Politics

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

Saturday

10 Jun 2023

The nasty side of Pride

For a month that’s supposed to be all about love and acceptance, Pride has a pretty nasty streak. Maybe that’s what one of the mysterious colours on its indecipherable flag represents: the cruelty community. Consider Oxfam’s Pride animation, which it tweeted out earlier this week. Alongside all the usual Pride platitudes – we must love and respect LGBTQIA+ people, the cartoon characters say – the video went in for some Terf-bashing too. If Pride is about love, why does it feel so intimidating? ‘Terf’ stands for ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’, but really it means ‘witch’. It’s a slur hurled at women who think sex is real. Who think people with penises

Patrick O’Flynn

Sunak’s migrant muddle exposes his flaws

Why do very smart people so often do very stupid things? Possibly it is because they cannot see how their actions look to those not similarly bestowed with such cerebral gifts. Yet when you are an elected politician, it is the average Joes who ultimately get to decide your fate. The latest case in point is Rishi Sunak’s decision to grant an effective amnesty to up to 54,000 migrants who entered the UK illegally before March 2023. Yet another promise of jam tomorrow is meant to sweeten a meal of mud pie today. That simply won’t work Unlawful arrivals after that date will in theory soon be subject to a

Ross Clark

Is Justin Trudeau right to blame Canadian wildfires on climate change?

Planes grounded in New York, people told to stay indoors – and an actress forced to leave the stage on Broadway because of the smoke. Canada is ‘on fire’ and New York is choking from the drifting smoke – and it is all the result of man-made climate change. We know this because Justin Trudeau and other have told us so. ‘We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change,’ tweeted Trudeau this week, ‘We’ll keep working – here at home and with partners around the world – to tackle climate change and address its impacts.’ US vice president Kamala Harris added her ha’porth of wisdom of wisdom by

Michela Wrong

Michela Wrong, Emily Rhodes and Cindy Yu

21 min listen

This week: Michela Wrong asks whether anywhere is safe for Kagame’s critics (00:58), Emily Rhodes charts the rise of fake libraries (07:54), and Cindy Yu reviews a new exhibition at the British Museum on China’s hidden century (15:25). Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.

Lisa Haseldine

Was Boris doomed anyway?

Boris Johnson has stepped down as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip with immediate effect, but is it a case of jumping before he was pushed? With the threat of a by-election looming over him after the Privileges Committee recommended a ten-day suspension for his conduct over partygate, it appears Johnson was not willing to gamble on the good will of his constituents to see him through. Last year in January as a local reporter I spoke to Johnson’s constituents to see what they thought of him. This was several weeks after the partygate scandal had broken and, with the Omicron variant of Covid still spreading throughout the country,

Euan McColm

Free tuition SNP-style is not all it’s cracked up to be

There is something rather odd about the SNP’s decision to attack Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over the issue of university tuition fees. Higher education is, after all, a devolved matter. No prime minister, whether Labour or Conservative, will ever have a say in how Scotland delivers for students. Despite this, the SNP is currently focussing attention on Starmer’s position vis-a-vis the cost of going to university. In 2020, Starmer promised to scrap tuition fees in England — now, according to the Nats, he is ‘set to abandon his promise’. So keen is the social media-savvy SNP to see this message spread that at the start of last month, it pinned

Robin Ashenden

The Kakhovka dam and the cheapness of western rhetoric

Following the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine, politicians in the West have followed the familiar dance of condemnation. ‘If it’s intentional,’ said PM Rishi Sunak, it would be ‘the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the war’ and represent ‘new lows’ in Russian aggression. France’s President Macron described it as ‘an atrocious act, which is endangering populations.’ Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, talked about the importance of continuing to ‘support Ukraine for as long as necessary’, while the EU spluttered that ‘attacks on critical civilian infrastructure may amount to war crimes.’ If it’s proved beyond doubt that Russia is culpable for the

Friday

9 Jun 2023

Patrick O’Flynn

The truth about Boris Johnson’s ‘betrayal’ myth

These are testing times indeed for longstanding members of the ‘Boris Johnson is nothing like Donald Trump’ fraternity. Once again, the British blond bombshell is at the centre of a giant political controversy in lock step with the American one. And once again he seems perfectly happy to make politics all about himself. As a longtime Brexiteer, I am one of those who will always be grateful to Johnson for the courage, vision and single-mindedness he showed in getting Brexit over the line following its attempted betrayal by Theresa May and hundreds of MPs in the ‘rotten parliament’ of 2017-19. Boris recognised that British democracy was in very great trouble. He

Coffee House

MPs react to Boris’s resignation

Boris Johnson has announced that he is resigning from Parliament ‘at least for now’, after the Privileges Committee recommended his suspension as an MP for ten days. The Committee had been investigating whether the former PM misled the Commons about parties in Downing Street. Now that he has stepped down, Boris will trigger a by-election in his Uxbridge constituency. Here’s how MPs have reacted so far: Priti Patel, former Home Secretary: ‘Boris Johnson has served our country and his constituency with distinction. He led world in supporting Ukraine, got Brexit done, and was our most electorally successful Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher. Boris is a political titan whose legacy will stand

Katy Balls

Is it really over for Boris Johnson?

