Politics

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

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

Hunt hits the phones

What’s Jeremy Hunt up to after breaking cover as an agitator against Boris Johnson this week? Mostly phoning people, if his social media is anything to go by. Mr S has been amused to follow the trail of the former (and now wannabe) Conservative leadership contender as he posts endless Instagram photos of himself looking serious on the phone. There’s a clear favourite pose that he likes to adopt: Mr S also couldn’t help noticing that Hunt has a framed copy of The Spectator cover that never ran displayed on the bookcase behind him. The cover shows him triumphantly striding through the door of Number 10. Incidentally, a copy also

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Why Jeremy Corbyn is being feted by the French left

Into the three-ring circus of the French legislative election campaign has stepped Jeremy Corbyn. The papi magique arrived on the Eurostar last weekend to campaign for candidates of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose insurrectionary ultra-left campaign is threatening to deny the recently re-elected Emmanuel Macron a presidential majority in the parliament. First round voting is on Sunday. A runoff will be a week later. Those tempted to overlook the continuing appeal of Mr Corbyn and dismiss him as a political has-been or even an unreconstructed Marxist clown, would perhaps have been startled to see him mobbed by adoring fans in Paris. Corbyn was feted as a red prince from over the water.

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Mark Harper hits out at Hunt

Boris Johnson’s recent woes have coincided with a renaissance for Jeremy Hunt, the man he pipped to the Tory leadership in 2019. The Surrey MP was quick to put in his letter of no confidence on Monday and has followed that up with a stinging rebuke today to Michael Gove over the Dunsfold drilling development. It follows a string of media appearances for Hunt to mark the release of his much-vaunted new book on how to fix the NHS. Yet while the former Health Secretary now finds himself one of the favourites to succeed Boris Johnson, questions still remain about his role in the Covid crisis. Nadine Dorries has claimed

Ross Clark Ross Clark

What Boris’s right-to-buy gets wrong

It isn’t hard to understand why the government should want to revive the spirit of Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy, which was credited for creating a whole new class of homeowners – and in the process Conservative voters. While the right to buy has never gone away – and survived the Blair and Brown years – it is a shadow of its former self. In 2020/21, 6,994 social homes were sold, compared with 167,123 in the peak year of the scheme, 1982/83. Last year’s figure was markedly lower even than the 17,756 homes sold in 2006/07 – the heyday of the Blair housing boom. What does today’s announcement do to widen the

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Boris Johnson is my great white sperm whale

‘Steady on, old chap. You’re a bit hard on the boy.’ The arm around my shoulder was that of Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley. I remember where we were standing – it was outside the entrance to the Birmingham International Convention Centre – and I remember the occasion: a Conservative party conference. But which one? All I can say is that this was a long time ago. It was after Johnson minor had become Mayor of London – he was speaking at that conference – and it must have been after (and probably responding to) a column I wrote in the Times more than six years ago: ‘Tories have got to

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Tory cadets who want a shot at the top

When Conservative prime ministers face a problem of logistics – from ambulance-driver shortages to border-force failures – there is a solution they like to fall back on: send in the military. When Boris Johnson was London mayor, he welcomed David Cameron’s decision to invite the army to help with the Olympics after the security firm G4S failed to provide enough staff. Now Johnson is in No. 10, he regularly calls in the troops to deal with any state deficiencies. During the pandemic, army personnel worked closely with the NHS, first in helping to build a Nightingale hospital in ten days and then during the vaccine rollout. Just this week, the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How the rebels plan to finish off Boris

The Tory party knows it has a problem with plotting. Of its last nine leaders, six have faced a leadership challenge of some sort. The current rules for removing a leader are designed to constrain the party’s appetite for regicide – no one can be challenged unless 15 per cent of the MPs write demanding a no-confidence vote, and the incumbent benefits from a second layer of protection: win, and they can’t be challenged again for a year. The purpose of this year of grace is to ensure that rebels can’t keep coming back until they have finished off a wounded leader. But this being the Tory party, the rules

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Boris’s cheerers will feel cheated if he goes

It was reported gleefully that Boris Johnson was booed as he entered St Paul’s Cathedral for the Jubilee Thanksgiving service last Friday. This was true but – as the BBC did add, though sotto voce – he was also cheered. Listening to the recording, I thought the cheers were a bit louder than the boos, but obviously neither has any statistical significance. What the mixture may indicate, however, is a problem which will arise if – which is likely, but by no means certain – he does have to leave office in the coming months following his weak victory in the no-confidence vote. The cheerers will feel cheated. The myth

Steven Fielding

Keir Starmer isn’t working

Silence. That is what we heard during Gloria de Piero’s recent focus group which she held for her GB News show in her old constituency of Ashfield, one of many Red Wall seats that fell to the Conservatives in 2019. Most participants had been Labour voters up to that election but felt the party had somehow let them down and ceased to represent the working class, especially with Jeremy Corbyn as leader. De Piero found them most talkative about how Boris Johnson had once appeared to be a different kind of politician, one whose promises they had believed but who they now felt had let them down, thanks to partygate.

Wednesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Did Boris Johnson survive PMQs?

10 min listen

Boris Johnson was surrounded by opposition at the despatch box when he faced the Labour leader at PMQs today. Did Keir Starmer make the most of his opportunity to score points against the Prime Minister’s disappointing result in the confidence vote the night before? Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth.

