Politics

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

Thursday

16 Nov 2017

Letters | 16 November 2017

Chairman May Sir: Theresa May is the only politician with a mandate to lead, yet doesn’t seem capable of leading (‘Stop the rot’, 11 November). More than at any time for decades, the country needs leadership. This seems like an intractable problem but the solution is simple. Theresa May should stop trying to be both chairman and CEO and relinquish the latter job to someone with the energy, ideas and conviction she lacks. There is an obvious candidate: Michael Gove, the only member of the government who seems to relish governing and one of the leading figures in the Leave campaign. He should be made Deputy Prime Minister and given

Rachel Johnson

Diary – 16 November 2017

Long letter from the High Mistress of St Paul’s Girls’ School, addressing me as ‘Dear Old Paulina’ (I thought we were never ‘Old Paulinas’, merely ‘Paulinas’ till the bitter end, but I will let the solecism pass). It informs me that fellow former pupils have been in touch to report sexual abuse when I was there ‘between the 1970s and the 1990s’. The letter invites #metoo to name and shame teachers — who must be well into their dotage if not dead — while insisting that the numera una assoluta girls’ school in the world is now a sterile, predator-free zone. The letter is spattered with every compulsory clunky current

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 16 November 2017

Although we all see rather too much of the present Mr Speaker, it was a good innovation that he and Lord Fowler, the Speaker of the House of Lords, laid wreaths at the Cenotaph on Sunday. It seems odd this never happened before: a parliamentary tribute is fitting. Since we shall soon, God willing, recover our parliamentary sovereignty, it is right to start paying more attention to the sovereign institution. I was amazed, listening to the PM programme on Tuesday, that the BBC led with an unadorned report of the latest Commons debate on Brexit. It was such a broadcasting novelty. For years, the media have given the most perfunctory

Nick Hilton

The Spectator Podcast: Corbyn 2.0

On this week’s episode we look at the social media revolution which could sweep the Tories away. We also discuss next week’s budget and agonise about the state of the nation with Jeffrey Archer. Whether it’s Jeremy Corbyn, Donald Trump or the Brexiteers, successful politicians seem to have one thing in common: a command of social media. But what about Theresa May and her party? In the magazine this week, Robert Peston is concerned that the Prime Minister might be left behind if she fails to grasp the importance of the internet. He joins the podcast along with Jamie Bartlett, Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media

Isabel Hardman

Will Salmond ask questions of Putin’s interest in Scottish independence?

Should the British government be more suspicious of Russia? Theresa May obviously thinks so, telling Vladimir Putin in a speech this week that ‘we know what you are doing and you will not succeed’. Jeremy Corbyn is less keen, with his spokesman telling journalists that ‘I think we need to see more evidence of what’s being talked about… [but] Jeremy has made clear on a number of occasions that we need to see an attempt through dialogue to ratchet down tensions with Russia.’ Meanwhile, Alex Salmond’s decision to host a chat show on Kremlin-backed channel Russia Today last week ratcheted up tensions with his own party, with Nicola Sturgeon distancing

James Forsyth

Michael Gove’s cabinet critics should go and do some reading

The Times‘ Matt Chorley has succeeded in getting everyone talking with his story about Michael Gove supposedly using cabinet meeting to audition for the role of chancellor. Gove reportedly talked about ‘the obscure Markets in Financial Instruments Directives’ two weeks ago and has cabinet sources complaining that at this week’s meeting he used ‘lots of long, economicky words’. So, what were those ‘long, economicky words’? Well, according to one cabinet minister present, Gove talked about Schumpeter and creative destruction and raised the question of whether the Bank of England’s monetary policy was creating zombie companies. The argument is fairly simple: if interest rates are so low, a flood of borrowed

Katy Balls

John McDonnell’s Today interview shows the economy remains Labour’s Achilles heel

