Politics

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

Thursday

Andrew Sullivan

Trump is being defended by Foghorn Leghorn

We weren’t long into Bruce Castor’s opening speech defending Donald Trump in his impeachment trial before we knew it was going to be special. ‘I don’t want to steal the thunder from the other lawyers’ thunder,’ Castor intoned to a mildly befuddled Senate. ‘But Nebraska, you’re going to hear, is quite a judicial thinking place.’ We never got around to the payoff for that one, but there were plenty of other amusements. We learned about the ‘Greek Republic’, which apparently awaits salvation from the United States Senate. We had a tech update: ‘We all know what records are, right: the thing you put the needle down on it and then

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Northern Ireland protocol problem

Ursula von der Leyen now admits that she overreacted in the EU’s vaccine row with the UK. She has spoken of her ‘regret’ that Article 16 of the Northern Ireland border protocol was triggered by the European Commission in a Friday night fit of pique at the end of last month. But there is a sense in Brussels that the British are still trying to exploit her misstep. This claim is not entirely baseless. The UK is getting increasingly worried about the protocol, and clearly does see a chance to push for concessions now that the Commission has surrendered the moral high ground. The Northern Ireland protocol was agreed by

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Green scare: Labour should stop chasing the eco vote

Should the Labour party be worried about the Greens? Some Labour activists think so. The Greens have just become the third most popular in British politics, if the latest IpsosMORI poll is anything to go on. The party won eight per cent support in the survey, putting them ahead of the Lib Dems. It’s enough to give even the staunchest Starmerite cause for concern. But the reality is that Labour needn’t sound the alarm. In fact, the very last thing Labour should be worried about at the moment is losing potential voters to the Greens. Why? Because we’ve been here before. In early 2015, support for the Greens went as high as 11 per cent

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Tories’ cladding crisis fix falls short again

Most of the Conservative MPs who responded to Robert Jenrick’s statement this afternoon about an extra £3.5 billion to help with the cladding crisis sounded relieved that the government is finally doing something. But if ministers think that the response in the Chamber means they can relax, they are in for a bit of a shock. The two most active Conservative MPs on this issue are Stephen McPartland and Royston Smith, and neither spoke in the Commons after the announcement. But both have been critical elsewhere. McPartland called the policy – which will only offer loans to leaseholders in blocks between 11 and 18 metres high – a ‘betrayal’ and

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson urges caution on summer holidays

Will Brits be able to enjoy a summer holiday after the pandemic? Just a few months ago, Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggested they would, telling MPs that he had already booked his summer break to Cornwall. But today, Boris Johnson joined in with the rather less cheerful messaging coming out of government that it was ‘just too soon’ to say whether people could book time away, whether in the UK or abroad. The Prime Minister gave a press conference this afternoon which was largely aimed at getting more people to take up the vaccine – but he found himself answering questions about what might happen once sufficient numbers had got

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Starmer changes his PMQs tactics

Sir Keir has changed his tactics. At long last. Today marks a year since the first Covid measures were introduced to parliament and the Labour leader has finally realised that the pandemic doesn’t work for him. Even the most brilliant ambush will be dismissed as opportunistic and unpatriotic. So he dropped the superbug altogether. And he trimmed down his usual bloated rhetoric and raced through his questions by 12.11 p.m. So we got five minutes less of the usual Starmer stodge. Boris was a bit wrong-footed by this nimbler and less loquacious opponent. But Sir Keir’s chosen topics — extending the furlough and keeping business rates low — stood no

Steerpike Steerpike

Dilyn’s taxpayer-funded photoshoot

Oh dear. Since Dilyn the dog entered 10 Downing Street in 2019, the rescue puppy has fallen victim to a number of brutal briefings. First, it was reported that he was rather unpopular in the building on account of his noisy antics — a claim furiously denied by Boris Johnson’s fiance Carrie Symonds. Then after the Vote Leave faction departed No. 10, Dominic Cummings wrote in The Spectator on the problem with politicians who focus more on ‘gossip-column stories about their dogs’ than on ‘issues of existential importance’. Now Dilyn is in the news once again. In a series of photographs entitled ‘Dilyn in the Snow’, the Downing Street pup is captured in a range of

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson sets out the new normal on vaccines

10 min listen

At PMQs today, Boris Johnson said the public would need to ‘get used to the idea of vaccinating and then revaccinating in the autumn, as we come to face these new variants.’ The government’s contract with the Wrexham factory that helps make the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been extended to August 2022 at the earliest, so will repeat inoculations be the way forward? Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson sets out the new normal on vaccines

Despite Keir Starmer’s attempts to coax Boris Johnson into committing to a variety of economic measures, Prime Minister’s Questions brought with it little clarity on what will be in next month’s Budget. However, Johnson was more forthcoming when it came to vaccines.  Vaccine orders go well beyond the number of doses required to vaccinate the entire adult population Following recent comments from ministers and government scientists over the likelihood of a booster shot being required to protect the public against new variants, Johnson said the public would need to ‘get used to the idea of vaccinating and then revaccinating in the autumn, as we come to face these new variants.’ He pointed to

Matthew Lynn

Von der Leyen has learnt nothing from the EU’s vaccine fiasco

As non-apology apologies go, it was right up there with the best of them. Speaking to MEPs today, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen accepted that some ‘mistakes had been made’ in the procurement of vaccines against Covid-19.  Apparently the Commission had been a little too late authorising some of the shots, it had been a tad too optimistic about production, and not everything had gone according to plan. But, heck, these things happen, she went on to argue. And perhaps most crucially of all, the alternative would have been far, far worse.  ‘I can’t even imagine if a few big players had rushed to it

Ross Clark Ross Clark

How effective are the Covid vaccines?

