Politics

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

Wednesday

27 Nov 2019

Steerpike

Factcheck: Corbyn’s ‘NHS for sale’ claims

Jeremy Corbyn claims he has the ‘proof’ that the NHS is at risk in a post-Brexit trade deal with the US. The Labour leader this morning called a press conference to reveal a series of leaked UK papers from trade talks with the US, which he said contained comprehensive evidence that the NHS was for sale to the Americans. But do Corbyn’s claims actually stack up with what the documents say? Mr S. examines the facts: Drug patents Labour claim: ‘Labour and experts said big US corporations want to force up the price our NHS pays for drugs as part of the toxic deal being negotiated with Trump. The Conservatives

Steerpike

Did Corbyn give the game away on the Chakrabarti Report?

Jeremy Corbyn was grilled by Andrew Neil last night in an interview for the BBC (you can read the full transcript here). The results were less than flattering. Labour’s leader was asked about his party’s response to anti-Semitism and gave a reply that raised more questions than it answered. Corbyn referred Neil to Shami Chakrabarti’s supposedly independent inquiry into anti-Semitism in the Labour party. The subsequent report, published in June 2016, was widely seen as a whitewash, with the Board of Deputies calling it ‘beyond disappointing’. That perception was compounded when Corbyn decided to give Chakrabarti a peerage in August that same year. Marie van der Zyl, the Board’s vice-president,

Steerpike

Watch: Barry Gardiner gets angry over anti-Semitism question

Jeremy Corbyn is desperate to move on from talk of his mauling at the hands of Andrew Neil last night but some journalists still won’t play by the Labour script. At a Labour event this morning, two reporters asked questions about anti-Semitism. It’s safe to say it didn’t go down well with shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner, who accused the reporter of ‘having a dig’ at the leader: ‘Do you have a question on the issue we are actually discussing today or was that an opportune moment to get a dig in about something else?’ Oh dear…

Stephen Daisley

The shame of Labour’s liberal supporters

There are many reasons why I am suspicious of the Conservatives’ current lead in the polls. The Tories may have peaked too soon. Labour voters flirting with the Liberal Democrats could return the more they see of Jo Swinson. Many Conservative target seats, while Brexity, have voted Labour since there was a Labour Party to vote for. Landlines still dominate over mobile phones in the sampling methodologies of some pollsters, under-reflecting younger and poorer voters. Labour supporters and Remainers are more likely to turn out than Tories and Brexiteers and a million more voters have joined the roll than did prior to the last election, which just reeks of young

Steerpike

Labour’s massive leaflet mix-up

The Labour party have their work cut out this election if they want to close the gap in the polls and make up for their leader’s disastrous interview with Andrew Neil last night. Unfortunately, it appears that the Labour party campaign machine might not be quite up to the challenge. Local Labour activists in South Thanet in Kent have been up in arms this week, after they found out that voters in their area have been posted Labour leaflets from the wrong part of the country. Instead of being petitioned by their local Labour branch, residents of South Thanet have instead received mail from Labour’s Emma Lewell-Buck, who hopes to represent,

Tuesday

26 Nov 2019

Sam Akaki

Jeremy Corbyn is wrong about the evils of the British Empire

Under a Corbyn government, we learn today, historical ‘injustice’, colonialism and the role of the British Empire will be taught in the national curriculum. It’s quite staggering: anti-Britishness will be taught in British schools. Make no mistake: this would not be the story of Africa. It would be political propaganda designed to do Britain down. I loathe identity politics, but I have to say: a lot of the people making the Corbynite proposals are white. Perhaps as a proud African Brit, the descendant of people who received the British and then fought against them in Uganda, I might have ‘privilege’ – as the Corbynistas would doubtless say – to point

Gus Carter

Labour’s ‘race & faith manifesto’ launch fails to go to plan

Labour launched its ‘Race & Faith Manifesto’ earlier today amid a storm of criticism over the party’s anti-Semitism problem. The latest person to condemn Jeremy Corbyn is the chief rabbi, who questioned whether the Labour leader is fit to become prime minister. During today’s event in north London, Corbyn hit back, insisting that under his government ‘no community will be at risk because of their identity’. The party had hoped the mini-manifesto launch would focus attention on policy ideas such as a wholesale review of the Prevent strategy or the scrapping of random stop and searches. But it didn’t go to plan. Outside the venue in Tottenham, activists had parked