John McDonnell has busied himself today on the airwaves setting out Labour’s five key demands for the budget. His call for an end to austerity would mean pausing the roll-out of Universal Credit, ditching the public sector pay cap, more money into infrastructure, health, education, and local government along with a large-scale house-building programme. All very well. Only the shadow chancellor’s Today programme interview took a turn for the worse when McDonnell tried to explain how his party would fund this. He appeared to concede this would mean borrowing – along with a mega-crackdown on tax avoidance and changes to corporation tax. But the most telling point in the interview came when he was

Ed West

It’s nonsense to claim Russia influenced the Brexit vote

Q: How many Remainers does it take to fix a light bulb? A: Why should we fix it? It’s Russia’s fault it’s broken An old joke; I think the original concerned Arabs and Israel, but then there are numerous parts of the world where all manner of events are attributed to historic enemies. I remember a few years ago, after reading an article about how Poles tended to think the Russians were behind everything bad, a journalist explaining that this is the historic result of being ruled by tyrannical regimes, low social capital and little trust in government. That’s eastern Europe for you; luckily we north-west Europeans, with our long history

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: In defence of the Brexit ‘mutineers’

The EU withdrawal bill survived its first test at its commons committee stage this week – but there is still a long way to go. And it seems some on the Tory back benches are determined not to make it plain sailing for the government. Theresa May’s ‘mandate for a hard Brexit is weak’, says the FT, which argues that parliament is well within its rights to scrutinise the EU withdrawal bill closely. ‘If ever there was a case for parliament exercising its sovereign powers, this is it,’ says the paper. So why the backlash against those in the Tory ranks who are not happy with certain parts of the

Robert Peston

Corbyn 2.0

There is a naive belief at the top of government that because the Tories are only a fart’s yard behind Labour in the polls — despite daily manifestations of schism, scandal and incompetence — everything will turn out fine in the end. But this is to ignore the party’s greatest structural weakness: it is clueless in cyberspace. On the social media battlefield, it is fighting with knitting needles against Labour’s laser-guided missiles. The crude stats are humiliating for Theresa May. Her Twitter and Facebook accounts have 411,000 and 540,000 followers respectively, compared with 1.6 million and 1.4 million for Jeremy Corbyn. His online films and tweets are seen by millions,

James Forsyth

Wanted urgently: a Budget boost

The Budget this Wednesday represents this government’s best, and perhaps its last, chance to regain the political initiative. Ever since the launch of the Tory election manifesto, Theresa May has been buffeted by the political weather. The past few weeks have been particularly bad. It hasn’t rained on her but poured, leaving her in urgent need of a Budget boost. Already this month, two cabinet ministers have had to resign. A third — who happens to be Theresa May’s most important ally — remains under Cabinet Office investigation. The Brexit optimism that followed her Florence speech is ebbing away. The sense that European leaders would declare in December that ‘sufficient

Alex Clark

Write to the end

Always go to a storyteller if you want a sparky answer to a question. What does Jeffrey Archer, bestselling author, member of the House of Lords, one-time candidate for Mayor of London and prison diarist, think will happen to American politics next? Comes the reply: Angelina Jolie. Or perhaps George Clooney. Or maybe even Tom Hanks. One of these, argues Archer, will run for president next time. ‘And why wouldn’t they win?’ He expands. ‘I’ve given in now. The days of spending your life in politics, learning politics, getting ready for high office, are gone. You can have it tomorrow. Macron got it in one minute.’ The words might seem

Simon Kerry

The great lost peace

One hundred years ago this month, my great-great grandfather sat down to compose a letter which would finish a long and distinguished career — and destroy his reputation. Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, had held some of the most prominent posts in the British Empire and government: governor–general of Canada, viceroy of India, secretary of state for war, foreign secretary and Conservative leader of the House of Lords. But in the winter of 1917, as casualties mounted on the Western Front, he decided that enough was enough and that Britain should seek a negotiated peace with Germany to end the first world war. Lord Lansdowne’s ‘Peace Letter’ remains one

