Politics

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

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

David Cameron’s intricate knowledge of Chinese Warlords

The Prime Minister was on boisterous from at PMQs today, welcoming the Labour Party’s new found support for an EU referendum in the division lobbies last night. Cameron described it as ‘the biggest mass conversion since that Chinese general baptised his troops with a hosepipe’. The green benches were left baffled to what on earth he was talking about. Mr S, as ever, can shed some light on the matter. General Feng Yu Xiang was a Chinese warlord, known as the ‘Christian General’, who dominated parts of Northern China in the twenties. Born an illiterate peasant in 1882 he converted to Christianity in 1914. Having conquered Beijing in 1928, Feng

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Nicola Sturgeon puts (lung free) haggis on the menu in America

Steerpike has long been a champion of the fight to get America to lift the ban on Scottish haggis being imported into their country. So Mr S was cheered to hear that Nicola Sturgeon has been doing her bit to fly the flag for the national dish on her trip to America. The New York Post reports that Sturgeon’s team made some last minute menu requests ahead of a work lunch at Incognito Italian bistro in New York, following her appearance on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. The Scottish-Italian proprietors Paolo Montana and Adriana Moretti reportedly proposed an all-Italian menu, but Sturgeon’s team asked them to also include Scottish classics ‘like highland haggis and smoked Scottish salmon’. Alas

Sebastian Payne

David Miliband is the gift that keeps on giving for the Tories

David Miliband just can’t leave his brother’s election defeat alone. After several brutally honest post-election interviews, Miliband Sr. popped up again on CNN last night to offer his harshest analysis yet on his brother’s leadership. Under Ed, David said, Labour actually went backwards: ‘What I think is important for all the candidates [to replace Ed Miliband] is to reflect on the very clear lessons of two devastating electoral defeats for the Labour party in the last five years, which have come for a very clear reason. ‘And the reason is that the public have concluded that instead of building on the strengths and remedying the weaknesses of the Blair years, the

Sebastian Payne

George Osborne puts Labour ‘on the spot’ with law to enshrine budget surpluses

George Osborne is making his first big move as Chancellor in this Parliament. In his Mansion House speech tonight, he will announce a ‘new settlement’ for the economy: a permanent commitment to running budget surpluses in normal times. Osborne will point to the Tories’ election victory as the mandate to enshrine this commitment in law: ‘The result of this recent British election – and the comprehensive rejection of those who argued for more borrowing and more spending – gives our nation the chance to entrench a new settlement. ‘In the budget we will bring forward this strong new fiscal framework to entrench this permanent commitment to that surplus, and the budget responsibility it

Tuesday

Nigel Dodds

The government is already getting the EU Referendum Bill wrong

The EU Referendum Bill has been accompanied by almost unprecedented flip-flopping and ‘reverse ferreting’. I think we have to accept that it is quite right for the Liberals and Labour to have changed their minds. Or at any rate, for the voters to have changed their minds for them. Speaking, as I do at Westminster, for the only party in parliament that has been consistent on this matter, I am very glad that the referendum is finally almost upon us. As Bill Cash said earlier today in the Commons, this is the culmination of a twenty-year fight that started with Maastricht, and involved betrayals and evasions by both main parties. It’s

Sebastian Payne

Civil service neutrality during the EU referendum poses a problem for the Tories

The second reading of the EU referendum bill today was dominated by questions about the voting franchise and the neutrality of Whitehall. On the first topic, the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Greens expressed concerns that 16 and 17 year olds won’t be allowed to vote. The SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond said it was ‘deeply insulting’ not to include under 18s in the referendum, while shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn said there was a ‘ring of familiarity’ to denying younger ‘uns the vote — a reference to similar arguments used in the past to deny women the vote. Whereas the voting franchise is unlikely to stop the bill from moving forward, the lack of purdah is looking

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Is this the reason Miliband forgot to mention the deficit in his conference speech?

