Politics Archives

Wednesday

16 Sep 2020

Boris softens his PMQs approach for Rayner

Boris Johnson faced a new opponent at Prime Minister’s Questions today – Angela Rayner. With Sir Keir Starmer stuck at home waiting for the results of a family member’s coronavirus test (which has since come back as negative), Labour’s deputy took to the despatch box. Her performance led to a notably different approach by Johnson, the PM was notably less combative than he has been against Starmer. Rayner began by putting Johnson on the spot by asking him the hourly rate of a care worker – a question he avoided answering. Her presence also meant more jokes on the Labour side. She had a dig at Dominic Cummings over lockdown, saying: ‘The next time a man with

Will Jones

A second lockdown would be a big mistake

Coronavirus cases dropped after we locked down, therefore lockdown worked. But is that right? I’m not convinced. And now it seems the government may be considering imposing another lockdown in response to the latest surge in cases. Doing so would be a mistake. The ‘Rule of Six’, introduced this week, is only likely to add to the confusion. If there is no spike in cases, the law will take the credit. If it fails to work, harsher measures could come into force. I’m not alone in failing to see how this approach – which will inevitably inflict more damage on our ailing economy and send a confusing signal to those who

Ian Acheson

In praise of Boris Johnson’s justice shake-up

It ought to be a good day at the office (at last!) for Robert Buckland, the Secretary of State who has outraged the legal profession. He spent most of last weekend on the media rack defending the government’s position that it might break international law to defy an agreement with the EU that it had negotiated. Today is much more straightforward. His ‘get tough’ sentencing white paper contains a myriad of proposals that will resonate with ordinary people baffled by a justice system ever more remote from the idea of public protection and punishment, lost in abstractions, passing sentences that bear little relationship to the gravity of the crime. So while

Steerpike

Kay Burley’s Abbott obsession

Robert Buckland was touring the Westminster studios this morning, batting away questions over the Internal Market Bill and touting his new sentencing white paper. What he probably wasn’t expecting was yet another flurry of questions about a story that’s now more than two weeks old. Cue Kay Burley and her seemingly never-ending obsession with Tony Abbott, the former Aussie PM turned British trade negotiator. Burley kicked off her cross-examination by saying ‘obviously the Abbott question is coming’ – although it isn’t quite obvious to Mr S why the Sky anchor is still ruminating over confected furore. In fact, Burley was so pleased with her skewering of Buckland that she tweeted out a clip

Tuesday

15 Sep 2020

Robert Peston

A tighter lockdown could be two weeks away

Significant further restrictions on our freedom to mix with people, in social or work settings, could be introduced in a fortnight, if the ‘rule of six’ does not lead to behavioural change and a flattening of the coronavirus infection rate. I have spoken to members of the government and to its scientific advisers, and am struck by how anxious they are that the virus may be spreading out of control again. One member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) told me : ‘My big worry now is that we might be too late again to avert a major second wave. If we wait for deaths to go up

Steerpike

Diary of a former chancellor

It’s that time of year again. It gets darker sooner, the leaves are falling off the trees and a tell-all book has been published. ‘A diary of an MPs wife: inside and outside power’ is Hugo Swire’s wife Sasha’s account of life as a member of the Cameron set. The book – of which excerpts have been published in the Times – includes accounts of George Osborne’s fear of croquet and Samantha Cameron skipping out on cooking. The word in Westminster is that many of the disclosures have not been well received by those featured in the tome. Now the former chancellor of exchequer has given a response. Writing in the

Freddy Gray

Is Trump right about mail-in voting?

17 min listen

President Trump is continuing to rail again mail-in voting, alleging that millions of unsolicited ballots could be heading into American postboxes. Is there anything corrupt about the postal voting system, and does it hurt or help the democratic process? Freddy Gray speaks to Marcus Roberts, director of international projects at polling company YouGov.

Katy Balls

Can the government fix the testing meltdown?

14 min listen

Amid reports of local testing shortages, Matt Hancock told MPs today that the system is facing an ‘enormous challenge’ after a ‘sharp rise’ in demand. While the government has pledged to deliver 500,000 tests a day by the end of October, just 220,000 are currently being processed. Can the government fix the problem? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.

Ross Clark

What do 111 calls tell us about the second wave?

Should we be looking at confirmed cases of Covid-19 to give us a guide as to how the epidemic is progressing – or at the number of people reporting symptoms? Over the past few months attempts to track the virus have been hampered by a very inconvenient fact: the number of tests being performed has increased hugely since the emergence of Covid-19, increasing tenfold between April and July. It makes reading the data extremely problematic – the more people you test, the more cases you are inevitably going to pick up. There is a possible alternative data set, however: the number of people ringing 111 to report symptoms. As the

Kate Andrews

Is unemployment about to surge?

