Politics

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

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Class war at Education questions

Labour is very pleased with the amount of attention it garnered for its new private schools policy when Tristram Hunt unveiled it last week. So it was natural that the Shadow Education Secretary used this as his main line of attack at today’s Education Questions. He set the scene first using one of his shadow ministerial team Alison McGovern, who contrasted bankers’ pay rising by 7 per cent on average with a 1 per cent rise for nursery staff. It was clear that Labour was keen for a game of Us vs Them. Hunt then piggybacked onto a question from party colleague Ian Lucas about the public benefit of private

Steerpike Steerpike

William Hague’s stuck record

William Hague told the Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards last week that he was standing down from the Commons ‘to do some other things I’ve always wanted to do’. So far that seems to consist of expensive after dinner speeches. Accepting his lifetime achievement award at the Savoy, the one time Tory leader finally revealed the secret to how he used to get the better of Tony Blair every week at PMQs. Hague recalled how Tony had two big folders ‘that went from Aardvark at top of the first folder, to Zoology at the bottom of the second, so he could find anything to show how terrible 18 years

Sebastian Payne

The MPs who will benefit from George’s marvellous marginals medicine

‘The biggest, boldest and most far-reaching roads programme for decades’ — or the biggest, boldest marginal constituency programme? George Osborne has magicked up £15 billion for 84 new roads, some 100 overall improvements, totalling 1,300 miles of new lanes across the country. Unsurprisingly for an overtly political chancellor like Osborne, a majority of these roads will benefit marginal constituencies. The Telegraph has figured out all of the MPs who will benefit from the road spending and has calculated as many of 2/3 of the proposed improvements will help marginal constituencies. These are the most marginal Tory seats who will benefit  from George’s marvellous marginal medicine: A34: Nicola Blackwood [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/j0UIo/index.html”] £50 million pounds of improvements to

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

George Osborne’s roads bonanza is the most fun he’ll have for a while

George Osborne has been looking forward to this particular Autumn Statement for a while because it is the opportunity for him and other colleagues to tour the country like Santa with a large infrastructure sack, handing out £15bn of road improvements to marginal constituencies and helping voters feel as though the recovery is making their lives better. Today is a day of jostling between the Chancellor and his Lib Dem colleagues who also want to take lots of credit for the goodies that they are handing out. But Wednesday looks as though it will be a little less cheerful, given the warning from the Ernst & Young Item Club that

Sunday

Sebastian Payne

Oo-err! Top five gags from Penny Mordaunt, minister for innuendo

Tory MP Penny Mourdant has caused a stir in Sunday’s papers over her confession at our Parliamentarian of the Year awards that she said ‘cock’ in Parliament as a bet with her colleagues in the Royal Navy, where she serves as a reservist. As winner of our Speech of the Year award, Mourdant clearly has a way with words. Here are her top five gags (so far): 1. Caring for your kit in the field One of the highlights of her award-winning Loyal Speech earlier this year was a gag about her Royal Navy training: ‘I have benefited from some excellent training by the Royal Navy but on one occasion I felt it was not as

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

In defence of Penny Mordaunt

So often, throwaway lines from the Spectator end up splashing national newspapers. This time, the splash has come from Penny Mordaunt, who won the ‘Speech of the Year’ gong in the Mastercard/Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards on Thursday. Her acceptance speech has ended up splashing the Mail on Sunday. Here’s the story:- A female Tory Minister made a spoof Commons speech on animal welfare in order to say an obscene word after a dare at a dinner with Navy officer friends. Communities Minister Penny Mordaunt said ‘c**k’ six times, ‘lay’ or ‘laid’ five times and mentioned the names of at least six officers during a debate on poultry welfare. I will confess

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tories to shut up about immigration and talk about the economy instead

There is a simple political test for the autumn statement, does it make the economy Topic A again? The Tories’ election strategy relies on the economy being the dominant issue of the campaign. If it is not, it is very hard to see how Cameron and co can win.   The Tories want everything to be seen through the prism of the economy. Hence Osborne’s emphasis this morning that he can only put an extra £2 billion into the NHS because the economy is strong.   In recent months, immigration has supplanted the economy as voters’ top concern. This has been to Ukip—and not the Tories—benefit. This is why Cameron’s

Friday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory backbenchers talk out ‘revenge evictions’ bill

Fridays in the House of Commons Chamber are rarely edifying experiences, and today a number of MPs and campaigners are very exercised that two backbenchers managed to talk out a private members’ bill which claimed to give tenants better protection against so-called ‘revenge evictions’. These evictions are when a tenant complains about the leaking bath or mouldy wall and finds themselves being turfed out by their landlord. Sarah Teather had introduced the Tenancies (Reform) Bill to prevent landlords issuing no-fault eviction notices if they had failed to meet safety standards and their tenant had formally complained about them. The government decided to support it and so did Labour, though many

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Enraged euro-rebels threaten trouble after Cameron’s immigration speech fails to satisfy

One of the aims of David Cameron’s big immigration speech was to settle the issue with his backbenchers before returning to talk about the economy. Based on conversations I’ve had this morning with the key movers and shakers in the eurosceptic wing of the Tory party, he hasn’t got very close to settling the issue at all. Indeed, I suspect that there will be trouble before long. Members of the hardcore of eurosceptics I describe in this week’s politics column are unhappy with what they think is a lack of ambition from the Prime Minister. They feel he’s been flirting with them a bit too much on this issue and

Douglas Murray

Should the next coronation service in Westminster Abbey include readings from the Quran?

