Politics

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

Monday

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How Stella Creasy helped boost Bernard Jenkin’s Eurosceptic cause

Although Stella Creasy has proved to be one of the most vocal pro-European politicians, the Labour MP may have unwittingly managed to convince one Tory MP of the cons that come from remaining in the EU. David Cameron is facing a potential Commons defeat over the ‘tampon tax’ after a group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs decided to vote with Labour to demand an end to the EU regulated tax on sanitary items. While the amendment is tabled by Labour’s Paula Sheriff, Bernard Jenkin is one of several Tory MPs who have jumped on it, in the hope that they can use it to gain a wider renegotiation of the UK’s relationship with the European

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What to expect from today’s Lords showdown on tax credits

There could be four troublesome votes on tax credits in the Lords this afternoon, each challenging not just the measures that George Osborne is keen to introduce, but also the way that the Lords functions. The most troublesome of all in terms of the constitutional implications is the amendment to the motion introducing the instrument from Baroness Manzoor. This is the Lib Dem ‘fatal’ motion and it changes the government motion ‘that the draft Regulations laid before the House on 7 September be approved’ to ‘that this House declines to approve the draft Regulations laid before the House on 7 September’. The Lib Dems want to appear to be tougher

Sebastian Payne

Matthew Hancock on tax credits: ‘George is very much in listening mode’

The House of Lords is set to vote on several measures relating to the tax credits reforms today and Westminster is on tenterhooks to see if they have the nerve to kill off the cuts. Matthew Hancock, the Cabinet Office minister and close college of George Osborne, said on the Today programme the government is listening to the concern in the Lords — echoing the words of Nicky Morgan yesterday: ‘George is very much in listening mode and the peers this afternoon have the opportunity through a motion put down the Bishop of Portsmouth to express regret at this measures without braking this constitutional convention, long standing.’ Hancock reiterated his admiration for the Lords’ work

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour MPs try to ward off deselection threat

As well as the rather big problem of how to get rid of a leader they think is unpalatable to the general voting public, Labour MPs also have to work out how to protect themselves from deselection. Simon Danczuk seems to be the only member keen to talk about the former, claiming today that he’s happy to be a ‘stalking horse’ if Labour performs badly in next May’s local, London and Holyrood elections. But without many colleagues backing him and the leadership contest rules and party membership remaining the same, Danczuk could find that his intervention drops like a dead donkey. On the second question – how to prevent the

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Martin Amis: Jeremy Corbyn is undereducated and slow-minded

After Mr S’s colleague Harry Mount argued in the Spectator that the Labour party ‘has had a brain transplant’ under Jeremy Corbyn with a purge of the Oxbridge set, Martin Amis has accused the new Labour leader of being undereducated. Writing for the Sunday Times, the best-selling novelist has launched a verbal attack on Corbyn over his ‘slow-minded rigidity’. The life-long Labour supporter — who says he found himself ‘close to the epicentre of the Corbyn milieu’ in his twenties when he worked for the New Statesman — has criticised Corbyn for his lack of educational achievements: ‘He is undereducated. Which is one way of putting it. His schooling dried up when he was 18, at which

Saturday

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Farage-themed Halloween party cancelled after joke falls flat with Ukip

Oh dear. The Halloween plans of a group of Ukip supporters look set to turn into a nightmare for the event’s organiser. After Guido Fawkes reported earlier this month that a Farage-sceptic branch of ‘Kippers were planning a Halloween party with the theme ‘Nigel Farage and his creepy henchmen’, word reaches Steerpike that the event has now been cancelled. Richard Hendron — who launched a failed bid earlier this year to be selected as Ukip’s candidate for London mayor — has written to attendees explaining that he has cancelled the event after ‘the powers that be in Ukip’ failed to see the funny side. He says that they threatened him with suspension and

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Are European socialists waking up to the fact they’ve created a monster?

