Politics

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

Thursday

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Boris’s premiership in seven graphs

Boris Johnson has just quit – forced out by the sheer number of resignations, leaving him without a government. He came into office promising to deliver Brexit. He pledged taxes would be frozen and the size of government would shrink. Everything was of course overtaken by Covid. Here’s a look at his premiership in charts and numbers. Boris is currently the 34th longest serving prime minister, having just today drawn level with Neville Chamberlain. He wants to stay on until party conference season in October – as it stands he’s 28 days behind Theresa May. The PM’s downfall was brought about after a record number of resignations. Since Tuesday over

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

The truth about life as a gay Tory MP

Male Tory MPs molesting young men? Buttock-squeezing and groin-fumbling at a private members’ club? A middle-aged politician slipping into a dressing-gown ‘like a pound shop Harvey Weinstein, with his chest and belly hanging out’ to massage the neck of an Olympic rower? Such are the allegations. ‘What,’ you may think, ‘is the world coming to? It was never like this in my day!’ How wrong you’d be. It was very much like this in the 20th century. There is in fact something tragically old-fashioned about the whole story. This is how it used to be for many when I was an MP, and there were dozens of other gay Tories

Coffee House

The 57 Tory ministers who resigned – forcing Boris to go

Boris Johnson has announced that he is resigning as Prime Minister after facing a tide of ministerial resignations. Below is the full list of cabinet ministers, junior ministers and other government employees who resigned, forcing the Prime Minister to act. Cabinet ministers who have resigned from Boris Johnson’s government: 1. Oliver Dowden, party chairman (5.35 a.m. 24 June) 2. Sajid Javid, health secretary (6.02 p.m. 5 July) 3. Rishi Sunak, chancellor (6.10 p.m. 5 July) 4. Simon Hart, Wales Secretary (10.30 p.m. 6 July) 5. Brandon Lewis, Northern Ireland Secretary (6.49 a.m. 7 July) 6. Michelle Donelan, Education Secretary, (8.53 a.m. 7 July) Junior ministers, trade envoys and party officials who have

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Suella Braverman announces Tory leadership bid

Boris Johnson has so far had four cabinet ministers resign and sacked one – in the form of Michael Gove. Now, one minister has come out publicly to say they will run to be a successor should there be a leadership contest. Step forward Suella Braverman. On Wednesday evening, the Attorney General gave an interview to ITV’s Robert Peston in which she voiced her unhappiness over the Prime Minister’s behaviour in recent days. Braverman – who until now was viewed as a staunch Johnson loyalist – said there was an overwhelming sense of despair among MPs so ‘the time has come for the Prime Minister to step down’. Given she is one

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Douglas Murray clashes with Alastair Campbell

As the news rolled in that Michael Gove had been sacked by Boris Johnson, our own Douglas Murray was on Piers Morgan’s show on TalkTV alongside former spin doctor Alastair Campbell. Mr S thought that readers may well enjoy watching the subsequent clash between the pair over propriety in public life, which ended when Campbell stormed off the show…

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tory MPs are looking on in horror

Tonight it is clear that the only way Tory MPs can remove Boris Johnson is through the new 1922 executive changing the rules on Monday and a new confidence ballot on Tuesday. Johnson has ignored the pleas from several of his Cabinet to take a dignified exit. He is instead, in the words of one secretary state, ‘on the warpath’. He has sacked Michael Gove for having had the temerity to tell him that he should go, as he could no longer command the support of the parliamentary party. Johnson is clearly determined to carry on fighting Johnson is clearly determined to carry on fighting. There’s talk of an economic

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris refuses to resign – what next?

8 min listen

Despite mass resignations and calls from newly appointed ministers to resign, Boris has dug his heels in and refused to leave. What will be his next moves? And are the rumours of a snap general election really on the cards? Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth.

Coffee House

Live: The Tory MPs calling for Boris Johnson to go

How can Boris Johnson survive this one? That’s the question all of Westminster is asking today after the resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid. A number of other colleagues have chosen to follow them out of the door: you can keep track of resignations here. But it’s not just ministers who want Boris gone: more than a dozen backbenchers have now gone public with their frustrations. This follows last month’s no-confidence vote when 148 Tory MPs voted against Johnson’s leadership; a number that has only increased since then. Below is the growing list of those who have gone public with their demands for Johnson to go… MPs who have

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Boris skewered – for one last time?

A brutal encounter at the Liaison Committee this afternoon. Boris was grilled for two hours by a gang of aggressive MPs, (many of them Tories), who were drooling and panting for him to quit. But it wasn’t until the final moments that the session caught fire. Darren Jones took the first chunk out of the PM.  ‘How’s your week going?’ asked the Labour MP mildly. ‘Terrific, like many other weeks.’ ‘Did Michael Gove come in and tell you to resign today?’ ‘I’m here to talk about what the government is doing.’ Boris brushed off a similar attack from the SNP’s Angus MacNeil. ‘The game’s up. Will you still be prime

Steerpike Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s five worst moments at the Liaison Committee

It’s not been a good day for Boris Johnson. More than 50 Tory MPs have publicly called for him to go, he’s lost 30 members of his payroll vote and he got embarrassed by Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs in a performance which, shockingly, left the House demanding MORE of the staid Labour leader. This evening he is set to meet a delegation of senior Cabinet ministers who want him to quit. Among them is Nadhim Zahawi who, less than 24 hours after professing faith in the PM’s leadership now, er, finds that post-promotion he’s lost it. But probably the most humiliating moment was Johnson’s two hour grilling by some

