Politics Archives

Tuesday

3 Nov 2015

Rows on Trident and Syria highlight Labour’s policymaking problems

How does Labour make its policy? Different factions and frontbenchers are quarrelling about a number of issues such as Trident and action in Syria, but a common theme in each dispute is whose word actually represents official policy. Currently the party has a plethora of different stances on everything. Maria Eagle is having to explain that a Scottish Labour conference vote does not change the party’s official policy on Trident, while her Shadow Cabinet colleague Diane Abbott is explaining that it’s something the UK-wide party really should follow. Hilary Benn is having to explain that Labour won’t consult Stop the War on British involvement in action against so-called Islamic State

Isabel Hardman

Will pro-EU Tory candidates struggle to find seats in 2020?

That Tory activists are increasingly likely to vote to leave the EU rather than stay (see ConHome’s latest survey) in the referendum has all sorts of different effects on the party. But one is that it will make it more difficult for aspiring MPs who are quite in favour of staying in. A number of pro-European Tory activists mulling standing in 2020 are concerned that their europhilia will keep them out of the limited number of winnable seats that will come up for the next election. Competition will be fiercer because of the boundary review, which will reduce the overall number of seats from 650 to 600, and the Tory

Sebastian Payne

John Bickley is Ukip’s candidate in Oldham West & Royton by-election

Ukip has plumped for John Bickley as its candidate in the upcoming Oldham West & Royton by-election, following the death of Michael Meacher. Although other names were in the frame, Bickley was the natural choice — he came very close to winning in the nearby seat of Heywood & Middleton in a by-election last year. Ukip HQ will be hoping Bickley can use his local following to, at the very least, increase the party’s vote share. In the 2015 general election, Ukip received 20 per cent of the vote, a 17 per cent increase since the 2010 election. But Ukip still has an almighty challenge to win the seat: Labour won Oldham West with a 14,738 majority

Isabel Hardman

No10 insists that Cameron may still seek vote on bombing Syria

Number 10 is this morning pushing back against the reports that David Cameron has abandoned a vote on extending British military involvement in action against Isis to Syria. Sources insist that they do not recognise the stories that have appeared in a number of papers and that nothing has changed. Those reports suggest that Cameron was struggling to persuade sufficient numbers of Labour MPs to back his stance. This is not particularly surprising given it was always going to be difficult to be confident that MPs from another party would definitely do as they said. The Tory whips can hardly apply the same methods to those MPs in the Opposition

Sebastian Payne

George Osborne adds meat to Britain’s EU reform demands

George Osborne is speaking in Germany today, where he will apparently tell a business conference that Britain does not want ‘ever-closer union’ and the other EU member states will have to respect and work with this, if they don’t want to see a Brexit: ‘Remain or leave, is the question our democracy has demanded we put because, quite frankly, the British people do not want to be part of an ever-closer union. ‘We want Britain to remain in a reformed European Union, but it needs to be a European Union that works better for all the citizens of Europe – and works better for Britain too. It needs to be a Europe where we are not part

Brendan O’Neill

Should people be free to make death threats? Sometimes, yes

The keyboard weirdos bombarding Labour MP Jess Phillips with threats, after she scoffed at the idea of marking International Men’s Day with a debate in parliament, are cretins of the highest order. Pathetically hiding behind made-up names and cartoon avatars, they harangue a politician for saying something they disagree with. Not by saying to her ‘I disagree with you,’ but rather ‘I think you should be raped’. If you know one of them, please give them a clip round the lughole, and perhaps confiscate their gadgets. But should these morons be investigated by the authorities? I’m not so sure. Ms Phillips has reported some of her ugly maulers to the

Steerpike

Is Benedict Cumberbatch the new Russell Brand?

