Politics

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

Wednesday

3 Jun 2015

Jeremy Corbyn to stand for Labour leadership

Jeremy Corbyn is to stand for Labour leader. Those scoffing at the idea of the very rebellious backbencher entering the contest to lead a party he often disagrees with have rather missed the point. Corbyn doesn’t think he can win. He doesn’t even want to win (he is one of the few MPs who I’ve interviewed who I really believed when they said they really didn’t want to be promoted). What Corbyn wants is to make a point that so far none of the candidates represent the faction of the party from which he hails: that is, the ones who identify strongly with the editorial line of the Morning Star and

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: And they’re back

‘Don’t gloat’. Cameron trotted along to the Commons today with this commandment ringing in his ears. He nearly managed it. But his manner betrayed his state of mind. There was an audible zing, an irrepressible sunniness in his voice as he inaugurated his second term. ‘This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others.’ Rarely has that formula held such a fizzy, cocaine kick. Labour’s acting leader, for now, is Harriet Harman. Is she about to pack it in? She seemed passionless and out of sorts. A scowl kept stealing across her lips as she delivered her joke-free lines. She was like a disgruntled lady mayoress opening a fete

Isabel Hardman

Tory rebels are already starting to cause trouble

David Cameron might have had an enjoyable session teasing Labour at Prime Minister’s Questions, but as soon as he’d finished doing so in his head-to-head with Harriet Harman, he was reminded that winning an election with a majority that is so small means he can’t have fun all the time. Andrew Mitchell stood up to press the Prime Minister on human rights reform, expressing concern about any moves to leave the European Convention on human rights: ‘My right hon. Friend will be well aware that there is considerable concern on both sides of the House at the proposition that Britain might withdraw from the European convention on human rights. Will

James Forsyth

Cameron has a PMQs trump card – he won the election

The first PMQs after an election victory is a moment to savour for a Prime Minister. He knows that the result gives him a trump card he can play again and again. So, it was unsurprising that Harriet Harman made little progress against Cameron. He treated it as a gentle net session, meeting each question with a slightly more aggressive and expansive answer. He did, though, seem slightly discombobulated by Ed Balls’ absence. Early on he made a joke about Balls’ defeat and then looked over to where Balls used to sit to drive the point home, but Balls – of course — wasn’t there. The main event today, though,

Steerpike

SNP and Conservatives find a common cause

Ever since the 56 SNP MPs arrived in Parliament, their main focus seems to be battling Dennis Skinner for his seat. Happily, the Scottish Nationalists appeared to have a night off from pestering the 83-year-old MP yesterday, with Angus MacNeil teaming up with the Conservatives to take on the Lords in Macmillan Cancer Support’s annual Parliamentary Tug of War: Although the battle was close, the Commons men, captained by Mike Penning MP, came out on top over the Lords, who were led jointly by Lord Dobbs and Lord Collins of Highbury. With the House of Commons taking victory over the House of Lords for the sixth year running, Dobbs was in no laughing mood today when Mr

Steerpike

The war of Skinner’s seat: SNP allow Dennis to stay

The first PMQs of the new Parliament will kick off shortly and Commons watchers will be looking to see if Dennis Skinner remains in his usual spot. The socialist firebrand, along with fellow members of Labour’s so-called awkward squad, has previously occupied the second opposition front bench — until the SNP’s 56 MPs came along and attempted to oust him. But it appears that peace has broken out. The Sun’s Kevin Schofield reports that an agreement has been done to allow Skinner and Father of the House Gerald Kaufman to remain on the front bench, alongside SNP members. Other members of the awkward squad are not so lucky. As one

Binita Mehta

Here’s why the Tories convinced one million BME voters to support them

One of the funnier moments of the election involved Ed Miliband assuming that a turban-wearing Sikh gentleman he met on the campaign trail would, naturally, be helping him get the Sikh vote out for Labour. In fact, the man was a Conservative parliamentary candidate. It seemed to exemplify the extent to which Labour assumed ethnic minorities would vote for them – but all that is changing. New research from British Future shows that 1 million BME voters helped keep David Cameron in Number 10. This means that one in three minority ethnic voters supported the Tories, which is the party’s best result to date. I was brought up in a pro-Labour

Isabel Hardman

Can MPs really refuse a pay rise anyway?

