Politics Archives

Thursday

17 Jan 2019

Transcript: Michael Gove’s barnstorming speech in no-confidence debate

In the no-confidence motion today, Michael Gove gave one of the best speeches of his parliamentary career, praising Labour moderates and launching an excoriating attack on Jeremy Corbyn. Here’s an edited transcript. [This] has been a passionate debate characterised by many excellent speeches. Perhaps the bravest and the finest speech that came from the opposition benches was given by the member for Barrow-in-Furness. It takes courage – and he has it. Having been elected on a Labour mandate representing working class people to say that the leader of the party that you joined as a boy is not fit to be prime minister: he speaks for the country. And that

Alex Massie

Sturgeon and Salmond’s fight to the death

Amid the wreckage of a Brexit process that has disrupted every aspect of British political life, it is easy to forget that it is not the only drama currently playing. Nor is Theresa May the only political leader who has no need to go searching for trouble. Michael Gove openly warns that ‘winter is coming’ for Westminster, but in the north it has already arrived. In Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon faces the biggest crisis of her career. It is one that may yet destroy her. Civil war is always uglier than your standard political conflict. We have the First Minister complaining that she is the victim of a ‘smear’ campaign and

John Connolly

Booths

If you mention the word ‘Booths’ anywhere south of Knutsford, you will usually be met with a blank expression, followed by someone wondering if you are mispronouncing the name of a nearby pharmacy. But in the north-west the name is associated with a store native to Lancashire, which, uncharacteristically for a supermarket chain, holds a fond place in many people’s hearts. For those not aware of the Booths chain, it is often called the north’s answer to Waitrose. I think the comparison is a tad unflattering to Booths; while Waitrose has rapidly commercialised, Booths has retained its local roots and independent character. It has far fewer stores than other chains

Martin Vander Weyer

Darkness looms as distracted ministers fail to address the widening energy gap

Transfixed as you were by Westminster chaos, did you also spot the news that Hitachi is about to cancel or suspend construction of the Wylfa nuclear power station in North Wales? The Japanese engineering giant has evidently failed to reach agreement on a guaranteed electricity price and terms for a UK government stake in the project; its decision follows that of its compatriot Toshiba, which in November pulled out of building a nuclear station at Moorside in Cumbria, largely because it disliked the Treasury’s favoured financing model that loads risk on to the contractor. These two projects between them were intended to keep the lights on in 11 million UK

Matthew Parris

Leavers don’t actually want to leave

When intelligent, informed and rational people make a choice that onlookers can see confounds their own declared interests, we are wise to look to psychiatry for an explanation. This is where my thoughts turn, now that Tory Brexiteers have conspired to block Theresa May’s road from Chequers to the deal the Commons so spectacularly rejected this week. Until the last minute, I hesitated to accept the Tories’ European Research Group would join this rebellion. Cautiously I inserted ‘probably’, ‘by all accounts’ and ‘apparently’ into every column I drafted. That hardline Brexiteers would in the end want to kill the Prime Minister’s deal didn’t make sense. We Remainers have been unable

Wednesday

16 Jan 2019

Isabel Hardman

Why did Theresa May bother giving a statement in Downing Street tonight?

Theresa May has just given a statement in Downing Street in which she apparently said absolutely nothing. The Prime Minister walked out to the lectern outside No.10 and offered the sort of update on her diary that is normally sent out by email from the Downing Street press office. She said that she had held talks this evening ‘with the leader of the Liberal Democrats, and the Westminster leaders of the SNP and Plaid Cymru’, adding that ‘I am disappointed that the leader of the Labour Party has not so far chosen to take part’. After a day of complaining that the Prime Minister hadn’t yet picked up the phone

