Politics

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

Tuesday

7 Jun 2022

Boris’s moment of maximum danger is yet to come

Much as Boris Johnson wants to ‘bash on’, deliver popular populist policies, and characterise Monday’s confidence vote as the catharsis that purges him and his party of the partygate poison, his struggle to re-establish his credibility and authority will be the challenge of his life. First of all, most of the 148 Tory MPs who rejected him cannot be bought off, because they typically want him out not for the policies he espouses but rather for what they see as his character flaws – and they are doubtful he can change his spots. I asked one rebel what was the new plan, after the rebels failed to muster the 180

Ross Clark

The EU’s phone charger rule will stifle innovation

Who could argue with the words of the EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton when he says: ‘a common charger is common sense for the many electronic devices in our daily lives’? No longer, it seems, will we have to fiddle around with several different cables, and curse when we have brought the along the wrong one on holiday. M. Breton has just succeeded in introducing a directive which, from 2024, will oblige the manufacturers of all electronic devices on sale in the EU to use the same model of charger. The directive – yet to be rubber-stamped by the European parliament – will ‘increase convenience and cut waste’, as well

Brendan O’Neill

Shame on Cineworld for cancelling The Lady of Heaven

Bradford was chosen last week as the UK’s City of Culture for 2025. This week, Bradford Cineworld – as well as a number of other cinemas around the country – announced that a new movie called The Lady of Heaven was being pulled from schedules following protests by angry Muslims. So is this what we can expect from a City of Culture in 21st-century Britain – the creation of all kinds of culture, except for anything that might offend some adherents to the Islamic faith? The fuss and fury over The Lady of Heaven has been incredibly revealing. This is a British-produced epic historical drama about Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. It

Steerpike

Drakeford adds to Labour’s trans troubles

It’s not just in Westminster that Labour is having difficulties with transgender issues. Over in Wales, Mark Drakeford’s barmy army has been wrestling with the same debate, amid claims from Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi that LGBT charity Stonewall has ‘dictated policy’ to her colleagues at Cardiff Bay. And the Welsh Tories have clearly spotted an opportunity here for some clear blue water between the two parties. For last Tuesday, Tory Laura Anne Jones popped up in the Senedd to lob a grenade at Drakeford at First Ministers’ Questions. The blonde bombshell probed her opponent about just how the Welsh government intends to protect women’s rights in sports as ‘we have a

Isabel Hardman

The real problem with the NHS Netflix plan

Another day, another ridiculous Boris Johnson statement. This morning, the cabinet discussed whether the NHS was to become like Netflix, and predictably everyone has got very excited. It’s worth having a look at what actually happened at the meeting, though. The official readout is that Sajid Javid — not Johnson ― updated ministers on ‘the scale of the challenge post-pandemic — saying we had a Blockbuster healthcare system in the age of Netflix’. He then elaborated on this: ‘He said it was no longer simply an option to stick with the status quo. He said large-scale changes were needed in areas such as the use of technology and data to

Andrew Tettenborn

How the Tories can avoid a repeat of their confidence vote conundrum

Boris Johnson insists that his victory in last night’s confidence vote means he will be able to ‘draw a line under issues our opponents want to talk about’. But what the result actually shows, as Boris undoubtedly knows, is that even some of those who backed him in the vote now want him gone. Why? Shortly after the debacle, Matthew Parris in the Times hit the nail on the head. One minister had, he wrote, let the cat out of the bag when he (or she) confided to him: ‘He’s appalling: he’s got to go’ before trooping in to vote against the no-confidence motion with gritted teeth. It is a racing certainty that

Isabel Hardman

What will the Tory rebels do next?

13 min listen

It is the day after the night before when Boris Johnson narrowly survived a confidence vote. Today he held a meeting with the Cabinet to tell his colleagues it is time to ‘move on’. ‘This looks like a slow Tory suicide to me’ – Fraser Nelson Some critics have pointed to the fact that shortly after winning a confidence vote with similar margins, John Major, Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May ended up resigning. What will be Boris Johnson’s fate as the Tory rebels plot out their next moves? Isabel Hardman is joined by Katy Balls, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson.

