Politics

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

James Forsyth

Who might replace Priti Patel in a reshuffle?

Priti Patel is currently on her way to Downing Street, where she is expected to be fired by Theresa May. The early signs are that Number 10 is looking for a Leaver to replace her as International Development Secretary, to preserve the Cabinet’s Brexit balance. But this would be the wrong way to think about the reshuffle. Trying to replace Patel with someone who matches her profile as closely as possible would just be another advertisement of how weak May’s position is. In parliamentary terms, though, May is, obviously, in a weak position, Getting a clean EU withdrawal bill will be very difficult. (Indeed, the position of the Scottish Tories

Isabel Hardman

Focus in Priti Patel row switches to what Downing Street really knew

Priti Patel is on her way back to Britain to face the music following her strange holiday-cum-lobbying operation in Israel. Yesterday it emerged that the International Development Secretary had not told Number 10 that she had suggested giving humanitarian aid to the Israeli army in the Golan Heights. It has been so heavily briefed that she is expected to be sacked that there is little chance that the minister will get away with just another reminder of her responsibilities. But there’s an awkward extra element for Number 10 this morning, which is the claim reported in the Jewish Chronicle that the British government did in fact know about Patel’s meeting

Gordon Brown still hasn’t learned his lesson from Bigotgate

As Gordon Brown’s new memoir, My Life, Our Times, sends mild ripples across the political play pool, the rest of the country tends to its own business. But there’s an episode from Brown’s turbulent spell as Prime Minister that merits revisiting: ‘Bigotgate’. Not only was it the moment that perhaps secured Labour’s dramatic fall from power but Brown’s finessing of what happened has worrying signs for politicians’ private frankness. You remember it well: while pressing the flesh in Rochdale as part of the 2010 election campaign, Brown found himself in conversation with a lifelong Labour voter. For a savvy politician, this was a golden opportunity to play the crowd and

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Priti Patel and Boris should go

Priti Patel could well follow Michael Fallon in making a departure from the Cabinet today. If she does leave, she’ll be the second minister to go in the space of only a week. So, is this bad luck on the part of the government? Not so, says the FT. The paper says this is a ‘symptom of a deeper malaise’ and ‘two domestic incidents have highlighted the sense of drift’ at the heart of the government. Boris Johnson’s blunder in suggesting an imprisoned British-Iranian citizen was ‘teaching people journalism’ is typical of his ‘blasé attitude’. The FT goes further though, saying that Boris ‘may be the least distinguished figure to

After his Iran blunder, Boris must learn that careless talk can cost lives

Boris Johnson’s Iran blunder is a case of diplomatic friendly fire – accidental but devastating. The facts are clear enough. By clumsily misspeaking at a select committee hearing last week, the foreign secretary may have worsened the fate of a British citizen – an innocent young mother – who is locked up in Tehran on spurious charges. It’s not quite a resigning matter, but boy does it come close. Certainly it suggests a lazy and arrogant approach to detail. Here’s what he said: Obviously, we will have to be very careful about this, because we want them to be released. I have raised this case many times now with Javad Zarif,

Isabel Hardman

MPs tear into Boris Johnson for Iran blunder

Boris Johnson mysteriously decided to update the House of Commons on the fight against Islamic State today, even though everyone else was talking about another aspect of the Foreign Secretary’s job. He decided to include the row over his comments about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in this statement, presumably to take some of the heat out of the row. His other tactic in trying to reduce the row further was to accuse anyone who attacked him for his blunder in which he told the Foreign Affairs Committee last week that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was teaching journalism of playing party politics. On the opposite benches, it wasn’t just Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry who mooted

Ross Clark

Has Brexit really made us all happier?

Apparently we’re all getting a little happier – if a little more anxious. The government’s official happiness index shows that we rate our overall life satisfaction at an average of 7.7 out of 10. We think our lives are 7.9 out of 10 worthwhile. We rate our happiness yesterday at 7.5 out of 10 and our anxiety rating at 2.9 out of 10 – a slight rise on early 2015 when national anxiety reached a low but still much less than when the index started in 2011.  Does it mean anything though? The Guardian seems to think so, publishing a story today which appears to hint that people in England are

Steerpike

Priti Patel’s jet set lifestyle continues

Priti Patel’s working holiday to Israel – in which she held secret meetings with Israeli politicians, including the country’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu – has landed her in hot water. Despite the backlash to Patel’s foreign escapade, however, it seems her jet set lifestyle shows no sign of stopping. In Parliament this afternoon, Patel had a chance to defend herself and tell MPs what she got up to on her summer trip. The only hitch? She couldn’t make it. In Patel’s absence, it was left to her deputy, Alistair Burt, to fill in. So where was Patel? ‘She is presently in the air,’ he told MPs to laughter in the Commons. Still,

The Westminster sex scandal is a chance to change politics for the better

In the last few weeks, stories of sexual harassment and abuse have swept through Westminster like a storm. Like many men in Parliament, I first thought the best policy would be to keep my head down and wait for it to pass. But I have now decided that’s not good enough. Male MPs need to stand up and be counted. We need to be vocal in our support of female colleagues who are pressing for a dramatic shift in the culture of Parliament. This is an opportunity to change politics for the better and we must seize it. It takes courage for anyone to complain about sexual harassment or abuse.

Tom Goodenough

Will Priti Patel’s ‘busman’s holiday’ to Israel cost her her job?