Katy Balls

Corbyn’s refusal to meet with May could backfire

Theresa May is riding on a temporary high after winning the confidence vote against her government by a majority of 19 – by this government’s standards that’s a comfortable win. However, as is ever the case May’s problems are far from over as she now has to come up with an alternative Brexit plan to present to the Commons on Monday. On winning tonight’s vote, May said that to do this she would invite opposition leaders for talks this evening. This is seen as a risky move in certain Conservative circles as if it looks as though May is working closely with Jeremy Corbyn it would test party loyalty. However,

Steerpike

Watch: ‘Shame on you’: Labour MPs shout down Michael Gove

Michael Gove ended the no confidence debate in the Commons by denouncing Jeremy Corbyn. But perhaps unsurprisingly his criticism of the Labour leader did not go down well with those on the opposite benches. His comments about Corbyn were shouted down by Labour MPs, who yelled ‘shame on you’. Here’s what Gove said to rile them up: ‘If the leader of the opposition won’t stand up against Putin when he attacks people in this country…if he will not stand up for this country when the critical national security questions are being asked, how can we possibly expect him to stand up for us in European negotiations?’ Mr S thinks Gove

Robert Peston

The impossible choice Theresa May now faces to get her Brexit deal through

What can we expect from the prime minister’s decision to speak with senior parliamentarians to gauge the kind of Brexit deal, if any, that might get through the Commons? I have been talking with members of the cabinet and those close to her – and they are divided on whether this is a genuine attempt to find a workable consensus or simply more Micawberish delay in the hope that unknown events will bail her and her government out. First things first. In the motion the PM will lay before the House, probably on Monday as she is obliged to do under the Grieve Amendment, don’t hold your breath for a

James Forsyth

Corbyn moved too soon – and let May take over the House again

Theresa May has won her no confidence vote, and by a decent margin – with a majority of 19. As we expected, the vote has allowed the Tories to — temporarily – unite. May can now say that despite suffering a record defeat for any government on her single most important policy, she commands the confidence of the House. The Tories will also hope that the failure of this confidence motion will push Labour’s own Brexit divisions up the agenda. Those Labour MPs who want a second referendum will now become more vocal. They’ll say that Labour have tried and failed to get an election, so — by the conference

Lloyd Evans

Jeremy Corbyn’s incompetence remains a reassuring certainty

It looked exciting on paper. A massive defeat for the government. Their flagship policy not just sunk but blown to smithereens. And a Prime Minister facing a no-confidence motion for the first time since Sunny Jim Callaghan was unseated in 1979 by Margaret Thatcher. And yet PMQs lacked sparkle. The mood was footsore, hungover, whimpering with fatigue. A historic day felt entirely unhistoric. Everyone wanted a break. May, her throat hoarse, looked knackered and bored, like Mick Jagger at the fag-end of a world tour. She gasped out some of her answers without grammatical ornaments. When Robert Goodwill sought her congratulations for a Scarborough firm that flogs fertiliser to China, she managed

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn gives May an easy ride at Prime Minister’s Questions

Jeremy Corbyn decided to re-release his greatest hits at Prime Minister’s Questions today, starting with Brexit but then moving on to poverty, education, police cuts and ‘burning i justices’. We’ve heard these questions many times before, and often in the same sequence, but today the Labour leader was using them once again to try to underline that Theresa May’s government is failing not just on Brexit but on everything else too. This didn’t work, though, because Corbyn only tried to tie the topics together in his very last question, and that question was particularly rambling. Last night the Labour leader’s spokesman delivered a crisp line about the government being unable

Alex Massie

Who can spare us from this Brexit disaster? | 16 January 2019

God help us all, because no-one else can or will in these present circumstances. If you wished to apportion some blame for the shambolic state of British politics these days you will not be short of candidates to bear some measure of the opprobrium they all, to one degree or another, deserve. Spare us from Theresa May whose definition of Brexit hemmed her in from the very beginning. Spare us from a Prime Minister who learnt nothing from David Cameron’s failures and continued to prize Tory unity above almost everything else and continued to do so long past the point at which it became obvious to everyone else that Tory

