Politics Archives

Wednesday

30 Dec 2020

Why Boris would like Brexit to continue

After all the parliamentary drama of the past four and a half years, the final Commons phase of Brexit is passing with remarkably little drama. Boris Johnson knows his agreement will be voted through this afternoon and, following the European Research Group decision, with nearly universal Tory support. Johnson’s speech was upbeat, as he sought to declare the deal a triumph. He pointed to the exclusion of any role for the European Court of Justice, the speed with which the deal had been done and the fact it was zero tariff, zero quota. In a sign of the fight to come, Johnson had to fend off multiple points of order

Nick Tyrone

Starmer is about to make a big mistake in backing Boris’s deal

Keir Starmer has announced he is whipping his Labour MPs to vote for Boris’s Brexit deal in the House of Commons today. There are two likely reasons behind this decision: firstly, to make himself seem like a Labour leader who is a grown up, after Corbyn’s teenaged politics; secondly, to demonstrate that Labour accepts Brexit in order that it may win back Leave voters in red wall seats at the next general election. But there is a big problem with this calculation. While all of Starmer’s Brexit options are difficult ones, he may be about to enact the worst of the lot. A no-deal situation would have allowed Keir Starmer

Isabel Hardman

What does the Oxford vaccine approval mean for the UK?

This morning the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved by the UK medicines regulator, the MHRA. This is almost more of a game changer than the approval of the first Pfizer vaccine, because the UK government has ordered 100 million doses of it – and it is also much easier to distribute, as it does not need to be stored at the same very low temperatures as the Pfizer jab. It means that there really is a chance of life returning to normal in the not-too distant future. Ministers had been very clear in private that if this immunisation didn’t pass, it would mean society would have to work out how to

Ross Clark

Do we finally have an answer on Covid immunity?

How likely are you to be reinfected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus for a second time? It is a pertinent question because, at present, all government policy is predicated on the assumption that developing Covid-19 cannot be relied upon to offer you any immunity from reinfection whatsoever. Remember the Prime Minister telling us from his Number 10 flat, where he was incarcerated for 10 days after being ‘pinged’ by NHS Test and Trace, that it didn’t matter that he had already had the disease and must be ‘bursting with antibodies’ – he had to do his duty and self-isolate nonetheless? Not only are we forcing previous sufferers from Covid-19 to self-isolate

The Spectator

Farewell, Donald

Madeleine Kearns To Trump or not to Trump? Whether ’tis nobler on the page to be a morbid cynic or a self-righteous arse? That is the question those of us working in American right-wing media have been staring in the face for four years. Looking back, the Trump years feel like one of those awful ‘would you rather?’ games that teenagers play. ‘Would you rather be half-fish from the waist up or from the waist down?’ ‘Would you rather have pubes for teeth or teeth for pubes?’ You know the sort. Of course, you can make the case for either option if you really want to (and some people do),

Tuesday

29 Dec 2020

Steerpike

Labour MP beats the vaccine queue

When a Tory MP recently suggested on the party’s WhatsApp group that MPs ought to be one of the priority groups to receive the vaccine early on, they were met with derision from their colleagues – with several suggesting it would be a bad look. However, that message does not appear to hold much sway with Labour. With limited does of the Pfizer vaccine in the country, they are currently eligible to those at the top of the priority list – care home residents, care workers, health workers and the over-80s. However, the Birmingham Mail reports that local MP Khalid Mahmood has managed to get the Coronavirus vaccine ahead of schedule. The 59-year-old underwent a kidney transplant in

Stephen Daisley

The shrewd calculation behind Sturgeon’s Brexit u-turn

As political journeys go, it’s akin to Jeremy Corbyn quitting his allotment to grow marrows on an Israeli settlement. Nicola Sturgeon, a lifelong pro-European since June 24, 2016, has decreed that the SNP will vote against the free trade pact agreed by the UK and the EU. This is quite the turnaround. Sturgeon has previously said ‘a no-deal Brexit is a catastrophic idea’, warned of ‘the dire economic consequences of a no-deal Brexit’, described ‘the nightmare scenario of a no-deal Brexit’ and urged the UK Government ‘not to countenance in any way a no-deal Brexit’. She personally claimed that no-deal ‘could push 130,000 people in Scotland into poverty’ and touted

