Politics

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

Friday

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Why Obama’s Brexit intervention will matter whether we like it or not

It now looks likely that Barack Obama’s visit to London next week will see the President calling on Britain to stay in the EU. We’re told that Obama will be giving his views as a ‘friend’ and only if he’s asked about Brexit. Nothing sounds more patronising. And as Jacob Rees-Mogg has said, why should we listen to a President who hasn’t been very good? But the truth is that, whether we like it or not, Obama’s intervention could be key. Whatever many think of the President and the collective failures and disappointments of his time in office, Obama is still loved amongst the group of younger voters in Britain

Thursday

Peter Jones

Tax returns to boast about

As Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell whinge away about how rich David Cameron’s family is, they might consider that in the last six years he has funded schools ’n’ hospitals to the tune of £402,283. How much have they put in? Since wealthy ancient Athenians loved to boast about the vast sums they contributed via property taxes to the public benefit, they would have been amazed that Cameron did not long to reveal how rich he was. The 5th-century BC thinker Democritus argued that there was nothing like the rich giving to the poor to produce concord that strengthened the community. The Greek orator Hyperides (389–322 BC) pointed out that Athenians allowed statesmen

Rachel Johnson

Diary – 14 April 2016

With hindsight maybe it was silly for me to bleat, ‘As everyone knows, the Johnsons are neither posh nor rich’ on Newsnight just before my older brother published his tax returns showing the impressive sums he’s made in journalism and publishing. I can only imagine how the antlers of rival 12-point stags such as Niall Ferguson and Andrew Roberts must have drooped as they calculated how many copies the full-time Mayor and MP and bestselling ‘popular historian’ must have shifted to earn royalties running into the hundreds of thousands. Having heard him toot about his eye-watering advance for his forthcoming Shakespeare, I felt only admiration that he paid almost a

Steerpike Steerpike

George Galloway’s battle bus fails to rally the troops

George Galloway has stepped up his London mayoral campaign today by taking his battle bus down Whitehall. In an attempt to rally the troops, the Respect candidate shouted through his megaphone: ‘David Cameron, you couldn’t make it up!’ Alas on Mr S’s watch, Galloway-mania failed to kick-in. While he managed to frighten the horses — of the Household Cavalry no less — when it came to supporters, he only seemed able to fill one of the 72 seats on the double-decker bus with a supporter. Vive la révolution!

Matthew Lynn

The Bank of England should butt out of the Brexit debate

Unelected. Technocratic. Exercising a great deal of power over people’s lives, without much in the way of accountability. Staffed by well-meaning, over-educated experts, big on theories and short on experience, and run by a smooth globe-trotting boss who is immaculately plugged into the Davos set. It is not hard to see why the Bank of England, especially under its Canadian Governor Mark Carney, is instinctively pro-EU. It looks across to Brussels and sees an institution very like itself. So it is no great surprise to see the Bank making subtle, and not so subtle, warnings, about the risks of the upcoming referendum. It was at it again today. Its decision

Steerpike Steerpike

Zac Goldsmith’s extremist attack line backfires

It’s not turning out to be a great week for Zac Goldsmith. While the Conservative MP continues to lag behind Labour’s Sadiq Khan in the polls, he has been accused of running a racist campaign. Despite this, Goldsmith showed no signs of watering down his attacks yesterday in an interview with the Evening Standard. Goldsmith used the interview to criticise Khan for sharing platforms — and posing for a photo — with Suliman Gani, an Imam who says women are ‘subservient’ and speaks at segregated rallies. ‘To share a platform nine times with Suliman Gani, one of the most repellent figures in this country, you don’t do it by accident.’ However, the next time

Margaret Corvid

As I’ve discovered, it’s normal for politicians to visit dominatrixes

When I took up professional domination, I had heard about the stereotype: clients are usually powerful men who want to relinquish their burdens of responsibility, and entrust their bodies and desires to someone else for an hour or so. Instead, I’ve learned that clients come from all walks of life. They are mostly men though, young and old: workers, students, soldiers, sailors and pensioners. Having said that, politicians are often interested in domination. When the news broke that Culture Secretary John Whittingdale had dated a dominatrix, the media roared. But I wasn’t surprised. It showed how much society stigmatises sex work and fetish. Some argued that Whittingdale’s association with a dominatrix may have influenced