John Bell

The Brexit Horizon debate is bad news for scientists

The UK and EU are currently locked in a debate about Britain’s participation in the Horizon Europe science funding programme, with the EU blocking the UK from taking part due to concerns about the Northern Ireland protocol. The situation is very disappointing for scientists. Eighteen months ago, when the Brexit deal was signed in good faith, the UK government signed up to participate in the programme. This would have been a good thing. But it has now been turned into political football. As a result, 18 months later, scientists don’t know where they are. We’re apparently not in the programme, it looks like we’re out. But this row is running

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Rishi Sunak promises more tax cuts… just not yet

After Boris Johnson faced a confidence vote by his own MPs, the Prime Minister has come under pressure to bring in changes to his government. This ranges from talk of a reshuffle to shaking up the No. 10 operation yet again. But the issue which has the broadest support among MPs calling for change is a desire for Johnson to cut taxes. MPs from across the party – from the One Nation wing’s Damien Green to the ERG’s Steve Baker – have suggested this ought to be done sooner rather than later. However, it appears they will have to wait a little while longer. This evening Rishi Sunak spoke to

Debbie Hayton

Emily Bridges is right about transgender cyclists

Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges doesn’t ‘want special treatment from anyone’. In an ITV interview, Bridges said:  ‘I just want the same opportunities as my fellow female athletes’. As someone who transitioned a few years before Emily, I’d say Bridges is right: transgender people should not need special treatment. We are human beings, just like everyone else. In the UK, at least, trans people have specific and additional protections against discrimination and harassment. But these only become relevant if someone treats us less favourably because we are transgender. That has happened to me very rarely. So who is to blame for this unfortunate situation? Yet in the debate about whether Bridges

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs: Boris let slip his re-election strategy

PMQs started with a bump. The Speaker called Dame Angela Eagle whose tone was acidic but quietly conversational. ‘This week’s events demonstrated just how loathed this Prime Minister is,’ said the dame. ‘And that’s only in his own party.’ A decent gag that won big laughs – and not just from the opposition. But Boris didn’t crumple. Anyone who hoped to see him slouching like a wounded elephant to the bone-yard was disappointed. His brush with death has sharpened his relish for the fight. ‘I thank her very much for her question. And in a long political career – so far! – I have picked up political opponents all over.

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Boris can’t wish the tax burden away

After an uncomfortably close confidence vote for the Prime Minister on Monday, Boris Johnson’s premiership still hobbles along. But for how much longer? It seems the PM’s latest strategy is to find favour with his party again by promising bread-and-butter Tory policies: mainly tax cuts. Speaking to Tory MPs just hours before this week’s confidence vote, Johnson was making all the right noises: to boost the economy post-pandemic, he said, it was time to ‘drive supply side reform on Conservative principles and to cut taxes and to drive investment in the UK.’ Since the vote, Johnson has continued to harp on about cutting taxes, reportedly telling the Cabinet that cuts

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Starmer’s PMQs performance was oddly flat

It’s not unusual for a Labour leader to attack the government over the NHS at Prime Minister’s Questions. Neither is it a topic of low salience at the moment, given the size of the backlog. But it was nonetheless Sir Keir Starmer’s subject choice today was curious because it was precisely what Boris Johnson wanted to talk about, rather than the things he is trying to move on from. It’s ‘health week’ in the Downing Street grid, and apparently in Starmer’s too. Starmer did not make these points well. Far from pointing out the Tories’ own goals, he allowed them to score a few more To be fair to the Labour

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The utter shamelessness of Britain’s rail unions

In what other industry could demand collapse by a tenth and yet the staff still think that they have a right to an above inflation pay rise and no job losses? Rail privatisation was supposed to put an end to union militancy and to relieve taxpayers of the financial risk of running the railways. Patently, it has achieved neither objective. Three national rail strikes have been declared for later in the month, to compound strikes on the London underground. Meanwhile, taxpayers will contribute £16 billion this year to propping up an industry in which demand for its services have collapsed. In the week to 22 May (before the effect of

Matt Purple

Welcome to the age of post-Covid nihilism

Washington, DC Amid the recent orgy of violence across America, it was the carjackings that finally got me. Lost amid all the mass shootings and gang slayings of late has been another wave of crime: vehicle thefts. In Washington DC, carjackings in 2021 were up by a third over 2019, while in nearby Alexandria a motorist made national news after he shot two boys at a gas station who were trying to lift his car. In Chicago, 1,900 vehicles were jacked just last year, which is eye-wateringly high even by that city’s grim standards. There is an inhumanity at work in this country that’s as stark as anything I’ve seen in

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Vardy backs Carrie

Carrie Johnson hasn’t been seen much around Westminster recently, as her embattled husband tries to rescue his flailing premiership. But last weekend, the couple dressed up in their finery to mark the Platinum Jubilee. While the pair faced a, er, mixed reaction when they appeared at the thanksgiving service at St Paul’s, it seems that Carrie’s Labour red outfit won her one fan at least.  For underneath a picture of the Johnsons on Instagram, another famous wife voiced her approval. Rebekah Vardy – partner of footballer Jamie and currently embroiled in the ‘Wagatha Christie trial’ – posted on Carrie’s account: ‘You look stunning Carrie’ replete with a heart and two kisses. It’s

Oleksiy Pluzhnyk

Why Ukrainians like me still love Boris Johnson

When Boris Johnson and Ukraine’s president Zelensky walked through the streets of our capital in April, they came across a man. Astonished and emotional, he begged Zelensky:  ‘Please tell Boris that we will be grateful for the rest of our lives. Britain saved us. God, I’m so happy…My children and grandchildren will remember this forever. This memory will live through the centuries.’ These words sum up how many Ukrainians feel. For all his troubles at home, Boris Johnson remains more popular in Ukraine than many of our own politicians, with the possible exception of Zelensky himself. During the first day of the war, shocked and bound by fear in the face of