Politics Archives

Saturday

15 Jan 2022

Boris’s biggest mistake was taking his allies for granted

It is often said that there are few convinced ‘Boris-ites’ to be found among the ranks of Conservative MPs and that this lack of a praetorian guard of diehard supporters is a major weakness for the Prime Minister. But a much bigger weakness is the rapid ebbing away of the ranks of Boris-ites among the public at large. Last spring, when the progressive establishment thought it had the Prime Minister bang to rights over the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat, he sailed through the controversy and on to excellent results in the big round of elections at the start of May. Out in the country many voters believed that

Friday

14 Jan 2022

Steerpike

Downing Street’s wine-time Fridays

It was easy to get the sense in 2020 that the government didn’t want the lockdowns to end. Now we all realise why: everyone in No. 10 was having an absolute whale of a time. Less than 24 hours after the Telegraph revealed No. 10 held two parties the night before Prince Philip’s funeral (classy), the Mirror has just reported that its staff held ‘wine-time Fridays every week’ throughout the pandemic. Such events were scheduled in the weekly calendar of 50 Downing Street aides between 4 p.m and 7 p.m throughout the Covid crisis, with Boris Johnson himself witnessing the gatherings where he encouraged staff to ‘let off steam.’ The end-of-week drinks are part of

Max Jeffery

Is Boris to blame for No. 10’s party culture?

13 min listen

It’s been revealed that two more parties took place in No. 10 during the pandemic. This time, on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral. While the Prime Minister was not at this event, is No. 10’s party culture coming straight from the top? Max Jeffery is joined by Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

Alex Massie

Boris’s dwindling bunch of supporters must now come clean

Oh for heaven’s sake, come off it. British politics has long had a comfortable relationship with the absurd but this week – not yet over, its revelations not yet exhausted – takes a very pretty biscuit nonetheless. I do not imagine that ‘Downing Street apologises to the Queen for party revels’ is quite the kind of headline Conservative prime ministers dream of. And while Boris Johnson has a copper-clad alibi for the suitcase-of-booze party in as much as he was at Chequers that night, it remains the case – as has always been the case – that a government is led from the top. Consequently, the character of the man

Patrick West

James Treadwell and the true meaning of ‘cancel culture’

There’s an inherent contradiction at the heart of liberal thinking that perpetually raises its head. It’s one which has become ever-more pronounced in our age of ultra-progressive politics: the tension between equality and liberty. Many progressives think you can have both. Alas not. You can only have either, or a greater emphasis upon one at the expense of the other. This contradiction has once more been made evident today amidst reports of a lecturer who says he is the latest victim of ‘cancel culture’. James Treadwell, a professor of criminology at Staffordshire University, says that he is ‘being investigated for transphobia’ after his employer received ‘formal and official’ complaints about

James Lewisohn

‘We failed’: Denmark’s media is waking up to its flawed Covid coverage

‘We failed’. An editorial in Ekstra Bladet, Denmark’s leading tabloid, berates the Fourth Estate – including itself – for failing to hold ministers to account during the pandemic. Worn down by repeated warnings of ‘the dormant corona monster under our beds’, Ekstra Bladet claims Danish journalists mostly took the government line. ‘We have not been vigilant enough at the garden gate when the authorities were required to answer what it actually meant that people are hospitalised with coronavirus and not because of coronavirus,’ the paper told its readers. Ekstra Bladet’s accusation is that the Danish media did not properly question hospital admissions data, which appears to show that many of the country’s Covid hospitalisations might have

Andy Owen

Will Britain now take the threat of Chinese espionage seriously?

