Politics

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

Monday

6 Mar 2023

Qurangate has exposed the weakness of ‘liberals’

There’s a sudden vacancy in the constituency of Wakefield. The incumbent Labour MP hasn’t resigned or died. He just happens to be Simon Lightwood, a good example of nominative determinism. Lightwood’s weaselly intervention in Qurangate carries all the moral force of a sliver of driftwood carried along by the tide. In place of an MP, Wakefield has the faintest of shadows. Statement on the recent incident at Kettlethorpe High School: pic.twitter.com/k5a8eoslVA — Simon Lightwood MP (@simonlightwood) March 5, 2023 Note that he characterises teenage boys dropping and scuffing a book – a book which was the property of one of those boys – as ‘the incident’. Note that he condemns

Philip Patrick

The shame of Scotland’s SNP leadership contest

Ed Miliband must be relieved. With Ash Regan’s idea for an ‘independence thermometer’, a giant screen or billboard visually representing progress towards various aspects of independence, his ‘Edstone’ now has competition for the most ridiculous idea ever presented by a UK politician during an election campaign. It is a measure of how absurd the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon has become that Regan’s Heath Robinson-esque brainwave has caused only mild amusement. Regan followed up her inspiration by going full Braveheart and endorsing Alex Salmond’s idea of withholding the Stone of Destiny from the upcoming coronation. Quite how this benefits the people of Scotland or advances the cause of independence was

Steerpike

Is Rishi’s tech revolution all it’s cracked up to be?

Social media users were treated to a mysterious post this morning. Just before lunchtime, the Prime Minister tweeted out a stylish QR code featuring the number ‘10’ at its centre. The post – captioned ‘Innovation means growth’, along with a phone emoji – was entirely without context. Keen to figure out what ‘innovation’ and ‘growth’ the PM was referring to, Steerpike thought he’d have a go at cracking this particular code. However, Mr S soon encountered the first stumbling block in Sunak’s bright idea. As many Twitter users were quick to point out, it turns out that to access whatever lies behind the code, you need two devices: one to

Kate Andrews

Dyson tells Hunt: your tax grab sucks

As tax rates rise in the UK, so do business jitters. The windfall tax on oil and gas companies – raising tax on profits to 75 per cent this year – has energy companies openly discussing plans to divert money elsewhere. The looming hike in corporation tax – from 19 per cent to 25 per cent for the largest companies – also has the businesses talking about future investment strategies. So far, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt seems unconvinced that investment threats will amount to much. His Budget next week is expected to confirm the corporation tax rise in April. But the backlash is growing: from MPs in his own party who are worried

Cindy Yu

Can Rishi stop small boats?

13 min listen

Tomorrow the government is set to deliver its plan the tackle small boats, legislation Rishi Sunak has been promising since before Christmas. Is Rishi about to get tough on immigration? Also on the podcast, what is the latest in the Sue Gray scandal? Will this – alongside continuing questions over Simon Case – start a serious conversation about impartiality in the civil service? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman.

Steerpike

Poll: public support King’s meeting with von der Leyen

It’s six months on Wednesday since Charles became King. So, to mark the occasion, Mr S thought he’d ask his fellow royal subjects what they made of the King’s reign thus far. Our septuagenarian monarch had a difficult act to follow in succeeding Elizabeth II but it seems on the whole that he has done a pretty good job. Polling by Redfield and Wilton of 1,500 Britons last week found that some 43 per cent of the public think that Charles III has thus far been a ‘good king’ – slightly ahead of the 42 per cent who replied ‘don’t know’ but nearly three times as many as those who

Joanna Williams

In defence of Isabel Oakeshott

What shocks me most about Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages is the flippancy surrounding decisions to scare, manipulate and control the British public. We were told, repeatedly, that government ministers were ‘following the science’. But thanks to Isabel Oakeshott we now know that schools were closed, children masked, families and friends separated, visitors kept out of care homes and quarantine periods prolonged, less because of ‘science’ and more, it seems, for political convenience. So where is the outrage? People lost lives and livelihoods. Children missed out on education and exercise. Physical and mental health suffered. Lengthy NHS waiting lists and economic problems will be with us for many years to come.

