Politics Archives

Monday

29 May 2017

Andrew Neil interviews Paul Nuttall: full transcript

AN: Paul Nuttall UKIP was established in 1993, it was to get the UK out of the European Union. You won the referendum, your side, last year. So instead of enduring this agonising decline in UKIP why not just declare victory and go home? PN: Well, we did win. As you said, we were set up back in the early ‘90s to get Britain out of the European Union. With the referendum we won the war, what we’ve got to do now is win the peace. The Prime Minister will start the negotiations with the European Union later in June, and UKIP has to be on the pitch, because if

Sunday

28 May 2017

Fraser Nelson

Nicola Sturgeon raises prospect of a SNP-Corbyn ‘progressive alliance’ in Westminster

The most memorable poster of the 2015 general election campaign was an image of Alex Salmond with Ed Miliband snug in his top pocket. As Adam Boulton points out today, the Tories haven’t tried to revisit that image, but Nicola Sturgeon might have helped them along. She expects Theresa May to win a majority, she said. But if it’s a hung parliament, asked Andrew Neil, would she work with Mr Corbyn on his tax and spend? Her answer:- ‘We’ll work for progressive policies and we’ll work for the policies we put forward in our Manifesto. If there was to be a hung parliament of course we would look to be

The Spectator

Andrew Neil interviews Nicola Sturgeon: Full transcript

AN: Nicola Sturgeon the SNP has governed Scotland for ten years, so can we start by agreeing that the performance of Scottish public services is the responsibility of you and the SNP government? NS: I take responsibility for the performance of our public services, although Scotland’s overall budget of course is determined by decisions taken at Westminster and our budget has been reduced over the years since the Conservatives have been in office. AN: Let’s start then with Alex Salmond’s former head of policy Alex Bell, this is what he’s had to say. ‘The evidence shows that we, the SNP, haven’t closed the poverty gap, redistributed wealth, improved education of

Steerpike

Sophy Ridge gives Kezia Dugdale reason to blush

Given Scottish Labour’s rapid fall from grace north of the border, Mr S suspects that its leader Kezia Dugdale has grown accustomed to being on the receiving end of many choice words from the public. However, she probably wasn’t expecting Sophy Ridge’s most recent slip of the tongue. On Sky News, Ridge introduced Dugdale as the leader of ‘Scottish Labia’: Hats off to Ridge for managing to keep a straight face…

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Sturgeon sticks up for Corbyn

Amber Rudd – Abedi operation is still at ‘full tilt’ In the wake of Monday’s horrific attack in Manchester, Andrew Marr interviewed the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, about what action the government was taking in the aftermath of the attack, and whether the government and security services had done enough to prevent the attack happening in the first place: AM: You’ve downgraded the threat level one point, and we hear that a large part of the group around this terrorist have been apprehended and taken. Does that mean that some of the group are still out there? AR: Potentially. I mean, it’s an ongoing operation, there are 11 people in

Steerpike

Watch: Diane Abbott’s hair-raising Andrew Marr interview

With Labour beginning to gain ground in the polls, the party will be keen to keep its momentum going in the final days of the campaign. So, whichever brain at Labour HQ decided it was a good idea to send Diane Abbott onto the Andrew Marr show has some explaining to do. Explaining her credentials to take on one of the great offices of state come June 9, the shadow home secretary said she was confident she was up to the job as she had spent time in the Home Office as a graduate trainee. When Marr moved onto Abbott’s questionable views on the IRA, she came up with an

Saturday

27 May 2017

Douglas Murray

Does Andy Burnham regret his opposition to the ‘Prevent’ strategy?