The UK has long been aware of the risk of cyber-attacks emanating from China. Back in 2007, the head of MI5 Jonathan Evans warned hundreds of British businesses about Chinese cyber-operations targeting the UK. Yet the risk from Chinese spies operating in the UK is less well understood. This is why it came as such a shock to so many when MI5 warned MPs and peers this week that the lawyer Christine Lee was allegedly seeking to influence parliamentarians on behalf of the Chinese Communist party. A law firm that bears Lee’s name made political donations totalling £675,000, of which £584,177 were ‘donations in kind’ to the office of Labour MP Barry Gardiner. She also received a Points

Steerpike

Boris’s curious Covid rules approach

It seems that Boris Johnson has adopted something of a curious approach to Covid regulations. No, not the Downing Street parties, but rather his attitude towards self-isolation. For the PM’s official spokesman revealed yesterday that one of Johnson’s relatives — either his wife Carrie or one of the children he has living at Downing Street — has tested positive for Covid, meaning that he will not be making any appearances until next week. The embattled Tory leader will instead remain in No. 10 as he fights to save his crumbling premiership, conducting mainly virtual meetings until next Wednesday. His spokesperson told lobby hacks that: In line with the guidance, he’s reducing contacts, he’ll be working from No. 10, doing the

Kate Andrews

The UK economy has returned to its pre-pandemic size

Nearly two years after the UK experienced its biggest economic collapse in 300 years, the economy has returned to pre-pandemic levels. GDP is estimated by the ONS to have grown by 0.9 per cent in November, almost twice what had been expected – making it 0.7 per cent larger than it was in February 2020. The US and Sweden managed to pass pre-pandemic levels last spring. China took just a few months. But Britain, whose economy fell further than almost any developed country in 2020, is catching up. Britain, whose economy fell further than almost any developed country in 2020, is catching up The below chart shows how UK growth

Steerpike

Full list of Downing Street parties

So, how many is that now? ITV have just revealed that Boris Johnson had a 56th birthday bash in the middle of the first lockdown — the latest in a list of illicit parties that have come to light over the past two months. By Steerpike’s count there have been reports of at least *sixteen* parties which allegedly broke Covid restrictions as they changed repeatedly throughout the pandemic. Most of these gatherings were held in No. 10 Downing Street but other Whitehall departments also got in on the act. Below is a timeline of all the alleged soirees, shindigs and not-so-socially distanced jamborees held in SW1 over the past two years… 15 May 2020: An image was published

Alexander Larman

How could No.10 staff party on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral?

If any single image epitomised the sacrifices that millions made during the pandemic, it was that of the Queen, masked, black-clad and entirely alone, in a pew at Windsor Castle on 17 April 2021, at Prince Philip’s socially distanced funeral. For those who regard Her Majesty as the exemplar of the public servant, who has done her best for her country for nearly seventy years, it was an almost heartbreakingly poignant representation of loss. Even for republicans, the image of the then-94-year old woman mourning her husband of 73 years was deeply affecting on a human, as well as a symbolic, level. It was unsurprising that Keir Starmer invoked the

James Forsyth

The Tory grassroots are putting pressure on Boris Johnson

Tory associations are about to become central to Boris Johnson’s fate. Even before last night’s Telegraph story revealing how a party was held in Downing Street the night before Prince Philip’s socially distanced funeral, several Tory MPs told me that their associations were putting pressure on them to be more critical of the Prime Minister. This is now increasing. One member of the government payroll tells me he is coming under huge pressure from his association to act. Lots of Tory councillors are up for re-election in May and so risk being the first to face the anger of the voters At the moment, only five Tory MPs have publicly

Ian Williams

Britain is finally waking up to China’s influence operations

The biggest surprise in Thursday’s security warning about a Chinese agent seeking to influence British politicians is that it came as a surprise at all. The Chinese Communist Party operates a vast and growing influence operation in Britain, which has pretty much been allowed free rein. The warning came from MI5 in the form of an ‘interference alert’ sent to House of Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsey Hoyle, which he then passed on to MPs. It warned that Christine Lee, a lawyer, was ‘knowingly engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist party.’ Lee was accused of attempting to influence several MPs

Katy Balls

The Michelle Donelan Edition

24 min listen

Michelle Donelan was elected in 2015 as a Conservative MP for Chippenham. Since then, she has been re-elected twice and has risen in her political roles. Starting as a member of the education select committee and becoming a whip, to then being appointed a minister, first of children and families, and then in the latest cabinet reshuffle, becoming minister of state for higher and further education. On the episode, Michelle talks about how she had decided on a career in politics at the age of six, working for World Wrestling Entertainment, and what surprised her when she first entered politics.

