Politics

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

Nick Cohen

Do Brexit Party supporters know who they are really voting for?

When people challenge my opinions I shrug, said Vladimir Nabokov. When people challenge my facts, I reach for my dictionary. Brendan O’Neill, formerly of the Revolutionary Communist Party and Living Marxism, now of Spiked, has had me reaching for mine. He accuses me of lying, a charge which might send a less liberal journalist than me to his lawyers. He says my charge that his comrades and the Brexit Party’s European Parliament candidates Claire Fox, James Heartfield and Alka Sehgal Cuthbert are cavalier about the abuse of children “are lies, straight-up, low-down lies,” “character assassination”, and an act of desperation by the remain side. The desperation is all his. For

Katy Balls

What the Brexit Party’s success means for the Tory leadership contest

As Theresa May promises to bring her Withdrawal Agreement back next month for a fourth vote, few in Government believe it has much – if any – hope of passing. However, May’s decision to announce its return has increased speculation that she will be forced to stand down next month – whether her deal passes or not. When that time comes, the contest to find her successor will begin. Cabinet ministers have been minded to put off that contest for as long as possible, in part due to the fact that a Brexiteer like Boris Johnson or Dominic Raab is likely to fare best if the contest occurs before the

Steerpike

Lead Change UK candidate backs the Lib Dems 

After a series of dreadful polls, self-inflicted blunders, and a resurgence of the Lib Dems, the Remainer party Change UK / Independent Group has struggled to justify its existence as we get closer to the European elections. The party was formed, after all, on the presumption that the Lib Dems (who did remarkably well in the local elections) were a spent electoral force, unable to carry the Remainer torch. Now it appears that even Change UK’s candidates in the European elections are wondering if there’s any point. Today, in a remarkable statement, the top of Change UK’s candidate list in Scotland, David Macdonald, has announced that people should back the

Why do some remainers think ageism is acceptable?

Doubtless there is little cross-over between the readership of The Spectator and that of the New European. Not just because sales figures show that almost nobody reads the strange paper set up after the 2016 Brexit vote, but because while The Spectator includes a wide array of different views, the business model of the New European appears to be based simply on whipping up as much prejudice, grievance and malice as it is possible among those who voted ‘Remain’ in 2016. When people talk about the ‘politics of hate’ such a publication must surely be what they have in mind? But occasionally the publication and its contributors do something so

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem is losing its power to shock

A Labour activist – since elected a councillor – sharing neo-Nazi material declaring that ‘the Jews declared war on Germany in 1933’. A video of a Labour MP rousing a rabble with the incendiary suggestion that ‘Zionism is the enemy of peace’. An activist for the self-proclaimed anti-racist party suggesting a march on their local synagogue. The secretary of Jewish Voice for Labour telling a crowd of pro-Palestinian marchers that Jews are ‘in the gutter’. In isolation, all of these are jaw-dropping and deeply alarming. That they all happened – or emerged – in a short period of time following years of similarly scandalous behaviour means that a certain ennui

Katy Balls

May sets date for return of Withdrawal Agreement – will it be enough to prevent a 1922 rule change?

After weeks of cross party talks between the Conservatives and Labour, Downing Street have finally announced that Theresa May’s beleaguered Brexit deal will once again be put to a vote. A No. 10 spokesman said: ‘This evening the Prime Minister met the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons to make clear our determination to bring the talks to a conclusion and deliver on the referendum result to leave the EU. We will therefore be bringing forward the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in the week beginning the 3rd June. It is imperative we do so then if the UK is to leave the EU before the summer Parliamentary recess.

Brendan O’Neill

The desperate bid to slur the Brexit Party

The Bermondsey by-election of 1983 is widely regarded as one of the nastiest, most scurrilous election campaigns in British history. Peter Tatchell, queer-rights activist and bona fide national treasure, stood for the Labour Party against Simon Hughes, who stood for the Liberals. Tatchell was the target of a ceaseless campaign of smears, innuendo, hatred and homophobia. It came from all sides: the tabloids, the hard right, Liberals themselves. Of all the tactics used against Tatchell, perhaps the lowest, the most awful, was the attempt to depict him as a paedophile, or at least a friend of paedophiles. Incredibly, the tabloid press sent young boys to Tatchell’s apartment, presumably in the

Steerpike

‘Stand your ground in the European elections’ – Amber Rudd’s Onward address

With Theresa May set to leave office this year, the race is on to find her successor. Cabinet ministers are at pains to emphasise their leadership credentials. On Tuesday evening, Amber Rudd used a speech at think tank Onward’s first birthday party to share her views on the current situation. The Work and Pensions Secretary joked – to a crowd that included Rory Stewart, James Brokenshire and Geoffrey Cox – that the current Tory leadership was male dominated before going on to lay out her view on the European elections and what the Tory tactic ought to be: ‘Over the past year my own circumstances have changed so much. For

Robert Peston

Is British politics broken?