Nigel Farndale

Just join Germany

An argument you sometimes hear from those sitting on the Brence (the Brexit fence) is that it’s a pity the EU couldn’t have stayed the same as it was when we first joined it in 1973. Back then, say the Brence-sitters, it was a trading bloc with only nine members, which made sense. Greece wasn’t a member, nor were Spain and Portugal, never mind Lithuania, Latvia and all those other countries ending in vowels. But if we could go back to that better arrangement — play fantasy politics, as it were — would we, with hindsight, want it to include France and Italy, two of the original nine? Their economies

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s plan for a graceful exit all hinges on the referendum

The year 2019 seems a long way away. Whether or not David Cameron can stay in office until then is this week’s hot topic of conversation among Tories. They wonder how many more weeks like the last two the Prime Minister can endure. Before Parliament broke up for Easter, the view among Cameron loyalists was that the Tory party needed a holiday. The thinking went that the recess would remove MPs from the Westminster pressure cooker and let referendum tempers cool. But this break turned out to be a disaster. The government spent the first week trying to get on top of the Port Talbot steel story and the second

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Let’s refocus the Panama story on the bad stuff that really matters

There were moments last week when I was ready to give up journalism and retrain in a less unsavoury profession — chiropody, perhaps. It might have been Jon Snow’s bushwhacking of arts minister Ed Vaizey on the subject of the prime minister’s tax affairs, or Snow’s colleague Cathy Newman shrieking questions about offshore companies at Boris Johnson as she chased him in the street. Or one of dozens of reports and articles oozing malice, self–righteousness, hypocrisy and wilful ignorance of the distinction between tax planning as practised by anyone with a sense of obligation to provide for their family and the dirty business of hiding ill-gotten gains. This being open

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tories expect academy policy U-turn

Tory MPs are increasingly convinced that the government may back down on some of its plans for forced academisation of all schools, I understand. The Commons is currently holding an Opposition Day debate on the plans, confirmed in last month’s Budget. They have upset a good number of Conservative MPs and councillors, not least because they appear to contradict the government’s commitment to localism. A large number of MPs are complaining in the debate about the dangers of imposing the academy model on all schools, and removing the requirement for academies to have parent governors. Nicky Morgan has been arguing that the government doesn’t want to scrap parent governors, but

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs Sketch: Cameron’s far-sighted statesmanship

A vandal smashing a window and calling it air conditioning. A mother marrying her son and declaring it a lesson in advanced sexual morality. A shoplifter caught with a chicken up his jumper and congratulating the store detectives on their commitment to property rights. That’s how David Cameron ducked the tax-abuse row at PMQs today. He basked in hypocrisy. He wallowed in smugness. He luxuriated in panic measures and called them far-sighted statesmanship. He chose to posture as the brilliant leader of a brilliant government whose brilliant new policy is to rip down the cloaks of secrecy that protect Britain’s tax-dodge paradises overseas. And he contrasted his zeal with the

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Justin Welby could teach David Cameron a thing or two about PR

I don’t think there is a Royal College of Public Relations, but if there were, it should teach a course based on a comparison between two stories last week. One concerned the Prime Minister and the other the Archbishop of Canterbury. Both arose from the paternity of the principals and, in both cases, the principals had not done anything wrong. Yet there the similarities end. David Cameron, and those working for him, spent the best part of a week fending off and then changing a story they found embarrassing. Justin Welby, and his much smaller staff, confirmed the truth of a potentially much more painful story in one go, bravely

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Vote Leave given designation as official Brexit campaign

After months of waiting, the Electoral Commission has announced that Vote Leave has been given the official designation for the EU referendum. This means that MPs including Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Frank Field will now become the official faces of the Leave campaign, while Nigel Farage and Ukip donor Arron Banks, who were behind the Grassroots Out campaign, will be sidelined. Britain Stronger in Europe will be the official Remain organisation. Explaining its decision, Claire Bassett, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission said: ‘Where there are competing applicants for a particular outcome the law is clear, we must designate the applicant which appears to us to represent those campaigning for

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What is Labour’s official position on John Whittingdale?

