Politics

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

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Dominic Cummings’ fake news

With characteristic verve, former Vote Leave campaign chief Dominic Cummings has taken to his blog to brand the latest DCMS select committee report ‘fake news from the fake news committee.’ But has the high priest of fighting fake news being practising what he preaches when it comes to spreading false information? Mr S has cause for concern. Addressing the committee, he quotes the line ‘The truth? You can’t handle the truth!’ from the 90s film classic A Few Good Men, which he attributes to Tom Cruise. Clearly Cummings’ film knowledge is not up to scratch, while Cruise did star in the film, the quote itself was said by his co-star

Dominic Cummings

Can Vote Leave’s critics handle the truth?

Most of Westminster has suffered a psychological and operational implosion because of the referendum. Many MPs, hacks and charlatan-pundits on both sides have responded to the result by retreating to psychologically appealing parallel worlds rather than face reality. A subset of the ERG, for example, welcomed the December agreement on the Irish backstop that actually spelled doom for their central ideas about how the negotiations were being conducted. This is the same group now ranting about Chequers — which was programmed by the December agreement, as are the imminent further surrenders in the autumn on Free Movement and everything else! This is the same group that tells everyone that people like me who say

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why Dominic Cummings’ 2nd referendum warning ought to worry No 10

Dominic Cummings has set the cat among the pigeons this afternoon by leaking a Parliamentary report into fake news ahead of its official publication on Sunday. The Vote Leave official alleges that the report ‘knowingly/incompetently makes false claims’ on supposed misuses of data during the referendum campaign. Expect further reaction to this over the weekend. However, the part of the blog that has got people talking in Westminster most avidly today relates to his comments on calls for a second referendum. Following increased chatter in recent weeks from Remain-ers over the need for a second vote on Brexit – whether on the terms of the final deal or leaving the

Steerpike Steerpike

Eight people who’ve changed their Brexit position

It can be hard work keeping track of how Brexit is going. Last week alone we had the government adopt a series of amendments which were designed to wreck the very plans they had put forward, a minister resign in order to support the government’s original position, and a president argue that the proposals both would and would not make a trade deal possible with the US. Meanwhile, other politicians have contributed to the general level of confusion by dropping their old beliefs at will and adopting new ones with newfound zeal. Whether these changes of heart are indications of the power of argument and persuasion, or simply politically expedient

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Has Chequers been chucked?

Theresa May heads to Italy this weekend for her summer holiday with her Brexit proposals hanging by a thread. Not only has the Chequers plan divided her party, led to front bench resignations and talk of a ‘no confidence’ vote, Brussels don’t seem all that keen on it either. As James notes on Coffee House, Michel Barnier appeared to deal it a fatal blow in his joint press conference with Dominic Raab on Thursday. The EU’s chief negotiator made clear that the UK collecting tariffs on behalf of the EU – a key plank of the proposal – was a non-starter: ‘The EU cannot and the EU will not delegate

Steerpike Steerpike

Gavin Barwell sets the bar low

Oh dear. It used to be that the Conservatives had their eyes on a 100-seat majority, now it seems that they’ll celebrate a draw. Theresa May’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell appears to be spending his Friday attempting to rally the troops today by retweeting a host of ‘favourable’ polls and results from around the country. If council by-elections weren’t enough to convince the rank and file things were going well, then surely a surge in the polls nationally would do the trick. Or maybe not. It seems Barwell thinks Labour dropping one point to tie with the Tories is a reason to be cheerful: Mr S suspects this development

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The Brexit right is letting ideology trump democracy

If Britain were not in the middle of a nervous breakdown, Shahmir Sanni would be a national hero. As it is, the British right has done its damnedest to wreck the life of the whistleblower who provided the evidence that pro-Brexit groups Vote Leave and BeLeave “worked to a common plan” to break “legal spending limits”. Sanni defended the rule of law and the integrity of the democratic process. His fate tells you much about modern Britain – none of it good. It illustrates the most striking feature of the extremes that dominate our country: their contempt for objective truth and for the elementary belief that democracy requires all sides

