Politics

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

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron will give ministers a free vote on EU referendum

As expected, David Cameron is to suspend collective responsibility for ministers who wish to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. The Prime Minister will give a statement this afternoon in which he is expected to announce a free vote on the matter. Ministers will not be able to speak out until after the renegotiation has concluded, which is fair enough as it would undermine Cameron’s authority to have them campaigning for Brexit before they’ve even seen what he has brought back. This is not a surprise – the whips had been working on this assumption for months – but it does show that the Tory leader is trying

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Breaking: Corbyn sacks Michael Dugher

It seems that Jeremy Corbyn’s reshuffle has actually started for real. This is what Michael Dugher, Shadow Culture Secretary, has just tweeted: Dugher losing his job isn’t a huge surprise given his comments on Pienaar’s Politics at the weekend. The Barnsley East MP told the programme that Corbyn would be left with a ‘politburo of seven’ if he only appointed supporters. He has been an outspoken campaigner against the Labour leader’s plans for a ‘revenge reshuffle’, perhaps having decided that it might be better to go down in a final blaze of fighting. It will be interesting to see what the response is from Dugher’s ally Tom Watson, the party’s

D Guppy

The West must defeat a far worse enemy than radical Islam

The Monday after the massacre in Paris, I walk into a bank near the Place de la République to deposit a little over 1,000 euros into a friend’s account. After a number of tut-tuts the transaction passes. ‘Why all the fuss?’ I ask, only to be informed of new laws being phased in that will prohibit cash transactions over 1,000 euros, with equivalents in Italy, Belgium and numerous other countries also being enacted. ‘Soon, there won’t be such a thing as cash!’ When I question the logic behind such regulation, excitement turns to bewilderment. Didn’t I see what happened on Friday?! ‘C’est pour votre securité.’ Ah yes. Of course. Such

Steerpike Steerpike

BBC execs fail to see the funny side of Dame Edna’s Jeremy Corbyn joke

Oh dear. After Nick Robinson declared that he was on a mission to tackle anti-Corbyn bias in the BBC’s political coverage, it appears some brains at Broadcasting House may be taking his sentiment a little too far. It now seems that there is also an anti-Corbyn bashing rule when it comes to satire. Barry Humphries — who is well-known for playing his comic creation Dame Edna Everage — has revealed in an interview with the Radio Times the difficulties he encountered when in discussions with the Beeb about appearing on Michael McIntyre’s Christmas show as Dame Edna. Humphries suggested he could do a joke about the man of the moment: Jeremy Corbyn. Alas,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Corbyn to serve ‘revenge reshuffle’ cold: but will it leave Labour even more bitter?

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to announce the results of his reshuffle today, after keeping everyone in suspense with hours of secret talks yesterday in his office. His ‘even reshuffle’ is being served rather cold, and its ingredients are being kept a mystery. The Labour leader is believed to be going for a less fearsome set of changes than those briefed over Christmas, possibly even keeping Hilary Benn in his job. Though the rumour is that Maria Eagle all remain on the frontbench, but leave the Defence brief. This is all speculation, based partly on behind-the-scenes conversations about the dynamics in Corbyn’s own team (some of his aides believe he should

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Won’t somebody in Labour think of the mayoral contest?

Jeremy Corbyn is currently conducting his reshuffle, with a group of journalists huddled at a discreet distance from the Labour leader’s office. So far, not much has happened, other than Corbyn asking the journalists not to stand outside his office, and Barry Gardiner emerging with a smile on his face. But still the briefings around the reshuffle and the anticipation of it have dominated the news agenda. This must be intensely frustrating for Sadiq Khan, who had planned to spend today getting lots of attention for his campaign on train fares. Labour members and staffers were up long before dawn handing out leaflets publicising the four-year fare freeze promised by

Steerpike Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn puts hacks on the naughty step

When Jeremy Corbyn formed his Shadow Cabinet after he was voted in as Labour leader, he soon became the subject of much mockery in the media. This wasn’t so much because of his appointments, but because his late night discussions about who to appoint were overheard by loitering hacks who then published the private discussions. This even included the conclusion from Team Corbyn that they were ‘taking a fair amount of s— out there’ regarding the lack of women in senior positions. With Corbyn’s much-hyped — and much-briefed — ‘revenge reshuffle’ seemingly now on, Mr S is pleased to hear that he has learnt from his past mistakes. The Labour leader has

