Politics

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

Sunday

Steerpike Steerpike

Who is Labour’s ‘designated survivor’?

With Westminster seemingly awash with coronavirus, the number of MPs and government aides in self-isolation increases by the day. This has led to chatter within government over who ought to step in should Boris Johnson find himself out of action for two weeks with a case of Covid-19. As first secretary of state, Dominic Raab is the minister No. 10 plan to draft in should Johnson fall ill – reportedly to the disappointment of Michael Gove and Matt Hancock. So, what about Labour? Given that the leadership contest doesn’t end til next month, the stand-in leader would have to come from the current shadow cabinet. On the latest episode of The Spectator’s Women

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Are people really panic buying?

We have, of course, been transformed into a nation of hoarders and panic buyers. We know this because everyone keeps telling us. There are the queues around the block, waiting for Asda to open; the tearful nurse on Twitter who couldn’t get any food after a 48-hour shift; anecdotes galore about people loading loo rolls into their trolleys by the tree trunk-load, fighting over each consignment as it arrives. How much more civilised we all were – it has been claimed – during wartime. I’m sure there are people panic-buying and hoarding vast quantities of tinned foods, but is it all quite so bad as being made out? It is

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Shop just for what you and your family needs

Robert Jenrick – We will do ‘whatever it takes’ to support those at risk Sophy Ridge was first joined this morning by the Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick. With the threat from coronavirus still looming large, Jenrick told Ridge that the Chief Medical Officer was now officially advising around 1.5 million people at particular risk from the virus to remain indoors for potentially as long as three months. He pledged that the government would do its utmost to support them: RJ: We are writing to these people… and we’re asking them, as soon as practical, to stay at home and to do so for a prolonged period, perhaps as long as

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Doctors and nurses deserve to know if the NHS has enough protective clothing

We are relying on courageous NHS staff to help us through this terrible Covid-19 crisis. So many would say we have a duty to listen to their concerns and anxieties. And as you will be aware, and as the chief executive of St George’s University Hospital’s Jac Totterdell has made explicit, lots of doctors and nurses do not feel that they are being given the appropriate protective clothing. A leading consultant has explained the issue to me. It is probably best if I just use the consultant’s own words. ‘All we get are little plastic aprons that don’t cover your arms or neck or back or lower legs. And no

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Should ‘Spanish flu’ have been known as ‘American flu’?

There’s an ongoing debate in the media as to whether or not president Trump is being ‘racist’ by repeatedly referring to Covid-19 as a ‘Chinese’ virus. ‘It’s not racist at all,’ Trump insisted at one press conference. ‘It comes from China, that’s why.’ This is at least objectively true – unlike the case with Spanish Flu, which didn’t come from Spain at all. In fact the 1918 pandemic – which killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people around the world – most likely originated in the flat, treeless cattle country of Haskell County, Kansas, west of Dodge City. But it was never known as American Flu. Why? The strange

John Keiger John Keiger

Coronavirus means the EU will never be the same again

The European project was built on the idea of rendering future war among European states impossible. The EU is programmed to avoid armed conflict among its member states, a situation that would blatantly undermine its very essence. But who could have predicted that an epidemic would shake its foundations. In the space of a couple of weeks fundamental tenets of the EU project have received a body blow and may not recover from the coronavirus epidemic. The European Stability Pact requires member states to respect a three per cent budget deficit. France was about to breach that anyway and has used Covid-19 as a cover to go much further, as

Saturday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

What’s wrong with wanting to escape to the Scottish Highlands?

Could I take this opportunity to advise people to self-isolate in the Highlands of Scotland? Not many people around – and good walking country. I mention this because SNP MSP Kate Forbes has urged people from virus stricken areas not to come visit. You are risking lives, she says.  The virus spreads because we are a highly urbanised country and piled too closely to one another. The more we can disperse and self isolate, the less likely the virus is to spread. Public-spirited politicians should be urging us to get the hell out of urban areas. If you decide not to relocate, temporarily, to the Highlands, at least remember that

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Big businesses face a defining moment in this coronavirus crisis

No one would ever have expected a Conservative Chancellor to announce that the state will pay 80 per cent of people’s wages up to the average income. It is something that even Jeremy Corbyn wouldn’t have dared propose before this crisis hit. But the alternative to the package that Rishi Sunak announced last night was mass unemployment. This would have caused huge hardship and meant that even once this virus had passed, the economy would have taken months to get back in gear. Expensive as it is, this package makes a V-shaped recovery more likely. Businesses have been offered unprecedented levels of help by government. They must now pass that

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Coronavirus has even kept the sex-strikers at home

When we left this Britain on Thursday last week, life was almost as usual. Shops and restaurants were open. The Battle Observer was reporting that environmentalists, angry that East Sussex County Council’s pension funds are invested in fossil fuels, were organising a one-day protest demanding a ‘sex strike’. No one, they insisted, must have sexual intercourse with any of the county’s 50 elected councillors ‘until they agree to stop funding climate change’. As a campaign, this latter-day reworking of Lysistrata had the merit that most people would probably agree to its conditions, whatever their views on climate change. We returned home on Monday, however, to read that the protest had

Sajid Javid

Sajid Javid: Why can’t my mum buy groceries?

