Politics

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

Thursday

23 Feb 2023

Is it right to criminalise verbal sexual harassment?

In febrile times, politicians tend to have a touching belief in their ability to pass laws and make men good. The well-meaning, but actually slightly sinister, Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Bill, which went through its committee stage yesterday with full support from Labour and no dissenting voices, is a case in point. The proposed legislation is a private member’s Bill brought by Greg Clark, Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells, but it is broadly supported by the government. At first sight it does very little. It has long been a crime under the Public Order Act to intentionally cause someone harassment, alarm or distress by saying or doing anything threatening,

Steerpike

Why did Humza Yousaf miss the vote on gay marriage?

With all the focus on Kate Forbes’ social views, it’s perhaps worth another look at Humza Yousaf’s own record on gay marriage. Back in November 2013, the now-favourite to succeed Nicola Sturgeon was a junior minister for External Affairs. He voted that month in favour of the general principles of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Scotland) Bill; however he subsequently missed the key final vote on 4 February 2014. Nine years on, he is now facing questions about why he did so. Yousaf claimed at the time that he had a prior meeting he couldn’t avoid. He wrote on Twitter: ‘Had ministerial engagement arranged beforehand but signed pledge, voted for stage one

Annabel Denham

What Miriam Cates gets right – and wrong – about declining fertility

Fulfil your civic duty. Get married. Have children. That was the message from Miriam Cates, the increasingly prominent Conservative backbencher, to guests at a drink reception earlier this week. In what even her fiercest critics would have to concede was an impressively bold speech, Cates suggested that many of her female constituents want to work less and spend more time with their children. She claimed that politicians belonged to a class that had been protected by marriage and family, insulated from family breakdown to such a degree that they fail to realise how important it is. Few politicians can ride out a Twitterstorm without some sort of retraction, and Cates is no

Cindy Yu

Was there anything Labour about Labour’s five missions?

10 min listen

Keir Starmer has set out Labour’s five missions for government in a speech today, but was there anything Labour about them? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman about where this speech leaves the Labour party’s chances to win the next election. Also on the podcast: the government’s plan to cut the asylum backlog. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Ian Acheson

The chilling attack on a Northern Ireland police officer

An off-duty senior detective in Northern Ireland’s police service was ambushed last night by masked gunmen as he helped at a football coaching event in Omagh, Country Tyrone. Two assailants fired at least four bullets into Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell, shooting him on the ground as his terrified son looked on. He remains critically ill in hospital. PSNI detectives investigating his attempted murder are pursuing dissident republican terrorists in the ‘New IRA’ as a strong line of inquiry. Three men have been arrested. Twenty five years ago, this sort of casual barbarity gained not much more than a sidebar in a local newspaper. The frequency of execution-style attacks by

James Heale

Will Starmer be trusted on his ‘five missions’?

The most interesting moment from Keir Starmer’s big set speech today came during the questions. The Labour leader had just set out his ‘five missions’ to fix the NHS, economy, crime, energy and education systems – the issues on which Labour hopes to fight the next election. But journalist after journalist preferred to ask Starmer instead about the last election he fought – the leadership contest to succeed Jeremy Corbyn. How, they asked, can voters trust the Labour leader’s promises, when he’s broken so many that he made to his own member? Starmer’s answers were clear: the goal is a Labour government, anything else is an irrelevance. The old Fortress

Rakib Ehsan

Can a football regulator save the beautiful game?

