Politics

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

Wednesday

Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon

Here’s an election idea: why not weaponise defence?

A few weeks ago, Boris Johnson posed a question in his residents’ survey for the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. ‘Which issues are most important for the country as a whole?’ Fifteen subjects were offered for consideration. Not one mentioned defence or security, despite the threatening global scene. There is an election in May. The major parties are competing in the great NHS give-away whilst showing every sign of wishing to bury defence until well after the election, using the expected Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR-15) as the convenient touchstone for evasion. Yet it is highly likely that this review will either be pushed into 2016, or again prove unfit

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour keeps up pressure on HSBC row

Labour wants to keep up the pressure on the the Tories over the HSBC scandal today. Ed Miliband will inevitably have a go on the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions (though the odds on him mentioning the word ‘chaterama’ are 28/1), followed by an Opposition Day debate on tax avoidance in which the party will call for a full statement from Lord Green and the Prime Minister about the former’s role at HSBC and his appointment as a minister. The party will also set out its own plans for tackling tax avoidance. The motion, which you can read in full below, is worded in such a way as to make

Tuesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Australia joining the Eurovision shows the awesome soft power of the song contest

All you want from Europe is free trade, cheap flights and the Eurovision Song Contest – the rest is bureaucracy. One of the contest’s many strengths is its generous, expansive definition of ‘European’. Its soft power is awesome, and effective. It reaches out to countries banging on the door of the West – nations the European Union itself is too sniffy, paranoid and insular to include. This has led to several historic occasions, underling Eurovision’s status as the world’s premiere forum for the collision of politics and culture, where hatchets are buried (or dug up) and new alliances struck. Israel has been contesting since 1973, and its giving 12 points to Germany in 1982 was

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour to reach women with a barbie bus

Labour is launching its women’s campaign tomorrow, and Guido has discovered that part of this special campaign is a special battle bus. A pink bus. A pink bus with ‘Woman to Woman’ on it. This is odd, from a party whose MPs are quite keen on campaigning for gender neutral toys and which lent its support to the Pink Stinks campaign. Where will the pink van go? To shopping centres and nail bars? Perhaps it will offer manifesto manicures, where the party’s pledge card is stuck onto acrylic nails so that women can’t forget about what Labour is offering – because as the No campaign in the Scottish independence referendum

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Lib Dems run out of MPs to promote

Following my earlier story about the Tories deciding they can only rely on Lib Dems who are ministers to form a coalition majority after the election, I have learned that the rebellious backbench problem is worse than it first appears. The party has run out of MPs suitable to work as Parliamentary Private Secretaries. For those who don’t know, PPSs are the ‘bag carriers’ of government, junior ministerial posts that largely involve an MP being forced to be loyal to their party whip at all times while briefing their minister on important matters, working as their minister’s eyes and ears in the rest of the party, and encouraging the rest

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Mortgage rates stand at record lows – so why won’t George Osborne boast about it?

Under George Osborne, borrowing costs have fallen to record lows – as data released by the Bank of England today shows. And this, rather than pretending that he has been helping savers, should be his line of attack – after all, when borrowing costs are down so is the interest savers can earn. The effect Osborne’s cheap money has had on borrowing costs really is quite extraordinary. The average rate on a 2-year 75 per cent LTV fixed mortgage is at a record low of 2.01 per cent, down from 2.6 per cent last summer. That is a significant saving for those signing the contract on their house today. Just look at the graph above

Alex Krasodomski

A tip for MPs on Twitter: know the difference between social and broadcast media

Entering ‘Politicians are…’ into the Google search bar brings predictable results. Well, mostly. In amongst ‘liars’, ‘scum’ and ‘all the same’, Google suggests ‘lizards’: David Icke’s reptilian illuminati are still in the spotlight. Number five on the list is predictable: politicians are ‘out of touch’. Minding the gap has been central to British politics for years. Politicians, the line goes, are out of touch with reality, and, to make things worse, spend their whole time in Westminster, only visiting their constituencies to try to hang onto the seat. Yet some canny MPs are beginning to change this impression. This is the first general election where social media will be truly pervasive.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour finally starts to articulate its vision for British business

