Politics

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

Tuesday

9 Feb 2016

Steerpike

Nicholas Soames teaches Lady Nugee a lesson

Emily Thornberry has not had an easy few weeks since her appointment as shadow defence secretary last month. On Monday she received a frosty reception at a meeting of the PLP, when Labour MPs heckled her as she discussed the party’s Trident policy. With members of her own party now against her, perhaps it’s only natural that she has sought counsel elsewhere. The Sun reports that Thornberry’s assistant contacted Nicholas Soames to ask if the Tory grandee would meet her so she could hear ‘any insights’ Soames has to offer on Labour’s defence review. Alas, Soames will not be taking Thornberry up on the offer anytime soon. It turns out that Winston Churchill’s grandson is not

Damian Thompson

Will Catholic bishops try to scare their flocks into voting against Brexit?

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales – and the separate hierarchy for Scotland, for that matter – have long been uncritical, even sycophantic, supporters of the European Union. The question isn’t whether they will try to persuade Catholics to vote to stay in, but how they will go about it – and whether they will succeed. The campaign is already under way. It has been kicked off by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the English churchman closest to Pope Francis and a genial fellow who never met a canapé he didn’t like. He has already said… … though Christian churches will not take position on the referendum vote, Catholics should vote for Europe… … which sounds

Isabel Hardman

Row in Ukip over EU referendum campaign ‘stitch up’

Ukip’s announcement this afternoon that it will be backing Grassroots Out in its bid for designation as the official ‘Leave’ campaign in the EU referendum has caused consternation in its ranks. The party put out a press release saying that the National Executive Committee, MEPs and its Local Councillors Association are backing GO, which was set up by Peter Bone and is supported by Leave.EU. But I understand that there was no formal NEC meeting about this, and that the last meeting that discussed the designation was a few months ago. When I asked the party how the NEC was consulted, I was told that there was a telephone discussion

Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: Mogg piles pressure on Boris over Brexit

Jacob Rees Mogg might be one of the best known Eurosceptic faces in Parliament but he won’t be leading the charge for Brexit. The Tory backbencher laughed off the suggestion on the Daily Politics that he would be the face of the leave campaign – saying he didn’t need to rule himself out ‘because no one is going to rule me in’: Mogg also talked about waiting for ‘the great Mayor of London’ to make up his mind about backing Brexit or asking whether Boris would fall in line behind the Prime Minister and vote to stay in. The Conservative MP for Somerset said if Boris ‘jumped to stay in’,

Isabel Hardman

Labour in ‘terrible place’ after avoiding Shadow Cabinet Trident showdown

Shadow Cabinet members are a little disorientated after the heated discussion on Trident that they were expecting at today’s meeting didn’t go ahead. Officially, the reason that Jeremy Corbyn and his top team didn’t talk about the party’s defence policy review is that they had a discussion on Europe and the economy, which were considered to be slightly more pressing issues than Trident. But given last night’s furious parliamentary Labour party meeting on the matter, and given they’d been told that the discussion on Emily Thornberry’s presentation would take place today, many Shadow Secretaries of State have been left scratching their heads about why it didn’t then happen. One Shadow

Isabel Hardman

Scottish Tories aim for serious Holyrood campaign

How can Ruth Davidson become the Leader of the Opposition in Holyrood? The leader of the Scottish Conservatives made her pitch to do just that this week, and also set out her own vision for tackling inequality in a speech last night. She has become a popular figure in political circles, respected by right and left not just because of her enthusiasm for the job, but her love of amusing photo shoots, including the famous tank picture, and her ability to look as though she is actually enjoying herself on programmes like Have I Got News For You. But for this campaign, I understand that Davidson won’t be travelling about in

Steerpike

Ruth Davidson rules herself out of the Tory leadership race

Ruth Davidson has been previously tipped as a front-runner in the Tory leadership race. The Scottish Conservative leader has proved popular with both the public and her own party, with the Tory MP Heidi Allen even naming Davidson as her preferred choice for leader in an interview last year. Alas, those hoping that Davidson has what it takes to stop George Osborne’s leadership ambitions becoming a reality, will need to have a strong word with the woman of the moment. Speaking on Daily Politics, Davidson ruled herself out of the race. She said that she has ‘no interest in the job’ — pointing to the fact that she isn’t even an MP: Laughing,

