Politics

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

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour writes to Cabinet Secretary about details of Patrick Rock’s arrest

So it looks as though Labour is going to go for Number 10 over Patrick Rock’s arrest. Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Jon Ashworth has written to Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood with the following questions about the case: Dear Sir Jeremy, I am writing to you about the arrest last month of the Prime Minister’s senior adviser, Patrick Rock, on allegations concerning child abuse images. On the substance of the allegations themselves, I recognise that Mr Rock has not been charged with any offence, and it is vitally important that the police investigation is able to take its course and that no potential future trial is prejudiced. However, given that Mr

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

PMQs: will the Commons return to rowdiness?

Will PMQs return to rowdiness today? The Chamber was a little quiet last week, which was perhaps down to a combination of rather serious questions from MPs and the debates over recess about whether the session had become more juvenile. But this isn’t down to any plan by the Prime Minister: I hear that recently told a group of supporters that while he had sympathy with Ed Miliband’s attempt to cool things down, he’d tried that himself and it hadn’t worked at all. What will be interesting is whether Ed Miliband – or his colleagues on the Labour benches – raise the arrest of Patrick Rock. Number 10 is accused

Sebastian Payne

Ukraine polling: EU vs Russian integration and who is the weakest leader?

It’s difficult to figure out exactly what’s going on in Ukraine and what it all means — as Freddy has pointed out there’s a lot of hyperbole at the moment— but where is public opinion on the current situation? There’s some interesting historic polling on where Ukrainians stand on more integration with Europe vs Russia. Ukraine’s ambassador to the European Union Kostyantyn Yeliseyev suggested in 2011 that business tycoons and politicians from the Russian-speaking Eastern regions are just as on board with more EU integration as those from western regions. Yeliseyev noted at the time ‘if any politician today in Ukraine declared himself to be against European integration, he would

Tuesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Does Alex Salmond want to swap rule from London for rule by OPEC?

Another day, another hole blown in Alex Salmond’s case for breaking up Britain. The IFS has today published its estimates (based on the OBR’s) for Scottish oil and gas revenues, and they’re less than half those of the SNP administration in Edinburgh. Salmond forecast oil and gas revenues of between £6.8 billion and £7.9 billion in 2016-17. The IFS puts it at £3.3 billion. Salmond’s best-case scenario for 2017-18 has Scotland with a deficit of 1.0 per cent of GDP; the IFS’s figures suggest that’ll be closer to 3.6 per cent of GDP. A country like Britain can ride out such fluctuations, but Salmond may find he’s swapping rule from

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

William Hague insists government’s options remain open on Ukraine

It was clear from William Hague’s statement in the Commons just now that no decisions have been taken on what to do about Ukraine. The Foreign Secretary had already distanced himself from that photographed document when he faced MPs at Foreign Office Questions a little earlier this morning, saying that it didn’t necessarily reflect the action the government would take. The government’s options ‘remain open’, he said. It’s worth considering Labour’s response to the situation. Douglas Alexander struck a consensual tone when he responded at Foreign Office Questions, but some of his colleagues including Kevin Brennan were quite keen to tease out a response to the tweets over the weekend

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Downing Street confirms Coffee House scoop on Cabinet row

As James exclusively revealed on Coffee House this morning, an ambush took place at this morning’s Cabinet meeting on legislation for an EU referendum and recall of MPs. Downing Street confirmed this at today’s lobby briefing, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman saying that: ‘I don’t think it’s any secret that Conservative members of the Cabinet would want to see an EU referendum bill, and that point was made. With regard to recall, well of course we don’t… try to pre-brief the Queen’s speech… but the Prime Minister made clear his commitment to introducing that.’ The spokesman said he didn’t accept the premise that the Prime Minister had changed his

