Politics

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

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Is Theresa May really threatening to deport Europeans?

Does Theresa May really understand Brexit? Speaking to Robert Peston today, the Home Secretary seemed to be entertaining the idea of deporting European nationals staying in Britain. Or, almost as bad, using them as collateral in some negotiation with Brussels: a deeply worrying and, to me, revolting suggestion. But coming from the Home Secretary, we have no choice but to take it seriously. Robert Peston: Now, there’s a lot of anxiety among migrants who’ve come here from the rest of the EU about whether they’ll be allowed to stay. There’s also quite a lot of anxiety among Brits living in the rest of Europe. What would you say to them? May: What

Theresa May

Full transcript: Theresa May, Peston on Sunday

Robert Peston: Now it’s time for our big interview and I’m absolutely delighted to be joined by the Home Secretary and leadership frontrunner Theresa May. Very good to see you. Theresa May: Good to see you Robert. Peston: Home Secretary, there’s a lot of talk this morning that you’re streets ahead of the other candidates. If, in the course of the early rounds of this election, it was clear that you had the overwhelming support of MPs, and the whips came to you and said ‘Look, what we would like is a coronation – just one name going forward to Tory members rather than a contest of two, what would

Douglas Murray

It’s time for our warring politicians to wake up to what really matters

Well I might as well say publicly what I’ve been saying to everyone who will listen privately for the last week. It seems to me that our country will regret the distraction and levity we have shown this past week. For those who campaigned to leave the EU, June 24th was not an opportunity to take a break but the start of the real work. Of course it remains astonishing that having lost the vote the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer chose to go into hiding and abandon the country they were in place to serve. But it is also unforgiveable that having won the campaign those who

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Brexit test

Stephen Crabb made a passionate plea this morning for Tories to stop thinking in terms of Remain and Leave when it comes to picking a leader. He warned that if people carry on doing this, it will lead to the party splitting. But all things being equal, I do think it would be best for the next Prime Minister to be a Leaver. After all, David Cameron resigned because he had campaigned for Remain and the country had voted to leave and he thought that made it impossible for him to chart the country on the new course it must now follow. There are two main reasons for thinking a

George Eustice

Why I am supporting Michael Gove

Eleven years ago, I was one of the small handful of people working to make David Cameron the next Leader of the Conservative Party. In the early days, the media joked that you could fit all of us into a London Taxi. Our team included both Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. David Cameron won in 2005 because he had worked out what the country really needed after Tony Blair. In power, his patience and pragmatism made coalition with the Lib Dems work. I wish he had stayed after the referendum. He did not need to resign. He could have shared power with a negotiating team and converted defeat in the

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What Liam Fox’s unlikely leadership bid tells us about the Tories

There’s much speculation about who will be the two MPs chosen by the Tory party to fight it out for leader, but there is less dispute about the candidate who looks set to get knocked out on Tuesday when voting actually starts on Tuesday. Barring an unlikely surge of support from fellow Tory MPs, Liam Fox’s backers so far are not going to be sufficient for his candidacy to survive the week. So why is he running? Here’s what he had to say to that question on Sunday Politics today: ‘If you remember back to 2005, they were all wrong then. But let’s leave that aside on the arithmetic. The

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Femocracy – welcome to the benign new world of female governance

Call it femocracy or gynocracy (my preference), or, a new age of women, as Justine Greening has it, the excited consensus is that we’re in for a benign new world of female governance. Hillary in the US, Theresa May over here, Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland, Angela Merkel in Germany…what could be more lovely? Except possibly the addition of Marine Le Pen at the helm in France, though oddly enough feminists rarely bring her into the new scheme of things… she’s up there with Sarah Palin as an female unmentionable. Oh and let’s not forget Angela Eagle as potential Labour leader, whose tearfulness as she knifed Jeremy Corbyn

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove’s leadership pitch: the brutal man of principle