Gus Carter

The fiery frustrations of the independent conservatives

Dominic Grieve, David Gauke and Anne Milton face a big challenge to keep their seats come 12 December. The trio were among 21 Tory MPs who lost the whip when they backed the Cooper-Letwin bill back in September. Last night, Grieve, Gauke and Milton teamed up with the former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine to hold an event in Grieve’s Buckinghamshire constituency of Beaconsfield to rally against the party they once called home. While the odds might be against them in their bids to retain their seats as independents, the three candidates are optimistic. They embraced their newfound independence, telling voters they could ‘make the difference’ and generally talking up their

Richard Sloggett

How Boris Johnson dodged May’s dementia tax trap

The opprobrium was quick. ‘A broken promise’, ‘A missed opportunity’, ‘A dereliction of duty’ were comments thrown the way of the Prime Minister following Sunday’s manifesto launch and the revealing of the Conservatives’ social care policy. But for those writing the manifesto, lightning was not going to strike twice. Fixing social care is one of the most complicated and challenging long-term questions facing UK public policymakers. What was learnt from the elections in 2010 and 2017 was simple: you do not announce radical new social care policies in an election campaign. Indeed, doing so has been part of the reason we have not seen the breakthrough since 2017 that campaigners rightly crave. After the 2017 election, a green paper was promised, delayed,

Mary Harrington

Why I’m no fan of the Tories’ free childcare promises

Why are our big three political parties so keen to out do each other in their commitment to separating children from their parents? Labour trumpeted its manifesto offer of 30 hours of childcare for all two, three and four-year-olds by promising a ‘radical expansion of free childcare for all’. Not to be outdone, the Lib Dems say they will offer childcare from nine months for parents in work and 35 free hours a week for all two to four-year-olds. And the Tories joined the childcare arms race with their manifesto pledge to increase the amount of ‘wraparound’ childcare available via schools. For children, this effectively means continuing the school day into the

Steerpike

Six of the worst bits from Jeremy Corbyn’s Andrew Neil interview

Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with Andrew Neil is likely to be a defining moment in the Labour leader’s election campaign. Corbyn struggled to spell out his position on Brexit, refused to apologise over allegations of anti-Semitism and also failed to do his homework when it came to saying how his government would fund its multi-billion pound plans to revolutionise Britain. It’s a hard choice but here are the six worst bits from Corbyn’s clash with Andrew Neil: Corbyn refuses to apologise over anti-Semitism: The Labour leader was pressed repeatedly to apologise over accusations of anti-Semitism. Four times, he refused to do so: Corbyn: chief rabbi is wrong The chief rabbi said

Douglas Murray

Holly Rigby and the ignorance of the Corbynistas

One of the few advantages of going on television or radio is that in time you meet all the leading nutters in the land. In most ordinary situations, I would never have encountered Holly Rigby. She says that she is a ‘teacher’, though seems to be part of that miraculous class of leftist activist able to juggle a full-time job with popping up on media channels at any hour of the day or night as a full-time activist for Jeremy Corbyn. Last week, I found myself on air with Holly for an hour on the BBC’s ‘Politics Live’. She seemed harmful enough. I don’t think there was an answer she

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn flounders on anti-Semitism, Brexit, tax and spending

Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with Andrew Neil was one of the most uncomfortable half hours of the Labour leader’s tenure. In contrast to the ITV debate, where he appeared confident and quick-witted, Corbyn struggled to answer questions on a number of different issues, complaining all the while that Neil wouldn’t let him finish. By the end, he might have wished that he’d had more interruptions as this was a very poor interview. His refusal to apologise for the Labour party’s handling of anti-Semitism has naturally attracted the most attention. He point blank disagreed with the Chief Rabbi, saying he was ‘not right’ to say it was ‘mendacious fiction’ that Labour had

