Politics

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

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Forget Brexit: Boris’s toughest task will be energising his exhausted party

Boris Johnson will now be receiving plenty of unsolicited advice about how to be Prime Minister. As his victory speech a few minutes ago showed, though, he’s not planning to ditch one of the qualities that got him into this job in the first place. Brand Boris isn’t about the typical prime ministerial behaviour, stood squarely behind a lectern and trying to offer gravitas. To try to squeeze Johnson into this mould would be about as successful as Gordon Brown’s attempts to look cheerful. That’s why his speech was based around the acronym ‘DUDE’ – Deliver Brexit, Unite our Country, Defeat Jeremy Corbyn and Energise. He told the hall: ‘I

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris Johnson’s risky strategy is to be himself

Boris Johnson is the new leader of the Conservative party. He has defeated Jeremy Hunt by a two to one margin, 66 to 34 per cent. This gives him a mandate and will boost his political authority—a boost that he desperately needs given how small his working majority will be, even in combination with the DUP. Boris Johnson’s speech was clearly a holding exercise, his team want to reserve their main messages for tomorrow when he actually becomes prime minister. It wouldn’t be a good look for him to be setting out his plans for the country to his Tory colleagues rather than the country as a whole. But perhaps

The Spectator

Full text: Boris Johnson’s victory speech

Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you, Charles. Thank you very much, Brandon, for a fantastic, well-organised campaign. I think it did a lot of credit, as Brandon has just said, to our party, to our values and to our ideals. But I want to begin by thanking my opponent, Jeremy. By common consent, an absolutely formidable campaigner and a great leader and a great politician. Jeremy, in the course of 20 hustings… or hustings-style events – it was more than 3000 miles by the way, it’s about 7000 miles that we did criss-crossing the country. You’ve been friendly. You’ve been good natured. You’ve been a font of excellent ideas, all of

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Is Boris Johnson, baptised a Catholic, really a Christian?

In today’s Holy Smoke podcast, Harry Mount and I discuss the mysterious religious beliefs of the man who will be the first baptised Catholic to enter Number 10. Boris Johnson’s Catholic baptism – as a baby he was given the faith of his mother, Charlotte Fawcett – has received little publicity. Understandably, perhaps, because he was confirmed an Anglican at Eton, which makes him someone who chose to become an ex-Catholic (and, according to strict interpretations of the Magisterium, thereby placed an obstacle in the path of his salvation). My guest is Boris expert Harry Mount, who tells me that our new PM’s godmother is Lady Rachel Billington – daughter

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ministerial resignations could set the tone of Johnson’s premiership

The trickle of ministers resigning before they are pushed by Boris Johnson continues this morning, with Anne Milton stepping down as an Education Minister. In her resignation letter to Theresa May, Milton cites ‘grave concerns about leaving the EU without a deal’. These resignations could set the tone for the start of Johnson’s premiership. Certainly Sir Alan Duncan hoped that his departure yesterday would start a narrative about a lack of confidence in the soon-to-be-elected Tory leader. They are in many ways reminiscent of the Labour frontbenchers who stepped down at the start of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in 2015. One, Jamie Reed, resigned while Corbyn was accepting his win. This

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Boris Johnson wins the Tory leadership race

Boris Johnson will be Britain’s new prime minister after winning the Tory leadership race. Boris picked up 92,153 votes, or 66.4 per cent. His rival Jeremy Hunt won 46,656 votes, or 33.6 per cent. Turnout in the leadership race was 87.4 per cent. Boris Johnson paid tribute to Jeremy Hunt after his win was announced. He said Hunt had been ‘friendly’ and ‘goodnatured’ on the campaign trail. Boris also thanked Theresa May: ‘Above all, I want to thank our outgoing leader for her extraordinary service,’ he told an audience at the QEII centre. Donald Trump congratulated Boris on his election, saying that the new Tory leader ‘will be great’.