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Michel Barnier is wasting Theresa May’s time

How utterly predictable. As I wrote here on 5 July, Michel Barnier’s ‘considered’ judgement has been to pour a very large bucket of eau onto Theresa May’s carefully-crafted proposals to try to reach a compromise with the EU. Her time, her officials’ time and the time her cabinet spent at Chequers was utterly wasted. Barnier was always going to turn his nose up at whatever Britain proposed. It has been clear for months that that is his strategy: to stonewall all proposals put to him by Britain in the hope that he will be able to bounce Britain into a bad deal (for us) at the last moment. Just read his statement:

Steerpike Steerpike

SNP’s fake Brexit news

Given the current mess the Conservative party finds itself in, you’d be forgiven for thinking that all their opponents need to do is sit back, watch and enjoy the show. Yet it seems they can’t help themselves. As Labour stay in the headlines with a fresh anti-Semitism row, the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford attempted to go in for the kill. Blackford shared a ‘tweet’ by Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab in which he apparently referred to Scotland as one of ‘England’s regions’: Only there’s a problem – the tweet is a fake, as many users online had already highlighted. After being told this by several users, Blackford has eventually decided

Thursday

Boris Johnson

Diary – 26 July 2018

Surely there is a bit of humbug in this outrage about the two remaining jihadi Beatles, Kotey and Elsheikh, and Sajid Javid’s difficult but correct decision to send them for trial in America. Suppose the grisly pair had been located a couple of years ago in Raqqa. And let’s suppose there was a Reaper drone overhead, and that British intelligence could help send a missile neatly through their windscreen. Would we provide the details — knowing that they would be killed without a chance for their lawyers to offer pleas in mitigation on account of their tough childhoods in west London? Would the British state, in these circumstances, have connived

Daniel DePetris

The EU’s migration solution? Throw cash at the problem

When European leaders met earlier this month to thrash out an agreement on  migration, they succeeded in rescuing German Chancellor Angela Merkel from the precipice. But it is already becoming clear that the deal they struck was more a temporary papering over of ideological differences on migration than a permanent solution. While the EU agreed on the possible establishment of migrant transit centres on European soil, disembarkation platforms in north Africa, and a general statement that illegal migration was a European problem, the detail of how all this would work in practice was ignored. Not a single European country volunteered to host a reception centre, and attempts to persuade governments in north

Ben Murray & Tim Morris

We need to reimagine the UK’s coastal communities into a coastal powerhouse

The British public vote for Brexit sent shockwaves around major cities throughout the globe. However, in many of our coastal communities in the UK, the result came as no surprise at all. Indeed, out of the top five areas to vote leave in the country, every single one was a coastal town or city. Compare this with the top 5 spots to vote remain in England, Scotland and Wales, where no coastal constituency features on the list. For many of these coastal communities, people feel left out and left behind. Traditional industries have often departed and whilst some new sectors such as renewable energy have arrived many of the lost

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

The Spectator Podcast: return of Ukip

It’s safe to say that Brexit negotiations haven’t gone smoothly. The Tories are down in the latest polls, but Ukip is up. Are we witnessing the beginning of Ukip’s return? Meanwhile, Australians are stuck between a rock and a hard place as China and America continue to bicker; and Cosmo Landesman complains about modern parenting. You don’t have to be following Brexit very closely to know that it’s not quite going to plan. May has lost the main Brexiteers in her Cabinet, and Jacob Rees Mogg is leading a Leavers revolt from the backbenches. If you voted for a hard Brexit, you would understandably be worried. Is this what explains

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour MPs’ Love Island fandom moves up a gear

Last month Mr Steerpike revealed that a group of Labour MPs had formed a special WhatsApp group to secretly liaise with one another. The topic? Rather than anti-Corbynista plots, Lucy Powell, Jess Phillips and Stella Creasy message one another about Love Island – the reality show in which young Brits try and find love. Happily, the trio have now gone public with their passion. With recess upon us, the super fandom has moved up a gear – the Labour MPs appeared on This Morning to discuss the ITV2 show, and it’s fair to say, were delighted to receive their own personalised Love Island water bottles. When you're a very serious MP… but

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Did Gary Lineker miss the first ‘people’s vote’ on Brexit?