If you’re a Labour leadership contender, or keen for other reasons to look in touch with people – or perhaps you really do disagree with MPs getting a 10 per cent pay rise, then the fashionable thing to say is that you’ll be turning down the pay rise. This morning Andy Burnham has said he will refuse the extra £7,000 that Ipsa plans to pay MPs per year, tweeting that he ‘will turn down at source or give to local groups’. Stella Creasy, campaigning to be elected Labour’s deputy leader, has said similar. I have always been clear that 10% pay rise for MPs cannot be justified. I won't accept

James Forsyth

What can modern politics learn from Thatcher? Charles Moore will tell us

The first volume of Charles Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher is one of the finest political books of recent times. With the second volume due out in October, Charles, a columnist for both the Telegraph and this magazine, has agreed to also become a visiting scholar at the think tank Policy Exchange where he will work on what lessons contemporary politics can learn from Margaret Thatcher’s career. Policy Exchange has long been the favourite think tank of the Tory modernisers. With Charles and Steve Hilton’s arrival, it will be at the centre of the debate about where the Tory party should go next. For a flavour of the discussions to

Tuesday

2 Jun 2015

Brendan O’Neill

‘Call me Caitlyn, or else’: the rise of authoritarian transgender politics

The Vanity Fair photo of Bruce Jenner in a boob-enhancing swimsuit is being described as iconic. Bruce, one-time American athlete, now wants to be known as Caitlyn, having recently undergone some gender transitioning. And he’s using the cover of the latest Vanity Fair to make his ‘debut as a woman’. Next to the headline ‘Call me Caitlyn’, he’s all photoshopped svelteness, pampered hair and look-at-me breasts, in what many experts are already describing as ‘an iconic image in magazine history’. The photo is indeed iconic. And not just in the shallow celeb meaning of that word. It’s iconic in the traditional sense, too, in that it’s being venerated as an

Steerpike

Will Sepp Blatter ‘unresign’ like Nigel Farage?

After mounting public pressure, Sepp Blatter has today announced he will resign as Fifa president. This comes after the 79-year-old was re-elected last week in the role, despite being embroiled in a corruption scandal. Blatter’s decision to resign, even though he seemingly remains popular with his colleagues, has struck a chord with one UK politician. Jim Murphy, the former Labour leader, says it all sounds familiar: But is Blatter set to continue in the way of Nigel Farage and ‘unresign’? With Betway currently offering 5/1 odds that Blatter will do exactly that, Mr S suspects it’s not a suggestion to be scoffed at. No departure date has been given yet though Blatter says he will ‘urge the

Danny Alexander

The Charles Kennedy I knew, by Danny Alexander

Charles Kennedy’s eloquence, intelligence and humour were famous in the Highlands long before his election to the Commons at the age of 23. When I started at Lochaber High School, the prizes he had won as a school debater adorned the walls; as pupils knew, at university he had gone on to win the national championship for Glasgow. It was clear that he was a phenomenon. Charles knew, perhaps better than anyone in British politics today, that how you say something is critical to being understood. Politics is the art of making and winning arguments. He was a master of it, as he showed when shaping the debate on the

Sebastian Payne

New head of Conservative Way Forward aims to keep Tory activists busy

Westminster is still recovering from the 2015 election but some Conservatives are already thinking ahead to 2020. Two of Conservative HQ’s activist movements, Team 2015 and Roadtrip 2015, were key in mobilising support on the ground, as well as getting out the vote. Although Team 2020 is a long way off from hitting the stump, a key member of the Tories’ operation is planning to continue this work from outside the party. Grant Shapps’ former chief of staff Paul Abbott is leaving Conservative HQ to run Conservative Way Forward, the Thatcherite pressure group that counts tub-thumpers Norman Tebbit, Liam Fox and Conor Burns among its patrons. Abbott previously worked for

Steerpike

Lynton Crosby vs. Lord Ashcroft round two: ‘he’s not a pollster’

Those hoping one of Westminster’s most entertaining ongoing feuds would cool after the election will be disappointed. As the dust settled on David Cameron’s majority, his 2010 confident and in-house polling guru Lord Ashcroft let rip in the New Statesman at the Tories’ victorious 2015 election strategist Lynton Crosby: ‘By and large, on balance, we can all agree that it has not been a great election for the pollsters. But there is (or so we read) one notable exception. The private polls commissioned from the Tory bunker by the campaign chief Lynton Crosby and the US guru Jim Messina got the result absolutely right, at least according to, well, Lynton Crosby

Dan Hitchens

What exactly is the point of the Oxford Professor of Poetry? And will Wole win it?

