Politics

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

Monday

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Sadiq Khan’s victory has caused a Great Smug to settle over London

London is going through one of its periodic fits of smugness right now, for which the only real parallel is the US after the election of Barack Obama first time round. I refer, obviously, to the election of Sadiq Khan as the first Muslim mayor of a major European capital. ‘Doesn’t it do us proud?’ one of my friends observed. A nice young colleague told us she had wept – wept – twice in the course of the weekend. ‘He took a bus to City Hall,’ she marvelled. ‘It was a victory over bigotry,’ another friend observed, the bigotry obviously being Zac Goldsmith’s campaign, for raising the whole Islamic extremism

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How much of a threat will Sadiq Khan be to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership?

Sadiq Khan starts his first day as Mayor today, and has spent more of his weekend distancing himself from Jeremy Corbyn than he has been talking about London. He made a series of pointed references to the need for his party to win elections and that ‘we only do that by speaking to those people who previously haven’t voted Labour’. And the Labour leader didn’t attend Khan’s swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral due to ‘capacity problems’, which is probably an excuse those in charge of seating in the Cathedral don’t hear that often. It is clear that Khan doesn’t think there is much merit in appearing close to Corbyn in

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: Boris vs Dave

With the May elections over, the EU referendum campaign is now in full swing. David Cameron started the day warning that Brexit could put peace in Europe at risk. In his speech at the British Museum this morning, the PM also asked whether leaving the EU was a risk worth taking. Here’s what he said: Boris hit back by making his case for voting out, saying that negotiating on behalf of the EU is like ‘trying to ride a vast 28-man pantomime horse’: He also sung ‘Ode to Joy’ in German: And Boris even appeared to forget the name of the city which, until a few days ago, he was

Mark Nayler

Was Spain’s ‘new political era’ just a mirage?

More than four months on from Spain’s December general election, optimism has given way to fatigue and cynicism among the electorate. Coalition negotiations between leading parties have failed, and a repeat election will now be held in Spain on 26 June, a few days after Britain’s EU referendum. But there is little enthusiasm for this second-take. Many Spaniards are now saying they will register disappointment with their politicians by abstaining. And what of the supposed new breed of Spanish politician represented by Albert Rivera, the leader of Ciudadanos (‘Citizens’) and Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos (‘We Can’)? They were meant to have ushered in a ‘new political era’ but the farcical, self-centred nature of the

Steerpike Steerpike

Dr Éoin Clarke’s Shadow Cabinet reshuffle fails to materialise

Of all of Labour’s dubious cheerleaders, none is more prolific on Twitter than Dr Éoin Clarke. The clip art-loving activist — who has a PhD in Irish feminism — managed to spend the majority of the general election campaign, and subsequent Labour leadership election, creating photoshops. While both Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham’s team were at first amused by the doodles, Burnham later took steps to distance himself  — clarifying that the photoshops were not ‘official campaign material’. Now it appears that Clarke is out in the cold when it comes to the Labour party. Back in December when reports of Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘revenge reshuffle’ were doing the rounds, Clarke declared online that

Douglas Murray

Does anybody actually think the EU guarantees ‘peace and stability’?

According to David Cameron this morning, if Britain votes to ‘Leave’ the EU on 23 June, the Germans will invade Belgium, the Russians will invade Crimea (again), and we’ll all have to spend the coming years re-learning the finer details of the Schleswig-Holstein question. The Prime Minister’s latest attempt to warn of apocalypse in the case of Brexit has one huge flaw.  In his latest scare-speech this morning he said: ‘Can we be so sure that peace and stability on our continent are assured beyond any shadow of doubt? Is that a risk worth taking? I would never be so rash as to make that assumption.’ Well nothing is ever

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

David Cameron is now in full ‘Project Fear’ mode

David Cameron’s speech this morning about the EU referendum will succeed in doing one thing: infuriating the hell out of Eurosceptics. The Prime Minister is set to warn that peace and stability could be at risk if Britain walks away from Europe. He’ll also go on to say that the European Union has brought together countries previously ‘at each others’ throats for decades’. In the Project Fear brand, it’s certainly a classic in the genre. But will it work? One of the interesting aspects of his line of argument is the appeal it is likely to have to younger people. Those under the age of 34 are generally much more

