Politics

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

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows roundup: Boris on Brexit

Boris Johnson – I feel ‘deep sense of personal responsibility’ for Brexit Perhaps the star guest of the day was the former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who joined Andrew Marr ahead of what looks to be another difficult week for the government. Having resigned his position after the Chequers summit in July, Johnson has since been a leading voice of opposition to Theresa May’s Brexit plan, and has argued that not reaching a deal with the EU would be a preferable outcome to what is currently on offer. Marr asked him about the possible impact of ‘no deal’, a scenario which has become ever more likely by the day: AM:

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Mail may suffer yet for its Brexit volte-face

I may have spoken too soon when I predicted that the Daily Mail might not suffer from its Brexit volte-face. At the Daily Telegraph’s Christmas charity phone-in last Sunday, I was struck by how many donating readers mentioned the Mail’s desertion, and by reports of recruitment by the Telegraph of disconsolate Mail readers. There are rumours that the Mail’s new editor, Geordie Greig, has personally rung to plead with readers who are cancelling their subscriptions. Geordie is a charming man, but obviously he cannot speak to all the disgruntled tens of thousands. The Mail has chosen to switch from an insurgent to an establishment position just when that establishment is

Saturday

James Ball

We Remainers need to stop trying to convince ourselves the referendum was stolen

Anyone looking at the Independent’s front page the other day – or at least its electronic mock-up, made primarily for social media and TV paper reviews – will have seen a bombshell of a headline: ‘Illegal Facebook spending “won 2016 vote for Leave”’. That’s a seismic claim if it can be confirmed: the once-in-a-generation vote to leave the EU was won through what we now know was an illegal overspend of £500,000 or so. Except the Independent adopted an old newspaper trick: the biggest news is in quotes, suggesting that it’s not the newspaper claiming it, but rather someone else. At first, that someone looks credible. It is from a

Katy Balls Katy Balls

More resignation trouble on the horizon for May as vote approaches

With three days to go until the vote on Theresa May’s deal, this had been the point in the process that No 10 hoped the Whips would be closing in on the swing rebels. Instead the number of rebels is growing with every day. This evening Will Quince has resigned as a PPS – urging the Prime Minister to go back to the EU and renegotiate the detail so it becomes something MPs can support. Now Quince is no household name but he is also not an ardent Brexiteer or an ardent Remainer. The fact that he has resigned shows how MPs sense a sinking ship and have no plans

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The ‘People’s Vote’ campaign’s latest struggle with the truth

Given how Remainers have lost no opportunity to accuse the official Leave campaign of telling porkies about how much money we send to the EU – £350 million per week according to Vote Leave but closer to a net £250 million once the UK rebate is taken into account – one might imagine that the ‘People’s Vote’ campaign would take extra special care over statements relating to financial contributions to the EU. But it seems not. It has been caught out doctoring a report written by an outside expert, leading to inaccurate claims about how EFTA members’ contributions to the EU are spent. Yesterday, ‘People’s Vote’ published a report entitled

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Jenni Russell schools Alastair Campbell on Remainer arrogance

When it comes to columnists who lean towards Remain, few are more vocal in their criticism of Brexit than Times columnist Jenni Russell. So, when Russell has to step in to warn arch-Remainer Alastair Campbell that he has gone too far, you know something has gone seriously wrong. This was the case on Newsnight on Friday evening. Russell used her appearance on the Brexit panel to explain why she had now gone cold on the idea of a second referendum: there has not been a big shift in public opinion and a no deal Brexit could win: ‘The point is that absolutely no effort so far has gone into saying

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will the government find a way to avoid Tuesday’s vote?