Lionel Shriver

Security overkill is terror’s real triumph

The moment the news broke on Halloween that an Uzbek in a rental truck had just killed eight people on New York’s West Side cycle path, my heart sank. Now, you might think that any decent human being — I marginally qualify — would be profoundly saddened by the pointless murder of folks merely out enjoying a city’s recreational facilities on a crisp autumn day. But that wasn’t it. Or you might think — since I spend a fair whack of the year in New York, where as usual I get everywhere by bike — that I might be concerned about becoming a terrorist target myself. I use that bike

Wednesday

15 Nov 2017

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May’s political problems on housebuilding might not be as big as she thinks

Does Theresa May want to build more homes? The problems that the Prime Minister faces on this matter were summed up very neatly by two different Tory backbenchers at Prime Minister’s Questions today. She was asked by Tom Tughendhat whether she would ‘take the chance to build more homes’, to which she replied that ‘my hon. friend makes a very important point about investing in infrastructure, particularly in housing. We are doing exactly that, which is why we have seen more than a quarter of a trillion pounds in infrastructure spending since 2010’, though she didn’t specifically mention housing. Later, Theresa Villiers asked the Prime Minister to ‘assure the House

Steerpike

Frank Field throws stones from an inherited glass house

This week, there was a rare sight for the post snap-election political landscape: two Labour MPs having a barney. On the first day of the Committee Stage of the EU Withdrawal Bill, Frank Field and Hilary Benn became engaged in an argument after Field, a ‘reluctant Brexiteer’, used a house analogy to argue in favour of the government amendment calling for the date of Britain’s departure from the EU in the bill. He said he had never bought a house ‘without having in the contract the date when it’s mine’. Benn, the son of Tony Benn, hit back by saying the analogy was lacking as ‘nobody commits to a date to

James Forsyth

Theresa May gets the upper hand at PMQs for a change

In the last few weeks, we have got used to Jeremy Corbyn getting the better of Theresa May at PMQs. But today, May had the upper hand in their exchanges. Now, this isn’t because the political weather has suddenly changed—May has lost two Cabinet Ministers already this month and a third, who happens to be her closest political ally, remains under Cabinet Office investigation. So, what’s the explanation for the improvement in her performance? Well, I think it’s that Corbyn’s first question was on May’s old Home Office turf. When May talks about her old brief she sounds and looks far more confident than on any other subject. The confidence

Lloyd Evans

Jeremy Corbyn’s post-election glow appears to have faded

Angela Eagle, as befits her oxymoronic name, looks like a cherub and attacks like a raptor. Today her outfit was deceptively mumsy. A no-nonsense jacket, a sky-blue sweater, an arc of pearls, like a smile, laid across her breast-bone. Eagle is the mistress of the poisoned barb and she’d been whittling away at her missile all morning. Up she got and let fly. Her aim was true, her weighting perfect. ‘In June, the prime minister told the country she was the only person who could offer strong and stable leadership. With her cabinet crumbling before her eyes, can she tell us how it’s going?’ And nothing happened. Or barely anything.

James Kirkup

The Tory tide is turning against austerity

Tom Tugendhat, the Tory MP for Tonbridge sometimes called a rising star, finds himself making front page news today as a ‘Brexit mutineer’. That strikes me as a novel term for a man who spent several years in the British Army fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but such are the terms of British political debate these days, I suppose. The MP hasn’t responded to that headline, but used a question at PMQs to talk about something else, which I think is worth a little more attention than the latest round of name-calling over Brexit. Given that Britain’s deficit is well down from crisis levels, and given that gilt auctions are oversubscribed,

Stephen Daisley

Scottish Labour is plunged into chaos – again

When Kezia Dugdale quit as Scottish Labour leader in August, she said it was time to ‘pass on the baton’ to someone else, handing power to her deputy, Alex Rowley. Today, Rowley has stepped aside, leaving a leaderless party following allegations – which he denies – that he was abusive to his former partner. The Corbyn ally recused himself after he was accused of ’emotional blackmail and abuse’. The woman, who has not been named, alleges that Rowley was controlling and sent her insulting text messages after she broke off the relationship. One is alleged to have read: ‘You are one horrible nasty piece of work and I am going to expose