Politics

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

Sunday

Philip Collins

What Jeremy Corbyn can learn from Clement Attlee

History teaches no lessons but we insist on trying to learn from it. There is no political party more sentimental than the Labour party. The stone monument of Labour history is Clement Attlee’s 1945–51 administration, so any biography of the great man is, inevitably, an intervention into the present state of the party, even if it comes supported with all the best scholarly apparatus. The last major biography of Attlee was Kenneth Harris’s official work, more than 30 years ago, in 1982. There is a neat symmetry to the fact that Harris was writing during the last occasion that the Labour party decided to join hands and walk off a

Saturday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour women attack Theresa May as ‘no sister’. How very un-feminist.

The Labour Party is in a sour mood at present, that much we already know. Usually, most of the sourness expressed by MPs is directed at their own party comrades. But this afternoon, at the Labour Women’s Conference, speaker after speaker decided to turn fire on Theresa May. Angela Rayner congratulated her on being the second female Prime Minister of this country, but said ‘I cannot celebrate her arrival’. Kezia Dugdale attacked both May and Nicola Sturgeon for not being real feminists, saying: ‘Look at Theresa May – she has the audacity to wear a ‘this is what a feminist looks like’ T-shirt. She could wear it at the dispatch

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Now Corbyn has triumphed, Labour’s real civil war begins

Jeremy Corbyn has never been in a stronger position as Labour leader than he is today. A leadership contest that was meant to topple—or at the least, weaken him—has ended up solidifying his position. His Labour critics came for him, and he defeated them. He garnered 61.8 percent of the vote in this leadership contest, even more than he received last year. He won a majority among full members, something he just failed to do in the first round last time. He can, justifiably, say that the Labour membership have seen the leadership he is offering, and voted for more of it. Corbyn might have said, to his critics, ‘let’s

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Goodbye Labour. For the life of me, I cannot see how you can recover

Those of us on the left can all too easily imagine how our political rivals felt when watching Jeremy Corbyn’s latest victory speech. English Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists do not wake at 3 a.m., drenched in sweat, worrying about how they can defeat him. Like a drunk who punches his own face, Corbyn beats himself, leaving Labour’s rivals free to do what they will. For English leftists, however, trying to salvage what they can from the wreckage of their party, the apparently simple question of how to take on the far left appears impossible to answer. Commentators throw around the ‘far left’ label without stopping to ask what it means. You begin

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership again, with a stronger majority

As expected, Jeremy Corbyn has just beaten Owen Smith in the Labour leadership race with 62pc of the vote, higher last year’s 60pc. So this means he has redoubled his authority – and probably his reach within the structures of the party as moderate members shrug their shoulders and give up. ‘Let’s wipe the slate clean from today,’ he said in his victory speech – something intended to sound emollient, but could have just as easily sounded like a threat. Isabel Hardman and Marcus Roberts discuss Corbyn’s victory on Coffee House shots Overall Corbyn beat Smith in every category, receiving 313,209 votes while his rival amassed just 193,229. Among members, Owen Smith received his highest

James Forsyth James Forsyth

This Labour leadership contest has represented an intellectual surrender to Corbynism

The Labour leadership result isn’t announced until 11.45am today. But whatever the result—and no one seems in much doubt what it will be, this contest has represented an intellectual surrender to Jeremy Corbyn and the ideology he represents. Isabel Hardman and Marcus Roberts discuss Corbyn’s victory on Coffee House shots I argue in The Sun this morning, that his opponents surrendered right at the start of the contest. Owen Smith was offered up as a more competent and media savvy leader rather than as the antidote to Corbynism. Smith himself emphasised that the party owed Corbyn ‘a debt of gratitude for helping Labour rediscover its radical roots’. He stressed, ‘I am

Dan Hitchens

Who is to blame for Brexit?

