Politics

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

Thursday

28 Apr 2016

Fear and loathing

Strange as it may seem, there are still people around David Cameron who regard the Scottish referendum campaign as a great success. Yes, they say, the nationalists didn’t like the original ‘Project Fear’ — the attempt to frighten Scotland into voting no — but it worked. Alex Salmond was defeated by a 10 per cent margin — proof, it’s argued, that relentless negativity works. Those who complain about it are either losers, or too squeamish to win. Andrew Cooper, chief of the Scottish ‘in’ campaign, said afterwards that the only criticism he would accept is that it was not negative enough. This attitude is a poison in the bloodstream of

Douglas Murray

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem stems from its grassroots

If I were the Conservative party I’d be getting worried: Labour’s implosion is happening too fast. At this rate they could fall apart and regroup in time to go into the next election with a respectable leader. Everybody knows the latest developments. Naz Shah MP was found to have said some anti-Semitic things on social media. After some bitter internal wrangling she was suspended from the party. Fellow MP Rupa Huq tried to come to her defence and compared anti-Semitism to any old mishap. And then Ken Livingstone smoothed it all over by talking about which of Hitler’s policies he thinks Zionists agree with. The low-point today was probably the

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Happy #EdBallsDay

Although Ken Livingstone has done his best to steal Ed Balls’s thunder today, it’s important to take a moment and remember what April 28 is really all about. Today marks the 5th anniversary of Ed Balls day — the day the former shadow chancellor accidentally tweeted his own name. Five years on and a lot has changed for Balls — and Labour. Happily, now he is no longer an MP — let alone a shadow Cabinet member — Balls seems to have a lot more time on his hands, which would explain why he has made himself a cake to mark the occasion.

Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: Ken’s day to forget

Ken Livingstone has been suspended by the Labour party after plonking himself firmly at the centre of the anti-Semitism row by once again stepping in to defend Naz Shah. The former London mayor said the Labour MP’s remarks were ‘over-the-top but they were not anti-Semitic’. During his interview with Vanessa Feltz, he added: ‘Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism and this was before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.’ Next up for Ken was the Daily Politics show, in which he tried again to defend his remarks. Ken

Steerpike

Rupa Huq performs a u-turn over her disastrous Naz Shah interview

This morning Rupa Huq managed to anger listeners when she used a slot on the Today programme to compare Naz Shah’s anti-semitic social media posts to tweeting a photo of Boris Johnson on a zip-wire. With both the presenter and audience left bewildered by her disastrous defence of Shah’s posts, it appears that Huq has now had second thoughts. Opting to give an interview to the Russia Today show Sam Delaney’s News Thing — rather than return to the BBC — Huq claims she was simply unprepared for the interview. The Labour MP says that she wasn’t ‘fully aware’ of the details of Shah’s anti-Semitic posts before she appeared on the Today

Tom Goodenough

Watch: The Spectator’s Brexit debate

In the largest event in The Spectator’s 188-year history, 2,200 people packed into the Palladium this week to watch our debate chaired by Andrew Neil on whether Britain should leave the EU. Dan Hannan, Nigel Farage and Kate Hoey backed Brexit. Whilst Nick Clegg, Liz Kendall and Chuka Umunna argued that Britain was better off remaining a part of the European Union. Leave won the debate, which was sponsored by Rathbones, with a resounding number of the audience siding with Hannan, Farage and Hoey. But if you weren’t lucky enough to make it to the Spectator’s Brexit debate yourself, then you can make up your own mind by watching the

Steerpike

Diane Abbott gets cold feet about Ken Livingstone

Ken Livingstone has been the talk of the Commons today after he took to the airwaves to defend Naz Shah over her anti-Semitic posts. Since then he has been suspended after several Labour MPs urged their leader to take action. So, what’s Diane Abbott been doing to help the cause? While the MP for Hackney North stayed quiet on the row this morning, she has busied herself by deleting past supportive tweets about Red Ken from the internet. Abbott appears to not want members of the public to know that she was once on friendly terms with Livingstone. After Livingstone’s suspension was announced, the ‘Tweets MPs Delete’ Twitter account started displaying old tweets from Abbott which are