As every Chancellor knows, behind every figure in the Treasury lie thousands of human stories. At times like these, saving lives is the first, unmitigated priority. This means releasing whatever resources the NHS requires. Hospitality, retail, the self-employed: otherwise healthy enterprises of every description are facing an existential threat. Supporting businesses with government-backed loans is a good start, but it won’t be enough. Temporary tax cuts are also needed: ‘No need to pay’ rather than ‘Time to pay’. If we want the economy to surge back once the danger has passed, these measures will need to be rolled out soon and at top speed. The economic package thus far is

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Brexit, Boris and the battle to be Labour leader: Lisa Nandy interviewed

The Labour leadership contest has been going on for so long that two of its candidates, Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey, have taken to counting down the hours they have left. The race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn started in early January, and will finally finish on 4 April. When we meet, Nandy is feeling run-down — not because of coronavirus, but the sheer length of a contest that she had initially thought should run beyond May’s now-cancelled local elections. She regrets calling for that now. A long contest should have helped the Wigan MP. When it started, she was not as well-known as the other candidates, and needed time to

Friday

James Kirkup James Kirkup

The Sunak supremacy

In some ways, it’s easy and even important to keep Rishi Sunak’s performance in announcing his coronavirus job retention scheme in perspective. It should, after all, be pretty easy to be popular in politics when you are offering to spend literally limitless amounts of money protecting people from economic hardship. A cynic would also say that it’s relatively easy to look grave and statesmanlike when you’re standing next to a prime minister who can still look more inclined to play Prince Hal than Henry V. But even taking those things into account, I still consider Sunak’s performance one of the most impressive I’ve seen from a British politician in more

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Inside Rishi Sunak’s wage guarantee

In his third Covid bailout in just over a week, Chancellor Riski Sunak has shifted his focus from businesses to employees with an unprecedented three-month commitment to cover the bulk of pay for workers facing redundancy. He’ll cover up to 80 per cent of all salaried workers’ wages (up to £2,500 per month, around the UK’s medium income). This is a blanket pledge, an unprecedented intervention on the part of the government that will see the state pay private businesses – big and small – to retain their employees for the foreseeable future.  The ‘Job Retentions Scheme’ is not targeted specifically at vulnerable sectors – presumably because any targeted scheme requires some form of means testing,

Matthew Lynn

Rishi Sunak’s wartime economy

At least no one can say it isn’t bold. The United States is fiddling around with some possible cuts to payroll taxes. Most of Europe is stuck with some printed money from the ECB. But the UK is embarking on one of the most radical experiments in modern economic theory, and one that will no doubt be studied for decades to come. With his latest announcement today, a whole 48 hours after his last intervention, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak has effectively turned the UK into a wartime economy. This is the most extensive intervention in the economy ever made by a supposedly free market government anywhere in the world The

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson shuts down pubs – but promises to pay people’s wages

Boris Johnson has announced this evening that pubs and restaurants must close as of this evening. After beginning the week by telling the public they should avoid such venues, the Prime Minister has now instructed these establishments to close their doors: ‘We are collectively telling cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants to close tonight as soon as they reasonably can and not to open tomorrow – thought to be clear they can continue to provide takeout services. We’re also telling nightclubs, theatres, cinemas, gyms and leisure centres to close.’ Johnson was clear in his comments that this was a decision his government had not taken lightly – and one that he

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Oxford Economics predicts a quick post-virus recovery – with one big caveat

Britain is midway through a deep recession: of that there is no doubt. But what next? Oxford Economics has today been one of the first to offer an answer, predicting a V-shaped economic recovery (sharp economic downturn and sharp economic revival) and near-complete economic repair. It is, of course, a guess: all forecasts are. But it’s one worth looking into in a bit more detail. All published economic forecasts pre-Covid-19 (including those accompanying the Chancellor’s Budget last week) are defunct, so this is an early test – one that factors in the Government’s policy of ‘social distancing’ and the profound impact this has on business as usual. Oxford Economics has

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Boris bashers need to cut it out

Every weekday afternoon a professional Twitter mob gathers to give a running commentary on the Prime Minister’s daily coronavirus press conference. Its leading lights will critique Boris Johnson’s every utterance to see what might catch on. Perhaps it will be a snarky comment about how modified advice in the light of new data really shows that he was all at sea before. Or not across the detail. Or his failure to be able to guarantee when this will all be over might be deemed disgraceful. Maybe Alastair Campbell will throw in a grenade about allegedly confused messaging. Or Piers Morgan will issue a ‘bloody well do something or we are

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Coronavirus panic buying is turning Tories into socialists

If Brexit did not do it, the panic buying has trampled to death national myths patriots once cherished. We now see that ‘quintessentially English’ does not now mean a reserved character with a stiff upper lip joining an orderly queue. But a demonically possessed shopper lunging towards the last four-pack of loo roll. Conservatives can find one comfort, however: the crisis is upholding their view of human nature – or at least it appears to be. Covid-19 is giving life to Margaret Thatcher’s sociological analysis. ‘There’s no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people,