Politics

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

Tuesday

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.

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Hunt accuses Johnson of ‘peddling optimisim’

Tonight, ITV hosted the first head-to-head debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt as they vie to become the next Prime Minister, and leader of the Conservative Party. And while Jeremy Hunt may initially have entered the race as the candidate least likely to engage in blue-on-blue warfare, it didn’t take long for the two candidates to begin tearing into each other on live TV. In one exchange, the pair clashed over no deal and whether Britain would actually leave the EU on 31 October. Remarkably, Hunt accused Johnson of ‘peddling optimism’ with his plan to take Brexit out by Halloween, saying that: ‘Being prime minister is about telling people

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Could Boris Johnson make Jeremy Hunt his deputy?

Who will Boris Johnson appoint as his deputy? Now that voting in the Tory leadership is well underway – with 60 per cent of party members expected to have sent back their ballots by Thursday – most MPs are starting to think more about what the next prime minister’s cabinet will look like, and less about who that prime minister will be. There are more than enough candidates to fill the cabinet twice over, given the number of MPs who have backed Johnson. Some of their colleagues mock them for supporting someone merely because they hope he will give them a government job, but it’s quite understandable that someone might

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The shame of Donald Trump’s British acolytes

Why does the right hate Britain so much? That’s one of the questions arising from both the leaking of Kim Darroch’s diplomatic cables and, more pertinently, the reaction to the entirely unsurprising contents of those cables.  Sir Kim’s appraisal of Donald Trump’s administration are not very different from those made by other sentient beings. Suggesting Trump’s White House is chaotic and inept and all kinds of dysfunctional hardly counts as news. Everyone knows this because everyone can see it.  And yet, remarkably, it is the British Ambassador to Washington who finds himself subjected to an artillery barrage of humbug and absurdity. Nigel Farage, of course, demands that Sir Kim be

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The Boris Johnson paradox

Here is the Boris Johnson paradox: the Tory party appears to have made up its institutional mind that Boris Johnson will be its next leader and our prime minister. And yet all the senior Tories I meet – ministers, MPs and especially his supporters – are bracing themselves to be disappointed and even betrayed by him. They don’t trust him. But they are aching for him. One household-name, Johnson-backing, Tory Brexiter, a little the worse for wear at The Spectator’s party last week, told me ‘of course Boris is going to eff us; it’s what he does.’ When he and his colleagues rationalise this contradiction, when they explain why only

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The court of Boris Johnson: the factions competing for approval

How will Boris Johnson govern? With even Jeremy Hunt allies privately braced for defeat in two weeks’ time when the result is announced, talk has turned to what a Johnson government could look like. This relates not just to his Cabinet but how No. 10 will be run and who Johnson will take guidance from. ConservativeHome’s Paul Goodman has predicted that a Johnson government will be much more like a court than his predecessors – with groups of courtiers offering rival advice: ‘He will listen to these groups and play them off’. So, which groups will be vying for Johnson’s approval? Over the length of the Tory leadership campaign, Johnson

Monday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Donald Trump savages May over US ambassador leak – and Brexit

How damaged are UK/US relations after the Mail on Sunday published leaked diplomatic cables in which the UK’s ambassador suggested Donald Trump was inept? The answer it seems is very bad. This evening the US president took to social media to express his dissatisfaction at the leak – and the UK government. In the tweets, Trump says his team will no longer deal with ambassador Sir Kim Darroch. He says he is ‘very critical’ of Theresa May’s handling of Brexit: ‘What a mess she and her representatives have created’. He then goes on to see the bright side: ‘The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Kate Hoey’s exit will be a big loss to Labour

Nothing better sums up the intolerance and sheer meanness of the hardcore Remainer set than their loathing for Kate Hoey. These are the kind of people who solemnly shake their heads when women in politics or business are subjected to sexist abuse on the internet. But such concerns fly full-speed out the window where Hoey is concerned. For her, no insult is off limits, no abuse out-of-bounds. She’s a traitor, a Faragist, a fascist, a hag. All those words, and worse, have been used about Hoey in the numerous media assaults and Twitterstorms she has been subjected to for the crime of standing by her principles. Especially her principled belief

Steerpike Steerpike

Boris takes inspiration from The Godfather

When Michael Gove turned on Boris Johnson in the 2016 Tory leadership contest and decided to stand against his former Vote Leave comrade, it was likened to Brutus’s betrayal of Julius Caesar. But with things looking brighter for Johnson this time around – and the former mayor of London viewed as a shoo-in for No. 10 – could he be about to exact his revenge? Mr S only asks after BoJo gave a rather curious answer when asked ‘what’s your favourite movie scene?’ by the Daily Mail over the weekend. Johnson ominously pointed to The Godfather’s acclaimed ‘Baptism of Fire’ scene – where Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone ruthlessly orchestrates the

