Politics

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

Steerpike

Watch: David Lidington takes a dig at Gavin Williamson

As defence secretary in charge of Britain’s armed forces, Gavin Williamson did not exactly conduct himself with the usual stoicism and calm that comes with the role. But one of the least impressive moments he will be remembered for was his response to the Salisbury attack. After Britain had just deported 23 Russian spies from the country, Williamson was widely mocked for saying in a speech at Policy Exchange that Russia ‘should shut up and go away’ when asked how the Kremlin would respond. It appears that some of his Conservative colleagues certainly haven’t forgotten the gaffe. May’s deputy David Lidington was in the House of Commons today, to answer

Ross Clark

Theresa May’s promotion of Rory Stewart is a smart move

In sacking Gavin Williamson for an offence he strenuously denies Theresa May has created for herself a potential embarrassment. What if a criminal inquiry were to find the former defence secretary not guilty of any breach of the Official Secrets Act? Yet as no-one seems to have noticed, the mini-reshuffle she carried out in the wake of the sacking has avoided another fast-looming embarrassment. In promoting Rory Stewart to the Cabinet as International Development Secretary  she has averted the loss of a popular and up and coming minister. Last August, when prisons minister, Stewart made a rash promise. He said he would resign if he had not succeeded in reducing

Melanie McDonagh

Is the Guardian practising what it preaches on climate change?

The Guardian has an advertisement today from Sainsbury’s. Nothing wrong with that; respectable paper, respectable retailer. It’s the nature of the ad that’s interesting: a big bubble saying Save 10p per litre of fuel, surmounted by a picture of a petrol pump nozzle. You can see were the problem lies, can’t you? This is the paper that’s sympathetic to Extinction Rebellion, to Greta Thunberg, to the anti-fossil fuel activists who campaign against the British Museum accepting funding from BP, now giving space to a company flogging petroleum cheap, thereby stimulating consumption. Indeed, on its front page, the Guardian gives coverage to the report from the Committee on Climate Change which is described as “a

James Kirkup

At last, an MP brave enough to say: Twitter hates women

It can never be said enough that Twitter is not real life, and that it is a huge mistake to think that what goes on there is representative of politics, society or humanity as whole. I’m not sure about its overall impact on the world, but I sometimes think that British politics and journalism might be better if Twitter did not exist. But it does exist, and it does matter. Debate there helps to shape conversations more widely. And yes, Twitter gives a voice and a platform to people who might otherwise have none. So when Twitter starts denying a voice and a platform to certain people and certain ideas,

Split personality | 2 May 2019

The news over Easter that Lord Adonis, the counterweight to nominative determinism, was standing as a Labour Remain MEP was greeted with a fair degree of scepticism. Many commented that it would be a novelty for him to stand for anything — in his early twenties he became an SDP councillor in Oxford, but that’s the last time he was elected to anything. His career has been based entirely on patronage, mainly from Tony Blair, who plucked him from journalism (he worked for the Financial Times and then the Observer) to run his policy unit, and then made him a peer so that he could become minister for education. (Adonis

James Forsyth

Nigel’s revenge

Something’s been missing from Westminster these past few days. Normally, in an election week, there is a buzz about the place. Politicians feast off their encounters with the voters, coming back from the campaign trail with new theories about what the public really want. But this time, few MPs from any party seem keen to talk about this week’s local elections — or the impact they are likely to have on Brexit, Theresa May’s tenure in No. 10 and the future of British politics in general. This is because they know that the European elections, which are just three weeks away, will have a huge influence on all of these

Joanna Rossiter

The Isles of Scilly

‘You can get away from everything,’ said Harold Wilson of the Isles of Scilly, ‘not only in distance but also in time’. During recess, Wilson would frequently catch the sleeper from Paddington to Penzance before making the notoriously choppy crossing to Britain’s most westerly archipelago. There he would unwind in his cottage on St Mary’s — a place where the red box could not easily follow. This family of five islands 28 miles off the nose of Land’s End has always enjoyed a somewhat secretive coterie of admirers — Jude Law and Michael Morpurgo to name but two. Deserted beaches with a Caribbean colour palette are surely part of the

Mary Wakefield

Don’t blame Chris Packham for the shooting ban

Last week, on the first day of the government’s ban on farmers shooting pest birds, I walked across St James’s Park and came across a pigeon murdered by a crow. It was on its back, wings spread, with a nasty hole torn in its chest. It looked like a botch job by an amateur heart surgeon, or an allegory for the whole messy, sorry affair. The ban — a sudden revoking of the old general licences to shoot — was announced right in the middle of the crop-sowing season by Natural England, a semi-autonomous offshoot of Defra. It consulted no one and gave baffled farmers just a few days’ notice,

Would adding a customs union to the Brexit deal really be so bad?

