Politics

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

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Coming soon: Emily Thornberry, the disc jockey

Emily Thornberry’s decision to appoint disgraced spinner Damian McBride as her media adviser has upset a number of her constituents. However, the shadow Defence Secretary will be hoping that the expertise McBride can offer will outweigh any negative publicity. So, after Thornberry angered Labour MPs at a meeting of the PLP over Trident and then was left red-faced when Nicholas Soames ridiculed her for asking for his advise on Labour’s defence review, what’s McBride’s plan of action? It seems he is planning to shift the narrative by focussing on Thornberry’s musical prowess. Steerpike understands that Lady Nugee will appear at tonight’s LGBT fundraiser at the Vauxhall Tavern for Sadiq Khan’s mayoral campaign —

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: Why won’t Corbyn address the Tory EU divide?

David Cameron coasted through another PMQs today. Jeremy Corbyn asked about childcare but his questions were too long and unfocused to trouble the Prime Minister. It does seem odd that Corbyn doesn’t even dare approach the Tory split over the EU. He could surely have made something of IDS calling the government’s paper on the alternatives to EU membership a ‘dodgy dossier’? David Davis asked Cameron, after Bernard Jenkin failed to turn up, whether he would get the HMRC to publish its figures showing how many NI numbers issued to EU nationals are active. This would show whether the official immigration figures are significantly undercounting the number of EU migrants

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What is the point of the government’s dodgy EU dossier?

Ministers are today publishing a document that is already being rubbished as a ‘dodgy dossier’ about the options for Brexit. The report, which comes out later, concludes, funnily enough, that all of the alternatives to EU membership would leave Britain ‘weaker, less safe and worse off’ and that ‘no alternative model guarantees that British businesses would have access to Europe’s free trade Single Market, that working people’s jobs would be safe and by how much prices would rise’. Iain Duncan Smith has been sent out to rubbish it, saying: ‘This dodgy dossier won’t fool anyone, and is proof that Remain are in denial about the risks of remaining in a

Steerpike Steerpike

Chris Bryant brings Blair into the Brexit debate. What will Corbyn say?

Under Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour party has been rather quiet when it comes to fighting for Britain to remain in the EU. Happily, Chris Bryant got the chance to put the pro-EU argument forward at last night’s Great Brexit debate, organised by the University of London Brexit Society. Sitting on a panel alongside SNP MP Stephen Gethins, Bryant did his best to convince the pro-Brexit speakers — who included Jacob Rees Mogg and Peter Lilley — and audience members why they ought to reconsider their position. To highlight the ‘confusion’ surrounding the referendum, Bryant kicked things off with an anecdote about a former Labour leader who has gone out of fashion of late. ‘I’m going to

Tuesday

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Sir Jeremy Heywood strikes a delicate balance over Brexit papers ban

It was perhaps rather optimistic to hope that the row over Eurosceptic ministers being banned from seeing official papers in the lead-up to the EU referendum would be cleared up in one select committee session alone. But Sir Jeremy Heywood’s appearance in front of MPs did manage to demystify some of the confusion over what will and won’t be handed over to pro-Brexit ministers. The cabinet secretary and head of the civil service said those wanting out of the EU will get access to ‘all the facts that have been provided to Number Ten’. Bernard Jenkin seemed happy with proceedings at least, saying at the end: ‘We have successfully cleared

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How Tory MPs could cause more trouble in EU document ban row

Sir Jeremy Heywood is currently insisting to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs select committee that there is absolutely nothing untoward about his guidance to civil servants about withholding documents that have a bearing on the EU referendum from ministers. ‘I’m really struggling to see what the problem is here,’ he has just argued to MPs. The row is occupying the energy of an awful lot of Tory MPs at the moment, and is unlikely to go away. One way that ministers could escalate the dispute is to work with backbenchers and use departmental questions in the Commons to make their point about the impact that this guidance has on

