Politics

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

Wednesday

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg still locked in tight battles to win their seats

Will there be a Portillo moment on election night with any of the party leaders? Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage are two most likely leaders to lose and Lord Ashcroft has polled Sheffield Hallam and South Thanet to find out how safe the Lib Dem and Ukip leaders are. As the chart above shows, Farage and Clegg are still in very tight races. In Sheffield Hallam, Labour is now just one point ahead of the Lib Dems — compared to a three point lead in November last year. In South Thanet, Ashcroft puts Ukip two points behind the Tories, compared to a one point lead in November 2014. Although the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Can pavement politics save some Scottish Labour MPs?

If some polls are to be believed, Labour won’t exist in Scotland after next week. All suggest it will be a considerably pruned branch of the party. Whatever happens, the campaign Scottish Labour has had to fight since the referendum shows a party coming to terms with the shocking realisation that safe seats cannot stay safe if you don’t bother to talk to voters in them. One Labour MP is notorious among colleagues for boasting in the years before this election that his canvassing involved walking around in the high street of his constituency and marking down people who greeted him as Labour voters. What a shock this election, where

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Andy Burnham still can’t answer questions on Mid Staffs

Today’s health election debate on the BBC just now was one of the feistiest we have seen in this campaign. Andy Burnham, Jeremy Hunt and Norman Lamb clashed repeatedly — and passionately — over Mid Staffs and the appropriate role for the private sector in the NHS. Burnham was on hectoring form throughout the debate. But he struggled so badly to answer Andrew Neil’s questions about Mid Staffs that one was left feeling he’ll never be able to win a Labour leadership contest until he has a proper answer to these questions. listen to ‘Andy Burnham and Jeremy Hunt clash on Mid Staffs’ on audioBoom

Sebastian Payne

The ‘Milibrand’ interview does nothing but trash Labour’s standing

Ed Miliband’s interview with Russell Brand has been released and it’s rather depressing. Not that Miliband messed up — in fact, he is very on message and sticks to Labour’s party lines. It’s simply not very enlightening. Brand comes across as the mad man cornering the boring person in a pub because he thinks he might agree with him. It’s business as usual from Brand, who ranted about the ‘unelected powerful elites that really control things behind the scenes’, the ‘geopolitical influences’ and ‘transnational corporations’. Miliband told Brand he is ‘totally wrong’ on people who pull the strings, pointing out that equal pay, women’s rights and gay rights came about thanks

Sebastian Payne

Election podcast special: eight days to go

In today’s election podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and I discuss David Cameron’s ‘tax lock’ pledge, Ed Miliband’s promise on tax credits and why his interview with Russell Brand was such a bad idea. We also look at the latest opinion polls which suggest Scottish Labour is set to be wiped out next week, and discuss why there might be some good news in store for the Scottish Tories. You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer or iPhone every week, or you can use the player below:

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Politicians seem to fetishise laws that bind their own hands

What is the point of government passing a law to stop it doing something when it can just as easily repeal it? If George Osborne were still to find himself Chancellor after the election I can’t see that we would feel any more bound to abide by a law fixing the rates of income tax, National Insurance and VAT than he would by a pledge to the same effect. If he ever fancied notching up VAT in a future budget all it would take is a clause in the finance bill excusing himself from such a law. In any case, we haven’t yet seen the text of the tax-fixing bill

Steerpike Steerpike

Yvette Cooper: Ed Balls Day has become too commercial

After Tristram Hunt subjected himself to an array of questions from Mumsnet users on Monday, today was Yvette Cooper’s turn in the hot seat. Although the Labour MP had managed to organise the Q&A so as not to clash with her husband’s Ed Balls Day, she could not escape the topic. One user – by the name of ‘rubbishdeskhoover’ – was unimpressed by yesterday’s celebrations which saw the shadow chancellor tweet his name for the fourth year, while Pizza Hut even joined the fun by creating a special pizza to mark the occasion: Good morning, @EdBallsMP. Your pizza is ready. Many happy returns… #EdBallsDay pic.twitter.com/wTDKY682tb — Pizza Hut UK (@pizzahutuk) April 28, 2015 Taking to the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Labour’s demise in Scotland is a problem for the Tories too. They just don’t know it yet

