Politics

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

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tom Watson dumps all over David Cameron’s EU renegotiation deal

Tom Watson’s comments today that a future government would have to try to reform freedom of movement rules in the European Union are clearly a last-ditch attempt to show the party’s voters that it is taking their anger about immigration seriously. But they are also strange, for three reasons. The first is that it is strange to be talking about a future renegotiation when the Remain campaign does still occasionally try to persuade voters that they are voting to stay in a reformed European Union. By talking about what more needs to be done, Watson is effectively dumping all over the renegotiation that David Cameron has already carried out, saying that

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Coffee House shots: Brexit builds momentum, but can ‘Remain’ fight back?

Brexit has continued to build momentum in the EU referendum race with successive polls putting ‘Leave’ ahead. So with nine days to go, is there anything ‘Remain’ can do to fight back? On this special daily edition of our Spectator Coffee House shots podcast, Fraser Nelson joins Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth to discuss today’s events as the countdown to June 23rd gets ever closer. James Forsyth says the polls in recent days ‘are triggering levels of panic that are even greater than the levels of panic in the final days of the Scottish referendum’. And Fraser Nelson says it’s difficult to see what ‘Remain’ can do to regain the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Chuka Umunna turns on Ken Livingstone at anti-Semitism hearing: ‘you’ll be remembered as a pin-up for prejudice’

It’s been over a month since Ken Livingstone found himself suspended from the Labour party over his claim that Hitler was a supporter of Zionism. Today the former Mayor of London was forced to face the music over his comments at the Home Affairs select committee on anti-Semitism. Although Livingstone has experienced a fall from grace since the comments, he was in a cheerful mood at the hearing. When he wasn’t pitching for his own BBC history show on Nazi Germany — ‘I’d be delighted to do it’ — he was filling MPs in on all the ‘well-educated’ Jews who had stopped him in the street of late to offer their sympathies. ‘The number of Jews

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

‘Remain’ dodges a hammer blow from the European Court of Justice

‘Remain’ might be trailing in the polls, but the campaign can at least be grateful they haven’t been dealt another hammer blow by the European Court of Justice today. The European Commission had tried to claim that the UK Government was wrong to check whether those getting child benefits were allowed to live in the country before paying out. But thankfully for ‘Remain’, the ECJ ruled that it was legal to hold back money for unemployed EU migrants who were not allowed to be here. The good news for ‘Remain’ is that the decision didn’t go the other way. Given how momentum has increasingly shifted towards ‘Leave’, particularly after yesterday

Charlotte Gill

These celebrity lectures about Brexit are the absolute pits

Is there anything worse than celebrities lecturing us on Brexit? Tourists that walk slowly along Oxford Street, you say, or people who don’t get their money ready in a queue. Both reasonable contenders. Still, it’s tough to beat snivelling, sanctimonious stars. And haven’t we had a lot of them as 23 June draws closer. They love telling us what to do, whether it’s voting remain – or remain. Today’s latest offenders are Vivienne – frack off – Westwood, Lily Cole and Keira Knightley. They’ve launched a campaign aimed at young people, called #DontFuckMyFuture (because if there’s swearing involved, young people will definitely listen). Each of them takes part in a short video.

Steerpike Steerpike

Owen Jones fails to practise what he preaches on LGBT voices

In the aftermath of the Orlando shootings, Owen Jones appeared on the Sky News paper review on Sunday night to share his thoughts on the terrorist attack which left 49 dead. However, he ended up walking off set live on-air after growing frustrated over the broadcaster’s refusal to describe the shooting as an attack on LGBT people. Since then, Jones has penned a piece for the Guardian calling for the media focus to be on homophobia as the LGBT community try to deal with this attempt at the ‘erasure’ of their people. However, it turns out that Jones isn’t so fussed about the silencing of certain members of the LGBT community. Steerpike understands that