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: Bored Bercow lashes out

John Bercow hit out at Greg Hands for his ‘long-winded, boring and unnecessary’ answer in the Commons: Ken Livingstone said that his history of rebellions, as well as those rebellions orchestrated by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, proved they were right: The former London mayor also said Labour was ‘completely out of kilter with the membership’ and that it was time for Labour MPs to come to terms with Corbyn: George Osborne had a dig at Labour’s appointment of Yanis Varoufakis. The Chancellor said he was signed up by the party because ‘Chairman Mao was dead and Mickey Mouse was busy’: And Sadiq Khan vowed to crack down on Uber

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: John McDonnell heckled in Commons debate – ‘shut up your face’

Punch and Judy politics is clearly the mood of the moment in the House of Commons. Last week, David Cameron offered Corbyn some motherly advice on his dress sense, while a Tory MP heckled Jeremy Corbyn by yelling ‘who are you?’ during an EU debate. This morning, it was Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s turn to be on the receiving end of some Chamber abuse. After trying to get the Government to withdraw its proposals over regulatory regimes for senior bankers, he sat back down but didn’t quite get the answer he expected. Before Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands stepped up to reply, a Tory MP on the other side

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Treasury questions: knives out for George Osborne over Brexit

As expected, there was one topic which dominated Treasury Questions today and that was the EU. The Chancellor did his best to hold his nerve as he faced strong opposition — in the shape of MPs in his own party. It’s a rare occasion when George Osborne is able to find more support in the Labour benches than his own but that’s what happened today as Tory MP after Tory MP went into attack mode over the government’s handling of the EU referendum. Andrew Tyrie, the chair of the Treasury Committee, gave the criticisms an air of authority as he kicked things off by calling Osborne out on the use of Article 50

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Sadiq Khan threatens crackdown on Uber, saying allowing its taxis was a ‘mistake’

The worldwide Uber debate is quite helpful in that it forces politicians to answer a simple question: are you for the people, or the vested interests? Sadiq Khan, the Labour candidate for Mayor, declared his hand today in an LBC phone-in. Challenged by a (Scottish) black cab driver about his views on Uber, he said: There are almost 100,000 private hire vehicles in London. Over the last three years there has been, roughly speaking, a 10,000 increase in the number of private hire vehicles. The black taxis are now as low as 23,000, for the first time in a generation, there are fewer people doing the knowledge. And I’m afraid

Hamish Macdonell

What a change – Cameron can actually look forward to his visit to Scotland

With the exception of Gordon Brown – and he was always so dour it was impossible to tell what he was thinking – there hasn’t been a Prime Minister in living memory who has actually enjoyed coming to Scotland. Margaret Thatcher became spiky and aggressive when she crossed the border – well, more spiky and aggressive than normal. John Major seemed to regard it as a duty he had to endure, while Tony Blair made no pretence about it: he just hated it. David Cameron, though, has always tried hard when in Scotland. Perhaps, deep down, he would consider it ill-mannered not to be as engaging and courteous as he

Steerpike Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn’s war with the mainstream media wages on

Jeremy Corbyn left Labour MPs angry last night after he ducked out of answering questions at a meeting of the PLP in order to appear on ITV’s The Agenda. So, with members of his own party turning against him once again, the Labour leader decided it was an opportune time to revisit another old feud — that pesky mainstream media. When answering a question on what he made of the Prime Minister’s decision to attack his appearance during last week’s PMQs, Corbyn told Tom Bradby that he was more bothered that the incident had been picked up by the media: ‘Obviously deeply hurt, but what actually on a serious point is sad

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The truth about Trident is that no-one cares about Trident

As a general rule politicians should spend less time saying things they do not really believe. However useful such a strategy may be in the short-term it will, sure as eggs be eggs, backfire on you eventually. But there are also occasions when it is a mistake to talk about the things in which you really do believe. This is something Jeremy Corbyn has yet to understand. So there was the gallant Labour leader speaking at a sparsely-attended anti-Trident rally in Trafalgar Square at the weekend, thereby reinforcing many of the back-to-1983 associations that will help ensure he leads the once mighty Labour party to electoral oblivion. I don’t doubt the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s EU referendum troubles were so inevitable

Britain’s membership of the European Union is a matter of principle and emotion for most Tory MPs. But it is also a matter of party management. David Cameron would have had an easier time as Prime Minister in the last parliament had he realised that while Conservatives will always want to bang on about Europe, the ferocity of and damage caused by those bangs still depends on how the leadership responds. Cameron didn’t want to hold a referendum, and ducked and weaved away from MPs demanding one. Now he is trying to ‘gag’ pro-Brexit ministers using civil service guidance to prevent them accessing documents that have a ‘bearing’ on the

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Brexit won’t mean more expensive flights for Brits. Here’s why.