Perhaps we’re now past the moment of shock. Certainly we’ve moved fairly swiftly past the other stages of post-massacre grief. With the departure of Katie Hopkins from LBC it is good to see that Monday night’s attack in Manchester has not gone completely unpunished. The desire to point fingers and scapegoat is a perfectly normal response to an outrage of course. It’s just people’s priorities I worry about. However, since people seem willing to start pointing fingers, perhaps I can suggest some candidates. Andy Burnham. In order to get elected Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham made a tactical decision to cosy up to the Muslim communities of Manchester. One of the ways in

Katy Balls

Revealed: Conservatives revise down their internal election projections

The news that the Tory lead has dropped to just five points, according to a Times/YouGov poll yesterday, has been dismissed in some quarters as an exception to the polls, rather than the rule. However, even if you don’t buy that the Tory lead over Labour is now at its lowest since Theresa May came to power, it can’t be denied that the Conservative campaign has hit a wobble. I understand projections for the election result have shifted dramatically. The internal ‘ceiling’ (the best case scenario) has gone from a majority of near 200 in week one, to a majority around the 80 mark. The ‘floor’ is now a hung Parliament — which

Stephen Daisley

The three lies that Jeremy Corbyn told Andrew Neil

We learned something important from Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with Andrew Neil: The Labour leader wants to be Prime Minister and will do whatever it takes. His soppier critics often announce their sympathy for a man who would be much happier on the backbenches. Do not believe a word of it. Listen instead to what he told the BBC presenter and you will hear a man trying to rewrite his record and trusting that most voters know too little to challenge him. Corbyn told Neil: ‘I didn’t support the IRA. I don’t support the IRA. What I want everywhere is a peace process.’ This is a lie. Corbyn opposed the Anglo-Irish agreement. He reportedly lobbied the government

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn always blames Britain first

Jeremy Corbyn and his crowd always blame Britain first, I argue in The Sun today. They view the West as being responsible for the world’s ills. It was this worldview that led Corbyn to say in his first speech since the Manchester attack that British foreign policy increases the risk of terrorism at home. Now, to my mind, his view is wrong headed for the reason I outlined here. If Corbyn were to become PM, the country would be led by someone who regards Britain as part of the problem, not part of the solution. Up to now, the Tories haven’t been vocal enough about making this point. Yesterday, with

Julie Burchill

The Manchester conspiracy theory mob are a pitiful bunch

Before the timely invention of the motor car, large urban centres were drowning in horse manure – only the ‘crossing sweepers’ who for a fee would clear a path through the mire for pedestrians made street life bearable. I thought of them as their opposite numbers – the conspiracy theorists – spread their predictable ordure in the wake of the Manchester bombing. Conspiracy theories are designed to make lazy under-achievers feel like rigorous scholars – no person with two braincells to rub together has any respect for them – but their peddlers have plumbed new depths this week with their claims that the Conservatives would happily murder children in order

Friday

26 May 2017

James Forsyth

Corbyn confronted by his past

Jeremy Corbyn first became an MP 30-odd years ago. Until he became Labour leader, Corbyn was a relatively unknown figure with all sorts of fringe views. Corbyn said, and did, a lot of things with minimal scrutiny because no one thought he would ever be in a position of power. But Corbyn is now Labour’s candidate to be Prime Minister in a general election campaign in which the polls are tightening. Tonight, Andrew Neil confronted Corbyn with a lot of his past statements. When questioned over his past sympathy for the IRA, Corbyn had no answer to the specifics of any of the questions. When confronted with Seamus Mallon, of

The Spectator

Andrew Neil interviews Jeremy Corbyn: Full transcript

AN: Mr Corbyn, today you drew a link between terror attacks at home and British actions abroad. Do you believe if Britain had not followed the foreign policy it has since Tony Blair was in office the attack on Manchester would not have happened? JC: The attack on Manchester was shocking, appalling, indefensible, wrong in every possible way. The parallel I was drawing this morning was that a number of people ever since the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have drawn attention to the links with foreign policy, including Boris Johnson in 2005, two former heads of MI5, and of course the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. And the point I

Jacob Heilbrunn

Donald Trump will rejoice if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister

