Politics

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

Wednesday

15 Jun 2016

Gove wouldn’t support Osborne’s ‘punishment Budget’

One consequence of David Cameron’s refusal to take part in any ‘Blue on Blue’ debates is that he and Michael Gove are appearing several days apart on BBC Question Time. Tonight, it was Gove’s turn to face the studio audience. In reply to the first question, Gove made clear that—in the event of Britain voting to leave—he wouldn’t support the so-called ‘punishment Budget’ that George Osborne set out today. Gove said that the Remain campaign were ‘turning it up to 11’ on the scare stories as polling day approached. Though, interestingly, he studiously avoided any personal criticism of Osborne. With the polls tightening the Remainers are getting more passionate, and

Steerpike

What ever will Corbyn say? Sadiq Khan attends Rupert Murdoch’s summer party

Oh dear. Today Jeremy Corbyn surprised everyone by using his first question at PMQs to ask for an update on Leveson and phone hacking. In doing this, he took a swipe at both Cameron and Rupert Murdoch, arguing that the Prime Minister’s Tory Brexit colleagues were guilty of ‘cosying up to Murdoch’ at the moment. Well, perhaps Corbyn should pay heed to the saying ‘people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’. Mr S can disclose that one of Corbyn’s top colleagues was in attendance at Rupert Murdoch’s summer drinks party last night. Sadiq Khan attended media mogul’s exclusive drinks bash alongside the likes of Jerry Hall, Bob Geldof

Tom Goodenough

Coffee House shots: Osborne’s Brexit budget

George Osborne has angered Tory MPs today by suggesting a vote to leave the European Union could trigger a series of tax rises. 57 Conservative MPs have signed a letter saying that they would not support such a motion in Parliament in a move which left Osborne flailing during a tetchy interview on the Today programme this morning. So why did the Chancellor run the risk of winding up those on the Tory backbenches? And will it do anything to scare people into backing ‘Remain’? On today’s Coffee House Shots podcast, Isabel Hardman joins Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth, who says: ‘I think the aim of this was to shift

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: What a strange farewell

What a strange farewell. The slickest, sparkiest and most brutal street-fighter the Tory party has produced in a generation found himself agreeing with his worst enemies today. ‘That says something,’ shouted David Cameron (who remains prime minister for the next week or so). ‘We have huge disagreements,’ he explained. And yet despite the fault-lines his Remain campaign enjoys the support of nearly the entire opposition: the Greens, Labour, the Lib Dems, the Northern Ireland parties and Cameron’s bete noire, the SNP. ‘When we all agree,’ he finger-wagged, ‘that really says something.’ Absolutely. It says they’re all deluded. Does poor Cam know he’s finished? At times he seemed to sense it.

James Forsyth

Corbyn fails to give Cameron a helping hand at final PMQs before referendum

The last PMQS before the EU referendum will not live long in the memory, the Commons did not rise to the occasion. David Cameron was determined to try and keep his broad Remain coalition together. But Jeremy Corbyn was less than helpful to Cameron. Corbyn said that Labour would oppose any post-Brexit austerity Budget, rather undermining George Osborne and Alistair Darling’s message. Then, he said that the problems fishermen in this country are experiencing is not down to the Common Fisheries Policy but decisions taken by the Cameron government. Cameron, though, received more help from the SNP’s Angus Robertson who asked Cameron to spell out just how this austerity Budget

Steerpike

Watch: Andrew Neil grills Ed Vaizey for a second time over George Osborne’s EU spin

The last time Ed Vaizey appeared on the Daily Politics to defend one of George Osborne’s dodgy dossiers, the result was not pretty. The culture minister’s bumbling performance was compared to that of The Thick of It‘s Ben Swain, in his Newsnight interview. So, it was an interesting decision to send Vaizey back onto the airwaves today to defend Osborne’s new Brexit ‘punishment budget’. With the Chancellor of the Exchequer promising to go back on election promises and raise taxes if the people dare to vote for Brexit, Andrew Neil put to Vaizey that it didn’t add up: AN: Why does a shallow recession result in this massive punishment in

Tom Goodenough

Scottish Brexit poll shows big drop in support for ‘Remain’