With Italy facing a referendum that could unseat its president, the EU’s member states in furious conflict over immigration, and Hillary Clinton looking like an increasingly shaky last line of defence, our very own Brexit is being held up as the model of a new, disruptive politics. But its meaning has been debated. For some, Brexit was democracy delivering justice: the West’s ‘first big fightback’, as Nigel Farage said on Sunday, against ‘a metropolitan elite, backed by big business, who’ve just been increasingly getting out of touch with the ordinary voters.’ The counter-narrative is that Brexit was a fake revolution: a coup by fellow-members of the elite who ‘lied to please the mob’. These

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

It’s time for Theresa May to answer the airport question

Hinkley Point — for all its flaws and the whiffs of suspicion around its Chinese investors — has finally received Downing Street’s blessing. Meanwhile, ministers hold the party line that High Speed 2 will go ahead according to plan, backed by news that the project has already bought £2 billion worth of land; and investors hunt for shares in the construction sector that might benefit from the multi-billion-pound infrastructure spree widely expected in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s autumn statement. But still no decision on a new airport runway for London — the one piece of digger work, short of tunnelling under the Atlantic, that would signal Britain’s raging post-Brexit appetite for

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Hong Kong offers an exciting vision of a post-Brexit future

Since he moved to Hong Kong three years ago, the Rat’s Cantonese has been coming on apace. This has rather less to do with his language skills — never that much in evidence on his school reports — than it does with the fact that my stepson works in what is still, despite the mainland Chinese’s best efforts, one of the most aggressively free-market cultures in the world. ‘It’s like this,’ Rat explained, when the Fawn and I visited earlier this year. ‘If you want to get a cab somewhere urgent in the morning and you can’t speak good enough Cantonese then basically you’re stuffed. The drivers just swear at

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The V&A’s director is an accidental Bremoaner hero

When I read that Martin Roth, the director of the V&A, was resigning from his job because of Brexit, I sensed it was not quite true. I did not doubt the sincerity of Dr Roth’s views: he has his German generation’s horror of anything which could be presented as ‘nationalism’. It was rather that it did not make sense as a motive for leaving his post. Brexit won’t actually happen until roughly the time when Dr Roth would have left anyway, so it could not have impeded his work. Besides, the collections of the V&A are not at the slightest risk of attack for being ‘decadent’ art under the May

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Cameron’s old chum appointed UK Ambassador to France

Although David Cameron’s political career took a nose dive after the EU referendum result, he has been doing his best to ensure that his old chums don’t too badly out of the situation. Take for example, Ed Llewellyn — Cameron’s former Chief of Staff. As well as being given a peerage in Cameron’s resignation honours, Llewellyn has been appointed her Majesty’s Ambassador to France. While it had been previously reported that Cameron was lining up his mate for the plum job, the news has been confirmed today with a statement from Boris Johnson: ‘Ed Llewellyn is hugely well qualified for this post and I look forward to working with him. He

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne warns that he won’t ‘fumble’ his next leadership bid

Well, that didn’t take long. George Osborne has had dinner with the FT and the write-up shows him as ambitious as ever. Having never held down a job outside of politics, the former Chancellor isn’t looking for one now. ‘I am not going anywhere,’ he said, ‘I want to see what happens next.’ It seems he is angling for Christine Lagarde’s job at the IMF, but the most striking quote is about his leadership ambitions: ‘Asked about a possible return to the front line, Mr Osborne adopted — with a twist — a phrase used by Mr Johnson in 2013 to deflect questions about his prime ministerial intentions: ‘If the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What will Labour MPs do once Jeremy Corbyn is re-elected?

Tomorrow just before noon, Jeremy Corbyn is set to be crowned leader of the Labour party for a second time, possibly, according to insiders, with an even bigger mandate than the one he’s spent the past year waving at his own party. And after months of resignations, fighting, and a leadership contest where the challenger failed to capture the Labour membership’s imagination, Labour MPs are considering what they should do now. Their options are as follows: 1. Leave the party, either by defecting to another or setting themselves up as an independent Labour MP on the benches in the Commons. There is no suggestion that any MP is seriously considering

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Jim O’Neill’s decision to quit gives Theresa May something of a headache

Jim O’Neill, who was somehow overlooked in Theresa May’s purge of the Osbornites, has become the first person to resign from her Government. A few weeks ago, the former Goldman Sachs chairman said he wanted assurances that she remained committed to the Northern Powerhouse agenda. It seems that no such undertakings were received. In his somewhat terse letter this morning, he had this to say: ‘I primarily joined however for the specific purpose of helping deliver the Northern Powerhouse, and to help boost our economic ties with key growing economies around the world, especially China and India and other rapidly emerging economies. The case for both to be at the heart of British economic

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Is Boris worrying that Brexit will never happen?