Ross Clark Ross Clark

What the Heck boycotters can learn from Boris Johnson

You can tell a lot about the Left simply by reading the list of subjects which are trending on Twitter. Top spot this afternoon goes to the hashtag #BoycottHeck. If you are wondering what that means, Heck is a family firm based in North Yorkshire which until the weekend ran a blameless business making gluten-free sausages. Besides its traditional pork sausages, it has also established a reputation for its vegetarian sausages – winning plaudits from a great number of warm-hearted, peace-loving people of the Left. That was, however, until Boris Johnson passed by on the campaign trail for the Tory leadership contest, and posed for a photo opportunity in a

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What Kate Hoey wants to do before she stands down

Kate Hoey, the Labour MP, Brexiteer and serial rebel, has today announced plans to stand down at the next election. In a letter announcing her retirement, the MP for Vauxhall promises to carry on until a general election (whether that’s this year or 2022) ‘serving with the energy, honesty and integrity that I have tried to bring to public service my whole life’. Her decision comes after the Labour party gave its MPs the deadline of today to say whether they wished to seek re-election. That deadline led many to worry that it could lead to deselection attempts by local members after the threshold to spark a re-selection contest was reduced

James Kirkup James Kirkup

What Tories can learn from Theresa May’s mistakes on immigration

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias is often taught to schoolchildren, who read it as a warning about the fragility of human power. Conservatives should study it now and ensure they take an opportunity to learn from Theresa May’s mistakes on immigration. If there was one issue that helped May become, for a short time, a figure of “cold command” over her party, it was immigration. As home secretary and then Prime Minister, she was the senior figure at the top of the Conservative party who consistently took the hardest line on the issue. By the mid-point of the 2010-2015 coalition government, David Cameron would privately concede that all of his ministerial

Sunday

Robert Tombs

What Sir Ivan Rogers gets wrong about Brexit

When so much of the Brexit debate has consisted of slogans and unexamined assertions (‘cliff edges’, ‘crashing out’ and the rest), it is welcome that a more substantial argument has been made by Sir Ivan Rogers, former UK ambassador to the EU. He has been making a series of well-received speeches, some of which have been so popular that they have been published as a book (and recently, on The Spectator’s website). He has long been pessimistic about the chances of reaching a Brexit settlement any time soon, and resigned in January 2017 when his concerns became public. He deplores the referendum decision but regards it as necessary for it

David Paton

A Halloween no-deal Brexit is no longer a scary prospect

Project Fear is back after a seasonal break. Far from resolving anything, Theresa May’s decision to delay Brexit back in the spring simply kicked the can down the road, frustrating companies who invested scarce resources into getting ready for a 31st March departure. Damaging as the decision to delay Brexit was, the silver lining is that seven months’ on, the UK is likely to be in a much better position to cope with the no-deal fall out. You wouldn’t know if it you listened to the CBI who continue to churn out “no-deal” scare stories. Or if you read the civil service memo apparently “leaked” to the media, explaining that

Steerpike Steerpike

Could Nigel Farage be the next British Ambassador to the US?

Leaked diplomatic cables are a hoot, aren’t they? The Mail on Sunday’s big scoop shows that Britain’s man in Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, has been briefing his government about President Donald Trump in much the same way as the average American news pundit on TV on speaks to his or her audience. That is to say, he can’t stand the man in the Oval Office, and he makes his animosity pretty clear. ‘Inept’, ‘insecure’ and ‘uniquely dysfunctional’ — these quotes read like somebody who has just read Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff’s tell-all hitjob on the presidency, before sitting down to write. And Sir Kim’s line about Trump fans being ‘almost

Matthew Taylor

Sunday Shows Roundup: David Gauke would resign under a no-deal government

John McDonnell – Labour splits are ‘myths and rubbish’ Stories of deep division within the Labour party have appeared in this morning’s papers, with the Sunday Times reporting calls for two of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest advisers – Seumas Milne and Karie Murphy – to be sacked. Andrew Marr spoke to the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell – rumoured to be one of the dissenters – about the allegations: JM: I’ve not said to sack anybody… In terms of the Sunday Times story about any splits between me and Jeremy, it’s myth, it’s rubbish. Jeremy and I go back 40 years, we’re the closest of friends… AM: And you have full confidence

Saturday

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The plan to block no-deal Brexit

MPs opposed to a no-deal Brexit will make an almost-final attempt early this coming week to make it impossible for Boris Johnson – if he becomes PM – to prorogue or suspend parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit. The plan which has been designed largely by Dominic Grieve, the senior Tory MP and former Attorney General, would amend the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation bill) – which is due to be debated on Monday – to force the government in October to make an oral statement on the progress of efforts to restore fully devolved government to Northern Ireland. If the amendment were to pass, it would mean the House