Politics

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

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Sunak’s Covid budget offers a glimpse of Britain’s Brexit freedoms

Rishi Sunak’s planned corporation tax hike is a reminder of the importance he sets by trying to put the public finances on a sounder footing. He think that his room for manoeuvre in this crisis has been, in part, because the public finances were in reasonable shape before it.  The vaccination programme remains this government’s most important economic policy As I say in the magazine this week, his concern about debt has long been about the cost of servicing it (which remains low) rather than its precise level. But the debt pile is now so large that small movements in interest rates have big consequences. But straightening out the public

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Is the fall in Covid infections really slowing down?

Imperial College’s REACT study is given a prominence over other Covid data, but it is a struggle to understand why. This morning, as so often, BBC news bulletins included the latest tranche of results from the study, suggesting that the fall in new Covid infections is ‘slowing’.  The data appears to confirm a deceleration in the fall in infections that was evident in the Test and Trace figures a fortnight ago – and which I wrote about here a week ago – but which has since been reversed. React seems to be telling us a story which we could equally glean much earlier from the PHE figures. The apparent slowdown in

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Lib Dems say UK should have joined EU vaccine scheme

It’s pretty hard to dispute that the EU’s vaccine procurement scheme has been nothing short of a shambles this year, with the bloc failing to strike deals quickly enough with pharmaceutical companies, leading to dosage shortages for member states. The disaster has led to even the Continent’s most ardent Europhiles, from Guy Verhofstadt to the German press, praising the UK’s post-Brexit vaccine procurement. Amazingly though, it appears there are some in the UK who still feel that Britain should have joined the EU’s woeful vaccine scheme. On Politics Live today, Layla Moran, the Lib Dems’ Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, suggested instead of striking out on our own, we should have used

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Exclusive: US suspends tariffs on Scotch whisky

Is the special relationship already on sturdier ground? After the Trump administration imposed a 25 per cent Scotch whisky tariff in retaliation for EU state support for Airbus, the UK government has been fighting to have the tariffs lifted to little avail. However, Coffee House understands an agreement has now been reached between International Trade secretary Liz Truss and the new Biden administration.  The US will suspend tariffs as of today for four months — during which the two sides will attempt to come up with a long term solution to the long-running Boeing Airbus dispute. Since the tariffs were imposed, exports of single malt Scotch whisky have fallen by more than a third — amounting

John Hardman

The curious similarities between Carrie Symonds and Marie Antoinette

What is Carrie Symonds’s status? She seems to have a lot of influence but its extent is undefined. People find the lack of clarity unsettling. Nic Conner of the Bow Group observed in the Times that unlike ministers or civil servants she ‘cannot be sacked’ — a questionable point given Boris Johnson’s alleged amatory record. It is true however that she was neither elected nor appointed. So what is she — mistress, partner, girlfriend, fiancé or (perish the thought) first lady? We have to raid the historical locker to find the mot juste: maîtresse-en-titre – the official mistress of the French kings. The mistress that seems most relevant is Madame de Pompadour

Matthew Lynn

Rishi Sunak is turning into a Gordon Brown tribute act

Lots of self-promotion. An avalanche of leaks. Fiddly tax changes that always somehow turn out to be an increase, plenty of creative double counting, and heavy spending on marginal seats, all wrapped up in a package designed to effortlessly transport its author into Number 10. Remind you of anyone? It is of course Gordon Brown, and one of his interminable Budget speeches, in his pomp. But it is also a pretty good description of Rishi Sunak.  The Tory Chancellor is quickly turning into the political equivalent of one of those bands hamming up Abba covers on a Saturday night: a Gordon Brown tribute act. The trouble is that the country could

The Spectator

The Sturgeon case exposes the fatal flaw in Scottish devolution

The campaign for a Scottish parliament was rooted in the notion of a ‘democratic deficit’. Scotland kept voting Labour but the UK kept getting Conservative governments. Devolution, so the logic ran, would give Scotland a more responsive government. Two decades on, a new democratic deficit is emerging: the chasm between the minimum accountability demanded by the parliament and the maximum Nicola Sturgeon’s government is prepared to give. A new establishment has taken root in Edinburgh, more powerful and less accountable than the old one. The Alex Salmond inquiry, which began as a recondite tale about a failed attempt by Sturgeon’s government to probe sexual misconduct claims against the former Scottish

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Emmanuel Macron’s vaccine muddle

In 2000, this magazine dipped its toe in murky Irish water. Stephen Glover wrote three articles, one provocatively entitled ‘The Republican cell at the heart of the Guardian’. (For more detail, see Douglas Murray’s article.) One of the IRA supporters identified was Roy Greenslade, the paper’s media commentator. Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian’s editor, wrote angrily to the then editor, Boris Johnson, demanding an apology. Boris refused. Now Greenslade has emerged from that murky water, with an armalite in one dripping hand, and admitted he always secretly supported IRA violence and was close to IRA leaders. Where does his admitted ‘entryism’ leave the Guardian? I understand that Alan Rusbridger, editor from

Douglas Murray

There is no justification for supporting the IRA

Roy Greenslade held a number of prominent positions in Fleet Street over the course of a long career. But he spent the largest part of it at the Guardian, where he berated other journalists for their writings. A similar stance was adopted by him from his position as professor of journalism at City, University of London, from where he lectured students on media ethics and gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry. At the same time he became slightly notorious outside of Islington for his support of the IRA. Whenever Gerry Adams had something self-pitying or self–exculpating to say, Roy was there as his loyal mouthpiece. In 2000 this magazine ran

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What Rishi Sunak could learn from the vaccine rollout

