Politics

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

Tuesday

12 Jul 2016

Second EU referendum petition gets debate go-ahead. But what’s the point?

Signing a petition calling for a referendum re-run might seem rather futile after the Brexit vote was done and dusted. But it seems that the four million people who did just that and put pen to paper haven’t completely wasted their time after all. The petition, which said that the Government should hold a re-run if ‘the remain or leave vote is less than 60 per cent based on a turnout less than 75 per cent’, has jumped its first hurdle. Putting aside who decided that this precise percentage was the exact bar which needed to be reached, Parliament will now discuss the petition in Westminster Hall on September 5th. In

Isabel Hardman

What might David Cameron do next?

David Cameron has chaired his last ever, emotional, Cabinet meeting this morning, with just a final Prime Minister’s Questions lying between him and freedom. He may want to follow the example of Tony Blair and have a memorable sign off such as ‘and that is that, the end’, though it’s not clear whether he’ll find quite so many MPs keen to give him a standing ovation as he walks out, the Prime Minister who accidentally took Britain out of the European Union. But what Cameron chooses to do next is interesting. He has already said that he wants to stand again as MP for Witney in 2020. Of course, the

Ross Clark

A traditional family life is now a political handicap

‘I’m a gay woman with strong northern working-class roots,’ Angela Eagle told Robert Peston on Sunday. ‘I think I’m the right person for this job at this time.’ In case we didn’t get the point she followed it up this morning by boasting: ‘I’m a northern working-class girl who understands modern life.’ How outrageous that Jeremy Corbyn’s challenger should bring her class, her geographical birthplace and her sexuality into the leadership debate, suggesting that they would make her a more suitable leader than Corbyn. Or maybe it isn’t outrageous that someone should draw on their personal experiences while campaigning for office. I certainly haven’t come across anyone else making the

Katy Balls

Shadow Cabinet thwart Corbyn’s last-ditch attempt to stitch up NEC meeting

So, can Jeremy Corbyn automatically qualify as a candidate in Labour’s coming leadership election? The future of the party might well hang upon this question, being decided today at a meeting of the NEC, Labour’s governing council. With the decision expected to be close — down to just one or two votes — both sides are feeling rather nervous. So nervous in fact that some party members are resorting to underhand tactics. At today’s Shadow Cabinet meeting, I understand there was an attempt to ‘re-level’ the playing field. Jeremy Corbyn’s team made a last-ditch effort to remove Jon Ashworth from the NEC so there would be one less anti-Corbyn voice when it came to deciding whether

Brendan O’Neill

Thanks to the sneerocrats, the political bores are back in power

Never mind bureaucracy. Forget technocracy. Put to the back of your mind the rising lawyerocracy, like those 1,000 puffed-up, demos-fearing lawyers who yesterday insisted that the EU referendum result is not binding. For there’s a worse ‘ocracy than those, one which has an even greater draining effect on politics, one which leeches the life and colour from public debate. And that’s the sneerocracy, the rise of a meme-making, mick-taking, cynicism-stoking Twitterati and commentariat who never — but never — give a politician the benefit of the doubt and whose trade is snide rather than substance. Consider the fall of Andrea Leadsom. I know, I know: the only thing we’re meant

Steerpike

Is Theresa May the Daily Mail’s Manchurian candidate?

News of Theresa May’s coronation as the next Prime Minister is – as you’d expect – emblazoned on the front page of every newspaper today. However, the Daily Mail has gone one step further than its rivals — claiming, pretty much, that it enstooled May itself. And judging by its jubilations, if seems that Paul Dacre sees her as a Manchurian candidate programmed from High Street Kensington. In fact, on reading their article ‘how the Mail backed May from the start‘, one could be forgiven for thinking that the paper’s editor Paul Dacre was moving into No.10 with May come Wednesday: ‘The Daily Mail was the first newspaper to throw

Tom Goodenough

Angela Eagle’s leadership launch goes from bad to worse: ‘I’m not crying now, am I’