A Shadow Cabinet split has opened up over whether John Whittingdale should step aside from making decisions about press regulation. Labour decided this morning that it was going to attack the Culture Secretary for the revelations about his private life, arguing that they meant he could not take decisions about press regulation. Maria Eagle issued a statement saying ‘in order for the public to have any confidence in the government’s approach to press regulation and to allay any concerns about perceptions of any undue influence, the secretary of state must now recuse himself from any decision making over this matter, just as Vince Cable was removed from deciding media policy

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: Cameron mocks Corbyn for his late tax return

This time last week, you would have expected PMQs to be rowdy and extremely difficult for David Cameron. After all, he was on the back foot on tax and steel. But today’s session was actually remarkably dry as Jeremy Corbyn asked worthy and technical questions on tax and Britain’s overseas territories. Strikingly, Cameron felt confident enough to repeatedly mock Corbyn over his tax return, which was submitted late. Cameron will, I suspect, be relieved that the tax debate is now one of policy detail. Not only does it take the personal sting out of the issue, but it makes it harder for it to continue to command public attention—I feel

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Forget David Cameron – I want to know about Wayne Rooney’s tax return

While we’re on the subject of taxes, what about footballers? That’s a question often put up by bankers accused of being overpaid, but the comparison works as well with politicians. Cameron’s tenure at the top has coincided with that of Wayne Rooney, a role model for millions who is said to earn more in a week than the Prime Minister earns in a year: Cameron’s tax rate turns out to be 38 per cent, but what’s Wayne’s? More broadly, the annual wage bill for the Premier League is £1.9 billion. Two thirds of the players, including most of the highest paid, are foreign. A survey for 2013–14 found players earning an average

Steerpike Steerpike

Ed Miliband is reunited with his Hacked Off pals

Last night John Whittingdale’s 2014 relationship with a dominatrix was made public by Newsnight in an interview with Hacked Off founder Brain Cathcart. However, Hacked Off members were soon branded ‘hypocrites’ for forcing a cabinet minister to admit he unknowingly had a relationship with a prostitute — given that they claim to rally against press intrusion. While Cathcart says that the right-wing media had conspired to hide the story of Whitto’s relationship for their own benefit, the Guardian’s Roy Greenslade has dismissed their claims as ‘pure speculation’. So, a good time to distance oneself from Hacked Off supporters? Apparently not. In fact, as this was being played out on the BBC, former Labour

Steerpike Steerpike

Samantha Cameron’s sister gets behind Sadiq Khan’s mayoral campaign

As Zac Goldsmith continues to lag behind Sadiq Khan in the polls, even the most die-hard Tories are beginning to lose hope in their candidate. In fact, it seems Zac is falling out of fashion at a rate of knots. Samantha Cameron’s sister — and David Cameron’s sister-in-law — Emily Sheffield appears to be getting behind Khan’s campaign. Sheffield, who is deputy editor of Vogue, has retweeted one of the Labour mayoral candidate’s campaign pledges on Twitter. Given that Sheffield usually supports her brother-in-law’s party — ridiculing Labour’s pink women van in the last election — this is a very worrying sign indeed for Goldsmith. What’s more, it seems that Khan is

Steerpike Steerpike

X MI5 SPY: Do Mr and Mrs Banks have something to tell us?

Back in 2010, Arron Bank’s Russian wife Katya had the ability to generate more press than the eccentric Brexit backer. Formerly known as Ekaterina Paderina, Katya made headlines when she was dragged into Mike Hancock’s ‘Russian spy’ scandal. At the time the former Liberal Democrat MP faced questions over his Russian parliamentary aide Katia Zatuliveter — who MI5 suspected of espionage — it was revealed that Hancock was suspected of helping Katya remain in Britain when she experienced Visa issues. Banks later revealed that when a journalist had asked his wife if she had ever had any contact with MI5, she replied: ‘I have never shopped in MFI’. So, Mr S was amused to see the number plate that