Politics

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

Thursday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Brexit is becoming a ‘just war’, with predictable consequences

Brexit could split the Tory party. So many people wrote articles arguing this before and after David Cameron called the EU referendum, but it was generally assumed that the split would involve disgruntled eurosceptics claiming they had been betrayed after Britain voted to stay in the bloc after all. It was also generally assumed that the split would at least involve something quite serious. But today MPs are locked in a war of words over whether or not they should get a ‘meaningful’ vote on the final Brexit deal. Those in favour defeated the government last night: Theresa May’s first serious Commons defeat since the snap election. Stephen Hammond was

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How can May stop the Brexit mutineers from becoming the new Tory ‘bastards’?

The decision made by 11 Conservative MPs to rebel and back Dominic Grieve’s amendment for a ‘meaningful vote’ on the final Brexit deal has received a mixed reaction in the Conservative party. Nadine Dorries – a one-time serial rebel herself – has suggested they ought to be deselected, while Henry Smith managed a slightly more nuanced tone on the Daily Politics when he said the rebels had ‘betrayed’ voters. Add to this, several hostile front pages naming and shaming the rebels and there’s a feeling that ostracism is the preferred way to deal with them. As Robert Peston writes on Coffee House, in practical terms the Brexit rebellion is an

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Theresa May should have backed down in her Brexit battle with Parliament

This morning has brought predictable outrage about Tory ‘traitors’. The Prime Minister has been undermined, Guy Verhofstadt has had his fun describing it as a ‘good day for democracy’. The government has been reduced to damage-limitation, suggesting that last night’s defeat – which means that Parliament will now have the final say on a Brexit deal – won’t derail its plans. That is true. Allowing Parliament the final judgement on the deal almost certainly won’t alter the outcome: Britain will leave the EU on 29 March 2019 with whatever deal the government is able to cut with Michel Barnier and his team. Parliament will not vote it down because the

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Angry Leavers must accept that ‘hard’ Brexit died on election night

Some Brexiteers are angry. This is not news. This has been true since about 20 minutes after the referendum result was declared. There are some Leavers who have been looking, since 24 June last year, for a new grievance, fresh evidence they are being betrayed and denied, generally by some shadowy group they describe as ‘the establishment’ or ‘the elite’. (Please note that I say ‘some’ Leavers, not all. More people in politics and journalism should distinguish between members of a group and the whole group). Some of that anger is understandable. For years and decades, anyone who espoused leaving the EU was ignored and marginalised and called a crackpot.

Steerpike Steerpike

War of words: Tory MP vs Tory MP – ‘get over yourself Nadine!’

Although the 11 Tory rebels who led the government to defeat last night night on Dominic Grieve’s amendment calling for a meaningful vote have been lauded as heroes by Remain groups, they are receiving a different reception within their own party. While some Conservatives – such as Nick Boles – say they respect the decision made by their colleagues, others have seen red. Take for example Nadine Dorries. The Leave-backing MP took to social media to suggest Grieve’s disloyalty meant he did not deserve his prestigious role as chair of the Intelligence and Security committee. Only one of the Tory rebels took issue with Dorries tweet. Sarah Wollaston replied to

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Theresa May’s bitter humiliation

The government’s defeat in the House of Commons last night amounts to a ‘bitter humiliation’ for ministers, says the Sun. It is also ‘a moment of shame for the Tory “rebels”’. In defeating the government, the Tory MPs who sided with the opposition ‘utterly compromised’ Theresa May as she heads to Brussels today. As well as making life difficult for the Prime Minister, they have also ‘handed a victory’ to those who want to reverse Brexit, says the Sun. Now the onus is on the PM to ‘find a solution’ to the challenge of negotiating a deal ‘without fearing Remainers in Parliament will kill it’. But May’s hands are tied

Wednesday

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The Brexit rebellion is an embarrassment for Theresa May, not a disaster

The government threw everything at trying to defeat Tory rebels led by the former attorney general Dominic Grieve and their amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill – which forces the government to enact a statute “approving the final terms” of Brexit before the UK leaves the EU. And that is one of the big reasons why this defeat for Theresa May matters: it shows the fury among some of its MPs, notably those who voted to Remain, that they are being ignored, as Theresa May engages in the most important negotiations relating to this nations’ future since those that took us into the EU (or what was the Common Market).