Despite experiencing the largest economic contraction in over 300 years, UK unemployment figures haven’t budged for months. The furlough scheme seems to have proved successful in shielding many jobs from getting the immediate axe, while those who were made redundant often didn’t appear in the official figures as they were not immediately looking for work. But today’s labour market overview from the ONS shows they have started to tick upward: unemployment is now at 4.1 per cent, 0.3 percentage points up from last year and 0.2 points up from the last quarter. Breaking down the rate by age, it’s clear the young have suffered the most so far: unemployment for 16

Robert Peston

Tory faith in Boris is wavering

Having won that 80 seat majority for his party in December, it is really quite an achievement by Boris Johnson that so many Tory MPs want to talk to me about whether he’ll stand down – willingly or not – next year. There is even talk that no-confidence letters are already sitting in Graham Brady’s bottom drawer calling for a leadership contest. Truthfully I don’t take the notion of an organised coup seriously. But what should worry the PM – and what the chief whip should be telling him – is that many of those who were his enthusiastic supporters in last June’s leadership contest say things to me like ‘everything

Gus Carter

Full list: Internal Market bill abstainers

Last night’s second reading of the Internal Market Bill passed with a comfortable 77 votes for the government. In truth, this was always going to happen. A second reading vote confirms merely the principle of a bill so the real question was over the size of any potential rebellion rather than the future of the legislation itself. The problem comes next Tuesday when Bob Neill’s amendment is laid before the House. This would give MPs a vote on whether the UK chooses to break the Withdrawal Agreement when it comes to customs checks in the Irish Sea or state aid interventions for NI businesses. In the meantime, abstentions on the

Nick Tyrone

Farage could still come back to haunt the Tories on Brexit

Some Tory MPs are worried about a strategy that the party is apparently seriously considering adopting at the next general election. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘30-10 strategy’. The ‘30’ denotes the solid, unshakable Tory base; people who will supposedly vote for the Conservatives no matter what. The ‘10’ represents the Brexit add-ons; Ukip and Labour voters who went Tory in December 2019 because they wanted to ‘get Brexit done’. The ‘30’ can be taken for granted by nature, leading to everything being done to keep the Brexiteer ‘10’ onside. It is thought that with this solid 40 per cent of the electorate, all the Conservatives need to

Monday

14 Sep 2020

Steerpike

Full text: Charles Walker accuses Boris Johnson of treating MPs like dogs

Oh dear. It seems the whips failed to assuage Charles Walker, vice chair of the influential 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives. The well-respected Brexiteer told of his frustration over Covid restrictions, as well as his concern over the controversial Internal Market Bill. And Walker certainly didn’t pull his punches. He clearly wanted to send a message when he told the chamber: ‘If you keep whacking a dog, don’t be surprised when it bites you back.’ This shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to Downing Street. Just a fortnight ago, the normally loyal Walker told the Observer that it was becoming increasingly difficult for MPs to defend the government, warning of ‘eroded

James Forsyth

Has Boris done enough to halt the Tory rebellion?

Boris Johnson has just been speaking in the Commons as the government tries to quell the Tory revolt over the internal market bill. Johnson’s tone was different from the government’s last week. There was no repeat of Brandon Lewis’s infamous words about a ‘specific and limited’ breach of international law, rather there was an emphasis on how the Northern Ireland clauses were ‘reserve powers’ that he hoped never to have to use. He stressed that MPs would have the chance to vote on a statutory instrument before they came into force. The problem for the government is that this whole debate has been framed by what Lewis said, and the

Steerpike

Boris takes a swipe at Cox

Fancy an ice-cream anyone? While defending his Internal Market Bill, Boris Johnson chose to make what appeared to be a pointed dig at one of the Bill’s opponents. Describing the possibility of a tariff border down the Irish sea, Johnson provided MPs with a handful of helpful examples. He explained that the Withdrawal Agreement risked: Tariffs [that] could get as high 90 per cent by value on Scottish beef going to Northern Ireland, tariffs potentially over 61 per cent on Welsh lamb heading from Anglesea to Antrim… And, entirely incidentally of course, tariffs reaching: Over 100 per cent on clotted cream from Torridge, to pick a Devonshire town at random, to

Katy Balls

Can Boris stave off a Tory Brexit rebellion?

13 min listen

Former attorney general Geoffrey Cox has today warned that the Internal Markets Bill could cause ‘unconscionable’ damage to the UK’s international standing. With a vote on the legislation due later today, could a rebellion overcome the government’s majority? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.

Steven Barrett

Why didn’t the EU punish Germany when it broke international law?

Boris Johnson’s proposal to break international law ‘in a specific and limited way’ has sparked uproar. But do you remember when the UK broke the Geneva Convention? Oh. Well we did. The government-ratified Geneva Convention on the Sea came into effect in Britain on 10 September 1964. From then the UK was bound forever by the treaty and bound by international law. On 25 September 1964, we were not. No explanation was given. No explanation was asked. Our Judge who ruled in favour of the government when it broke the Geneva Convention of the Sea, said this: ‘the Crown [The Government] has a sovereign right, which the court cannot question, to

Steerpike

Geoffrey Cox’s parting shot

Geoffrey Cox has been causing the government a bit of trouble of late. Ahead of votes on Boris Johnson’s internal market bill, the former attorney general has published an article in The Times on why he can’t vote for it – accusing the Prime Minister of doing ‘unconscionable’ damage to Britain’s international reputation through his proposals to break international law. The intervention has served to further invigorate would-be rebels – with senior members of government spending the afternoon calling around MPs ahead of the second reading of the bill this evening. Now it appears Cox is about to provide additional embarrassment for the Prime Minister. He is absent from parliament today so will miss the vote – though

Patrick O’Flynn

Cut Boris some slack on the ‘Rule of Six’

Happy ‘Rule of Six’ day everyone. I’m off out a bit later to meet five friends in a pub (true story). So I will be fully compliant and will positively baste my hands in sanitiser on the way in. But I hope to get a little merry nonetheless. But across media land toys are being propelled out of prams at high velocity over the new restriction as pundits declare what a nonsense it is (see my previous piece from last week for examples). One of the arguments they cite is that deaths from Covid are still flatlining (correct) while hospitalisations are not rising (incorrect, they bottomed out at under 750