Politics

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

Monday

Sebastian Payne

Jeremy Corbyn given a tough ride from Labour MPs over Syria and shoot to kill

Jeremy Corbyn addressed the Parliamentary Labour Party this evening and it appears to have been a difficult meeting — depending on who you listen to. Those inside the room have said Corbyn was ‘shouted down’ by MPs for his stance on military action and Syria, while others say he was ‘savaged’ over his shoot to kill remarks. After the meeting, Corbyn’s spokesman denied these meetings are getting worse and worse for the leader and said the majority of comments from MPs were not critical: ‘There is a small minority that is taking that view at successive PLP meetings but I think actually you’ll find when it comes to it, there is quite a strong

Michael Fallon

Britain is bringing quality, not quantity, to the fight against Islamic State

Contrary to what Fraser Nelson argues, Britain is playing a major role in the military campaign against ISIL. Our planes have been flying day and night, conducting 8 per cent of the strikes in Iraq rather than 5 per cent. But this isn’t a numbers game – the UK brings a qualitative edge. The skill of our RAF pilots and the capability of our aircraft means the UK can conduct the most complex strikes – what is known as dynamic targeting. This typically means responding to an Iraqi unit engaged in combat with ISIL and in need of immediate air support as we did last week to help recapture Sinjar.

The Spectator

Cameron’s snooping law would not help our spies. Why does he pretend otherwise?

Should the Investigatory Powers Bill be rushed through parliament in the wake of the Paris attacks? David Cameron seemed to suggest so this morning, when he said that the bill was part of his ‘full spectrum’ response. Britain will be responding to the Paris atrocities, he said, and this… ‘…means boosting our counter-terrorism capabilities. We should think, absolutely, the bill we’re taking through parliament to strengthen our capabilities to intercept the communications of terrorists is a vital part of this.’ Asked if he wanted to speed it up, he replied: ‘we ought to look at the timetable’. But why? The Investigatory Powers Bill will confer no new powers on the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Corbyn questions shoot to kill policy and the legal basis for attack on ‘Jihadi John’

Jeremy Corbyn has given an interesting round of interviews to the broadcast media this afternoon, in which he has questioned the legality of the drone strike which is believed to have killed Mohammed Emwazi, or ‘Jihadi John’, and said he would be ‘unhappy’ with a shoot-to-kill policy on Britain’s streets. Speaking to ITV, the Labour leader said ‘I’m awaiting an explanation of where the legal basis was for that incident’. On shoot to kill, he told the BBC that: ‘I’m not happy with the shoot to kill policy in general, I think that is quite dangerous and I think can often be counterproductive, I think that you have to have

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Theresa May: the Paris attacks ‘have nothing to do with Islam’

On a day when Jeremy Corbyn has been making clear his concerns about both the government’s use of drones and any shoot-to-kill policy for terrorists on British streets, Theresa May’s statement on the Paris attacks was striking for the level of cross-party agreement. Andy Burnham paid generous tribute to the Home Secretary and pledged Labour’s support for her anti-terror crackdown. The only discordant note came on the question of police funding. Burnham aligned himself with Bernard Hogan-Howe’s warning that cuts of more than 10 percent to police funding would make it harder to keep the streets safe. May set out how the police here would ‘intensify’ their approach to big

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Burnham attacks May over police cuts at Home Office questions

It was inevitable that Theresa May would face demands to rethink police cuts at Home Office questions this afternoon. And Labour did indeed make this its main line of attack in the Commons, with Andy Burnham urging the Home Secretary to reconsider reductions in police numbers that might be being considered in the Comprehensive Spending Review. Burnham has pursued this issue with some gusto since taking the Shadow Home Secretary brief, as it is the one matter where he can be reasonably tub thumping and Burnhamish. Today he was sombre, but it was clear that May was aware that the Paris attacks have made an extremely difficult set of cuts

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage: after Paris, we need to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of Muslims in Britain

Nigel Farage will tonight claim British Muslims are ‘conflicted’ in their loyalties to the UK, and there is a battle to be won for their ‘hearts and minds’. In his response to the Paris attacks, the Ukip leader will say: ‘According to research it is clear that the UK Muslim population are conflicted in their loyalties between loyalty to the UK, its way of life and its institutions and what elements within their organised faith are telling them. This conflict with the UK Muslim population suggests that there is all to play for and we can win the battle of hearts and minds.’ The Ukip leader will say we need to actively

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Islamic State are clear about their values. Are we clear about ours?