Alexander Larman

Harry and Meghan’s coronation guessing game isn’t fair on the King

Will they or won’t they? I’m talking, of course, about whether or not Harry and Meghan will attend the King’s coronation in May. A statement from the couple suggests that, despite reports to the contrary, the couple have been invited: ‘I can confirm the Duke has recently received email correspondence from His Majesty’s office regarding the coronation,’ a spokesperson for the couple said. But it seems the Sussexes will be keeping Charles III on tenterhooks for now: ‘An immediate decision on whether the Duke and Duchess will attend will not be disclosed by us at this time,’ the spokesman added. Britain has not been in such a state of apprehension

Steerpike

Watch: Starmer squirms over Gray job offer

Oh dear. Just this morning Mr S was wondering how Labour can justify its job offer to Sue Gray. And it seems Sir Keir is having similar difficulty in doing so too. Appearing on LBC this morning for his weekly ‘Call Keir’ segment, the Labour leader was asked six times about when the party first approached the senior civil servant but Starmer refused to answer. Quelle surprise… Presenter Nick Ferrari did his damnedest, asking whether Gray was first approached this year or last year. Sir Keir declined to answer, only saying it was a ‘recent’ approach, following the departure of his previous chief of staff in October. It was, he

Gavin Mortimer

Failing to stop the Channel crisis will cost Rishi Sunak his job

Finding an effective solution to Europe’s migrant crisis has eluded the continent’s leaders for a decade. Presidents, prime ministers and chancellors have tried, and failed, to tackle the issue. Above all, governments have been scared to stand up to the powerful pro-migrant lobby which has controlled the narrative since the crisis began in 2011. Is this about to finally change? Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is determined to make good on his vow to stop the small boats crossing the Channel. This week, Home Secretary Suella Braverman will explain how this will be done. Under a new bill, anyone arriving in the UK on a small boat will be prevented from

Mary Dejevsky

Cyclists have been given a licence to ride on the pavement

Let me confess: when I learned that a woman pedestrian had been sent to prison for causing the death of a cyclist she had forced off the pavement, only my second thought turned to the horror experienced by the victim and sympathy for her family. My first, entirely selfish, thought was: there but for the grace of God go I. For I, too, have shouted at cyclists who occupy pavement space when I think they should be cycling on the road (though school ma-am rather than swearing is more my register). I, too, have a tendency to put my hand out to keep an intruding cyclist at bay. I have

Sam Leith

Starmer will regret appointing Sue Gray

Keir Starmer has thrived, over the past few years, by being a bit boring. Every day, I fancy, he wakes up in the morning, and after he has finished sanding his face and arranging his hair with Araldite, solemnly addresses the mirror and promises himself: no unforced errors. He probably has a list of don’ts: don’t in a moment of absentmindedness call for a national strike; don’t demand the eradication of the state of Israel; don’t promise to tax the rich till the pips squeak; don’t appear in the same hemisphere, let alone same photograph as anyone with a grey beard. Geese routinely walk unstartled across his path. His big strategy for winning the next election so far has been

Steerpike

Did Sue Gray break the civil service code?

Who watches the watchmen? That’s the question Whitehall is asking after chief panjandrum and sleazebuster extraordinaire Sue Gray’s was offered the job of Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. The revelation that Gray might not necessarily be quite the bastion of perfect probity has sent shock waves through SW1 – not least in the upper ranks of the senior civil service. Susan Acland-Hood, the permanent secretary at the Department of Education, was so concerned by news of Gray’s appointment on Thursday that she reportedly raised concerns in an online Zoom call with colleagues. According to the Telegraph, Acland-Hood reminded other officials about their duty to impartiality, concluding with a firm warning