We’ve been warned that Brexit could spell the end of cheap travel. But is it really true that Britain voting out of Europe would hit holidaymakers in the pocket? Easyjet’s boss Dame Carolyn McCall said before that Brexit ‘wouldn’t be good for Britain’. And in a company prospectus, the airline warned this year that if Britain votes out in the EU referendum in June, then it could have a ‘material adverse effect’ on the budget airline. But does this hold up to scrutiny? Easyjet says that: ‘The outcome of this decision (in the referendum) could have a material adverse effect on easyJet’s financial condition and results of operations.’ Obviously for

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour MPs walk out of party meeting as Corbyn tries to enforce message discipline

Jeremy Corbyn’s much-awaited appearance at the weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour party didn’t go particularly well this evening, which means that for the group of increasingly determined MPs trying to oust him, it was a hugely successful session. MPs were reminded that the meeting is off the record at the start, before being given a lecture by the leader about the importance of message discipline. They were told that there would be weekly messages that MPs should stick to. A number of MPs found this ‘unpalatable’, and some left. There was also a ‘dismal’ PowerPoint presentation from Jon Trickett which apparently promised a great deal but revealed little, telling

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

MPs blast ‘sordid’ document ban for pro-Brexit ministers

Even if there has been no mistake at all in the guidance to civil servants about what documents they can share with pro-Brexit ministers during the referendum campaign, the government has clearly made a number of mistakes at least in the presentation of that guidance, as this afternoon’s urgent question in the Commons showed. The first mistake that ministers made was purely a process one: they failed to get any supportive MPs who are in favour of the guidance to attend the session, which meant that Matt Hancock spent the whole urgent question being beaten up by pro-Brexit MPs who are furious a minister will not be able to obtain

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Tom Watson jokes about Labour’s misery

Although the Tories currently find their party divided over Europe, they can at least take heart that the opposition face greater internal conflict. In fact, rather than attack Matthew Hancock in the Commons today over the Cabinet’s Brexit issues, Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson opted to make a joke about his own party’s misery: ‘Mr Speaker sadly I am not in the strongest of positions to lecture the poor minister on handling splits in his own party.’ Watson did at least manage to find time to take a small jab at the Conservatives. He asked the minister whether he really believed that Jeremy Heywood’s decision to ban SpAds from providing ministers with material that could be used to support Brexit would really

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: Boris on Brexit and Project Fear’s ‘dragons and serpents’

Boris Johnson said he wanted to see ‘total transparency’ ahead of the EU referendum. He referred to this as a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ chance to get it right: Owen Paterson laid into ‘Project Fear’ – suggesting that by the time it got to June, ‘dragons coming out of the Thames’ and ‘serpents coming out of our taps’ could be predictions made by those supporting Remain if Britain did vote out: Whilst Matt Hancock didn’t mention dragons or serpents, he did say Brexit could mean ‘pain and problems’: Labour’s Emma Reynolds, speaking on the Daily Politics, insisted she wasn’t an MP who plotted over lunch and was a ‘perfectly straightforward politician’: And Michael

Steerpike Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn hires Yanis Varoufakis to advise Labour

Given that one of the major findings of the Beckett report into Labour’s general election loss was that the party were not trusted with the economy, it’s safe to say that John McDonnell has his work cut out when it comes to winning back voters on this issue. So, the latest individual to be appointed as an advisor to the party makes for a rather curious choice. Step forward Yanis Varoufakis. Yes, the former Syriza MP and Greek finance minister — who resigned from his role during negotiations for an EU bailout for the debt-ridden country — has been selected to advise Labour in ‘some capacity’. Speaking to the Islington Tribune, Jeremy Corbyn explained