Matthew Lynn

Things are about to get even worse for Boris Johnson

A round of tax cuts? A splurge of infrastructure spending? Or perhaps a whizzy way of subsidising housing? Boris Johnson could even decide to forgive student debts, and hand out a massive Christmas bonus for pensioners, craftily dressed up as a cost-of-living rebate. There are no doubt lots of such ideas being kicked around in Downing Street today to relaunch the Johnson premiership and save Boris’s skin after a huge rebellion by Tory backbenchers. But here’s the problem for the PM: the economy is about to turn toxic. The dismal reality is that Boris isn’t going to be able to spend his way out of this scrape. But here’s the problem for the PM:

Steerpike

Cometh the hour, cometh Sir Gavin?

Perusing the list of declared Boris-backers yesterday, Mr S was struck by the omission of several high-profile names. The erstwhile uber-loyalist Matt Hancock for one: the former Health Secretary was previously one of Johnson’s most ardent supporters, in his desperate bid to return to the cabinet. But even more intriguing than the womanizer of West Suffolk’s silence was the lack of any kind of public statement from Sir Gavin Williamson, South Staffordshire’s answer to Sir Francis Urqhart. Sir Gav of course played a key role in the fortunes of two Tory premiers. In 2016 he was reported to have ‘privately vowed’ to stop Boris Johnson’s bid to become party leader,

Lara Prendergast

With Nell Hudson

21 min listen

Nell Hudson has starred in Outlander, Victoria and the latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. Her debut novel, Just for Today, is out now: it’s about a group of twenty-somethings in London, having ‘heady, reckless fun’. Nell speaks to Lara and Olivia about how she’s enjoying veganism and the one meat she misses, growing up on a farm, a peculiar childhood diet and the lonely eating habits of an actor.

Steerpike

Drama at the ’22 as Boris survives

All eyes in parliament were on Committee Room 10 last night as Tory MPs queued up to cast their vote on Boris Johnson’s premiership. Between 6:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m they trooped in and out, with Johnson himself turning up shortly after 7:00 p.m to confirm that he does, in fact, still retain confidence in himself as leader. The PM was flanked by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace – a favourite among the grassroots to succeed him – and his own Parliamentary Secretary Joy Morrissey. Earlier in the day Johnson had made a last-ditch appeal to Conservative MPs at the 1922 committee, making a series of pledges across a range of

Alex Massie

The game is up, Boris Johnson

The worst possible outcome for the Conservative and Unionist party is also a pretty lousy result for the country. That this needs saying – that Tory MPs need reminding of this – is itself yet another data point supporting the proposition that Boris Johnson’s leadership has thoroughly corrupted the party. So what to do now? This is now the necessary question. Since Johnson will not depart voluntarily he must be pushed. Those cabinet ministers with an ounce – imperial measurements, obviously – of moral fibre must surely recognise the game is up. This barky won’t float. You cannot credibly lose the support of 40 per cent of the party –

Wolfgang Münchau

How Boris can cling on

What is happening in the UK right now is similar to the later Berlusconi years, the opera buffa phase of Italian politics with bunga-bunga parties, and worse. Readers may remember Berlusconi’s infamous put-down of recession warnings in 2009, when he remarked that he was not worried because the restaurants were still full. I remember having a conversation with a senior minister in his cabinet at the time, who said it was absolutely clear that Berlusconi had to go, and it was just a matter of time. It took another three years. And it was the euro crisis that did it, an event still unforeseen in 2008. History never quite repeats

Monday

6 Jun 2022

Isabel Hardman

Is Boris Johnson finished?