‘Remain’ have being having a woeful time in the polls lately, with numerous surveys putting ‘Leave’ ahead. But north of the border, it’s been widely thought that it’s a different picture and that those wanting Britain to remain in the EU outnumbered those backing Brexit. A new poll out just now suggests that whilst that might still be the case, ‘Leave’ has also gained considerable ground in Scotland. The STV poll, put together by Ipsos Mori, shows that support for ‘Remain’ has been slashed by 13 per cent since April. Back then, 66 per cent of Scots surveyed backed Remain, compared to just 29 per cent who were planning on

Steerpike

Battle of the Thames! Nigel Farage and Bob Geldof take their EU differences to the river

Forget the big EU debates, the most important face-off ahead of polling day is playing out on the Thames right now. Nigel Farage has taken to the water today as part of a Brexit flotilla, organised by the Fishing for Leave campaign. The stunt sees Scottish skippers boarding Brexit boats as they make the case for Out. Not quite the Battle of Jutland, but a swarm of RIBs flying IN flags is facing off against the Brexit flotilla pic.twitter.com/uyTK34UcK0 — Kaya Burgess (@kayaburgess) June 15, 2016 However, not wanting to be outdone, the Remain camp are fighting back with their own attempt at some gentle naval warfare. Bob Geldof is leading the

Charles Falconer

Lord Falconer: vote remain to secure Britain’s destiny

This is the transcript of a speech delivered by Lord Falconer during the Spectator’s second Brexit debate. Full coverage of the event can be found here. I so agree with Daniel Hannan that we are at a fork in the road. I think the public realise that as well, that the interest in the European Union referendum has been matched by the interest in the Scottish referendum. People feel that there is a really important decision to be made and it is to be made by the British people. I can only tell you why I think we should Remain. It is probably one of the most significant arguments that needs to

Daniel Hannan

Daniel Hannan: Brexit will be a gentle process

This is the transcript of speech delivered by Daniel Hannan during the Spectator’s second Brexit debate. Full coverage of the event can be found here. I heard today what must be reckoned to be the single worst argument that we’ve had from any major figure on either side of this campaign. It came from Ed Balls. What he said is, we should vote to remain in and then reform it. Why has nobody thought of that before, what a good idea! Think of the story of our involvement with the European Union these past four decades. If you have been listening for at least five minutes to politicians of any

Steerpike

Hapless Remain chief makes a comeback… to attend fashion bash

With the Remain camp now seen to be lagging behind Leave both in terms of momentum and polling, it’s a case of all hands on deck with the In crowd. However, as Mr S has previously noted, Britain Stronger in Europe’s chairman Stuart Rose has been nowhere to be seen of late. After a number of embarrassing slips — from claiming wages would rise if Britain leaves the EU to forgetting the name of his own group — Rose has retreated from the limelight. However as polling day nears, Remain-ers can take heart that he has made a return to the spotlight. Only rather than getting out on the campaign trail, Rose instead decided to

James Forsyth

Osborne’s dead cat Budget

The In campaign believe that they win when the referendum debate is focused on the economy. So, today George Osborne and Alistair Darling are outlining a deliberately provocative post-Brexit emergency Budget. It is stuffed full of horrors: a 2p rise in the basic rate of income tax, a 3p rise in the higher rate and cuts to the NHS budget to name but a few. The plan is clear, to get the economy and the supposed effects on the public finances of Brexit to the top of the agenda. Now, as Fraser and Jonathan Portes have pointed out these aren’t the kind of measures that a government would actually enact

Tom Goodenough

Vote Leave’s action plan shows why Brexit wouldn’t be a ‘leap in the dark’

What do David Cameron and the likes of Ed Balls and Harriet Harman have in common? The answer: they’ve all described Brexit as a ‘leap in the dark’. And they’re not alone in saying those campaigning for Britain to leave the EU have no plan for what happens next. We’ve heard the ‘leap in the dark’ phrase repeatedly over the last few months. But today Vote Leave have spelled out their action plan for a scenario that looks increasingly likely, at least if the polls are to be believed: what happens after a vote for Brexit on June 23rd? The ‘Leave’ campaign say that it would ‘make no sense to

