Politics

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

Thursday

Anthony Browne

Who’s afraid of no deal?

How bad would a no-deal Brexit really be? This is now perhaps the most important question in politics, and the one provoking greatest disagreement. The answer will help decide whether parliament allows Brexit to happen, and whether Tory MPs bring down their own government. If they think calamity would follow, patriotic rebels might risk a general election to stop the Tories. But what if it would not be so bad? And is there any way of finding out? Almost everyone accepts it will cause problems, but views range from manageable to ‘national suicide’. It is difficult to predict complex events without historic precedent, but there are other reasons for the

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Girl’s gone to Magaluf and it’s hard not to worry

At the Leavers’ Ball held to mark our daughter’s last day at boarding school, there were only two topics of conversation among the anxious parents. How early could we decently slope off without being rebuked by our girls? And the dreaded Leavers’ trip to Magaluf. Magaluf — Shagaluf as the kids all call it — is the post-A-levels destination of choice for what seems like every school leaver in the country. If you’ve seen The Inbetweeners Movie you’ll know what it’s like: charmless, garish avenues of overpriced bars and clubs with pushy greeters, expensive party cruises, grotesque drunkenness, epic hangovers, sunburn, STDs and gallons of vomit. Quite how much Shagaluf

Wednesday

David Paton

Why the Labour party deserves to be destroyed

So after months of prevarication, Labour have announced that they will back a second referendum under any circumstances and will campaign for Remain to stop a ‘no deal or a damaging Tory Brexit’. The reaction has dismayed Labour MPs in vulnerable Leave-leaning seats, but delighted Nigel Farage. Indeed, the decision has played perfectly into the Brexit party’s strategy of targeting working-class voters in the North and Midlands. Three months ago, many assumed that a Tory wipe-out at the next election was inevitable. But now the tables are turned and it is difficult to see anything but electoral doom for Labour. The Brexit party will surely siphon off Leave voters in

James Barr

Kim Darroch and the myth of the special relationship

Like a priest standing before the bronze gates of a temple, the British ambassador to Washington serves as the guardian of one of the great modern myths: the idea, conceived by Winston Churchill, that a special relationship exists between the UK and the US. The impression that British ambassadors can wield disproportionate influence in Washington is a legend successive British governments have been keen to burnish – so much so that it has arguably become the central pillar of UK foreign policy since 1945. But the reality – as Donald Trump’s spectacular defenestration of Sir Kim Darroch shows – is rather different. Perhaps only one ambassador has really ever lived up

John Keiger John Keiger

The moment the European project first went wrong

At a time when the EU is at its least popular and, worse still, least respected, it is worth reflecting on how the idea for a united Europe developed – and where it went wrong. The Spectator’s reprint last week of Christopher Booker’s 2014 article ‘How the first world war inspired the EU’ is a timely reminder of the real genesis of the EU. Yet it was only after the Second World War amid fear of a renascent Germany, that the concept of an ‘ever-closer union’ became the shibboleth of European construction. It was here that the European project took a mistaken turn. The First World War led to France

Steerpike Steerpike

Sajid Javid’s Tory leadership reflections: Bailey, Boris and Brexit

Although Sajid Javid was knocked out of the Tory leadership contest, the Home Secretary could soon have a consolation prize in the form of the keys to No. 11. Javid is tipped as the frontrunner for the hotly coveted role of Boris Johnson’s chancellor. Speaking at Tuesday night’s Policy Exchange summer reception, Javid reflected on what he was proud of from his campaign: ‘As for the leadership campaign, I’m not sure what more I could have done! I showed off my little dog, Bailey, I showed off my mother and her cooking, even my daughter’s letter. Although I didn’t have to reveal any unusual artistic hobbies that I might have.

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs: If only Theresa May had been this aggressive towards the EU

The US jobs miracle continues. Donald Trump has just created another vacancy at the British embassy in Washington. Sir Kim Darroch’s resignation was the opening issue at PMQs and Theresa May expressed her shock and regret at the diplomat’s departure, ‘after a lifetime of service to this country,’ she added pointedly. Sir Kim isn’t the only victim of an unfair campaign to oust him. The PM usually favours formal attire at PMQs but today she was sporting a white t-shirt and a knee-length kung-fu jacket. Lime green, loose around the bust and faintly shiny, it looked like a sex club bathrobe. Jeremy Corbyn brought up her ‘burning injustices’ speech when

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Why won’t Brexiteers stand up to Donald Trump?