Earlier this month Patrick Wintour wrote an in-depth profile of Ed Miliband’s failed election campaign for the Guardian. In it, he went through the different things which had gone wrong for the Labour Party in the lead up to the election. He began the piece by focussing on Miliband’s speech in September at the Labour Conference where he forgot to mention the deficit – a mistake that cost him later in the campaign. Wintour says that according to a Labour source, a late change to his speech to include Isis meant he was ‘off his game’: ‘He was not quite sure in his head where he was, so when he got to the

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Another day, another Ukip ‘unresignation’

After Nigel Farage stepped down as leader of the Ukip party following his defeat in South Thanet, he hastily ‘unresigned’ days later. The move led to a Ukip civil war which saw Patrick O’Flynn rebel against the party leader, leading to both of Farage’s senior aides standing down. Now one of his advisors has had their resignation rejected and their contract renewed. After Mr S revealed last month that Matthew Richardson, the party secretary, was expected to ‘unresign’, the Times’ Red Box reports today that Richardson’s contract has been extended with the party refusing to accept his resignation. A Ukip party spokesman confirms the reappointment to Steerpike: ‘The post of Party secretary is a two year

Sebastian Payne

The Conservatives’ Heathrow conundrum

The Tories are facing a Heathrow problem. With Zac Goldsmith joining the race for the London mayoral nomination today, the idea of the Conservatives supporting a Heathrow expansion is becoming harder to envisage. The final recommendation from Howard Davies’ Airport Commission is due this summer and the Tories are expected to put it to a vote in the Commons. But what if Davies proposes an expansion of Heathrow — either in the form of a third runway or the Heathrow Hub? Although the Airport Commission’s new review into air quality has been interpreted as a sign that Davies is edging towards Gatwick, Heathrow is still on the cards. If the party leadership is

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Coming soon: Ivan Massow vs Iain Dale

When Ivan Massow appeared on LBC last month, the London mayoral hopeful had a car crash interview. He was outed on air for advertising for a campaign assistant for his mayoral bid at a rate of £6.50 per hour, below the London living wage, despite preaching about how expensive it is to live in London. What’s more, the fact that he was employing someone on a wage below the living wage appeared to come as something of a surprise to the businessman, which can be viewed from the 7.40 mark on the video: ‘We don’t actually have anyone on that… oh God.’ The incident provoked the ire of LBC presenter Iain Dale who was quick

Sebastian Payne

Boris Johnson: ministers should be allowed to campaign for Brexit

Boris Johnson is back to his old tricks, causing headaches for David Cameron. After the Prime Minister’s confused position on whether ministers should be allowed to take part in the ‘Out’ campaign, the Mayor of London thrown a grenade at the idea that collective responsibility will hold. On his LBC phone-in this morning, Johnson said it would be ‘safer and more harmonious’ to allow ministers to campaign with their conscience: ‘I think in 1975, from memory, I think cabinet ministers were allowed to campaign against staying in and to keep their positions. It seemed to work last time … ‘Just thinking about it out loud, on the spur, of the moment, let

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Zac Goldsmith to run for Mayor of London

Finally the Conservatives could have a decent and recognisable candidate for Mayor of London. Zac Goldsmith has told the Standard that he wants to put himself forward for the Tory nomination – after a string of senior Conservatives tried to persuade him to do it. So far those interested were either known only within the Tory hierarchy, or keen not to mention that they were Conservatives. Goldsmith has a similar independent brand as Boris Johnson: he has rebelled enough times in the last Parliament to suggest that he would be someone prepared to stand up to the Tory leadership in Westminster to get a good deal for London, which is

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron on Europe: the anatomy of a U-turn

How did David Cameron get into such a mess on Europe so quickly? For those whose heads are still spinning (and this probably includes the Prime Minister) over what on earth just happened to upset the Tory party so much and force Downing Street into a frenzied climbdown, here’s the anatomy of David Cameron’s European U-turn. 4 January 2015 David Cameron says there will not be a free vote on the referendum during an interview with Andrew Marr. Here is the transcript of the Prime Minister’s answers: ANDREW MARR: Would you give cabinet ministers and other Conservatives who want to campaign for an out, the freedom to do so in such

Sebastian Payne

Tristram Hunt backs scrapping GCSEs and urges Labour to be more radical on education