11 min listen

The results are in. 211 Tory MPs expressed confidence in the Prime Minister, while 148 said they had no confidence in Boris Johnson continuing to lead the Conservative party. While this is technically a win, it is a narrower victory than Theresa May (who looked splendid in her ball gown tonight) got in her no-confidence vote which lead to her resignation only months later. Is this the beginning of the end for Boris? Isabel Hardman is joined by Katy Balls and James Forsyth on the roof of Parliament to discuss.

Katy Balls

Can Boris bounce back?

How does Boris Johnson bounce back from 148 members of his own party expressing no confidence in him? The Prime Minister is claiming the fact he won the result means he can now move on and focus on the government’s priorities. But privately Boris Johnson’s allies concede the result is worse than they anticipated. ‘He’s toast,’ says a former minister. Another senior Tory describes it as a ‘fatal blow’. Another senior Tory describes it as a ‘fatal blow’ Expect a blame game to follow. There is a frustration among some of Johnson’s supporters that the operation to keep him in place has slacked in recent weeks. Earlier this year the

Isabel Hardman

Boris: It’s not over. Rebels: Yes, it is

Boris Johnson has just insisted that he has had ‘an extremely positive’ and ‘decisive result’ in the vote of confidence in his leadership. He said the government can ‘come together’ and ‘put behind’ it all the rows of the past few months and ‘focus on the stuff that the public actually want us to be talking about’. Speaking in Downing Street a few minutes ago, the Prime Minister claimed that tonight’s result gave him a bigger mandate than the one he had won from his party in 2019. He was either suffering from a heavy head cold, or extremely emotional, as he kept sniffing and stumbling over his words. There

James Forsyth

Boris’s narrow win is bad news for the Tories

Tonight’s confidence ballot has deepened the Tories’ problem. Yes, Boris Johnson won – but by nowhere near enough to resolve the issue. His margin of victory was worse than what Theresa May achieved in 2018, and that only protected her for six months. The problem for Johnson is that the issue here is about him, not policy. So it is not as if a shift in position on a few topics could allow him to win the rebels round. Indeed, when you consider what many of the rebels have said publicly today it is pretty much impossible to see how they could stand as Tories at the next election if Johnson

Tom Goodenough

Boris survives confidence vote – for now

Boris Johnson has won a confidence vote in his leadership – but nearly 150 Tory MPs voted against him in a huge blow to the Prime Minister’s leadership. The PM won the support of 211 Conservative MPs, while 148 voted against him in the ballot of Tory MPs. The PM insisted that this was a ‘very good result for politics and for the country.’ Reacting to the ballot, Boris Johnson said: ‘What we want to do is get on’. The PM also did worse than Margaret Thatcher in her confidence vote against Michael Heseltine in 1990 Boris’s allies have rallied around the PM in the wake of the vote, with Education Secretary

Coffee House

Full list: the Tory MPs backing Boris Johnson

Graham Brady, the chair of the Tory backbench 1922 committee, has announced that Boris Johnson will face a confidence vote at 6 p.m. this evening. He told the Prime Minister yesterday that the required 54 letters had been received and that would face a vote imminently. Voting for Conservative MPs finishes at 8 p.m. and we can expect the result to be announced later this evening. Johnson will need the backing of 180 MPs to remain leader of the Conservative party. A statement from Number 10 said: ‘The PM welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when they are united and focussed on the

Boris Johnson

‘Let us refuse to dance to the tune of the media’: Boris Johnson’s full speech to Tory MPs

Graham (Brady), many thanks for convening this meeting. And I have to tell you I am glad that this vote is finally taking place, because tonight we have a chance to end the media-driven focus on the leadership of the Conservative party. And if you will give me your support tonight, we have the chance to stop talking about ourselves and start talking exclusively about what we are doing for the people of this country. And, instead of getting into some hellish groundhog day debate about the merit of belonging to the single market relitigating questions that we settled two-and-a half years ago, we can get on. We can deliver. And we can unite. And