Politics

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

Monday

Sam Leith Sam Leith

Starmer’s beergate troubles won’t get Boris off the hook

It looks on the face of things as if Sir Keir Starmer is coming unstuck over that blurry photograph of him with beer in hand after a day campaigning in Durham during lockdown. His claim that no rules were breached on that occasion – like the earlier claims that Angela Rayner wasn’t there and that the curry was a spontaneous, ambushed-by-a-curry type of curry rather than a planned, party type of curry – is looking shakier than Shakin’ Stevens with the DTs. Beergate, thanks to new revelations in the Mail On Sunday, seems to have legs. But where do those legs, I wonder, take us? Let’s suppose that everything that

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Jacob Rees-Mogg pulls his punches over beergate

On the inaugural Andrew Neil show on Channel 4, Jacob Rees-Mogg was strikingly adamant that there were no easy solutions to the current cost of living crisis as increasing public spending would be inherently inflationary. This argument has intellectual force but is difficult to make politically. It was interesting, though, how keen Rees-Mogg was to lean into it. Equally noticeable was Rees-Mogg’s desire not to pile into Starmer on the whole question of his campaign trail curry and beer when tier 2 restrictions were in place. In contrast to Nadine Dorries, Johnson’s other most loyal Cabinet ally, Rees-Mogg was arguing for something close to a general indulgence on these issues so

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Starmer guilty of ‘rank double standards’, Raab lambasts

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab was tasked with the government’s media round this morning, and he used the opportunity to take aim at the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, accusing him of hypocrisy after Durham Police said they will re-investigate the so-called ‘Beergate’ affair. A leaked Labour party document appears to suggest that Starmer and his colleagues did not return to working after a scheduled dinner, which lasted for over an hour. Raab stopped short of calling for Starmer to resign, but piled on the pressure for him to account for exactly what happened on that night: Local elections were ‘a mixed bag’ In other political news, the results from the local elections

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Starmer is caught in a web of his own words

I’ve so far found it hard to get outraged about Keir Starmer’s curry with staffers after a campaigning event in April last year. For the boss to buy in a curry for his local activists during the visit is a decent and human thing to do. I’d not condemn anyone for it. But this is politically tricky for Starmer for three reasons: Starmer was not a voice of moderation on lockdown. He was always calling for an even tougher regime than that which the Tories needlessly imposed. As Opposition leader, I’d say, he had not only the option but the duty to oppose a cruel and draconian policy that gratuitously criminalised harmless, everyday acts. Starmer did

Steven Fielding

Beergate is a big danger for Starmer – and a great opportunity

Beergate represents a great danger to Starmer’s leadership. But handled in the right way it could be his opportunity to show that his is a party that can be trusted by voters who have abandoned it since the days of New Labour. It might even be his ‘clause four moment’, one which allows Starmer to transform how the public regard Labour and be the springboard to victory at the next general election. Last week’s local elections were good for Labour: they suggest it is on course to become the largest party in the Commons. But they were not good enough: much work remains to be done before Labour can form

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

Keir Starmer’s beergate story unravels

Uh oh, it looks like things are getting uncomfortable for Keir Starmer. This week the Labour leader was hoping to turn the national conversation towards the cost of living crisis and the poor Tory showing in the local elections. Instead the hapless opposition leader has become embroiled in a ‘beergate’ scandal of his own – after the Labour leader was pictured drinking beer at a campaign event in April 2021, when lockdown restrictions were in place. This week Durham police announced that it was opening an investigation into an alleged lockdown breach at the event – which Starmer has continued to insist was a work event and not a party.

Damian Reilly Damian Reilly

Is Gary Neville actually a Tory?

If you judge a man on what he does and not just what he says, then it seems obvious multimillionaire Labour activist Gary Neville is in reality a Tory. ‘I’m not a socialist, I’m a capitalist,’ the former Manchester United defender turned Sky Sports commentator and plutocrat businessman told the world on Instagram this week. ‘I believe in entrepreneurialism. I believe in companies making profit. I believe in lower taxes. And I also believe that distribution of profit should be spread amongst us.’ It goes without saying, these are sentiments with which Margaret Thatcher herself would have nodded in ecstatic assent – particularly when uttered from the lips of a

Steerpike Steerpike

David Warburton plots his comeback

It’s been a bad week for the Tories. They’ve lost nearly 500 councillors, are facing two key parliamentary by-elections and are now near-extinct in much of the capital. There are some who fear that following the various scandals involving Owen Paterson (lobbying), Imran Ahmad Khan (sex offences) and Neil Parish (porn in Parliament), the Conservative party risks becoming irrevocably associated with sleaze. And such fears are unlikely to be calmed then by the return of a familiar figure to Westminster. For David Warburton has signalled he could come back to the Commons next week at the end of the parliamentary recess, following a stint in hospital. The Somerton and Frome MP last month lost the

Ian Acheson Ian Acheson

Sinn Fein’s victory doesn’t mean the end of the Union

No amount of extra counting later today can undo the seismic shift that has taken place in Northern Ireland’s politics. The first preference votes in Northern Ireland’s devolved assembly elections are in and Sinn Fein are the clear winners on 29 per cent. Sinn Fein – once the political appendage of a terrorist organisation that wrought 30 years of havoc and misery – is set to win the most seats in Stormont. It will then be able to nominate the first ever Republican First Minister. Before Unionists panic though, it’s worth examining the facts. On total votes cast, there will likely be a Unionist majority hidden by the byzantine calculus

Steven Fielding

Why Keir Starmer isn’t living up to the dream of 1997

‘A new dawn has broken has it not?’, asked Tony Blair as the sun first blinked over London’s South Bank on the early morning of 2 May 1997. Blair was addressing a crowd of supporters following Labour’s first general election victory since 1974, an election that saw the party win 43.2 per cent of votes cast and achieve its biggest ever Commons majority, even bigger than Clement Attlee’s in 1945. It was a victory that laid the foundations for an unprecedented 13 years of Labour government. After this year’s local elections nobody in the Labour party is talking about a new dawn. In reality, the results are nowhere near good

Bruce Anderson

Do the Tories really want Boris to fight the next election?