Toby Young Toby Young

Brexit: Facts Not Fear

I’ve made a short film with my friend Roger Bowles about why I’ll be voting Leave on 23 June and why I think you should, too. We’ve focused exclusively on the sovereignty argument, which we think is the most persuasive one. If you’re on the same side as us, please share this with as many people as possible. We’ve called it ‘Brexit: Facts Not Fear’ because we think it’s important that people should be acquainted with as many facts as possible when they cast their vote. Below is a transcript of the film, with links corroborating the facts referred to. Hi. I’m Toby Young, I’m an associate editor of the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Denmark’s former Prime Minister speaks out: Brexit would not lead to Dexit

There has been much speculation that a Brexit could lead to a number of other countries following suit and leaving the EU. Top of that list is Denmark, with Nigel Farage claiming that the country would be the first to leave in a domino effect triggered by Brexit. Now Denmark’s former Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has waded into the discussion. When asked, at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women event in London, whether Denmark would leave the EU if Britain did, Thorning-Schmidt poured cold water on the suggestion. The former Social Democrat politician, who is the current chief exec of Save the Children, says the majority of Danes want to remain in the EU

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Pro-Leave Tories are storing up trouble for their party with spending pledges

The Leave campaign is doing well at the moment: taking a lead in the polls and spooking the government no end. But is it getting rather carried away with its success? This morning on the Today programme Priti Patel gave a rather awkward interview about the campaign’s spending priorities in the event of a Brexit that made it sound rather as though Brexiteers were one party with a manifesto for domestic policy, rather than a cross-party campaign group pushing for one thing, which is for Britain to leave the European Union. https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/priti-patel-discusses-the-leave-campaigns-eu-spending-promise The Employment Minister told Mishal Husain that ‘we have said that we would spend British taxpayers’ money on

Steerpike Steerpike

Listen: Priti Patel’s robotic turn on Today – ‘let me be clear!’

Oh dear. Although Leave are currently speeding ahead of Remain in the polls, now is not the time for the Out campaign to rest on their laurels. Alas Priti Patel’s performance on the Today show this morning is unlikely to do them any favours. The work and pensions minister was taken to task by Mishal Husain on the BBC  programme over Vote Leave’s spending promises. When Husain put to Patel that the Out campaign were making spending promises they lacked the authority to see through, a defensive Patel responded by putting in a robotic performance. She repeatedly said ‘let me be clear’ without shining much light on whether money would go where

John O'Neill

Brexit chances surge: live chart of bookmakers’ odds

Two polls putting Leave well clear of Remain – five points according to yesterday’s Guardian/ICM poll, seven points  according to a Times/YouGov poll  – have seen bookies slash their odds on Brexit, implying that it’s more likely than ever before – as shown by the chart above. A few weeks ago, the betting markets thought there was an 18 per cent chance of Leave: now it’s 41 per cent. This does mean the markets think Remain is the more likely outcome, due to the status quo effect: Whatever people tell pollsters, they tend to stick to the devil they know in referenda. The above chart is calculated by taking an average of all bookies’ odds, which

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why Leave is looking so comfortable in the EU referendum

We are definitely now in squeaky bum territory in the EU referendum. Leave has a seven point lead in today’s Times/YouGov poll, while yesterday the Guardian/ICM poll put Leave six points ahead. Meanwhile the Sun has splashed on its backing for Leave. It isn’t a huge surprise that the Sun is supporting Britain leaving the European Union, given the stance it has taken in its leading articles over the past few months. But the newspaper still clearly sees that there is momentum behind Brexit, and that it will not look foolish or out of touch with its readers in supporting it. And that is what should worry David Cameron. John Curtice

Monday

Ismene Brown

The Royal Ballet and Sadler’s Wells explain how Brexit will hurt dance

What would Brexit mean to dance? Many big hitters in dance were among the 300-plus arts people who signed last month’s public letter urging the UK to remain in the EU: the Royal Ballet’s director Kevin O’Hare, choreographer Akram Khan, Sadler’s Wells chief Alistair Spalding and Sir Matthew Bourne among them. I’ve asked some of them to spell out exactly would be altered by a Brexit. First, dance structurally depends on maintaining large numbers of permanent employees, whose skills require long-running and continuing group schooling. Both of these givens imply structural costs far beyond those entailed by opera or theatre. Also, as an artform, dance speaks international languages – ballet

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Coffee House shots: It’s Labour day!

