Politics

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

Wednesday

7 Jun 2023

Why Rishi Sunak fears the Covid inquiry

A former Labour spin doctor recently offered some advice for governments considering a public inquiry. Rule No. 1: Don’t. But if ‘you’re stupid enough’ to do so: don’t make the inquiry independent, don’t give it powers, know the conclusion you want, set the remit accordingly and appoint a chair who knows the brief. Unfortunately for Rishi Sunak, the inquiry he has inherited from Boris Johnson’s time in Downing Street ticks none of these boxes. ‘It’s basically going to show that everyone hated each other. The pettiness will be embarrassing’ Even before its official launch this week, there were signs of trouble. The brief is to provide a factual account of the

Freddy Gray

Harry’s crusade: the Prince vs the press

Self-pity is one hell of a drug. On Tuesday, a day late, Prince Harry appeared in the High Court to ‘give evidence’ against the Mirror. The only testimony he was willing to provide, however, was his familiar gloop about the pain he suffered growing up rich, famous and royal. He can’t help himself, poor boy, and we should probably stop indulging him. We won’t, though. In a 49-page witness statement, the Duke of Sussex tried once again to make peace with himself by blaming the press for everything. ‘You start off as a blank canvas while they work out what kind of a person you are and what kind of

Nicholas Sheppard

Kiwis are tiring of New Zealand’s blundering prime minister

It’s all going wrong for New Zealand’s prime minister Chris Hipkins. Hipkins’s laidback, convivial persona and managerial skills were seen as a welcome contrast after the loftier ambition but patchy results of his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern. But a series of political scandals and blunders means Kiwis are rapidly tiring of their leader. The latest trouble involves transport minister Michael Wood, who has been ‘stood down’ after he failed to declare shares in Auckland airport when he became an MP. Hipkins described Wood’s ownership of the stock while he was regulating the aviation industry as ‘not acceptable.’ ‘I’m not sure that Michael himself even has a really good explanation for that,’

The Spectator

Don’t stifle AI

In his meeting with Joe Biden this week, Rishi Sunak proposed a research centre and regulatory body for artificial intelligence in Britain. This raises a dilemma for governments worldwide: how can humans reap the benefits of AI without creating an uncontrollable, possibly existential threat? The technological leaps in recent months have captured the public imagination, but as we are all now aware, an AI clever enough to cure cancer and create clean energy will also be so smart that it could inflict huge damage. In Brussels, Washington and London, the mood has swung from complacency to panic. Leaders who once cheered on the technology now fear it, and increasingly call

Isabel Hardman

Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions stoops to a new low

An appearance from ageing rocker Gene Simmons from KISS, watching from behind his dark glasses in the gallery, was one of the few highlights from today’s stand-in session of deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. This session wasn’t so much glam rock as it was rock bottom boring. Oliver Dowden and Angela Rayner had written a list of stock jokes and attacks that both were very keen indeed to use, regardless of the questions or answers they were actually dealing with. There was a supportive question in the opening by Tory MP David Johnston about reading standards and Labour party policy. This allowed Dowden to celebrate the recent news that England was

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP can’t blame Westminster for Lorna Slater’s recycling disaster

It takes mismanagement of epic proportions to turn a relatively simple recycling scheme for bottles and cans into a major governmental crisis. It takes Herculean hypocrisy to then blame it on Westminster. Scotland’s deposit return scheme (DRS), which plans to place a recoverable 20p on every single use container at the point of purchase, has been in a state of perpetual crisis for years, largely through the incompetence of the Green circular economy minister, Lorna Slater — well named because of her gyrations over the policy. But now Humza Yousaf has decided to delay the introduction of the DRS until the UK scheme comes on stream around 2025. This means that

Alexander Larman

The hubris of Prince Harry

As Prince Harry walked into the High Court for his second day of cross-examination, he might have been forgiven for approaching the stand with trepidation. The Duke of Sussex’s first day being grilled by Andrew Green KC did not cover him in glory. It is unlikely that the Prince has ever found himself under such close public scrutiny before in his life. Soft interviews, with the likes of old pal Tom Bradby and new chum Oprah Winfrey, did not prepare him for Green’s polite but probing questioning. Although Harry never gave into the petulance and anger he has displayed on other occasions, his shrugging utterances of ‘I don’t remember’ and

Christopher Snowdon

Is it time for Britain to leave the WHO?

