Politics

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

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Do Conservative members miss Boris?

Boris Johnson is very much the elephant in the room of this leadership race, looming large over both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. And much like an intimidating pachyderm, neither candidate seems completely confident how to handle him without being squashed. Sunak’s approach is the simpler one: talk about the defenestrated premier as little as possible and for God’s sake don’t mention how the ex-Chancellor helped bring him down. Truss meanwhile has opted to praise the former PM while, er, claiming to be the change candidate who’d take a completely different approach in office. This of course begs the question: what do the Tory members actually think? Are they pining

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Liz Truss’s camp hits back over Treasury windfall tax plans

Is the government about to toughen up its windfall tax? That’s the talk in Westminster today as Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng meet energy company executives to discuss measures to tackle the rising cost of living. The government is reported to be looking to strengthen the 25 per cent levy on the industry’s record-breaking profits announced in May. A Treasury source tells the Sun newspaper: ‘If you look back at what these firms were projected to make and what they actually brought in, it was beyond their wildest expectations. We are looking at options to go further and faster on those profits.’ It comes as Boris Johnson

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Is Liz Truss sowing the seeds of her own downfall?

Liz Truss looks to be winning a decisive victory for cold-eyed conservatism. A victory for I went to the school of hard knocks and university of real-life conservatism. For I never asked for charity and worked for every penny conservatism. For public-sector workers are lazy and benefit claimants are scroungers conservatism. For get on your bike and get off my land conservatism. For no one ever said that life was fair and have you seen how many holidays teachers get conservatism. Most people can be provoked by the waste of public money into thinking like that for some of the time. Liz Truss appeals to people who think like that

Hannah Tomes Hannah Tomes

The Tories don’t care about generation rent

For millennials like me, the prospect of owning a home is a pipe dream. Soaring rental costs and crippling bills make saving for a deposit impossible. The reality is that, as a friend said to me recently, our best chance of getting a foot on the housing ladder is when a home-owning family member pops their clogs. We’re far from alone. Yet the Tory leadership contenders have nothing to offer those who hope one day to buy a house. Perhaps it’s not much of a surprise that this is an issue the Tories are ignoring: Boris Johnson’s government was elected, in part, on a manifesto pledge to build 300,000 new houses –

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Why Rishi Sunak shouldn’t quit

We are in the depths of silly season. The perfect time, then, for the Conservative party to be choosing a new prime minister on our behalf. The latest especially silly twist to the plot is the idea that Rishi Sunak, the almost certain loser, should somehow ‘quit’ the Tory leadership contest right now to enable Liz Truss to be installed earlier than 6 September. Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British army, has said Sunak should step aside to avoid a ‘trouncing’ and let Liz Truss crack on with the challenges facing Britain. Given that ballot papers with his name on alongside that of Truss have already been issued – and

Steerpike Steerpike

Arts Council’s bizarre lottery splurge

It’s a tough time for the arts at present. The cost-of-living crunch means institutes scaling back projects and families cutting back their non-essential spending. Still, over at one Britain’s biggest quangos, the good times appear to have kept on rolling. Data published earlier this year reveals how Arts Council England spent more than £100 million of National Lottery money during the 2021-22 financial year. Mr S has been perusing that expenditure and discovered just what exactly such sums are being spent on. Arts Council England, which claims to ‘champion, develop and invest in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives’, gave three tranches of money to the ‘The Family

Steerpike Steerpike

Truss turns on the media

To Darlington, for another of the endless Tory leadership hustings. Last night’s clash covered much of the same old ground but was notable for several swipes which Liz Truss took at the media’s coverage of the race. Asked who was to blame for Boris Johnson’s downfall, several members of the audience interrupted to shout ‘the media!’ prompting Truss to smirk and reply ‘Who am I to disagree with this excellent audience?’ Truss, who once claimed that ‘I would die in a ditch’ for a ‘free press’, also took issue with the way in which host Tom Newton Dunn framed his questions. The latter asked the Foreign Secretary about her plans

Ian Williams Ian Williams

China’s Taiwan tantrum is already backfiring

Chinese social media is full of anger and frustration – because the military didn’t shoot down Nancy Pelosi’s plane. As she headed to Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) whipped up a wave of rabid online nationalism. Influential commentators led by Hu Xijin, the former editor of the CCP’s Global Times, suggested the speaker of the US House of Representatives could be taken out, a view that was widely applauded. Nationalists have a lot of leeway on China’s tightly-controlled internet, in large part because their views are shared by the increasingly chauvinistic CCP. But after Pelosi’s plane not only landed, but left Taiwan in one piece, they exploded in outrage.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Truss and Sunak compete to win Red Wall Tories

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have just finished their most cynical hustings of the Tory leadership contest so far. The pair were addressing a party audience in Darlington, and had tailored their stump speeches and answers to a ‘Red Wall’ audience. The picture that these answers painted of what both think of Red Wall Tories was fascinating: both of them wanted to talk as much about the importance of recognising biological sex as they did about the cost of living, with Truss telling the audience that as a ‘straight-talking Yorkshire woman, I know that a woman is a woman’. Sunak took aim at ‘this lefty woke culture, that seems to

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Could Russia stoke conflict between Serbia and Kosovo?