Earlier this week the former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries, suggested in the House of Lords that the next coronation service in Westminster Abbey should include readings from the Quran. The good Bishop and I had a chance to discuss his idea this morning on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. You can listen to it here: listen to ‘Douglas Murray and Lord Harries on the Today programme’ on audioBoom

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: David Cameron’s ‘game changing’ immigration speech

Was David Cameron’s appeal to the voters of Britain and EU leaders on immigration successful? James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and myself discuss his ‘game changing’ speech on immigration this morning in a View from 22 podcast special. Has the Prime Minister placated his backbenchers or Conservative voters? Will this be seen as a Tory shift towards Ukip-lite? You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the player below: listen to ‘Podcast special: David Cameron’s immigration speech ’ on audioBoom

Steerpike Steerpike

Tories give Mark Reckless ‘worst office in Parliament’

Earlier this year Zac Goldsmith complained that he had been given ‘the worst office of any MP in Parliament’ as punishment for his disparaging remarks about the coalition. Now word reaches Mr S that the accolade of worst office has been passed to Mark Reckless following his defection to Ukip in the Rochester by-election. Unfortunately for Reckless, as Ukip are still a minority in the House of Commons, it’s the Conservatives who assign their offices. None were too happy when he defected to Ukip, and fittingly his new office reflects the ill-feeling. ‘It’s the size of a shoebox and the ceiling is so low Mark can’t even stand up in

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron’s immigration speech in five points

David Cameron has just finished delivering his ‘game changing’ immigration speech. A lot of it was a narration of why immigration had made Britain the country it is, but why some voters were uncomfortable with it. You can read the full text here, but here’s the speech summarised in five quick points: listen to ‘David Cameron’s immigration speech’ on audioBoom 1. Cameron set out an optimistic vision of immigration in the UK The Prime Minister deliberately talked at length about the benefits migrants have brought to this country for many years and Britain’s history as an open, outward-looking country. He spoke of the contribution of Ugandan Asians to Britain and the

The Spectator

David Cameron’s immigration speech: full text

Today I want to talk about immigration. Just as this government has a long term plan for where we are taking our country so within that we have a long-term plan for immigration. Immigration benefits Britain, but it needs to be controlled. It needs to be fair. And it needs to be centred around our national interest. That is what I want. listen to ‘David Cameron’s immigration speech’ on audioBoom And let me tell you why I care so passionately about getting this right – and getting the whole debate on immigration right in our country. When I think about what makes me proud to be British yes, it is

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will Cameron please his backbenchers and EU leaders with his immigration speech?

If David Cameron’s speech today is more about backbench management than it is about his desperate desire to talk about immigration, then he needs to make sure that what he says is enough to satisfy most in his party. His aides and PPS Gavin Williamson were calling round key MPs last night to give them a briefing on what the speech would include, presumably in an attempt to persuade them that this really is a good speech with good policies that they can sell on the doorstep. MPs I’ve spoken to overnight and this morning seem reasonably happy with what they’ve heard before the speech. Andrew Bridgen, long a thorn

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Boris is right – Britain does need rich people. And plenty of them

Boris Johnson is about the only politician in Britain to stand up for the rich, pointing out that while they may be annoying, they tend to create jobs and prosperity and having plenty of that is no bad thing. The Mayor was interviewed for the latest Freakonomics podcast, boasting that: “London is attracting huge amounts of international investment… London is to billionaires what the jungles of Sumatra are to the orangutan. It is their natural habitat.”   Here it is the podcast – Boris is at the start:- “I’m sure you like your poor people too,” replied the presenter – which is an odd question. Does welcoming wealth imply being sniffy

Thursday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron to demand migrant benefit curbs in ‘game-changing’ immigration speech

David Cameron will make his ‘game-changer’ speech on immigration tomorrow in which he is expected to say that the UK will leave the EU if it does not secure reforms that allow the government to deny benefits to migrants. He will say: ‘If we cannot put our relationship with the EU on a better footing, then of course I rule nothing out.’ This is not the emergency brake or points-based system that the PM seemed to hint at previously and therefore unless there is more in the speech, some of his MPs may feel rather let down. Many were today saying that they expected it to be reasonably small beer,

Steerpike Steerpike

Theresa May pulls out all the stops at the Spectator Parliamentarian awards

If ever there was a tell-tale sign of who won the Great War between the Speaker and the Clerk of the Commons, it was today’s Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards. Sir Robert Rogers picked up the top prize, declaring: ‘Common sense and good governance will prevail before very long’. Mr Speaker failed to show up. The guest of honour, Home Secretary Theresa May, delivered her own comedy turn making jokes about George Osborne’s haircut. She had a point. Her barbed comment that her ‘special advisers had told her’ this would be a ‘good idea’ had a particular resonance given her starring role on the cover of this quarter’s edition of Spectator

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Net migration target fails as Cameron prepares to make more immigration pledges

We are still waiting for David Cameron’s immigration speech, expected ‘this week’. The Conservatives tried to get their apology in early for failing to meet their target to get net migration into the ‘tens of thousands’, with a series of interventions starting this summer in which top Cabinet ministers started to highlight the problems with having a target when you can’t control EU migration, ahead of today’s figures showing that the target is an ex-target, or a ‘comment’, as Theresa May tried to pass it off as recently. Fraser looks at why missing that target is a good thing for this country in his post here. But it is bad