There’s a new way of testing if someone is genuinely committed to the ideal of national sovereignty. Let’s call it the Darroch Test. Will you stand up to any foreign leader who arrogantly presumes the right to tell Britain who its ambassadors overseas should be? Or will you cave in to that foreign leader and effectively let him or her dictate the make-up of Britain’s diplomatic corps? That’s the Darroch Test. That’s the new national sovereignty test. And, sadly, many Brexiteers, the people who are meant to be standing up for the sovereign rights of the British nation against foreign oligarchies and bureaucratic bullies, have failed it. Yes, this concerns

John Connolly John Connolly

‘A personal tragedy’: the Foreign Office responds to Kim Darroch’s resignation

As a lifelong diplomat, it was probably the closest Sir Simon McDonald, the head of the UK diplomatic service, has ever come to publicly showing a sliver of emotion, when speaking to MPs today about the resignation of the Sir Kim Darroch. The head of the diplomatic service had been summoned by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee to discuss the leaking of sensitive diplomatic cables to the Mail on Sunday, which were highly critical of the US President Donald Trump. Shortly before the committee, Sir Kim Darroch announced his shock resignation. McDonald began the hearing by explaining that Darroch had left his post for two reasons: the pressure on his family,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Corbyn and May were busy fighting other people at PMQs

Jeremy Corbyn took a bizarre approach to today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, choosing largely to have a go at the likely leader of the Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson, rather than the woman opposite him. He choose to focus his questions to Theresa May on cuts to legal aid, branding them a ‘Lib Dem decision’ and pointing out that Jo Swinson was the junior coalition minister who took the cuts through the Commons. It was additionally odd that Corbyn chose to talk about legal aid, given it offered a reasonably easy leap for May into the way the party is handling tonight’s Panorama on anti-Semitism. But the big story of the day

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Northern Ireland, gay marriage and the great liberal power-grab

Yesterday, the Welsh government announced new guidelines to make school uniforms gender-neutral, which would mean an end to trousers being advertised for boys and skirts for girls. You can imagine the outrage if the UK government now tried to over-ride that decision, saying it was a load of silly nonsense. The rumblings in Cardiff would bring down a building or two: how dare you interfere with the decisions of Wales’ democratically-elected government, would come the cries. And they would have a point. When the Welsh voted – very narrowly – for devolution in 1997 that was that. Many areas of governance were handed over to the Welsh and they were

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Why Boris Johnson failed to defend Kim Darroch

Boris Johnson’s failure to rebuke Donald Trump for his unpresidential attacks on the serving British prime minister and our US ambassador show that he takes for granted he’ll be the next PM, despite his insistence on the ITV debate last night that it would be presumptuous for him to do that. He is looking beyond the short-term attraction of being seen to stand up for Britain against a bullying US, to the relationship that he thinks will determine whether his early weeks in office are forceful or farcical. Johnson has been attacked by putative Tory friend and foe alike for refusing to manifest adequate solidarity with Sir Kim Darroch, who

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Sir Kim Darroch resigns as British Ambassador after leak

In the past few minutes, Sir Kim Darroch has resigned as UK Ambassador to Washington. The Foreign Office has just released a letter in which Sir Kim says says the leak of diplomatic cables in which he described President Trump as ‘insecure’ has made it ‘impossible for me to carry out my role as I would like’. He may well be right that it is now impossible for him to continue working with the Trump administration. It might also have been impossible for him to continue in the role for much longer, given Boris Johnson is set to become Prime Minister, and pointedly refused to back him last night. But

Steerpike Steerpike

Change UK splitters become ‘The Independents’