Since declaring Covid-19 to be ‘over as a global health emergency’ early last month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has made it very clear that it has no intention of reforming. At its World Health Assembly two weeks ago, North Korea was among ten nations elected to sit on the WHO’s Executive Board, thereby giving Kim Jong-un’s totalitarian state the power to appoint WHO regional directors and potentially vote for the next director-general. The World Health Assembly did not censure North Korea for its countless human rights abuses, which include starving its own people. Instead it singled out Israel for criticism. One of Tedros’s first acts as director-general was to

Coffee House

As it happened: Prince Harry accused of ‘total speculation’ over hacking claims

Prince Harry has finished his second day of giving evidence in the High Court. The Duke of Sussex is taking legal action against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) alleging that tabloid reporters broke the law to get stories about him. He was cross-examined by the Mirror Group’s barrister Andrew Green and then was asked questions by his own lawyer, David Sherborne. Here’s what unfolded today: • Prince Harry says the media exposure for this court case has been ‘a lot’ • The Duke of Sussex found a tracking device under then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s car • Harry calls several articles ‘suspicious’ because they have been attributed to ‘pals’ or ‘Palace sources’ •

Ross Clark

Labour’s tax raid on private schools isn’t the money spinner it thinks

Would Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private school fees really raise £1.6 billion, as the party claims? Not according to a research paper by the education think tank EDSK. The £1.6 billion figure is often attributed to the Resolution Foundation, yet the original source, says EDSK, is a paper by the Fabian Society in 2011 – a paper which it says got its figures wrong in several different respects. It started with the assumption that there were, in that year, 628,000 pupils enrolled in independent schools. Yet this government figure did not just include pupils at fee-paying schools, but also children enrolled at academies and city technology schools. These were described

Katy Balls

Will the first migrant flight to Rwanda take off in September?

Rishi Sunak attempted to get on the front foot this week by giving an update on the progress he has so far made on his pledge to stop the Channel migrant boats. The Prime Minister announced that the government had procured two new barges to house those seeking asylum and said that small boat arrivals to the UK are down by 20 per cent this year. However, the game changer would be flights to Rwanda getting off the ground. The Sun reports today that flights could take off as soon as September if they win a key legal fight in the coming weeks. As I reported last month, September is

Tuesday

6 Jun 2023

Steerpike

Drag Queen Story Hour hits Scotland

You can’t leave Scotland alone for five minutes without another front opening up in the gender wars. Between legislating for doctor-free gender changes at 16 and housing trans rapists in women’s prisons, the Scots are apparently eager to rebrand themselves as the world’s most achingly progressive nation: Canada without the mounties. Even Justin Trudeau would find all this allyship exhausting. The latest skirmish is over one of the more colourful imports from the US culture wars, Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH), in which drag artists read to children down the local school or library. Some say this is inappropriate while others insist it’s no different from pantomimes, except Widow Twankie

Steerpike

Humza Yousaf brings back Alex Salmond’s spinner

Even with the force of the mighty SNP establishment behind him, Humza Yousaf’s premiership is still struggling. So when your own side fails you, who better to call in than your arch-nemesis’s second-in-command? Kevin Pringle, Alex Salmond’s one-time spin doctor, has today been conscripted to help keep Yousaf’s sinking ship afloat. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer… The man who helped Salmond’s SNP win a landslide victory in 2011 is to become Yousaf’s official spokesman: quite the choice for Nicola Sturgeon’s preferred successor. It’s perhaps rather fortunate for the First Minister that Pringle’s areas of expertise include ‘crisis comms’. For all his past successes with Salmond, he is