The prime minister of Kosovo has been talking about a possible war in the country, with Russia as the instigator. In an interview with La Repubblica, Albin Kurti said: ‘The risk of a new conflict between Kosovo and Serbia is high. I would be irresponsible to say otherwise, especially since the world has seen what Russia has done to Ukraine. We are a democracy bordering on an autocracy, after all. Before the invasion of Ukraine, the opportunities were few, now the situation has changed. ‘The first episode, a consequence of the Kremlin’s fascist idea of ​​Pan-Slavism, was Ukraine. If we have a second episode, for example in Transnistria, then the chances

Matt Purple

Donald Trump has a point about the Clintons

The year was 2001. George W. Bush had just defeated Al Gore in the infamous hanging-gigachad presidential election from hell. The policy differences between the candidates weren’t actually that substantial, at least compared to how they often are today; what had really distinguished the campaign was its de facto referendum on the personal character of the outgoing Bill Clinton. And then, as though to drive the point home, Clinton, or at least those working under him, went and ransacked the White House. As Donald Trump pointed out yesterday after Mar-a-Lago was raided, the departing Clintons were accused of stealing furniture, vandalising federal buildings, and leaving a general mess for the

Julie Bindel

The BBC is wrong about OnlyFans

As the cost-of-living crisis bites and a recession looms, women are once again being fed a dangerous message: that the sex trade might be a great place to make money. In an article on the BBC website, OnlyFans has been cited as a lucrative way for attractive youngsters to top up their income.  Soaring prices have, we are told by the BBC, ‘led to a rise in young people posting sexual content for money’. The report cites as an example Alexia, a 20-year-old, who posts pictures and videos of herself on the internet. The BBC says her ‘9-5 salary is now dwarfed by the earnings she makes from her online presence.’ It goes on:

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The next prime minister needs to stand up to Nicola Sturgeon

The next Prime Minister, whoever they are, really needs to get a grip on the declinism and defeatism of the UK government. A case in point is the statement issued today confirming ministers have submitted their case to the Supreme Court in the referendum showdown with Nicola Sturgeon. For those unfamiliar, the Scottish government intends to hold a referendum on independence next year, despite the Union being reserved to Westminster under the Scotland Act and Westminster declining to grant permission. So Sturgeon’s Lord Advocate — who isn’t herself convinced that her First Minister’s plan is lawful — will now argue before the Supreme Court that Holyrood doesn’t need Westminster’s permission

Steerpike Steerpike

Asylum base row after Sunak steps in

A curious row has exploded in the projectile-packed leadership race. This morning’s Yorkshire Post splashed on the news that Rishi Sunak (a Yorkshire MP) would oppose Tory plans for 1,500 asylum seekers being housed in a disused RAF base in the region, ahead of tonight’s Darlington hustings. Yet, just hours later, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace revealed he had ‘withdrawn’ the offer and insisted such an incendiary move is no longer happening. Wallace told ITV: I have withdrawn the offer to the Home Office for that site. It’s been with them for a number of months. I have obligations to do something else with that site and you know there are

John Oxley

The crisis at the heart of the Conservative party

It is always interesting to read the Wikipedia pages of plane crashes. Thanks to the data recovered from black boxes, especially the cockpit voice recordings, the last moments of flights can be recreated with vivid accuracy. The most interesting are those caused largely by human error. In those final fateful moments, you can observe highly intelligent, highly trained professionals making error after error, gradually dooming them and their passengers. Despite the ringing alarms of the onboard systems, they lose sight of what they are doing or how to avoid the impending doom. They pull the joystick instead of releasing it, they shut down the working engine instead of the failing

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Watch: Trump hints at comeback after FBI raid

Love him or loathe him, Donald Trump is a brilliant political opportunist. And the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate last night may have handed the former president a significant boost in any future run for the White House. Speculation is rife that The Donald will have another shot at the presidency – and the dramatic events of the last 24 hours have catapulted Trump back into the headlines.  To no one’s surprise, Trump is making the most of being back in the limelight, releasing an apocalyptic campaign video this morning in which he paints a picture of an America in decline.  Trump’s message of doom and gloom depicts the United States as a ‘failing nation’, forced

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

We need to talk about tasers

Donald Burgess is the latest Briton to die after being hit by a police taser. He won’t be the last, but the circumstances of his death underscore the need for a wider debate about conducted energy devices. Police were called to a care home in St Leonards-on-Sea on 21 June, where they found Burgess threatening staff with a knife. One officer sprayed him with PAVA, an incapacitant spray that the National Police Chiefs’ Council describes as ‘significantly more potent than CS’. The same officer then struck Burgess with a baton while another discharged a taser, sending an electric current coursing through the man’s neuromuscular system. He was then handcuffed and

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Truss holds her ground on extra support for households

Liz Truss’s plans for an emergency tax-cutting budget would amount to an ‘electoral suicide note’. This is the latest claim from the Sunak camp – with key supporter Dominic Raab writing a piece for the Times in which he argues that the frontrunner is wrong to prioritise ‘limited tax cuts that do little for the most vulnerable’. The row over how to best tackle the cost-of-living crisis is quickly becoming the dividing line of the contest. The Sunak camp was quick to seize on the Foreign Secretary’s comments over the weekend to the Financial Times suggesting that she will proceed ‘in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How do you solve a problem like energy prices?

14 min listen

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss head to the Red Wall for hustings in Darlington this evening. Meanwhile, new figures released by Cornwall Insight on the extent of the energy price cap make for grim reading. Will Labour respond with their own package? Also on the podcast, as countries look to ensure domestic energy supply, What could this mean for the UK, as a net importer of energy? ‘In a crisis, borders want to reassert themselves. Any country is going to prioritise preventing black-outs over exporting power’ – James Forsyth Finally, it’s results day in Scotland, how do they compare to previous years? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman. Produced