis be cured?

30 min listen

As the NHS turns 74, the service has never been under so much strain. The pandemic has created record waiting lists of almost seven million in England alone. Every month, tens of thousands of accident and emergency patients are left to wait for more than 12 hours with ambulances queuing up outside. Other long-term challenges such as an ageing population are coming to a head.  On this podcast, Isabel Hardman, The Spectator’s, assistant editor and her guests take a look back at the history of the NHS to talk about what the service was founded for, and why it is in crisis now. Isabel is joined by a panel of specialists; Alan

Andrew Downie

Bolsonaro isn’t finished yet

São Paulo The polls got it wrong again. In the first round of Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday, challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) got 48.4 per cent of the vote, 5.2 points ahead of the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Polls had predicted a possible first-round win for the insurgent. But – with neither candidate gaining a majority – they will now face a run-off election on 30 October. Bolsonaro hasn’t just flirted with the idea of a coup, he’s wined and dined it Lula has the lead and remains sanguine about victory. But the momentum is with Bolsonaro, the populist former army captain whose chaotic administration has polarised Brazil. Under