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour party relations hit a new low

After Labour’s local election results proved to be less catastrophic than many pundits predicted, John McDonnell told party naysayers it was time to ‘put up or shut up’. The comments went on to anger disgruntled Blairites in Labour who argue the party ought to strive for greater success. Speaking on the Sunday Politics, Caroline Flint appeared to reinforce this point as she said it wasn’t enough for the shadow chancellor to say Labour was looking to ‘hang on’: ‘We need to make a hell of a lot more progress. It’s not enough. We have to show we are a party that is competitively challenging for government. We have to reach out beyond.’ Alas the

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Do our spies really depend on the EU?

Sir John Sawers, an ex-MI6 chief, insisted to Andrew Marr earlier that No10 did not put him up writing today’s article in the Sunday Times saying that Britain needs the EU to ensure its security. I can quite believe it. No10 abandoned this line of argument after the Belgian Airport atrocity, and the subsequent debate which exposed how EU-wide security does not work. We saw, then, that geographical proximity is terrifyingly unrelated to the quality of intelligence collaboration. The French and Belgians were unable to exchange information about terror suspects, in spite of having a common border and common language. If you rely on institutions that don’t work, you put lives

Robert Colville

George Galloway was humiliated in London. Hooray!

It’s rare that an election result leaves you with a sense of giddy, disbelieving glee, but there it was in black and white. Galloway, George, Respect (George Galloway) Party, 37,007 votes. Walker, Sophie, Women’s Equality Party, 53,055 votes. Once you took second preferences into account, Walker and her newly formed feminist movement beat Galloway and his band of Islamists by almost 100,000 votes. This result is so striking, and so perfect, because Galloway is one of those old-fashioned socialists whose attitudes towards gender equality are distinctly retrograde: it is the man’s job to further the revolutionary cause and the woman’s to provide dutiful comradely support. Indeed, while he may not be

Charles Moore Charles Moore

We didn’t have a real choice in the 1975 referendum. We do now

The comparison between the referendum questions — that asked in 1975 and the one which we shall be asked on 23 June — is interesting. In 1975, the question was ‘Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain part of the European Community (Common Market)?’ (Answer: Yes/No). Today, the question will be ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of European Union or leave the European Union?’ (Answer: Remain/Leave). The modern question is the fairer, and it also brings out how things have changed. In 1975, it seemed almost obvious that the answer was ‘yes’: even many who did not like EEC entry could see it was strange to leave only

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

These results have made Labour’s problems worse

As the dust settles on Thursday’s election, it becomes ever clearer that—with the exception of London—these were awful results for Labour. They were bad enough to suggest that the party is on course for a third successive general election defeat. But, as I say in The Sun, not disastrous enough to persuade the Labour membership that they need to dump Corbyn. One Tory Minister remarked to me yesterday, ‘Labour have done well enough to keep Corbyn. I can live with that.’ Before adding, ‘Corbyn’s survival is the single most important thing for 2020’. The result that should worry Labour most, though, is the Scottish one. As the third party of

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Why the FT’s Martin Wolf is wrong about the EU

Last week, I wrote about the fevered state of mind of the Financial Times as British voters threaten to throw off their EU chains. Here is another example. Martin Wolf, usually the best columnist in the paper, wrote a column giving ten reasons to remain. He said: ‘Above all, those promoting departure ignore what the UK’s European partners think about the EU. Their political elites, particularly of Germany and France, regard the preservation of an integrated Europe as their highest national interests. They will want to make clear that departure carries a heavy price, which is likely to include attempts to drive euro-related financial markets out of London.’ Those who

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The housing crisis was Sadiq Khan’s secret weapon

As Isabel Hardman wrote yesterday, many interpret Labour’s failure to fail on a bigger scale in yesterday’s election results as the worst possible result for the party.  Sadiq Khan, who had nominated Corbyn for the leadership, won comfortably in London.  Predicted to lose 150 or more council seats, by midday Labour was down a net 26 seats.    This neither puts them in an encouraging position from which to build towards the 2020 election nor signifies a disaster which might provoke Jeremy’s Corbyn’s defenestration and replacement with a more electable leader. But the Conservatives would be very unwise to take comfort from the results. Instead they should ask themselves why Corbyn’s Labour