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

No10 rejects suggestions that it covered up the arrest of Patrick Rock

After this morning’s shock Daily Mail splash on Patrick Rock’s arrest, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman was grilled on the case at the noon lobby briefing. He repeatedly told journalists that the matter was immediately referred to the National Crime Agency. But why was the arrest, which took place on in the early hours of 13 February, not briefed to the press – until it leaked last night? The spokesman said: ‘Well, hold on. Number 10 immediately referred this to the National Crime Agency. Of course, this is all directly linked to a police investigation and I don’t think we would proactively comment on that… I think that when… I

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Exclusive: Cameron and Osborne ambush Lib Dems in Cabinet meeting

A dramatic Cabinet this morning as the Tories ambushed the Lib Dems over the contents of the Queen’s Speech. First, Cameron took them by surprise by demanding that a recall bill be included in the speech. This was quite a slap to the Liberal Democrats seeing as just last month they were publicly blaming Cameron and Osborne for the fact that a recall bill was not going to be included in the Queen’s Speech. But this wasn’t the only bit of Tory aggression this morning. For Osborne then took up the baton, pushing for the inclusion of an EU referendum bill in the coalition’s legislative agenda. David Laws and Nick

Ed West Ed West

How many people would lay down their lives for the European Union?

Whatever Russia does in the Ukraine, we know that Britain isn’t going to do much more than say ‘dear, dear’, something that was accidentally revealed when a British official was photographed bringing a document to Downing St stating as much. We’re not going to help for a number of reasons, one of which is that Ukraine is incredibly complicated and historically and psychologically is sort of a part of Russia, or at least the eastern half is. As for the Crimea, Russia certainly has as much right to that province as the Albanians have to Kosovo. Russia is a great power with legitimate claims to that region, and unlike Iraq,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron’s moral mission on public spending

David Cameron’s speech on the economy today is designed to hit Labour on its weak spot again: reminding voters that while this government is trying (with varying levels of success) to cut public spending and hack back the legacy of debt for our children, Labour wants to borrow more. Ed Miliband and Ed Balls will say they won’t borrow a penny more on day-to-day spending, a linguistic sleight of hand which leaves them with plenty of leeway to borrow tons more for capital spending. But still they try to criticise the Conservatives each time official figures appear showing government borrowing levels. The Prime Minister wants to remind voters that no

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

No.10 aide Patrick Rock resigns after being arrested over child abuse image allegations

Jaw-dropping news tonight: the Daily Mail’s James Chapman reveals that Patrick Rock, the deputy director of the Number 10 policy unit and a long-serving political ally of David Cameron, has resigned after being arrested on child porn charges. Rock was one of Cameron’s Downing Street fixers. The two had worked together as SPADs to Michael Howard and Rock was very much part of the old special adviser network. So, when Cameron and Ed Llewellyn, Cameron’s chief of staff, were looking for a trusted hand to beef up the domestic side of the Downing Street operation they turned to their old colleague, Rock. Rock’s influence in Downing Street had ebbed slightly

Sebastian Payne

Boris Johnson: I’d tax expensive properties and lower business rates

Today we glimpsed what Boris Johnson might do if he had more power, in London at least: jack up council taxes for some and lower business rates. In a Communities and Local Government select committee hearing on fiscal devolution, the Mayor of London outlined why, if the power was handed down from central government, he’d  increase council tax for the richest Londoners: ‘If you compared with a Russian oligarch is paying on his stuccoed schloss in Kensington in annual council tax compared to what such a gentleman might be asked to pay in Paris or New York or anywhere else, it is quite stunning the difference. No one has yet

Theresa May

Theresa May: it’s time to stamp out slavery. Again.