Priti Patel’s vacation to Israel certainly has the feeling of a busman’s holiday to it. The international development secretary is now admitting she met several Israel cabinet ministers, as well as the country’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, during the summer trip which she paid for herself. Patel’s big problem doesn’t only stem from these undeclared meetings, however, but her reaction to them, which has turned this story into something toxic which could cost Patel her job in the cabinet. Last week, when it emerged she had held these meetings with Israeli politicians, Patel was adamant that Boris knew all about it. She told the Guardian: ‘Boris Johnson knew about the

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn is right: MPs could do with training

Party leaders are meeting this afternoon to discuss Westminster’s response to the sexual harassment allegations sweeping all parts of the political spectrum. Ahead of the meeting, Jeremy Corbyn has called for a training programme for MPs after every general election on how to treat their employees, while Theresa May has said that parliament itself needs a ‘proper process where people can make complaints and bring allegations’. Corbyn’s training idea makes a fair bit of sense. MPs are not elected based on their ability to run a small business, but that is effectively what they have to do with their staff in Parliament and in the constituency. When they arrive in

Steerpike

All you need is Kompromat! Did the New York Times fall for a great Trump-Russia hoax?

The big story that British journos are now desperate to break is ‘How Russia hacked Brexit’. Once that rolls out, Britain can be like America, where nobody knows if Vladimir Putin is their true master or just the bogeyman of a paranoid elite. But newspapers should be wary: Russia collusion stories can make the press look deeply silly. Mr Steerpike hears, for instance, that this summer the New York Times fell hook, line and sinker for a great Trump-Russia hoax in London. Apparently, an unknown source contacted the Gray Lady to say he had Russia-related kompromat material which could bring down the US President — but he had to give

Steerpike

John McDonnell reins in his republicanism

John McDonnell is no fan of the Royal Family. The shadow Chancellor once joked about ‘looking forward’ to seeing papier-mâché models of the Royals guillotined. Yet with Labour now on the brink of snatching power from the Tories, McDonnell appears to have reined in his republicanism somewhat. Not too long ago, today’s story that the Queen’s private estate invested money offshore would have been a perfect opportunity for McDonnell to criticise the Royal Family. But when asked on the Today programme to do just that, he seemed somewhat reluctant to go after the Queen. Here’s what he said: ‘Well I don’t want to just..err..target the Queen in this’ Mr S

Sunday shows round-up: Trial by newspaper

Amber Rudd: Government is not verging on ‘complete collapse’ Home Secretary Amber Rudd has had a busy media schedule today, appearing on three different political programmes within three hours. First of all, she was on Andrew Marr’s sofa. In a week where the so-called ‘Pestminster’ scandal continues to unravel, the Home Secretary addressed concerns over First Secretary of State Damian Green, who is facing allegations that he sexually harassed the journalist Kate Maltby, and that the police found pornography on his computer in 2008, both of which Green denies. Rudd confirmed that Green would be investigated for his conduct in both cases: AM: Let’s look at the Damian Green ‘tittle

James Forsyth

Why Damian Green’s position matters so much to Theresa May

As Prime Minister, you get something of a pass on those Cabinet members that you inherit from your predecessor. So, Michael Fallon’s resignation as Defence Secretary was not a devastating blow to Theresa May. After all, it was David Cameron who had first appointed Fallon to that job. But the responsibility for Damian Green’s presence in the Cabinet is Theresa May’s alone. Green is as close a political ally of hers as it is possible to be. He was heavily involved in her leadership campaign and on becoming Prime Minister, she immediately elevated him to the Cabinet. After the election disaster, she turned to him to shore up her position.

The porn allegations against me are disreputable smears

After former Met police assistant commissioner Bob Quick told the Sunday Times that ‘extreme’ pornography was found on Damian Green’s computer during a 2008 investigation into government leaks, Green issued a statement denying the accusation. Here it is: This story is completely untrue and comes from a tainted and untrustworthy source. I’ve been aware for some years that the discredited former Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick has tried to cause me political damage by leaking false information about the raid on my Parliamentary Office. No newspaper has printed this story due to the complete lack of any evidence. It is well-known that Quick, who was forced to apologise for alleging that

Spectator competition winners: a poem for Boris

The latest competition called for a safe poem that Boris Johnson could have on hand to quote from when out in the field. The kerfuffle caused by the Foreign Secretary’s murmured quotation of a few lines from Kipling’s poem ‘Mandalay’ during a recent visit to Shwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar led me to wonder whether it might be wise, given an ever-increasing number of no-go areas subject matter-wise, to challenge you to fashion an all-purpose poem unlikely to offend. Barbara Jones’s Blakean-flavoured entry — ‘And did my feet in foreign clime/ Trample on sensitivities?’ — caught my attention, as did Tim Raikes’s patter song. But they were outflanked by the winners

James Forsyth

What did Gavin Williamson mean by that?

The Tory leadership stakes have been upended this week, I say in The Sun today. Gavin Williamson’s elevation to defence secretary shows that he wants to be a contender and that several of those around Theresa May think he might be their best hope. The most interesting question is why Williamson has decided to get out of Downing Street now. He has a sharp political brain and a good feel for the mood of the parliamentary party. So, he’d have known that a reshuffle where he was the only person to enter the Cabinet would put a big target on his back. There are two explanations doing the round in