Politics

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

Thursday

15 Mar 2018

Jeremy Corbyn backs his spokesman on Russia

Just in case you had grown confused, the big international story at the moment is actually about Theresa May’s response to Russia’s involvement in the Salisbury attack, not the internal war in the Labour Party. It’s not actually all about Labour, though Jeremy Corbyn and his allies are doing their damnedest to make sure that they get a disproportionate share of the attention. This evening, Corbyn has backed his spokesman’s line on Russia, writing a piece in the Guardian which repeats the post-PMQs claim that British intelligence on chemical weapons has been ‘problematic’. The Labour leader writes: ‘There can and should be the basis for a common political response to

Katy Balls

Gavin Williamson shows his inexperience

As Jeremy Corbyn comes under pressure from his own party over his stance on Russia, Theresa May is looking increasingly statesman-like by comparison. The Prime Minister’s handling of the attempted murder of a former Russian double agent on British soil has won her praise – with a SkyData poll today finding that 69pc surveyed would prefer May to deal with Russia than the Labour leader. So, more’s the pity for the Conservatives that today Gavin Williamson put in some rather un-statesman like behaviour. The Defence Secretary used an appearance in Bristol – where he pledged £50 million for a new chemical weapon defence centre – to issue Moscow with a warning.

Nick Hilton

The Spectator Podcast: Putin’s toxic power

On this week’s episode, we look at the situation with Russia, and whether diplomatic relations have been poisoned. We also discuss the bullying scandal in Westminster and consider whether sledging in cricket has gone too far. The nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury has led to an outbreak of antagonism between Britain and Russia. Theresa May has now expelled a host of Russian diplomats, but can anything be done to stop Putin’s assault on Western values? That’s the question Owen Matthews asks in the magazine this week, and he joins the podcast along with Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs select committee, and then former Foreign Minister

Steerpike

Watch: Theresa May’s fist bumps a Salisbury resident

Although Theresa May has earned a reputation for being robotic and predictable, today she did something that took almost everyone by surprise. On a visit to Salisbury in the wake of the poisoning of a Russian double agent, May met with locals. When one put out their fist to greet her, May went in for a fist bump: Perhaps there’s hope for the Maybot yet…

Gavin Mortimer

Marine Le Pen’s relaunch falls flat

It wasn’t the weekend that Marine Le Pen envisaged. When last Saturday dawned in the northern French city of Lille, the leader of the National Front probably rose from her bed with a spring in her step. Ten months on from her disastrous performance in the second round of the French presidential election here was Le Pen’s chance to get her political career back on track. Furthermore, she had a little surprise in store for the party faithful, an illustrious guest who would enhance her own international credentials. Sure enough, Steve Bannon elicited a hearty roar from the audience when he strode onto the stage: “Let them call you racist, let

Ross Clark

Thanks to the anti-fracking lobby, Britain can’t avoid Russian gas

Who stands between the government and a proper, effective sanctions regime against Russia? Not Jeremy Corbyn, though he might wish he could. Putin is going to get away with the Salisbury attack, suffering little more than a token expulsion of diplomats, thanks to anti-fracking protesters. They didn’t mean it, of course. When they stood before the bulldozers in the Sussex village Balcombe, jumped up and down about mini-Earth tremors in Lancashire they thought they were doing the Earth a favour. They saw UK-produced shale gas as a dirty alternative to clean, carbon-free energy. But they were wrong. In the short to medium term at least the alternative to UK-produced shale

Isabel Hardman

‘Seumas Milne has to speak for himself’: Labour splits in three over Russia

What is Labour’s position on the government’s response to the Salisbury attack? There seem to be at least three. If you listen to Jeremy Corbyn, it’s that there needs to be definitive evidence and that Britain needs to maintain a dialogue with Russia. If you listen to his backbenchers, it’s that Labour should wholeheartedly support Theresa May’s position, both on Russian culpability and on the government’s response. But if you listen to his spokesman, it’s that there is a ‘problematic’ history of UK intelligence on chemical weapons and that there was not yet proof that the Russian state had carried out the attack. It turns out that a large number