English football will soon have an independent regulator, with the power to block clubs from joining breakaway leagues and also try and prevent teams from going out of business. The football watchdog is part of plans set out in the government’s white paper, published today. For a struggling Tory party, this presents a golden opportunity to stand up for the game’s working-class supporters in provincial towns and post-industrial communities. It will also spark much-needed life into the Tories’ flagging levelling-up and social-cohesion agendas. Plans for a regulator to protect the beautiful game are overdue. Following the August 2019 expulsion of Bury FC and the High Court’s winding-up of Macclesfield Town

Theo Hobson

Kate Forbes and the conundrum of marriage

The fuss over Kate Forbes’ opposition to gay marriage shows that the concept of marriage has become a serious muddle. The depth of the muddle tends to be evaded, as pundits don’t generally want to admit that a basic thing like marriage is really confusing. But it is. It’s oddly hard to say what marriage is. Does it still have a religious dimension? Or is it an essentially secular thing that only has a religious dimension if you’re religious? It’s oddly hard to say what marriage is. Does it still have a religious dimension? Or is it a secular thing? Until recently, such questions troubled no one. Marriage was a

Steerpike

Defence ministers clash in battle of the egos

There’s nothing Mr S likes more than a clash between two monumental ministerial egos. And they don’t come much bigger than Ben Wallace, the Forces’ Flashheart, and Johnny Mercer, the veteran thorn in No. 10’s backside. Both men serve in posts at the Ministry of Defence: Wallace as Secretary of State and Mercer in a junior role but still attending cabinet. But in recent weeks the pair have had something of a difference of opinion on defence spending. First, there was a brief skirmish at the end of January when Mercer said that Wallace’s claims that Britain’s defence capabilities have been ‘hollowed out’ were ‘fundamentally not true’ and a ‘little

James Heale

Rishi risks another asylum outcry

With the likelihood of a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol fading this week, a new issue has emerged to enrage the Tory right: fresh plans to cut tackle the asylum backlog. Asylum seekers will no longer be subjected to face-to-face interviews, with more than 12,000 migrants from five countries having their claims assessed on paper instead. These five countries – Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Eritrea and Yemen – have the highest asylum success rate. Asylum seekers will have 20 days to fill in and return the fast-track official forms. Officials expect 95 per cent of applicants to be given leave to remain for at least five years, although those who fail

Andrew McQuillan

The DUP has a right to be difficult over the Northern Ireland Protocol

It’s easy to take an unsympathetic view of the Democratic Unionist Party. For many, its politicians are caricatures of the dour Ulsterman come to life; flinty types with an antediluvian outlook. An unfortunate reminder – for a certain type of Englishman – of all that ‘Irish stuff’ they would rather not have to deal with. The back and forth over the Northern Ireland Protocol has seen this sentiment ratcheted up. Jeffrey Donaldson’s standpoint – no return to devolution without his party’s tests being met – is engendering incredible frustration among government ministers and a press tired of having to surrender column inches to this intractable tale. One-time Brexit hardman Steve

Lucy Dunn

Five graphs that show Humza’s health service disaster

Humza Yousaf has been described as the ‘continuity candidate’ in the SNP leadership race. Yousaf remains the bookies’ favourite and has managed to avoided the media storm that his rival Kate Forbes has faced following her comments about gay marriage. But Yousaf’s own record in politics deserves some scrutiny. So how has the Scottish health secretary fared in his current role? This morning, Audit Scotland released a damning report that laid bare the full extent of Humza Yousaf’s health service crisis. It urged the Scottish government to be ‘fully transparent’ about ‘what progress is or is not being achieved’, and revealed that the health service is still nowhere close to

Tim Stanley

The Union has no substance

It’s always useful to be told what we’re allowed to think. The news from the Kate Forbes leadership campaign is that you can’t make it in politics unless you swallow sex changes and celebrate same-sex marriage. Fascinating. Especially since the former is actually very controversial – hence the backlash against the SNP’s gender ID reform – and the latter has only been the law since 2014. Even more interesting is that Forbes’ insistence that she wouldn’t try to reverse equal marriage isn’t enough. She is being pilloried not for her politics – which, in the sense of wishing to separate faith from existing legislation, is quite liberal – but for