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Thatcher’s downfall has a lesson for Boris’s enemies

Few leaders could be as different in character as Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson, but one can compare their predicaments when colleagues turned on them.  Both had large parliamentary majorities and were never defeated in any election they led, yet both faced internal coups. In both cases, there were/ are good reasons why colleagues were fed up with their leaders. What was true in Mrs Thatcher’s case, however, and may well apply in Boris’s if he does go, is that her political assassination caused remorse, and immense, lasting division. As John Major understood and Michael Heseltine did not foresee, remorseful MPs tend to turn on the chief assassin and favour, almost

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris isn’t ready to go

Boris Johnson’s final hours as Prime Minister have been undignified. We do not yet know quite how this will end, but we know he will eventually have to quit. There is a delegation of cabinet ministers in Downing Street waiting for him – more here. Johnson found out about this group while he was in the liaison committee hearing, and was confronted about it by Darren Jones. His response shows that he is not going to accept the first plea from this cabinet delegation. He burbled on about the cost of living and how he wasn’t going to ‘give you a running commentary’ on political issues. This underlines the point

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is the end nigh for Boris?

14 min listen

As several cabinet ministers have resigned, is it hours, days, weeks or months before Boris Johnson is kicked out? James Forsyth joins Katy Balls from the roof of Parliament.

Steerpike Steerpike

Has Nadhim turned on Boris already?

Has Nadhim Zahawi turned on Boris Johnson, just 24 hours after he was promoted to Chancellor? That’s the question all of Westminster is asking tonight amid reports for lobby journalists that Johnson will shortly meet with a delegation of senior cabinet ministers. It’s said to involve the Chancellor and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, following a raft of resignations during Johnson’s two hour grilling at the Liaison Committee. Unfortunately for Johnson, rather than plotting a response to all of this, he has been forced to spend his afternoon facing a range of issues from the national to the extremely local. It was left to Darren Jones, the Business Select Committee chairman

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is the end nigh for Boris?

Boris Johnson is now facing a situation where if he doesn’t resign he will face more cabinet resignations. Johnson is currently in front of the liaison committee, but when he returns to his office he will have a delegation of cabinet ministers waiting to see him who will him he is done and that he must resign. When I asked one ‘Is it over?’, they simply replied ‘yes’. If Johnson won’t go, he will face more cabinet resignations than he can fill. Leaving junior ministerial posts unfilled is bad, but it is simply not credible to not be filling cabinet posts. Remarkably one of the ministers who will tell Johnson

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Boris’s implosion was inevitable

So it ends as it was always likely to end: as a disgrace inside a shambles, lost in a fog of delusion. Boris Johnson’s fate was sealed the moment he became Prime Minister. As was apparent to those who cared to look, nothing in his past suggested he would have the chops to be a successful Prime Minister. The manner of his departure now is wholly in keeping with the substance of his premiership. In years to come, we may wonder how it ever happened at all even as we do our best to forget it did. This has been a low and embarrassing period in British political history. There

Katy Balls Katy Balls

‘It’s just about him’: who can dislodge Boris?

Westminster has always been run more by convention than by rulebook. Prime ministers are seldom forced out: they are persuaded that their position is unsustainable and they walk. Margaret Thatcher quit before facing a final vote. Tony Blair chose resignation in preference to an uprising led by Gordon Brown. Theresa May was technically safe from any leadership challenge when she resigned. After Remain lost the EU referendum, David Cameron decided to go quietly rather than face a warring party. But Boris Johnson is not a creature of Westminster. He did not rise through its ranks, he built no tribe and he is more given to issuing edicts than winning people

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs was a blue-on-blue bloodbath

Knife crime beset PMQs. It was a horrific blue-on-blue bloodbath as Tory backstabbers queued up to play the role of Brutus and hack Caesar to death. David Davis shoved in his stiletto and claimed that the PM’s lack of integrity would ‘paralyse proper government.’ Mind you, he said that six months ago. ‘I thank him very much for the point he has made again,’ said Boris. Super-sulky Tim Loughton asked, ‘does he think there are any circumstances in which he should resign?’ ‘Being a good father, husband, son and citizen is enough for me,’ claimed the arch-plotter Boris fought back. ‘The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances, when he’s

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Who will tell Boris it’s over?

In the past couple of minutes, five ministers have resigned as a co-ordinated group and Michael Gove is reported to have told Boris Johnson in private that it’s time to go. Kemi Badenoch, Lee Rowley, Alex Burghart, Neil O’Brien and Julia Lopez have quit in a joint letter in which they call for Boris Johnson to step aside ‘for the good of the party, and the country’.  They are bright, ambitious MPs who could form the future of the party. They also make the government look as though it is not functioning, and is at risk of being populated with anyone Boris Johnson can find who wants to be a minister

Ed West Ed West

What is the point of Boris Johnson?

However badly Boris Johnson’s career ends, it will surely be a better finale than that of his great-grandfather, the Turkish journalist, editor and liberal politician Ali Kemal. Almost exactly a century ago, following the trauma of defeat and the end of the Ottoman Empire, Kemal was attacked by a mob of soldiers, hanged from a tree, his head smashed in with cudgels before being beaten to death. I can’t imagine that the Tory backbenchers will go that far. There is something charming and colourful about Johnson’s background, the mixture of Turkish, Russian, Jewish and even a Circassian slave just a few generations back (according to Boris Johnson, and if you