Politics

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

Friday

12 Jul 2019

Boris Johnson struggles through interview with Andrew Neil

Boris Johnson just faced by far his toughest interview of the campaign. He was pressed hard on Brexit, Kim Darroch’s resignation, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and his economic policy by Andrew Neil. At the end of the interview, Boris Johnson looked at his watch—I suspect it seemed to him much longer than the half an hour it was. On Brexit, Boris Johnson made his usual case. But his attempt to sound like a details man by citing Gatt 24 Article 5B came rather a cropper when Andrew Neil asked him what was in Article 5C. Boris Johnson had no answer. When Andrew Neil pressed him on whether he would really walk away

Steerpike

Watch: Boris Johnson taken to task over Brexit plan

Is Boris Johnson a man of detail? The Tory leadership frontrunner certainly gave the impression of being one when he revealed his Brexit plan to Andrew Neil. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before he became somewhat unstuck. Boris claimed that in the event of a no-deal Brexit it ‘might be possible…that both sides agree to a standstill’ in order to prevent tariffs being imposed. He pointed to paragraph 5B of GATT to make his point. But did he know what was in the following paragraph? Here is how their exchange unfolded: AN: So how would you handle – you talk about Article 5B in GATT 24 – BJ: Paragraph 5B. Article

Steerpike

Watch: Jeremy Hunt: I’m not ‘Theresa in trousers’

Jeremy Hunt has a lot in common with Theresa May. As Andrew Neil pointed out in his interview with the foreign secretary tonight, both are Tory technocrats. And both backed May’s Brexit deal three times. So is Jeremy Hunt just ‘Theresa in trousers’? ‘Certainly not,’ according to Hunt, who said that while he was loyal to May it was now time for a new approach. Part of that new approach involves Hunt switching to a no-deal Brexit strategy if no Brexit progress is made by the end of September. Here is how Hunt explained that approach in a tetchy interview: AN: Back to Brexit. You say that if there’s no

Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: How MPs could have averted Parliament’s harassment crisis

MPs tried to set up an independent complaints process into sexual harassment and bullying as far back as 2016, but their efforts were blocked, I have learned. Anne Milton, who was the Conservative Deputy Chief Whip between 2015 and 2017, told Coffee House that she became increasingly concerned that the political parties’ own complaints processes were insufficiently independent, and convened a meeting of whips and Commons clerks to try to get Parliament to set up its own process. She had received a number of complaints from staff who had been bullied by MPs or other employees, and was concerned that there was often no proper recourse for these complainants. The

The Spectator

Full transcript: Jeremy Hunt’s Andrew Neil interview

AN: Jeremy Hunt – like Theresa May you voted to Remain. Like Theresa May you’re a Tory technocrat. Like Theresa May you voted for her Brexit deal, three times. Why would the Tories want more of the same when it’s hardly been a golden age for them? JH: Because, Andrew, I am a totally different person and I have a totally different plan. And I did vote three times for Theresa May’s deal and I’ll tell you exactly why: because I wanted to leave the European Union as quickly as possible. And had we voted to do that, as indeed did Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg and many other people,

The Spectator

Full transcript: Boris Johnson grilled by Andrew Neil

AN: Boris Johnson, we’re going to talk a lot about policy, but I first want to talk about you, because for many people – including many Tories – your character, your reputation, trust in you is as big an issue as the policies you stand for. Do you accept that that’s a problem for you? BJ: No, I don’t at all. I think what people want to see is what my plans are to come out of the EU on October 31st, to get that deal done, take us beyond Brexit and unite the country. And I’ve got a lot of things that I think will be fantastic Conservative policies.