Every candidate comes into a leadership contest needing to answer questions about their flaws and experience. But the questions that Michael Gove is having to answer about his own bid are of altogether a different order. The Justice Secretary spent the first chunk of his interview with Andrew Marr this morning having to explain not just why he decided to chuck Boris Johnson, but also why he did it in such a brutal way. “You are our Frank Underwood” Andrew to @Gove2016 @HouseofCards #marr https://t.co/9Qv9NUIIi5— The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) July 3, 2016 Marr repeatedly pressed him, not so much for his reasons for turning on the Mayor, but for an

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Andrea Leadsom’s scratchy job interview on the Marr show

Is Andrea Leadsom a serious contender to become Prime Minister? A few days ago, she was almost about to sign up to Team Boris, and even held talks with Team Crabb & Javid. Which made sense: she has been in parliament for just six years, and has been a junior minister for an even shorter time. But to those Tories unable to forgive Michael Gove for knifing Boris, she is the only viable Brexit candidate. Until Leadson turned up on the Brexit debates, she was virtually unknown. Now, we’re being asked to assess her as a Prime Minister. Her appearance on the Marr show today was a chance to do that: it as a job interview,

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

The march against democracy – have we hit peak Remania?

So 17 million people vote to take Britain out of the European Union  – but 40,000 of the Remainers took to the streets of London today to protest. We heard the voices of Britain’s growing anti-democratic movement: those who believe that Brexit was the result of consulting voters who were confused, malign, northern – or all three. Who, the Bremain protesters seemed to ask, are these people? Where the hell is Dunstable? Why do we Londoners allow them them vote? Every revolution has its reactionaries, and they were on the march today. Mr S was reassured to see the well-heeled crowd mocking themselves, with placards referencing 80s and 90s pop songs (“Never gonna give

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

In praise of Stephen Crabb and Sajid Javid

Stephen Crabb has a 3pc chance of winning the Conservative leadership, according to to the bookmakers. Yes, the same ones who said there was a 10pc chance of David Cameron winning a majority and a 7pc chance of Brexit. The seemingly impossible is happening all the time in politics. The obstacles to his joint bid with Sajid Javid are obvious: lack of government experience, lack of MPs’ support (he has 21 so far) and having supported Remain. This is the type of leadership bid aimed at putting down a marker. But for those who believe that this race ought to be as much about ideas as personalities, it’s worth considering

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Michael Gove is going to lose, and lose badly

There is a slap Michael Gove game on the internet, and it’s very popular. All you have to do is slap him in the face. I must admit I was tempted when I read his synthetically pious toss about how he had felt forced to stand as leader, deep sense of regret, false humility leaking out of every pore. I always liked Michael, but he has not behaved terribly well, has he? And now he’s going to lose, heavily. Meanwhile, students are saying they are “too depressed” to take their exams because of the Brexit vote. And – for those of you who are collecting whining Remain idiocies – howzabout

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Senior Tories plotting to bring a quick end to the leadership contest

Officially, we will not have a new leader of the Tory party—and thus a new Prime Minister—until the 9th of September. But there are plans afoot to install a new PM far quicker than that, as I say in The Sun this morning. This scheme would see huge pressure put on whoever is second at the end of the parliamentary rounds to pull out before the election moves to the members’ ballot. This would mean that the leading candidate, most likely to be Theresa May, would have won and could move to Number 10 immediately. There is a view that it would be easier for a Remainer to drop out,

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: The Tory leadership contest turns nasty | 2 July 2016

To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. A week after Britain backed Brexit, politics shows no sign of slowing down. David Cameron has resigned, Michael Gove has pulled out of Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign before launching his own. And Boris has decided not to run in the contest. We now have a final slate of five candidates vying for the top job. In his Spectator cover piece this week, James Forsyth says the Tory party is in a ‘deeply emotional state’. But he also points out that the leadership candidates who