‘People are terribly interested in the election,’ said Christopher Ricks before his 2004 inaugural lecture as Oxford Professor of Poetry, ‘but then not terribly interested in the lecture, which I’m afraid is life.’ This year even the election campaign has been quite subdued. There has been no anonymous smear campaign as in 2009, no wildcard candidate like Stephen Moss in 2010 (‘Yes we scan!’), and only one, very tame, squabble after Melvyn Bragg switched his support from Wole Soyinka to Simon Armitage. There remains an awkward question about whether the Professorship election deserves all the fuss. The same question applies to the poet laureateship, and it relates to what Ian

Isabel Hardman

No, MPs are not ‘giving themselves a pay rise’

So MPs are now set for a 10 per cent pay rise, taking their basic salaries to £74,000. Cue fury about MPs shoving their snouts in the trough as they award themselves a pay rise. Social media is bristling with fury that MPs could be so out of touch. The reality is, of course, that MPs are not awarding themselves anything. They have no power over their pay. They have not voted on their pay and they will not vote on their pay. This is because they contracted decisions on pay out to an independent body, IPSA, to make these decisions. One of the reasons for setting up IPSA was

Alex Krasodomski

Mass surveillance is being undermined by the ‘Snowden effect’

We are in the middle of a Crypto war again. Perhaps we have always been in the middle of a Crypto war. Since the 70s, the right and ability to encrypt private communications has been fought over, time and again. Here in the UK, Cameron’s re-election has prompted reports of a ‘turbo-charged’ version of the so-called ‘Snoopers’ Charter’, extending further the powers of surveillance that the whistleblower Edward Snowden described as having ‘no limits’. Two nights ago, the US Patriot Act expired. With it, at least officially, elements of the NSA’s bulk surveillance programme expired too. The law was passed in the wake of 9/11, in order to ‘strengthen domestic security’ and

Isabel Hardman

Labour leadership contenders make their case at health questions

The odd thing about the Labour leadership contest is that while it runs, two of the most different candidates, Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham, must work together in the Shadow Health team. Today they had a chance to show how well they perform in the Commons, speaking within minutes of one another at the first questions of the new Parliament. Kendall asked about access to GPs, asking Jeremy Hunt why he had failed to meet his promises in this area. Her delivery was not particularly confident: she read her question and was nowhere near as forceful as Burnham, who came later. Hunt congratulated the Shadow Health Minister on her return

Alex Massie

Alex Salmond’s reaction to the death of Charles Kennedy was as revealing as it was contemptible

Neither man will much care for the comparison but, more than ever, Alex Salmond is rather like Gordon Brown. Each struggles to admit their opponents might ever have a point and that said point might be held in good faith. More importantly, each has the habit of thinking their opponents lesser mortals simply because they dare to take a different view on the great issues of the day. I thought of this today when I saw Salmond’s remarks responding to the sad news about Charlie Kennedy’s death. They were revealing remarks, just not in any way that flatters the former First Minister. Salmond, like everyone else, acknowledged Kennedy’s essential decency

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Scottish Parliament reinvents the ‘deep-fried Mars Bar’

Who ever says that the Scots aren’t healthy needs to rethink their stereotyping. While Scotland may be famous for creating the culinary delicacy that is the deep-fried Mars Bar, under the SNP it has evolved into a ‘healthier’ version. Jim Murphy, who was ousted from his seat by the SNP, has been reacquainting himself with the national favourite in the Scottish Parliament. Alas instead of being deep-fried it is now just wrapped in pastry. However, this change to the recipe still appears to mean that the pudding has too many calories to mention: Mr S commends Parliament for doing their bit in combatting the country’s high blood pressure rates.