Katy Balls

Jeremy Hunt’s BBC interview highlights his inconsistencies on Brexit

With less than a fortnight to go before voting for the Tory leadership contest closes, few believe Jeremy Hunt is in with a shot of making it into No. 10. However, Hunt supporters were still hopeful that a game-changing performance in this evening’s BBC interview with Andrew Neil could turn things around. In the end, Hunt put in a competent and confident performance but the interview served as an unhelpful reminder of the candidate’s Brexit flip-flops. Although the Foreign Secretary has been at pains of late to paint himself as a reborn Brexiteer willing to pursue a no deal Brexit in much the same way as his rival Boris Johnson,

Steerpike

Six of the biggest gaffes from the Tory leadership contest

The Tory leadership contest reaches its high point tonight as Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt sit down for one-on-one interviews with Andrew Neil. But even if the pair manage to avoid any slip-ups, the race for No.10 has so far produced plenty of gaffes. As this year’s contest reaches its final stages, Mr S. lists his favourites blunders so far: Rory Stewart’s phone gaffe: Rory Stewart made waves with his unorthodox campaign, a back-to-basics pitch that showed up his slicker but less authentic rivals. This facade came crashing down when Stewart tweeted a video of him in Kew Gardens. Eagle-eyed followers noticed something bizarre: while Stewart’s arm was moving around, the camera

Cindy Yu

The Spectator Podcast: the bromance of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump

Boris Johnson has been under fire this week for not coming to the defence of Sir Kim Darroch. Is this a sign of things to come? In this week’s cover, Freddy Gray takes a look at what transatlantic relations might look like under a prime minister Johnson, arguing that Boris might better understand Trump than May did. He joins the podcast together with Anand Menon, Director of the UK in a Changing Europe. Surprisingly, they agree on quite a lot. Next, Cambridge University is conducting an inquiry into its historical links with slavery this year. ‘Too right!’ says Sahil Mahtani, a City analyst specialising in economic history, in this week’s

Thursday

11 Jul 2019

The Spectator

Barometer | 11 July 2019

Ode to all sorts Brexit party MPs were likened to Nazis for turning their backs on a recital of ‘Ode to Joy’, the EU’s anthem. Yet Beethoven’s melody itself has one association which liberal-minded folk might find unsavoury — between 1965 and 1979 it served as the national anthem of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, using the words: ‘Rise, oh voices of Rhodesia,/ God may we Thy bounty share./ Give us strength to face all danger,/ And where challenge is, to dare.’ It was during this period, in 1972, that the Council of Europe adopted the tune as its own anthem. It then became the European Community’s anthem in 1985. Police numbers Boris

Peter Jones

Glimmers of hope

With parliament irretrievably deadlocked over Brexit and the EU intransigent, there remains little belief that either of the prime ministerial candidates can find an even remotely happy solution to the problem. All they can currently offer are the tender leaves of hope. The ancient Greek farmer poet Hesiod (c. 680 bc) told the story of this ambiguous commodity. The gods, determined that life on Earth should be one of suffering, fashioned an irresistibly beautiful woman, Pandora, and sent her down among men with a large storage jar, which she proceeded to open. Out from it flew all the ills of the world, but Zeus ensured that she put the lid

The Spectator

For the few

In some alternative universe the Labour party, as under Tony Blair in the mid 1990s, is busily preparing for government, its confidence boosted by a massive lead in the polls over a shambolic Tory administration. Back in this one, however, Labour is crumbling even faster than the divided and unpopular Conservatives. Remarkably, while the Tories have seen a collapse in their share of the vote to just 22 per cent, according to one poll this week, Labour has sunk to just 20 per cent. Just how it succeeded in throwing away such a remarkable opportunity to seize power is going to trouble its remaining members for decades to come. Those

Petronella Wyatt

Diary – 11 July 2019

I am beginning to feel like a sort of fairground curiosity: one of those pickled things in jars that Victorians stared at. It is Boris’s fault. Because I once had a close friendship — all right, all right, a tendresse — with Mr Johnson, I am pointed at, photographed, and harried in the aisles of shops. Soon members of the public will be tearing off bits of my clothes — something Russian peasants used to do with anyone who had met the Tsar, as if this would bestow some of Batiushka’s divine status. Tabloid journalists doorstep me, believing I have the answers. I am a female Zoltan Kapathy; not so much an