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The government should have listened to the rebels, not tried to crush them

The government has just been defeated in the House of Commons on whether the final Brexit deal will get a ‘meaningful vote’ by Parliament. MPs voted 309-305 to pass the amendment to the EU withdrawal bill by Dominic Grieve. There were dramatic scenes in the Commons, as MPs had initially believed that the government had won. This was based on the way one of the tellers for the rebels was standing in the Chamber (the tellers are MPs who announce the result, and they stand according to whether the Ayes or Noes have it). Heidi Alexander only moved to the other side of the floor at the very last minute,

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Jeremy Corbyn reveals his inner Blairite

Simple result at PMQs. Mrs May won without trying. Mr Corbyn lost in the same way. Even at his most animated, the Labour leader sounds like a second-hand appliance being tested by repairmen. Sometimes he’s a Hoover, sometimes a food-blender, sometimes a wood-sander grumbling away in a garden-shed. Today’s noise was the faint, ruminative drone of an electric toothbrush. He hunched over the despatch box, his jaw slack, his head down. His words dropped from his lips like scraps of dry parchment. It seemed he was addressing all his remarks to his socks. This did not work in his favour. The game-plan today was to portray the prime minister as

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

May survives awkward PMQs on homelessness

Both Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May turned up in good form to PMQs today. The Labour leader was unusually nimble with his ripostes, deploying statistics on home ownership straight after the Prime Minister’s mockery of the Labour party’s attitude towards home ownership. But as usual, he didn’t manage to make the homeslessness figures that he made his key theme for his questions into a matter of great discomfort for May. The Prime Minister, for her part, managed to recover from each attack pretty well, arguing that the Conservatives were the party who believed in building more homes so that people could have a roof over their heads. She did, though,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How Ruth Davidson plans to become First Minister of Scotland

Ruth Davidson is clear in her interview with Fraser Nelson and me that she won’t be making her mind up about standing for a Westminster seat until after the Scottish Parliament election in 2021. Why does Davidson want to wait until then before making any decision? Because she thinks she can become First Minister of Scotland. This might seem a bit bizarre, delusional even; the Labour revival in Scotland means that the Tories are sometimes coming third in the polls and it is hard to see what other party would back her for the job. But Davidson is convinced that there is a ‘clear route’ to the Scottish Tories taking power. In

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why the Conservatives are pushing a green agenda

One of the things MPs complain about when it comes to Brexit – aside from its handling by the government – is that it means there is little time left for the Conservatives to pursue much in the terms of domestic policy. The one area which appears to be the exception to the rule is the environment. Since Michael Gove was appointed Defra secretary, there have been a raft of good news announcements coming from the department. From a £140 million fund for developing countries to tackle climate change and a clean energy programme to reintroducing beavers into the wild and saving trees in Sheffield, the Conservatives are on a

Steerpike Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s hostile reception

Ever since the EU referendum, Boris Johnson has found his local neighbourhood in Islington turn a little bit frosty. Residents in the Remain-voting borough have taken on occasion to heckling him over his pro-Brexit stance. Happily, the Foreign Secretary has since managed to find a safe space – even if it is a little far away. Speaking at the Foreign Office Christmas reception in Lancaster House, Johnson was lauded by government officials for proving Britain’s global reach by receiving a warm reception on the streets of Tehran, on his recent trip to Iran– to try and free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Johnson proceeded to joke to a room full of diplomats: ‘I

