Politics Archives

Monday

12 Jun 2023

Cindy Yu

Sunak comes out fighting over Boris honours row

12 min listen

This morning Rishi Sunak has delivered a direct rebuke of Boris Johnson over the resignation honours row, during an interview at London Tech Week. Is this the Prime Minister going into fighting mode? Do his comments go some way towards heading off a Johnson-led rebellion? Also on the podcast, Nicola Sturgeon was released from custody yesterday evening after seven hours of questioning. What’s the latest? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale. Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson.

Stephen Daisley

Will Scots forgive the SNP and Sturgeon for the party’s legal troubles?

Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest by police investigating the SNP’s finances would seem to be a gift to her opponents and those of her party. Labour, in particular, saw the weekend begin with the resignation of Boris Johnson, the man who drubbed them so thoroughly in 2019, and ended with police questioning the woman who seized almost all their Scottish seats in 2015. Sir Keir Starmer is certainly having a remarkable streak of good fortune, though mostly because his rivals are seemingly bent on electoral self-destruction. Even so, it is unclear whether the woes beleaguering the Scots Nats will lead them into a similar political death spiral as that engulfing the Conservatives.

Boris Johnson and Nicholas Farrell

Forza Berlusconi! Silvio in Sardinia

Silvio Berlusconi, who had three spells as Italian prime minister, has died at the age of 86. Boris Johnson, at the time editor of this magazine, and Nicholas Farrell were summoned to interview him in 2003. It is twilight in Sardinia. The sun has vanished behind the beetling crags. The crickets have momentarily stopped. The machine-gun-toting guards face out into the maquis of myrtle and olive, and the richest man in Europe is gripping me by the upper arm. His voice is excited. ‘Look’ he says, pointing his flashlight. ‘Look at the strength of that tree.’ It is indeed a suggestive sight. An olive of seemingly Jurassic antiquity has grown

Katy Balls

Sunak comes out fighting over Boris honours row

Rishi Sunak has just delivered a direct rebuke of Boris Johnson over the resignation honours row. Sunak used an interview at London Tech Week to hit back at Johnson, following the omission of Nadine Dorries from Johnson’s honours list. That decision kickstarted a chain of events that led to Dorries, Johnson and Nigel Adams quitting over the weekend and sparking three by-elections. The PM was asked whether his predecessor – who criticised Sunak’s government in his resignation statement – had undermined him. He replied: ‘Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do because I didn’t think it was right. That was to either overrule Holac

Julie Burchill

The downfall of Prince Harry

With festival season just around the corner, it is fitting that Prince Harry’s Worldwide Privacy Tour is coming to a climax. The Duke played to a jam-packed High Court crowd last week. They were keen to hear the latest solipsistic stream-of-unconsciousness of our tormented troubadour. For two years now, Harry has – sometimes with his wife, sometimes flying solo – bleated, neighed and whinnied in interviews, books, Netflix documentaries and talk shows. He has chased media exposure in a way that made Kim Kardashian look like Greta Garbo. Now, here was the big gig, with the world’s media outside the packed venue and helicopters hovering overhead. But would this be

Nicholas Farrell

Italy’s crackdown on cyclists is long overdue

Years of exposure to their arrogance, illegality and sense of entitlement has shown me that Italy’s cyclists are a public menace. So the news that Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has announced a crackdown on them brought a smile to my face. Transport minister Matteo Salvini told parliament that cyclists could have to wear helmets, get insurance, display a number plate and even indicators. That’ll teach them. Italy’s cyclists break the laws that already exist pathologically. Anything that tries at long last to rein them in must be welcome. On Coffee House, Jake Wallis Simons suggests that Salvini is victimising cyclists because they are symbols of left-wing eco-fanaticism. He’s wrong. For

