Politics

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

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Nicola Sturgeon ridicules Labour’s ‘tortured’ Trident debate

Given last year’s election was so much about the possibility of the SNP and Labour working together in government, Labour figures will be smiling ruefully at Nicola Sturgeon’s interview on the Andrew Marr Show today, in which she stuck the boot into the party she once suggested a ‘progressive alliance’ with. The Scottish First Minister is of course thinking more about fighting Labour in this year’s Holyrood elections than about the Westminster Parliament, and so she wanted to paint her main challengers as weak and confusing. She told the programme that the party would end up ‘without a shred of credibility’ if it held a free vote on Trident renewal,

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How many Tory MPs will back staying in the EU?

With the government still convinced that there’s a better than 50:50 chance of a deal at the February EU Council which would pave the way for an EU referendum in June, the pressure on Tory backbenchers to back the Prime Minister is being stepped up. This week, saw the launch of the Cameron endorsed, pro-EU membership Conservatives for Reform in Europe group. Those involved in this group are confident, as I write in The Sun today, that they will get the support of a majority of Tory MPs. Tory MPs are being left in no doubt as to what side Cameron wants them on come the referendum. The message to

Friday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Corbyn didn’t consult Shadow Business Secretary over controversial business policy idea

Angela Eagle wasn’t told about a controversial plan to ban companies who do not pay a living wage from paying out dividends to shareholders before Jeremy Corbyn floated it in a speech last week, Coffee House understands. I have learned that the Shadow Business Secretary was not consulted over the proposal, which is believed to have triggered the resignation of the Labour leader’s Head of Policy and Rebuttal, Neale Coleman. Corbyn floated the idea in his speech to the Fabian Society on Saturday, saying ‘another proposal would be to bar or restrict companies from distributing dividends until they pay all their workers the living wage’. It is normal for the Shadow

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

Finally, the world has realised that George Osborne is a hottie

‘It’s hard to think of a time when we didn’t all fancy the Chancellor of the Exchequer,’ begins George Osborne’s entry in this year’s ‘The Tatler List’ – the society magazine’s annual compilation of ‘the people who really matter’. This year Osborne is placed at number 4, trumped only by Princess Charlotte, Ant and Dec, and Prince George, and a full 13 places higher than the next politician on the list, Mayoral hopeful Zac Goldsmith. But is it really all that hard to remember a time when ‘we didn’t all fancy the Chancellor’? The magazine puts his attraction down to his ‘big brain, sexy hair cut, and control of the biggest

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Is David Cameron feeling the heat over his EU renegotiation?

As David Cameron continued his charm offensive in Europe today on a visit to the Czech Republic, are there signs he is feeling the heat over his EU renegotiation? In his press conference, the PM remained almost relentlessly positive as he spoke about ‘solutions’ and ‘working together’ with other European leaders. But he also appeared to offer a brief flash of insight into the pressure he is under to get a good deal for Britain over EU renegotiation – saying that doing so was ‘hard work’. He said: ‘It’s hard work because what we are looking for is real and substantive change. But I firmly believe there is a pathway

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Airport expansion decision could now come after EU referendum

It now looks as though a decision on expanding Heathrow (or Gatwick), which had been pencilled in for this summer, could be slipping back again. Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, certainly seemed to be bracing us for more waiting when quizzed over airport expansion on LBC yesterday. The current deadline is the summer. But McLoughlin said the busy political timetable could get in the way of that – and spoke about summer as aspiration rather than a firm deadline. ‘I hope later this year, we have said we hope to move some way by the summer. There are lots of other things that are going on in the political spectrum – if

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Michael Caine wades into the EU debate: ‘I feel certain we should come out’

Michael Caine started his Today programme interview apparently unsure about whether he was going to vote in or out in the EU referendum. But just a few seconds later, the Hollywood star seemed to change his mind live on air – saying we were better off without Europe, which is packed with ‘thousands of faceless civil servants’. He said: ‘I don’t know what to vote for, both are scary. To me, you’ve now got, in Europe, a government by proxy of everybody who has now got carried away, and I think unless there is some extremely significant changes we should get out. Because you say, we’ll fail, so you fail

