Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
36 min listen
In this inaugural episode of Marshall Matters, Winston interviews Ignat Solzhenitsyn on the pursuit of art, the state of classical music, the lasting influence of his father Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the thunderous (or gentle) essay ‘Live Not By Lies’…
As Downing Street aides prepare to publish Sue Gray’s report later today, there is a growing sense amongst Boris Johnson’s allies that they are turning a corner after a month of torrid headlines. The government is now trying to move attention to Levelling Up and the situation in Ukraine; the fact that the report into partygate will be redacted when it comes to the most serious suspected breaches of Covid guidelines will help them shift the focus. It means that much of the sting will be taken out of the report. No. 10 plans to use any breathing space as a result to convince MPs the government is focussing on getting on with the day
‘When parents give Maus…to their little kids, I think it’s child abuse. I wanna protect my kids!’ Who do you imagine this quote is from? Some plaid-clad member of the moral majority at a town hall meeting in Tennessee – where the local board of education in McMinn County recently caused an outcry by removing Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about the Holocaust from the eighth-grade curriculum? Nope. It’s a quote from, well, Art Spiegelman – in a 1997 comic he drew depicting a conversation he had with Maurice Sendak. This week he took a rather different view. Interviewed by CNN, he said that in contemplating the school board ruling he
Andrew Neil is back on our TV screens (‘Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road?’, Channel 4 this evening). Perhaps the most dramatic moment in the documentary is when he confronts Michael Gove, one of the main advocates of lockdown, over the blood-curdling government posters used last year: ‘Look her in the eyes and tell her you never bend the rules.’ Now we know, Neil said, that those who commissioned these posters were breaking the rules. The following exchange then takes place: Thousands of people were taken to the courts for defying the lockdown rules Gove advocated Andrew Neil ‘Given what we know now, it was a cavalier approach to lockdown.’ Michael Gove
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s plan to press on with the new health and social care levy is not a huge surprise. The deal between them last year to get social care reforms over the line boiled down to a simple principle: new spending projects must be fully funded. That remains as important to the Chancellor today as it was back then. With the Prime Minister still opposed to making cuts elsewhere to pay for his plans, the levy, by default, stays with us. As I wrote last week, it was highly unlikely that recent updates to public finance figures – showing lower borrowing and higher tax receipts than expected
Liz Truss – It is ‘highly likely’ that Russia will invade Ukraine January may be Eastern Europe’s coldest month, but most Ukrainians are unwilling to accept Vladimir Putin’s gigantic bear hug for comfort. Last week, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss claimed to have seen intelligence suggesting a Russian plan to install a puppet government in Kyiv, and diplomatic efforts have not yet managed to take the chill off the situation. Truss was interviewed by Sophie Raworth, who asked her how likely it was that the situation could escalate: LT: We think it’s highly likely that [Putin] is looking to invade Ukraine… There is a real threat of invasion, but we don’t
It’s no secret that the polls do not look good for the Prime Minister at the moment. The most recent Ipsos Mori political monitor, released this week, shows that seven in ten Britons are now dissatisfied with the job Boris Johnson is doing. The PM’s numbers now are similar to Theresa May’s just before she left office in 2019, Tony Blair’s in January 2007 and the types of figures registered by Gordon Brown throughout 2008 and 2009. In this context, some six in ten Britons think the Conservatives should change their leader before the next general election (up from 42 per cent last July), including more than one in three
The news that the highly influential third-generation member of the Le Pen family, Marion Maréchal, will not be backing her aunt Marine for the French presidency is ‘brutal, violent and painful’, in Marine’s words. But beyond its emotional impact on the Le Pen family, for whom politics, betrayal and intrigue have always been of Shakespearean dimensions, this is potentially an earthquake in French politics. For the 32 year old intellectual branch of the family has hinted that she may join Éric Zemmour’s campaign. Far more important than its impact on the presidential race is the potential to achieve what was the quest of General de Gaulle in 1958 and more
Tories who tried to convince Number 10 and Number 11 to delay the hike in National Insurance have had their hopes comprehensively dashed this morning. The Sunday Times carries a joint op-ed by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor which confirms the NI rise is going ahead as planned. Raising tax on workers is estimated to bring in an additional £12bn and will see those on £20,000 paying an extra £89, those on £30,000 stung for £214 and earners on £50,000 forced to hand over a further £464. Higher earners will see sharper increases: £839 on £80,000 and £1,089 on £100,000. The Conservatives desperately need a policy framework for addressing
Three years ago, imagine that you had wanted to write a film script about a prime minister and his travails. By some coincidence, your draft bore a close relationship to Boris Johnson’s character and recent developments. We know the outcome. You would have been laughed out of the producer’s office. ‘Some of this is quite amusing,’ you would have been told. ‘You clearly have a talent for slapstick. But you have none for verisimilitude. You are writing about the head of government of a serious country, at a time of great events and challenges, at home and abroad. And this is how you portray the PM and 10 Downing Street?