Alex Massie

Cameron’s EU campaign is negative, stupid, and likely to win

Here we go again. According to today’s Daily Express, leaving the European Union is the only way to ‘save the NHS’. According to the Prime Minister, remaining a member of the european club is the only way to guarantee the United Kingdom’s security. I suppose it is too much to hope that everyone, on both sides of this increasingly-wearisome argument, will pipe down and cease being so damn stupid? Of course it is. We will be stuck with more – much more – of this until such time as the bleedin’ poll is called and held. This may be the best reason for having the referendum as soon as possible. Now the

Steerpike

The Tories’ ‘black-and-white’ ball, in pictures

Last night politicians and celebrities dined with the super-rich at the annual Tory Black and White ball. While press are banned from the event, Mr S managed to infiltrate the lavish do and bring readers a live-blog of the event. Alas the evening saw a downturn in David Cameron’s fortunes as his donors failed to dig as deep at the auction as in previous years. Despite this the guests appeared to have a good time. Charlie Mullins — the founder of Pimlico Plumbers — says Cameron used his speech to lead from the front on Europe before urging everyone to rally around Zac Goldsmith for London mayor; ‘urging everyone to get out there and

Isabel Hardman

How can Labour resolve its Trident row?

The Shadow Cabinet has its session with Emily Thornberry on Trident today. At least there are fewer people so she cannot be shouted down, as she was at points in last night’s parliamentary Labour party meeting. But there are a number of MPs at the table who only joined Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench on the understanding that they would be able to vote in favour of Trident renewal when the time came. Andy Burnham made it clear on the Today programme this morning that there was no way Thornberry would be able to find a ‘third way’ on this, and that it would be ‘impossible’ to get the two sides to

Fraser Nelson

First, immigrants. Now, terrorism. Will Cameron’s EU scaremongering ever stop?

A few weeks ago, James Forsyth revealed David Cameron’s strategy for fighting the EU referendum: to campaign on the theme on security, rather than an economic argument. This is already backfiring badly. Britain’s security does not depend upon the EU, and the Prime Minister’s attempts to suggest otherwise are inflicting grave damage to his chances of winning the referendum. Yesterday, he threatened Britain with an influx of migrants if we vote to leave. His logic was that the deal agreed with France about policing Sangette was somehow dependent on EU membership. But, being a bilateral deal, it had nothing to do with the EU – as today’s Daily Telegraph reveals. It also

Tom Goodenough

David Cameron’s mum isn’t the only Cameron to criticise Tory cuts

David Cameron’s mum has joined the battle against Conservative cuts, it has emerged this morning. Mary Cameron’s intervention after signing a petition to save childrens’ centres has been splashed over the front page of the Daily Mirror. The headline: ‘Cameron’s mum fights Tory cuts’ looks deeply embarrassing for her son. Is this a family rift? Is Mary Cameron trying to make life difficult for her son? The truth is less dramatic despite the excitement on Twitter, where the hashtag ‘David Cameron’s MUM’, has been trending all morning. After all, Mary Cameron is not the only member of the Cameron family to criticise her local council over axed services. David Cameron

Monday

8 Feb 2016

Isabel Hardman

Emily Thornberry confronted by Labour MPs over Trident

Emily Thornberry, the new Shadow Defence Secretary, held a meeting with her fellow Labour MPs this evening. It either went ‘swimmingly’ or was ‘worse than I thought’, depending on which MPs you listen to. Based on the accounts of the meeting from MPs who’ve spoken to Coffee House this evening, it was less the Ian Thorpe sort of swimming, and more Eric the Eel. Naturally, those opposed to a change in Labour policy are not happy, and were unlikely to come out of tonight’s meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party feeling very happy unless Thornberry had announced that Jeremy Corbyn has learned to stop worrying and love the nuclear deterrent. But many were

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn to miss Labour Trident briefing tonight

Emily Thornberry will tonight address Labour MPs at the weekly meeting of the Parliamentary Labour on her Trident policy review. It is the first discussion the party has had on the matter this year. As I reported last week, the Shadow Cabinet briefing on Trident ran out of time, and will take place tomorrow. I understand that Jeremy Corbyn will not be at tonight’s meeting, but a number of MPs are very keen to hear from Thornberry, not just about her thinking on the review but about who she is consulting for it, including whether she will use the evidence being gathered by John Woodcock’s backbench defence committee review. MPs

Douglas Murray

Is it really wise for David Cameron to threaten us with migrants?