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 21 January 2016

Bureaucratic tyranny Sir: As James Forsyth points out (‘Scary Monsters’, 16 January), David Cameron and other ‘In’ campaign supporters wish voters to base their decision on the short term, as this enables them to highlight the uncertainty and fear factor. But this vote is about the long term, and in 20 years’ time one thing is certain: the ‘ever-closer union’, and all that it means, will exist. What I don’t understand, and what I hope every interviewer will force him to explain, is why David Cameron believes it will be better for Britain to be increasingly ruled by the bureaucratic tyranny that is the EU. Robin Grist Corton, Wiltshire Doctors

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 21 January 2016

Many have rightly attacked the police for their handling of the demented accusations against Field Marshal Lord Bramall, now at last dropped. They ostentatiously descended on his village in huge numbers, chatted about the case in the pub and pointlessly searched his house for ten hours. But one needs to understand that their pursuit of Lord Bramall — though not their exact methods — is the result of the system. Because the doctrine has now been established that all ‘victims’ must be ‘believed’, the police must take seriously every sex abuse accusation made and record the accusation as a reported crime (hence the huge increase in sex abuse figures). Even if you

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is Cameron really happy to let his EU renegotiation timetable slip?

What does David Cameron mean when he says, as he did today, that he’s happy to wait a bit longer for a deal in his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the European Union? The Prime Minister told the Davos summit today that ‘if there isn’t the right deal, I’m not in a hurry’ and that ‘it’s much more important to get this right than to rush it’. The expectation in Westminster has been that Cameron would get a deal at the European Council summit in February, but the Prime Minister has been dropping hints that he is prepared to let the timetable slip at the same time that his colleagues

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tories worry about plan to Short change opposition parties

Labour is a very poor opposition at the moment, and no amount of money could fix that. But the government is currently pursuing a policy that seems intended to weaken even decent oppositions. In the Autumn Statement, George Osborne announced a 19 per cent cut to Short money, which is the state funding for political parties to be able to do their job of representing the millions of voters who want them in parliament. The 19 per cent cut is in line the reductions made to unprotected spending departments in the spending review, and is quite easy for ministers to defend, because they can talk about reducing the cost of

Steerpike Steerpike

Are Blairites being purged from the Guardian?

During the Labour leadership election, Guardian readers complained that the paper’s Jeremy Corbyn coverage was worse than its coverage of the Vietnam war. The paper then launched an in-house investigation into the claims, concluding that while they could have taken Corbyn more seriously in the beginning, this had since been remedied. Now word reaches Steerpike that the Grauniad is set to go one step further. Mr S hears that the paper’s editor Katharine Viner is on a mission to make the paper even more Corbynista-friendly. Alas this appears to mean that some members of staff who are not fully at ease with the Corbynista movement are stepping away or at least moving to the sidelines. Mr S

Philip Cowley

Trying to analyse the election spending data? Follow Deep Throat’s advice…

The publication of expenses for last year’s election is a useful reminder of the reality of much of politics. It turns out it’s not all barnstorming speeches and televised debates. There are an awful lot of invoices involved too. The claim everyone is obsessing about is that Labour spent just £16,000 on Facebook adverts, compared to more than a million spent by the Conservatives. Indeed, Labour seems to have spent less on Facebook adverts than each of the Liberal Democrats, Ukip, and Greens. No one disputes the fact that the Conservatives outspent Labour on digital campaigning. For public consumption, Labour used to pretend that this didn’t matter – and that their grassroots

Steerpike Steerpike

RIP ‘EdStone’: the fate of Labour’s 8ft policy cenotaph is finally revealed

There was one infamous invoice missing from the Electoral Commission’s campaign spending data yesterday — that of the EdStone. Labour claimed that the missing invoice was simply down to an ‘administrative error’ rather than a reluctance for the public to know how much money was spent on the disastrous election gaffe. Happily Bloomberg News have been on the case. They report that recently unearthed invoices show that the 8ft stone with Labour’s election promises inscribed cost just under £8,000. While that is significantly less than the £30,000 reported by newspapers at the time, it can hardly be called a bargain. The stone led to ridicule after it was unveiled in

Steerpike Steerpike

Should David Cameron be deported for crimes against the Queen’s English?