Reports have filtered through this morning about Public Health England’s assessment of the efficacy of the two vaccines so far administered to the public. The results have not yet been published, but the efficacy rates quoted in the Sun suggest that the Pfizer vaccine has proved to be between 79 and 84 per cent effective at stopping symptomatic infection after two doses. After one dose – which is all that most people have had so far – efficacy is reported as 65 per cent. Among the over 80s it is very similar, at 64 per cent. No figures are given for the AstraZeneca vaccine but it is suggested that the efficacy

Peter Apps

Six ways the state failed to prevent the cladding crisis

Talk to anyone for long enough about the UK’s building safety crisis and you soon will be asked: why are we in such a mess? Why, in one of the wealthiest countries on earth with a functioning planning and regulatory system, are thousands of people currently trapped in homes built with dangerous and combustible materials? How could we have allowed so many unsafe buildings to be built, signed off, sold and inhabited for all these years? Like all questions of this scale, there are multiple answers which combine to form a complex picture. But while people are quick to draw conclusions about reckless builders cutting corners, there is less awareness

Katy Balls Katy Balls

No. 10’s charm offensive steps up a gear

Since the new chief of staff Dan Rosenfield arrived in Downing Street, there has been a renewed effort to reach out to the parliamentary party. Each week, a member of the No. 10 team hold a Zoom call with Tory MPs — with attendance usually upwards of 50 MPs. Some have likened the Q&A to therapy sessions — working through previous trauma from the Vote Leave regime when the parliamentary party would regularly complain that they felt ignored. After cancelling last week, this Tuesday it was the turn of political secretary Ben Gascgoine and No. 10 political unit’s Declan Lyons. The pair began by telling MPs on the call that they wanted to

Robin Aitken

The BBC licence fee hike adds insult to injury

In these chill winter days it’s good to know that at least one old lady is warmly wrapped up. The announcement that the BBC licence fee will rise in line with inflation is another modest, but comforting, layer of financial insulation wrapped around Auntie’s well-padded frame.  The new cost will be £159, up by about £1.50; so nothing to get excited about perhaps. But each time the licence fee is raised it focuses attention on the funding privileges that the Corporation enjoys and fuels the debate about whether those privileges should continue. The BBC, in its defence, makes what at first glance seems a very sound ‘value for money’ argument.

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Green energy is a Dot-com bust waiting to happen

Scottish Widows is committed to net zero alright. For years, the endowment policy I had with it was worth pretty well just what I had paid into it. Although, on second thoughts, maybe Maria Nazarova-Doyle, head of pension investments at Scottish Widows, wasn’t referring to the returns on its policies when she said this week: ‘Moving to net zero will protect savings against climate-related risks and uncertainty and offer longer-term sustainable growth by accessing low-carbon transition opportunities.’ The firm says that as an interim target it wants to halve the emissions from its share portfolio by 2030. What exactly it means by this isn’t clear. I’m not sure my share

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The problem with ‘our NHS’

Labour is demanding that Matt Hancock apologise to NHS workers for a ‘disgraceful attack’ on the NHS. In a letter to the Health Secretary, the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner says Hancock must distance himself from a claim that ‘there is nothing special about the NHS, neither during this pandemic nor at any other time’. She also writes that ‘if you are committed to the protection of our NHS you must take action immediately to assure the NHS and the British people’ that he doesn’t think ‘we should not be grateful for the NHS or thank the NHS and its staff for their work during this pandemic’. This sounds serious,

Katy Balls Katy Balls

China hawks suffer a setback

15 min listen

The government has managed to delay a backbench rebellion on the so-called ‘genocide amendment’ today, using what Iain Duncan Smith called ‘arcane procedural games’. The Trade Bill amendment, which would have seen courts given the power to designate abuses as a genocide, was expected to have a significant number of Tory backers. Katy Balls discusses with James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The class of Covid will pay the price for years to come

Schools in England, it seems, will reopen fully on 8 March at the earliest – a full two months after they closed. The Prime Minister has declined to bring this forward, in spite of new Covid cases falling at a rate of 25 per cent per week. The Scottish and Welsh governments have both said they will partially reopen schools in February. What was looking like being half-a-term’s lost schooling is now looking to be closer to a full term’s worth. That comes on top of over two months of school closures last year – and some interrupted education in the autumn terms as teachers and pupils were forced to

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Hancock launches his quarantine crackdown

The search for the right balance on border policy continues, as Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced this afternoon a host of new measures that travellers coming to the UK will face. From Monday, all arrivals will need to take two PCR tests: one on day two and another on day eight of self-isolation. This will apply to everyone, regardless of where they are travelling in from or whether they are quarantining in a hotel or in their home. This means anyone arriving in the UK will now be taking a total of three Covid-19 tests, as a negative test within 72 hours of travel is also required. Hancock announced that any

Damian Reilly Damian Reilly

Will Dogecoin give Elon Musk the last laugh?

There’s something deeply pleasing for fans of cosmic jokes everywhere about the world’s richest man personally taking the time to sell you a pup. Or a pup-related crypto-currency, at least. In between lobbing rockets at the moon, singlehandedly revolutionising the car industry and raising a ten-month old child, Elon Musk has recently been using Twitter to talk up Dogecoin – a joke crypto started in 2013 by geeks for geeks in homage to an internet meme featuring a knowing-looking Shiba Inu dog. Still with me? Every few days, Musk posts a playful tweet referencing the coin to his 46 million followers. ‘Dogecoin is the people’s crypto. No need to be