In his Oscars acceptance speech Steve McQueen declared he was dedicating the award for his film 12 Years A Slave to ‘all the people who have endured slavery. And to the millions of people who still suffer slavery today’. His words will no doubt cause shock and surprise; to many it will seem scarcely credible that slavery can exist in our modern age. Modern slavery is an evil which is happening around the world today – including here in Britain. Across this country in restaurants, shops, brothels, nail bars and on illegal drugs farms are women, men and children, being held against their will, and forced into a life of slavery

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ukraine: Number 10 focuses on de-escalation of tensions

David Cameron spoke to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon today before the meeting of the National Security Council. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the pair ‘agreed it’s important that the Russian government enter into discussion with the Ukrainian government on how to reduce tensions in the region and de-escalate the situation’. The spokesman repeatedly emphasised that ‘de-escalation’ was a key part of the international response to the situation at present, suggesting that it was as important as the threat of costs to Russia. He said: ‘The way I would characterise things is that… the international community is clear that there will be what the Foreign Secretary is talking about

Harry Cole

The post-Cameron long-list

Boris being Boris, he has managed to rule something out without actually ruling anything out at all. As Isabel noted this morning, the Mayor of London has said he will not stand for Parliament before 2015, and will remain in City Hall as promised until 2016. Which is not the same as ruling out standing in the 2015 election. The latest Boris v Osborne twists have allowed speculation about a post-Cameron age to rise to the surface again, and having spoken to Tory MPs over the last few weeks, it is obvious that said speculation is never far from their lips. 2015 is still a white-knuckle fight, but that’s not

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Say it loud, say it proud: UKIP are a party for reactionary xenophobes

Sometimes what doesn’t occasion interest or drama or controversy is more interesting – or at least more telling – than what does. So perhaps it is a tribute to the extent to which Nigel Farage and UKIP are now entrenched in the body politic that Farage’s speech to the party’s latest conference appears, as best I can tell, to have been treated as just another routine appearance by just another politician. Move along now, not a lot to see here. Not much news, not many dead. That is, the reaction has been There he goes again. We know Farage’s thing these days and it no longer shocks or even, I

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris insists he is ‘united’ with George Osborne

After reports that he was furious with George Osborne and David Cameron for trying to call his bluff by telling him to stand as a parliamentary candidate in 2015, Boris Johnson got his chance to deny that he was at war with the Chancellor on his ‘Ask Boris’ LBC show this morning. Diana in Surbiton asked Boris about the story, insisting that he tell her what he said to the Chancellor: ‘I’ve said many things to my friend George Osborne,’ he chuckled, adding that ‘I haven’t had a conversation of any such kind with George Osborne’. He added: ‘George and I have a very, very good working relationship and indeed

Sunday

Sebastian Payne

Does Tristram Hunt think that choice in education should be only for the rich?

At last – Labour has made its intentions over education clear. Throughout his interview on the Sunday Politics today, Tristram Hunt showed that Labour has switched allegiances to adults, not the pupils. On the side of institutions, not those who use them. Although the shadow education secretary stated he ‘doesn’t want to waste political energy on undoing reforms that, in certain situations, build rather successfully on Labour party policy’, he confirmed his party would not sanction any more free schools: ‘I was in Stroud on Thursday and plans there for a big new style of school in an area where you’ve got surplus places threatened to destroy the viability of

Saturday

Mathieu Vaillancourt

The Tories should look to Canada for victory

Is it really possible for the Tories to win a majority in 2015 after five years in government? Perhaps they need to look at the Conservatives in Canada, who won their majority in the 2011 elections after two elections where they won a minority government. But the way the party won this majority was partly down to its active courting of the New Canadians – new migrants to the country from al over the world. Canada’s largest city, Toronto is probably the most diverse in the world, with half of its population from ‘visible minorities’. New Canadians tended to be supporters of the centre-left Liberal Party until a few years

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Conservative ministers link Russian aggression to Miliband’s Syria stance

Sajid Javid isn’t the only observer of Russia’s behaviour over the situation in Ukraine to link Vladimir Putin’s aggression to the situation in Syria. Perhaps the West’s decision not to intervene in that conflict has given Putin the sense that he can do what he wants without any response from other countries. But Javid’s suggestion in a tweet this afternoon that there is a ‘direct link between Miliband’s cynical vote against Syria motion and Russia’s actions on Ukraine. Completely unfit to lead Britain’ goes rather further than that. It also doesn’t fit particularly comfortably with the fact that 30 of Javid’s own Conservative colleagues rebelled on that motion and many