Politics

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

Wednesday

Robert Peston Robert Peston

How will Boris build his ‘high-wage, high-skill’ Britain?

There are a few problems with Boris Johnson’s big idea, namely that the sharp fall in the supply of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the UK – triggered by Brexit, reinforced by Covid – will automatically lead businesses to invest, such that the UK’s long history of low productivity and low incomes will end on his watch. His vision, the philosophical heart of his speech to Tory conference this morning, is of a gleaming new ‘high wage, high skill, high productivity economy’ and that ‘we are not going back to the same old broken model with low wages, low growth, low skills and low productivity, all of it enabled and

Cosmo Landesman

Help! I don’t know what a cervix is

With all this talk of private parts, the political has now gotten very personal. Recently, I was having an argument with a male transgender rights activist over Labour MP Rosie Duffield’s claim that ‘only women have a cervix’. I huffed and puffed and pontificated about the ‘undeniable facts of biology and female anatomy’ when it suddenly occurred to me: I haven’t the faintest idea what a cervix is. Yes, I know that only women have them. But what are they? Where are they? What do they do? Can you implant a cervix? Create an artificial cervix? Have cosmetic surgery on your cervix? Search me. Clueless men like me are all

Steerpike Steerpike

Liz Truss: ‘It’s raining men’

It’s the final day of Tory party conference today, with all eyes on Boris Johnson’s speech at midday. But will all the cabinet be there to watch it, bright-eyed and bushy tailed? Judging from last night’s antics, Mr S suspects that the answer may be: no. Truss, wearing a striking green number, stood out a mile in a sea of identikit Tory boy blue suits Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey was seen belting out ‘The Time of My Life’ at the legendary inHouse comms karaoke party while many of her fellow ministers attended The Spectator’s own champagne-fuelled shindig. But while Tom Tugendhat and Michael Gove twirled and spun together

Annabel Denham

It is hard to take Sunak’s jobs plan seriously

At some point, Rishi Sunak is going to need to pick a lane. There is only so long that the Chancellor can claim to believe that excessive borrowing is immoral while borrowing to such excess. His trick yesterday was to make all the right noises about restraint while unrolling a £500 million ‘plan for jobs’. Take away his earnest delivery and it’s still not clear whether he’s the boozer at the bar telling the world about the dangers of alcoholism, or the sensible friend ordering the taxi home. Let’s be fair. Sunak has had to deal with exceptional circumstances in the last 18 months, and is taking steps to cease

Leo McKinstry

A short history of political violence

The ugly attack on Iain Duncan Smith by five protestors at the Tory conference in Manchester has been widely seen as another illustration of how dangerously embittered British politics has become. We now live, it is often said, in a world of deepening friction, hate and intolerance. Angela Rayner’s now notorious rant about Tory ‘scum’ was also seen as a prime example of the spread of ‘cancel culture’, or the way Twitter rage has ruined civilised debate. Ditto the alarming story of Labour’s MP for Canterbury, who refused to attend her own party’s conference in Brighton last week after she received a number of threats. It’s all very unpleasant. Amid concerns

Tuesday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Sunak faces the free-marketeers

Rishi Sunak didn’t give too much away tonight when he spoke in the ‘ThinkTent’ at Conservative Party Conference. The Chancellor is known for being cautious with his words, and has been increasingly tight-lipped in the weeks leading up to his October Budget. But his presence at the fringe event was telling in itself. Sunak was only billed for one public fringe event this year, co-hosted by the Institute of Economic Affairs and Taxpayers’ Alliance. Their ‘ThinkTent’ boasts some of the most free-market, libertarian events you’ll find at conference: both organisations are strong advocates for a low-tax, smaller state. So, not necessarily an obvious place to find the Chancellor who has overseen record peacetime

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Power fail: French tantrum diplomacy is wearing thin