There were no great bombshells being dropped elsewhere or dramas unfolding in the Tory leadership race to distract attention away from Angela Eagle during her interview this morning on Today. But the Labour leadership hopeful might have been wishing there had been. It’s a big day for Eagle, with the party’s NEC deciding today whether Jeremy Corbyn will end up on the ballot paper in the leadership contest. Yet after a doomed leadership launch yesterday in which journalists walked out to go and cover Andrea Leadsom’s decision to drop out, things didn’t go much better this morning during her interview with John Humphrys. In a particularly awkward exchange, she was asked whether

Tom Goodenough

‘May Day’: How the papers reacted to our new PM-in-waiting

David Cameron is now in in his last full day in Downing Street and already all eyes are on the woman who will replace him. Theresa May is on the front of every newspaper this morning as she prepares to take over at No.10. Here’s how the papers have greeted Britain’s new PM-in-waiting: The Daily Mail, which backed Theresa May in the Tory leadership race, relishes the prospect of her taking over from David Cameron. On its front page, the paper describes the handover as the ‘Coronation of Theresa’ – making a big show of her promise to heal rifts and make Brexit a success. Don’t expect such uncompromising praise

Monday

11 Jul 2016

Katy Balls

Tom Watson tries to calm tensions ahead of crunch NEC meeting

With Angela Eagle clear that she will run to be the next Labour leader and Jeremy Corbyn willing to contest any such challenge, the Labour party is in a state of stalemate until Tuesday’s meeting of the National Executive Committee. At the crunch meeting, the NEC will announce whether or not Corbyn is automatically on the ballot — with a legal challenge expected whatever the result. So with the result looming, Monday’s PLP meeting proved to be a rather muted affair as MPs wait to learn their party’s fate. Tom Watson’s spokesman described the mood as ‘not the greatest’, while John Mann walked out halfway through complaining that Emily Thornberry was ‘prattling on’. However,

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May vows to ‘make a success’ of Brexit

Theresa May’s speech outside Parliament was all about conciliation: she made a point of paying tribute to Andrea Leadsom and David Cameron before giving a brief summary of what May’s Britain will look like. She said her focus was on uniting Britain and, once again, she spelt out that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ – a phrase she has used again and again, which says absolutely nothing about what she thinks Brexit means. Surrounded by MPs and standing next to her husband Philip, she had this to say outside the Commons: ‘I am honoured and humbled to have been chosen by the Conservative Party to become its leader. I would like to pay tribute to the other candidates

Harry Cole

‘The claws are never far away’: inside the court of Theresa May

There are plenty who have been left bruised by May’s decade and a half at the top of the Conservative party, but even her worst enemies concede that the woman who is to become the next Prime Minister has shown a remarkable durability in high office. She’s the longest-serving Home Secretary in half a century, and has made a success of what’s very often a career-ending job. A long-retired party grandee recalls May, then newly elected to Parliament, approaching him in 1997 to ask what she must do to succeed. ‘Ignore the little things,’ he replied. It’s advice that her critics reckon she has firmly ignored ever since. When he resigned as a Home Office minister, the

Tom Goodenough

David Cameron: Theresa May will be in No.10 by Wednesday

David Cameron has given his backing to Theresa May and he’s also confirmed that by Wednesday evening, he’ll be out of Downing Street for good. The Prime Minister said that tomorrow he’ll chair his last Cabinet and that Wednesday’s PMQs will be his final appearance at the despatch box. During his brief statement just now, Cameron said that he was ‘delighted’ his replacement would be the Home Secretary. Here’s what he had to say on the steps of Downing Street: ‘I think Andrea Leadsom has absolutely made the right decision to stand aside and it is clear Theresa May has the overwhelming support of the Conservative Parliamentary party. I am

Cindy Yu

Coffee House Shots: Labour’s leadership election

Labour’s leadership contest has finally been triggered as Angela Eagle made her bid for the position today. So how will this contest shape up? And will Jeremy Corbyn appear on the ballot paper? Isabel Hardman tells Fraser Nelson: ‘It’s going to be very bloody because Jeremy Corbyn wants to get back on that ballot paper, thinks he’s entitled to. If the NEC, the party’s ruling executive, says that he shouldn’t be back on that ballot paper unless he can get 51 nominations, the wrath from the membership will be enormous.’ If Corbyn prevails in this contest, might the moderates of the party then break away to form their own party? With

Rod Liddle

Why We Must Have A Second Referendum – Now!