It has been nearly a month since cross-party talks between the government and Labour began, and there is still no sign of white smoke. If the two sides do reach a deal, it is likely to involve movement from the government towards Labour’s key demand – negotiating a ‘permanent’ customs union with the EU after Brexit. Both the Telegraph and the Mail report this morning that the Prime Minister is inching towards a customs union, which she increasingly sees as the only way to get a version of her deal through parliament. There has already been a pre-emptive backlash against the idea. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned that ‘there

John Connolly

Former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya loses her seat

Fiona Onasanya, the former Labour politician convicted of perverting the course of justice, has been ousted as the MP for Peterborough, after the required number of constituents signed a recall petition to remove her from office. A by-election will now be fought in the constituency on 6 June. For Onasanya to be removed 6,967 people had to sign the recall petition – ten per cent of all eligible voters in the constituency. In the end that threshold was passed by a considerable margin, with 19,261 people heading to the ten ‘signing places’ across the constituency to call for her to go. This is the first time that this mechanism has

Katy Balls

Penny Mordaunt gets the promotion she was tipped for two years ago

When Michael Fallon left government amid the ‘pestminster’ scandal two years ago, the expectation among Tory MPs was that Penny Mordaunt would be selected as his successor and moved to the Ministry of Defence. In the end, the role of Defence Secretary went to Gavin Williamson – who was seen as less qualified owing to the fact he had no military experience. Now Mordaunt has finally been given the job – following Theresa May’s decision to sack Williamson over suspicions he was behind a leak from a meeting of the national security council. This makes Penny Mordaunt the UK’s first female defence secretary – departing her role in DfID –

Katy Balls

Gavin Williamson sacked, but denies guilt on Huawei leak. What went on?

Gavin Williamson has been sacked from government following an investigation into the Huawei leak from a meeting of the National Security Council – replaced by Penny Mordaunt. Announcing the decision, a Downing Street spokesperson said Theresa May had asked Williamson to leave government having ‘lost confidence in his ability to serve in the role of Defence Secretary’: ‘The Prime Minister has this evening asked Gavin Williamson to leave the Government, having lost confidence in his ability to serve in the role of Defence Secretary and as a member of her Cabinet. The Prime Minister’s decision has been informed by his conduct surrounding an investigation into the circumstances of the unauthorised

Lloyd Evans

Theresa May flounders horribly at PMQs

Best mates on Brexit, deadly foes on everything else. The highly suspicious search for a Lab/Con Brexit accord was suspended today as the party leaders exchanged blows at PMQs. These covert ‘talks’ are clearly a blackmail effort contrived in Downing Street. By threatening her MPs with a Labour-backed Customs Union, Theresa May hopes to secure their support for her thrice-rejected withdrawal agreement. It might just work. The EU wasn’t mentioned at PMQs but the Labour leader found alternative sources of distress. ‘Things are getting worse,’ he crowed at the Prime Minister as he ran through a hit-parade of sob-stories: inequality, malnutrition, rising crime, falling police numbers and care-home failures. There’s

Isabel Hardman

Pointless PMQs shows up the government’s powerlessness

Most MPs’ minds are elsewhere at the moment, with the local elections on Thursday and the European elections looming at the end of the month. Many of them were physically elsewhere at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, which took place in a sparsely-populated Chamber with little atmosphere. A low rumble of bored chattering accompanied Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn’s exchanges, which lacked the usual political fire and fury of sessions held right before a poll. Neither of them really bothered to engage in exchanges, instead reeling off poorly-planned lines about social mobility, life expectancy and social care. The Prime Minister produced one of the worst jokes of her premiership when she

Steerpike

Corbyn’s office targeted by anti-Brexit protestors

How is Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit position landing with his constituents? On Tuesday, Labour’s National Executive Committee came under pressure to change policy to campaign for a second referendum. However, they instead agreed to stick with the current Brexit fudge of keeping a second referendum merely on the table as an option if other plans failed. It’s a decision that won’t please everyone in Corbyn’s pro-EU Islington constituency. A friend of Mr S noticed something rather interesting while on their run this week. Someone had redecorated the front door and windows of Corbyn’s constituency office with some bright yellow posters: Emblazoned with some colourful slogans including “Jez needs to grow a

Cambridge’s slavery inquiry will raise more questions than it answers

Can the past hold the present to ransom? Can we be culpable for our predecessors’ actions? Knotty questions of this kind have long been debated in British universities. But now these abstractions are finding new and controversial expression. Yesterday, the University of Cambridge made headlines by launching an academic investigation into its historical relationship – direct or otherwise – with the slave trade. The panel will spend two years scrutinising whether Cambridge profited from ‘the Atlantic slave trade and other forms of coerced labour during the colonial era’. For academics, the enquiry will certainly be interesting. But serious problems inevitably arise when historical discoveries are deemed to have moral consequence for the present.

Steerpike

Liz Truss shows solidarity with Diane Abbott

Liz Truss and Diane Abbott are an unlikely pair. One is a champion of free markets while the other is a true Corbynista. However, of late the Chief Treasury to the Secretary has managed to find common cause with the shadow home secretary. Speaking at a Freer think tank event last night with fellow freedom lovers James Cleverly and Steve Baker in the audience, Truss spoke of the importance of fighting over-interference of the state into people’s daily lives – and that includes Abbott’s recent decision to disobey London transport rules and drink an M&S mojito on the overground: ‘When we try to micromanage people’s lives, we take away the

David Lammy inspired me to stand for the Brexit Party

I am standing as Brexit Party candidate in the forthcoming EU elections. The response of voters so far has been overwhelmingly positive. Phew. Here’s a chance to demonstrate that the shambles that parliament has made of delivering on a referendum mandate will be challenged by a democratic fightback. It really is exciting. But, I admit, deciding to stand was rather more nerve wracking, and sent shockwaves among my peers.   *** “Why on earth rock the boat, it could ruin your life and career?”. Just one of the incredulous warning notes sent to me when a friend heard I was considering standing. I certainly had doubts about throwing my hat