Ian Acheson

How Theresa May’s war on the police backfired

British law enforcement is famous around the world for its brand of neighbourhood policing. But this now exists largely in memory in the place where policing was invented. Our capability to police in this way, that has protected society since the time of Robert Peel, has all but collapsed. The only surprise about the five ex-Metropolitan Police chiefs’ blistering attack on the ten years of Conservative policy that achieved this is how long it’s taken them to get their act together. For a period of time between 2009 and 2011, I had a pretty unique perspective on policing in Britain. By day I was the senior Home Office mandarin in south

Stephen Daisley

Nicola Sturgeon has fallen into a trap of her own making

Nicola Sturgeon is expert at laying traps for her opponents but this time she may have ensnared herself. During the May 2016 Holyrood elections, the SNP leader and occasional First Minister said a Leave vote in the upcoming EU referendum should be grounds for a second ballot on independence. This, of course, was when Remain was expected to win and when England voted Out while Scotland voted In, Sturgeon’s bluff was called. She has spent the past three years devising evermore elaborate ruses to distract her restive grassroots. The latest is a Citizens’ Assembly, a forum used in Ireland to ease in constitutional changes on gay marriage and abortion.

Ross Clark

Is Amber Rudd a hypocrite for shifting on no deal?

Amazing what a bit of discipline can do. No sooner has Boris Johnson warned that anyone who wants to serve in his Cabinet must accept that leaving the EU without a deal is retained as an option, than the work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd is telling TalkRadio: ‘Both candidates have said that no deal is part of the armoury going forward and I have accepted that’. This is remarkable because four months ago Rudd was one of three Cabinet ministers who helped block a no-deal Brexit on 29 March. She, along with David Gauke and Greg Clark, abstained on an amendment to block a no-deal departure is all circumstances.

Steerpike

Jacob Rees-Mogg: the next Chief Secretary to the Treasury?

Liz Truss has made her pitch for No.11. But if she gets her wish, who might replace her as Chief Secretary to the Treasury? Step forward, Jacob Rees-Mogg. That at least was who Truss touted as a possible successor at a Press Gallery lunch this afternoon. Truss revealed that preparations for the handover are already underway – and Rees-Mogg’s nanny will be pleased to know that she hasn’t been forgotten. Rees-Mogg’s Bentley is also part of the picture, with Truss jokingly claiming that the Treasury car park has undergone extensive modifications to accommodate Mogg’s car: “I’ve been pleased to see that JRM has been touted as my successor. I’ve already trained up

Matthew Lynn

Meet the car boss who has finally realised the truth about no deal

Most of us probably decided Aston Martin was by far the coolest car company in the world the first time we saw Honour Blackman climb into James Bond’s DB5 in Goldfinger. But just in case there were still any doubters out there, there is now another reason to love them as well. Amidst the constant predictions of disaster from the auto industry that would follow from leaving the European Union without a deal, the company’s chief executive has pointed out an obvious fact: that at this stage, it would be better to simply leave than prolong the agony of our departure any further. The auto industry has been one of

Katy Balls

Liz Truss makes her pitch for No. 11

With Boris Johnson looking a shoo-in for No. 10, his supporters are battling it out in a bid to win a top job in his Cabinet. The most coveted position is Chancellor and Sajid Javid, Liz Truss and Matt Hancock are seen as the frontrunners. This afternoon, Truss used her appearance at a Press Gallery lunch to set out her stall. Referring to her rivals, she said of Hancock that she wouldn’t ever feel ‘threatened by someone with fewer than 5,000 instagram followers’. As for Javid, when asked who was better at maths out of the two of them, Truss pointed out that she had a Further Maths A Level.

Steerpike

The Corbynistas’ lucky escapes

You would never normally describe the various activists and journalists closely allied to Jeremy Corbyn as publicity shy. In fact, whenever the embattled Labour leader is in trouble, or being grilled about his Brexit position, it’s usually only minutes before you see a Corbynite in a TV studio, ready to defend him on air. But after a Panorama documentary was broadcast last night, which uncovered evidence of anti-Semitism within Labour, it seems that Corbyn’s supporters have become struck by a series of unfortunate events, preventing them from coming on air. This morning the Guardian columnist Owen Jones was due to speak on the Today programme about the documentary and Labour anti-Semitism, but