Steerpike

Seumas Milne and Russia – a brief history

Oh dear. A number of Labour MPs are calling for Jeremy Corbyn to sack Seumas Milne after the Labour leader’s communications director reportedly questioned the reliability of information on Russia from Britain’s intelligence agencies. In a lobby briefing, the Press Association quote Milne as saying: ‘I think obviously the government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others don’t; however, also there’s a history in relation to WMD and intelligence which is problematic to put it mildly.’ However, were Milne to have said this, it was in his role as the Leader’s spokesman. So, what does Milne think personally? Happily, there is a wealth of articles –

Tom Goodenough

The Special Relationship still trumps Putin

For a president who usually tweets first and asks questions later, Donald Trump’s initial reaction to the Salisbury attack has been curiously slow. Eleven days on from the poisoning of a former Russian agent, Trump’s Twitter account remains silent on the subject. But now that Theresa May is ramping up the rhetoric against Russia – ordering 23 Russian spies to leave Britain – the Trump administration is finally riding firmly behind May, and pointing the finger at Putin in a way it never has before. The White House issued a statement last night saying it ‘stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the United Kingdom’. While the evidence linking the

James Forsyth

The Tory tax bombshell

The single most important domestic policy decision that the Conservatives must take is what to do about public spending. After the snap election went so wrong last year, many Tories rushed to blame ‘austerity’. Gavin Barwell, now Theresa May’s chief of staff, said this was one of the principal reasons he had lost his Croydon Central seat. Even the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, admitted that the public was weary of the long slog to balance the books. This belief — that the public has had enough of austerity — explains why the Tories aren’t behaving as governments traditionally do. Normally, they make tough fiscal choices in the early years of a

Simon Barnes

The art of the sledge

‘Good morning, my name’s Cowdrey.’ England batsman Colin, later Lord Cowdrey, to the Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson. ‘That’s not going to help you, fatso. Now piss off.’ Lord, who wrote those lines — was it Oscar Wilde? Noël Coward? Woody Allen, maybe? Or was it just a primordial example of sledging: the art and science of the cricketing insult? Sledging is hot again as the Test series in South Africa against Australia reaches new heights of bad vibes. And when we’re getting moral lectures from David Warner — the Australian player who thumped the England player Joe Root in a bar for the unforgivable sin of wearing a joke

Wednesday

14 Mar 2018

Steerpike

Steve Bannon: Brexit is down to Nigel Farage

During the EU referendum, there was a fierce rivalry not just between Leave and Remain but between the two groups campaigning for Brexit. It’s safe to say there was little love lost between Vote Leave – fronted by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove – and Leave.EU which relied heavily on Nigel Farage. So, which side swung the vote? According to Steve Bannon – President Trump’s former adviser – it was all down to Farage. In an interview with Spectator USA, Bannon says that Brexit was down to two things: the website Breitbart London and… Nigel Farage. ‘Brexit would not have happened if Breitbart London had not started,’ he claims, referring

Katy Balls

Labour moderates turn up the heat in Cold War with Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn’s response on Russia continues to send ripples through the Labour party. After the Labour leader failed to say that he believed Russia to be responsible for this attempted murder, his spokesman went one further in the post-PMQs briefing. They appeared to compare the intelligence about the Salisbury attack to the reports of weapons of mass destruction ahead of the Iraq war: ‘I think obviously the government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others don’t; however, also there’s a history in relation to WMD and intelligence which is problematic to put it mildly.’ But this view is not one that is echoed across the party. As Isabel

