Politics

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

Tuesday

Annabel Denham

How to fix the BBC licence fee

Nadine Dorries came out fighting over the weekend to declare it was time to discuss new ways to fund and sell the ‘great British content’ produced by the BBC. But it turned out she had little in the way of ammunition once she reached the Commons yesterday. There will be a two-year freeze in the £159 fee — a measure that will represent a real-terms cut in the corporation’s funding, but hardly the ‘mortal threat’ some alarmists have declared. In 2019–20, the BBC generated total income of £4.94 billion, of which £3.52 billion was public funding from the licence fee. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the BBC

Matthew Lynn

The real crisis that could finish the Tories

Endless drinking parties at No. 10. Expensive flat refurbishments paid for by someone else. And plenty of ambitious rivals jostling to take the crown. There are plenty of threats to Boris Johnson and to the Conservative party right now. But the real one is buried in the small print of the labour market report today. Real wages are starting to fall sharply. On the surface, today’s data from the Office for National Statistics was very encouraging for the government, especially at a time when very little has been going right for it. Despite the end of the furlough scheme, the partial closure of businesses during the latest wave and chaotic

Steerpike Steerpike

Dominic Grieve wins (at last)

It doesn’t say much for this government that Dominic Grieve can run rings around them. An amendment drafted by the ardent Remainiac was just one of 14 defeats inflicted by the Lords last night as peers opted to torpedo Priti Patel’s flagship Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Cue a crowing press release from Grieve’s group Best for Britain, declaring victory.  The rare triumph for the Beaconsfield barrister is all the more sweet in light of another result which, er, doesn’t make for such good reading. For earlier this month, Lowick landlord Geoff Monks was quietly awarded a seven-figure settlement — thought to be about £4 million — by North

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The bombshell email that could spell disaster for Boris

I know who sent the email to Martin Reynolds on 20 May 2020 telling him the planned ‘bring your own booze’ party should not go ahead, though the sender tells me he does not want to be seen as agent provocateur against the Prime Minister and has asked me not to name him. Before I go on, I regard the evidence of this ‘senior official’ – as styled by Dominic Cummings in his blog yesterday – as compelling, because if it turns out he is lying he knows it will come out and he would be seriously damaged. The email was copied to an official in Reynolds’s office and to the PM’s

Steerpike Steerpike

Animal Sentience Bill rears its head again

So, here we are then. Despite a monstering in the Lords and near-universal condemnation across the press, the Animal Sentience Bill has reared its ugly head once more, returning to the Commons today for its Second Reading. The flagship legislation, which Mr S has covered extensively, is designed to protect helpless creatures and recognise they can feel pain by creating a new super-committee to judge the effects of government policies. Proposed amendments mean that shellfish are to be included; hapless ministers forced to defend them are not. As Steerpike has pointed out repeatedly, animal welfare has been recognised in British law for 200 years The government has been caught between

Steerpike Steerpike

Greens select Kathleen Stock’s persecutor

It’s not been a great new year for the Greens. From the north of Britain to the south, two examples in the past week haven’t exactly shown the party at its best. First, the Scottish Sun revealed that Lorna Slater, the co-leader north of the border, told aides she didn’t want to work every day of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow – despite billing it ‘the last chance to save the world.’ Slater, who has now been dubbed ‘Lorna Slacker,’ told government officials she didn’t want them to arrange more than ‘two things in one day’, before being snapped on the first day of COP drinking in a pub at 5 p.m.  And

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Britain’s fiery relationship with Russia could help Ukraine

Britain last night sent soldiers and hi-tech kit to bolster up Ukraine’s defences amidst the threat of a Russian invasion. But as well as preparing for war, the UK is also opting for jaw jaw with the Kremlin. For some, this is grounds for apoplexy, as – in the midst of arguably the most dangerous European security crisis since the end of the Cold War – Defence Secretary Ben Wallace invites his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, to visit Britain. But he’s absolutely right to do so. No one is going to mistake Wallace for some closet Putinist, what the Germans call a Putinversteher, or ‘Putin understander.’ Indeed, the very same day

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Which MPs are expensing their licence fee?

It’s not just the BBC’s well-paid stars who didn’t like hearing that the licence fee will be abolished. Labour MPs have been spitting feathers at Nadine Dorries’s audacious move to phase out the existing system by 2028, with many standing up in the House of Commons today to proclaim their dismay. Lucy Powell, Dorries’ opposite number, wailed that the government’s ‘cultural vandalism’ risked ‘destroying everything that is great about Britain.’ As the creator of the Ed Stone, she’d know all about that. Powell doubled down on Twitter, claiming the abolition of the licence fee was ‘the end of of the BBC as we know it’. Strong stuff and Powell’s colleagues were quick to retweet in

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Did Johnson mislead the Commons?

Boris Johnson had hoped to move attention this week from parties — with a series of policy announcements planned as part of ‘Operation Red Meat’, his fightback plan. Nadine Dorries this afternoon told MPs in the Commons of plans to freeze the BBC licence fee for two years while No. 10 plan to bring the military in to tackle the channel crossings — a move that led MPs to congratulate the government on the Tory WhatsApp group. Yet as No. 10 waits for Sue Gray’s report into Partygate, the situation is moving. This afternoon, Boris Johnson’s former aide turned tormentor-in-chief Dominic Cummings published a blog on his Substack in which he made new allegations

Steerpike Steerpike

Is this the BBC’s best defence?

