Politics Archives

Monday

22 May 2017

Theresa May forced to defend U-turn in her most difficult interview yet

Today was not a day that Theresa May will want to repeat anytime soon. In the morning, she had to U-turn on one of the centrepieces of her election manifesto and in the afternoon, she faced the most difficult interview she has had as Prime Minister. Theresa May never really got onto the front foot in her half-hour interview with Andrew Neil. She spent the first ten minutes of the interview claiming that the principles behind the Tories’ social care policy hadn’t changed, while Andrew Neil hammered the point that something has: there is now a cap whereas the manifesto had explicitly rejected one. May was also uncomfortable on the

The Spectator

Andrew Neil interviews Theresa May: full transcript

AN: Prime Minister, you started this campaign with a huge double digit lead in the polls, it’s now down to single digits in some polls. What’s gone wrong? PM: Well, Andrew, there’s only one poll that counts in any election campaign, as I’m sure you know from your long experience, and that’s the one that takes place on the 8th June when people have actually cast their votes, where they’ve made that choice, which is a crucial choice. I think this genuinely is the most crucial election I’ve seen in my lifetime, because it’s about getting Brexit negotiations right, getting the right deal for Britain from Europe, and going beyond

James Kirkup

U-turns matter less than journalists think, especially if voters like the result

This is the latest in a series of posts that could be entitled ‘things I could never say when I was a political journalist but now I can.’ Today’s topic: U-turns. The bottom line: they don’t matter, or at least, they don’t matter anywhere near as much as most of the coverage of them suggests. Theresa May has changed her mind on social care. Political Twitter is still, as I type, in the sort of excited spasm that suggests that this is an event that will change EVERYTHING. To some, Mrs May has shattered forever her image as a strong, steady leader. A slightly more sophisticated take suggests that she’s shattered

James Forsyth

Why the ‘dementia tax’ U-turn is such a blow to Theresa May

U-turning on a manifesto commitment just days after it was announced would be embarrassing for any politician. But it is particularly humiliating when your whole campaign is based around the idea that you offer competent, ‘strong and stable’ leadership. But even leaving aside the immediate political repercussions, this U-turn is a deep blow to Theresa May and her team. For the social care policy was totemic of the way she is trying to change the party. She and her team want to make the Tories more concerned about the just managing than the better off and less deferential to property wealth. As the manifesto said, they considered their original proposals,

Steerpike

John Prescott has a change of heart over ‘useless’ Jeremy Corbyn

Just two months ago, John Prescott made the news over some indiscreet comments he made about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Following a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, the former Deputy Prime Minister was reported to have ranted: ‘They are just not up to the f—ing job. They’ve always been useless and now they’re running things.’ He is then said to have rolled his eyes in dismay, adding: ‘F—ing hell.’ But how times have changed. Today Prescott joined Corbyn on the campaign trail as they travelled through East Yorkshire. Happily, Prescott refrained from hitting out at any voters – including Corbyn.

Ross Clark

There’s a fairer way of funding social care. Here’s how

So, the Conservatives have capitulated. After days of facing negative headlines about the ‘dementia tax’ Theresa May has given in and announced that there will, after all, be a cap on care costs faced by an individual. No wonder modern governments find it so hard to eliminate their structural deficits. So loud are the protests when they propose any tax increase or cut in spending that they are doomed to limp along with an ever-greater gap between what they feel compelled to spend and what they are politically able to raise in revenue. Public opinion may be king, but it doesn’t add up to a balanced budget. We’ve heard endlessly

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May forced into ‘dementia tax’ U-turn by Jeremy Corbyn

Theresa May promised ‘the first ever proper plan to pay for – and provide –social care’ in the party’s manifesto. Four days later, that plan has now changed. The Prime Minister has said that there will, after all, be a cap on the amount people have to pay for the cost of their care. So what made May change her mind? Jeremy Corbyn, according to the PM. May said that ‘since my manifesto has been published, my proposals have been subjected to fake claims made by Jeremy Corbyn’. The reaction to the policy, May suggested, meant that the government would ditch the manifesto plan. The Labour leader doesn’t get a lot

Steerpike

Theresa May leaves Damian Green with egg on his face

As is becoming a habit with Theresa May, the Conservatives have today performed a U-turn on their manifesto plans for social care. After unveiling proposals that would mean many would have to pay more for their own social care — up until their assets were 100k or less — there were cross-party complaints about the plans and the Conservatives slumped in the polls. Now the Prime Minister has rowed back on the so-called dementia tax — promising a cap on the amount members of the public would have to pay towards their social care. But if only she’d told, say, the secretary for work and pensions the plans yesterday. On Sunday, Damian Green,

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Is Corbyn’s poll boost the start of a Labour fightback?