Remarkable events in Portugal, no? A democratically elected government is denied the opportunity to govern because its policies challenge the European Union. The left wing coalition won more than fifty per cent of the vote; out of the single currency, an end to austerity, bollocks to the Lisbon Treaty etc. But Anibal Cavaco Silva, the constitutional president, has banned them from taking office because it’s ‘too risky’. As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard puts it in The Daily Telegraph: ‘Europe’s socialists face a dilemma. They are at last waking up to the unpleasant truth that monetary union is an authoritarian Right-wing enterprise that has slipped its democratic leash, yet if they act on

Friday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Arnie Graf: Corbynmania feels like student politics, not people trying to form a government

Arnie Graf was, for a little while, the man who was supposed to rebuild the Labour party after its 2010 defeat. He was a famed community organiser from the US, brought over by Ed Miliband to have a go at revitalising is party. Graf didn’t last, but last night he spoke about his experiences with the Labour party, and what he thought of the current surge in membership under Jeremy Corbyn. This was his first brush with proper party politics, and while Graf had clearly enjoyed the work he’d done in building up the party in small local areas with community meetings, he said ‘I wouldn’t come back to it

Sebastian Payne

The Chinese government are propping up George Osborne’s pet projects

The Chinese President’s visit to the UK ended today in the heart of the Northern Powerhouse. David Cameron took Xi Jinping up to Manchester to announce various new deals that supposedly demonstrate China’s commitment to the British economy. The Prime Minister said the president’s appearance in Manchester highlighted China’s commitment to the northern project and will ‘see real investment going into the north.’ But how much money is China really putting into the Northern economy? Today’s FT says the deal is netting just £4 million of actual investment for the North — the Beijing Construction and Engineering Group will finance the construction of an apartment block at Middlewood Locks, a

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Jeremy Corbyn officially gains Momentum

After the Jeremy Corbyn-backed ‘grassroots network’ Momentum was launched, several Labour politicians voiced fears that the campaign group could be used to oust moderate Labour MPs in favour of Corbyn champions. The campaign group has since insisted that although it grew out of the Corbyn campaign, it is independent to the party’s leadership. Now things have been made official with the Labour leader’s election campaign group renamed Momentum on Companies House. Newsnight‘s Ed Brown reports that Corbyn’s leadership campaign has changed its name on Companies House from ‘Jeremy Corbyn Campaign 2015’ to ‘Momentum Campaign Ltd’: This acts as a reminder of just how close the relationship between Corbyn’s team and the group really is. With Corbyn’s aide Simon Fletcher no

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The SNP’s attitude to English votes for English laws is as hypocritical as it is tedious

Is anyone so dreary as the man who’s never happy except when he’s unhappy? Perhaps only the man who ceaselessly agitates for something only to reject it when it’s given him. Consider, by way of a random illustration of this phenomenon, the case of Pete Wishart, the SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire. A year ago Mr Wishart told the BBC that so-called English Votes for English Laws (EVEL) was: “An issue that the Scottish people could not care less about”. Scots were “not interested in your inconsequential spat about English Votes for English Laws”. Mr Wishart had “no concern or issue” in the matter. As he put it,

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I’m a Corbyn rebel… get me out of here!

As Corbynmania continues to divide the Labour party, it appears that casting directors at ITV are keen to bring the party’s inner turmoil to the small screen. With several Labour MPs resigning from the frontbench after Jeremy Corbyn was announced as the new leader, producers have been sniffing around disillusioned  party members in the hope of luring them onto this year’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! Jamie Reed writes in the Guardian that he has declined an offer asking him to take part in the ITV reality show. He says he received the offer three days after he resigned as the party’s shadow health minister in response to Corbyn’s election: ‘Three days later, sitting in my Westminster office, surveying

Sebastian Payne

Is there a constitutional crisis on the horizon over tax credits?

The row over tax credits could blow out into something much bigger. The House of Lords may table a ‘fatal’ motion — the deadline is 4pm today — which could see peers voting next week to kill off the statutory instrument needed to allow the cuts to come into action. But if that happens, will the government flood the House of Lords with new Tory peers or even suspend it? On the Today programme Lord Robin Butler, the former Cabinet Secretary and a crossbench peer, said the Lords has to accept it is the inferior chamber on financial matters and the Commons has passed the cuts: ‘The fact is the House of Commons has passed it. The