Theresa May has made one thing clear: Brexit mean Brexit. But when will the Prime Minister actually pull the trigger and invoke Article 50? Boris Johnson gave his take last night: ‘The Government is working towards an Article 50 letter which as you know will be produced, probably, in the early part of next year. That’s still subject for discussion but what is clear I think to our friends and partners in the EU is two broad principles: we are not leaving Europe; Although we are leaving the EU treaties, we do want to have the closest possible trading relationship and it’s very much in their interests to achieve that…

Thursday

Tristram Hunt

Diary – 22 September 2016

‘Are you here to seek political asylum?’ asked a clever young student after my lecture at the National University of Singapore. It has certainly not been a great start to the political year: the Boundary Commission abolished my constituency and Jeremy Corbyn’s office declared me a ‘non-person’ by placing me on a list of 13 undesirable MPs deemed to have insulted the Dear Leader. In many ways, Singapore felt a good place to be. Here the role of the Workers’ party is not really to challenge the ruling People’s Action party for power: they play the part of perpetual opposition. Which is eerily close to where Labour is heading. The

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 22 September 2016

When I read that Martin Roth, the director of the V&A, was resigning from his job because of Brexit, I sensed it was not quite true. I did not doubt the sincerity of Dr Roth’s views: he has his German generation’s horror of anything which could be presented as ‘nationalism’. It was rather that it did not make sense as a motive for leaving his post. Brexit won’t actually happen until roughly the time when Dr Roth would have left anyway, so it could not have impeded his work. Besides, the collections of the V&A are not at the slightest risk of attack for being ‘decadent’ art under the May

Tim Connolly

Corbyn’s NHS plans reveal why Labour is doomed

The NHS was the defining issue of the Labour leadership campaign because both candidates knew it had the power to get their supporters fired-up. But only Jeremy Corbyn wilfully ignores the differences between his supporters and the wider electorate. His post-election flagship policy, after all, is the removal of private sector involvement in the NHS. And with the thoughtful, dispassionate hand of shadow health secretary Diane Abbott grasping the rudder, Labour’s course appears well and truly set. Unfortunately for the dwindling part of the Labour party still keen on governing, voters – as opposed to Labour activists – don’t actually tend to care whether they are looked after by the

Ian Katz

Victory of the swashbucklers

On 14 June, a short email popped up in the inboxes of all Financial Times editorial staff. It came from the paper’s style guru and announced tersely: ‘The out campaigners should be Brexiters, not Brexiteers.’ As usual for the FT’s style pronouncements, the memo did not lay out the reasoning behind the decision, but it followed a discussion among editors over whether the word ‘Brexiteer’ had connotations of swashbuckling adventure. Much has been said and written about the power of the Leave campaign’s simple and disciplined messaging. Both sides agree that the Remain camp never found a slogan with the clarity and muscular appeal of ‘Take Back Control’ — a

Alexander Chancellor

Michael Gove wants to add me to his professional network

The publication of private emails by Colin Powell has spread panic in Washington. Now nobody feels safe. Some prominent people have even deleted their entire email accounts, fearing that their private messages will be hacked and revealed to the world. It hasn’t been the leaking of official secrets of the kind associated with WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden that has caused the present alarm; it has been the exposure of the ordinary gossip on which Washington thrives. Powell, a former secretary of state, always seemed a cautious, buttoned-up kind of public servant, but he turns out to be just as uninhibited as anyone else, calling Donald Trump a ‘national disgrace’, Hillary