Politics Archives

Monday

8 Apr 2019

The Tories’ bid to police the internet is a big mistake

Today, a Government in dire need of a good news story has mooted legislation resulting in the very opposite. The Conservative manifesto from 2017 said: ‘Some people say that it is not for government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet. We disagree.’ Now the Tories are delivering on their promise. But their attempt to police the internet should worry us all. The ‘Online Harms’ white paper calls for an independent watchdog to write a ‘code of practice’ for tech companies. Under the plans, tech firms will be held accountable for what their users post and share, and penalised if they fail to take down offending content swiftly – a move

John Keiger

How Brexit could lead to Frexit

Struggling to understand the ways of the French, the francophile Winston Churchill reflected whimsically in 1942: ‘The Almighty in His infinite wisdom did not see fit to create Frenchmen in the image of Englishmen.’ And yet today, the Almighty would struggle to create two more similar states in international terms than Britain and France. Similar geographies on the northwest European continent, similar populations (66 and 67 million), economies (5th and 6th by GDP), colonial histories, 3rd and 4th nuclear powers, two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, leading members of Nato and, until 2019 (probably), equally prominent members of the European Union. The similarities continue to

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn says May still isn’t compromising on her Brexit red lines

Jeremy Corbyn has insisted that Theresa May hasn’t yet moved on her Brexit red lines in talks with the Labour Party. In a broadcast clip this evening, the Labour leader said: ‘Well, the meetings are very long. A great deal of detail is gone into by both parties. We have people who have been on this case for several years so they’re all very accustomed to it all. We’ve gone into it because the government at last acceded to a request I first made last September that we’re prepared to talk and put forward our views, but talks have to mean a movement and so far there’s been no change

Robert Peston

Britain’s Brexit fate is now in Emmanuel Macron’s hands

Our Brexit fate is in the hands of France’s president Macron – which is “not a wholly comfortable state of affairs,” in the euphemistic words of a minister. What this minister means is the Prime Minister and her close colleagues are a long way from being convinced Macron will underwrite EU president Donald Tusk’s proposal for the UK to be granted a year’s delay to Brexit, with a break clause to allow us to leave the EU earlier if all the political and legal niceties can be completed earlier. They believe – rightly or wrongly – Macron has three serious reservations with conceding such a longish and relatively unfettered extension:

Steerpike

Watch: Andrew Bridgen vs Daniel Finkelstein

As Theresa May reaffirmed her commitment to strike a softer Brexit deal with Labour over the weekend, and Yvette Cooper’s bill attempting to block no-deal Brexit passes through the Lords, leading Brexiteers stepped up their war against Theresa May. This afternoon ERG member Mark Francois, in a strongly worded letter to Graham Brady, called for ‘indicative votes’ of no confidence in the Prime Minister. Joining him was fellow Eurosceptic Andrew Bridgen, who on Politics Live said ‘Theresa May needs to go and go now.’ Less impressed with the proclamation though was Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein, who pointed out that after a failed bid to oust May in December, the ERG

Robert Peston

Could Theresa May cancel Brexit?

Is the de facto Brexit default now revoking Article 50 this week rather than a no-deal Brexit on 12 April? I ask because the Prime Minister is now explicitly saying the choice is a binary one between some version of her negotiated deal and not leaving at all (that is what she said in her sofa chat yesterday). The point is that she has no power to prevent a no-deal Brexit on 12 April by delaying Brexit; for a delay, she needs the unanimous agreement of the EU’s 27 leaders. But she does have the unilateral power to prevent a no deal by cancelling Brexit altogether, by revoking the Article 50

Sunday

7 Apr 2019

Robert Peston

The Brexit headache is just beginning

Pretty much everyone I meet says they want all the Brexit uncertainty to end, one way or another. But that is now impossible: even agreement – which seems remote – on some version of the PM’s deal to take us out of the EU would only be a beginning of a sort, not an end, with so much left to decide on what kind of future relationship we need and deserve with the EU. And if there is no backing from MPs for the Withdrawal Agreement that is the divorce from the EU, then we are into a series of choices whose consequences would be to lead to various forms