Tom Goodenough

Ken Livingstone suspended by Labour

Ken Livingstone has been suspended by Labour after wading in to defend Naz Shah in the anti-Semitism row. Labour officials finally stepped in following comments made by Ken on the BBC earlier today in which he declared that saying the ‘Jews are rallying’ was not an anti-Semitic remark. A spokesman for Labour said: ‘Ken Livingstone has been suspended by the Labour party, pending an investigation, for bringing the party into disrepute.’ Instead of keeping a low profile following his blundering appearance on the Vanessa Feltz show, Ken spent the morning touring the studios, acting in the words of Labour MP Wes Streeting ‘like a political arsonist’. It’s hard to disagree

Steerpike

Watch: John Mann takes on Ken Livingstone over anti-Semitism – ‘you are a Nazi apologist’

As the Labour party continues to implode over the party’s handling of Naz Shah’s anti-Semitic social media posts, a number of MPs have turned on Ken Livingstone in light of his comments today on anti-Semitism. However, John Mann has gone one step futher. The Labour MP confronted Livingstone over his claim that Hitler supported Zionism, just before Livingstone appeared on the Daily Politics: ‘You’re a Nazi apologist, rewriting history, rewriting history, rewriting history. Go back and check what Hitler did, go back and check. There’s a book called Mein Kampf, you’ve obviously never heard of it.’ Mann then appeared on the Daily Politics to repeat his claim — this time appearing from a

Steerpike

Watch: Ken Livingstone’s career-ending Daily Politics interview – ‘a real anti-Semite doesn’t just hate the Jews in Israel’

After Ken Livingstone claimed that Hitler supported Zionism and that anti-Semitism is not racism in a BBC radio interview, Labour MPs including Jess Phillips and Sadiq Khan have called for Ken Livingstone to be expelled from the party. With Corbyn — slow as ever — to respond to their calls, Livingstone appeared on the Daily Politics presumably in the hope of conducting some damage limitation. Alas this didn’t go to plan, and instead Red Ken made his situation even worse as he went on to say that he had seen ‘nothing to suggest’ Naz Shah is anti-Semitic — despite the Labour MP admitting yesterday that her posts were guilty of anti-Semitism.

Rod Liddle

Labour’s halfwits have revealed their anti-Semitic side

My guess is that the people who voted for Naz Shah at the last election think she did not go anywhere near far enough in her comments about transporting Jews. Ms Shah is, somehow, still the MP for Bradford West, a seat she yanked from under the feet of someone we had all assumed had the votes of anti-Semites in the constituency sewn up. This is problem number one, for Labour. The loathing of Israel, and concomitant anti-Semitism, among its core Muslim vote is implacable. But problem number two is that Labour’s white middle-class metro liberal halfwits, of which Jeremy Corbyn is undoubtedly a member, are also disposed towards anti-Semitism. They

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn must now confront Labour’s anti-Semitism problem

What is being said by senior figures in the Labour party about anti-Semitism at the moment is as depressing as it is jaw dropping. On the Today programme this morning, the Labour MP Rupa Huq—who went to Cambridge University—tried to play down the whole Naz Shah issue. She argued that sharing these kind of vile posts on Facebook was no big deal and not much different from her mocking Boris on Twitter for getting stuck on a zip-wire. She said that Shah had been subject to ‘trial by Twitter’. If this was not bad enough, Ken Livingstone then went on BBC London to say that declaring that the ‘Jews are

Steerpike

Tommy Corbyn pays a visit to ‘Corbyn the musical’

This week there have been two rival Corbyn dramas being played out across London. In Westminster, the Labour leader struggles to get a grip on the anti-Semitism crisis taking over his party, while over in Waterloo Corbyn faces a nuclear dilemma. While both seem fantastical, unfortunately only one is make believe. Corbyn the Musical: the Motorcycle Diaries — written by Rupert Myers and Bobby Friedman — imagines Corbyn facing a nuclear crisis, and also offers a take on what may have gone on when Corbyn and Diane Abbott are said to have gone on a motorcycle holiday in the 1970s. Despite much media interest, Corbyn is yet to attend the show. However, Mr S can disclose that one

