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Politics

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

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron: Je ne regrette rien

David Cameron doesn’t regret the Lansley reforms that have done so much to damage any chance that the Tories could be trusted again by voters on the NHS. That’s what he told the Today programme this morning, saying: ‘The reforms were important and they were right… Of course [I stand by the changes]. If you’re saying to me: “Would you rather have 20,000 more bureaucrats and 9,000 fewer doctors?” Of course not.’ listen to ‘Today: David Cameron defends hostile campaign focus on Labour and Ed Miliband’ on audioBoom It’s difficult to find many Tories who privately share his view. Many who still think the spirit of the reforms were right

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: How Labour’s election broadcast star supported Arthur Scargill’s Socialist party

Tonight Martin Freeman will take on a starring role in the latest Labour election broadcast. In the short film, the Sherlock actor says that for him ‘there’s only once choice’ and that’s Labour. Alas for Labour, that hasn’t always strictly been the case. Mr S recalls the 2001 general election during which Freeman voted not for Labour, but instead for Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour party. At the time, Scargill’s party pledged to leave the EU, create a four-day working week, abolish the monarchy and axe the House of Lords if they took power. Then in 2005, Freeman said he would rather abstain from voting than vote for Tony Blair’s Labour in the general election: ‘I don’t know that

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Does David Cameron’s new jobs plan mean recruiting a million more immigrants?

The Conservatives have offered a rather peculiar new pledge: another two million jobs. They are right to focus on their record job creation, as I outlined in my Spectator cover story on the jobs miracle. But I also discussed, then, how there are already now massive worker shortages in certain parts of the country – and employers in places like Poole can’t get enough immigrants. In several parts of the country, we are already hitting what economists call ‘full employment’. Cameron’s target should not be x more workers, but unemployment reduction – or, ‘full employment’ in every part of the UK. You can do that by shortening dole queues. This, and only

Monday

Sebastian Payne

Two more polls suggest Ed Miliband’s ‘Paxo bounce’ is sliding away

Ed Miliband’s so-called ‘Paxo bounce’ in the opinion polls is ebbing away. The polls out this evening have the Conservatives either level pegging with Labour or slightly ahead. Tonight’s latest from YouGov/The Sun has both parties neck and neck, with the Conservatives and Labour on 35 per cent — a three point rise for the Tories on Sunday — while Ukip is on 12 per cent, the Lib Dems on eight and the Greens on five. In his weekly national poll, Lord Ashcroft has the Tories two points ahead on 36 per cent, up three points from last week. The Tory pollster has Labour on 34 per cent, Ukip on ten, the Lib Dems

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Ten points from David Cameron’s Daily Mail interview

David Cameron has given an interview to the Daily Mail where he appears to confirm that he will extend Right-to-Buy to 2.5m housing association tenants – a plan first revealed by James Forsyth. Here are the main points of the interview:- 1. Cameron says he’ll extend Right-to-Buy, blames Lib Dems for resisting him thus far. ‘I am a massive supporter of the right-to-buy. I have sweated blood in this government to get the Liberal Democrats, who don’t really buy this and believe in it, to agree to bigger discounts, to market the right-to-buy to stop councils hiding it away from their tenants. We’ve got more people who’ve bought their council homes. We’ve got

Harry Cole

Nick Clegg’s women problem

Nick Clegg ain’t done yet, and as if to prove how deadly serious he is about winning this election, the Deputy Prime Minister visited a hedgehog sanctuary on his first campaign stop. Probably his least prickly public encounter since 2010. The Liberal Democrats have focussed their initial onslaught focusing on women, with Monday’s Guardian reporting that it was ‘his mission to win over female voters in a number of his party’s target constituencies’: ‘Party strategists believe that winning over the female vote will be crucial to their chances of success across a range of key battleground constituencies.’ All of which is a little embarrassing when you consider just how poor

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘There’s no such thing as a safe seat’: Douglas Carswell explains his absence from Ukip launch