Katy Balls

Theresa May hints at a change in direction on Brexit

As another crunch Brexit week approaches, Theresa May has used a video message to update the public on ‘what’s happening with Brexit’. With the Sunday papers filled with angry Conservative MPs venting about her decision to enter negotiations with Jeremy Corbyn in a bid to break the Brexit deadlock, the Prime Minister uses the address to try and justify her decision. Adopting a more casual tone that normal, May says that Parliament has rejected her deal three times and ‘as things stand’ there is little reason to expect MPs to back it on a fourth vote. This is why she has made the decision to talk to Jeremy Corbyn about

Matthew Taylor

Jacob Rees-Mogg: involving ‘Remainer’ Corbyn in Brexit is ‘a mistake’

Jacob Rees-Mogg – May should be ‘held to account’ over Brexit Sophy Ridge began the day with an interview with the head of the European Research Group, Jacob Rees-Mogg. Rees-Mogg was critical of Theresa May’s handling of Brexit, and despite backing her Withdrawal Act at the third time of asking, he made clear that he was deeply dissatisfied that she had effectively rejected the possibility of a ‘no deal’ exit: JRM: The Prime Minister could have taken us out on the 29th of March, but [she] asked for an extension, [she] changed the date by prerogative power… to the 12th of April… She has made active choices to stop us

Saturday

6 Apr 2019

James Forsyth

Are both May and Corbyn prepared to risk splitting their parties?

The irony of the stalemate in the cross-party Brexit talks is that Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn are not that far apart on the issue, as I say in The Sun this morning. They might use different language, but what they want is really quite similar. But while they may not be that far apart, their parties are. A deal would require not one of them, but both of them to be prepared to split their parties. If Theresa May was to soften her deal to try and get Labour support, she would exacerbate the divide within her own party. I am told that in the talks, the government has

Charles Moore

The reason Remainers are worried about European elections

If the EU grants us a long extension (and let us pray that M. Macron’s malice towards Britain leads him to prevent this), Remainers are worried. They want the extension, but not the European elections, since there is a real chance that ‘the wrong people’ might win. Ken Clarke, I gather, is working out a plan to head off this unpleasant potential outbreak of democracy. He seeks to persuade the EU high-ups to concoct a new rule by which countries which have already triggered Article 50 but have not yet left would not be allowed to take part. They will surely oblige. This article is an extract from Charles Moore’s Spectator

The Spectator

Theresa May should let Britain leave without a deal

One of the many tragedies of Theresa May’s premiership is that, having come up with a coherent policy on how to enact Brexit, she spent her prime ministerial career failing to follow it. The words she used in her speech at Lancaster House in 2017 seemed clear enough: ‘No deal is better than a bad deal.’ It made sense to repeat this in the last Tory manifesto. She was to seek a free trade deal with the EU, but if that proved impossible, then Britain would be leaving anyway. In the event, the EU has not merely failed to offer a good deal, it has refused to offer any trade

Friday

5 Apr 2019

Katy Balls

The Victoria Atkins Edition

25 min listen

Victoria Atkins is a former barrister, a Conservative party MP, and a Minister at the Home Office. She talks about her legal career and her work at the Home Office creating legislation to protect women and vulnerable people. Hosted by Katy Balls.

Robert Peston

Has a Brexit breakthrough been reached at last?