Steerpike

Watch: Hancock’s supposed lawyer in GB News bust-up

A bizarre late-night row occurred on GB News yesterday. The channel were delighted to welcome lawyer Jonathan Coad on to discuss the lockdown files, with host Steve N Allen welcoming him by saying he was ‘actually recently asked to act for Matt Hancock.’ But Coad bristled at that introduction, insisting that ‘I made it absolutely clear to your programme, I asked them not to disclose that. That is very, very poor journalism.’ He continued thus: When your own television station has engaged in correspondence with me where I explained that I’m in a position to be able to comment on this and mentioned I’d been approached by Matt Hancock –

Sunday

5 Mar 2023

Fraser Nelson

Matt Hancock and the politics of fear

‘When do we deploy the variant’, asks Matt Hancock after talking of the need to ‘frighten the pants off everyone with the new strain’. The messages yet again remind us of the mindset, at this stage in the pandemic, of the small group of men who had given themselves complete power during lockdown. The tone of these messages matters. The idea of giving ‘marching orders’ to police, to arrest members of the public for going about normal life, did not seem to make them at all uncomfortable. We see Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, laughing at how they will lock up people who come off flights and saying he wishes

Steerpike

Watch: Osborne grilled about Hancock texts

Will anyone ever text Matt Hancock again? It’s day five of the lockdown files today and it seems there’s still more revelations to come from the former health secretary’s WhatsApp messages, handed over to Isabel Oakeshott because he wanted a ghostwritten book to commemorate his triumph. Talk about the grift that keeps on giving… One of those unlucky politicians who’ve found their messages splashed across the Telegraph is George Osborne. Mr S rather enjoyed reading the former chancellor’s pithy form of texting style, with gems such as ‘no one thinks testing is going well Matt’. Still, Osborne wasn’t always so acerbic, at one stage promising Hancock that he would guarantee him the

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: Sunak haunted by ghosts of governments past

Covid and partygate still haunt Sunak Rishi Sunak will have wanted to use this week to sell his new Brexit deal. The ghosts of governments past had other ideas. Fresh evidence suggesting Boris Johnson might have misled parliament over partygate, and the embarrassing leak of Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages, have led to some uncomfortable questions. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris told Laura Kuenssberg he believed Johnson was an honest man: Hancock messages suggest an ‘eat out to help out’ cover-up Kuenssberg then asked Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth about the WhatsApp leaks, in which Hancock appears to say he attempted to keep evidence that the ‘eat out to help

Jane Stannus

Did China influence the Canadian elections for Trudeau?

It’s been a sticky couple of weeks for Canada’s natural governing party, as the Liberals like to call themselves. Anonymous sources from CSIS, Canada’s intelligence agency, leaked information to two major Canadian media outlets, The Globe and Mail and Global News. The reports say China interfered in Canada’s two most recent federal elections, and that CSIS alerted the government, but that despite warnings the Liberals – who won both elections with a minority government – did nothing. It’s simultaneously a crisis for the Liberals and a bit of a yawn. Canadians already knew Justin Trudeau was soft on China’s ‘basic dictatorship’. If there was to be foreign interference from one of the most

Steerpike

Poll: public confused on Starmer and Sunak’s five goals

An awkward one for the strategists in Southwark and Westminster. Mr S has commissioned some polling and it’s official – the public, it seems, are having a tough time telling the Labour and Tory policies apart. Both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have recently made major speeches, respectively setting out their ‘five pledges’ and ‘five missions.’ But a survey of 1,500 voters this week by Redfield and Wilton found that by 40 per cent to 26 per cent, Britons wrongly identified the goal of securing the highest sustained economic growth in the G7 as Sunak’s goal – rather than Starmer’s. Conversely, by 42 per cent to 27 per cent those

Katy Balls

Sunak’s plan to stop the boats

Another weekend, another set of stories on the chances of a Boris Johnson return. Allies of the former prime minister are on the attack over the privileges committee’s partygate inquiry following the disclosure that Sue Gray – who led the report at the time – has been hired as Keir Starmer’s new chief of staff. It’s still up in the air when Gray will be allowed to take on the role as Acoba – the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments – could take three months to come up with the terms for the appointment. Gray will need to disclose at what point her conversations with the Labour leader began. However,