Ross Clark Ross Clark

It’s time to abolish the FTSE 100

Jeremy Corbyn wants to get rid of the British Empire Medal and David Cameron wants to ditch the Human Rights Act. But I have a different nomination for the national institution most desperately in need of abolition: the FTSE 100 index. It is harming our economy by consistently underplaying the returns to be made on stock market investments and encouraging us all to invest in property instead. The FTSE 100 is the standard proxy for the entire stock market, yet its recent record is enough to put off anyone investing in shares. Last year, it made a loss of 5 per cent. Over 10 years it has just about scraped

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why the government is getting involved in commissioning new housing

David Cameron’s announcement today that the government will be involved in the direct commissioning of new homes on public land isn’t a huge surprise in that it continues an exploratory policy announced in the last Parliament. But what is a surprise is that this policy was announced by the Lib Dems and is now being continued, rather than killed, by the Tories. It was Danny Alexander who said at the launch of the 2014 National Infrastructure Plan that ‘we will be undertaking a detailed government review to examine the potential of direct government commissioning for housing to deliver the number of homes we need’. Yet it is Cameron today who

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How far can Jeremy Corbyn go in his reshuffle?

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to carry out his much-awaited and much-briefed ‘revenge reshuffle’ this week. Given he will have to face a shadow cabinet meeting on Tuesday, it would make more sense for the Labour leader to get on with moving and sacking today so that he faces the shadow cabinet he wants, rather than the one he wants to get rid of. But will the reshuffle really give Corbyn what he wants? This morning’s Times carries an intriguing report that Hilary Benn and Andy Burnham have offered to swap jobs so that Corbyn doesn’t have such an obvious split in foreign policy in his top team, while also avoiding

Steerpike Steerpike

Leave.EU camp stir tensions with Douglas Carswell assassination jibe

Although the first rule of spin doctoring is to never become the story, Leave.EU’s Andy Wigmore appears to be taking the Alastair Campbell approach when it comes to managing the campaign’s comms. After the Mail on Sunday revealed that Nigel Farage may have been the victim of an assassination attempt — after a wheel on his Volvo fell off his car in suspicious circumstances while he was driving on a motorway — Wigmore took to Twitter to mischievously suggest the culprit could be Douglas Carswell given his strained relationship with the Ukip leader: Douglas Carswell???? He's pretty cross at the moment #justsaying https://t.co/icykZ0Vvh0 — Honourable Andy Wigmore JPs (@andywigmore) January 3,

Sunday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The Corbynistas are becoming more Machiavellian by the day

Who held the power in the supposedly inappropriate relationship between Labour MP Simon Danczuk and gorgeous, pouting etc seventeen-year-old Sophena Houlihan? The fragrant young lady bombarded the loopy old goat with a string of lascivious text messages, in which she fantasised about having sex with him. An odd fantasy, I admit, but each to their own. Anyway, it’s hardly surprising that Danczuk panted after her, drooling like a Doberman Pinscher presented with a sack of offal. And now the ghastly woman has decided that Danczuk’s behaviour was ‘unprofessional’. This isn’t just any old hypocrisy – this is Marks and Spencer’s level hypocrisy. Now Danczuk has been suspended, the police got

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

Is the dream over? Team Corbyn gives Jeremy’s economic guru the ‘cold shoulder’

Back in August — after much anticipation — Jeremy Corbyn finally revealed some of his economic policies to the world. His policies — also known as ‘Corbynomics’ — took inspiration from the tax expert Richard Murphy’s blog. While several of the ideas — which included reclaiming the £120bn ‘tax gap’ and quantitative easing — were described as ‘starry-eyed, hard left’ policies by Labour’s Chris Leslie, Corbyn was not put off. The Labour leader invited Murphy — who is not a party member — to Labour conference. In fact, Murphy even thought at one point that he was in line for a role in the Labour Treasury team. Alas the dream appears to have come to an

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron tries to soothe MPs ahead of challenging year for party management