Lloyd Evans

John Bercow was curiously quiet at PMQs

John Bercow, parliament’s anti-bullying tsar, was strangely reticent at PMQs today. The all-but-speechless Speaker limited himself to a single intervention. ‘Order! Lots of questions to get through. And they must be heard.’ That was it. Twelve brisk words. Usually he spends several minutes bobbing up and down and screeching at MPs about the importance of behaving decorously in the chamber, and ‘conducting themselves in a statesmanlike manner’ – one of his favourite phrases. Allegations of misconduct seem to have curbed his interfering verbosity. What a relief. With no interruptions from the umpire, the session moved fast for once. The Russian crisis has made the PM look imposingly Churchillian in the last

Steerpike

Watch: Red Ken defends Corbyn’s Russia response – on Russia Today

Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised once again for failing to condemn Russia over the Salisbury spy attack. But while some Labour MPs have turned on their leader, Corbyn can still count on the support of one old friend. Ken Livingstone has just popped up on Russia Today – where else? – taking Corbyn’s line that more evidence is needed before Britain points the finger at Russia. Here’s what he said: ‘I would find it very odd to think the president of Russia is sitting in his office deciding who to kill. I would have guessed that Mr Putin has more important things to do than that’ At least Ken isn’t

Isabel Hardman

How can Labour moderates campaign for Corbyn after this?

Jeremy Corbyn was isolated not just by the rest of the House of Commons but also by his own party this afternoon. The Labour leader was the only MP who refused to condemn the culpability of Russia and call for a robust response. Even his normal allies didn’t manage to support his line: Chris Williamson, who had come into the Chamber with a copy of the Morning Star, bobbed to get the Speaker’s attention for a good while but ended up asking about police cuts. Those from other parties laid into the Labour leader, with the DUP’s Sammy Wilson accusing him of ‘appeasement’ and Iain Duncan Smith repeating his assertion

James Forsyth

Corbyn’s Russia response could reignite Labour’s civil war

Theresa May has just told the House of Commons that there is ‘no alternative conclusion’ other than that Russia was responsible for the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal. She said that Moscow’s response to the UK’s request for an explanation of what had happened in Salisbury had demonstrated ‘complete disdain’. In response to the incident, the government will expel 23 Russian diplomats who it believes to be spies. The UK will also break off all high-level contact with Russia – so there’ll be no British dignitaries at the World Cup this summer – and pass its own Magnitsky act. This UK response is not small. But it is clearly designed

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn puts himself on the back foot at PMQs

Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions ran along such familiar lines that it almost felt like a glitch in the Matrix. Jeremy Corbyn decided to peg his oft-asked questions about the NHS to Stephen Hawking’s death, pointing out that the world-famous scientist was also a passionate defender of the health service. As usual, those questions weren’t great. You’d think that given the amount of practice the Labour leader has had in asking questions about healthcare in this session, he might have worked out how to do it. But instead he offered a mix of case studies and general questions about funding that allowed Theresa May to glide through the exchanges and also

Katy Balls

What a ‘general debate’ on European affairs reveals about the government

After PMQs today, Theresa May will give a statement on Russia – and the government’s proposed response to the attempted murder of a former Russian double agent on British soil. Then there will be a ten minute rule motion on ‘supervised drug consumption facilities’ and after that a ‘general debate’ will commence on European Affairs. This will run on through the afternoon until 7pm – and should any MPs not have the chance to offer their two cents worth, they need not fear as there is a second day of general debate planned. Given that it’s now 380 days until Britain leaves the EU, you’d be forgiven for thinking there

William Cook

Angela Merkel is back in office but not back in power

How did she do it? How has Angela Merkel hung on for a fourth term as German Chancellor after being written off so many times? When she’s sworn in as Bundeskanzlerin today it’ll be nearly thirteen years since she became leader of the Bundesrepublik. She’s been read the last rites so often, yet after almost six months of backroom talks she’s back in office. But is she really back in power? Merkel has promised Germany ‘a grand coalition for the little people.’ It’s a catchy catchphrase but can she deliver? Yet another cosy alliance between her centre right CDU and the soft left SPD hardly feels like a new beginning