It’s Boris day in Westminster. First, the publication of his resignations honours list and now a resignation from the man himself. This evening Boris Johnson has released a statement announcing that he has ‘today written to my Association in Uxbridge and South Ruislip to say that I am stepping down forthwith and triggering an immediate by-election’. Johnson adds that he is ‘very sorry’ to leave the ‘wonderful constituency’. His decision comes after he was passed a draft report of the Privileges Committee, which is understood to recommend a suspension of more than ten days: the length that could spark a by-election. Referencing the findings of the report, Johnson says he

Boris Johnson

Why I quit parliament

I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament. They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons. They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister. They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister -including the current

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson quits parliament

Boris Johnson has announced he will be standing down from parliament with immediate effect, after the Privileges Committee recommended a ten-day suspension for his conduct over partygate. There will be a by-election in his constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Johnson will not contest his seat. In his resignation letter, the former prime minister attacks the committee, saying it has made clear to him in a letter ‘that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament’. He insists that ‘they have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons’, and that ‘they know perfectly well’ that he

Cindy Yu

Is Boris’s honours list a lesson in cronyism?

11 min listen

Boris Johnson has published his resignation honours list, proposing a number of supporters, long time loyalists and even young staffers to be given peerages and honours. But is this an abuse of a system which should, instead, be about rewarding people for their public service? Cindy Yu talks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Katy Balls

Boris Johnson’s honours list is a loyalty test

Finally the day has come. After countless reports over the contents of Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, the names are out. The Prime Minister has approved Johnson’s list. It includes a peerage for former No. 10 special adviser Charlotte Owen, who at 29 will become the youngest ever life peer. There are also knighthoods for Simon Clarke and former Tory chairman Ben Elliot. This is a slimmed down version of the original list – reported to include Johnson’s father Stanley – which officials advised the former prime minister to trim after it came in at nearly 100 names. It is still not without controversy. The sitting MPs – Nigel Adams,

Coffee House

Full list: Boris Johnson’s resignation honours

Nine months after Boris Johnson left Downing Street, his list of resignation honours has today finally been finally published. Here is the full list of those who have received honours: Order of the Companions of Honour. Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Sir William Nigel Paul CashChair of the European Scrutiny Committee. For political and public service. Order of the British Empire Dames. Commander of the Order of the British Empire Andrea Marie Jenkyns MPFormer assistant whip and Minister for Skills. For political and public service The Right Honourable Amanda Anne Milling MPFormer Minister without Portfolio. For political and public service. The Right Honourable Priti Patel MPFormer

Gavin Mortimer

The betrayal of Annecy

The Green mayor of Annecy, François Astorg, declared a fortnight ago that his town in the south-east of France was ‘a land of resistance against fascism, a land of solidarity, a refugee town for those fleeing war, misery and the unhappiness in the world’. On Thursday, Astorg, expressed his ‘immense sadness’ and his ‘anger’ hours after a Syrian refugee ran amok in a park in Annecy, stabbing six people including four toddlers. ‘It’s the first time this has happened in Annecy,’ declared Astorg. ‘It’s unacceptable’. The mayor has said that there will be a rally to bring the town together; the cynic is entitled to ask ‘what is the point?’ No

Steerpike

Nadine Dorries does Rishi Sunak one final favour

There has never been any love lost between Nadine Dorries and Rishi Sunak. The former holds the latter responsible for bringing down Boris Johnson and has made her feelings clear in multiple angry tweets. During last summer’s leadership race, she attacked him for his expensive clothes and shoes; she complained that his premiership had seen Johnson’s legacy washed ‘down the drain.’ And today Dorries has given Sunak one last leaving present: announcing her intention to immediately quit the Commons and trigger a by-election in her safe seat of Mid-Bedfordshire. In 2019, the Tories won here with a majority of 24,000. But Labour are currently 15 points ahead in the polls

Andrew Liddle

Ed Miliband’s green policies could cost Labour the next election

Almost a decade on from Scottish Labour’s 2015 general election wipe out, a spectre is once again haunting the party in Scotland – the spectre of Ed Miliband. Apparently not content with his role in leading the party to near oblivion in Scotland eight years ago, the shadow secretary of state for climate change and net zero is now determined to stifle its recovery as well. Miliband’s latest manoeuvres began more than a week ago, when he engineered an announcement that a future Labour government would not grant any new licences for oil and gas production in the North Sea. The announcement caused consternation not just from the industry itself,

James Kirkup

Rowing back on his climate plan, Starmer is in it to win it

Over almost 30 years in and around Westminster, I’ve noted some persistent and essential differences in the culture and mindset of our two big political parties. Tories generally want to win elections, and are prepared to subordinate pretty much all else to that objective. How else to explain their regular mutation into a new form of political life every few years? Today’s hybrid with a right-populist body and a technocrat-centrist head is just the latest example. Labour, by contrast, always has an ambivalent attitude to winning. Buried in the party’s soul is the fear that winning means compromising on principles, and is therefore to be avoided. How else to explain those

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s donations are drying up

Given declining membership, internal divisions and the failure to deliver a referendum, it’s hardly surprising that the coffers of the Scottish National party appear to be emptying rather rapidly. The Electoral Commisson records that the SNP received only £4,000 in donations in the first quarter of 2023, down from over £90,000 in the same period last year. The Scottish Labour party raised £100,000 in those months — as did the Scottish LibDems. The last time a living person made a reportable donation to the party was in 2021. The SNP has always relied disproportionately on individual donations rather than corporate money from business or wealthy trade unions. That £4,000 came