Katy Balls

Tory Brexiteers approve Boris Johnson’s deal

When Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal comes to a vote in the Commons on Wednesday, expect a bigger rebellion on the Labour benches than among Tory MPs. This afternoon, the European Research Group of Conservative eurosceptics have given their approval to the Brexit deal. After studying the agreement, the ERG ‘star chamber’ – led by Bill Cash – concluded that the deal is ‘consistent with the restoration of UK sovereignty’. In terms of the pros and cons of what has been agreed, the group say ‘the “level playing field” clauses go further than in comparable trade agreements’ they have concluded that their impact ‘on the practical exercise of sovereignty is likely to be limited

Steerpike

Jacob Rees Mogg’s Brexit deal dilemma

Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal continues to cause a stir ahead of tomorrow’s parliamentary vote. Nowhere is this more true than with the Conservative party’s most famous Brexiteer Jacob Rees Mogg who faces a somewhat unexpected quandary when it comes to deciding which lobby to walk through. Mr Rees Mogg said in March 2019 that he would not vote for a deal ‘under any circumstances’ if it wasn’t backed by the DUP, stating that ‘ultimately the United Kingdom is more important to me than the European Union’. However, Rees Mogg now finds himself caught between two conflicting camps. The DUP have said they will not vote for Boris’s new deal but

Brendan O’Neill

The school closures debate exposes Britain’s class divide

There have been many shocking sights in this cursed year. For me, one of the most shocking has been the sight of comfortably off, Oxbridge-educated experts and journalists agitating for the closure of schools even though they know this will hit poor kids hardest. This alarmingly cavalier attitude towards the education of the less well-off has exposed the class tensions that lurk behind the lockdown. Once again, depressingly, school closures are back on the agenda. SAGE says the only way we can get the current wave of Covid infections under control is by enforcing a proper lockdown, including the closure of schools and universities. Many in the media, long smitten

Patrick O’Flynn

Starmer’s Brexit slip-up could cost him the election

Amid all the euphoria about Boris Johnson sealing a final Brexit deal and the breaking-off of politics for pared down Christmas celebrations, perhaps you didn’t notice Keir Starmer losing the next election. Well, I did. And while I cannot be quite certain that Sir Keir has blown it absolutely for 2024 – events dear boy, events and all that – the evidence that he has done so would definitely pass a “balance of probabilities” test. Starmer’s momentum horribilis came during his Christmas Eve press conference responding to the news of Johnson’s deal. Asked what a future Labour administration would do about a deal that he clearly considered sadly lacking in

Ross Clark

Why the EU’s vaccine strategy is failing

What a joy it would be still to be in the EU. We could, for example, be part of the bloc’s Covid vaccine-buying programme. Or maybe not, to judge by the German experience. There has been a lot of comment in Britain regarding the relative slowness of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in approving the Pfizer vaccine – which led to the EU’s vaccine programme beginning two weeks after Britain’s. But that is a fairly minor issue. Far more concerning is the failure of the EU to buy enough vaccines to ensure that an effective inoculation programme can be completed before next winter. The reasons behind this failure are an object

Joshua Loftus

Is the new variant of Covid really more transmissible?

When the story of the new Covid-19 variant broke, my initial reaction was scepticism. I thought this new strain could just be a random genetic marker that coincided with an outbreak of cases that was caused by behaviour (or even “chance”) rather than by any important biological differences. We have more sophisticated measurement capability for biological data than for social data, and I worry that not enough has been done to rule out social explanations. For example, despite Covid-19 cases rising dramatically since September mobility indices have remained above the levels they saw in June, which were significantly higher than their April lows. So the UK’s November lockdown only temporarily

John Longworth

Why I’m backing the Brexit deal

What are committed Brexiteers to make of Boris Johnson’s deal? It’s said that some Tories are cheering a compromise out of blind party loyalty – but I’m not sure I can be accused of that. I have devoted the last five years in pursuit of Brexit, and stood against the Tories in the last European election. But the political part is over. We now have a deal, and the question is whether it’s the real deal. I’d like to do two things: point out the many problems with this deal – problems that other Brexiteers are quiet about. But I’d also like to explain why, nonetheless, the deal is worthy

Steven Fielding

What does Starmer stand for?