Heaven preserve us from our friends for, though they mean well, they know not the damage they do. I have great respect for Danny Finkelstein. The Pride of Pinner is one of the best and sharpest columnists in the land. There is gold in every column he writes. So having said that, I am not – this should be obvious – altogether persuaded by his latest epistle. Let’s concede there’s plenty the noble lord gets right. He is correct to observe that the SNP is now doing to Labour what Labour once did to the Conservatives: denying their legitimacy. He is right, too, that the logic of devolution only leads

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s ‘secret plan’ attack exploits Tory silence on welfare cuts

A common technique in gothic horror novels is to avoid describing whatever monster the author is trying to scare readers with. The imagination is even more powerful than the pen, and silence on the details of the beast means those reading will concoct their own personal nightmare as they read on. This was always the risk with the Tory refusal to set out the detail of the £12 billion of welfare cuts they plan to make in the next Parliament. Ed Miliband is trying to exploit that lack of detail today by launching a ‘dossier’ that sets out the ‘secret plan’ the Tories have on welfare cuts. In his speech this

Sebastian Payne

New poll suggests SNP will win all 59 seats in Scotland

Just when Scottish Labour didn’t think it could get any worse, a new poll suggests they are now facing total wipe out next Thursday. According to Ipsos MORI/STV News, the SNP is now up to 54 per cent of the vote share — up two points since their last poll in January. Punching these numbers into Electoral Calculus suggests the Nats will win all 59 seats and wipe out the other parties. Another prediction website, ScotlandVotes, suggests that this vote share would leave one Liberal Democrat MP after polling day. Unlike Lord Ashcroft’s recent polls north of the border, this survey was conducted across the whole of Scotland — not just

Steerpike Steerpike

Russell Brand kicks back at David Cameron

Yesterday David Cameron described Russell Brand as a ‘joke’ after it was revealed that Ed Miliband had paid a late-night visit to the comedian’s home for an interview: ‘Russell Brand is a joke. Ed Miliband meeting him is a joke. This election isn’t funny.’ listen to ‘David Cameron says Russell Brand is a ‘joke’’ on audioBoom Brand has now responded and has ridiculed Cameron for claiming to be a football fan when he was once a member of the elite Bullingdon Club. In the tweet, which includes the infamous 1996 ‘Buller’ photo, he suggests Cameron ought not to be too jealous that he hung out with Miliband, as the pair will no doubt bump into one another

Sebastian Payne

Campaign kick-off: eight days to go

There will be more promises from the party leaders today — plus a comedic twist. David Cameron will pledge a five year ‘tax lock’ that will be enshrined in law, while Ed Miliband will attack the proposed £12 billion welfare cuts and promise to raise working-age tax credits in line with inflation. And then we have Russell Brand. To help guide you through the melée of stories and spin, here is a summary of today’s main election stories. 1. The taxman banished David Cameron doesn’t appear to feel confident that the electorate believes his promises. Pledging to freeze taxes is something new for the Tories, but the Prime Minister is

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Cabinet responsibility

From ‘Cabinet Responsibility’, The Spectator, 1 May 1915: The maintenance of Cabinet responsibility, that is, the responsibility of the Cabinet as a whole for the acts of individual Ministers, is of the utmost importance for the welfare of the nation. It is only through such Cabinet responsibility that the country can hope to obtain a strong, coherent, and therefore successful administration of its affairs. If once we admit that Cabinet Ministers can shrug their shoulders at the actions of a colleague and say that his mistakes or his negligence are his affair and that they have no share in the blame—if, in fact, the Government are treated as if the

Tuesday

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Like it or not, Russell Brand is the future of media (Ed Miliband seems to like it)

I write at a difficult time. The balls are in the air, but we know not where they will land. Perhaps, by the time you get to read this, more will be clear. Right now, however, we know only that Ed Miliband has been interviewed by Russell Brand. We do not yet know what he said. Or what Brand said. Probably he said more. ‘That was interesting enough, but Russell Brand was a bit restrained’ is something that nobody has said, after any conversation, ever. Most likely he’ll have quite liked Ed Miliband. They’ll have friends in common. Probably even girlfriends, what with them both having such voracious sexual appetites.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why does Ed Miliband need his lectern in a back garden?