Isabel Hardman

Labour’s AI attack strategy comes unstuck

What’s wrong with the government’s AI strategy? Labour has been claiming today that it is ‘already out of date’, with shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell arguing that developers should be licensed by the government before they can work on advanced AI. Powell has suggested that an arms-length body could run the licensing regime in the same way as medicines and the nuclear industry are governed. But when she pitched up on the World at One this afternoon, she didn’t sound fully up-to-date herself. There needs to be more of a narrative from the opposition than just ‘we would do this better’ Sarah Montague asked quite reasonably why, if Labour was

Edward Howell

Kim Yo-jong is fast becoming North Korea’s propaganda puppeteer

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Such is the axiom underpinning North Korea’s (DPRK) approach towards its nuclear and missile development. The hermit kingdom’s acceleration in its nuclear and missile capabilities demonstrates how Kim Jong-un is working down his wish list of expanding his country’s conventional and unconventional weapons, which he declared in January 2021. Since then, the world has witnessed launches of solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), combat drones, and, most recently, military reconnaissance satellites. Last Wednesday’s launch of a Chollima-1 rocket was nothing to celebrate. It failed to ignite before hurtling into the Yellow Sea, which separates the Korean Peninsula from mainland China. For North

Coffee House

Full text: Prince Harry’s tabloid hacking witness statement

Prince Harry is in the High Court today, being cross-examined as he sues the publisher of the Daily Mirror over alleged phone hacking (you can follow proceedings throughout this afternoon here). Here is his witness statement: I, PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX, of [address available to the trial judge] WILL STATE AS FOLLOWS: My Background My Relationship with the Tabloid Press My Associates 18. During the Relevant Period, I was in regular contact and often exchanged voicemail messages with the following individuals: a. HRH The Prince of Wales, my brother. He is now first in line to the throne and, due to his position, the press have always been very interested in

Steerpike

Boris backers vote against Ferrier’s suspension

So. Farwell then. Margaret ‘plague’ Ferrier. The least-loved Covid carrier in all of Westminster today suffered the ignominy of watching her colleagues vote to turf her out of parliament. Back in March, the Commons’ Standards Committee recommended that she should be suspended for breaching lockdown rules. And this afternoon MPs voted 185 to 40 to approve a motion supporting her 30-day suspension: a vote that will almost certainly lead to a by-election in her Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency. Labour looks set to take the seat in what would be a timely boost to Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer. But the ramifications of today’s vote might not be confined to

Coffee House

As it happened: Prince Harry cross-examined on phone hacking accusations

Prince Harry has finished his first day being cross examined in the High Court as part of his case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN). The Duke of Sussex – the first member of the royal family to give evidence in court in more than 130 years – says reporters used unlawful means, including phone hacking, to get stories about him. Harry will be back in the witness box tomorrow. Here’s what has happened today so far: • According to Harry, attributing a source as a ‘pal’ is a classic hallmark of phone hacking • Harry alleges the tabloids spied on him on his Australian gap year using a private investigator

Alexander Horne

Margaret Ferrier’s Commons ban could complicate partygate for Boris

Margaret Ferrier has received a 30-day suspension from the Commons for breaching the Code of Conduct for MPs when she broke Covid rules. As the suspension is for longer than ten days, she is now at the mercy of a recall petition and by-election: it’s almost certain that the constituents of Rutherglen and Hamilton West will soon have a new MP. Unusually, 40 MPs voted against the suspension (185 voted in favour), and a high number of abstentions were recorded. Ferrier was sentenced to 270 hours of unpaid work in September last year after she pleaded guilty in a Scottish court to culpable and reckless conduct. Having discovered she was

Lucy Dunn

Young people are being failed by Scotland’s mental health services

Has there ever been a positive sentence that contains both ‘the SNP’ and ‘waiting lists’? New data reveals that under Scotland’s SNP government list lengths for children and young adults’ mental health services have risen this year, leaving just under 8,000 young people in limbo. Waiting lists nosedived in 2022, going from over 10,000 people long to around 7,500. But the trend hasn’t continued, leaving First Minister Humza Yousaf’s new government with more problems. While 7,701 young people wait for treatment, the number of referrals is rapidly rising. In the last year, over 500 more young people have been referred to mental health services; those from the most deprived parts