Politics

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

Friday

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Keir Starmer is right to stay quiet on Brexit

Ever since Keir Starmer became Labour leader, there have been calls for him to publicly embrace Brexit to win back seats in the ‘Red Wall’. Starmer has stayed quiet on Europe since his victory, to the consternation of many Remainers who wanted him to push the importance of extending the transition period, before that opportunity passed. This silence has been wise on Starmer’s part – and he should continue to stay silent on the European question for the time being. The calls for Starmer to announce that he’s converted to Brexit misunderstand several things, including: the nature of the electoral coalition Starmer needs to build, why Red Wall seats fell

Steerpike Steerpike

Will No. 10 forgive Douglas Ross?

In last year’s Conservative leadership contest, Boris Johnson offered a hint of the style of management he would bring to the office of Prime Minister when he said his favourite moment in a film was the ‘multiple retribution scene in The Godfather’. Since then, Johnson and his team have confirmed in their actions that they are a government that does not forget – or forgive – easily.  So, how will this play out with Douglas Ross, the MP for Moray, who confirmed today that he plans to run to replace Jackson Carlaw, who resigned last night after concluding he was not up to the job? Number 10 will want an effective operator in the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

MPs are starting to question the local lockdown strategy

Boris Johnson’s policy of local lockdowns will no doubt come under increased scrutiny after new restrictions were imposed on Greater Manchester and parts of East Lancashire and West Yorkshire. Labour politicians have been quick to criticise the short notice of the overnight announcement while local residents have complained of confusion over the changes. It comes at a time of growing unease among MPs about the local lockdown strategy itself. While the plan to go for local lockdowns as a way of avoiding a second national lockdown has been largely welcomed by the public, some believe that sentiment could change quickly – when voters find themselves placed in one. ‘People support local lockdowns until they are

Thursday

Tali Fraser

Three hours to prepare for a local lockdown

My weekend plans have been ruined by Matt Hancock. The government has announced new lockdown restrictions for over four million people – banning separate households from meeting indoors – in Greater Manchester (where I live) along with parts of Lancashire and West Yorkshire. What does that mean in practice? When announcing the lockdown on Thursday evening, the Health Secretary tweeted that ‘people from different households will not be allowed to meet each other indoors’, which sounds pretty rudimentary. But would this mean we go back to working from home; that spaces like pubs and restaurants would be closed even if you only visit with your household; could a cleaner come

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Jackson Carlaw’s successor and the fight to save the Union

The Scottish Conservatives are now in crisis. Jackson Carlaw has resigned six months into his leadership and less than a year on from Ruth Davidson’s departure. The party is polling 35 points behind the SNP with another Scottish Parliament election due next May and a string of polls have shown a majority of Scots are now in favour of Scexit. Carlaw accepts that he is not the man to turn this around, but it is not entirely clear who is. There are few on the Scottish Conservative benches at Holyrood capable of taking on Nicola Sturgeon. The Tories might have to look beyond the confines of the Edinburgh assembly for

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Who is the real Joe Biden?

34 min listen

Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump in the polls, so what is at the root of his appeal? (00:50) The government is anxious about a second wave – can it avoid repeating its mistakes? (11:15) And Rachel Johnson on her generation of high flyers and early retirees (23:30). With editor of the Spectator’s US edition, Freddy Gray; our economics correspondent Kate Andrews; deputy political editor Katy Balls; former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt; journalist Rachel Johnson; and comedian Dominic Frisby. Presented by Cindy Yu. Produced by Cindy Yu, Max Jeffery, and Sam Russell.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Scottish Tory leader resigns – and leaves an important vacancy

In the past few minutes, Jackson Carlaw has quit as leader of the Scottish Conservative party. In a resignation statement, Carlaw said that he had made the decision after concluding he was ‘not, in the present circumstances, the person best placed’ to lead the case for Scotland remaining part of the UK ahead of the Holyrood elections next year.  ‘It just hadn’t worked out for him as leader and he made a very brave and admirable decision’ His decision to resign – with immediate effect – has taken senior government figures by surprise. While Carlaw divided opinion in Westminster, ministers had not expected him to go in these circumstances. One senior

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Why are England’s excess deaths so high?

10 min listen

New figures show that England had the highest excess death rate across Europe in the first half of 2020. With another coronavirus wave looking imminent, can the government figure out why this happened in time for a second spike? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Why does England have the worst excess deaths in Europe?

On 12 May, the government stopped publishing international comparisons of its Covid-19 death toll in the daily press briefings. The argument was that the data wasn’t helpful, and perhaps even misleading: the way calculations were carried out varied country-by-country, with each nation on a different timescale when experiencing the peak of infections and death. There would be a time for international comparisons, but that time wasn’t now. Today, the ONS picks up where the press briefings left off, comparing excess mortality rates throughout Europe. The data is not specifically calculating Covid-19 deaths, but rather all causes of mortality on a five-year average. This is the metric the UK’s chief medical officer

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

No, Trump can’t delay the election

While cries of ‘authoritarian dictator’ have been lobbied at the President by America’s progressives over the past three and a half years (he usually has an accusation or two to throw back), US institutions have largely ticked on as normal. But as we come to the end of Donald Trump’s first (and possibly only) term as President, are we about to witness a real power grab – one that would throw the country’s democracy into disarray? Today on Twitter, Trump began to hint at the one thing his critics fear most deeply: a refusal to leave office. Any delay to November’s election would have to involve some cross-party agreement to get it

