Politics Archives

Friday

5 May 2023

Tory big beasts at risk in 2024

Results are still coming in fast but one of the big stories of this local election night has been the Tories’ southern discomfort. Onetime safe seats in the once-impregnable ‘Blue Wall’ have fallen overnight to the Liberal Democrats and to a lesser extent, the Greens and Labour too. The leaders of Windsor and Mid Suffolk council lost their seats to Lib Dem and Green challengers respectively; the regions where the Tory vote share has fallen most is by 5.7 per cent in the south west and 3.7 per cent in the south east. Conversely, CCHQ is keen to talk up the areas where the party performed best: this occurred in

Gavin Mortimer

Macron, not Meloni, is to blame for Europe’s migrant crisis

France and Germany have fallen out again after the French interior minister Gérald Darmanin accused Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni of incompetence in her handling of the migrant crisis. In response, Itay’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, has cancelled a meeting in Paris scheduled for today and he is demanding an apology from Darmanin for his ‘vulgar insults’. Meloni has put on hold her own visit to Paris, which was due to take place next month, according to the Italian press. It’s not the first time the interior minister has outraged a neighbour. Twelve months ago, Darmanin was accused of wrongly laying the blame for the chaos that erupted in Paris during the

Steerpike

Lib Dem paper candidate triumphs in two seats

As the results of the local elections continue to roll in, the Liberal Democrats look set to make promising gains across the country. But for one newly-elected Lib Dem councillor, yesterday’s vote has left him seeing double. Sitting Salford Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Twells has accidentally won a second seat more than 160 miles away from his first in the Gloucestershire ward of Tetbury with Upton. The double whammy win occurred after Twells agreed to be a ‘paper candidate’ to help out the local Lib Dems who were struggling to find a candidate to nominate. Twells’ two-timing first came to light in April when the Labour mayor of Salford Paul

Max Jeffery

The local elections: what’s happening?

15 min listen

Early results from the local elections are coming in. The Conservatives were expected to perform badly, and Labour to make gains, and that’s certainly happened. But, if Labour were to replicate these results in a general election, would they win? And are the Liberal Democrats the ones really doing well? Max Jeffery speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Max Jeffery.

Patrick O’Flynn

The Tories haven’t reached the end of the road, yet

Everyone knew that the Conservatives were going to take a pasting in the local elections. Aside from deserving a particular kicking for the horror show of 2022, with its runaway inflation and two prime ministerial defenestrations, this is just what happens to long-serving governments deep into parliaments. So the question foremost in the minds of Conservative MPs – who naturally will be regretful about losing hundreds of conscientious councillors – is whether the English public have sent a message that they have already decided to get behind Keir Starmer and Labour at the next general election. In other words, is it over? The government’s protracted and out-of-control tailspin of last year

Fraser Nelson

Labour bounces back in Brexit-voting wards

One of the trends Keir Starmer will be looking for is the reversal of the Brexit effect, with Labour heartlands coming back to Labour. A study of 200 seats counted so far – a pretty small fragment – does seem to show a correlation with the swing away from the Tories in the places where the Leave vote was strongest. Will Jennings, a professor at Southampton University, has mapped the election results so the swing is mapped against the strength of Brexit vote. His work, for Sky News, shows a significant correlation so far: This matters because it supports one of the main hypotheses of a Labour victory: that neither

Steerpike

Sunak ends the Etonian ascendancy

It’s been a tough old time for Etonians. Having seemingly ruled the Tory party (and the country) for much of the past 15 years, the election of Rishi Sunak, a Wykehamist and proud school donor, put all that to an end. With Kwasi Kwarteng banished to the backbenches, Sunak’s cabinet became an OE-free zone: a watershed moment in Tory history. In their place though came the Wykehamists, with Sunak last month appointing fellow old boys Alex Chalk and John Whittingdale as Lord Chancellor and culture minister respectively. Poor old unloved Marcus Fysh must be expecting a call-up any day now. To add insult to injury, Sunak, as Prime Minister, has