Tom Goodenough

How the world’s papers reacted to May’s Brexit vote defeat

Theresa May appears as a dodo on the front page of today’s Sun. Unfortunately for the beleaguered Prime Minister, the verdict isn’t much better in the foreign press. Last night’s disastrous night in the Commons makes the front pages of newspapers around the world. The New York Times describes the Prime Minister’s defeat as ‘bruising’ and the paper says last night’s result ‘underscores how comprehensively Mrs. May has failed to hold consensus behind any single vision of how to exit the European Union’. For the Times, the PM largely has herself to blame for making history by notching up the largest defeat for a government in modern British political history:

James Forsyth

How tonight’s no confidence vote could help Theresa May

Another day, another big vote in the Commons. But as with yesterday, there is a sense in Westminster that tonight’s vote is a foregone conclusion. Theresa May is expected to win it as the DUP are still backing her, as are the ERG and no Tory second referendum types have come out against her. Now, it might seem odd that the Commons can inflict the biggest defeat on a government of the modern era, on the defining issue of the parliament on Tuesday and then affirm its confidence in that government on the Wednesday. But that is British politics right now. If this no confidence vote goes as expected, it

Steerpike

Watch: Richard Burgon turns nasty

When he first came to power, Jeremy Corbyn promised a ‘kinder’ politics and told Labour supporters to ‘treat people with respect’. But did Richard Burgon get the message? Mr S. only asks because he suspects the Labour MP and arch Corbynite won’t have won many new fans when he popped up on Channel 4 News yesterday evening in the aftermath of May’s thumping defeat in the Commons. Burgon told Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson that she would be ‘judged by history’ as a result of her party’s past coalition with the Tories: ‘The real enemies are the Conservatives. And you have aided and abetted them. to hurt working class communities

Tuesday

15 Jan 2019

Steerpike

Theresa May moves the market

After suffering what could be the largest Commons defeat in over a hundred years – far surpassing anyone’s expectations, it’s fair to say that Theresa May will not be happy with the way things went this evening. So she might take comfort in the fact that her deal did at least have one positive outcome: providing a small boost to the economy – though probably not in the way she intended. In response to her Brexit deal being voted down by a massive margin, the pound briefly fell, and then rebounded sharply against the Euro and the Dollar, a clear sign that the uncertainty of the Brexit process was still

Katy Balls

Theresa May’s confidence vote problems will only get worse | 15 January 2019

Theresa May is in a peculiar position after suffering the largest government defeat in history. Her Brexit plans look dead in the water and even she appeared to admit that she would now have to reach out to members of other parties and consider her options. In a bid to capitalise on May’s misfortune, Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed that Labour will table a motion of no confidence in the government. The vote will take place tomorrow afternoon following PMQs. Yet for all the calamity of the evening, the Prime Minister is on course to win it comfortably. Both the DUP and the Tory Brexiteers who voted against May’s deal say they

James Forsyth

What options does Theresa May have left after this defeat?

Westminster was braced for a heavy government defeat. But few were expecting a loss on this scale: 230 votes. It is hard to believe that the 116 MPs May needs for a majority can be persuaded to change their minds by tweaks to the backstop. So, what May thought would be her plan, going back to Brussels, trying to get something and then bringing the deal back is now off the table. In her response to the defeat, May made clear that she accepts she needs to reach out across the House before going back to Brussels. But the problem is it is very hard to see what combination of changes gains

Steerpike

Watch: Matt Hancock’s disastrous attempt to defend Theresa May

Theresa May made history tonight by notching up the largest defeat for a sitting government in British political history. But despite 118 Tory MPs rebelling against the Government, May can still count on some of her colleagues to try and defend her. Step forward, Matt Hancock. The health secretary popped up on the BBC to trot out the PM’s Brexit plan B: go back to the Commons and listen to MPs on what they do want. Unfortunately for Hancock, his attempt to explain what happens next didn’t inspire Mr S with much confidence: Andrew Neil: They’re ruling out reopening the agreement. What do you do now? Matt Hancock: There are two