Politics Archives

Monday

2 Sep 2019

Is Boris Johnson about to go for an election?

Things are moving fast in Westminster this afternoon, with speculation mounting that Boris Johnson might be about to call an election. The Cabinet is meeting this afternoon, and there will be a reception of Tory MPs in Downing Street this evening, too. Those involved are definitely discussing an early general election as one possibility. The reason this is under consideration is that Number 10 expects MPs to win their bid tomorrow to take control of the order paper, which would mean that Johnson is pitched into eight weeks of being Prime Minister but with no power. He will have lost around a dozen Tory MPs, meaning he has no majority. In

Isabel Hardman

Boris’s game of chicken with Tory rebels

Is Boris Johnson playing a game of chicken with anti-no-deal Tory MPs? The two sides are locked in a furious standoff over the threat from the Prime Minister that MPs will lose the Tory whip and be prevented from standing for the party at the next election if they back this week’s rebel legislation blocking no deal. That threat, first reported by James Forsyth, might have caused one or two MPs to back down, but it has made others, including Rory Stewart and David Gauke, more defiant. They are insisting that they will vote for the extension legislation this week, even if it means they stop being Conservatives. The point

Katy Balls

The dilemma facing the anti-no deal Tory rebels

After the government confirmed James’s story that any Tory MPs who rebel in a Brexit vote this week will have the whip withdrawn and be unable to stand as a Conservative at the next election, anti-no deal MPs find themselves in a dilemma. No 10’s aim is to present them with a simple choice: Johnson or Corbyn, making clear that the wrong decision will be career-ending. A number have been dissuaded from joining efforts tomorrow to legislate against no deal. Others – including David Gauke and Rory Stewart – appear to be holding firm. However, whatever happens this week with the votes, the dilemma for the anti-no deal Tories will remain

Robert Peston

What do the Tory rebels want?

“The crypto-fascists are in charge”. So spoke one of the senior Tories planning to rebel tomorrow against Boris Johnson – which captures in its visceral anger the magnitude of the gulf between the new prime minister and those of his backbenchers who want a no-deal Brexit taken off the table. This afternoon the Tory rebels will decide whether the threat from Johnson and his chief aide Dominic Cummings, to remove the Tory whip and to ban them from running as official Tory candidates in the looming general election, will dissuade them from tomorrow voting with Labour, the SNP, the Greens and Plaid to seize control of what legislation is debated

Steven Fielding

Why the far-left really does think there is a ‘coup’

On Saturday thousands of people across Britain demonstrated against Boris Johnson’s recently-announced prorogation of parliament. Despite the heated response it provoked, proroguing parliament is a standard device which over the years has been employed by governments of all stripes. And as parliament was to be suspended for a few weeks during September and October in any case to allow the parties to hold their annual conferences, Johnson’s measure has reduced MPs’ time to prevent a no-deal Brexit by just a few days. In the context of an unprecedented crisis, with the clock ticking down to October 31, the Prime Minister’s act of constitutional sharp practice nonetheless outraged those who demonstrated

Sunday

1 Sep 2019

Ben Sixsmith

Poles are in a quandary over Brexit

At first, Brexit was seen in Poland as a glorious but chaotic farce. As strange as it sounds, three long, grim years after the referendum, the whole thing seemed, to them, like a glorious chaotic farce. Most of them supported Poland’s membership of the EU but the irreverent Nigel Farage was more relatable than a bunch of uptight bureaucrats; they could at least imagine having a beer with him. As reality sunk in, and the months ground by, these comical aspects paled. Poles are now as bored hearing about Brexit as many Brits. The national conservative Polish government has been in an interesting position when it comes to Brexit. Ideologically,

Stephen Daisley

The Glasgow riots reflect Scotland’s ugly political tribalism

In 2014, a young SNP activist called Aidan Kerr caused some consternation when he contended that Scotland was undergoing ‘Ulsterisation’. The nation’s politics, which for the past generation had pitched nationalism against social democracy, was becoming a battle between nationalism and unionism. The casus belli would be identity, not class or income. Kerr’s critics were soon silenced as his predictions began to pan out. The Scottish Tories replaced Labour as the main opposition on a single-issue pro-Union platform. Labour politicians who had avoided the term ‘Unionist’ because of its association with cultural Protestantism embraced the label, if often with evident discomfort. Orange walks gained a competitor in secessionist parades, taking