There are now only ten days to go until the EU referendum and in a bid to regain momentum, Labour figures from the past and present are this week putting the case forward for staying in the EU. Today, it was Gordon Brown’s turn to try and convince wavering Labour supporters why Britain is better off in the EU. He told his party’s followers that they had the ‘most to gain’ if Britain voted in. But can his message cut through? Or is it just a sign of desperation from the ‘Remain’ campaign to rely on someone like Brown? In a Spectator Coffee House podcast special, Isabel Hardman and James

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

ICM poll shows Leave six points ahead

An ICM poll released this afternoon shows that 53 per cent of voters are backing Brexit compared to 47 per cent who want Britain to stay in the EU. And just ten days to go until the EU referendum. Today’s poll is further evidence in support of momentum towards Leave: an ICM poll two weeks ago gave a four-point lead to Remain. The six point lead for Brexit results from the combined ICM online and phone polls. ‘Leave’ is also enjoying a larger margin when the telephone poll is taken in isolation, with the results from this putting ‘Remain’ five points behind (at 45 per cent of voters, compared to

The Spectator

Join us for a Spectator debate: Should Britain leave the EU?

There’s just over a week to go until the polls open for the EU referendum and Britain decides what it would like its future to look like. The debate has been fierce – and no more so than when The Spectator brought together key figures from both campaigns to make the case for Leave and Remain. The debate sold out in record time – and plenty of people were unable to get tickets. But given the unprecedented demand for more fiery discussion, we are running one final debate. Join us tomorrow evening (Tuesday 14 June) for another blistering Brexit debate. It will be chaired by Andrew Neil – and the speakers

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘It’s war’: The Private Members’ Bill debate heats up

MPs pressing for the reform of backbench bills have declared war on the government after it refused to accept any of the changes that they recommended. Private Members’ Bills are a tedious and unedifying part of Parliament which promise much and disappoint even more. Earlier this year, the Procedure Committee published a report on how they could change, so that members don’t bring poorly-drafted bills with good intentions to the Commons, only for them to die without dignity at the hands of a filibustering backbencher. They are not the hottest issue of the day, but because they are often on things that people care about, such as parking at hospitals,

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Homophobia is now met with the same silence given to anti-Semitism

Rolling news does not give its participants the option of shutting their mouths and biting their tongues, even when shutting and biting are the best available options. Silence is the producer’s greatest fear. The supposedly contrarian presenter has to keep talking. The supposedly tough-minded pundit has to show she is nobody’s fool. Better that than a hushed studio. Last night, Owen Jones of the Guardian made the rather obvious point to Mark Longhurst, a Sky News presenter, and the Telegraph’s Julia Hartley Brewer, that a terrorist who slaughters LGBT people in a gay club hates homosexuality. The biggest single homophobic killing in the West since the fall of the Nazis

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Gordon Brown shows once again he’s learnt nothing from his run-in with Gillian Duffy

Gordon Brown’s intervention in the EU referendum debate was meant to be all about putting forward the positive case for voting ‘Remain’. But not for the first time, the former Prime Minister appears to have fallen flat on his face over immigration. It wasn’t quite as bad as Brown’s Gillian Duffy moment in that he didn’t call anyone ‘bigoted’ for holding a view on migration. Instead, though, the message to those worried about migration was…you’re worrying about the wrong thing. Brown told John Humphrys on Today that: ‘The biggest problem is illegal immigration.’ So the essence of Brown’s message was not to speak to the many Labour voters who genuinely

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Who is to blame for Labour’s lacklustre ‘In’ campaign?

Gordon Brown is busy trying to reset the Remain campaign with a rather leftier tone today. As Tom writes, Labour voters are far less solid in their support for Britain staying in the European Union than the party had hoped, and so the campaign is being handed over to the party so that it can have a proper go at telling its voters that it supports staying in (something not all of them have yet noticed). A group of 20 Labour MPs has also penned a letter pleading for more airtime for Labour voices. It argues: ‘The impact of a leave vote will be catastrophic for the British people. Mainstream