Gary Lineker is coming to save Britain. From what, I hear you ask? From you. And me. And the rest of the dim-witted electorate who screwed up the nation with our pesky vote to leave the EU. The football commentator turned crisps advertiser turned spokesman for the weeping Brexitphobic Twitterati has announced that he is backing the campaign for a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal. Why? Because the nation is in a ‘mess’, he says, and it’s all down to the fact that ‘politicians seem unable to resolve the problem the people gave them in voting Leave’. Got that? The problem isn’t useless politicians: it’s ordinary people and

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Why don’t the pro-EU crowd join the Tories?

Theresa May has a rare talent for turning decent policy into a political problem. Her general election manifesto last year contained an unusually high number of quite sensible and even sometimes progressive ideas: it’s quite common around Westminster these days to hear Tory and Labour people alike admit that things like the “dementia tax”, a full-scale review of post-18 education and some technical-sounding stuff on corporate governance were all, in retrospect, quite solid, worthy attempts to address big public policy problems. The problem, of course, was selling that stuff to the punters. Now we have the Chequers deal on Brexit. As a Remain voter who has since last June argued

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The Brexit ultras are losing the plot

With the Labour Party losing the plot, it’s reassuring to see the Tories holding true to the principles of liberal democracy. On Wednesday, Conservative MEP David Campbell Bannerman tweeted the Telegraph’s splash, ‘Jihadists should be prosecuted for treason’. By way of comment, he added: ‘It is about time we brought the Treason Act up to date and made it apply to those seeking to destroy or undermine the British state. That means extreme jihadis. It also means those in future actively working undemocratically against U.K. through extreme EU loyalty.’ Oh. We might ask what would constitute ‘working undemocratically against [the] UK’, or what ‘actively’ doing so would look like, or what would represent

Steerpike Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s new-found freedom

As Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson found himself restrained in ways that didn’t suit him. Now on the backbench once again, BoJo is able to speak freely on Brexit. He’s also able to return to a favourite pastime: cycling. Although Johnson is a well known cycling enthusiast, the keen pedaller has been stuck on foot since taking up office as Foreign Secretary. In 2016 the Metropolitan Police banned him from cycling to work, fearing he would be a target for a terrorist attack. Now he’s back on the road. Writing the diary in this week’s Spectator, the former Foreign Secretary reveals his joy at finally getting back behind the handlebars and sailing

William Cook

Hastings

Kevin Boorman loves Hastings, and his enthusiasm is infectious. He was born here, he’s lived here all his life and his family have lived here for generations. He shows me a photo of his great-grandfather, who manned the local lifeboat. His parents met on Hastings Pier. Kevin works for the local council, and today he’s taken some time out to show me round. I can’t remember the last time I met anyone with such a fierce affection for their hometown. Of course it’s Kevin’s job to spread the good news about Hastings, but I wouldn’t be here to meet him if I didn’t have a soft spot for this place

Matthew Goodwin

Ukip reborn

The UK Independence Party might be about to make a comeback. Ever since Theresa May’s Chequers deal on Brexit, which went down very badly indeed among grassroots Conservatives and Leavers, the opinion polls have been kind to the Purple Army. The week after the Chequers deal went public, one pollster found support for the party had surged by five points to 8 per cent. It might not sound like much, but it is its best showing since March last year. Furthermore, such numbers are more than enough to tilt the balance at the next general election toward Jeremy Corbyn and Labour. Indeed, it is no coincidence that as Ukip recovered