Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
14 min listen
Michael Gove this morning said that Liz Truss’s plans to scrap the top 45 per cent tax rate are a ‘display of the wrong values’. It comes as Jake Berry, the Tory party chairman, confirmed that MPs who vote against the budget would lose the Conservative whip. Has Gove just ruined Truss’s conference? James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls. Produced by Max Jeffery.
It’s day one of Tory conference and already the drumbeat of rebellion is filling the air. There was much to digest in last week’s mini-Budget but the measure that has attracted the most attention was the eye-catching plan to cut the top rate of tax from 45p to 40p. This morning Michael Gove attacked the measure on Laura Kuenssberg’s show as a ‘display of the wrong values’ but he’s far from alone in having doubts. Below is the The Spectator’s running tally of the Tory MPs who have gone public and voiced their concerns. James Cartlidge ‘Cutting tax for top earners while reducing benefits in a cost of living crisis
Liz Truss’s supporters had hoped this year’s Conservative party conference would mark a moment of triumph for the new leader. Instead it opened with her arch-nemesis lobbing a hand grenade in her direction. Step forward, Michael Gove. Appearing on a panel on Laura Kuenssberg’s show this morning, Gove voiced his concerns with Truss’s economic plan which has spooked the markets. He criticised ‘the sheer risk of using borrowed money to fund tax cuts’ as well as the the decision to cut the 45p rate for top earners as ‘a display of the wrong values’. When pressed on whether that meant he would not vote for the measures, Gove replied: So,
Liz Truss: ‘We should have laid the ground better’ Liz Truss joined Laura Kuenssberg in Birmingham as the Conservative party conference kicks off. In more ordinary times, a new leader might expect to bask in the warm glow of their recent election. However, there is no doubt that Liz Truss can expect considerable scrutiny this week, not least with the Conservatives now a distant second to Labour in the opinion polls. Unsurprisingly, the government’s mini Budget was at the top of the agenda, and Truss expressed some remorse at how the ambitious financial package had spooked the markets: Truss: I am committed to abolishing the 45p tax rate Truss confirmed she
It’s day one at Tory conference and already tensions are running high. Conservative MPs are coming out to attack Liz Truss’s 45p tax cut, angry activists are muttering about mutiny and the markets are braced for more turmoil tomorrow. So who better than Nadine Dorries to calm the situation? Now relieved of her Cabinet post, the former Culture Secretary has time on her hands and she’s certainly putting that to good use. Alongside an anguished Sunday Times interview today – in which Dorries bemoans the loss of Boris as ‘one of the world’s great leaders’ – the pugilistic parliamentarian has now taken to Twitter to turn her guns on Johnson’s
Liz Truss goes into her first Conservative party conference with the latest Opinium polling giving Labour a 19-point-lead and her own approval ratings down at -37 – worse than Boris Johnson’s in his final days in office. Yet despite this, the new Prime Minister used her first big sit down interview since the fallout from the not-so-mini Budget to insist that she was not for turning. Truss told Laura Kuenssberg that she stands by all the measures announced last Friday – including abolishing the 45p rate of income tax for the highest earners. The furthest Truss would go in accepting that her first fiscal event – which has spooked the markets, voters
It was right of the Prime Minister to acknowledge that the fiscal event (the mini Budget) needs to be revisited. There needs to be a recognition of mistakes. But it’s still the case, on the basis of what the Prime Minister said this morning, that there is an inadequate realisation at the top of government at the scale of change required. So, yes: the energy package was the most important thing in the fiscal event. But 35 per cent of the additional money that we are borrowing is not to cut energy costs; it is for unfunded tax cuts. I’m profoundly concerned about that because there are two major things
After 12 years in Downing Street, four prime ministers (so far), two monarchs, and one mini-budget, the public are starting to drop hints that it’s time for Tories to head home. As Conservative conference kicks off, it’s as good a time as any to take stock: what do the Tories have to show for their many years in office? The truth is that the party’s legacy amounts to little, but it has done one thing well: keeping Labour out of power. This is hardly something to boast about. The 2010 Conservative manifesto opened with the declaration that ‘our economy is overwhelmed by debt’. The public finances would dominate David Cameron’s
Kwasi Kwarteng delivered his mini-Budget one week after the thirtieth anniversary of Black Wednesday, when the markets forcibly ejected sterling from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). There’s one measure that makes recent market turmoil seem modest and even manageable by comparison with Black Wednesday. According to the Bank of England’s database, the pound fell 2.16 per cent against the euro on the day the Chancellor delivered his fiscal statement. By last Thursday, the pound was down only 1.91 per cent against the euro. Black Wednesday and its immediate aftermath saw sterling fall 13.9 per cent against the Deutschmark. In all other respects, however, the economic and political situation is more
After six months of war in Ukraine, most observers agree that the roots of Russian aggression lie in the country’s deep-rooted attitudes to culture and history. In line with Russia’s nationalist traditions, Putin denies any place for a separate Ukrainian identity. The Ukrainians, in contrast, see themselves as a proud nation with their own history, culture, centuries long struggle for independence, and, of course, language. And while Ukrainian has been dismissed as a dialect of Russian in Moscow, it in fact has a long history – and is very much a language in its own right. That independence can be seen in the genesis of the word ‘Ukraine’ itself. In
At last, Mermaids, the UK charity for, in their own words, ‘gender variant and transgender children’ is under the spotlight. Following investigations by the Telegraph and Mail newspapers, as well as demands from critics concerned about child safeguarding, the Charity Commission has launched a regulatory compliance case and have said that they have written to the organisation’s trustees. The investigations found that Mermaids has been offering breast binders to girls reportedly as young as 13, and despite children saying their parents opposed the practice. Binding can often cause breathing difficulties, back pain and broken ribs. It was also uncovered that kids have been ‘congratulated’ online for identifying as transgender by
Another Covid-19 lockdown, another angry confrontation. This time it was on the streets of Shenzhen, China’s high-tech hub, where videos this week showed an angry crowd facing off against police officers wearing protective medical gear, including blue gowns, masks and plastic visors. ‘Lift the lockdown’, the protesters yelled, pushing against hastily erected barricades. Some threw plastic bottles at the police. In one clip, a woman can be heard shouting, ‘The police are hitting people’. The protest, one of several reported in the city, followed an order for residents of three districts to stay at home after just ten infections were detected. Subway stations were closed, and affected areas cordoned off.
