Politics

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

Thursday

29 Jun 2023

Steerpike

Cleverly shares his diplomatic tips

To the House of Lords, where last night the neophyte neoliberals of the Adam Smith Institute were toasting three centuries of Scotland’s greatest economic thinker. And while Rishi Sunak preferred to spend his night cracking jokes about Boris Johnson at the nearby Policy Exchange party, his Foreign Secretary was on hand to offer some much-need soundness instead. Bright young things and old survivors gathered together to hear James Cleverly, who delivered a rousing endorsement of Smith’s philosophy: Adam Smith didn’t just talk about competition and free markets. He was a great pragmatist in terms of international relations. He recognised that in terms of international relations we had to deal with

Lara Prendergast

After Putin: how nervous should we be?

37 min listen

This week: In the magazine we look at the Wagner Group’s failed coup and its implications for Putin’s reign. The Spectator’s Russia correspondent Owen Matthews examines why the Kremlin permits the existence of private armies such as Prigozhin’s Wagner Group, and joins the podcast alongside Jim Townsend, former deputy secretary of defence for European and NATO policy under the Obama administration. (01:15) Also this week: The Spectator’s special projects editor Ben Lazarus writes this week about the claims made in the recent Mirror Group phone hacking trial, and the man orchestrating many of the accusations, Graham Johnson. He is joined by Neil Wallis, commentator and former deputy editor of the News of the World,

Steerpike

The curse of Zahawi strikes again

Who could have seen it coming? Daniel Korski’s shock decision to drop out of the London mayoral race yesterday took most of Westminster by surprise, coming after he had spent several days trying to rebut allegations of inappropriate sexual misconduct. But Mr S can reveal that he, exclusively, knew it was all over for Korski several days before the official announcement came. How so? It’s simple: Nadhim Zahawi, the unluckiest man in Tory politics, had backed him for the role. On Monday, the former Chancellor threw his weight behind Korski, praising his ‘grit, experience and ideas’ and ability to bring a ‘can-do-attitude to fixing London’s problems’. Just a few hours

Isabel Hardman

The privileges committee was right to scold Boris’s supporters

Did the privileges committee really need to bother with a report scolding a number of Boris Johnson’s supporters for what it has called a ‘co-ordinated campaign of interference’ in its work? Today it has published its verdict on seven MPs and one peer, Lord Goldsmith. This special report finds ‘disturbing’ examples of behaviour designed to pressure, intimidate and undermine the committee. None of these examples took place within the Commons, as the Speaker had made a ruling against abuse of the committee. Instead, the report says, there was a ‘campaign waged outside parliament’ which ‘used newspapers and radio and there was extensive use of social media’. Discipline isn’t about ignoring

Lisa Haseldine

Has Putin had Sergei Surovikin locked up?

When Evgeniy Prigozhin started his armed insurrection, it was clear that he had allies within the ranks of the Russian military. His Wagner Group walked unopposed into Rostov, the HQ of the Russian military in the south and they were almost entirely unmolested as they came within 120 miles of Moscow. Vladimir Putin granted him amnesty, in return for retreat and exile, but a hunt seems to be on for those who might have backed him. The Moscow Times is reporting the arrest of Sergei Surovikin, a general who until recently led the assault on Ukraine and had been close to Prigozhin. Citing two sources close to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the

Patrick O’Flynn

How will Rishi Sunak ‘stop the boats’ now?

If Rishi Sunak’s five key pledges already looked in terrible shape at the start of the week – which they did – then today’s events have placed one of them on its deathbed. The promise to ‘stop the boats’ was administered its last rites in the Court of Appeal this morning when Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett announced: ‘The High Court’s decision that Rwanda is a safe third country is reversed. Unless and until the deficiencies in its asylum processes are corrected, removal of asylum seekers to Rwanda will be unlawful.’ So the only country thus far identified as a destination for those many illegal arrivals to the UK who

Katy Balls

Rishi’s Rwanda asylum plan ruled to be unlawful

It never rains but pours for Rishi Sunak. After a difficult few weeks for the Prime Minister, the Court of Appeal has this morning ruled that the Rwanda scheme is unlawful. The ruling means that the previous decision of the High Court that the scheme is lawful and Rwanda is a safe third country is reversed – with the removal of asylum seekers to Rwanda unlawful ‘until the deficiencies in its asylum processes are corrected’. Today’s decision was split – with the Master of the Rolls and Lord Justice Underhill concluding the policy is not lawful as there is a ‘real risk’ asylum seekers could be returned to their home

Nicholas Sheppard

Will New Zealand regret kowtowing to China?