Katy Balls

Rishi Sunak faces southern discomfort

Rishi Sunak wakes to warnings that the Tories could lose 1,000 seats in the local elections. What had been talked up as expectation management is now viewed as a possibility as the party finds itself squeezed by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Keir Starmer’s party is showing signs of progress in some so-called red wall areas while the Tories are losing support in traditonal strongholds in the south. It’s worth noting of course that it is still early days, with results due to come through well into Saturday. But the early signs are not particularly encouraging for the Conservatives. While bad results were expected, the reality of heavy losses

Theo Hobson

Britain’s ‘theocracy’ is something to be proud of

This coronation season, punditry is bristling with acute reflections on the British constitution, especially its religious aspect. Or maybe not. There is more comment on Succession (an American TV show that half-satirises, three-quarters worships capitalist excess). But is it not at least a little bit interesting that we officially remain a Protestant theocracy? The Protestantism of the coronation oath is widely seen as an embarrassing relic from a more sectarian age. The King will promise to defend Protestantism, and protect the Church of England. He won’t say anything unfriendly about Catholicism, but those in the know will know that the Act of Settlement of 1701 remains in place, excluding Catholics from the

Thursday

4 May 2023

Andrew Liddle

Humza Yousaf is right to attack handouts for the middle class

In Scotland, everything from eye tests to prescriptions to university tuition is paid for by the state, even if you can easily afford to pay for it yourself. Such is the intoxicating effect of universal benefits that the only question up for debate in the Scottish Parliament is what else can be given to everyone for free, rather than what is most effective or affordable. That was until Humza Yousaf became First Minister. In need of a political lift following the police investigation into the SNP’s finances, Yousaf has engineered a significant break – not just with his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon, but with the Scottish political consensus that had nurtured

Lara Prendergast

A King in a hurry: what will Charles III’s reign look like?

38 min listen

This week: In his cover piece for the magazine, Daily Mail writer, author of Queen of Our Times and co-presenter of the Tea at the Palace podcast, Robert Hardman looks ahead to the reign of King Charles III. He joins the podcast alongside historian David Starkey, who is interviewed in the arts pages of The Spectator by Lynn Barber (01:10) Also this week: Sean Thomas writes about generational reparations, that is: whether families with murky pasts should pay compensation for their ancestors’ wrongdoings. He is joined by Professor Christine Kinealy, historian and author This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52, to ask whether generational reparations are simply a token gesture (20:58). And finally: Journalist Yannic Rack writes about the

Steerpike

Four-day council boss on six-figure salary

It’s local election day for most of the country – though not in South Cambridgeshire. The Lib Dem led District Council there has been in the news a lot this week but not for the right reasons. Council bosses there have just hailed the ‘overwhelmingly positive’ results of their four-day working week trial and are now set to extend it for a further twelve months. Nice life for some eh? The pilot scheme was launched in January and gives staff the chance to take either Mondays or Fridays off on the assumption that they will work ‘more productively for the remaining days.’ And this week the Daily Mail revealed that Liz Watts,

Steerpike

Rishi hails Tories’ ‘good progress’ at Reform club bash

The Tories might be trailing in the polls but there was no sign of glum faces in Westminster last night. The crème de la crème of the Conservative establishment was out in force to hail the fifth birthday of the Onward think tank. Star of the show was a beaming Rishi Sunak, displaying no indication of any pre-election nerves in his speech. The PM remarked on his shock at the SNP paying him a compliment and Nick Cave’s coronation plans before praising the quality of attendees, remarking that ‘looking around this room tonight, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many prospective Tory parliamentary candidates in one place since my own

Andrew Tettenborn

Alex Salmond’s disturbing grab for the Stone of Scone

Claims of financial skulduggery abound, Nicola Sturgeon is politically hors de combat and Humza Yousaf is quickly rebranding the SNP as a party not only of shatteringly incompetent government but also of lost causes, political irrelevance and sheer kookiness. Thinking Scots who don’t fancy the Tories might be forgiven for contemplating a switch of loyalties to Alex Salmond. His new party Alba, formed in 2021, might be a bit rough round the edges, but at least it looks principled. There is an attraction in the straight-talking face of nationalism past, with no pretence to either elegance or middle-class faddishness: witness Salmond’s bon mot on LBC a couple of days ago

William Atkinson

Is it time to ban George Osborne?