There has been considerable and widespread cynicism about the talks between the Government and Labour about a compromise that could break the Brexit deadlock. But those close to the negotiations, led today by David Lidington and Keir Starmer, believe there is at last a “plan with a chance,” of securing a positive vote from MPs for the PM’s Withdrawal Agreement, without which there can be no managed exit from the EU. It would involve a Government committing to staying in the Customs Union, “dynamic” alignment with EU rules covering workers’ rights and the environment and giving the Commons a vote on whether the whole package would be subject to confirmation

Roger Awan-Scully

Newport West’s by-election suggests Labour could struggle in a snap election

The result from the Newport West by-election came in late last night and as was generally expected Labour held the seat, albeit with a reduced majority. As had also been expected, turnout was significantly down on the general election. Here is the full result: Candidate (Party) Votes per cent (change on 2017) Ruth Jones (Labour) 9,308 39.6 (-12.7) Matthew Evans (Conservative) 7,357 31.3 (-8.0) Neil Hamilton (UKIP) 2,023 8.6 (+6.1) Jonathan Clark (Plaid Cymru) 1,185 5.0 (+2.5) Ryan Jones (Lib-Dems) 1,088 4.6 (+2.4) Amelia Womack (Greens) 924 3.9 (+2.9) June Davies (Renew) 879 3.7 (+3.7) Richard Suchorzewski (Abolish the Assembly) 205 0.9 (+0.9) Ian McLean (Social Democrat) 202 0.9 (+0.9)

Stefan Boscia

My encounter with Young Labour makes me fear for the party’s future

To understand the decay of the Labour Party since 2015, look no further than its London youth wing. London Young Labour (LYL) is the Momentum-controlled home of the capital’s under-27 Labour members. It is also a sparkling example of the worst kinds of regressive identity politics popping up on campuses across Britain. As a 26-year-old Labour member, albeit of a more moderate persuasion than those now running the show, I decided to go along to LYL’s Annual General Meeting last weekend. People talk of Labour as the party of young people. I hoped that the event might make me grow a newfound respect for a party I am quickly losing confidence

Robert Peston

How talks between Labour and the Tories reached breaking point

I am not sure whether it’s me or ministers who are the more naive. Because last night I was persuaded by Cabinet sources a breakthrough was nigh in talks to resolve the Brexit deadlock between the Government and Labour. But the talks are already on the verge of collapse – with each side making charges it is the other side which is negotiating in poor faith. Labour sources say the memorandum sent by the PM to Jeremy Corbyn this afternoon shows Theresa May has not shown the flexibility her colleagues expected. What has disappointed Corbyn and his Shadow Brexit Minister Keir Starmer is – they believe – the government is

Stephen Daisley

Brexit is exposing Nicola Sturgeon’s hypocrisy

Like Mother Teresa on a message grid, Nicola Sturgeon loves nothing more than going among the poor and downtrodden with a hug, some hope, and an embargoed press release. EU nationals are the latest beneficiaries of the First Minister’s ministrations. The SNP leader has penned an open letter to EU citizens resident north of the border as part of her ‘Stay in Scotland’ scheme to help them secure settled status. The language is as meticulously neutral as it always is in taxpayer-funded Scottish Government initiatives: ‘As EU citizens in the UK you have had to endure years of careless indecision on what the future holds for your lives, your careers and

James Forsyth

Theresa May’s Brexit talks with Corbyn run into trouble

Talks between Labour and the government over Brexit aren’t going anywhere. Labour has released a statement this evening saying that: “We are disappointed that the government has not offered real change or compromise.” The Guardian’s well informed Heather Stewart is reporting that Labour are saying that the government weren’t offering any changes to the political declaration, but just a memorandum to sit alongside the deal. This is, obviously, not enough for Labour. The impasses in these talks is not that surprising. Both sides know that a deal risks splitting their own party and the prospects of two parties being prepared to take that risk simultaneously was fairly low. The question

Steerpike

Watch: Lib Dems grilled about their missing parliamentary candidate

For the prospective parliamentary candidates of Newport West, last night was the culmination of two months of frantic campaigning, as they fought to win a seat in parliament following the death of the Labour MP, Paul Flynn. Once the polls had closed and counting began, the candidates all headed to the Wales National Veledrome, as they waited to hear the final result. But one of their number was missing. Remarkably the Lib Dem candidate, Ryan Jones, decided that he had somewhere better to be on the night he could have been elected to represent the good people of Newport West. In his absence, the party president of the Welsh Lib Dems,