Thursday

Peter Jones

Pericles vs Corbyn

Whatever else one can say about Jeremy Corbyn, one thing is clear: he is a leader who does not believe in leadership. But he is (he believes) a democrat, and thinks democracy means acceding to the views of those who voted him into the leadership. He should try the 5th-century bc Greek historian Thucydides to see what it really entails. Thucydides’ hero was his contemporary Pericles, a man who so controlled the Assembly — Athens’ sovereign decision-making body (all Athenian citizens over 18) — that Thucydides described Athens at the time as ‘in theory a democracy, but in fact rule by the foremost individual’. This is an exaggeration. Pericles in

Sebastian Payne

New poll shows the EU referendum is neck and neck

The battle for Britain to remain in or leave the European Union is now very tight. What UK Thinks, a new website providing non-partisan information on the referendum, reports on a new poll from YouGov and the ESCR that looks at the influence party leaders may have on the referendum. Without any leader mentioned, 50.6 per cent would vote to remain in, compared to 49.4 per cent who would vote to leave — a tiny 1.2 per centage point difference. Unsurprisingly, the poll finds that a large majority of those inclined to vote to leave are Conservatives, while the Remain vote is comprised of Labour, SNP and Lib Dem backers. Both David Cameron and

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

MPs approve plan to introduce English votes for English laws

MPs have just approved the change to the Commons regulations that will introduce English votes for English laws by 312 votes to 270. The proposals mean an additional stage of scrutiny in the Commons where a grand committee of either English MPs or English and Welsh MPs can consider and veto the proposals. It is not particularly clear how often this situation would arise, and therefore it really does remain to be seen whether this will practically make a great deal of difference to Parliament. The debate on the measure saw Scottish National Party MPs warning of the creation of two classes of MP, and of damage to the Union.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The lunch that began the end of the Cold War

It is one of the great counterfactuals of contemporary history, what if Mikhail Gorbachev had walked out of that Chequers lunch with Margaret Thatcher in 1984? As Charles Moore explained at last night’s Spectator event to celebrate the launch of the second volume of his Thatcher biography, that lunch—where Thatcher and Gorbachev debated capitalism and Communism—was key to the ending of the Cold War. For Thatcher then persuaded Ronald Reagan that he should meet Gorbachev and that Gorbachev was someone they could do business with. But Gorbachev had almost left Chequers early, his wife had mouthed to him across the table ‘should we go now?’ as Thatcher hammered away at

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So Theresa May, isn’t your own workforce ‘too white’?

Today Theresa May has hit out at the lack of black and Asian officers in the police forces, arguing that the current diminutive figures are ‘simply not good enough’. She said that the current forces must increase ethnic diversity in order to represent their communities, claiming that there are no black officers in Cheshire, Durham, Dyfed-Powys and North Yorkshire. Strong words from the Home Secretary, which left Mr S wondering just how diverse May’s own personal work force is. Surely with May — an apparent champion for ethnic diversity in the workplace — branding police forces ‘too white’, she herself has a high proportion of staff from ethnic minorities? Alas, in terms of her

Sebastian Payne

How Ukip intends to fight (and maybe win) the Oldham West & Royton by-election

The death of Michael Meacher means the first by-election of this Parliament is upon us — as well as the first with Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. The exact timings have yet to be announced but sometime before the end of 2015 seems likely. The seat is likely to be a shoo-in for Labour: Oldham West & Royton and its predecessor constituency have been represented by Meacher since 1970 and by Labour since 1950 (minus one by-election in 1968). But strange things happen in by-elections and Ukip managed to increase its vote share in May’s general election by 17 per cent to 20.6 per cent. Labour has a whopping 14,738 majority but the Kippers

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Osborne: Tories ‘signalled’ tax credit cuts during election campaign

The general election was only a few months ago, but according to George Osborne, voters and his own MPs have forgotten what happened during that campaign. Indeed, it seems we have all already forgotten what was said, because apparently the campaign included details of cuts to working tax credits. Today the Chancellor defended these cuts when he appeared before the Treasury Select Committee. John Mann decided that the most effective way of attacking the cuts was by appealing to George Osborne’s own personal ambition. ‘We’re trying to help you Chancellor avoid Mrs Thatcher’s mistakes with the poll tax,’ he said, adding: ‘That will be a political disaster for you as