George Osborne has taken a break from his myriad jobs to give his thoughts on health policy. Orange juice should be taxed, and smoking banned, according to the ex-Chancellor. Doing so had been ‘too controversial’ while he was in government; those ‘anti-nanny state Conservatives’ who oppose it are ‘not worth listening to. Leaving aside the lack of evidence about whether sugar taxes reduce calorie intake, and whether Conservative governments should impose such draconian measures, Osborne’s intervention is oddly timed. Negotiations with Greece on the Elgin Marbles’ future are ongoing; one would have thought the chairman of the British Museum has better things to be doing than opine on orange juice.

Wednesday

3 May 2023

Kate Andrews

Another rate rise from the Fed. Is it enough?

Will the Bank of England raise interest rates again? We’ll know for sure next Thursday, when we get the Monetary Policy Committee’s next announcement on the base rate, but today’s decision from the Federal Reserve to hike rates again makes it more likely that the Bank will follow suit. The Fed has announced another interest rate hike: a quarter of a percentage point, taking the rate to 5 – 5.25 per cent. This tenth consecutive hike in the United States has taken its key interest rate to the highest level since 2007 – approximately where rates sat before the financial crisis hit. This has caused plenty of controversy across the pond, as fears

Katy Balls

Did the Tories ‘kill the dream of homeownership’?

11 min listen

In today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Keir Starmer accused the Prime Minister and his party of having ‘killed the dream of homeownership’. With news this week that Rishi Sunak is considering reintroducing ‘Help to Buy’ while Michael Gove is sued for blocking a new housing development in Kent, does Starmer actually have a point? Katy Balls talks to Kate Andrews and Fraser Nelson. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Steerpike

SNP find some accountants, at last

Just in the nick of time, the SNP have at long last – after cold calling almost every auditing firm in the country – found some new accountants. The small Manchester-based firm, AMS Accountants Group, must be hungry for a challenge: the Westminster group’s accounts need auditing in just over three weeks, while the Holyrood party’s accounts have a deadline of 7 July. Tick tock! Commenting on this minor triumph, First Minister Humza Yousaf said: We take our statutory obligations extremely seriously, so it is welcome news that AMS Accountants Group will complete the accounts for both the party and the SNP Westminster group. I am very grateful for the

Madeleine Teahan

The alarming spread of child euthanasia

A few weeks ago the Dutch parliament announced that euthanasia will be licensed for children between the ages of one and 12, for cases involving ‘such a serious illness or disorder that death is inevitable, and the death of these children is expected in the foreseeable future’. The coverage of this latest development was eerily muted, considering the enormity of what had just been communicated; namely, that a European liberal democracy had deemed it appropriate for seriously sick infants and primary school-aged children to receive lethal injections. How have liberal democracies become so enticed by the sinister notion that children should be eligible for euthanasia? Meanwhile, over in Canada, two

Lloyd Evans

Keir Starmer’s gutter politics is working

Powerful stuff from Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs. He tackled Rishi Sunak on his favourite battleground – statistics. He began by pinning the PM down on a very specific question. How many mortgage-holders have to pay more each month because the Tories ‘crashed the economy last autumn’? Rishi didn’t know. Sir Keir gave him the answer and promptly gloated over the PM’s failure to reply. Next he asked how many future mortgage-holders will enter the trap of rising payments. No reply from Rishi. He simply didn’t know. Bad look. Sir Keir has wisely shifted the focus of his attacks. Rather than complaining about Mrs Sunak’s bank balance – which feels