Key Cabinet Ministers are urging Theresa May to avoid a vote on her Brexit deal on Tuesday night. I report in The Sun this morning that they fear that if it goes ahead, the government will lose by a margin so large that it could bring the whole thing crashing down. One Secretary of State tells me that it would be ‘group suicide’ to press ahead with the vote. Number 10 say that no decision on whether to find a way to avoid the vote has been taken yet; senior figures there say that decision will not be taken until Monday. But they do admit that they are making little

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Women with Balls podcast: the Liz Truss edition

When Liz Truss took to the stage at the Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards, she used her speech to send up her Cabinet colleagues and boss – cracking jokes about the indefinite length of the backstop, Karen Bradley’s loose grasp of history and – in a dig at her own department – called for a ban on Treasury forecasts. So, given Truss’s straight-talking attitude, I’m delighted to have the Chief Secretary to the Treasury as my guest on the latest episode of Women with Balls: In the interview, Truss talks about the regrets of her youth ( … joining the Liberal Democrats), why she cares strongly about British cheese

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Could Dominic Grieve’s Brexit amendment launch a new party?

Inside the Dominic Grieve amendment carried on Tuesday is the embryo of a new political party. Any parliamentary majority for what Sir Oliver Letwin, who voted for the amendment, calls ‘something real’ (‘Norway plus’) if Mrs May’s deal falls would depend on the support of a good many Labour MPs. After three months’ work, the organisers believe they have got 75 such on board, led by Chuka Umunna. These are anti-Brexit, chiefly Blairite Labour MPs who cannot bear Jeremy Corbyn. If their number held up (a big ‘if’), the organisers calculate, the House could carry ‘Norway plus’, with the government and most Conservative backbenchers supporting, even if the ‘hard’ Brexiteers

John Connolly John Connolly

The full list: MPs voting for and against May’s Brexit deal

It’s the question that’s on everyone’s lips this week in Westminster: now that the Brexit negotiations have been finalised by the EU, will Theresa May be able to get her withdrawal agreement through the House of Commons? So far, the numbers are not in her favour. Labour have confirmed they will whip against her deal, as have the SNP and other opposition parties. Meanwhile the DUP have said they will vote against the proposal – rather than just abstain. That means even if Theresa May could count on complete party loyalty in the upcoming meaningful vote, she would still be four votes short of the 320 needed for a majority.

Friday

Anthony Masters

Did Vote Leave’s overspending win the referendum for Brexit?

An Oxford professor’s claim that it was “very likely” that  overspending by Vote Leave swung the referendum for Brexit has taken off like wildfire. Professor Philip Howard’s analysis made the front page of yesterday’s Independent under the headline: ‘Illegal Facebook spending ‘won 2016 vote for Leave”. So do the numbers behind the headline add up? Prof Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, calculated that: Around 80 million Facebook users saw the Vote Leave campaign ads on social media during the period of excess spending; 10 per cent of users clicked through; 10 per cent of those users switched their vote as a result, giving over 800,000 switched voters. This argument

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Could Labour drop its plan for a no confidence vote?

The working assumption in Westminster at the moment is that Theresa May will lose Tuesday’s meaningful vote on her Brexit deal, and then the Labour Party will table a motion of no confidence in the government. The Tory whips certainly seem as concerned about that no confidence vote as they are about the Brexit vote, given they are resigned to losing one but have a good chance of winning the other. But I’m not sure that this is the case any more. The public language from the Opposition has changed in recent days to suggest that there will not be a separate vote after all – or at least not

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit position reveals his greatest secret: he’s a Blairite

Anyone observing or participating in the continuing collective trauma of Britain’s Brexit debate should pay more attention to Jeremy Corbyn and some of the most important — and to some people, surprising — things he has done as Labour leader. Here’s a short list: 1. Promised big handouts for the middle class. Mr Corbyn ran his 2017 general election campaign offering huge middle class subsidies from the state. Scrapping tuition fees and offering “free” universal higher education would be a gift to the better-off, whose kids still dominate university entry. (Just look at Scotland.) And the gift would be funded by non-graduate workers’ taxes. 2. Defended unearned wealth Mr Corbyn

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Chief Whip’s failed attempt to woo Philip Davies over Brexit