Wednesday

22 Feb 2023

Freddy Gray

Fox News’s ‘silent ban’ on Donald Trump

It’s by now well-established that Fox News, the American media behemoth, is no longer on the Trump Train. Trumpworld’s union with Foxworld was never altogether easy and, ever since that fateful election in November 2020, it has fallen apart. Trumpists despise Fox for, as many see it, helping Joe Biden steal the election. And the top brass at Fox News have sought to distance themselves from the Trump movement and what they regard as its increasingly toxic politics. Rupert Murdoch has had enough of the Orange One, by all accounts. What hasn’t been made entirely clear is the extent of the break-up. One senior Fox figure has let slip, however,

James Heale

Will there be resignations over Northern Ireland?

10 min listen

Rishi Sunak continues to try to get his MPs onside when it comes to the government’s deal with the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Some Eurosceptics have warned that the Prime Minister could see resignations from his government if this is handled badly, with some touting Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s name. What’s the latest? James Heale talks to Fraser Nelson and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Cindy Yu.

Lloyd Evans

Small boats are Rishi’s big problem

Small boats are becoming a big problem for Rishi. Four Tory backbenchers raised the issue at PMQs. Andrew Selous asked about a ‘much-loved’ hotel in his constituency which the Home Office has annexed on behalf of their beloved migrants. Weddings and family parties have been cancelled. Selous, rather ludicrously, asked the PM to ‘redouble his efforts’ to solve the crisis. Let’s look at the maths. Redoubling zero gives you zero. And zero is what Rishi is doing to deter the boats and send new arrivals packing. He confessed as much. The PM is campaigning to please people who loathe him Some time in the future he plans to pass a

Stephen Daisley

The real reason to be scared of Kate Forbes

Kate Forbes’s religious views remain the only thing anyone wants to talk about in the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon. I expected as much. Forbes, a member of the Free Church of Scotland, has come under fire for saying that she wouldn’t have voted for same-sex marriage and that she believes children should be born within wedlock. She has stressed that she wouldn’t roll back any existing rights. These are personal articles of faith rather than policy prescriptions. Nevertheless, her views are out of step with Sturgeon’s and those of almost the entire Scottish political firmament. Her political opponents – inside and outside the SNP – are aghast. A leading SNP figure suggested she

James Heale

Corporation tax could be one of Hunt’s biggest Budget headaches

Public sector pay. Re-negotiating the energy price guarantee. Another fuel duty freeze. Jeremy Hunt’s first Budget on 15 March is certainly fraught with difficult challenges. Few Tories in Westminster are expecting much magic from the Chancellor, despite the surprise January budget surplus. And one reason for this is that Hunt is still pressing on with his corporation tax hike, which is due to go up from 19 per cent to 25 per cent for the UK’s largest companies in April. This tax rise is already facing a possible rebellion from a range of backbench factions whose membership totals to around 150 MPs. Simon Clarke, Jake Berry and Mark Francois – the

Katy Balls

Sunak’s Brexit gamble

Since Britain voted to leave the European Union, every prime minister has had to grapple with the conundrum of the Irish border. How can Brexit be delivered, while protecting Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and avoiding a land border with the EU? The hope is that the DUP will refrain from coming out against a Sunak deal even if they fail to endorse it Theresa May tried to solve the dilemma with the Chequers agreement, which would have kept the whole of the UK in an effective customs union with Brussels. It ended her premiership. Boris Johnson opted to let Great Britain differ from EU rules, which excluded

The Spectator

The SNP’s purity test

It seems as if Kate Forbes is about to achieve the remarkable distinction of losing an election as a result of a policy which she has not advanced and has no intention of enacting. It wasn’t she who raised the issue of gay marriage this week, but those who interviewed her after she announced her intention to stand in the Scottish National party leadership contest. Would she disavow the views of her church on sex, marriage and abortion? She would not. Her supporters peeled away. In succumbing to cancel culture, the SNP has weakened itself, perhaps fatally Just like the old Test Act, where Scots in public life had to