Is it really wise for David Cameron to threaten us with migrants? That is what he has done today with his warning that if we ‘leave’ the EU then the migrant camp in Calais could have to be moved to Folkestone, Dover, or our own back gardens. Not only is the claim wrong (our Calais arrangements are with France, not with the EU) it neatly shines a light on the biggest failure of his time in office. The ‘jungle’ in Calais is currently home to around 5,000 people. They are there because the EU does almost nothing to control its external borders and made a principle of abolishing its internal

Isabel Hardman

Can the fighting Leave factions work together?

Despite all the fighting over which faction is working with who that’s taken place over the past few days, MP members of the Vote Leave campaign are actually rather upbeat. In private conversations that I’ve had over the past few days, a number of MPs who had been worried about the campaign have told me that they think it has turned a corner with the restructure that was announced earlier last week. The Vote Leave bunch do not want to merge with Leave.EU for a number of reasons, but one is simply that it would be difficult with such a small amount of time left before the referendum. But there’s nothing

Steerpike

Samantha Cameron, the ice queen

When Samantha Cameron appeared on the BBC’s Sport Relief bake-off last month, she managed to charm the nation — with even the Daily Mail‘s Jan Moir singing her praises: ‘Yes, she bakes like a dream and went on to beat the three other celebrity contestants to win her heat — but what was really important was that we saw a glimpse at last of what she’s really like: sweet, self-deprecating and warm.’ Alas not everyone is so convinced that the David Cameron’s wife is ‘sweet, self-deprecating and warm’. In fact one woman — by the name of Lynne Rees — has written a letter to the Mail claiming that the reality is actually

Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: Liam Fox on Cameron’s ‘ridiculous, scaremongering tactics’

Liam Fox, speaking on the World at One, denounced No 10’s suggestions that leaving the EU would mean Britain could see a Sangatte-style ‘Jungle’ emerge in the UK. He said it was a ‘complete red herring’: https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/liam-fox-on-migrant-camps David Cameron said his prison reform plans were a ‘bold and radical second term agenda’: But there was scepticism about whether it was too little, too late. Juliet Lyon from the Prison Reform Trust said it was ‘certainly true’ that the situation in prison had deteriorated rapidly under the PM’s watch: Grant Shapps spoke about being the fall guy over the Tory bullying scandal. Speaking on Daily Politics, Shapps said a blind eye was

Alex Massie

Could the Conservatives take Labour’s place as Scotland’s second party?

Last month I wrote that everyone loves Ruth Davidson but no-one will vote for her. Now a new YouGov poll reports that the Tories are ahead, if only just, of Labour in the race to lose the forthcoming Holyrood election least badly. Twenty percent of Scots say they intend to vote for Davidson’s Scottish Conservatives in May and only 19 percent are prepared to back Kezia Dugdale’s Labour party. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/WvPSD/index.html”] A lesser man than I might think this awkward. Granted, even when doubting the veracity of the much-anticipated, rarely-actually-seen Scottish Tory revival I allowed myself some room for wriggling. It could happen, I noted and perhaps it even should happen since the political

Isabel Hardman

Tory whips jittery about local government finance rebellion

Communities Secretary Greg Clark is giving a statement this afternoon in the Commons on local government finance. This sounds like something rather lacking in drama, but I understand it is part of an attempt to ward off a rebellion threatened by MPs on Wednesday. MPs will vote on a local government finance settlement motion on Wednesday, and I hear that the Tory whips are so jittery about whether they might lose that vote that they are refusing to give MPs permission to leave Westminster that afternoon. Conservative MPs have been lobbying ministers to grant fairer funding for rural councils, and are threatening to vote against the government if it does not do