Ukip launched its general election campaign poster today. Nigel Farage was there, both in person and in print, with a very large image of his face emblazoned across the new poster. Mark Reckless was there, posing for photos with the party’s ‘pledge card’ (although unless he has very big pockets or an enormous wallet, the one pictured is probably a poster for people’s windows rather than the real pledge card). And here is our pledge card pic.twitter.com/9o5ArIW5Um — Mark Reckless (@MarkReckless) March 30, 2015 But Reckless isn’t the party’s only MP, is he? Where was Douglas Carswell? Carswell was back in his constituency campaigning today, and received a barrage of

Sebastian Payne

Watch: new party political broadcasts from the Tories and Labour

Lucky viewers of BBC One this evening will have seen the Conservative party’s brand new political broadcast. Entitled ‘Securing a better future for your family’ — watch above — the saccharine video is designed to soften the hearts of even the most ardent Tory haters. Loaded with messages about abolishing the deficit, cutting income tax, investing in the NHS, creating millions of apprenticeships and extending Help to Buy, the PPB is targeted at one demographic: families. The Tories are often accused of purely concentrating on the ‘grey vote’, with messages and policies designed to appeal to pensioners, who are much more likely to actually vote. But this broadcast features young

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

Whatever happened to Larry the Downing Street cat’s increased security?

When reports emerged that a dog had allegedly been poisoned at Crufts, David Cameron appeared to be extremely worried that a similar fate might befall the Downing Street cat, Larry. Talking to Heart FM, the Prime Minister promised to ‘double the security around him and make sure he’s ok’. But this morning Larry looked far from ‘ok’ when police sniffer dog Bailey turned up on his doorstep. Perhaps the PM has more important things to think about – or perhaps police security is what Cameron had in mind to waylay any attempts on his cat’s life. But needless to say, Larry seemed seriously unimpressed by the bobby assigned to his

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Were the Tories’ dodgy figures designed to provoke Labour into making a statement?

Why are the Tories peddling what the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has described as ‘at best unhelpful’, which is the claim that households would be hit with a £3,000 tax bombshell if Ed Miliband becomes Prime Minister? The IFS’ analysis came out earlier today, but this evening George Osborne repeated the claim, saying: ‘Well it’s based on what the Labour party has voted for and what Ed Miliband has said he will do… I am confident that that is based on what the Labour party has voted for in Parliament.’ listen to ‘George Osborne stands by £3,000 Labour tax rise claim’ on audioBoom

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: The mastermind behind Ukip’s foxy election merchandise

You might have thought Ukip bosses would want to distance themselves from their outspoken and eccentric candidate Winston McKenzie after he organised the disastrous ‘Carnival of Colour’ in Croydon last year before going on to declare that Farage was bigger than Jesus. However, Ukip don’t play by the usual rules. In fact senior party figures wear their allegiance to Winston on their sleeve, almost literally. At the launch of the party’s pledge card in Westminster on Monday, party chairman Steve Crowther proudly sported a handmade purple fox that looked like it might have been made by a primary school child. In fact rather than beeing the work of a seven-year-old, it was more of McKenzie’s

Steerpike Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Nick Clegg’s animal magic

Where did Nick Clegg go on the first stop of his General Election campaign tour? To visit a creature under threat. Not a Lib Dem MP struggling to hold on to a marginal seat, Lorely Burt, but a hedgehog who can only walk in circles after an injury. Of course. Mr Steerpike keeps a keen eye on the campaigning tropes of our political leaders and he is not surprised by Clegg’s prickly posing. Indeed, the Lib Dem leader seems to love campaigning with animals almost as much as George Osborne enjoys wearing totally unnecessary hi-vis jackets. There was the visit to a seal sanctuary, where Mr Steerpike was less impressed

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Labour’s most shameful mug? It has to be Diane Abbott

This is an extract from Hugo Rifkind’s column in the next issue of The Spectator, out on Thursday: The Labour party has put its five core election pledges on mugs. No, I don’t know why. Presumably the idea is that you buy all five, and then, when your friends come around for tea, you each drink yours out of the one featuring your favourite. Yeah, I know. As if the sort of people who’d buy these mugs would have friends. There’s an odd fuss, though, about mug four, which says CONTROLS ON IMMIGRATION on it. Quite widely, this has been perceived as a gaffe, a betrayal, a slump into Faragism,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