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Boris Johnson created Brexit. Now he has to own it

At just before midday today, Brexiters will own Brexit for the first time, and that will really matter – if, as expected, Johnson is crowned Tory leader. Because from that moment, they will have no one but themselves to either praise or blame, for either Britain’s brave new dawn or its slow and painful demise (whichever turns out to be our fate). The point is that, till today, Brexiters inside and outside the Tory party, from Jacob Rees-Mogg to Nigel Farage, have been able to attribute the failure to deliver Brexit, and an absence of the great sense of national rebirth that they expected, on the treacherous and pesky Remainers,

Monday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Jo Swinson sets her sights on Boris in Lib Dem victory speech

Jo Swinson has been elected as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats. Succeeding Sir Vince Cable in the role, Swinson, the first woman to hold the position, beat her rival Ed Davey – winning 47,997 votes against 28,02 with 63 per cent of the vote. In her victory speech, Swinson said that on joining the party at 17, she had ‘never imagined that I would one day have the honour of leading our great party’. So, how will she lead it? Swinson – who served as a business minister in the coalition – used her speech to cast the Liberal Democrats as the party of liberalism. She tried to

Steerpike Steerpike

The Reverse Gaukeward Squad

Alan Duncan may have been the first to resign ahead of Boris Johnson’s expected coronation as prime minister but he won’t be the last. Philip Hammond has already announced he’ll jump before he is pushed. And the rest of the so-called Gaukeward Squad are preparing to make their feelings about Boris known. But what about the MPs and politicians doing the opposite ahead of Boris’s anticipated win? For years Boris is the man certain Tories have loved to hate – and they haven’t been shy about admitting it. Yet now some of the loudest of Boris’s critics have changed their tune. Mr S profiles the members of the reverse Gaukeward squad:

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Alan Duncan’s resignation just adds to the chaos in the Foreign Office

Sir Alan Duncan’s resignation will only leave a hole in the Foreign Office for a couple of days before the new prime minister replaces him. But he’s not the only missing minister in that department: Mark Field is suspended while the incident at Mansion House is investigated. Duncan had been covering some of Field’s responsibilities over the past few weeks, and now he is off too, just as the crisis in relations with Iran deepens. Jeremy Hunt, meanwhile, has been busy conducting a leadership campaign, all of which gives the Foreign Office, normally the most composed and regal part of Whitehall, a slightly chaotic, neglected feel. This may change mid-week

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Tory MP Charlie Elphicke charged with sexual assault

Tory MP Charlie Elphicke has been charged with sexually assaulting two women. Elphicke, who represents Dover, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 6 September. The allegations relate to three incidents in 2007 and 2016. Elphicke, 49, was suspended from the Conservative party in November 2017. In December last year, the MP had the whip restored ahead of a no-confidence vote in Theresa May. The Crown Prosecution Service released the following statement this morning: ‘The Crown Prosecution Service has today charged Charles Elphicke, MP for Dover, with three charges of sexual assault against two women. The CPS made the decision to charge Mr Elphicke after reviewing a file of evidence

Steerpike Steerpike

Alan Duncan’s ‘honourable’ resignation

Sir Alan Duncan became the first minister to resign from the government today, ahead of Boris Johnson’s likely promotion to become the next prime minister. In a letter to Theresa May handing in his resignation, Duncan said that he had left government before the expected change on Wednesday so he could be ‘free to express my views in advance of you relinquishing office.’ But while Sir Alan would no doubt like to present his departure as a ‘principled’ refusal to serve in a Johnson administration, Mr S has to wonder if that’s really credible, considering the Foreign Office minister’s own various positions on Brexit (and Boris) in the past. Here

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Boris Johnson will soon be the most popular leader in the world

Only one person in Britain now believes that Boris might deprive us of a Jeremy Hunt premiership. That person is Jeremy Hunt. The rest of us expect the ‘Blonde Ambition’ project to reach fruition and for Boris to enter Number 10. This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows him. Nature always marked him out. Even as a first-year Balliol student, aged 18, he was weirdly conspicuous – the ruddy jowls, the stooped bullish stance, the booming Duke of Wellington voice, and the freakish white bob crowning his head like a heavenly spotlight. He was always one to watch. People say he can’t ‘do detail’. But nobody spends

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How much bother will the Gaukeward squad cause Boris Johnson?