Black conservatism is a particular form of conservative politics. As a movement, it’s American, with strengthening echoes in the UK, in France and beyond. Some of its most prominent activists would be classed, and class themselves, as straight-down-the-line conservatives. Some, such as Glenn Loury, an economics professor at Brown University, confess to being, as Irving Kristol’s neoconservative quip has it, ‘liberals mugged by reality.’ All would say of themselves that they are Americans first, patriots, proud of being and glad to be so, dismissive of the radical critique of their country, and harsh on black personalities and protestors who they believe parade a status of subjugation which they have not
12 min listen
Boris Johnson has come out fighting, but that doesn’t mean he’s in the clear. Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about the Prime Minister’s efforts to keep himself inside No. 10.
It’s time for Boris Johnson to go, says Keir Starmer. Angela Rayner agrees: ‘Fundamentally the British public are starting to see that Boris isn’t fit to be Prime Minister’. Other members of the shadow cabinet think the same: the PM ‘should do the decent thing and resign now,’ says Labour Anneliese Dodds. But should they be careful for what they wish for? Whether Labour really wants Johnson to go – at least not until he has fatally damaged his party by its association with a leader many in the public now regard as a blatant liar and hypocrite – is moot. In any case, the party does not get to make the decision: that rests
Having said just days ago that they had no objection to Sue Gray’s report being published, the Met have now executed a screeching, tyre-burning U-turn and have asked that the parts of her report dealing with the most serious allegations – the only parts in which anyone has any interest – should not be published until they have completed their own investigation. No. 10 will be more than happy to comply. Nobody can be in any doubt about the staggering, bumbling ineptitude of its presentation, but the latest Met position does actually make some sense. This is not because publication of the Gray report could possibly prejudice any criminal trial:
10 min listen
Today the Metropolitan Police requested that Sue Gray’s report makes ‘minimal reference’ to the events in her inquiry, whilst there is an ongoing police investigation. ‘I think it puts the government in a difficult position. If you publish the report with minimal reference to the alleged parties being investigated by the police you’ll be accused of a whitewash report’ – Katy Balls.As a consequence of the police investigation, there are also rumours that staffers in Whitehall might be fined over parties in the coming weeks. What will be the outcome of this? Will the culprits, who are likely to be junior staffers at No.10 dispute the fines? All to be
The current impotence of the Prime Minister can be measured in many forms. But one of them is just how few Cabinet ministers are willing to go out and give Boris Johnson their full-throated support on various media platforms. It’s telling that of the 30 or so ministers attending Cabinet, only two seem to be shouldering most of the responsibility: Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries. But while Mogg tends to focus his energies on traditional broadcasters, Dorries prefers taking to Twitter to proclaim her loyalty and decry the waverers. Unfortunately, the recently-appointed Culture Secretary appears to be embracing her social media brief a little too enthusiastically. Not only did she retweet comedian Joe Lycett’s
15 min listen
On this week’s episode, we’ll hear from Martin Vander Weyer on the crash of crypto. (00:47) Next, Laurie Graham on the difficulties of downsizing. (04:20) And finally, Michael Mosbacher on the history of the fur industry. (12:20) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucher
‘Wait for Sue Gray’ was the ministerial mantra last week. And wait, we all have, as the days have ticked by with no sign of her report into the lockdown parties allegedly held at No. 10. But now, after a week of stasis which has had Westminster on tenterhooks, Cressida Dick and the Met police have dropped another bombshell on a quiet Friday morning. Dick revealed on Tuesday that her officers would be launching a criminal investigation into ‘partygate,’ having previously ignored all calls to do so. And today the Met has issued a fresh statement, saying they want ‘minimal reference’ in Gray’s report to the No.10 parties which they’re
After a week of speculation about the release of Sue Gray’s report into partygate, its publication has now been complicated further. This morning the Metropolitan police released a statement confirming that they have asked the government to make ‘minimal reference’ to the eight events they are now investigating after being passed evidence from the Cabinet Office that triggered a police investigation. A Met spokesman said: Pushing the report into the long grass is not without risk for the Prime Minister ‘For the events the Met is investigating, we asked for minimal reference to be made in the Cabinet Office report.’ The police add that they did not ask for ‘any
16 min listen
Whilst everyone waits for the Sue Gray report, all eyes turn to the next scandal: Pen Farthing’s animal rescue operation out of Afghanistan. It has been revealed that Boris Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary, Trudy Harrison contacted a jet hire company in an attempt to secure a plane to evacuate the pets. The PM has responded to these allegations saying they are ‘total rhubarb’ – but what does that mean?‘You don’t seem to get the impression that Downing Street feels as if they are under pressure about this’ – Katy Balls Also on the podcast, is Boris Johnson planning a shake-up of his staff at No.10? And if so, who might