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Knives out for Gove: Tory MP threatens the Justice Secretary’s manhood

Although Mr S is running his own Michael Gove inspired Game of Thrones competition for readers, the Justice Secretary’s colleagues also can’t seem to resist sticking the knife-in when it comes to picking which machiavellian character Gove best resembles. After Gove turned on his former ally Boris Johnson, Ben Wallace, the Conservative MP for Wyre and Preston, has claimed that when it comes to George RR Martin’s fantasy novels, Gove is Theon Greyjoy — or at least will be once Wallace is finished with him. Given that Greyjoy is best known for having his penis cut off, this doesn’t bode overly well for Gove. he is actually Theon Greyjoy or will be by the time I am

Kate Maltby Kate Maltby

Forget the fighting. We’re entering a period of unparalleled opportunity for the Tories

Auf wiedersehen, Boris. He’ll be back, like a blond, bloated Voldemort inhabiting another life form – Top Gear host? Archbishop of York? Or endless BBC camping tours of Britain on a bike, the Portillo of the Portacabin? As Boris’ agent collects the offers – and his publishers are still owed a Shakespeare biography by the end of this anniversary year – he leaves behind him a Conservative Party scarred but resilient. There’ll be recriminations this week. Yet there’ll also be enduring relief, as one of Britain’s oldest institutions finds itself finally free of wrangling Etonians, chaps whose Brobdingnagian entitlement so undermined the gospel of One Nation inclusivity that both presumed

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why Labour has gone eerily quiet – and what happens next

Labour has gone oddly quiet today, and that’s not just because the party is enjoying the mayhem in the Conservative leadership contest. After a very well-organised week of resignations, the rebels have now decided to sit back and wait for Jeremy Corbyn to come to terms with what the party he leads now looks like. The leader today appointed Angela Rayner as Shadow Education Secretary, which was a matter of necessity as it is Education Questions in the Commons on Monday, and the party didn’t have anyone to face Nicky Morgan. But the Labour frontbench generally looks like a Swiss cheese after the mice have been at it. There are

Steerpike Steerpike

Sadiq Khan puts Boris’s three ‘nearly new’ water cannons up for sale

With Boris Johnson’s hopes of making it into Number 10 dashed, the former Mayor of London is now on a damage limitation exercise with the focus on retaining his dignity. Bruised from Theresa May’s dig yesterday that his EU negotiation experience amounts to his controversial purchase of three ‘nearly new’ water cannons, it’s safe to say that Johnson would now like that particular purchase in the past. Alas Johnson can expect to hear much more about the water cannons in the coming weeks. Johnson’s successor Sadiq Khan has decided now is the right time to try and sell the cannons — pointing to the fact that they have never been used thanks to May deeming them

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

George Osborne admits he’ll miss his own surplus target

Finally George Osborne has seen an upside to Britain voting to leave the European Union. The Chancellor used this morning to abandon another one of his own economic targets, blaming it on Brexit. He has long been warned by experts such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies that he is likely to fail to deliver a £10bn surplus on the public finances by 2020, and today he admitted as much. The Chancellor said: ‘Now, as the governor of the Bank of England said yesterday, the referendum result is as expected likely to lead to a significant negative shock for the British economy. How we respond will determine the impact on

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Andrea Leadsom overtakes Michael Gove to become second favourite in Tory leadership race

As Michael Gove finished speaking, the bookmakers have reported that Andrea Leadsom has overtaken the Justice Secretary when it comes to betting on who will be the next Tory leader. Theresa May remains the favourite at 1/3, with Leadsom at 7/2 and Gove at 12/1. Now of course the bookies are not clairvoyants and can get elections—and referendums—very wrong indeed. But these odds reflect the mood in the Tory party, which is currently registering a sense of disbelief that Michael Gove could do something like this. Many senior figures believe that the way he has turned on Boris Johnson is beyond the pale, and are preparing to back Andrea Leadsom,