How much bother will the Gaukeward squad cause Boris Johnson? Barring one of the biggest political upsets of the past three years, Boris Johnson will be announced on Tuesday as the new leader of the Conservative party – and the next prime minister. Talk has already turned to the problems (and defections) he could encounter in his own party in his first days in office. Philip Hammond set the tone on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday when he took some pleasure in explaining he couldn’t be sacked by Johnson as Chancellor. The reason? He would resign first. It’s a common refrain amongst the anti-no deal Cabinet ministers. David Gauke

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Philip Hammond – ‘I’m going to resign’

In his final show before the summer break, Andrew Marr sat down with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. With the results of the Conservative leadership contest to be announced on Tuesday, Philip Hammond told Marr that if Boris Johnson emerged victorious, he believed his only course of action was to follow in the footsteps of fellow cabinet minister David Gauke: AM: Do you think you’re going to be sacked? PH: No, I’m sure I’m not going to be sacked because I am going to resign before we get to that point… I understand that [Johnson’s] conditions… would include accepting a no deal on 31st October. That is not something I

Nick Robinson

Is Martin Selmayr a friend of Britain?

By this time next week the Johnson era will surely have begun. ‘We can, we will, we must now escape the giant hamster wheel of doom,’ our new Dear Leader will have declared in Downing Street. Or something like it. He will be rewarded with headlines such as ‘BoJo gives us back our mojo’. We will all have been urged to believe in Britain again. Then the questions will begin. With the same deadlocked parliament, the same deeply divided party and country and the same intransigence, what will the new prime minister be able to achieve that Theresa May hasn’t? I’ve been examining the past three years of failed Brexit

Saturday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How Tom Watson reinvented himself to become the new challenger to Corbyn

Tom Watson has had more reinventions than Kylie Minogue has had mid-performance outfit changes. His performances over the years have ranged from baronial backroom fixer loathed by Blairites to scourge of Fleet Street when he took on Rupert Murdoch. There was a brief counter-culture period when he went around wearing a beret, a foray into hunting down alleged paedophiles, and a mysterious vanishing act when he realised that Jeremy Corbyn’s fans were out to get him. In the magazine this week, I look at where Watson’s latest incarnation is taking him: he’s the key figure in the latest attempt to save the Labour Party from Jeremy Corbyn and his hard

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Lib Dems could soon become important power brokers: here’s what they want

An old joke among political journalists is that you know a writer has run out of topics when they start producing columns either on their children or the Liberal Democrats. With so many other things going on, perhaps this is why Westminster has been oddly indifferent to the leadership contest taking place between Jo Swinson and Ed Davey over the past couple of months. We should have been paying more attention, as the winner may well have an important role to play in the political turmoil over the next few months. Last night, the BBC held its hustings with the two candidates, and I was one of the journalists invited

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Which Brexit strategy will Boris Johnson go for?

Before he even gets in to Number 10, Boris Johnson must make one of the most important calls of his premiership. As I say in the Sun this morning, he must decide what his Brexit plan is. On Wednesday, calls with European leaders will begin—and Boris Johnson will have to know what he wants to tell them. As one of those preparing him for government puts it, ‘They’ll call him to say congratulations—and he’ll have to set out his stall’. This is crucial because the European Commission will refuse to negotiate with Boris’s government unless it is instructed to do so by the member states. Within the Johnson camp, there

Friday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Lib Dem Special: Jo Swinson

19 min listen

Jo Swinson is the current deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, but she’s running to be leader against Ed Davey. With the Liberal Democrats’ surge in the polls, Swinson’s role in the coming months could be vital for Brexit. In this special edition of Women with Balls, she talks about losing her seat in 2015 after the coalition, problems with pairing in Westminster, and what she has in common with Boris Johnson. Presented by Katy Balls.