Proposals by Nadine Dorries to scrap the BBC licence fee have produced something of a meltdown over at Broadcasting House. The Culture Secretary wants to keep the licence fee flat at £159 a year until April 2024, after which it will rise in line with inflation until 2028 when it will be replaced by an as-yet-unknown funding model. The news has induced dozens of the Beeb’s highly-paid stars into paroxysms of rage, not seen since the days of Brexit, as the Corporation’s biggest names rush to defend their employer on Twitter. Mr S has a soft spot for Auntie but some of the arguments being mounted in its defence are simply laughable. First up,

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Boris Johnson’s bid to save his own skin could easily backfire

Militarising the border with France and abolishing the BBC licence fee may seem an extreme way to win back estranged backbench MPs, but the Prime Minister is in dire straits.  The heaviest burden is therefore on Sue Gray, the second permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office. She has been given the unenviable task of providing an objective assessment of whether lockdown or other rules were broken when Downing Street partied over the past 18 months and who may have been to blame. Her task has been made all the harder over the past three days, following widespread briefing by allies of the PM that the culprits are civil servants and special

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Boris can’t fix the migrant crisis

British prime ministers like to deploy the armed services in civilian life because doing so is one of the few levers they can pull that seems to be attached to something that makes an actual difference. While billions extra can be thrown at the NHS with no discernible change or poured into failing public services which go on to fail again in just the same way, calling in the British Army, Royal Air Force or Royal Navy means handing a problem over to men and women of action. The forces are goal-orientated and don’t partake in go-slows, strikes, inclusivity workshops or any of the myriad other things that sap public

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will Operation Red Meat work?

10 min listen

Tory MPs have just returned from their constituencies after a weekend of persuading voters to support their party in the May local elections. It’s not just the public that is angry, the local associations are equally outraged at the scandals that have marred the first month of 2022. Those around Boris Johnson are planning ‘Operation Red Meat’ which is a policy tactic to save the Prime Minister’s premiership. Nadine Dorries has announced her plans to cut the budget of the BBC. It has also been announced that the military is stepping in to try to stop migrants crossing the English Channel. But is it a little too late? ‘They’ve been telling us they

Steerpike Steerpike

Mike Penning’s fat fingers blunder

There’s a fevered atmosphere within Parliament at present as MPs gather to debate Boris Johnson’s future. The triennial game of ‘pass the crown’ is on again as revelations continue to emerge about what went on at Fabric No. 10 throughout the pandemic. Rumours abound as to whether Tory whips have posted sentries to watch Sir Graham Brady’s office for any MPs submitting letters to call for a vote of confidence, with some handing them to braver colleagues to hand them in. Fortunately for nervy backbenchers, the 1922 committee rules were recently changed to allow letters to be sent via email. With tensions running high, any sign of MPs breaking ranks could cause the rest

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson prepares to fight back. Will it work?

Tory MPs return from their constituencies today to Westminster after canvassing opinion about the ongoing partygate row. The good news for Boris Johnson is that only one of the party’s MP has come out over the weekend to call for him to resign. Tim Loughton – the MP for East Worthing and Shoreham – said he had received extensive messages from constituents and had regretfully concluded that Johnson’s ‘resignation is the only way to bring this whole unfortunate spectacle to an end’. Other MPs report the feedback from their voters over the weekend as ‘bleak’. The final step of the plan to save Johnson has been dubbed ‘Operation Red Meat’. However, over in 10 Downing

Rachel Johnson

In defence of my brother Boris

As you might have guessed, it hasn’t been the calmest, quietest weeks in the Johnson family, and lots of broadcasters – the BBC among them – have asked me to contribute on events across Westminster, and, of course, the repercussions across the country. I didn’t see much of the Prime Minister and his family during lockdown, but the times I did see him, he was completely compliant: he dotted every ‘i’, he crossed every ‘t’. If it was ‘rule of six’, there were six. And what I didn’t see were all the things you’ve been reading about.  If he did go out into the garden – and he’s told us he

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory MPs attack Boris in local papers

It’s easier than ever for Tory MPs to attack the PM. Whereas once media was the preserve of four channels and dominated by a handful of national papers, platforms like Twitter have made it quicker than ever before for Conservative backbenchers to issue stinging criticisms. And indeed many have made the most of such sites in recent weeks, as the pressure on Boris Johnson over partygate steadily increases. Tim Loughton became the sixth Tory MP to call for Johnson to go on Saturday, taking to Facebook to explain his decision. Some though prefer to express their criticisms through the more traditional mechanism of an MPs’ weekly column in the local constituency newspaper. And, in a sign

Steerpike Steerpike

Dominic Grieve returns to the frontline

Ping! An email lands in Steerpike’s inbox. It’s been a while since we heard from Dominic Grieve, the Francophile Beaconsfield barrister who quit the Tory party in October 2019. Since losing his seat by 15,000 votes at the last election, Grieve has largely contented himself with minor academic sinecures and occasional swipes at his old nemesis Boris Johnson. But now the president of the Franco-British society has returned to the fray, drafting a critical amendment to the government’s flagship Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill today. Grieve has — surprise, surprise — teamed up with the ardent Remainiacs over at Best for Britain, the anti-Johnson pressure group last seen trying to make a Brexit culture

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Keir Starmer – I think Boris broke the law and lied about it

Keir Starmer – I think Boris broke the law and lied about it To preside over one lockdown party might be seen as a misfortune. Two begins to look like carelessness. Imagine then, the Prime Minister’s incredulity if even half of the alleged Downing Street parties are indeed found to have taken place by the ‘Partygate’ investigator-in-chief, Sue Gray. The leader of the opposition Keir Starmer joined Sophie Raworth this morning to discuss what seems to be the only story in town. Having called for Boris Johnson to resign last week, Sir Keir Starmer did not relent in his bid to keep up the pressure on the PM, arguing that