Politics

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

Friday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

A Brexit delay could last longer than you think

Here’s something Brexiteers might want to keep an eye on. While the country’s attention is welded to the Tesco delivery website, there are moves afoot to delay the Brexit negotiations. Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Centre, has called an extension of the transition period ‘an absolute must’ given the Covid-19 outbreak. He contends: ‘There will simply not be any bandwidth to focus on the negotiations, which require a delicate balance of give and take. In a situation with major healthcare challenges in the short- and long-term and economic challenges already requiring urgent action, there will not be enough political time and attention to successfully conclude this EU-UK

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Why the Treasury is bashing the banks over coronavirus emergency loans

There is some fascinating language in last night’s press release from HM Treasury that modifies the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBIL) Scheme. It says lenders are ‘banned from requesting personal guarantees on loans under £250,000’. Hmmm. This is – to put it mildly – a bit disingenuous, though politically expedient, bank bashing, because it implies it was the banks which wanted borrowers from the CBIL emergency scheme to pledge their business premises and any assets (other than the primary residence) as security against the loan. In fact, this demand for personal guarantees, which so alarmed the owners of small businesses desperate for the help, was actually stipulated by HM Treasury

Thursday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Coronomics: how surreal is this economic crash?

40 min listen

On the podcast this week, we take a look at the exceptional nature of ‘coronomics’ and what comes after (00:55), how the Swedish are dealing with coronavirus differently (18:50), and lessons in solitude from a polar explorer (31:15).

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can Matt Hancock meet his 100,000 tests a day target?

The government had a strategy for this evening’s press conference, which differentiated it from several this week. Matt Hancock, who was himself returning from self-isolation, came with a big headline announcement: there would be 100,000 tests a day by the end of this month. He took lots of questions from journalists and allowed follow-ups which made him look like he was being frank and answering the question. It was all fairly basic stuff, but it had been missing yesterday. There is, though, the question of whether this target of 100,000 tests a day can be met — and how far off it is. The 850,000 more claims than usual for

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson’s government the most popular in a decade

Another day, another set of dreary headlines for the government over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. As well as publications that tend to be hostile to the Conservatives, the Telegraph today splashes with criticism of the testing shortage, saying there are ‘Questions without answers’. Yet despite all the noise, the polls tell a rather different story.  YouGov’s political tracker says that for the first time in nearly a decade, Britain approves of its government. Boris Johnson’s government has a net approval rating of +26 – the highest YouGov has recorded in the 1,400 times it has asked: do you approve or disapprove of the government’s record to date? Meanwhile, Johnson’s personal approval ratings

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Coronavirus has already caused a huge spike in unemployment

In Britain and America, the employment news is grim. Nearly a million Brits – 850,000 more than usual – have applied for Universal Credit in the last fortnight. While in the United States, unemployment has reached an historic high. As of the end of last week, 6.6 million people claimed for out-of-work benefits. This is the highest increase in adjusted seasonal claims on record and is made even more astonishing when you consider that just four weeks ago fewer than 200,000 people applied for jobless benefits.  With every day that goes by, the health implications of Covid-19 are becoming clearer, as are the economic effects. While the Office for National Statistics reports that 27 per cent of UK businesses

Matthew Lynn

Rishi Sunak has badly miscalculated his coronavirus bailout

Ten billion? Twenty billion? Thirty billion? To borrow a phrase from the American senator Everett Dirksen when scrutinising the escalating costs of the military, ‘pretty soon you are talking about real money.’ Chancellor Rishi Sunak has already thrown huge sums of money at rescuing the economy. He may well spend a lot more over the next few weeks. You can argue about the rights and wrongs of that. But one thing is already becoming clear, and the more you pause to think about it the more worrying it becomes. It is already looking like he has hugely miscalculated the cost.  Figures out today suggest that up to half the UK

Matt Ridley

Britain’s coronavirus testing is bogged down in bureaucracy

Despite what Corbynites like to claim, Britain’s National Health Service has always relied heavily on the private sector for lots of things. The food it serves to patients is not grown on state-owned farms, nor are the pills it prescribes manufactured in state-owned factories. Yet when it comes to diagnostic tests there seems to be a reluctance to buy them in, even from other public bodies let alone from private firms. This ideological prejudice is proving costly. A new report by Matthew Lesh for the Adam Smith Institute, published today may explain the British failure compared with other countries when it comes to tackling the current pandemic by testing. On

Claire Fox

This is no time for ‘gotcha!’ journalism

The lockdown has ensured that many millions now gather round the TV and watch the daily press conference from No.10. We hang on every word from politicians and medical/scientific experts, trying to read the runes of our fate for the next hours, days, months. These people are leading the country’s response to Covid-19. A third group in the room (be that virtually), whose leadership should be indispensable, are the press, charged with asking penetrating, crucial questions on our behalf. This should be when the nation feels the latest strategy is being held to account and scrutinised, when more light is shone on controversial decisions that affect our livelihoods and liberty,