Sunday

11 Jun 2023

Euan McColm

The timing of Sturgeon’s arrest couldn’t be worse for the SNP

The arrest of Nicola Sturgeon by police investigating allegations of fraud within the SNP was hardly unexpected. After all, her husband – the party’s former chief executive, Peter Murrell – and the SNP’s past treasurer, Colin Beattie MSP, have already spent time helping officers with their enquiries. It was only a matter of time until the cops got to Sturgeon. Nonetheless, the shock of news – broken in a tweet from Police Scotland at 2.29pm on Sunday afternoon – that she was in custody as a suspect was undiminished. Until her surprise resignation as SNP leader – and, thus, first minister of Scotland – in February, Sturgeon was widely considered

Katy Balls

Nicola Sturgeon arrested in SNP finance investigation

14 min listen

Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the probe into SNP finances.A spokesperson for Nicola Sturgeon confirmed: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has today, Sunday 11th June, by arrangement with Police Scotland, attended an interview where she was to be arrested and questioned in relation to Operation Branchform. Nicola has consistently said she would co-operate with the investigation if asked and continues to do so.’ Katy Balls, Fraser Nelson and Iain Macwhirter discuss. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Iain Macwhirter

Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest was inevitable

There was an air of inevitability about the arrest today of Nicola Sturgeon. The SNP had been braced for it. But that doesn’t make the sight of the former first minister of Scotland being taken into police custody any less extraordinary and, to many SNP observers, any more justified. Hadn’t her successor in Bute House, Humza Yousaf, said only recently that: ‘We are past the time of judging a woman on what happens to her husband’. Well, no one seems to have told Police Scotland. Ms Sturgeon’s arrest follows the taking into custody two months ago of her husband, the party’s chief executive, Peter Murrell. After being questioned by detectives, Sturgeon was released this evening without charge, in

Steerpike

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon arrested in SNP finance investigation

Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the probe into SNP finances. A spokesperson for Nicola Sturgeon confirmed: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has today, Sunday 11th June, by arrangement with Police Scotland, attended an interview where she was to be arrested and questioned in relation to Operation Branchform. Nicola has consistently said she would co-operate with the investigation if asked and continues to do so.’ This evening, a few hours after Sturgeon was arrested, a spokesman for Police Scotland confirmed Sturgeon had been released without charge. A report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Steerpike

Watch: Chris Bryant’s temper tantrum at journalist

As the chairman of the standards committee, Sir Chris Bryant doesn’t always demonstrate the highest standards. Whether it’s making false claims in the Commons about Nigel Farage or accusations about unparliamentary language, the winner of the 2022 ‘Civility in Politics Award’ can sometimes falls short of what he demands of others. An excellent demonstration of that was offered yesterday in an interview which Bryant did with Times Radio, in which the veteran MP levelled a series of wild accusations at host Calum Macdonald. Bryant repeatedly questioned Macdonald’s integrity and credentials after the interviewer dared ask the backbencher about the ongoing privileges committee investigation into Boris Johnson. Macdonald asked Bryant if it

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: ‘the world has moved on’ from Boris, says Shapps

Shapps – ‘the world has moved on’ from Boris Johnson Boris Johnson’s explosive resignation letter has produced further turmoil in the Conservative party this week, with allies supporting his claims that the privileges committee was part of a ‘witch- hunt’ against him. The Secretary for Energy Security Grant Shapps is clearly not part of that group, and was fairly biting in his remarks to Sophy Ridge, telling her the world had moved on from Johnson, and people did not miss the ‘drama’ that came with him. Guto Harri – Johnson has ‘taken charge’ of the situation The former Downing Street communications director came to Johnson’s defence, saying he could understand

Steerpike

Jake Berry changes his tune on Sunak

Amid all the excitement about peerages on Friday, it was easy to overlook the fact that, once again, Boris Johnson had managed to upstage the Northern Research Group’s annual conference. Last year it was the Zelenskyy visit; this year it was Nadine Dorries’ shock resignation. And it meant that the words of a jet-lagged Rishi Sunak – arriving fresh from DC on ‘the red-eye to the red wall’ as one MP put it – were somewhat overlooked. ‘I know some of you have said we should have a minister for the north’ he told applauding attendees ‘but I am a Prime Minister for the north.’ And there was no one

Patrick O’Flynn

What does Boris’s resignation mean for Rishi?