In large part, these local elections were a referendum on a basic proposition. Do the government and the Prime Minister deserve a kick in the pants? As it was virtually impossible to argue against that verdict, Boris Johnson could claim to have done surprisingly well. Indeed, some of his Tory critics are disappointed with the outcome. It does not justify an immediate coup. That said, it seems certain that many of the Tory losses can be blamed on Boris. A lot of traditional Tories, who are used to seriousness in their own lives, will not accept lower standards in their prime minister. This appears to have been especially true in

Ross Clark Ross Clark

‘Please don’t do a hit job’: An interview with Devi Sridhar

Of all the scientists who became household names during the pandemic, few divide opinion as much as Devi Sridhar. The Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh turned adviser to the Scottish government and Guardian columnist is, according to your point of view, either a voice of reason who could have prevented the bungling at Westminster and steered Britain through the pandemic with a death toll as low as that of New Zealand, or a hectoring advocate of an impossible ‘Zero Covid’ strategy. She complains of having received hate mail – a baleful occupation hazard for many in public life, but perhaps all the more shocking if

Charlie Baker

The rise of the Old Rectory left

There’s a revolution stirring in the gentle British countryside, as a political faction starts to make their voice heard. The Old Rectory left are shrugging off their chains. In Thursday’s local elections, places where the Lib Dems were trailing the Tories saw an eight point swing to Ed Davey’s party. Meanwhile, the Conservatives lost control of Oxfordshire after ceding four councillors to the Lib Dems and another to the Greens. But who are these new rural agitators? I’m sure you know the most brazen of the tribe: retired lawyers harassing their children by dropping James O’Brien clips into the family WhatsApp chat. Militant FBPE-ers based between Putney and Salcombe. Angry,

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Starmer’s Miliband tribute act

Poor Keir Starmer appears to have the reverse Midas touch. When he awoke this morning, Labour was making gains across the country – the capitalist citadels of London were falling, marginals like Southampton were going red and the seemingly inexorable advance of the Tories in the Red Wall had been halted. Yet as sure as night follows day, mere hours after Sir Keir’s triumphalist victory photo call, Durham Police announced it would be conducting an investigation into ‘Beergate’ – dispatching the news like Zeus submitting thunderbolts down from on high. The news that Sir Keir is under investigation somewhat puts pause to Labour’s current claims to being the morally virtuous

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Can the Lib Dem’s declare victory?

14 min listen

We’ve had more election results in and it looks like the Lib Dems will be celebrating tonight, encroaching on many Tory seats around the country. But is this Liberal passion from voters or disaffection with the two major parties? Katy Balls talks with James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman about all the latest results.

Steerpike Steerpike

Which Tory MPs could lose their seat?

Nervy Tories in Westminster will be looking at today’s results and wondering what it means for them. Council contests are often fought on very different issues to those in a general election but there’s no doubt that local councils switching parties is bad news for the incumbent MPs there. Top Tories under threat include Dominic Raab, whose Esher constituency has seen the Liberal Democrats making gains on the local Elmbridge council. Sir Ed Davey’s party has undergone something of a resurgence in the south west of England, gaining Somerset council which suggests a major threat to incumbents like Marcus Fysh in Yeovil and Rebecca Pow in Taunton Deane.  Elsewhere, Labour made some of its most

Sam Ashworth-Hayes Sam Ashworth-Hayes

What reason is there for young people like me to vote Tory?

With a sense of reluctance, I went into a voting booth this week and ticked the boxes corresponding to my local Labour candidates. My rationalisation was simple: I wasn’t voting for Labour, but against the Conservatives.  There is a tangible stench of decay surrounding the Tory party at present. At best, it is incapable of maintaining moral standards. Barely a month passes without some MP’s embroilment in a grubby scandal involving sex, money, or both. The party has no vision for the country, no agenda beyond targeting the young to pay for the old. And if you judge them on results, well, there’s even fewer reasons to vote Tory. The Conservatives

Mary Dejevsky

The fall of Westminster Council

Of all the setbacks for the Conservatives in London, the loss of Westminster Council was probably the least expected and the most emblematic. To be sure, as in much of the capital, the Conservative vote had been declining, but the prospect that control would actually change this year seemed unlikely. But it did, and as a resident of south Westminster for more than 20 years, I was an infinitesimal part of the reason. In 2000, contemplating the move back to the UK from the United States, we bought a flat within the echo (on a quiet day) of Big Ben. That the local authority was Westminister was a consideration. The

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is Boris Johnson losing the south?

The great Tory success in 2019 was winning a host of new seats while keeping hold of their traditional southern heartlands, including many seats that had voted Remain. But the local election results will increase concern among Tory MPs that these seats are becoming vulnerable. The Tories have in the last couple of hours lost control of Maidenhead, Huntingdonshire, and Wokingham. Talk to Tories in these types of places and they cite a variety of reasons for their difficulties. Some say that these voters don’t like levelling up – they suspect it is code for taxing them more so that more can be spent in the Tories’ new northern seats.