Tristram Hunt’s education policy was assumed to be a victim of Ed Milband’s straitjacket. But now, the shadow education is free to speak his mind about where Labour went wrong and his actual thoughts on education policy. On the Today programme this morning, Hunt explained why he was sticking the boot into Miliband for the second time in 24 hours: ‘It’s right that every shadow cabinet member reflects on their area of policy. We suffered a crushing defeat and we need to know what went right and what went wrong. One of the frustrations of the election campaign is that many of the public’s priorities on education — smaller class sizes, better apprenticeships, better qualified teachers

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Cameron’s former speechwriter Clare Foges launches attack on Tories

David Cameron’s recently departed speechwriter Clare Foges earned the affectionate nickname ‘the Prime Minister’s Larynx’ for her work assisting Cameron with his public speaking, so her Times column today will make for some interesting reading for her former colleagues in No. 10. Despite the Tories winning a majority in the election, Foges, who used to work as an ice cream driver, has offered the Conservatives a shopping list on how they can ‘reset their image’ and shrug off their ‘nasty party’ tag. The poet, who has been working for Cameron since 2009, calls for the Department of Health to be made a cross party department – presumably by appointing both Burnham and Hunt,

Monday

Sebastian Payne

Gloria de Piero becomes 35th MP to back Liz Kendall — putting her on the ballot paper

Liz Kendall is now on the ballot for Labour leader, thanks to the support of Gloria de Piero. The shadow minister for women and Ashfield MP has announced her support for Kendall in tomorrow’s Daily Mirror. As another shadow cabinet minister backing Kendall, it’s a good boost for her campaign on the eve of the nominations opening. Similarly to Kendall, de Piero believes Labour needs radical change: ‘We need someone from the new generation of Labour MPs to be making the case for change in the Labour Party. Liz is asking the really tough questions that we need to ask. She’s recognised the scale of the defeat, that we lost and lost

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Wikipedia reprimands editor who accused Grant Shapps of ‘sock puppet’ edits

It is probably reasonably cold comfort to him, given he’s already lost his Cabinet job, but Grant Shapps has today seen a Wikipedia administrator who accused him of editing his own page and those of other ministers reprimanded. Wikipedia conducted an investigation, which concluded there was no evidence Shapps was connected to an account called Contribsx which made edits to his profile. It said the administrator in question, who operated under the name ‘Chase me ladies, I’m the Cavalry’ (but whose real name was Richard Symonds), ‘struggled to provide an accurate timeline’ on blocking the account and coverage of the account in the Guardian. The site’s Arbitration Committee said Symonds

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Miliband’s policy chief: the party is making the same mistake as it did in 2010

Everyone in Labour is having their say about where the party went wrong in the run-up to the election. But what if it’s still making the same mistakes as it tries to elect a new leader? At a seminar on Friday on Labour’s defeat, Ed Miliband’s policy chief Jon Cruddas fretted that the way the party was running its leadership contest was giving the Tories the same advantage they were handed by the same sort of contest in 2010 He said: ‘Last time round we embarked on… a leadership election which worked through the summer and allowed our opponents to redefine the terms of debate that were locked in for

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘Careless talk costs lives’: Cameron angers MPs as he insists he was ‘misinterpreted’ on EU vote

It’s not clear who David Cameron is trying to annoy more: his party or the press pack following him at the G7 summit in Bavaria. But what is clear, at least in the Prime Minister’s mind, is that he has been misinterpreted on the issue of a free vote in the EU referendum. Not over-interpreted, as Number 10 said this morning. ‘It’s clear to me that what I said yesterday was misinterpreted,’ he said, explaining that he was referring to the renegotiation: ‘I was clearly referring to the process of renegotiation. But the point is this. I have always said what I want is an outcome for Britain that keeps

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Labour’s role in the EU referendum campaign dominates party hustings

‘There’s a sense that no one is hitting it out of the park right now’, commented one Labour MP after this lunchtime’s Parliamentary Labour Party hustings. I’m told that all the candidates had their moments at the behind closed doors event, but that no one truly dominated. Liz Kendall continued with her role as the teller of hard truths. She warned the assembled MPs that nothing else would matter if people still don’t trust Labour with their money in 2020. Andy Burnham struck a different tone. He stressed that on inequality, Labour must not distance itself too much from the last five years. However, interestingly, he argued that Labour should not abolish right to