Tuesday

14 Jun 2016

Fraser Nelson

George Osborne threatens to punish voters with tax rises if they defy him on Brexit

The polls are tight, so George Osborne has a cunning plan. He’ll present a “Brexit budget” where he will spell out how he’ll punish voters if they vote to leave the European Union. He’ll be forced to tear up his election pledge not to raise taxes: the voters will have provoked him, you see. Pushed him too far. He has all kind of sums in mind, that they won’t like one bit, starting with an extra 2p on the basic rate of income tax. Fuel duty will rise. The higher rate of income tax will go up 3p. Another 5 per cent on alcohol and fuel duties. Then £2 billion off

Malcolm Rifkind

Sir Malcolm Rifkind: Brexit would be Project Risk

When I was Foreign Secretary, a French newspaper described me on one occasion as a “eurosceptic moderate” and of course those two words tell you what my position is. I strongly opposed the single currency and was part of many other people who were opposing that at that time. But I don’t believe that it is one-size-fits-all: already, we have two kinds of European Union – those who are in the eurozone and those who are not, there are 15 who are in and 13 who are not, some who don’t want to be, some who used to want to be then changed their minds and some who will never be.

Suzanne Evans

Suzanne Evans: vote for British independence

In nine days’ time, we have the opportunity to do something amazing. We can usher in a new era of British democracy, prosperity, international trade and co-operation. We have a chance to vote for our very own independence day. I am really excited about the opportunity because I believe in Britain. We’re a nation of 64 million incredible people, each one of us has our own individual skills, talents and together we have a vast collective wealth of creativity, resilience, generosity, strength, optimism and ambition. We are Great Britain, the world’s fifth largest economy, the fourth greatest global exporter, the seventh largest manufacturing nation. We are a permanent seat holder

The Spectator

Leave wins The Spectator’s second Brexit debate

There’s just over a week to go until the polls open for the EU referendum and Britain decides what it would like its future to look like. The debate has been fierce – and no more so than when The Spectator brought together key figures from both campaigns to make the case for Leave and Remain for our last debate, when Leave won. Tonight, Andrew Neil chaired a second debate between key members of both sides. The Leaves had it again – they initially had 308 votes, and swung to 369. Remain had 138 and swung to 160 – and the undecideds had 144 and swung to 69. This was the line-up: Suzanne

Isabel Hardman

Tom Watson dumps all over David Cameron’s EU renegotiation deal

Tom Watson’s comments today that a future government would have to try to reform freedom of movement rules in the European Union are clearly a last-ditch attempt to show the party’s voters that it is taking their anger about immigration seriously. But they are also strange, for three reasons. The first is that it is strange to be talking about a future renegotiation when the Remain campaign does still occasionally try to persuade voters that they are voting to stay in a reformed European Union. By talking about what more needs to be done, Watson is effectively dumping all over the renegotiation that David Cameron has already carried out, saying that

Tom Goodenough

Coffee House shots: Brexit builds momentum, but can ‘Remain’ fight back?

Brexit has continued to build momentum in the EU referendum race with successive polls putting ‘Leave’ ahead. So with nine days to go, is there anything ‘Remain’ can do to fight back? On this special daily edition of our Spectator Coffee House shots podcast, Fraser Nelson joins Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth to discuss today’s events as the countdown to June 23rd gets ever closer. James Forsyth says the polls in recent days ‘are triggering levels of panic that are even greater than the levels of panic in the final days of the Scottish referendum’. And Fraser Nelson says it’s difficult to see what ‘Remain’ can do to regain the

Katy Balls

Chuka Umunna turns on Ken Livingstone at anti-Semitism hearing: ‘you’ll be remembered as a pin-up for prejudice’

It’s been over a month since Ken Livingstone found himself suspended from the Labour party over his claim that Hitler was a supporter of Zionism. Today the former Mayor of London was forced to face the music over his comments at the Home Affairs select committee on anti-Semitism. Although Livingstone has experienced a fall from grace since the comments, he was in a cheerful mood at the hearing. When he wasn’t pitching for his own BBC history show on Nazi Germany — ‘I’d be delighted to do it’ — he was filling MPs in on all the ‘well-educated’ Jews who had stopped him in the street of late to offer their sympathies. ‘The number of Jews