Politics

George Osborne is having a good summer. He got in first with wooing the new intake of Tory MPs, to the extent that many of them seem slightly besotted with the warm and friendly Chancellor who welcomes them cheerily to drinks events. He humiliated Boris Johnson with jokes about his ‘dilapidated’ campaign bunker – and was at the very least rather pleased that Theresa May ended up humiliating the Mayor by refusing to approve the use of water cannon in London. Now he’s top of the ConHome Tory leader survey for the first time. The Chancellor has risen nine points and got the support of 30.9 per cent of the

Over the weekend Andy Burnham’s leadership campaign received a much needed boost from the founder of the Milifandom Abby Tomlinson. The 17-year-old declared that after meeting with each of the leadership contenders, it was Burnham rather than Jeremy Corbyn who she would be backing for Labour leader: ‘I have decided that I am going to be voting for Andy Burnham. I have a number of reasons for making this decision and not enough space for them all, so I’ll try and explain a few important ones. It was at the hustings I attended in Warrington that I realised something. Before that Saturday, none of the candidates had really inspired me. As

Is the government set to bring bombing Islamic State terrorists in Syria before the Commons soon? The Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has announced that the RAF’s Tornado aircraft will be kept in service until 2017 for air strikes against the Islamic State, to ‘ensure we maintain this crucial operational tempo’. On the Today programme, Fallon explained that the aircraft have ‘proven their worth’ and have helped Iraqi forces in the fight against ISIL: ‘The Iraqi forces are slowly but surely beginning to push ISIL back. They have recaptured Tikrit, there is a campaign going on at the moment to liberate Ramadi. They are recruiting to both the army and to the

With the newspapers frequently filled with tales of former public schoolboys misbehaving abroad, Mr S was unsurprised to hear reports that a Westminster School alumnus had enjoyed a rather lively flight from Asia to Britain. Still, given that the man in question was aboard the Prime Minister’s private jet, perhaps he ought to have known better. Step forward Patrick Wintour. Word reaches Steerpike that the Guardian‘s political editor has become the talk of David Cameron’s Malaysia trip after being the life and soul of the party on the flight back to Britain. According to Mr S’s mole the journey got off to a bad start when Cameron failed to call Wintour by his name on board, instead

All political parties have their cultish moments but some are more cultish than others. That doesn’t mean all their supporters are kool-aid drinkers, just that, on balance, they’re more likely to be so. This is not, I should have thought, a particularly novel or controversial observation. But, for some reason, suggesting that the SNP’s followers are especially likely to be animated by what one might dub a quasi-religious fervour seems to annoy them. And yet, at other moments, they are keen to point out how the SNP is different from all the other parties. Which is kind of my point too. And, yes, the SNP’s supporters really do behave in

Jeremy Corbyn is the trade unions’ favourite candidate for Labour leader. From the more militant folks at Unite to the moderates at Unison, the comrades are buying into ‘Jez we can’. But this is not only about electing their man, some trade unionists are on a greater mission to stamp out to Blairite ‘virus’ from the party. The author of that controversial remark, Dave Ward of the Communication Workers’ Union, defended it on the Today programme this morning (quotes via PoliticsHome): ‘I stand by what I said yesterday, and the virus that I’m referring to is the policies and the approach of the likes of Peter Mandelson, who seem to continually push these