Politics

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

Thursday

9 Jun 2016

The Spectator’s Notes | 9 June 2016

One of the most influential and learned figures in the British European debate is Rodney Leach. In the 1990s, he helped lead those of his fellow businessmen who became convinced that the abolition of the pound would be a disaster. He was a moving spirit in Business for Sterling and then in the ‘No’ campaign against the euro. This did much to persuade Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, to ditch euro entry plans in 2004. The following year, Lord Leach set up Open Europe, and continues as its chairman to this day. It is the most trusted think tank for research and debate on all EU questions, and is incredibly useful

The Spectator

The leap

This week the Prime Minister devoted a speech to what he regarded as six lies being told by his opponents in the EU referendum campaign. He later confessed that the idea for the speech had come to him while watching the news at 9 p.m. the previous evening. It would have been better if he had contented himself with shouting at the television, rather than adding yet more rancour to what has become a slanging match. Most voters tune into an election campaign only in its final few weeks; those who do so now will find nothing but hysteria, hyperventilation and obloquy. Where, it is often asked, are the facts?

Steerpike

Beast of Bolsover backs Brexit

At this late stage in the EU referendum campaign, the majority of MPs have declared their voting intentions — with some even finding time to do so twice. However, one crucial voice has been missing in the debate until now. Step forward Dennis Skinner. The veteran Labour MP has let his thoughts on the referendum down with a splash in Friday’s Morning Star. Skinner tells the socialist paper that he is an outer: Skinner says it’s concerns about the future of the NHS, along with the need to clampdown on capitalism that has caused him to back Leave: ‘In the old days they could argue you might get a socialist

The Spectator

EU referendum TV debate – Leave and Remain face off in ITV showdown

Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman review the ITV debate: Welcome to Coffee House’s coverage of ITV’s EU referendum debate. Boris Johnson, Andrea Leadsom and Gisela Stewart made the case for Brexit, and Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Eagle and Amber Rudd argued for Britain to stay in the EU. Here’s our commentary from the debate, as well as all the audio and video highlights. Here’s Isabel Hardman’s summary of the various speeches: OUT: Boris Johnson: 7/10 – stayed calm under non stop personal onslaught. Still didn’t offer much of a detailed sense of what Brexit would look like. Gisela Stuart: 5/10 – struggled particularly on women’s rights and lacked oomph but helped

Tom Goodenough

Is the looming prospect of Brexit dampening trade with other EU countries?

Is the looming prospect of Brexit dampening trade with other EU countries? Not if the latest trade statistics are anything to go on. Figures out today – the final set to be published before the referendum – show that imports to the UK from other EU countries are at a record high: rising by £1bn between March and April this year. Britain’s exports to other EU countries also rose in the same period – jumping by £0.9bn, with oil and chemicals making up a large chunk of this number (£0.5bn). These figures can be interpreted in two ways and as with many things to do with the EU referendum, both

Isabel Hardman

Tonight’s EU debate won’t just be uncomfortable for Boris Johnson

Tonight’s TV clash on the EU referendum is being billed as Boris Johnson being ganged up on by a group of women. True, the former Mayor is the only chap in tonight’s line-up (which will give him an unusual glimpse into what most debates feel like for most women in Westminster most of the time), the others being Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Eagle and Amber Rudd on the Remain side, with Andrea Leadsom and Gisela Stuart joining him to argue for Leave. And it is true that he may feel he has to moderate his debating manner: he probably can’t get away with bluster and charm when faced with the no-nonsense, aggressive

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn finds time for… Joey Essex

As polling day draws closer there have been cross-party concerns that the Leader of the Opposition is yet to get properly behind the Remain campaign. While this has been put down to his Eurosceptic tendencies, his colleagues can at least take heart that he has found time for… Joey Essex. Yes, the Labour leader will appear alongside the reality star in Essex’s upcoming referendum programme for ITV. To tantalise viewers, produced a clip of Essex and Corbyn warping their faces with an app: In an upcoming documentary from Joey Essex on the EU referendum, Corbyn meets with the reality star: Joey meets @jeremycorbyn and other politicians in #EducatingJoey #EuRef special coming

Tom Goodenough

EU referendum: Will the vote registration extension make any difference?