Still the furore whips around. Some remain monkey showed me a bunch of pie charts ‘proving’ that the vote was unsound. Another described all 17.4m of us as being ‘racists, bigots and xenophobes’ (can you be a racist without being a xenophobe?). And no matter that the government has decided we shouldn’t have a second referendum, there are still marchers, and petitions and bile and loathing. So I have attempted to heal. Above is a video I did giving ordinary – and eminent – Remainers their say.

Isabel Hardman

Labour party split over whether to split

As well as all the other things that Labour MPs are anxious about at the moment, there is genuine anxiety in the party today that some MPs are considering splitting off to join a new, moderate group in politics. Certainly Labour MPs are pretty miserable about the state of their party – and about the way many of them are being treated by their own local parties. And many Labourites are starting to believe that a split is inevitable, with many arguing that it is wrong to be wary because of what happened to the SDP, as this would be a much larger chunk of MPs who would break off

Cindy Yu

Coffee House Shots: Leadsom drops out – what next for May?

Over the course of the past weekend, Andrea Leadsom has come under fire for her comments on having children. Such media scrutiny has proved too much for Leadsom as she announced her withdrawal from the Tory leadership campaign. With this leaving Theresa May as the only candidate for Prime Minister and Conservative party leader, what will happen next? Joining Isabel Hardman for Coffee House shots today is Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth. On the podcast, James Forsyth describes how Andrea Leadsom lost her confidence in the contest: ‘Most of the people who’d voted for Michael Gove were moving over to the Theresa May camp, so she really would have been

Fraser Nelson

What George Osborne should have written in the Wall Street Journal

We have three months until we get a new Prime Minister but I’m not sure we can wait so long for a new Chancellor. George Osborne’s silence was bad, but his re-emergence is even worse – as his pitiful article in today’s Wall Street Journal shows. It is written as if some awful tragedy had befallen Britain, and that this visibly battered country is appealing for American support. His job is to sell Britain, its people and the historic decision they have just made, rather than disparage it. Osborne’s article is here. Below is what he should have written. On 23 July, the people of Britain voted to leave the European Union –

Steerpike

Watch: Angela Eagle abandoned by hacks at leadership launch

Today the Eagle has landed. After touring television studios yesterday with talk that she would run to be the next Labour leader, Angela Eagle officially launched her campaign this morning. Alas there was a problem. As the launch neared its end, Andrea Leadsom managed to upstage her by putting on a rival press conference to announce that she was dropping out of the Tory leadership race. As hacks raced across Westminster to make it to Leadsom’s conference, the Labour leadership hopeful was left red-faced as she tried to take questions from the BBC and then ITV’s Robert Peston only to learn that they weren’t there. Given that Mr S understands that Eagle had to call

James Forsyth

Can Theresa May nurse the Tories back to health?

It might prove easier for the Tories’ new leader Theresa May to reunite the party post referendum than expected. First, many Tory MPs have been taken aback by the brutality of the past few weeks. They know how close the party is to entering into a post-Maastricht cycle of political violence and there appears to be a desire to pull back from the brink. Second, both sides have had their pound of flesh. The Leavers have seen David Cameron resign and George Osborne see his leadership hopes dashed; the Remainers have seen Boris Johnson and Michael Gove brought low by the leadership contest. May’s biggest challenge will, obviously, be to

Isabel Hardman

And then there was one… Theresa May’s team prepare for government

Chris Grayling has given this very brief statement on behalf of Theresa May in the past few minutes: ‘Can I start by thanking on behalf of Theresa May and on behalf of everyone involved in Theresa’s campaign team by thanking and paying a warm tribute to Andrea Leadsom. Her actions this morning have shown what a principled and decent politician she is and how willing she is to put the interests of the country before her own. She is a true public servant. Theresa is currently on her way back to London from Birmingham and she will make a statement later today. But on her behalf I’d just like to