Politics

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

Thursday

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

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Come back Pesto, all is forgiven: and tell us who’s to blame this time

‘Who’s to blame for financial crisis’ is a poem I wrote in 2012, rhyming ‘speculators, spivs and traders’ with ‘rich, -uncaring hedge-fund raiders’, while taking passing swipes at Gordon Brown and ‘Mervyn King, who really didn’t do a thing’. But it’s too early in 2016 to update my ditty, because the new crisis — if that’s what it is — hasn’t really hit us yet, except in share prices that clearly have further to fall. And the question of who’s to blame, never mind how to make them rhyme, is going to be a lot more difficult this time round. ‘It’s China’s fault,’ was the gist of bulletins about the

Wednesday

The Spectator

Evening Blend: Labour’s day off

This is tonight’s Evening Blend email, a free round-up and analysis of the day’s political events. Sign up here.  Today in brief The SNP’s Angus Robertson accused David Cameron of ‘effectively taking part’ in the war in Yemen by selling arms to Saudi Arabia. David Cameron accused Jeremy Corbyn of being prepared to ‘give away’ the Falkland Islands as the pair clashed on student maintenance grants and bursaries for nurses. Labour sources hinted at a free vote in the party on Trident renewal. Yvette Cooper called for an end to Schengen and a return to internal border controls to manage the refugee crisis. Two Tory MPs said they used the

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Labour’s yellow submarine

A new face at PMQs becomes samey after a few months. Corbo reached that point some time ago and Cameron can now contain him without breaking a sweat. He’s not threatened by the Labour leader for the simple reason that Corbyn lacks any forensic guile. To prepare, mount or press home an attack is beyond his powers so he just reads out his set questions in a low verbal moan, like next door’s Hoover. Today they tussled over the scrapping of bursaries for trainee nurses. Cameron said this reform makes it easier to fill the wards with bustling sisters and swishing matrons. No, said Corbyn. It’s harder. Amazingly, some light

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

PMQs: MPs scrutinise Labour instead of the government

David Cameron didn’t have a particularly good PMQs today. He struggled to make sense at some points, ending up telling the House that ‘two out of three people who want to become a nurse can’t become a nurse because of the bursary system’ and rambling about ‘two out of three Vickys’ being turned away from nursing courses, which left everyone wondering what the stats were for people not called Vicky. The Prime Minister’s assertion about the bursary system costing so much that fewer nurses overall go into training may well be true, in the same way that saying ‘affordable housing quotas make housing less affordable’ can be true in policy

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: Labour spent £184,000 on Miliband’s debate coach

Today the Electoral Commission have released the campaign expenditure returns of the six political parties that spent £250,000 or more on campaigning in the General Election. While the Conservative’s £15,587,956 campaign bill could be argued to be money well spent given their majority win, Labour have a bit more explaining to do it when it comes to £12,087,340 they splashed on their failed campaign. So, where exactly did the money go? Almost £600 went on chicken suits, while a grand total of £223,573 went to Miliband’s hot shot US Advisor David Axelrod’s company AKP&D Message and Media. However, the bill that is of most interest to Mr S relates to Michael Sheehan. Back in

The Spectator

Jobs for Syrians: Paul Collier’s advice for the Prime Minister

David Cameron is today expected to urge leaders to ease trade rules between Jordan and the EU to help with the Syrian refugee crisis. During his trip to Davos, Cameron will call for changes to spur economic growth and employment in neighbouring countries to Syria. Where might he have got this idea from? In August, Paul Collier  – an economist Cameron admires – discussed in The Spectator how Britain had a duty to help refugees – and not just the ones who make the journey to Europe: ‘The smart way to meet the duty to rescue is to incubate that economic recovery now, before the conflict ends. Europe can do that by fostering a Syria–in-exile

Steerpike Steerpike

Peter Mandelson’s bad day at the football

With Jeremy Corbyn’s approval rating currently at minus 39 according to yesterday’s YouGov poll, one could argue that there is little reason for cheer within Team Corbyn. However, the Labour leader can at least take heart that he has managed to prove more popular than one Labour heavyweight when it comes to football. While Corbyn is a regular at Arsenal games — often attending with his sons — other Labour politicians have experienced difficulties fitting in at matches. Writing about New Labour’s toxic legacy and the ‘unelectable’ Corbyn in today’s Guardian, Alastair Campbell recalls a trip to the football he took with Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson: ‘During the Blair years, football and politics became increasingly aligned.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Beckett report will change little in Labour

Few Labour MPs had expected Margaret Beckett’s report into the 2015 election loss to be the thing that saved the party. But they had hoped that it might give the current leadership pause for thought with a reasonable distance before the next election. Instead, much like an IMF report, the document contained something for everyone, with its author even describing it as a ‘compilation’ when interviewed about it on Today. What is odd about the report and about Beckett’s own tone is that both don’t really convey what many Labour MPs believe is the desperation of the situation. This might be because the party leadership doesn’t think there’s anything desperate

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Beckett report into Labour’s loss is uncomfortable reading for all party factions

Labour’s report on its election defeat is finally out, and it says there are four reasons for its defeat: Failure to shake off the myth that we were responsible for the financial crash and therefore failure to build trust in the economy. Inability to deal with the issues of ‘connection’ and, in particular, failing to convince on benefits and immigration. Despite his surge in 2015, Ed Miliband still wasn’t judged to be as strong a leader as David Cameron. The fear of the SNP ‘propping up’ a minority Labour government. These are not surprising, and the report’s narrative verdict on how the party lost is far more interesting. It charts

Steerpike Steerpike

In-campaign reveal their secret weapon: iPlayer, abroad

Although David Cameron is said to be planning to scare the nation into staying in the EU, others in the in-camp think they can win voters over with the good. Britain Stronger in Europe have today sent out an optimistic press release revealing a key reason Britons ought to choose to remain in the EU: they can now watch BBC iPlayer abroad! ‘Brits are to gain access to UK streaming services while travelling in Europe following a decision by MEPs today,’ the email reads. To celebrate European Parliament approving a proposal which allows UK holidaymakers in the EU to access shows like EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing abroad, Stronger In spokesman James McGrory — who is Nick Clegg’s