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Jemima Khan distances herself from her brother’s mayoral bid: ‘sad that Zac’s campaign did not reflect who I know him to be’

Following Thursday’s elections, Sadiq Khan is on course to be the new mayor of London, with his rival Zac Goldsmith trailing a distant second. With Goldsmith’s campaign billed as ‘racist’ and ‘divisive’ by critics, the Tories will now need to work out who is at fault for his disastrous mayoral bid. However, while Goldsmith could do with all the friends he can get right now, even his own sister is unimpressed with his efforts. As Khan was crowned mayor, Jemima Khan took to Twitter to congratulate the Labour MP: Congratulations to @sadiqkhan-1st Muslim Mayor of London- a city for all cultures, backgrounds & religions. A great example to young Muslims — Jemima Goldsmith (@Jemima_Khan) May 6, 2016

Stephen Robinson

I’m not surprised Zac Goldsmith lost – his campaign was a catastrophe

Zac Goldsmith has spent much of the past few weeks telling us that the London mayoral vote ‘will be very close’. But it wasn’t, in the end: he lost by a fairly large margin. Some political campaigns are failures; others are simply tragedies, and Zac Goldsmith’s falls into the latter category. As I found out when I spent some time on the campaign trail with him. The candidate himself is an amiable enough soul, though his thin CV and past business failures scarcely qualify him to stand up as the candidate of enterprise against what he classes as the ‘divisive’ figure of Sadiq Khan. Khan seems dim and slippery and could have been beaten

Toby Young Toby Young

Zac Goldsmith has nothing to be ashamed of

It’s disappointing to see how many Tories are buying into Labour’s spin about Zac Goldsmith having fought a ‘dog whistle’ campaign and – even more ludicrously – blaming that for his defeat. Any Conservative candidate faced an uphill struggle getting elected in London, one of the only areas in the country where Labour did better in 2015 than it did in 2010. Even Boris, who has a rare ability to appeal to Labour voters, only beat Ken Livingstone in 2012 by 62,538 votes. The first prominent Conservative to peddle this theory was London Assembly member Andrew Boff, who appeared on Newsnight to accuse Goldsmith of equating ‘people of conservative religious

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Sadiq Khan wins the London mayoral race

Sadiq Khan is the new Mayor of London. After what seemed like an eternal wait, withs second preferences counted, he claimed 57pc of the vote to Zac Goldsmith’s 43pc – a comfortable margin of 14pc. So after eight years of Tory control, Labour has retaken City Hall.  Khan’s result is Labour’s best of this election cycle. He has won a decisive victory in a contest which has seen turnout go up, and by a wider margin than Boris’s 2012 victory. There’ll be much criticism of Goldsmith’s campaign in the next few days, but it is worth noting just how relentless Khan was. He hit his key messages endlessly, never missing an opportunity

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Government drops plans to force all schools to become academies

It’s a good day for the Conservatives to bury bad news, when all attention is on Labour and the SNP’s election performances. So that must be why in the past few minutes Nicky Morgan has announced she is U-turning on the government’s plans to force all schools in England to become academies. The Education Secretary will no longer force good schools to change their structure, but will instead focus on selling the benefits of academies within the education community. This is a significant shift. In reality, it is all the government could do as there were too many Tory MPs opposed to the plans as set out in the White

Steerpike Steerpike

George Galloway’s battle bus lives on to fight another day

With George Galloway predicted to have won roughly one per cent of the vote in the London mayoral election, his dream of becoming Mayor is fading fast. So, barring a drastic recount, the next question to ask is: what will become of his battle bus? Barely a day has gone by in the campaign when Galloway has not been spotted in the bright blue bus touring the streets of London. Happily, Steerpike understands that Londoners can expect to see more of the Respect politician and his vehicle. Rather than return the vehicle, Mr S hears that Galloway now owns the bus and plans to paint it as he requires for his