You may have struggled to keep up with all the twists and turns of the group of independent MPs who left Labour and the Conservatives to form their own political party. First, Heidi Allen, Chuka Umunna and co. became the ‘Independent Group’, which was hastily renamed ‘Change UK’. After several more name changes, Change UK then split after the European elections, with half its MPs becoming independent MPs, and the other half (led by Anna Soubry) becoming ‘The Independent Group for Change’. If that wasn’t confusing enough, Mr S is sorry to say that another independent group has entered the fray today. Of the six MPs who split from Change

Tuesday

Daniel DePetris

Jeremy Hunt shows he doesn’t know how to handle Donald Trump

Jeremy Hunt has tried to end the war of words between Donald Trump and Britain’s ambassador in Washington. But his open warning to the US president – that Trump’s foul-mouthed broadsides against Sir Kim Darroch are “disrespectful and wrong to our Prime Minister and my country” – is bound to backfire. Instead of calming the situation, Hunt is pouring more fuel onto the fire. Trump lobbing another grenade across the pond later in the day is now virtually guaranteed. Of course, as Foreign Secretary, Hunt has a responsibility to defend his employees. In a distant second place to Boris Johnson in the Tory leadership contest, Hunt may have also calculated that standing

Richard Ekins & Robert Craig

Why the Queen should appoint Johnson or Hunt as PM

Should the Queen appoint as Prime Minister the winner of the Conservative Party leadership election? Not necessarily, argued Professor Meg Russell and Professor Robert Hazell in a recent paper, covered in the Guardian last Sunday. If a handful of Conservative MPs defect, Russell and Hazell say, the winner may not be able to command a majority in the House of Commons, in which case Theresa May should remain in office and supervise a process to find some other person who does command the House’s confidence. Russell and Hazell go further, and argue that if the next government loses a vote of no confidence in the autumn and an election follows, the new Prime

Ben Habib

My strange new life as a Brexit party MEP

I never thought I’d become a politician but Theresa May’s failure to deliver Brexit changed my mind. As a result, I decided to stand as a Brexit party candidate and, in May, I was elected as an MEP for London. For someone with no political experience, the weeks since have been surreal. Yet the strangest moment so far came last week, when my fellow Brexit party members and I travelled to Strasbourg for the inaugural meeting of the European parliament. My experience there has convinced me that Britain is right to leave the EU. Even travelling to Strasbourg seemed slightly strange. After all, what is wrong with the perfectly good parliamentary building in Brussels? This

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Optimistic Boris looks ahead to turbulent term as PM in TV debate

Jeremy Hunt managed to sum up the Tory leadership contest very aptly this evening when he accused Boris Johnson of ‘peddling optimism’. The line, delivered in ITV’s leaders’ debate, did the Foreign Secretary no favours, though. He was pitching himself as the truthful realist, who wouldn’t make promises he couldn’t deliver on. Johnson ridiculed this as ‘defeatist’, telling the audience in his summation that Britain needed to get off ‘the hamster wheel of doom’. Had Hunt suggested Johnson was ‘peddling myths’ or ‘peddling nonsense’, then his line would have had better force for his cause. Instead, it underlined why the former Mayor of London is doing so well in the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A feisty debate, but no game changing moment

Tonight’s debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt was a feisty affair. The pair clashed repeatedly over the October 31st Brexit deadline, tax policy and Donald Trump. The mood of the debate was summed up when Boris Johnson was asked what he most admired about Jeremy Hunt and replied, ‘his ability to change his mind’. Hunt shot back that he most admired Boris Johnson’s ability to avoid answering the question. The Brexit section of the debate was dominated by the question of whether the UK would leave on October 31st or not. Jeremy Hunt pushed Boris Johnson on whether he would resign if that didn’t happen, Boris Johnson dodged before

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: what do Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt admire about each other?

Tonight’s ITV debate was a much livelier contest than many expected, as both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt engaged in blue-on-blue warfare as they battled to become the next PM. Even in one of the lighter moments of the evening the candidates struggled to be cordial on stage, with both opting to go on the attack when asked by an audience member what they admired about their opponent. Boris, after struggling for several moments to think up any answer, eventually settled on: ‘I greatly admire his ability to change his mind, and campaign for Brexit now’ – helpfully drawing attention to the fact that Hunt campaigned for Remain in 2016.