Ed Miliband has clearly decided that a lectern is the way to help voters imagine him as a Prime Minister, and the Tories have clearly decided that it’s something worth mocking. Here, in case you ever need it, is a graph setting out how often Miliband has used a lectern, and how often David Cameron has. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/Jl2hJ/index.html”] It certainly seems a bit odd that the Labour leader needed a lectern in a back garden, or indeed a field, though the official line is that the only reason he has it is that he needs something to hold his notes. However, the party has been trying to play catch up

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Fallon refuses to back Labour on Trident as he plays politics with defence

Things have come to a pretty pass when the two party spokespeople who experience the worst drubbing in a debate are the current Defence Secretary and the Green party representative. In today’s Daily Politics defence debate Rebecca Johnson ended up, after some considerable flapping and obfuscation, disowning a section of the Green party’s website which said membership of a jihadi organisation shouldn’t be illegal. And Michael Fallon repeatedly refused to say that the Tories would support Labour in a vote on Trident renewal, then struggled under tough questions about the Tory failure to commit to spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence. Vernon Coaker also dodged questions on Labour’s

Philip Cowley

Numbers, not arguments about legitimacy, will decide who enters No.10 after May 7

Lyndon Johnson’s first lesson of politics was to be able to count. It’s something that many of those commenting on the various post-election scenarios could do with remembering. Let’s start with those who think that there is some overriding importance in being the largest single party and that this gives you the right to form a government, even if you lack a majority. It is never clear what people expect the other parties to do in such a scenario. Assume, for example, that after the election the Conservatives are the largest party but without a majority, and there is an anti-Conservative block that is larger. Do we really expect the

Steerpike Steerpike

Miriam González Durántez breaks political protocol at fashion event

After Nick Clegg enjoyed a night out at the pub earlier this month, it only seems fair that his wife Miriam González Durántez should also be allowed to let off some steam. So Mr S was glad to see that she was a guest at last night’s WIE (Women: Inspiration & Enterprise) Awards Gala at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Conscious that her decision to attend a glitzy bash so close to polling day might raise eyebrows, Miriam explained in her speech that she was breaking election etiquette and that Clegg’s political advisors would prefer her to be at home: ‘Unfortunately General Elections are not seen by political advisers as good times for wives of political leaders

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Trident has become a political weapon in certain constituencies

One constituency where the Tory attacks about a possible deal between Labour and the SNP work very well is Barrow and Furness, where Labour’s John Woodcock is standing for re-election. The seat includes shipyards where the new Trident submarines would be built, and so any suggestion that Labour might scale back its commitment to Trident is hugely potent for the local campaign. A couple of days after Michael Fallon launched his poorly-received attack on Ed Miliband, in which the Defence Secretary warned that the Labour leader had stabbed his brother in the back and could therefore quite easily stab the UK in the back by forging a deal with the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why slow GDP figures could be good for the Tories

Are today’s GDP figures really a blow to George Osborne as some of his critics are claiming? The Office for National Statistics said today that GDP grew by just 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year, which is half what it was in the last three months of 2014. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/oNkRJ/index.html”] What’s holding growth back is weak output in the construction, industrial and services sectors. Ed Balls managed to resist launching into his Ed Balls Day celebrations too early and said ‘these figures show they have not fixed the economy for working families’. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/FUzL6/index.html”] The figures do suggest that the economy isn’t going gangbusters. But politically,