Steerpike Steerpike

Kerslake bags another Labour role

Another Labour leader, another role for Lord Kerslake. The former head of the civil service has been appointed to lead a review into the Labour party’s organisational structure. Bearded Bob has been charged with transforming Labour into a more ‘agile, cohesive and purposeful’ organisation to ensure the party can ‘fight and win the next general election in 2024’, according to a leaked letter from Starmer’s new gen sec David Evans. That would be the same Lord Kerslake who so successfully transformed Jeremy Corbyn’s office in the run up to the 2019 general election… The problem, as Mr S has pointed out on numerous occasions, is that Kerslake is a crossbench peer, and as

The Spectator

How Boris should pick his peers

It is no credit to British democracy that we have the second largest legislative chamber in the world. The only one larger than the 792-strong House of Lords is the 2,980-member Chinese National People’s Congress. In the coming days the House of Lords will grow even bigger as the Prime Minister announces another batch of peerages. We can expect a bad-tempered reaction if, as expected, a slew of Brexit campaigners such as Ian Botham are included while former speaker John Bercow is left out. But no one should be too surprised. Prime ministers have always used their patronage to appoint likeminded peers, as have leaders of the opposition. Moreover, the

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Jesus College’s China problem

Although Stephen Toope, vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, is committed to openness, it is a struggle to get information out of him about his university’s dealings with the Chinese Communist party. He has declined an interview, and when I raised questions about Jesus College’s China Centre and other China links, which he has publicly backed, he replied that ‘You cited one very specific initiative, organised by one of our 31 colleges, with a very narrow thematic focus’. I wrote back with further questions, but he says he is ‘not able to add anything to my earlier remark about Jesus College’. I also wrote to Sonita Alleyne, the Master of Jesus, who

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why the government is concerned about a second wave

As the government struggled on Saturday with the question of whether to impose a quarantine on those returning from Spain, there was a hold-up: a key minister was unavailable. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was on a holiday flight to Spain and hadn’t landed yet. When Shapps eventually made it on to the Zoom call from his holiday villa, one person who sat in on the meeting was surprised by the speed at which the quarantine decision was made. After being stung by accusations that the government moved too slowly in its initial handling of the pandemic, Boris Johnson now wants to show it is moving quickly. The Spanish quarantine, which

Wednesday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Could the government be over-correcting on a second wave?

12 min listen

Fears of a second wave dominate Westminster chat, but how much of it is the government trying to fight the last battle? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls over the difficult task the government has to balance the lessons learnt from the first wave of the pandemic, to the economic concerns prompting the lockdown.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

To balance the books, Johnson must divide his party

Every week, the papers report a new tax supposedly under consideration by the Treasury. This week, it’s the idea of an online sales tax. The suggestion being that a tax on internet shopping could serve as a potential replacement for business rates. While No. 11 is keen to play down the likelihood of its happening, the charge has something in common with other recently mooted taxes: it has divided opinion in the Tory party. When West Midlands mayor Andy Street took to social media to praise the proposal as an initiative that ‘can level the playing field with online retailers & local businesses’, Conservative MP Lucy Allan was quick to respond with her opposition

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Will the speculative vaccine shopping spree ever end?

Somewhere, possibly in the land of big sheds, just off the M1 in Leicestershire, must be a burgeoning NHS surplus store. Its shelves will be groaning with ventilators and testing kits which turned out not to work, surgical gloves, bibs and masks which turned out to be defective – and quite possibly, in months to come, with millions of shots of vaccines which won’t be able to be used. It was announced this morning that the government has signed up for 60 million doses of a vaccine being developed by GSK and Sanofi – although the financial details of the deal were not released. GSK says the vaccine will enter

Matt Kilcoyne

Jamie Oliver and the mad ad ban

There have been a great many political betrayals of late, but there is nothing worse than seeing the government propose a policy that makes Jamie Oliver this happy. The celebrity chef’s face lit up when he appeared on Sky and Channel 4 News this week, as he relished the fact that the government is going to ban all adverts for anything considered to be high-fat, high-salt, and high-sugar on TV before 9pm and online. Jamie Oliver told Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow that ‘the cost of ill-health in society… is an economic conversation. Having a fitter, healthier, more agile Britain is absolutely more profitable.’ Oliver is certainly one to talk

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is a second wave imminent?

10 min listen

Boris Johnson said there are signs that a second wave of coronavirus will soon sweep through Europe. Should Brits still go on their holiday abroad, and could the UK cope with another lockdown? Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Kate Andrews.

Matthew Lynn

Covid doesn’t care about your political theories

The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, took some time out from presiding over the worst collapse in economic history last week to deliver a short lecture on how women leaders have proved better at dealing with Covid-19 than men. According to the impeccably politically correct French politician, they were more ‘caring’, better at dealing with the science, and smarter at delivering clear messages on health. Not very surprisingly, there was a lot of gushing commentary to support her view, at least in the liberal press. Indeed, the superiority of women Prime Ministers and Presidents has been a common theme ever since the epidemic started. But hold on.