With Russell Brand no longer an active revolutionary, having officially retired from politics after failing to make an impact on the general election, there’s a vacancy for a new celebrity champion of fashionable political causes. Thankfully Benedict Cumberbatch appears to be doing his best to fit the bill. The Sherlock actor made the news last week after he ranted on-stage about the government’s response to the refugee crisis following a performance of Hamlet at the Barbican. According to the Daily Mail, Cumberbatch let it be known that he thought the government’s pledge to take 20,000 refugees was not enough, before — eloquently — concluding: ‘f— the politicians’. As Boris Johnson points out in the Telegraph, Cumberbatch appeared to be

Monday

2 Nov 2015

Sebastian Payne

Questions unanswered over No.10 special treatment for Kids Company

Did Kids Company receive preferential treatment and funds because it was the ‘favoured’ charity of the Prime Minister? This was the key question put to two senior civil servants at the Public Accounts select committee this afternoon — and naturally, their answers were evasive. Richard Heaton, formerly the permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, said ‘I was aware it was prime minister’s favoured charity’ but there was no smoking gun that it received any ‘special treatment’ — Heaton said he ‘didn’t see anything unusual in the correspondence’ — although the definition of what counted as special treatment was pulled apart throughout. It remains to be seen how this preference was known.

Steerpike

David Cameron finds himself in hot water over poppy photoshop

After the actress Sienna Miller became subject to vitriol over the weekend for failing to wear a remembrance poppy during an appearance on the Graham Norton Show, politicians and celebrities alike are now doing their best to show off their poppies at any opportunity. Today 10 Downing Street even changed their Facebook profile photo to one of David Cameron sporting a poppy. However, Cameron’s remembrance efforts have since been questioned as Number 10 have been accused of photoshopping a poppy onto an old photo: https://twitter.com/dylanhm/status/661228417803755520 The original photo from July had no poppy: https://twitter.com/dylanhm/status/661229089978769408 His team have since managed to find a photo of Cameron wearing a real Remembrance Sunday poppy: With Cameron now accused of being a

Steerpike

British Polling Council slurs Vote Leave director in email gaffe

Oh dear. Thanks to today’s technological advances, it’s never been easier to stay in touch with contacts. However, one member of the British Polling Council discovered today that this is not always a good thing. Vote Leave’s Dominic Cummings complained to the BPC about the Confederation of British Industry’s EU survey, which was conducted by YouGov. After receiving the email complaint, staff discussed his claims, but failed to notice that Cummings was cc’d into the conversation. In the email, Nick Moon wrote that ‘at first glance the odious Cummings might be onto something’ before admitting that the ‘survey looks pretty dodgy’. Given that the BPC — which regulates all UK polling — ought to

Sebastian Payne

Maria Eagle: Scottish Labour’s vote on Trident won’t dictate Labour’s national policy

24 hours after Scottish Labour voted to oppose renewing Trident, the party’s policy is firmly where it was before this weekend’s conference. On the World at One, the shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle thanked the Scottish Labour conference for their thoughts and said their vote won’t be changing Labour’s policy: ‘I welcome the input of Scottish Labour and its conference into our internal debate, they’re one of many important voices that there are across the Labour movement about this issue. ‘But let’s very clear about what this does and does not mean. This does not change our policy. Defence isn’t a devolved matter, so Labour party policy has to be set at a

Steerpike

Tristram Hunt shares his views on Labour with the one per cent

With Tristram Hunt reported to be one of the Labour MPs on the list of targets for de-selection, the former shadow education secretary could do worse than to keep his head down. Unfortunately, a talk he recently gave to Cambridge University’s Labour Club — entitled ‘Principles, Politics and Pathway to Power’ — is only likely to heighten tensions. Varsity, Cambridge’s weekly student newspaper, reports that during the talk, Hunt raised concerns that Labour would soon become an echo chamber and cease to be a major political party: ‘My fear is algorithmic politics [where because] everyone shares the same views as you on social media and in your social circles… you become a sect

Nick Cohen

The left is no longer a happy family

The far left controls the Labour leadership because the centre left did not take it seriously until it was too late. For a generation indeed, Labour and much of the rest of liberal-left Britain has lived with the comforting delusion that there was no far left to fight. The left, on this reading, was one family. It may have had its troublesome teenagers. Their youthful high spirits may have made the little scallywags ‘go too far’ on occasion. But everyone was still in one family, still on the same side. The old notion that the far left was the centre left’s enemy died away as the Labour party gave up

Isabel Hardman

The ‘genius’ plan that stopped a Tory housing rebellion – and endangered a manifesto pledge