Optimistic Labour supporters are greatly cheered by the party’s boost in the polls. Labour has now cut the gap to single figures for the first time during the election campaign, with YouGov putting Labour on 35 per cent to the Tories’ 44 per cent. So is this proof that Corbyn’s policies are going down well with voters? And could talk of a Tory landslide be wildly optimistic? Here’s the newspaper verdict: Jeremy Corbyn ‘loves to portray himself as…a man of peace’, the Daily Mail says. So why does he refuse to condemn the IRA? Asked five times yesterday to do just that, the Labour leader refused, ‘offering nothing but weasel words about being opposed

Sunday

21 May 2017

Steerpike

Nurse who confronted Nicola Sturgeon in TV debate is smeared by SNP

Well, that didn’t take long. When the BBC Scotland leaders’ debate finished, it was clear who the star had been: Claire Austin, a nurse who landed a direct hit on Nicola Sturgeon. She said that she has had to use food banks and that NHS nurses have had seen their pay rising by just 1pc a year for nine of the SNP’s ten years in power. She also asked where all of the money had gone, saying nurses saw none of it on the floor and dared the First Minister to come to visit A&E, or any NHS Scotland ward, to see how bad things are. “You have no idea how demoralising it is to work

Fraser Nelson

The night the audience turned on Nicola Sturgeon

After the agony of the recent ITV opposition leaders’ debate, the Scottish leaders’ debate felt like a much-needed upgrade – in terms of leaders, and debate. Both Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon are better speakers than most MPs, and Kezia Dugdale (Labour leader in Scotland) makes more sense than anyone on Labour’s front bench. In the UK we get ‘strong and stable’ clichés from the Tories, a tragicomedy from Labour and either sex or marijuana from the Liberal Democrats. The BBC Scotland debate, deftly compered by Sarah Smith, felt like proper politics. The debate we should have had in the rest of the UK, but haven’t. It was rowdy. Scots often are. Blows

Melanie McDonagh

A new poll shows there is a good deal of unease with the current abortion law

Really interesting, the new figures about public attitudes to abortion, specifically women’s attitudes, reproduced below and published in the Mail on Sunday today. They suggest a good deal of unease with the current law, an unease I would guess has something to do with advances in pre-natal screening. It’s hard to square a six month cut-off limit for abortions with ubiquitous images of foetuses at 12 weeks looking embarrassingly, palpably, human. They may not be viable – ie capable of surviving outside the womb – but they’re human all right. On the most important issue, the period during which abortion is legal, there’s a large majority – 7 in 10

Matthew Taylor

Sunday political interviews round-up: Corbyn refuses to explicitly condemn the IRA

Jeremy Corbyn – ‘All bombing should be condemned’ Jeremy Corbyn refused on several occasions to explicitly condemn the bombing campaign of the IRA in the 1980s, repeatedly insisting instead that ‘all bombing is wrong’. Asked six times by Sophy Ridge about his stance on the issue, Corbyn appeared reluctant to single out condemnation of the IRA. Instead, he made clear his opposition to all bombing: SR: Time and time again it does appear as though you backed people who opposed the British forces. You were arrested at a demonstration in support of an IRA terrorist in 1986. You were a regular at IRA linked ‘Troops Out rallies’. You didn’t support the

Katy Balls

The drop in the Conservative lead isn’t all bad news for Theresa May

On the surface, today’s front pages don’t make enjoyable reading for the Prime Minister. The Sunday Times leads on a YouGov poll which says the Conservative lead has been slashed to single figures for the first time since last year, while the Mail on Sunday splashes on a Survation poll — claiming the Tory lead has dropped by five points as a result of the ‘dementia tax‘. Now a dip in popularity for the Conservatives isn’t entirely unexpected. It comes after the party revealed a manifesto that could hardly be described as feel-good. Pensioners (at least in England and Wales) were dealt a triple whammy blow on pensions, winter fuel and social