Here we go again. The same mantras are dusted down: we must be more assertive of our values, less tolerant of extremism, we must challenge Muslim separatism more effectively, demand better integration. And in my opinion the same root question is somewhat evaded: what exactly are our values? It is easier to assume that this is obvious – and it gives an impression of toughness. For example Boris Johnson today: ‘This is a fight we will one day inevitably win – because in the end our view of the human spirit is vastly more attractive and realistic than theirs.’ But what is our view of the human spirit? What is

Steerpike Steerpike

Camila Batmanghelidjh comes to the government’s aid

Since Mr S’s colleague Miles Goslett blew the whistle on Kids Company – and its founder Camila Batmanghelidjh — in The Spectator earlier this year, the charity has been closed down and Batmanghelidjh has been summoned to a select committee hearing. With Batmanghelidjh’s former cheerleader David Cameron now doing his best to distance himself from the disgraced charity chief — after his ministers were accused of brushing aside civil servants’ concerns about Kids Company’s finances, could she still have one cabinet minister on side? Mr S only asks after an email popped into his inbox this morning from 6 Hillgrove PR saying that Batmanghelidjh was helping to inspire children as part of an

Steerpike Steerpike

Nick Robinson tackles anti-Corbyn bias at the BBC

During the summer over 50,000 people signed a petition accusing the BBC of showing bias against Jeremy Corbyn. One major grievance was that presenters regularly referred to the Labour leader as ‘left wing’. While the corporation issued a statement at the time defending their coverage, it appears that even one of their own staff was left unhappy by their efforts. Step forward Nick Robinson. Over the weekend the BBC’s former political editor confessed — in an interview in the Sunday Times — that he had written to several BBC colleagues over concerns that the corporation’s political coverage is biased against Jeremy Corbyn. When asked by Lynn Barber whether he was ‘shocked’

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron sees ‘hopeful signs’ of political agreement on Isis

After the attacks in Paris, what has changed? Islamic State is still a threat that world leaders don’t seem to know how to deal with, and for Britain, the House of Commons still hasn’t approved British involvement in air strikes against the terror group in Syria. But today David Cameron hopes that things have changed enough in the last few weeks that a political solution on Syria may be closer. The Prime Minister is trying to broker a deal with President Putin in which Russia agrees to work with those fighting Isis in Syria in return for a promise that Russian interests in the country will be protected. The Prime Minister

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Politicians give cautious reactions to the Paris attacks

Unlike political Twitter, which was full of armchair experts extolling their own surprisingly untapped talent while the Paris attacks were still taking place on Friday night, senior politicians have today been rather cautious in their responses to the massacre. Theresa May repeatedly told the Marr Show that there were ‘lessons to be learned’ from the attacks, but that it was ‘too early to tell’ what the fate of the Schengen agreement would be. She also said that there needed to be political consensus on British action against Isis in Syria. But she was carefully non-specific, saying: ‘It is of course important that we look at the lessons to be learned

Saturday

Mihir Bose

Can the Tories win back the Indian vote from Labour?

Nearly 50 years ago, soon after I first came to this country, my landlady, upset I was reading the Guardian and not her favourite newspaper the Daily Telegraph, said, ‘You must not believe Labour propaganda that they gave India freedom. Churchill would have done the same had he won the 1945 election.’ Had my landlady been alive and witnessed how Narendra Modi has been received by David Cameron, culminating in yesterday’s love fest at Wembley, she would have required little convincing that her beloved party is no longer a pariah for Indians in this country. For all the talk of developing ties with India to attract investments and create jobs,

Friday

Kate Maltby Kate Maltby

Will the free speech lobby accept Jeremy Corbyn’s right to be a republican?