It’s hard for tabloid journalists to engage in mad hyperbole when politicians seem all too willing to do it for them. Clément Beaume, France’s Secretary of State for European Affairs, has just desperately threatened to turn off the power supply to Britain. Or as Bloomberg so delicately puts it, ‘to leverage [France’s] electricity supplies to the U.K. in an effort to force Boris Johnson’s government to grant access to British fishing waters.’ ‘The Channel Islands, the U.K. are dependent on us for their energy supply,’ said Beaune in an interview on Europe1 radio. ‘They think they can live on their own and badmouth Europe as well. And because it doesn’t

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tories tussle over working from home

10 min listen

It is day three at the Conservative party conference and, as Isabel says on the podcast, Boris Johnson started the day a ‘little tetchy’ on his morning media round-up. After being told by Nick Robinson to ‘stop talking’ on Radio 4, the Prime Minister clashed with the host when asked about rising wages and inflation. Where the Tories stand on working from home has also been up for debate during the conference. With some ministers eager to get Britons back to their desks, there are whispers that backbenchers don’t agree. Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth.

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Carrie’s speech on gay rights

It’s the final night here at Conservative party conference. The booze is flowing and events are coming thick and fast. But the one reception which was guaranteed to pack out tonight was the LGBT+ Conservatives night with Carrie Johnson – the only event at which the Prime Minister’s spouse was scheduled to speak. Watched on by her husband standing at the back, Mrs Johnson delivered an unambiguously pro-LGBT+ rights speech in front of a packed audience of eager hacks and passionate activists. The intervention by the former CCHQ director of communications received widespread interest, in light of the government’s stance on issues such as trans rights and gay conversion therapy.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Priti Patel strikes a bullish tone

The theme of Priti Patel’s party conference speech this afternoon was very much ‘large and in charge’. She devoted much of her address to talking about the immigration system, as you’d expect, promising stronger crackdowns on people being smuggled across the Channel in boats. Patel focused on the Vote Leave favourite: taking back control Whereas Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have talked about Britain ‘voting for change’ in 2016, Patel focused on the Vote Leave favourite: taking back control. She told the conference hall this was the key theme of her reforms to immigration, saying: ‘My new plan for immigration is already making its way through parliament. At the heart of

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

The powerlessness of Priti Patel

It is hard not to feel sorry for Priti Patel. She would surely have been a Tory conference darling at the gathering that never happened back in autumn 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Back then she always came towards the top of cabinet ministers’ popularity in the monthly survey conducted by the Conservative Home website. But this year the Home Secretary’s ratings have dropped like a stone. She currently sits in 29th place, staring up in envy at such magnetic figures as Alok Sharma and Alister Jack and without even the comfort of knowing that there is always Gavin Williamson to look down on. In the mini-hall being used

Will Heaven

How the Tories can ‘level up’ without annoying Nimbys

Have the Conservatives lost their nerve on planning reform? Not quite, but a couple of small interventions at the Conservative party conference in Manchester point in a new direction. If anything, they suggest more ambition, not less, on the part of the ministerial team involved – though less opportunity for a falling out with southern voters. The first, by Michael Gove, was yesterday in a Policy Exchange fringe event with Sebastian Payne on the latter’s new book, Broken Heartlands. The new Levelling Up Secretary told his interviewer that the gap between paying monthly rent and paying monthly mortgage instalments – which are lower than rents for first-time buyers lucky enough

Steerpike Steerpike

What’s the matter with Boris?

The Tories are ahead in the polls, the pandemic is easing, and the Prime Minister’s position is secure. And yet, for all the thronging crowds and warm white wine being guzzled at this year’s Conservative party conference, a strange gloom fills the air – and it has something to do with the dear leader, Boris Johnson. Having been so ebullient for so long, and for many years the cheerleader for Tory optimism at every conference, Johnson seems weirdly subdued, even grumpy. Around the fringes of the conference, a question is being quietly asked: is something wrong with Boris? The Prime Minister has been on a media blitz – but he’s