Katy Balls

Boris Johnson clashes with Gaukeward squad over deselection threat

How many Tory MPs will vote against the government this week in a bid to stop a no deal Brexit? When MPs return to the House of Commons on Tuesday from the summer recess, a cross-party group of MPs – with the help of John Bercow – are expected to try to take control of the order paper and push through a bill to legislate against no deal. As James revealed at the weekend, No. 10 is planning to dissuade Tories from joining the efforts by threatening to deselect any Tory MPs who vote for such measures. This evening a government whips source confirmed the move: ‘The whips are telling

Robert Peston

An election is coming – and soon

I am finding it hard to capture the scale of the parliamentary battle that will start on Tuesday – because what is at stake is huge, complicated and shifting. One of its more important combatants described it to me as a “once-in-a-century crisis”. Another told me it would not only decide how and whether the UK leaves the EU, but also how and whether Scotland breaks away from the UK. A third said that it would be “extraordinary” if within just a few days the hostilities between MPs did not lead to a general election being called. And a fourth thought that what happens in parliament – and in the

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: the plot to stop no deal

Keir Starmer – Next week is our last chance to stop no deal The Andrew Marr Show returned this week after a summer break, just before Parliament is due to sit again on Tuesday. However, with the Prime Minister set to prorogue Parliament ahead of a new session, there are only 16 sitting days left before the UK is set to leave the EU on 31st October. The Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer told Marr that MPs who opposed a no deal Brexit had to be ready to seize their moment: Labour's Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer says this coming week is the "last chance" for parliament to stop

Fraser Nelson

Boris was right to u-turn over Freedom of Movement

For all its ferocious momentum, Boris Johnson’s government is capable of making pretty bad mistakes – as we saw with Priti Patel’s announcement that free movement of people will end with Brexit on 31 October. A problem, when it hasn’t worked out let alone revealed what regime will replace it. As I say in this week’s cover story, this decision saw millions of EU nationals plunged into uncertainty – and by a Prime Minister who had promised them security. The Sunday Times today reveals that the decision has been revoked. The Home Office has only managed to process one million of the three million EU nationals living in the country, giving

Lloyd Evans

What does Totnes think of Sarah Wollaston, its defecting MP? | 1 September 2019

‘Totnes? It’s hippie central.’ A friend warned me what to expect when I visited the affluent, left-leaning town in south-east Devon to assess public opinion about the local MP, Dr Sarah Wollaston. In March she left the Tories to join Change UK and she now sits as a Liberal Democrat. I equipped myself with a photo of her and wandered the streets last Monday. A chap in the Wild Fig Deli told me that her disloyalty would terminate her career. ‘You can change party, all right, but you hold a by-election. She’s lost her credibility.’ In 2011 Wollaston backed a private members’ bill requiring MPs who change parties to stand

Saturday

31 Aug 2019

Isabel Hardman

A guide to the different sorts of chaos looming over Westminster

What is going to happen next week in parliament? Most anti-no-deal rebels see it as their last opportunity to block Britain leaving the European Union without a deal, but what they haven’t yet agreed on is how best to do it. There are a number of likely scenarios, some of which intertwine with one another, and to show how chaotic the next few days are likely to be, I’ve drawn up a flowchart of how things might pan out (you can click on the image to view a larger version of the chaos): The most likely parliamentary route is through an emergency debate under Standing Order 24, which the rebels

James Forsyth

Tory MPs who vote for the extension legislation will be barred from standing for the party at the next election

Parliament returns on Tuesday and it is expected that anti no-deal MPs will – with John Bercow’s help – quickly seize control of the order paper. They will then try and rush through a bill designed to stop the UK from leaving the EU without a deal. I report in the Sun this morning that Number 10 will treat these votes as they would a confidence vote with anyone who doesn’t back the government being immediately disqualified from standing for the Tories again. They hope that this will keep some waverers in the government lobby next week. It would mean that if former Cabinet Ministers such as Philip Hammond voted