David Cameron’s pledge to his MPs that none of them who want to stand again in 2020 will be left behind as a result of the boundary changes is a sign that the Prime Minister thinks party management will be seriously important this year. A fight between MPs over fewer constituencies would have been bad for party morale, and inevitably theories about MPs favoured by the party leadership being kept safe would have spread through the party. But given the changes aren’t being submitted until 2018, the decision to announce the ‘no-one left behind’ pledge now suggests that Cameron thinks 2016 is a good year to calm any Conservative nerves

Thursday

The Spectator

Soggy thinking

As the chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, Lord Deben, observed this week, there is a bizarre dislocation between the government’s pronouncements on climate change and its attitude towards spending on flood defences. Only a month ago, David Cameron was at the Paris climate summit lending his weight to apocalyptic warnings of flood and tempest unless the world acted quickly to reduce carbon emissions. Yet with tracts of northern cities underwater, his government continues with a make-do-and-mend flood-defence policy which, never mind climate change, is incapable of dealing with the climate we already have. While lecturing us on the threat of greater rainfall and rising sea levels, the government

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Jeremy Corbyn must be delighted by Simon Danczuk’s suspension from Labour

Simon Danczuk’s lightning-fast suspension from Labour – as they investigate whether he sent ‘lewd’ texts to a seventeen-year-old girl – is an embarrassing note to end the year on. Especially for an MP like Danczuk who has spent much of the last few years positioning himself as a campaigner against child abuse. He has described today’s story in the Sun as being ‘not entirely accurate’ but has suggested that his behaviour ‘was inappropriate’. ‘I was stupid and there’s no fool like an old fool’ he said via Twitter. My behaviour was inappropriate & I apologise unreservedly to everyone I've let down. I was stupid & there's no fool like an old fool — Simon Danczuk (@SimonDanczuk) December 31, 2015

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Andy Burnham pinpoints Labour’s problem

Labour is very cross about a knighthood going to the man who ran the election campaign that beat the party in May. Andy Burnham issued a statement about Lynton Crosby’s inclusion in the New Year’s Honours list which was supposed to highlight what his party thinks is an abuse of the system. But really, it just highlights his party’s own failings. The Shadow Home Secretary said: ‘This outrageous award is the clearest evidence yet that the Tories think they can get away with whatever they like. It is a timely reminder that Labour must make it a New Year’s resolution to stop facing inwards and expose them for what they

Douglas Murray

Will politicians finally admit that the Paris attacks had something to do with Islam? | 31 December 2015

Written after the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January and revised after the Paris attacks in November, Douglas Murray’s piece on politicians’ responses to Islamic terror attacks was The Spectator‘s third most read article of 2015: The West’s movement towards the truth is remarkably slow. We drag ourselves towards it painfully, inch by inch, after each bloody Islamist assault. In France, Britain, Germany, America and nearly every other country in the world it remains government policy to say that any and all attacks carried out in the name of Mohammed have ‘nothing to do with Islam’. It was said by George W. Bush after 9/11, Tony Blair after 7/7 and Tony

James Forsyth James Forsyth

I won’t be Corbyn’s man in London . . .

Sadiq Khan has long been known as one of Labour’s most pugnacious politicians: someone who likes to fight, and likes to win. The son of a bus driver, he became a human rights lawyer, entered parliament in 2005 and that same year was named newcomer of the year at The Spectator’s parliamentary awards. He ran Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign in 2010 and led Labour’s fierce — and surprisingly effective —campaign in London last year. Now, his sights are set on reclaiming City Hall for Labour and persuading even those on the right that he is the natural heir to Boris Johnson. ‘I want Spectator readers to give me a second

Peter Oborne

Benghazi notebook

In their interview in the Christmas edition of The Spectator, Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth asked the Prime Minister whether he now considered that his intervention in Libya had been a mistake. David Cameron accepted that matters could have gone better since the fall of Gaddafi, but insisted that ‘what we were doing was preventing a mass genocide’. Like Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, Gaddafi’s genocide seems to have been a fiction. It was reiterated over and over again by government and in the media in order to whip up support for the imposition a no-fly zone in March 2011. However, there was never any convincing evidence. Later that