Toby Young

Stupid is as stupid votes | 21 May 2017

John Stuart Mill is usually credited as the person who first called the Conservatives ‘the stupid party’, but that isn’t quite accurate. Rather, he referred to the Tories as the stupidest party, and he didn’t mean that it was more stupid than every other party in the country, just the Liberals. If you substitute the Lib Dems for the Liberal party, that probably isn’t true any more, and it certainly isn’t true if you include Labour in the mix. No, I think there is now a strong case for passing the crown to Jeremy Corbyn’s party. If you look at Labour’s leaders, this is a very recent development. Harold Wilson

Saturday

20 May 2017

Lionel Shriver

Why agonise over things that will never happen?

In attending to Labour’s Free Ice Cream For Everyone manifesto out of ghoulish voyeurism, I violated a personal rule of thumb. Jeremy Corbyn will not be prime minister. This manifesto will not become law. So why agonise over whether renationalising the railways is fully costed? My rule: avoid squandering time on what ‘might’ happen. Half the average newspaper falls into this category. Public speakers promote courses of action that they’re in no position to institute: all talk. The government ‘might’ adopt some policy, about which we never hear again. Were all those ‘promising’ medical studies to have proved out — whose trials on mice ‘might’ have led to miracle cures

Stephen Daisley

Labour knew about Corbyn and the IRA. Now the country knows

The security services are a rum lot. All that intrigue gets to you eventually, and that’s not counting those who sign up with less than laudable intentions. Harold Wilson was paranoid but not necessarily wrong. So when Jeremy Corbyn’s MI5 file finds its way onto the front page of the Daily Telegraph, even those not well-disposed to the Labour leader could be forgiven for arching an eyebrow. Are the spooks spooked by the possibility of Britain’s first Marxist prime minister? For those who came up with Corbyn in 1970s and ‘80s, those heady days of the hard-Left when revolution was ever round the corner, this is obviously the case. Their

William Cook

Populism is making a comeback in Europe, and Austria is leading the way

Last year’s Austrian presidential election looked like a turning point for the European Union. Alexander Van der Bellen, a soft left Eurofederalist (narrowly) defeated Eurosceptic Norbert Hofer, of the hard right Austrian Freedom Party, and Continental Europhiles went into 2017 with fresh hope that they might halt the tidal wave of Brexit, before it engulfed the EU. Sure enough, this year France and Holland have both returned Europhile candidates, and Germany looks set to follow suit. The tide had turned, the pundits said. 2016 had been the high water mark of Populism. 2017 would be the year the EU fought back. However, the tide in Europe may now be about

James Forsyth

Why Theresa May can transform the Tory party

When he was asked what kind of generals he wanted, Napoleon replied ‘lucky ones’. Theresa May certainly fits into that category, as I say in The Sun this morning. In the Tory leadership race her two main rivals, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, destroyed each other leaving her facing Andrea Leadsom who promptly blew herself up. In this election, she is facing a Labour leader who has abandoned both the centre ground and patriotism. Now, May has skilfully exploited these openings—just look at how she is pitching to those abandoned Labour voters. But, perhaps, most relevant for the next five years is how there is no Tory alternative to her.

Friday

19 May 2017

Alex Massie

There’s a palpable desire for a no-nonsense alternative to the SNP – and Ruth Davidson is delivering it

Theresa May came to Scotland today to offer her support to Ruth Davidson. Notionally, the Scottish Tory leader is supposed to support the Prime Minister but in this election, Ruth is a greater asset to the Conservative and Unionist party than Theresa. Today’s YouGov poll for The Times confirms as much. Mrs May has a net approval rating in Scotland of -17; Ms Davidson’s is +10. Two thirds of those voters who endorsed Labour candidates in 2014 think Davidson is doing a good job and so, remarkably, do one in three voters who supported the SNP two years ago. The same poll was interesting precisely because there was nothing startling in