The decision to extend the deadline for voters to register in the EU referendum hasn’t gone down well with everyone. As Isabel Hardman has said, whether it’s a cock-up or a conspiracy, ‘Leave’ won’t like the extension which came about after the government’s website went down on Tuesday evening. But are they right to feel aggrieved? In terms of how many voters actually registered yesterday, the numbers are certainly significant: some 240,000 people, who would otherwise not have been able to vote on June 23rd, signed up. By far the largest chunk of these fell into the 25-to-34 years of age category (80,000). Whilst the third largest group of voters

Isabel Hardman

How big a blow to Leave is Sarah Wollaston’s defection?

Sarah Wollaston’s defection to Remain is a blow to the Leave campaign, whatever some of its supporters might say. The Tory MP is notoriously independently-minded, and unafraid of changing her mind, too, which makes her a rare species in Westminster. She is also totally uninterested in a government job, which makes it more difficult for her former allies to claim that she is just jumping ship in order to gain a cosy ministerial position. And Leave made a big song and dance about signing her up in the first place, which makes it even more difficult to claim that her change of heart means nothing. What is particularly damaging is

Steerpike

Conservative party tensions hit a new low over Brexit

The news that Sarah Wollaston has switched from being a Brexiteer to a Remain-er has gone down like a cup of cold sick with the Out camp. Although the Conservative MP says she defected because the claim that Brexit would free up £350m per week for the NHS ‘simply isn’t true’, conspiracy theories have since emerged. What’s more, these attacks are coming from MPs in her own party. Fellow Tory MP Karl McCartney has taken to Twitter to cast doubt on Wollaston’s claim, suggesting she is instead after publicity: Meanwhile Stuart Jackson, the Conservative MP for Peterborough, has filled his time retweeting Ukip supporters’ conspiracy theories: Cameron’s job unifying his party after the

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: Brexit – the first 100 days

To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. The EU referendum on June 23rd looks set to be one of the most important political moments in a generation. But if Britain does vote out, what would the next 100 days actually be like? The Prime Minister has predicted disastrous consequences, saying Brexit would plant a bomb under the economy. And we’ve been warned that house prices will crash and everything from air fares to ice cream will cost more. So, would Cameron step down straight away and watch the pound tumble?

Daniel Hannan

The six best reasons to vote Leave

For me, as for so many people, it’s a heart versus head issue. I’m emotionally drawn to Europe. I speak French and Spanish and have lived and worked all over the Continent. I’ve made many friends among the Brussels functionaries. Lots of them, naturally, are committed Euro-federalists. Yet they are also decent neighbours, loyal companions and generous hosts. I feel twinges of unease about disappointing them, especially the anglophiles. But, in the end, the head must rule the heart. Remainers often tell us to think of our children, and I’m doing precisely that. I am thinking, not just about the EU as it is now, but about the diminished role

James Forsyth

Brexit: the first 100 days

The Spectator Podcast Christopher Meyer, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the first 100 days of Brexit At 5.15 a.m. on Friday 24 June 2016, David Cameron calls Michael Gove and concedes defeat in the EU referendum. The conversation is brief. With nearly all the results in, it is clear that Remain cannot overturn Leave’s advantage. Downing Street announces that Cameron will address the country before the markets open. Up to now, this scenario has just been a worst nightmare for the Remain campaign and the wildest dream of the Brexiteers. Even now, the political class is almost unanimous that ‘in’ will win. But there is little psephological evidence for

Rod Liddle

Naked lunches and hidden bigotry

Have you got your names down yet for the Bunyadi? I’d hurry, if I were you. There’s currently a waiting list of more than 40,000, most of them homo-sexual Camden cyclists, I would guess. The Bunyadi is the country’s first nude restaurant and is, of course, in London. You go in, take all of your clothes off, sit yourself down in the noisome detritus left by the previous diner’s prolapsed rectum, and peruse the menu. Your waiters are not quite nude. They have small coverings to prevent unfortunate accidents. You would not wish to turn around in your seat to order a glass of water only to have your eye

