Politics Archives

Monday

14 Sep 2020

Boris will regret a no-deal Brexit

Much has been said about the prospect of no deal over the past few days – the economics, arguments over sovereignty, the views of Conservative MPs, possible long-term gain, and the views of the voters. All will be important to the government’s final decision. Looking only at the voters, the established wisdom seems to be that a no deal course gives Boris his moment of facing down the EU, and that the former ‘Red Wall’ would welcome such a move. This, I think, is an incorrect assumption. Twelve months ago, no deal may well have been welcomed by a sizeable proportion of voters. Brexit was the only show in town.

Ross Clark

Germany shows it isn’t a mistake to reopen schools

A week after schools returned, the government was fretting about a new surge in recorded cases – and found itself moved to introduce new rules limiting us meeting with no more than five other people at a time. The timing seems remarkable. So was it a big mistake to reopen schools? Should we have kept children at home, in some kind of blended learning arrangement so as to spare us all from a second wave of Covid-19? To judge by the experience from Germany the answer is a firm ‘no’. In Germany, as in Scotland, schools have now been back for nearly a month. And the evidence, as reviewed by

Sunday

13 Sep 2020

Steerpike

Geoffrey Cox: I’m a Brexiteer to my core but I can’t support Boris’s Bill

When Geoffrey Cox was Theresa May’s Attorney General it was his refusal to go give his blessing to her Brexit deal that ensured her party would not vote for it. His reputation as a man with unbending principles meant many MPs simply took his word for it: if No10 said one thing and Cox said another they’d believe Cox. But now these Brexiteers have a conundrum, because in an article for the Times, Cox has just said he won’t vote for Boris Johnson’s Internal Market Bill. Why not? Because it violates the terms of a treaty signed by this Prime Minister and ratified by this parliament. Here’s his argument: When the Queen’s

David Frost

Full text: UK and EU Brexit negotiators debate over Twitter

Below is the full text of UK Brexit negotiator David Frost’s twitter thread in response to his EU counterpart Michel Barnier: ‘I would like to make a few comments and state a few facts, in my capacity as the PM’s negotiator in the current and last autumn’s talks. On the Protocol, we indeed negotiated a careful balance in order to preserve peace and the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. It is precisely to ensure this balance can be preserved in all circumstances that the government needs powers in reserve to avoid it being disrupted. On third country listings: the EU knows perfectly well all the details of our food standards rules because we

Tali Fraser

Is Sadiq Khan paying the political price of Covid?

When the London Mayoral election was delayed due to the pandemic, no one was particularly outraged: the prospect of Sadiq Khan’s re-election seemed secure and Shaun Bailey, the Tory challenger, was nowhere to be seen. But that might be changing. Internal polling by the Tory party, leaked to the Telegraph, suggests that Londoners have not been best pleased at the city’s recent fate – and Bailey is only seven points behind, at 35 to Khan’s 42 per cent. This is quite the difference from a March YouGov poll putting Bailey at a fairly hopeless 23 per cent. It’s not that Bailey has been much more visible – but it’s easy

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Justice Secretary would resign if UK breaks law in ‘unacceptable’ way

Robert Buckland – ‘I will resign’ if government breaks law in ‘unacceptable’ way The Justice Secretary Robert Buckland was put on the spot this morning over the government’s proposed Internal Market Bill, which is due to be introduced to the House of Commons tomorrow. The bill intends to override aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol – a part of the official Withdrawal Agreement – to give ministers the right to modify rules on customs, if there is no final trade deal agreed by December. Andrew Marr quizzed Buckland about whether using these powers would breach international law: AM: Is that the moment that [you] resign from the government – if

Carl Heneghan

Boris Johnson needs to bin the rule of six

When Boris Johnson returned to work in April after his brush with coronavirus, he warned that lockdown restrictions must remain to prevent a second wave. Ever since, beset by anxieties, doubts and fear, and surrounded by a platoon of advisors, the PM has made one cautious, catastrophic error after another. Last week’s roll of the dice with the ‘rule of six’ could well be the policy that tips the British public over the edge. For it is a disturbing decision that has no scientific evidence to back it up, and may well end up having major social consequences. The government has decided to blame young people for the latest restrictions,

Saturday

12 Sep 2020

Katy Balls

Will Ireland stump a Brexit deal?

19 min listen

The EU said it could walk away from trade talks after the government announced that it planned to break international law in its Internal Markets Bill. But how will Ireland, one of the countries most affected by the government’s decision, react? Katy Balls speaks to Peter Foster, public policy editor of the Financial Times, Pat Leahy, political editor of the Irish Times and James Forsyth.

Dr Waqar Rashid

Don’t blame youngsters if there is a second Covid wave

Deaths of Covid-19 are overwhelmingly concentrated among the elderly. But now there is a new eagerness to blame young adults trying to live their lives in a normal way for the possible resurgence of the disease. With minimal actual evidence, we are told those under the age of 30 are not socially distancing and, worse still, are actually going out and enjoying themselves with the result that they will bring the virus home to, as Matt Hancock put it, ‘kill granny’. What is clear is that while some young people (as well as older ones) are flouting the rules, many aren’t. Young adults who would normally and reasonably be out

Alastair Stewart

How Boris’s ‘Operation Moonshot’ can get off the ground

Jack Kennedy’s 1961 declaration ‘We choose to go to the Moon’ was treated with a little more enthusiasm than Boris Johnson’s ‘Operation Moonshot’ pledge this week. Both caused eyebrows to be raised, on cost and practicality. But the former was done, eight years later; the later is, at best, a work in progress – at worst, it is just another pipe-dream. The siren voices, some better informed than others, have already dismissed it on scientific and economic grounds. Others say, like Lenin and the Duke of Windsor, that ‘something must be done’ to scale up rapid and reliable testing if we are to avoid losing a race somewhat more pressing

Friday

11 Sep 2020

Katy Balls

The growing Tory unease over lockdown

10 min listen

As England heads into stricter lockdown measures shortly, James Forsyth talks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson about the growing unease amongst backbenchers over the government’s strict Covid response. Is it time for the government to try harder to make a case for its approach?