This week David Cameron has warned that migrant spouses who fail language tests could be made to leave the UK. While many have since accused the Prime Minister of stigmatising Muslim women over his call for immigrants to take language lessons, Mr S is more concerned that he is not au fait with the age-old adage that ‘people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’. Speaking on Today on Monday to announce his plans, Cameron’s Eton education appeared to escape him entirely as he used a double negative to describe the problem: ‘There are 38,000 Muslim women who don’t speak hardly any English at all’ While he could perhaps be forgiven for

Ross Clark Ross Clark

There’s a reason why Middlesbrough asylum-seekers’ doors are red, and it’s not ‘apartheid’

Was there ever a less convincing scandal than the revelation that a landlord who rents houses to G4S for housing asylum-seekers in Middlesbrough chooses to paint all their doors bright red? This, apparently, is ‘apartheid’, according to a hyperbolic Times headline yesterday morning. As if that were not enough, Ian Swales, former Lib Dem MP for Redcar, said the firm’s decoration policy reminded him of Nazi Germany. Presumably, tomorrow’s paper will divulge the devastating finding that the Duke of Devonshire paints all the doors at Edensor, the village on the Chatsworth Estate, a rather fetching shade of dark blue. Or on Friday the explosive revelation that Jesus College, Cambridge, paints the doors of its student houses green. There is a very

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

David Cameron asks business: “help me make the case for Britain to stay” in the EU

David Cameron is giving a speech in Davos later today with a message for British business: he wants to enlist them in his campaign for Britain to stay in the EU. Not that he puts it in such terms. We’re still in a phoney war where, in theory, Cameron is still negotiating, and might very well say that he wants Britain out of the EU. But in practice, the campaign has begun. He has a series of meetings with other EU leaders. He hopes for a deal next month and a referendum in June or July. Any doubt that the campaign has begun should be dispelled by the tone of

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The centre-right is failing world-wide – so what’s the secret of Cameron’s success?

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/donaldtrumpsrise-racismattheoscarsandcameronscentre-rightsecret/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the PM’s centre-right secret” startat=628] Listen [/audioplayer]There are times when Westminster’s obsession with US politics is embarrassing for even the strongest believer in the Anglo-American relationship. Monday was one of those days: MPs debated banning Donald Trump, the reality TV star turned presidential hopeful, from entering Britain. Leaving aside the illiberal absurdity of this, Trump hadn’t even said he was planning a visit. It was a pathetic attempt by MPs to insert themselves into the US presidential race. But what cannot be denied is the extent to which Trump is shaking up US politics. After the angry Republican primary and the failure

Daniel Hannan

What Brexit looks like

‘So what’s your alternative?’ demand Euro-enthusiasts. ‘D’you want Britain to be like Norway? Or like Switzerland? Making cuckoo clocks? Is that what you want? Is it? Eh?’ The alternative to remaining in a structurally unsafe building is, of course, walking out; but I accept that this won’t quite do as an answer. Although staying in the EU is a greater risk than leaving — the migration and euro crises are deepening, and Britain is being dragged into them — change-aversion is deep in our genome, and we vote accordingly. Europhiles know that most referendums go the way of the status quo, which is why their campaign is based around conjuring

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Corbynglish as a second language: a political dictionary of terms

Corbynterpretation [n]: The inevitable process of debate, after Jeremy Corbyn is interviewed, over what he actually meant. Does the Labour leader believe the killing of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy, or not believe this? Would he like Britain to negotiate with Daesh or would he be opposed to that happening? Would he, or would he not, abandon the Falkland Islands? As in, ‘Well, that’s a matter of Corbynterpretation’ or, ‘No, no, those remarks have been totally misCorbynterpreted.’ In order to Corbynterpret [v] one must first consider 1. Whether the Labour leader brought up the disputed view himself (invariably not) 2. Whether the Labour leader clearly said ‘yes’ after somebody