The Housing and Planning Bill gets its second reading in the House of Commons this afternoon, and though Labour has been making angry noises about it, it won’t encounter as many problems as it might have done. This might ultimately be a bad thing for the Tories, though. The rebellion that won’t happen would have been on the right-to-buy for housing associations, which the Tories put in their manifesto, but which a number of their own MPs were deeply worried about. Housing associations were so worried about the impact of the government legislating to force them to sell off their homes that they made a voluntary offer to ministers to

Steerpike

Listen: Jess Phillips vs Philip Davies on ‘ridiculous’ International Men’s Day debate

When the Tory MP Philip Davies called for a Commons debate to mark International Men’s Day last week during a backbench business committee meeting, his suggestion was met with laughter from Labour’s Jess Phillips. Phillips said that despite it being the case that a Commons debate currently marks International Women’s Day, it was ‘laughable’ to suggest that the men should have the same for International Men’s Day. She said that men do not need more opportunities to speak in the House of Commons given the current ratio of men to women. So when the pair were brought together on the Daily Politics to air their differences, it made for some entertaining viewing.

Sebastian Payne

Diane Abbott: UK-wide Labour will also oppose Trident

Jeremy Corbyn said he wanted Labour to have an open debate about the big issues and he’s certainly got that. Yesterday, 70 per cent of the Scottish Labour conference voted for a motion opposing the renewal of the Trident independent nuclear deterrent — putting the party’s policy north of the border at odds with Labour as a whole. Although there was a motion tabled at Labour’s Brighton conference to debate Trident, it never reached the floor and the policy backing nuclear weapons remained intact. Plus, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is in favour of Trident, while Corbyn is thought to be against. Such votes have happened in the past at Scottish Labour conferences and

Sunday

1 Nov 2015

Charles Moore

I think I’ve found the perfect title for my Thatcher biographies

One of the best of P.G. Wodehouse’s works is The Inimitable Jeeves, which I have recently re-read. In order to impress his friend Bingo Little’s rich uncle, Lord Bittlesham, Bertie Wooster has to pretend that he is the romantic novelist Rosie M. Banks, whose writing Bittlesham greatly admires. The trick succeeds. Eventually, when Bingo wishes to marry a waitress without being cut out of his uncle’s money, he begs Bertie to go and plead with Lord Bittlesham on his behalf. He advises him to ‘start off by sending the old boy an autographed copy of your latest effort with a flattering inscription’. ‘What is my latest?’ asks Bertie, who is

Steerpike

SNP politician tries to re-do live interview

Oh dear. The SNP are so powerful in Scotland at the moment that some of the party’s elected representatives might be forgiven for thinking it can defy the laws of gravity and time. Take Angela Constance MSP, who today thought it might be possible to re-do a live interview. In an interview with the Sunday Politics, she found herself saying ‘twenty thousand and twelve’, rather than 2012, and asked the presenter if she could start the interview again. He agreed, but then rather gently pointed out that the programme was live.

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May doesn’t rule out supporting leaving the European Union

Could Theresa May be the politician to lead the ‘Out’ campaign in the European Union referendum? James examined this prospect in his politics column recently, and Westminster watchers have been trying to pick up clues as to whether the Home Secretary is preparing to support leaving the EU. Today she gave very little away on the Andrew Marr Show, but it was what she didn’t say that was the most telling. May insisted that the most important thing at the moment was that Britain did the renegotiation. ‘Let’s do this renegotiation, let’s see what reform we can bring about as a result of this renegotiation,’ she said, adding that the

Friday

30 Oct 2015

Steerpike

Watch out Ed, Harriet Harman’s writing her memoirs

After Harriet Harman stepped down from the frontbench earlier this year after 28 years, she was asked by Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics which Labour leader had been her favourite to work under. While Harman had praise for Neil Kinnock, Tony Blair — who was nice even when he sacked her — and Gordon Brown, she failed to mention her most recent boss Ed Miliband. So perhaps the MP for Doncaster North will be emitting a bead of sweat on hearing that Harman is in the process of writing her memoirs. The outspoken Labour MP has tweeted a photo of a censored screen as she begins to recount her days on the frontline of