Such is Boris Johnson’s magnetic draw that his resignation gambit is still being discussed largely in terms of what it means for Boris Johnson: will he be back in the Commons next year? Could he lead his party again? But it is time to ponder what it means for Rishi Sunak, who after all is the Prime Minister and therefore in conventional terms currently a far more important figure than Johnson. It does not take a genius to work out that Johnson resurfacing with a malevolent eye and then blowing his lid like Moby Dick attacking the Pequod is very bad news for the captain of the ship of state.

Lisa Haseldine

Putin’s nuclear reshuffle is designed to antagonise Nato

Days before Nato leaders descend on Vilnius for the alliance’s annual summit next month, things will be afoot just across the border in Belarus. In a meeting with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko at his summer residence in Sochi on Friday, Putin revealed that Russia will start deploying nuclear weapons to the country on the weekend of 7 and 8 July. Putin’s decision to move nuclear weapons into Belarus just three days before the Nato summit begins in Lithuania is almost certainly no coincidence. As the alliance he regularly rages about prepares to sit down to discuss defence and deterrence, the Russian president is metaphorically puffing out his chest to remind

Kristina Murkett

Britain’s schools are facing an epidemic of bad behaviour

Something troubling is happening in Britain’s schools. This week, the government released its findings from the first national survey into pupil behaviour in classrooms. The results are a hard lesson to learn. But, as a teacher who has witnessed chairs being thrown and pupils urinating on teachers’ cars, it doesn’t come as a surprise. Over 40 per cent of students say that they feel unsafe each week because of poor behaviour, according to the survey. Students have the lowest perception of how well behaviour is going in school. This suggests that teachers and school leaders have normalised lower standards and expectations, to the point that roughly six weeks of lesson time is lost

Ian O’Doherty

Ireland’s migrant hypocrisy

‘Cead Mile Failte’, which means ‘a hundred thousand welcomes’, is a sentiment the Irish have long held dear. We pride ourselves on our welcoming nature, our music, our famous pub culture and the fact that the average tourist will be almost overwhelmingly love-bombed by locals who are happy to see a new face and will want to regale them with tales of local lore. But recently it seems that Ireland may have used up its welcomes and is, instead, retreating back into the dark terrain of nativism and suspicion of foreigners. For a country that liked to boast about its welcoming nature, the last few weeks have seen the rise

Saturday

10 Jun 2023

Katy Balls

Why did Labour U-turn on its green investment pledge?

14 min listen

Natasha Feroze speaks to Katy Balls and former Labour advisor John McTernan about Labour’s announcement that they are watering down their green investment pledge. Is Labour in trouble over this U-turn? And could this be seen as a change in strategy for the party? Produced by Natasha Feroze.

James Heale

Downing Street hits back in peerages row

Talk about the end of the peer show. Boris Johnson’s allies have spent the past two days spitting blood and crying betrayal, accusing Rishi Sunak of ‘deceit’ over the alleged removal of several nominees from the honours list. But tonight No. 10 has hit back, telling the Sunday Times that such claims are ‘categorically untrue’ and suggesting that Johnson misunderstood the process of awarding peerages. And in a bid to ward off such criticisms, Downing Street has tonight taken the step of publishing the list of names that were approved by the House of Lords Appointments Commission (Holac). These were the seven names that were announced on Friday – Shaun

Stephen Daisley

Tucker Carlson and the danger of antisemitism

Tucker Carlson is many things but stupid is not one of them. So when he describes Ukraine’s Jewish president (‘a man called Zelensky’) as ‘sweaty and rat-like’, ‘a persecutor of Christians’ and ‘our shifty, dead-eyed Ukrainian friend’, I suspect he knows exactly what he’s doing. Carlson made the remarks in a monologue on his new show, Tucker on Twitter. Elon Musk’s social media platform signed up the populist broadcaster after his ousting at Fox News. The first episode of Tucker on Twitter has been viewed 111 million times. (Twitter counts a view as a video playing for two or more seconds while 50 per cent or more of the video element is on-screen.) It is