Emily Hill

Hillary’s other half

[audioplayer src=”http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/268140526-the-spectator-podcast-brexit-strategy-what-would-the.mp3″ title=”Freddy Gray and Kate Andrews discuss Hillary Clinton” startat=662] Listen [/audioplayer] Women of the world unite! Back Hillary Clinton! Otherwise, prepare to be damned to that special place in hell that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright insists exists ‘for women who don’t help each other’! Exclamation marks are crucial to discussing Hillary Clinton for President. If you don’t deploy one at the end of each sentence, people might think you’re hopelessly depressed that a woman is about to become leader of the free world. We’re supposed to be excited that a woman has just clinched the Democratic nomination. It took America 227 years to get so far.

Robin Oakley

Royal Ascot

It’s time to scuttle under a rock if you are a Folkestone or Cornish crab: 7,000 of them will be consumed in Royal Ascot week, along with 2,900 lobsters, 160,000 glasses of Pimm’s, 51,000 bottles of champagne and 30,000 chocolate eclairs. Better get your chopper booking in fast, too: 400 helicopters will descend on to the Berkshire course during the week. In purely racing terms, Royal Ascot isn’t quite yet a Dubai with rhododendrons. Invitational events like Sheikh Mohammed’s World Cup in March and the Hong Kong International race day in December pull in more worldwide equine stars, and Ascot doesn’t have a centrepiece race like the Derby, Grand National

Wednesday

8 Jun 2016

The Spectator

Transcript: George Osborne vs Andrew Neil on Brexit

Coffee House Shots James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss George Osborne’s performance Abridged transcript of George Osborne’s interview with Andrew Neil. AN: Now you claim the European Union could cause armed conflict if we leave, could put a bomb under our economy if we leave – the Prime Minister’s words: hurt pensioners, collapse house prices. Why are you risking all that with a referendum? GO: Well, I don’t think it is ever a risk in a democracy to ask the people. And all my lifetime this issue of Britain’s membership of the European Union has hung over our economy and our security and I think it’s right that the

James Forsyth

The Andrew Neil Interviews: George Osborne tried to deal with the Turkish question

PODCAST: Listen to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss George Osborne’s performance: In a feisty interview with Andrew Neil, George Osborne has just declared that Turkey is not going to become a member of the EU. Osborne said that ‘Turkey has gone backwards’ since 2010 when David Cameron voiced his enthusiastic support for it joining the EU. He then went on to say, ‘Is it going to be a member of the European Union? No, it is not’. I suspect that Osborne’s intervention won’t end the Turkish issue in this referendum campaign. It is, after all, still official government policy that Turkey should join the EU at some point. But

Brendan O’Neill

There’s something fishy about this vote registration extension

Something about the extension of the deadline for registering to vote in the EU referendum doesn’t add up. It even smells a bit fishy. Last night, the registration website crashed as tens of thousands of people tried to register before the midnight deadline; and in response, parliament today announced that it will pass emergency legislation to extend the registration period until midnight on Thursday. So in order to address a two-hour glut of registrations, the registration period will be stretched another 48 hours? Two days of further registration to mop up two hours’ worth of crashed, failed registrations? What’s going on? There’s a danger we’re witnessing the politicisation of the

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs fall out over EU referendum campaign visits

Tensions are worsening in the Tory party over the EU referendum, with Leave campaigners telling Coffee House that they will now not notify pro-Remain colleagues when they visit their constituency. This is an established convention that all MPs across the House of Commons follow, of letting one another know when they are visiting their turf, but after Remain campaigners starting mysteriously appearing at pro-Leave rallies in York, Winchester and Ipswich, Vote Leave has changed its policy so that any Tory MPs supporting In will now no longer be given any prior notice of rallies by the campaign in their seats. The final straw apparently came when a large crowd of