All aboard the election battle bus

Now that David Cameron and Nick Clegg have had their final audiences with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, they can get on the road. Their shiny battle buses are waiting to accompany them on the campaign trail. The Lib Dems are charging hacks who want to clamber aboard their bus £750 per person per day, which is rather a lot for a bus journey, even if it does take you from seat to seat. You’d expect a champagne breakfast personally served by Tim Farron every morning for that fee. Still, the Tories have only invited certain people on their bus, and those certain people seem to be broadcast journalists rather

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Why the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon may well win Thursday’s leaders debate

I know it’s early, but I’d like to tip a winner from Thursday’s debate: Nicola Sturgeon. SNP leader. She has just been positioned next to the Prime Minister, who’ll be on the far-right. This which will cause relief in Tory HQ who had been worried about his being flanked by Nigel Farage and Sturgeon. The lineup, from left to right, is as follows:- Natalie Bennett – Nick Clegg – Nigel Farage – Ed Miliband – Leanne Wood – Nicola Sturgeon – David Cameron Best Coconut Shy Ever: pic.twitter.com/trYzoqZY5i — Ian Hyland (@HylandIan) March 30, 2015 Sturgeon will be new to an English audience, and is certain to impress. So far, the write-ups haven’t done her justice: there have been too

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron: It is me or Miliband

It is rare for politicians to mention their opponents by name – don’t give them the publicity is the normal approach. But standing in Downing Street just now to announce the start of the election campaign, David Cameron pointed at the door of Number 10 and said ‘The next Prime Minister walking through that door will be me or Ed Miliband’. There’s a method to the Tory approach. They believe that one of their trump cards in this election is that the public just can’t see Ed Miliband as Prime Minister. They want to force voters to confront the choice that one of Miliband or Cameron will be Prime Minister

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Why is Labour making merit out of not backing an EU referendum?

Fair play to Ed Miliband for launching Labour’s business manifesto today in Bloomberg, not perhaps the party’s natural stamping ground, at least not since the prawn cocktail initiative in 1997. And it was gutsy of it too to take out a full page advertisement in the FT – they don’t come cheap – to broadcast the party’s opposition to an EU referendum. ‘The biggest risk to British business is the threat of an EU exit. Labour will put the national interest first. We will deliver reform, not exit’, it says. Granted most British businesses, especially big ones and foreign-based ones, don’t want out of the EU. But doesn’t it seem

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Miliband in the middle as TV debate line-up set

The order in which the party leaders will stand in this Thursday’s televised debate has been set as follows: Natalie Bennett, Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage, Ed Miliband, Leanne Wood, Nicola Sturgeon and David Cameron. So Ed Miliband will be in the middle, and David Cameron and Nigel Farage will be sufficiently far apart from one another to thwart Ukip’s ambition for their leader to land a good run of blows on Cameron. Still, Farage is next to Miliband, which means he’ll have a chance to land some blows on the leader of a party he’s trying to take votes from too. The standing order does matter a little, but what

Sebastian Payne

First poll of the campaign puts the Tories four points ahead

And we’re off! Today is the first day of the proper general election campaign and the rollercoaster of polls continues. ComRes/ITV News/Daily Mail have released a new poll putting the Conservatives four points ahead —  their biggest lead since September 2010 — which is the complete opposite of yesterday’s YouGov shocker. According to ComRes, the Conservatives are currently on 36 per cent, Labour has dropped to 32 per cent, Ukip is on 12 per cent, the Lib Dems on nine and the Greens on five. As with the YouGov poll, the fieldwork was conducted after the Paxman Q&A on Thursday but the numbers are favourable to David Cameron. Many of the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will we learn anything from this election campaign?

Will we learn anything from any of the parties in this election campaign? And will the polls tell us anything either? Yesterday Labour was excited that it had a four-point lead over the Tories in a YouGov poll. Today the Tories are excited that they’re four points ahead in a ComRes poll. The polls are certainly moving, but only like a pendulum, swinging back and forth, at present. Meanwhile Labour’s frontbenchers are struggling to explain how they’d cut the deficit, the Tories don’t want to explain how they’d cut £12bn from welfare, and the Lib Dems are still explaining why they do/don’t want a referendum on Britain’s membership of the