Katy Balls

Inside Boris Johnson’s Brexit call with Tory MPs

This evening Boris Johnson used a video call to address Conservative MPs following unease over No. 10’s Brexit tactics. With a Tory backlash growing over the plan to break international law and rewrite parts of the withdrawal agreement relating to the Northern Ireland protocol, the Prime Minister sought to convince MPs of the necessity of the measures. Rather than U-turn or suggest a new path, Johnson used the call to explain his government’s thinking. However, it wasn’t exactly a smooth outing. MPs experienced difficulty logging on after the cap for the call was initially put at 100 people – before it was eventually fixed. Once in, Johnson told MPs there would be

Kate Andrews

Will the economy continue to bounce back?

The UK economy continues to bounce back – but it’s the coming months that could pour cold water on a V-shaped recovery. The economy grew 6.6 per cent in July, according to data from the Office for National Statistics, with the return of pubs, restaurants, hairdressers and more non-essential shops giving us another boost back towards pre-Covid levels. But there’s still a long way to go: despite a record-breaking growth rate between May and July, Britain is still nearly 12 per cent below its GDP level in February 2020, having experienced a record-breaking contraction – the biggest seen in 300 years, and the worst of any major economy during the

James Forsyth

Boris Johnson can’t afford many more weeks like this one

Boris Johnson will address his MPs tonight – and they are in need of some soothing. This week has strained relations between him and the parliamentary party. As I say in the Times, on Tuesday the government horrified the internationalist wing of the party by declaring that it was prepared to break international law in a ‘specific and limited way’. On Wednesday, it infuriated the libertarian wing by making it illegal, with some exemptions, for more than six people to gather together. There was particular anger about the fact that all this happened without any fresh parliamentary vote or debate. There’s little overlap between these two factions. But picking a fight

Katy Balls

UK agrees ‘historic’ trade deal with Japan

The UK and Japan have this morning agreed a new free trade deal between the two countries. With International Trade Secretary Liz Truss working to secure a number of FTAs for when the Brexit transition period ends, this is the first that goes beyond what the UK had under EU arrangements. Announcing the news, Truss said this marked a ‘historic moment’ for the UK and Japan as the government’s ‘first major post-Brexit trade deal’. According to government estimates, the agreement will boost trade with Japan by over £15 billion – though internal analysis suggests the overall net benefit will amount to 0.07% of GDP. Aspects of the deal that are being heralded as a win for Britain include digital

Patrick O’Flynn

In defence of Boris’s ‘Rule of Six’

It wasn’t supposed to be like this, was it? Six months after the imposition of lockdown, we were meant to be securely on a gentle path back towards normality, not facing fresh nationwide restrictions. So it is no wonder that the Government’s new ‘Rule of Six’ has proved to be the straw that has broken an increasingly grumpy camel’s back on the right of politics. Not only do the Government’s libertarian-minded detractors mock the arbitrary nature of the new restrictions, but they also take an increasingly hardline attitude towards the whole business of Covid. Toby Young, the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, has declared: ‘The risk of a

Nick Tyrone

Why is the UK breaking international law now?

If the UK government was just going to ignore international law, why did we bother leaving the EU at all? Before anyone gets too jumpy, allow me to explain. If you look at the Brussels laws the UK had to accept during its time as a member state, you’ll find that the government was almost always its own worst enemy. There was a tendency to ‘gold plate’ EU directives, meaning we would take the most extreme interpretation of the rules in question. Most EU directives have annexes that allow member states to play with any restrictions. While many member states shaped the rules around their needs, Britain had a tendency

Thursday

10 Sep 2020

Cindy Yu

Winning shot: how the vaccines race has become a power struggle

34 min listen

Vaccines are normally in the realm of scientists; but not this time as world leaders race to be the first. (00:50) Brexit is heating up, but is the government in a stronger position than it seems? (13:35) And a modern day Caligula – the life and times of the Thai king Rama X. (22:40) With journalist Matthew Lynn; immunologist Beate Kampmann; our political editor James Forsyth; YouGov pollster Marcus Roberts; and Asia historian Francis Pike. Presented by Cindy Yu.

Cindy Yu

Are the Brexit talks about to break down?

11 min listen

The EU gave an ultimatum today that, unless the UK shelved its Internal Market Bill within three weeks, it would be taking legal action against the government. With negotiations in a more acrimonious stage than they have been for a long time, are the talks about to break down? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

James Forsyth

It’s hard to see a way through the Brexit deadlock

The drama has ramped up again in the Brexit talks. At today’s meeting of the Joint Committee on the Northern Ireland protocol, the EU demanded an explanation from the UK side of what was going on with the Internal Market bill. The UK argued that its clauses on Northern Ireland were needed as a safety net and to guarantee the peace process. The EU were not persuaded by this argument; and have demanded that these clauses are dropped from the bill by the end of the month. The EU statement is not explicit about what will happen if the clauses aren’t dropped. But the pretty clear implication is that the