On Wednesday night, Jeremy Corbyn brought to an end one of the most undignified sagas in recent politics, cobbling together a shuffled compromise on his induction into the Privy Council. The Privy Council, as we’ve been told so often now, is the body of senior politicians that is allowed to receive security briefings. Membership would have required Corbyn – the life-long republican –  to vow ‘not to know or understand of any manner of thing to be attempted, done, or spoken against Her Majesty’s person, honour, crown, or dignity royal’. Did he kneel, bob, or grab the royal paw in an firm egalitarian handshake? Does it matter? Meanwhile, America’s college campuses remain

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The shocking rise of anti-refugee attacks in Sweden

Sweden, perhaps the most open country in the world, is on course to take almost 200,000 asylum seekers this year. Adjust for population size and that’s like the UK taking a refugee city the size of Birmingham. It can’t cope. Yet political refusal to admit this is incubating concern – sending voters towards the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrat parties. But most shockingly, a trend is emerging of attacks on immigrants. I look at this in my Daily Telegraph column today. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/qjCco/index.html”] Sweden’s government and opposition parties both dislike talking about immigration; they are too quick to dismiss concerns as xenophobia. In so doing, they hand voters on a plate to the Sweden Democrats – a party denounced

Sebastian Payne

David Cameron: bombing Jihadi John ’was an act of self defence’

The Prime Minister has confirmed the United States has attempted to take out Jihadi John in Syria but it’s unknown whether he has been killed. In a statement outside Downing Street this morning, David Cameron said: ‘We cannot yet be certain if the strike was successful. But let me be clear. I have always said that we would do whatever was necessary, whatever it took, to track down Emwazi and stop him taking the lives of others. We have been working, with the United States, literally around the clock to track him down. This was a combined effort. And the contribution of both our countries was essential.’ Justifying the mission, Cameron

Steerpike Steerpike

A ‘kinder politics’ falls flat on Question Time

Last night’s episode of Question Time saw David Dimbleby joined in Stoke-on-Trent by Sajid Javid, Lucy Powell, Ukip’s Paul Nuttall, the Sun‘s managing editor Stig Abell and Paris Lees, the transgender rights activist. With Jeremy Corbyn the main topic on the agenda following the Sun‘s story this week claiming Corbyn failed to bow deeply enough at the Remembrance Sunday service at Whitehall, would Corbyn’s supporters prove to all the merits of a new ‘kinder’ politics? At first, it looked like Corbyn’s call to ‘treat people with respect’ and with no ‘rudeness’ may have been taken on board, as even Javid seemed keen to take part in the new regime. Discussing the leader of the opposition,

Thursday

Peter Jones

Corbyn, Nero and the Bomb

Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Nicholas Houghton is worried that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will never use the existing means of defence — Trident — to defend the country. Mr Corbyn is incandescent that a mere Chief of Defence Staff has the sheer effrontery to express a view on a matter that is (apparently) irrelevant to the defence of country but is purely political. One is reminded of the accession of Nero to Rome’s imperial throne in ad 54. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, it was dirty work by the controlling empress Agrippina that did for her husband Claudius, with the result that Nero, her son from an

Sebastian Payne

Who will influence the EU referendum? Martin Lewis, not June Sarpong

The Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis is apparently the most trusted voice on the EU referendum, according to a new poll. James Morris from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, who was also Ed Miliband’s former pollster, has examined the state of the referendum campaign and reports that it is very close. According to Morris’ research, 45 per cent believe Britain should remain in the EU, compared to 42 per cent who would vote to leave — a result that is within the margin of error. 11 per cent are undecided. This polling also shows a big difference in voting intentions among different demographics and age groups. 18-54 year old men and woman who are

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Open letter to Narendra Modi: ask David Cameron to safeguard freedom of expression in Britain

Dear Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Re: Urging Action by Indian government to Safeguard Freedom of Expression in Great Britain As a writer committed to protecting and defending freedom of expression around the world, I am extremely concerned about the growing intolerance towards critical voices who challenge orthodoxy in Britain. As your three-day state visit to the United Kingdom kicks off, I am urging you to engage with Prime Minister David Cameron both publicly and privately on this crucial issue. Please speak out on the current state of freedom of expression in Britain, urging Mr Cameron to stay true to the spirit of the democratic freedoms enshrined in British history, from the