Gus Carter Gus Carter

How Raab plans to fix the law

How do you solve a problem like Britain’s creaking criminal justice system? To the newly appointed Secretary of State, the answer involves ripping up the Human Rights Act, rolling out more electronic tags for convicts and pumping cash into preventative projects. At a Spectator event this morning, held at Tory Party Conference, Dominic Raab explained that rewriting the UK’s human rights laws was central to his reforming mission. He told editor Fraser Nelson: The Prime Minister was very clear when he appointed me deputy PM and Justice Secretary that he wanted this done… Overhauling the Human Rights Act is not just a good way of dealing with the foreign nationals

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The contradictory Tory home working jibes

Why have ministers become so obsessed with where people are doing their work? The war on working from home has become one of the key themes of this Conservative party conference. Senior figures and backbenchers alike have launched attacks on those who are continuing to work remotely rather than returning to the traditional office set-up. At the start of the conference, former minister Jake Berry joked that ‘We have to end the Civil Service “woke-ing” from home — sorry, I mean working from home — but, let’s be honest, it often is “woke-ing”.’ This morning, Boris Johnson warned younger people that their colleagues would ‘gossip’ about them and they would

Steerpike Steerpike

Raab: clemency for BBC fee dodgers ‘an attractive idea’

Dominic Raab already has rather a lot on his plate. The new Justice Secretary is planning to re-write the UK’s human rights laws as well as nearly doubling the number of convicts on electronic tags. But undoubtedly the biggest challenge facing Raab is the lockdown backlog in the number of people waiting for trials.  At a Spectator event this morning, editor Fraser Nelson asked whether the Justice Secretary might consider an amnesty for the 3,000 people a week who find themselves in court over non-payment of the BBC licence fee. The deputy PM grinned at the suggestion, telling delegates at the Conservative Party Conference that ‘it’s an attractive idea’.  Raab also promised to

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why the fringes are taking centre stage at Tory conference

Tory conference is so stage-managed these days that the main hall has long felt like a bit of a sideshow compared to the lively debate on the fringes and the packed bars. That’s been true so far this week, and not just because the ‘main hall’ is just a small area of the convention centre, so small you can hear the chatter of delegates buying clothes and jam at neighbouring stalls while ministers are trying to speak. This hasn’t gone down all that well with some ministers, who’ve been able to hear raucous applause from fringe meetings as they’ve been giving their own speeches to a less-than-packed hall. Not everyone

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris Johnson’s upbeat defence of labour shortages

Boris Johnson hadn’t been on the Today programme for two years. His interview this morning was, as so many of his interviews are, a testy affair. Johnson gave typically long answers, much to Nick Robinson’s frustration – at one point, he simply said ‘stop talking, Prime Minister’, a phrase that is bound to cause a row. Johnson at the end asked what the point was of him giving an interview if he couldn’t talk, but those listening will have known what Robinson meant. Johnson’s style is to bulldoze through questions by sheer weight of words. Johnson is determined to run with the current worker shortages, believing that they’ll lead to

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The fantasy world of Boris Johnson

In One Thousand and One Nights, Scheherazade must begin a new story every evening. She must make sure that the sultan is so eager to hear its conclusion he postpones his plans to execute her. On they go, month after month, year after year, a different story every day. I want you to imagine Boris Johnson as Scheherazade. He is taking the stage at the Conservative party conference dressed in diaphanous silk harem pants, a velvet top with chiffon sleeves, a veil to hide his true expression, and with pearls taken from the jewellery collection of a Russian oligarch’s wife laced through his hair. Johnson, too, knows he must come up with

Steerpike Steerpike

‘Prime Minister, stop talking’: Nick Robinson clashes with Boris

Boris Johnson made a rare appearance on the Today programme this morning to drum up support for his agenda ahead of his conference speech tomorrow. But while listeners may have been hoping to hear a serious discussion about the state of the country, petrol pumps and supply chain woes, the interview quickly became a scrap between the Prime Minister and the programme’s host, Nick Robinson. The interview got off to a tetchy start with Robinson chiding the prime minister for not appearing on Today for two years. The PM jovially replied that ‘time had flown’ and began declaiming on the current global energy crisis. Johnson then answered several questions, with