Why isn’t Ed Miliband at the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference? Ed Balls tried to defend his boss this morning as he arrived at the event, saying it was ‘getting a bit trivial’ to ask who was attending which conference. The Shadow Chancellor said: ‘Ed Miliband has spoken at this conference a number of times… They’ve got me and Chuka Umunna and this has been tabled and agreed for months and months and months. We’re setting out Labour’s position. As I said it’s the position of me and Ed and Chuka and the whole of the Labour party. Ed has spoken at the conference many times before.’ To be

Steerpike Steerpike

Why Peter Stringfellow didn’t look ‘cool’ at Black & White Ball

As part of David Cameron’s efforts not to appear as the leader of the party of the posh, the Prime Minister is rarely seen in black tie. Last night’s Black & White Ball was no exception, with guests told to dress in ‘winter cool’ for the lavish Grosvenor House bash. Mr S isn’t sure what ‘winter cool’ looks like but judging from the number of scantily clad women in attendance it doesn’t involve very much material. While Cameron opted for a lounge suit, one man who definitely stood out in his smart attire was Peter Stringfellow. During an interview on the Daily Politics, the 74-year-old strip club owner defended his decision to wear black tie to the ball.

Steerpike Steerpike

Conservatives website glitch ‘reveals’ non-target Tory seats

With the Tory’s Black & White Tie Ball to prepare for yesterday, it’s understandable that the brains at Conservative HQ may not have been 100 per cent focussed. This could explain why an error on the website appeared to reveal the party’s non-target seats for the election. Images of the varying candidates on the Conservative website showed in the url if they were listed as a ‘non target candidate’. Memo to Conservatives: including “Non%20target%20candidates” in URLs is a bit of a giveaway https://t.co/QGy7v7aphm pic.twitter.com/M6WCraLDVn — Phil Rodgers (@PhilRodgers) February 9, 2015 Included in the list of non-target seats were South Thanet, Boston and Skegness, and Rochester and Strood. If this is the case, it would mean the Conservatives are not

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Tories could only rely on Lib Dem ministers in second coalition

Tories in Downing Street have concluded that they cannot rely on the support of any Liberal Democrats who are not ministers after the General Election, Coffee House has learned. Even though most talk of how a Tory-Lib Dem coalition would work focuses on the number of seats each party would win, I understand that the Conservatives are now working on the basis that a coalition majority could only include those Lib Dems who are on the government payroll. Most forecasts currently put the Lib Dems on around 25 seats, and the Conservatives expect that this would lead to 10 of those MPs being appointed ministers. The reason Number 10 has

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory Black & White Ball auctions a night in Annabel’s – for £110,000

It’s the Black & White Ball tonight, a lavish Conservative fundraiser at which David Cameron tries to milk as much cash as he can from squillionaires – while trying, somehow, to avoid being seen as the leader of the party of the rich. It’s a hard line to walk, which is why there is a strict ban on journalists. But Mr S has sneaked in anyway – and what a sight! At up to £1,500 a ticket, it’s not a gig many hacks can afford. The net worth at the Grosvenor House Hotel tonight must run into the billions, yet no champagne! However, Mr S hears a whisper that not all guests were

Sebastian Payne

Conservatives have a three-point lead in latest Ashcroft poll

Have the Tories benefited from Labour’s week of misery? In Lord Ashcroft’s latest national poll, the Conservatives are now three points ahead of Labour — up from 30 per cent in last week’s poll. The Green Party are down to six per cent, the Lib Dems are up slightly to nine per cent and Ukip are down one point to 14 per cent. See the chart above for how the voting preferences have changed in Ashcroft’s polls this year. David Cameron personally continues to do well: nearly 60 per cent would prefer him as Prime Minister to Ed Miliband. When considering why either leader would do a better job, a

Douglas Murray

Freedom of speech is a sacred British value (and those who disagree can hop it)

In the aftermath of last month’s Paris atrocities there was a remarkable piece in one of Denmark’s leading papers signed by more than a dozen prominent Danish Muslims.  It said that France, like Denmark, is a country where there is freedom of speech and freedom of religion and that writers and cartoonists had every right, in such societies, to draw and cartoon whatever they wanted, including Islam’s prophet.  Muslims should get used to it. At the end of translating this article for me the Danish friend who showed it to me said something very important: ‘This has only happened because we’ve been having this argument in Denmark for nine years.’