Thursday

13 Jan 2022

Steerpike

Did No. 10 party while the Queen mourned?

Oh dear. If you were trying to design a story to offend Tory England, it would be hard to do better than the idea that there was a party held in Downing Street the night before the Queen had to mourn Prince Philip alone at a socially distanced funeral. But that is what the Daily Telegraph is alleging happened on 16 April 2021. It says that there were two leaving dos there that evening which soon became parties and, when combined, involved around 30 people. This was back when there was no indoor socialising and the rule of six outside. The paper claims that a staff member was sent to a supermarket on

Peter Hunt

Prince Andrew’s royal excommunication is complete

Prince Andrew has been well and truly cut adrift. By his only family. From birth, he was styled His Royal Highness. He will go to his grave unencumbered by it. The removal of the style HRH, at the age of 61, will hurt a son of the Queen who doesn’t wear his royal status lightly. He remains a prince and a duke, but the Falklands veteran has no military titles. The uniform of an admiral he’d asked a tailor to run up will now remain in a wardrobe. Unworn in public. His patronages are gone too. Henceforth, he’s Prince Andrew, Duke of York: the non-royal, royal This is what a

Alexander Larman

The decline and fall of Prince Andrew

The final judgement, when it came, was phrased with admirable economy. This evening’s statement from Buckingham Palace said simply that: With The Queen’s approval and agreement, The Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to The Queen. The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen. In 42 words, Prince Andrew’s royal career has been extinguished forever. He has been reduced from being someone who was once second in line to the throne to being nothing more than a private citizen, and a publicly disgraced one at that. In 42 words, Prince Andrew’s royal

Steerpike

Will anyone stand by Prince Andrew now?

Well, at least someone’s having a worse week than Boris Johnson. For the Queen has announced this afternoon that Prince Andrew has now been stripped of his military affiliations and patronages that meant so much to them both. The news follows a day after an American judge gave the green light for the Duke of York to face a sexual assault civil lawsuit in the States. The move comes hours after more than 150 military veterans wrote to Her Majesty to ask her to strip Andrew of his honorary military roles amid what they described as their ‘upset and anger.’ The Queen’s statement makes clear that Andrew will ‘continue not to undertake any public duties’ and is defending his

William Moore

Is it over?

34 min listen

In this week’s episode: Is Boris Johnson done for? In this week’s Spectator cover story, our political editor James Forsyth and our deputy political editor Katy Balls write about Boris Johnson’s perilous position in the aftermath of the Partygate scandal. They join the podcast to predict the Prime Minister’s fate. (00:40) Also this week: Is there a dangerous side to self-improvement? The hashtag manifesting has had billions of impressions on social media in the last year. Younger generations love it and Mary Wakefield explores this viral phenomenon in her column this week. She joins the podcast along with Ally Head, the health and sustainability editor for Marie Claire UK who

Andrew Lilico

In defence of Boris: would his replacement be any better?

Keir Starmer, aided and abetted by Boris Johnson’s many internal enemies within the Conservative party, has managed to get into the public consciousness the idea that if Boris Johnson attended a ‘party’ during lockdown, he should resign. There are a number of good reasons that the Tory party might feel it was time for a new leader, but the notion that attending an at-best semi-licit drinks event in one’s own back garden counts as a grounds to remove a prime minister seems to me to be wildly disproportionate. People say: ‘Those that make laws should not break them.’ And, of course, that it correct. But it doesn’t follow that any PM