Oh dear. With the government on course for a historic defeat next week on Theresa May’s deal, this is the point in the campaign that Downing Street had hoped to see MPs coming round. Alas not. So, it was a curious choice by the government to allow ITV exclusive access to Chief Whip Julian Smith’s attempts to woo unruly MPs. Smith was filmed trying to convince Leaver Philip Davies to back the deal: ITV News was granted rare access to the Chief Whip's office, as he tries to rally support for the PM's Brexit deal ahead of Tuesday's vote.We caught the argument as vocal Brexiteer Philip Davies insisted he was

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

The problem with a ‘People’s Vote’

Surprise! The Economist has come out in favour of a new referendum on Brexit, joining Sadiq Khan, Tony Blair and possibly the entire cast of Strictly in calling for a People’s Vote. It observes sagely: “no one can claim to intuit what the people want. The only way to know is to ask them”. And of the PM’s peculiar tour of the nation to flog her plan (why?), it declares that it is an exercise in “pantomime” democracy:“May is right that MPs should take into account what the public think. So should she: not by guessing, but by calling on them to vote”. But on what? What all the demands for

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

Gove is right to keep the lynx out of Northumberland

Over the few years, a battle has been quietly simmering between farming communities and a conservation organisation who want to reintroduce the Eurasian lynx to the UK. The cats have been extinct in the UK for well over a thousand years, and while farmers worry that the big cats will threaten their sheep, Lynx UK – the trust behind the plans – argue that the animals would help the economy, and cause little damage to livestock. But now Defra secretary Michael Gove has rejected a request to release six lynx into Kielder Forest, in Northumberland. The reasoning given for their decision included a lack of support from locals and major

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why politicians should fear Project Fear

‘Project Fear’ didn’t work out in the 2016 Brexit referendum, with voters turning against the ‘experts’ maligned by Michael Gove and other Leave campaigners. So it’s strange to see the Conservatives reigniting it again in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, warning of six months of disruption at Dover and other ports in the event of no deal. There’s no evidence that this squeeze message is really going to work on Tory MPs and whittle down the scale of the expected defeat next week. The return of Project Fear is also a reminder of the danger of a second referendum for those who hope that it

Anthony Browne

Why the Norway model wouldn’t work for Britain

In the corridors of Westminster and the salons of some remainers, there is a lot of excited chatter about the “Norway option”. This would involve being a member of the EEA and single market, but not of the EU. Depending on who is pushing, Norway is presented as either a temporary or permanent alternative to Theresa May’s troubled deal. But there are problems with this quick fix. The well discussed issue that being in the EEA doesn’t end freedom of movement is one; another is the fact that the Norway option doesn’t end EU budget contributions. But more fundamentally, few appreciate just how a regime that (sort of) suits Norway

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 6 December 2018

Big defeats Could the vote on the Brexit deal set a record for a government defeat in the Commons? Aside from opposition day motions and other votes where nothing substantive is at stake, the post-1945 record is shamefully held by MPs who voted against the Major government’s attempt to limit pay rises for MPs (motion lost by 215 votes). Other hefty defeats (with the margin of defeat): 1978 (Labour, Jim Callaghan) Opposition amendment demanding income tax basic rate be cut from 34% to 33%, 108 votes.} 2014 (Coalition, David Cameron) Under-occupancy rules for social housing, 75 votes. 1978 (Labour, Jim Callaghan) Clause on Wales devolution referendum, 72 votes. 1975 (Labour,

The Spectator

Beyond May

On Tuesday, MPs will face something rare: a Commons motion which really does deserve to be described as momentous. It will set Britain’s place in Europe and in the world for years to come. The vote will place an especially heavy burden on Conservative MPs, for they have the power to inflict a hefty defeat on their own government, an administration which has no majority and which governs thanks only to a confidence and supply agreement with the DUP. It is all too easy to see where defeat on Tuesday could lead: to the collapse of the government, a general election and the arrival of Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.