Charles Moore

It makes sense for the over-75s to pay the licence fee

Dorothy Byrne, Channel 4’s head of news, last week told the Edinburgh television festival: ‘Here is what we all need to decide: what do we do when a known liar becomes our prime minister?’ Yet she is surprised when Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn — both of whom she calls ‘cowards’ — do not come on her programmes. She regards it as their democratic duty to be interrogated by her journalists. If you watch her deliver her lecture, you can see she is positively proud of her character assassination of both men. It does not seem to cross her mind that she is breaking her public service obligation of fairness,

David Skelton

The forgotten towns that will decide Boris Johnson’s fate

If Boris Johnson does call a snap election this year, his fortune will be decided in the same places that swung the referendum for Brexit. Britain’s forgotten towns, places like my home town of Consett, perched high in the hills of north-west Durham, will determine the Prime Minister’s fate. In Consett, there is little sign now that this was a place once home to one of the world’s biggest steelworks. Steel from here was used to build great structures, bridges and battleships for the whole Empire, from Blackpool Tower and bridges in far-flung places to Britain’s fleet of nuclear submarines. But Consett went from being a symbol of industrial might to an emblem

Friday

30 Aug 2019

Gabriel Radonich

The Spectator Podcast: what kind of Brexit does Boris want?

In these fractious times, a public compliment from the President of the United States can be a mixed blessing for a British politician. On the one hand, Boris Johnson must be delighted to hear the leader of the free world dub him “exactly what the U.K. has been looking for”, especially after the relentless criticism that Donald Trump showered upon his predecessor. On the other hand though, an endorsement from the president also has the potential to embarrass a PM who has long battled his critics’ characterisation of him as a ‘mini-Trump’. For someone who styles himself as a standard-bearer for liberal conservatism and has spoken of delivering a ‘global

Andrew Willshire

Ruth Davidson’s departure doesn’t mean the end of the Union

The departure yesterday of Ruth Davidson as leader of the Scottish Conservatives has prompted much discomfort among some pro-Union commentators. There is no doubt that she was a stunningly effective campaigner but it is an exaggeration to claim that the revival in the fortunes of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party was solely down to her. Davidson received a substantial boost from the fact that the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 redrew the Scottish political map, creating a binary division between pro-independence and pro-union forces. In the aftermath of the vote, Davidson was by far the canniest operator, ensuring the Tories were the most staunchly pro-union party. But whoever her successor

Anna Bailey

Boris Johnson’s Parliament shutdown isn’t unconstitutional

Has Boris Johnson done a Charles I and shut down Parliament indefinitely? The headlines this week might lead you to think so. ‘Uproar as Boris Johnson shuts down parliament to protect Brexit plan’, reported the FT. John Bercow called it ‘a constitutional outrage’. ‘It’s tantamount to a coup against Parliament,’ raged former attorney general Dominic Grieve. Nicola Sturgeon called it ‘a dictatorship’. Yet the reality hardly lives up to the rhetoric. These are the facts: Parliament will return from summer recess on 3 September as planned. Parliament will not sit from mid-September to early October during the three-week party conference season – also as planned and as happens every year. What has

Alexander Pelling-Bruce

How Boris Johnson boxed his Brexit opponents in

As a Leave voter, it is satisfying to watch Boris’s Johnson’s bold Brexit plan unfold. The predictable backlash to it – what Jacob Rees-Mogg called the ‘candyfloss of outrage’ – is also an entertaining spectacle, with some of those most determined to stop Brexit resorting to ever lurid analogies to describe the Prime Minister. But why are the Government’s opponents now wailing so loudly? The answer is simple: because they know this week’s prorogation move has boxed them in. First, let’s be clear: whatever some of Boris Johnson’s supporters might say, the plan to suspend Parliament is a deliberate attempt to decrease the parliamentary time MPs have to act to pass