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Why does the skin colour of London’s next Mayor matter one toss, Margaret Hodge?

Shocking news belatedly reaches me that the Labour MP Margaret Hodge has pulled out of the race to become the next Mayor of London. I am not sure how London will cope without this colossus, but there we are. She said: ‘I actually think the time is right for us to have a non-white mayor.’ Oh, DO you, actually? Is it possible to be more patronising than this? Why does the colour of a candidate’s skin matter one toss, you privately-educated, minted offspring of a multi-millionaire? It may well be that the best Labour candidate for mayor – David Lammy – happens to be black. But to suggest one should

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why this election campaign makes me fear for the future of the United Kingdom

After the Scottish referendum campaign, the Union could probably have done with a period of calm. But it is not going to get it. Who gets to form a government at Westminster after the next election could turn on what happens in Scotland and how many seats the SNP wins. This fact is making both Labour and the Tories behave in ways that are damaging to the Union. Jim Murphy, the new leader of Scottish Labour, has decided to try and show that he is prepared to pick fights with London too, in the hope that will take some of the wind out of the Nationalists’ sales. Hence his deliberately

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour fights back on HSBC leak

After being told by the Tories that he has ‘questions to answer’ on the BBC story about HSBC, Ed Balls has decided to tell the Tories that they have ‘questions to answer’ on the story too. The Speaker has just granted Shabana Mahmood an urgent question in the Commons demanding that the Chancellor answer Labour’s questions about the story. The Shadow Chancellor said that ‘there are very serious questions for George Osborne and David Cameron to answer today’. His questions are why has there only been one prosecution out of 1,100 individual implicated in allegations about tax evasion and why Stephen Green, former Chairman of HSBC, was appointed a minister

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson woos Tory MPs with a ‘rucksack clanking with booze’

Boris Johnson’s campaign to woo Tory MPs is continuing as the General Election approaches. I hear that he held another one of his suppers for colleagues at his home in the last fortnight, and that the MPs who did attend were seriously impressed. One says: ‘It was a really uplifting experience. I feel very conflicted between him and Theresa [May] as potential leaders.’ Another described the evening as ‘great fun, relaxed. He arrived with a rucksack clanking with booze and we had a takeaway curry and shot the breeze. No heavy canvassing.’ Number 10 is allowing these dinners, which involve a mix of MPs loyal to Cameron and rebels, to

Steerpike Steerpike

Will Tristram Hunt’s business-savvy wife be voting Labour?

It was his contempt for nuns that got shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt into trouble on last week’s Question Time, but there was another notable line worth revisiting. A tetchy Hunt hit back at an audience member who accused him of failing to understand the needs of small business owners, struggling to pay their bills: ‘My wife runs a small business, so I know about the challenges facing small business in my family, so don’t give a lecture on that.’ Now that Hunt has brought his wife into the debate, Mr S wondered how tough life has been for Mrs Hunt, the small business owner. Juliet Thornback is a designer of upmarket homeware. Her company,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Gauke: Ed Balls has questions to answer on HSBC leak

The HSBC tax dodge leak is from 2007, and so has nothing to do with the current government, sort of. Ministers have been defending the appointment of Stephen Green as trade minister. Green was boss at HSBC during the period that this leak relates to. But given Labour is trying to increase the political temperature on tax avoidance at the moment, the Tories have also been quite keen this morning to suggest that Ed Balls has questions to answer on this story, to be broadcast on Panorama tonight. Earlier this morning Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke released this statement: ‘It is for HSBC to explain what they did