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The age of volatility

Every year in British politics seems to be more surprising than the last. Few predicted in 2015 that the Conservatives would win a general election outright for the first time in 20-odd years. Fewer still realised that Theresa May would become the most popular Prime Minister since records began. And almost no one foresaw how the tide would turn against her so dramatically that the Tories would lose their majority, or that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour would make such significant gains. How to make sense of it all? Tory MPs are being offered an explanation by Gavin Barwell, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, who has been seeing them in groups

Ysenda Maxtone Graham

Mission impossible? | 13 December 2017

If you work for the Church of England in any capacity, from Archbishop of Canterbury to parish flower-arranger, how do you deal with the distressing statistics that in the past 20 years, average Sunday attendance has plummeted to 780,000 and is going down by a rate of about 20,000 a year? Do you pretend it’s not happening and just tell everyone about the spike in your numbers at Christmas, or accept that it might be happening but believe that God’s grace will deal with the problem in its own good time? Or do you throw your weight behind a vast national marketing initiative, hurling millions of pounds at the problem?

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Queen of Scots

‘You wouldn’t make good spies, would you,’ chuckles Ruth Davidson as she finds us sitting with our backs to the door in the Scottish Parliament café. She then triumphantly declares that she knows who we’ve been speaking to when preparing for the interview — getting two out of the five names isn’t bad going. After this, she sets off for her office at a pace that leaves us and her communications director trailing in her wake. She scrolls impatiently through her phone as she waits for us to catch up at every security door. Davidson is as direct as she is energetic. When the editor begins by pointing out the

Quentin Letts

Order, order | 13 December 2017

Diet nannies will spend Christmas telling us ‘you are what you eat’ but in the House of Commons ‘you are where you sit’. Are you a Tory Whips’ stooge or a Dominic Grieve groupie aching to block Brexit, a braw new blue Scot or an English provincial plodder without hope of advancement? Parliament-watchers discern plenty about your political leanings from where you park your posterior. Each side of the Commons chamber has five green-leather benches that are divided by a gangway. On the government side of the chamber, all MPs are Conservatives except for a couple who have had the Whip withdrawn. On the opposition side, the lower four benches

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Instead of schmoozing at City parties, I’m Sarah the Cook in a Yorkshire panto

Last Christmas I offered you a cruel satire about a boardroom big-shot whose career went so awry that he ended up as a pantomime dame. So perhaps there’s justice in the fact that this year, that’s what’s happened to me. Instead of schmoozing the City’s festive party round, I’m cross–dressing nightly on a Yorkshire stage as Sarah the Cook in Dick Whittington and His Cat. The original Whittington, four times Lord Mayor of London between 1397 and 1419, was a mercer who exported English cloth across the North Sea, importing silks and velvets in return. But in panto, Dick and his crew turn their backs on our European partners and

Matt Ridley

The ‘designer baby’ myth

Christmas Day marks the birthday of one of the most gifted human beings ever born. His brilliance was of a supernoval intensity, but he was, by all accounts, very far from pleasant company. I refer to Isaac Newton. Would you like your next child to have the intelligence of a Newton? It may not be long before this is a consumer choice, according to an ambitious new company founded in America a few months ago. Genomic Prediction initially plans to offer people who use in-vitro fertilisation the chance to identify and avoid embryos that would be likely to develop diabetes, late-life osteoporosis, schizophrenia and dwarfism. The key is the application

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why the Tories are wrong to restore the whip to Anne Marie Morris

The Tories have decided to restore the whip to Anne Marie Morris. The Newton Abbot MP had it suspended for using the phrase the ‘n—– in the woodpile’ at a think tank event. This decision is a mistake. Whatever Morris says, it is hard to see how anyone could use this phrase unintentionally and it is clearly offensive. Restoring the whip to Morris less than six months after it was taken away from her suggests that the Tories are not taking this incident as seriously as they should. This is the wrong call both politically and morally. Morally, this kind of casual use of racist language is deplorable bad manners.