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The worrying surge in Universal Credit claims

Wednesday evening’s figures for new claims for Universal Credit are sobering and a reminder of the economic – and moral – consequences of the shuttering of huge swathes of the economy. Despite the government offering to pay 80 per cent of the wages of furloughed workers, 850,000 more people than usual have applied for Universal Credit in the past fortnight. Right now, the shutdown is, I think, justified by the fact that it is the least worst way of preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed and the number of coronavirus deaths increasing to ever more horrific levels. But no one who backs the current policy should pretend that it doesn’t come at its own

Robert Peston Robert Peston

A million coronavirus tests are coming to Britain, but do they work?

I have uncovered another troubling potential roadblock to increasing the volume of tests for Covid-19. It is all quite complicated, so please bear with me. What I have learned is that just under two weeks ago, the Government paid several million pounds to purchase two million ‘rapid lateral flow diagnostic test’ kits from China, with one million coming from a company called Wondfo and one million from AllTest. Both of these tests have EU approval for use by medical practitioners. They can be deployed and used in hospitals in the UK right now. Of these tests kits, one million – the ones made by Wondfo, which also have Chinese FDA approval

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The SNP may have overreached by planning to suspend jury trials

The Scottish Government may have overreached for the first time in its response to Covid-19. Today MSPs will vote on the Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill, which grants Scottish Ministers emergency powers to tackle the outbreak and suspends or amends the legal status quo in some important areas. Physical attendance in court will no longer be required unless a judge specifically instructs it; instead, appearances will be made ‘by electronic means’. Ministers will be able to permit the release of prison inmates in the event of custodial transmission (lifers and those convicted of sex crimes will not be eligible). The timeframes for community payback orders will be lengthened and public bodies will

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Coronavirus comparisons with Germany are premature, deputy chief medical officer warns

The daily government press conference had a familiar theme today: politicians and advisers struggling to answer questions on the scale of coronavirus testing in the UK. Michael Gove and deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries both spoke of the importance of testing, but struggled to explain what they plan to do to stop the UK lagging behind countries in Asia, as well as Germany, when it comes to testing. Gove suggested there was a shortage of the relevant ‘chemical reagents’ while Harries said the focus – given current capacity – was rightly on testing of NHS staff. There was good news in terms of the number of ventilators with Gove promising that thousands of

Steerpike Steerpike

Cabinet goes full Zoomer

Over the last few weeks, we’ve all been getting used to the realities of working from home. So Mr S was pleased to see the Cabinet getting stuck in with remote working earlier this morning. Yes, secretaries of state and government ministers dialled in from their London pads and constituency piles to coordinate the response to coronavirus.  Downing Street mandarins opted for the popular video conferencing app Zoom (The Spectator favourite, if you’re interested, is Houseparty). Some have questioned whether it was sensible for the PM to post a pic of his assembled team alongside the digital code for the Cabinet’s online meeting. However, one intrepid journalist went a step further and attempted to dial

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Jeremy Corbyn’s toxic legacy

What will we do without Jeremy Corbyn? We may never find out given how long it’s taking him to leave the stage. Even Sinatra’s farewell tour didn’t last this long. The problem is that Corbyn wants to be useful. While that would certainly be a change of pace, it places the onus on others to find a use for him. His disciples propose that he be kept on the front bench, perhaps as shadow foreign secretary, marking their progression through all six stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance and Richard Burgon. There is a cruelty to all this. No one who has watched the video of Corbyn ambling around

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Yes, we need experts. But let’s not politicise expertise

For some people, it isn’t enough that we have locked down our daily lives. They want us to lock down our brains, too. Raise so much as a peep of criticism about the shutdown of society in response to Covid-19 and you will be raged against. And the cry is always the same: ‘Are you an expert? No. So shut the hell up.’ Only experts are allowed to speak at the moment, apparently. The rest of us — us lowly, non-expert plebs — must simply sit at home and await our instructions from on high. Those daily coronavirus news briefings feel, at times, like sermons from the mount. It is there,

Stephen Lynch

Andrew Bailey is the right man to lead Britain through the corona crunch

Coronavirus is the ‘black swan’ event of our times, casting a long shadow over global economies. It poses many economic threats: to consumers’ direct spending, the liquidity of businesses and to confidence. And it’s likely to take years to recover from. A wartime mindset, and unprecedented fiscal action are essential tools for limiting the damage. But while the Bank of England is experienced in responding to such disruptive scenarios, its new governor, Andrew Bailey, is just days into the job and under enormous strain. Is he up to the task? Bailey is no stranger to a credit crunch, having worked on the Northern Rock bailout and been RBS chief cashier when