I have been fairly quiet for a bit because I have been struggling to say anything useful about what is going on – or perhaps, more accurately, what is not going on. You see we are living through, and in, the mother of all paradoxes: a time when everything and nothing is happening. On a day to day basis, little of moment takes place: Tory MPs huff and puff that Theresa May must be evicted from Downing Street but bicker about how and when she can be forced out. The prime minister and the leader of the opposition agree that people are fed up with all the Brexit uncertainty but

Steerpike

Change UK: party of the one per cent

Over in the states, the Republicans are often disparagingly called the ‘party of the one per cent’, referring to their alleged support for the richest tier of the country’s wealthy elite. But it appears that in the UK, another party could take their throne when it comes to representing the smallest section of society possible. New polling released today by Kantar shows that the Remainer party Change UK has slipped down the rankings even further since its launch in February. When those polled were asked how they would vote in the next general election, only one per cent said they now support Change UK / The Independent Group: Westminster voting

Nick Cohen

The twisted truth about Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party

Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party pretends to stand for the traditional values of old England: Parliamentary sovereignty, patriotism and decency. However little the uninitiated thought of Farage, they would expect his candidates to condemn the IRA murdering children in Warrington and to take a strong line against child pornography. Not so. Or rather, not always. Claire Fox (top of the list of Brexit Party candidates for the North West), James Heartfield (one of the party’s candidates in Yorkshire and the Humber) and Alka Sehgal Cuthbert (a candidate in London) are all former members of the Revolutionary Communist Party and its successor organisations. The RCP’s defence of the IRA when it was blowing up children and Living Marxism’s (the RCP’s

Steerpike

Watch: Crispin Blunt calls for a coalition with the Brexit party

It’s fair to say that Theresa May’s decision to indulge in cross-party talks with Labour have not gone down well with Brexiteers in her party so far. This itself is no surprise, the talks involve two very unpalatable things for Tory MPs: working with Jeremy Corbyn, and adding a customs union to the Withdrawal Agreement (which would prevent the UK striking new trade deals). But it appears Tory Brexiteers have not given up on unusual coalitions altogether. Last night the Tory MP Crispin Blunt was on Newsnight, and reflecting on the party’s disastrous polling ahead of the European elections, called for the Tories to ‘reinvent ourselves properly as a Brexit party’.

Brexit is a symptom of Europe’s problems

Three decades after the fall of the Berlin wall, Europe is once again at a crossroads. In 1989 and the years that followed, the Soviet Union ceased to exist and Germany was unified. The newly independent, once Communist states – including my home country of Poland – embarked on the road to democracy, free markets, and the rule of law. Poland was welcomed back into the European family, and we joined the ranks of Nato. But Europe now faces a threat to its hard-won unity. The threat can be seen in the imminent departure of the United Kingdom, violent protests in France, and the rise of insurgent political parties across the continent

Katy Balls

Jeremy Hunt shows some ankle with defence budget pitch

With Theresa May’s departure expected later this year, the race is underway among her Tory colleagues to position themselves as her likely successor. The weekend papers were filled with ministers at pains to prove their credentials – with Liz Truss calling for one million homes to be built on the green belt and Matt Hancock and Amber Rudd sparking rumours of a double ticket after they penned an article calling for a ‘modern, compassionate Conservative party’. On Monday evening Jeremy Hunt appeared to show some ankle of his own with a speech to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet. Discussing Britain’s place in the world, the Foreign Secretary said the UK is held

Stephen Daisley

Scotland’s dirty little secret: we’re as anti-immigration as England

In August 2007, three months after coming to power at Holyrood, the SNP launched its National Conversation on Scotland’s constitutional future. We have been talking about little else since. Among the many national conversations postponed is one on immigration. The CBI has tried to kick-start such a discussion by warning that, within 20 years, just one third of Scotland’s population will be of working age. Given that figure is currently 64 per cent, it is an arresting claim. It is also entirely plausible. The Office for National Statistics predicts the number of working-age Scots to grow by just one per cent between now and 2041, while the pensioner population is expected

Sunday shows round-up: Blair claims Brexit is ‘based on a myth’

Nigel Farage: This BBC is ‘in denial’ Andrew Marr was joined by Nigel Farage, whose Brexit party is in strong contention to win the European elections that are now required to take place on 23rd May. One poll has even put the fledgling party polling higher than the Conservatives for elections to the UK Parliament. With this in mind, Marr chose to pursue Farage on a number of other areas, which led to the interview rapidly becoming extremely heated. Katy Balls has more on ‘the most ridiculous interview ever’: #Marr asks the Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage if he’s changed his views on the NHS, climate change, gun control and

Katy Balls

‘The most ridiculous interview ever’ – Farage sets out his stall in tense Marr interview

The weekend papers are filled with grim poll predictions for the Conservative party – and good news for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party. An Opinium poll suggests that the Brexit party will win a larger share of the vote in the European elections than the Tory party and Labour combined. With regards to a general election, the Telegraph has published a poll which says the Brexit Party has also overtaken the Conservatives in Westminster voting intention for the first time – and predicts that the party would win 49 seats in a general election now.  Building on that momentum, Farage appeared on the Andrew Marr sofa this morning to lay out

Rod Liddle

What the Peterborough debacle says about the LibDems

I see that the Lib Dems were also involved in trying to put up a joint candidate with the Greens, Renew and the ludicrous Change UK for the Peterborough by-election. This really is the tail wagging the dog. Leave the Greens aside for one moment, Change and Renew are not parties in the accepted sense of the word. Change want to change nothing and its (arriviste) members – as Rachel Johnson brilliantly demonstrated – disagree with nothing in the Lib Dem manifesto. Renew, meanwhile, scarcely exist at all. A more muscular party than the Lib Dems would have told these vaulting, arrogant dilettantes to get stuffed and hammered them at

James Forsyth

When will Theresa May bring the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to the Commons?

Theresa May has one last hope for getting her Brexit deal through. As I say in The Sun this morning, she can bring the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to parliament and try and get MPs to vote for it. Not John Bercow, or anyone else, can stop her from using this as a fourth attempt to get her deal through. But if MPs defeat it again, then Mrs May will have nothing left. If the WAB was voted down, then a new Queen’s Speech would be required to bring it back—and Mrs May would struggle to pass one of those. This is why there’s such intense debate about when to bring