24 min listen
This week on Spectator Out Loud, Jenny McCartney argues that tomorrow belongs to Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland. What could this mean for reunification (00:55)? Then, Dan Hitchens asks why Oxford killed a much loved catholic college (11:44) before Gus Carter reads his notes on the tabletop game Warhammer (20:12). Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.
Markets are nervous and they are right to be. The government has announced a huge, open-ended package of energy subsidies expected to cost over £100 billion but that could cost over £200 billion if energy prices rise and stay high. At the same time, the Bank of England is making large losses on its QE bond-holdings as government bond prices fall as an automatic result of current and future-expected interest rate rises – by some estimates costing potentially another £200 billion. This leaves a possible £400 billion hole in the nation’s finances. The government says it will spell out how that will be paid for in November. From a policymaking perspective
Well it’s that time of year again. Fresh from internecine civil war, the Tory party will drag itself together again this weekend for another Conservative Party Conference, this year held in the great city of Birmingham. Mr S has done some scanning and it appears that Michael Gove takes the gong for most scheduled appearances this year with nine – watch out Liz. Kemi Badenoch and Jacob Rees-Mogg are meanwhile due to make six, with Tom Tugendhat and Suella Braverman making five and four respectively. Below is Steerpike’s guide to the best events listed for this week’s Tory conference. SUNDAY – 2ND OCTOBER Chopper’s politics live Time: 13.00 – 14.00
French elites are annoyed and perturbed that Italian elections have produced a new prime minister of the right, Giorgia Meloni, whom many within the Paris groupthink bubble consider to be practically a fascist. Not welcome news for Emmanuel Macron, who is up to his neck in problems. His European Renaissance is flailing. Eurozone inflation is at 10 per cent. Macron’s failure to win control of the National Assembly after his own reelection this year has derailed his legislative program, including pension reform, its centrepiece. Germany has turned out to be a catastrophic best friend, Merkel disappearing in a puff of smoke leaving energy chaos behind her. And now the Italians
Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky made an offer to Vladimir Putin. Ukraine would drop its ambition to join Nato and would instead stay neutral, he said. It would not align with the West, in exchange for an end to hostilities. It was a sincere offer, and unpopular with Ukrainians. Yet it was significant: Putin had cited Ukraine’s Nato ambitions as the main reason for the invasion, saying it showed the West was somehow threatening Russia. But today, that offer ended and Zelensky is seeking the ‘accelerated’ Nato accession granted to Finland and Sweden this year. Will Nato accept? Jens Stoltenberg, Nato Secretary-General, dodged the question when asked today. ‘Our focus
As I reported this summer, Liz Truss’s favourite historian is Rick Perlstein, the great chronicler of the rise of the new right in its Nixonian and Reaganite forms between 1960 and 1980. She told journalists that she read ‘anything’ he wrote. Interviewers noticed Perlstein’s books on her shelves. In a strange compliment to the American historian, Truss or sources close to her briefed The Spectator‘s Katy Balls with precise (if unacknowledged) quotes from his account of the rise of Ronald Reagan. I sent Perlstein my piece and asked for his thoughts. Let me put it like this: he may be her favourite historian, but she is not his favourite politician. Not
So much for the honeymoon. Liz Truss closes her first ‘proper’ fortnight of politics this weekend with her backbenchers in open revolt and talk already building of a mounting government U-turn. There have been plenty of damning verdicts on last Friday’s ‘mini Budget’ but none more so than the YouGov poll which put Labour a whopping 33 points ahead of the Truss’s Tories. And now Mr S brings news of fresh woe to the under-fire PM as she battles to save her premiership. A poll by Redfield and Wilton of Conservative voters at the 2019 election shows just how few were impressed with the headline measures of her first fiscal
Is there a way for the government to get out of the mess that it is in? This is the question obsessing ministers and Tory MPs. If the government doesn’t set out how it intends to square the circle, it’ll be risking more market mayhem. But as I say in the Times today, it is very hard to see a way out of this that is both politically palatable and economically possible. Nervous Tory MPs are being told by one of Truss’s cabinet allies ‘the solution is to be very tough on public spending’ A rapidly growing number of Tory MPs think the government should abandon or delay the abolition