The Spectator

Full transcript: Jeremy Corbyn grilled by Andrew Neil

Jeremy Corbyn took part in The Andrew Neil Interviews on BBC One this evening. Neil grilled the Labour leader on everything from anti-Semitism to Vladimir Putin. You can read the full transcript from the interview here: AN: Jeremy Corbyn, the Chief Rabbi says a new poison of anti-Semitism, anti-Jewism, has taken root in the Labour Party and it’s sanctioned by you, he says. He questions you’re fit for office. What’s your response? JC: I’m looking forward to having a discussion with him because I want to hear why he would say such a thing. So far as I’m concerned anti-Semitism is not acceptable in any form anywhere in our society

James Kirkup

Ivan Rogers is wrong about Boris Johnson

Sir Ivan Rogers missed his calling. Our former envoy to the EU would have made a fine newspaper columnist, albeit one who struggled to file to length. His ability to capture the big issues of the Brexit process and make a compelling argument about what happens next is quite something, and explains why a Rogers intervention always gets people talking. His latest contribution is a long speech arguing that Boris Johnson is heading for a fall in late 2020 when the UK’s Brexit transition period ends and the country faces three options: 1) Conclude a trade deal with the EU 2) Fully leave the EU without a deal 3) Contrive

Nick Cohen

Corbyn doesn’t care about reassuring British Jews

An allegedly racist party protesting its innocence has many strategies open to it. The best is to admit its guilt and reform. Labour cannot because Labour’s leader and his supporters are so contaminated by racial prejudice they lack the moral capacity to change, or even admit to themselves the need to change. Labour might try to meet specific Jewish fears and begin by accepting that they are genuine. It is not just that Jewish people and their allies would not like prime minister Corbyn to take power as a result, one assumes, of some tartan-Stalin pact between Labour and the SNP. Our biased electoral system ensures that most voters don’t

Ross Clark

Corbyn’s Waspi pledge only perpetuates gender discrimination

Labour is, of course, wholly committed to gender equality. So why then is it proposing to borrow £58 billion to perpetuate a blatant form of discrimination: the gap in retirement ages between men and women? There is, of course, a straightforward answer to this: on Friday’s Question Time special, Boris Johnson was asked if he would compensate the so called ‘Waspi’ women who feel they have been ill-treated by having their retirement age raised from 60 to 65, in line with men, and said that regretfully he didn’t have the money to do this. Overnight, Labour sniffed an opportunity: why not announce a compensation package and scoop up those Waspi

Robert Peston

Labour’s failure on anti-Semitism is also a crisis of competence

There is both a moral and a practical dimension to Labour’s desperate slowness to root out anti-Semitism. The moral one, highlighted by the Chief Rabbi last night, is whether Jeremy Corbyn is fit to be prime minister having seemingly been too tolerant for too long of avowed anti-Semites. The practical one is that Labour is offering the most ambitious and complex programme of national reconstruction since 1945 – an expansion of the apparatus of the state on a scale we haven’t seen since at least the 1960s and probably not since 1945. It will require management and technocratic expertise of a very high order. And yet Labour’s administrative machine failed

Steerpike

Listen: Lord Heseltine urges Tory voters to back Lib Dems

Michael Heseltine visited the Tory stronghold of Beaconsfield last night to support the recently ousted Conservative, now independent candidate, Dominic Grieve. During the event, which also saw Remain rebels David Gauke and Anne Milton take to the stage, Lord Heseltine was asked his advice to long-standing Conservative voters in the upcoming general election. Heseltine told the audience: I am telling them to vote for what they believe and what the Conservative Party has stood for all my life and certainly their’s and put country first. And what I think that means in practical terms is they either vote for the defrocked Conservative candidates, of which we have three excellent examples

Patrick O’Flynn

The Tory manifesto shows we don’t need to trust Boris on Brexit

‘But can we really trust the Tories to deliver Brexit?’ This is the question I am most often asked on social media and in person by long-standing Brexiteers who, like me, are not habitual or tribal Conservatives. And the reply I never give is: ‘Yes, of course we can’. Because let’s be blunt about this: the Conservative party has not earned the trust of Brexiteers over the years. It had to be bullied into holding a referendum by Ukip, at a time when the number of Conservative MPs prepared openly to speak in favour of leaving the EU could be counted on the fingers of one hand. It then immediately