Barely a year has passed since Rishi Sunak’s first Budget. Its centrepiece was a £30 billion stimulus designed to calm nerves about Covid-19 even though barely 500 cases had been diagnosed in the country. The Commons chamber was packed, with not a mask in sight. Few that day would have thought that in a year’s time the country would be in its third national lockdown and the economy would have suffered its worst slump since the Great Frost of 1709. The pandemic has made a mockery of nearly every optimistic prediction. The government is now moving with extreme caution. Even though vaccines have a greater effect with every passing day,

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

The provocative writer who could be the next French president

Montpellier The French ‘grand’ journalist Éric Zemmour is among the most watched, provocative and frequently prosecuted writers in the country. He is now contemplating a piratical presidential challenge that could blow open next year’s presidential election. A poll last month conducted for the news magazine Valeurs Actuelles says that Zemmour could win 13 per cent of the votes in the first round of the French presidential election. That’s more impressive than it seems. In the cavalry charge of a first round, when a dozen or more candidates are possible, 13 per cent is more than enough to unsettle not just the re-election campaign of President Emmanuel Macron. It could simultaneously

Edward Howell

Biden must learn from Trump’s mistakes on North Korea

Anniversaries are usually celebratory occasions, but not this one. It’s now been two years since the infamous Hanoi summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, and there is precious little to show other than an important lesson in how negotiations with North Korea can sour.  Joe Biden is now nearing his first one-hundred days in office. Little has been said about dealing with the North Korea problem. But one thing is for sure: a US-North Korea summit is far from imminent. Following their first encounter in Singapore in June 2018, it suited Trump and Kim to meet again. For both leaders, the theatre and optics of their gathering was too good to resist a second

Wednesday

Gerard Lyons

This was a Budget for the end of the Covid crisis

The Chancellor’s crisis management has been excellent. The Budget was another reflection of that, as Rishi Sunak unveiled further significant, targeted support to the areas of the economy that needed it most. Over the last year, fiscal policy has acted as the main shock absorber for the economy. Including measures announced today, a massive £352 billion has been spent on Covid support. This approach has been fully justified, with low inflation, rates and yields providing ample fiscal space. Debt dynamics have allowed the government to borrow cheaply from investors. Also, as we have seen over the last year, the Bank of England’s Quantitative Easing programme has led it to become

Steerpike Steerpike

Caroline Lucas finds Rishi Sunak’s weak spot

Rishi Sunak’s Budget has been greeted fairly favourably. The Chancellor has succeeded in avoiding sparking uproar on the Tory backbenches. And Labour’s response was muted. But not everyone is happy. Step forward Caroline Lucas. The Green party MP, beamed in to the Commons from Brighton (where else?), found a fatal flaw in Sunak’s announcement: ‘I say in all seriousness, our nation’s health and prosperity would be better served by a Chancellor who cared rather more about hedges and hedgehogs and less about hedge funds’ Mr S is glad to finally hear MPs sticking up for the issues that matter…

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will Rishi Sunak’s budget give Britain a boost?

14 min listen

Chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged a further £65bn in today’s budget, bringing the government’s total spending during coronavirus to more than £400bn. But aside from splurges on extending furlough and the Universal Credit uplift, and new ‘restart grants’ offered to ailing businesses, the first belt-tightening measures were announced. Income tax thresholds will be frozen, and cooperation tax on profitable companies will rise from 19 to 25 per cent in 2023. Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Kate Andrews about what it all means.

Bruce Anderson

Rishi Sunak is a prime minister in waiting

It is always a pleasure to see a first-rate mind in action, as we did during today’s Budget. Equally, when a Chancellor gives such an assured performance, especially if his Prime Minister is, shall we say, controversial, it makes people think. The bubble reputation is a fickle business, especially when Tory MPs are the umpires. In recent weeks, Rishi Sunak’s share price wobbled. Bears came into the market. Was this youngster as good as people had been saying?  There were grumblings on the backbenches – admittedly not an unusual sound in the modern Tory party – about the prospect of tax increases. By the time the Chancellor sat down, the

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Rishi reveals his calculating streak

Before the budget, the TV pundits like to tell us about divisions between the PM and his next-door neighbour. The story is that boom-and-bust Boris can’t wait to splurge cash on a set of mega-projects that would put a Persian emperor to shame. Build a bridge. Burrow a tunnel. Concrete over an estuary and plonk an airport on top. He wants to tarmac his way out of trouble. But the smooth and neatly combed Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, plans to create fiscal stability and to take things from there. He looked every inch the central banker as he delivered his budget today with his gleaming hair and immaculate blue suit. Next

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Will Rishi Sunak’s Budget give Britain the boost it needs?

For a man who has only delivered two Budgets, Rishi Sunak is no stranger to fiscal announcements. Last March’s £30bn spending splurge was just the start of hundreds of billions of pounds spent in the fight against Covid-19. Today Sunak pledged another £65bn: furlough and the Universal Credit uplift were both extended; incentive payments for businesses to take on apprentices were doubled; and ‘restart grants’ worth £5bn to help businesses get back on their feet were unveiled. But this Budget wasn’t all giveaways. The Tory Chancellor announced a new, tiered system for corporation tax, which hikes the rate from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in 2023 for the most profitable businesses. He

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Five things we learnt from the Budget

Since Rishi Sunak became Chancellor, he has been more focussed on spending money than raising it. Sunak has borrowed more in his first year in his job that Gordon Brown did in his whole time as chancellor. While today’s Budget saw Sunak extend several relief schemes, he also used it to take a few tentative steps to showing how he plans to put the economy on a solid footing following the pandemic.  Stressing that fairness and honesty would define his approach, Sunak did what many in his party had warned against and raised taxes. Here are five things we learnt from Sunak’s Budget: 1. Corporation tax will increase to 25 per cent