Violet Hudson

Money digest: today’s need-to-know financial news | 28 April 2016

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warns this morning that Brexit would cost the average Briton one month’s salary by 2020, according to the Telegraph. The think tank predicts that families will be £2,200 worse off by the end of the decade should Britain chose to leave the EU on 23 June. ‘Normally when you pay a tax, you get something in return,’ said Angel Gurria, the OECD’s Secretary General. ‘You’re asked to pay a tax in order to have greater security, or because they’re going to pave the streets, or you’re going to get cleaner water.’ Meanwhile eight leading economists have formed ‘Economists for Brexit’, backing the Leave campaign. The report was

Steerpike

Listen: Rupa Huq’s disastrous attempt to defend Naz Shah’s anti-Semitic posts – ‘I retweeted a picture of Boris Johnson on a zip-wire’

Oh dear. Whichever bright spark over at Labour HQ decided it would be a good idea to send Rupa Huq on Today to defend Naz Shah will now be regretting it. The Labour MP for Ealing Central appeared to take the Ken Livingstone approach in the interview, opting to play down Shah’s sharing of anti-Semitic posts — which led to her suspension. Huq started things off by focussing on the perils of social media — rather than the issue of anti-Semitism. Apparently it’s really easy to share a post on Facebook, even an anti-Semitic one: ‘She shared a post on Facebook, it’s easy to click those buttons – like, share –

James Forsyth

Elections? What elections?

[audioplayer src=”http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/261189280-the-spectator-podcast-the-wrong-right.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss May’s elections” startat=555] Listen [/audioplayer] Britain goes to the polls next week. Yet this has barely registered on the media radar. These aren’t the forgotten elections; they are the ones nobody’s bloody heard of. This is surprising, because they have real political significance. North of the border, the Scottish parliamentary elections will almost certainly result in another overall majority for the SNP. But we might also see something no one would have predicted even two years ago: the Tories beating Labour into second place. In Wales, the assembly elections will reveal whether Labour can hang on to power, but also whether Ukip

Harry Mount

The unlikely oilman

Algy Cluff is the longest-serving oilman in the North Sea. He was one of the first to drill for oil there, in 1972, and at the last government handout of drilling licences, two years ago, there he was again, making a handsome gas discovery. Now 76, he’s also the least likely oilman you can imagine. Tall, rangy, dressed in Savile Row pinstripes; he is no J.R. Ewing. His diffident, patrician voice is so gentle that I have to turn my tape recorder up to transcribe this interview. Cluff’s Who’s Who entry lists membership of 11 clubs. But there is no clubman stuffiness about him. He’s full of wonderful anecdotes, many

Rod Liddle

The politically correct way to do racism

Exactly a year ago this week I was at a dinner party when a famous opinion pollster leaned over to me and said: ‘You know, the best thing about this election is that within two years Chuka Umunna will be the leader of the Labour party and Sajid Javid the leader of the Conservatives.’ He was referring to the last general election — the dinner party had been convened a week before it took place. I think the chap had been invited to tell us all what would happen at the polls — and indeed he delivered a lengthy and earnest peroration on this subject, utilising all the expertise and

Matthew Parris

Brexit Tories are feeling disrespected. How awful

There are moments when one wonders whether one is seeing and hearing the same things as others. For me such a moment occurred a fortnight ago when reading The Spectator’s weekly column by our political editor, James Forsyth. James is exceptionally well plugged in to the world of Westminster, but — beyond that — a person of cool and sensitive judgment, so I read what he writes with attention. He said this: ‘[The Prime Minister] is campaigning with no thought for the feelings of those in the party who disagree with him. It is one thing for a leader to disagree with close to half of his MPs and most

Wednesday

27 Apr 2016

Fraser Nelson

OECD says Brexit would cut immigration by 84,000 a year

We should assume that today’s OECD report on Brexit was intended to frighten Britain into voting to remain in the EU. Ángel Gurría, its secretary-general, has tried to translate his figures into a blood-curdling soundbite about losing a month’s salary by 2030 (something that could easily be remedied by a tax cut). Its finding is that the trade we’d apparently forfeit would make the UK economy 5pc smaller that it would otherwise be 2030, not quite so bad as the 6pc estimated by the Treasury. And by the OECD’s maths, the “cost” to households is closer to £700 a year than George Osborne’s made-up figure of £4,300 a year. But because the OECD report is