If, as seems increasingly likely, Jeremy Corbyn becomes British Prime Minister in June, his victory should be greeted not simply with incredulity in the United States, but also elation. A Corbyn triumph should arrive as soothing balm to Donald Trump’s wounded feelings. Corbyn stands for much of what Trump has espoused. Both men revile NATO, favour protectionism, admire Russia and want to upend the traditional political establishment. And both men were long dismissed as having zero chance at winning. And now? A Corbyn victory would help put wind in Trump’s sails. Take foreign policy. Trump was manifestly uncomfortable during his brief visit to NATO, shoving aside the Prime Minister of

Brendan O’Neill

Why is Jeremy Corbyn politicising Islamist murder?

Today, Jeremy Corbyn elevated terrorist attacks from acts of medieval mass murder to the level of a political statement. He injected the slaughter of pop fans and their parents with the frisson of anti-imperialism. He may not have meant to do this, but he did. When he said in his speech this morning that terrorism at home is a response to British militarism overseas, he imbued that terrorism with political meaning, even with a smidgen of progressiveness. This violence is anti-war, he is suggesting. He’s in serious danger of giving Salman Abedi a posthumous moral boost. Corbyn called for honesty about the ‘connections’ between ‘wars our government has supported or fought

Steerpike

What slim majority? Nick Clegg heads to Hay Festival

With a slim majority of just over 2,000 to defend, Nick Clegg has his work cut out holding onto Sheffield Hallam in next month’s snap election. So, with less than two weeks to go until polling day, surely the Liberal Democrat is busying himself campaigning locally? Well, perhaps not. Mr S was curious to discover that the former deputy prime minister is spending the day over 150 miles away in Hay-on-Wye — where he will speak at the Hay Festival. Flogging his book ‘Between the Extremes’, Clegg will lift the lid on his time in government: Given that the Lib Dems have rarely looked further away from government than they do now,

Nick Hilton

Nothing hurts Jeremy Corbyn more than being right

With Labour closing the gap on the Tories in the polls, it was only a matter of time before an act of self-immolation returned them to square one. This morning, Corbyn gave a speech in which he drew a link between British foreign policy and terrorist attacks on home soil. This will surely go down like a lead balloon with the party’s working-class base, particularly in the north of England which is still reeling from their worst terror attack in modern history. But in London and the home counties, there might be whispered recognition of the fact that Corbyn is, essentially, right, even if he’s wrong to say it. It seems

Ross Clark

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech is a trap for the Tories

The most dangerous thing about Jeremy Corbyn’s speech today, blaming terror attacks in Britain on wars we have fought abroad, is that it is partly true. The temptation for the Conservatives will be to show outrage at the words: ‘Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home’ and to accuse Corbyn of exploiting the Manchester bombing for his own political gain. But they would be extremely foolish to do so because they will be unable to argue away the assertion that British military involvement in the Middle

Fraser Nelson

Could Theresa May blow this general election?

Until recently, the prospect of Theresa May flopping in this general election would have been absurd – but today’s YouGov poll shows her lead cut to just five points, less than a quarter of its peak. Converted into seats, that would mean a majority of just two MPs, down from the 17-strong majority achieved by David Cameron against Ed Miliband. At a time when the extraordinary is happening all the time, it is impossible to dismiss this opinion poll. The public like her style, but her shambolic U-turn over the so-called ‘dementia tax’ has given everyone cause to doubt whether she is as ‘strong and stable’ as she says she

The Spectator

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on terrorism, full transcript

Our whole nation has been united in shock and grief this week as a night out at a concert ended in horrific terror and the brutal slaughter of innocent people enjoying themselves. When I stood on Albert Square at the vigil in Manchester, there was a mood of unwavering defiance. The very act of thousands of people coming together sent a powerful message of solidarity and love. It was a profound human impulse to stand together, caring and strong. It was inspiring. In the past few days, we have all perhaps thought a bit more about our country, our communities and our people. The people we have lost to atrocious violence or who