New Zealand is reliant upon China, a country that makes up about a third of its export market. So, when the country’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins, visited Beijing this week, it is hardly a surprise that he avoided saying anything to offend his hosts. The Global Times, China’s state-run tabloid, said New Zealand’s ‘proactive’ diplomacy and actions with respect to China set ‘an example for other western countries’. In reality, that meant toeing the line on controversial issues like human rights, tensions in the South China Sea and China’s expansion into the Pacific. Hipkins would not divulge what he discussed during his 40-minute chat with president Xi, or what was put forward by

Steerpike

Privileges Committee shames the Boris backers

Hell hath no fury like a select committee scorned. Fresh from chastising Boris Johnson, the Privileges Committee has now turned its guns on the Tory MPs who vociferously backed him during their investigation. The seven-strong panel has identified eight Boris backers who interfered with their 14-month long probe into whether or not Johnson lied to the House. They are: Nadine Dorries, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Brendan Clarke-Smith, Andrea Jenkyns, Mark Jenkinson, Priti Patel, Michael Fabricant and Lord Goldsmith. All of the aforementioned eight were criticised for posting tweets, or giving comments to the media, that represented, in the committee’s words, ‘some of the most disturbing examples of the co-ordinated campaign to interfere

Gavin Mortimer

France is a country in chaos

Emmanuel Macron is facing arguably the gravest crisis of his presidency after another night of rioting across France. Much of the trouble was in the Paris region, particularly Nanterre, to the west of capital, where on Tuesday police shot dead a 17-year-old after he sped away from a vehicle checkpoint. On a night of extreme violence, police cars were torched, police stations mortared, shops pillaged, trams destroyed and an attempt was made to storm a prison at Fresnes. Dozens of rioters were arrested in Paris, but there was also disorder across France, from Lille in the north to Lyon in the east to Toulouse in the south. Successive governments have

Peter Lampl

Bright, poor students are being badly failed by Britain’s schools

Britain’s flagging productivity is commonly thought to be the root of the country’s present economic struggles. And as successive governments have painfully discovered – not least Liz Truss’s – there is no quick fix for it. Looking longer-term and investing in the skills of the future workforce satisfies nobody’s desire for instant results. Yet it’s actually the best lever ministers can employ to reverse the slide. A strong, internationally competitive economy requires a flourishing pipeline of home-grown talent coming through schools, colleges and universities and into employment or entrepreneurship. Yet many of the future scientists, mathematicians, engineers and start-up gurus that this country needs to produce simply don’t make it through. The reason?

Wednesday

28 Jun 2023

Kate Andrews

Is Thames Water about to sink?

Thames Water appears to be in trouble. The company, which has billions in debt, is in talks with the Treasury about a possible bailout. We may soon be adding the firm, which serves one in four Brits, to the list of victims of rising interest rates. ‘Victim,’ in this case, is perhaps the wrong word. It’s hard to feel sorry for a company that has been relying on ultra-low rates to keep itself afloat, racking up £14 billion worth of debt and now severely struggling to service it. Financial mismanagement is just one of a series of accusations levelled against the company. Its problems have been in the spotlight for years, especially

James Heale

Korski drops out after groping claims. Now what?

11 min listen

Daniel Korski, the former David Cameron aide who was standing to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor, has dropped out of the race after a woman claimed he groped her in a meeting in 2013. Korski had won the support of a number of high-profile Tory MPs, and was seen as the likely candidate to face Sadiq Khan in next year’s mayoral election. With only two people left in the race, will the Conservatives reopen nominations? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Max Jeffery.