Keir Starmer has been leader of the Labour party for just eight months. But that hasn’t stopped analysts defining what it is that ‘Starmerism’ represents. To some, it is an empty space where ideas should be: technocratic, electorally-driven but otherwise strategically rudderless. Others – most obviously implacable Corbynites – even detect elements of free-market individualism. So what does Starmer really stand for? Commentators seem addicted to attaching the suffix ‘-ism’ to leading politicians’ names to capture what they are ultimately all about. Too often however this ‘-ism’ gives leaders’ actions a fake coherence. Margaret Thatcher certainly had a clear vision of where she wanted to go when elected Conservative leader

Ashis Ray

A UK-India trade deal is needed now more than ever

Within a year of being elected leader of the Conservative party, David Cameron made clear the importance with which he viewed Anglo-Indian relations: “I attach the highest priority to Britain’s relationship with India. For too long, the politics of this country has been obsessed with Europe and America.” That he meant business was underscored by the 2010 Tory general election manifesto which promised a “new special relationship with India”. The British head of state Queen Elizabeth ratified an “enhanced partnership” with India in her speech at the opening of parliament. Cameron, now prime minister, rushed to Delhi, where India endorsed the idea, but did not really execute it. The emergence of the

Ben Habib

The problem with Johnson’s Brexit deal

Boris Johnson has delivered a deal that I must admit is miles better than I had anticipated. Mind you, I had feared the worst. But this Brexit deal still does not justify the plaudits it is receiving. Let’s start with the good bits. Great Britain (as opposed to the UK) will, on 1 January, be out of the Single Market, largely free of the European Court of Justice and able to make its own laws. We will be able to trade in goods with the EU free of tariffs and quotas. Yet without wishing to detract from the importance of these achievements, there is very little else that is good

Alex Massie

Most-read 2020: Why Dominic Cummings had to go

We’re closing 2020 by republishing our ten most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 3: Alex Massie’s article from May on the Cummings’ imbroglio Most aspects of this present emergency are complex and resist easy solutions. Only a handful are elementary but one of these, and quite obviously so, is the Dominic Cummings affair. He must go and he must go now. There is no alternative, no other way out, no means by which this ship can be saved. The only question is the number of casualties Cummings will take with him. Judged by the cabinet’s performance on social media this weekend, the answer to that question is also simple: all

Monday

28 Dec 2020

Katy Balls

Ministers plan to push recess back

As ministers consider placing more areas under Tier 4 restrictions in the upcoming tier review, there are a growing number of Tory MPs keen to get back to parliament and scrutinise the government’s plans. However, they will likely have to wait. Coffee House understands that plans are afoot to push back recess dates by a week. When the Commons sits on Wednesday to vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, MPs will also be asked to vote to extend recess until 11 January. It had been due to end 7 January. MPs have been told the reason for the change of plan is concerns over Covid rates – and that MPs travelling from various parts

Anthony Browne

Britain should now brace itself for a barrage of Brussels red tape

Should we be worried that the UK didn’t get all that it wanted for financial services in the UK-EU Trade deal, as the PM mentioned to the Sunday Telegraph? Financial services are our biggest export industry by some margin, including to the EU, as well as (arguably) our biggest taxpayer, so anything that hampers it could have serious economic repercussions. The EU for its part has said that it will consider in its own time if it will grant ‘equivalence’ to UK financial services, making it easier for UK based institutions to serve customers in the EU, and will only do so if it is in the EU’s interest. The