Katy Balls

Daniel Korski withdraws from London mayoral race

Daniel Korski has pulled out of the race to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor. The former adviser to David Cameron cited the allegation by TV producer Daisy Goodwin that he had groped her during a meeting at 10 Downing Street in 2013 as the reason he is withdrawing. In his statement announcing the news, Korski said he continued to ‘categorically’ deny the allegation against him. However, he said that the pressure on his family as a result of the claims meant that he felt he had no choice but to drop out of the race: ‘I categorically deny the allegation against me. Nothing was ever put to me

Lloyd Evans

PMQs: Rishi whirs like a supercomputer

‘Hold your nerve.’ Rishi’s ill-judged advice to voters last Sunday was perhaps his worst blunder yet. At PMQs it came up half a dozen times. Sir Keir Starmer made the first attempt but he was too verbose to inflict real damage. ‘Rather than lecturing others on holding their nerve why not locate his?’ He exposed Rishi’s confused housing policy and asked if any credible expert believes that the government will reach its house-building target this year. Rishi wriggled deftly and chucked out a few helpful statistics. ‘More homes are meeting our “decent homes” standard, the housing supply is up 10 per cent… and first-time buyers are at a 20-year high.’

Steerpike

Lords watchdog refused to back five nominees

It’s been a difficult few years for Paul Bew, chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC). Bew picked up his own peerage in 2007, but since being appointed chair of Holac in 2018, he has been busy fighting off the claims of others put forward for a peerage. There was the Lord Lebedev farrago back in 2020 and more recently the row over Boris Johnson’s resignation honours’ list. The names who got on to the latter list caused enough of a scandal: one wonders who didn’t make it that far. For Mr S has now obtained a Freedom of Information response from Holac which shows that almost one in

Robin Ashenden

Rostov returns to reality after Wagner’s botched coup

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, it always seemed likely that the war would come back to Rostov-on-Don, the city which until then had been my home. Rostov isn’t just close to the border but feels it. Most of my university students were from the Donetsk and Lugansk, refugees from the 2014-2022 war. It’s the military hub of southern Russia, the first major city you come to from the Donbass. It felt like a sitting invitation. It was also somewhere I knew intimately and had been part of my life since my half-Russian daughter’s birth a decade ago. I took to Rostov-on-Don with an outsider’s greed for all four

The Spectator

Parents have a right to know what’s in sex education classes

Rishi Sunak tends to shy away from social issues so it has been left to a backbencher, Miriam Cates, to introduce a Bill which would oblige schools to disclose to parents the materials whichare being used in their children’s sex education classes. The Bill is necessary because the Conservative government has allowed sex education in many schools to be taken over by campaign groups with a radical agenda who wish to persuade children that it is wrong to think in a ‘heteronormative’ way. The government has let down a generation of children in allowing ideologues to infiltrate lessons The scandals that have recently surrounded schools reveal the scale and severity

Katy Balls

What reshuffle season has in store

Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak have something in common: both men are under pressure to reshuffle their front benches and pick a final pre-election team. ‘The agitating tends to be done by those who want jobs, rather than those who have them,’ sighs one member of the Labour leader’s team. But with an election due next year – whether it’s in the spring or autumn – Sunak and Starmer know they have one last chance to refresh their front benches before going to the polls. Sunak’s mission is to refresh a tired, squabbling party to make it look like a new government A pre-election reshuffle isn’t just about managing teams

Isabel Hardman

Sunak and Starmer clash on housing

Rishi Sunak used today’s Prime Minister’s Questions largely as an opportunity to attack the Labour party, and specifically Keir Starmer’s policy U-turns. This is fertile territory given there have been so many, even if the Labour leader is now adopting better positions than ones he naively took earlier on in his tenure. It does also show that the Prime Minister doesn’t feel he has a great deal to boast about when it comes to his own government achievements. Starmer invited these attacks by making his first question about Tory frontbench confusion over housebuilding. He said: ‘His party spent thousands of pounds on adverts attacking plans to build 300,000 new homes