Politics

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

Wednesday

29 Mar 2023

The Good Friday Agreement hasn’t solved Northern Ireland’s troubles

Northern Ireland is a few weeks out from a Davos-style gathering of the great and the good to mark 25 years since the signing of the Belfast Agreement. The Clintons will be in town, Joe Biden will be there to presumably tell some folksy, paddywhacking wisecrack and Tony Blair might even feel the familiar touch of the hand of history upon his shoulder. Unhelpful, then, that the real world is deciding to intrude. Outside the backslapping get-togethers planned at venues such as Queen’s University in Belfast, villains still roam the streets and backroads of Ulster. After an attack on a police patrol in Strabane by dissident republicans in November and

Jonathan Miller

Macron’s last adventure: the President vs the public

Montpellier Every generation or so, French politics is decided on the streets. The May 1968 unrest in Paris spread worldwide; Jacques Chirac’s welfare reform agenda was ended with the 1995 disturbances. The spirit of revolt is so alive in French society that a special police force exists for such occasions, specialising in crowd control. Now President Emmanuel Macron is facing another sustained revolt. Eight weeks into the battle over his pension reforms, it’s far from clear who – if anyone – is winning. Police cars and buildings have been set alight in Strasbourg, Lille, Saint-Étienne and Bordeaux. In Paris, bin men have just ended a three-week strike: some 10,000 tonnes

Kate Andrews

It is becoming impossible to ignore the problems with the NHS

One of the most remarkable things about the National Health Service is the extent to which it avoids national criticism. Only a few years ago it was borderline blasphemy to point out problems with the NHS; for politicians, to do so was to dig your own political grave. For the first time in the survey’s history, the majority of the British public are ‘dissatisfied’ with the health service In the aftermath of the pandemic, things have started to change. Several politicians have spoken about the poor outcomes delivered by the health service. Most notably the Labour party is distinguishing itself from the Tories, not simply by offering more money, but

Katy Balls

Why Humza Yousaf is the Union’s best hope

After the narrow victory of the Brexit campaign in 2016, it was often said that the result would lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom. Just 38 per cent of Scots voted for Brexit, so Nicola Sturgeon argued that Scotland was being taken out of the EU against its will, necessitating a second Scottish independence referendum. And in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist party blocked the formation of a new power-sharing administration last year in protest at the Westminster government’s approach to the Brexit Protocol. Now things look very different. DUP MPs may have voted against the Windsor Framework, but polls suggest that Rishi Sunak’s renegotiated Brexit deal is

Katy Balls

The banishment of Jeremy Corbyn

Rishi Sunak is on a policy blitz. Humza Yousaf is facing party backlash after losing former leadership rival Kate Forbes from his cabinet. Ed Davey has this morning launched the Liberal Democrats’ local election campaign. And Keir Starmer? The Labour leader is once again making headlines for his bid to distance the Labour party from his predecessor. On Tuesday, the party’s National Executive Committee met to vote on Starmer’s motion to block Jeremy Corbyn from running to be a Labour MP at the next election on the grounds that the party’s chances of winning the next election would be ‘significantly diminished’ if Mr Corbyn was endorsed. The motion passed by

Patrick O’Flynn

The plan to house migrants on barges could soon come unstuck

Frank Sinatra once sang about the seductive properties of bright and shiny ephemera. ‘Her heart will sing, singa-linga, wearing baubles, bangles and beads,’ crooned Ol’ Blue Eyes. There is a temptation for anyone cynical about politics – that’s nearly all of us by now – to view the Government’s announcement of planned new asylum-seeker accommodation as a similarly knowing exercise in buttering us up with something eye-catching but insubstantial. Barges, barracks and airfields make up Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick’s latest attempt to get the electorate in the mood to couple-up with the Conservatives at the next election. These are the favoured and suitably Spartan-sounding new locations for thousands of the

Steerpike

Now Mark Drakeford’s bureaucrats turn their guns on shooting

Imagine the scene: you’re sat in the First Minister’s office in Cardiff Bay. Your desk groans under the weight of the great issues of state: a crumbling health service, a botched roads review, mismanaged millions and conditions so bad even your own staff are going on strike. So, what do you do to win the masses back on side? Announce a licensing scheme to regulate the release of game birds. Brilliant! Natural Resources Wales has announced a 12-week consultation on behalf of Mark Drakeford’s government on whether they ought to licence the release of pheasants and red-legged partridges in the Land of My Fathers. NRW claim that there are concerns

Douglas Murray

Our poor deluded MPs

They say that death and taxes are the only certainties in life. But I would add a couple more things to that list. ‘French rioting’ is one. And ‘MPs getting caught trying to make cash on the side’. This week a campaign group called Led by Donkeys released footage of a sting operation they have been running to try to trap MPs into agreeing to do consultancy work for a South Korean company. You may not be surprised to learn that the company does not actually exist. A number of MPs, however, clearly were. After some initial flirting, Gavin Williamson did not fall for it, though we can see from

Charles Moore

Is the Guardian letting itself off lightly over its links to slavery?

When you read the Guardian free online, a yellow notice appears asking you for money (‘Will you invest in the Guardian?’) to support its fearless journalism. But now arises a donor’s dilemma. After two years’ work, the paper has just produced a full report on and apology from its current owner for its founders’ involvement in slavery. The historian David Olusoga, part of the project, says that what the Guardian owes the descendants of slavery for this is ‘an unpayable debt’. The paper is attempting to pay it, however, setting aside £10 million for the purpose of restorative justice over ten years. So for the conscientious Guardian reader (is there

Iain Macwhirter

Is Humza Yousaf destined for Liz Truss’s fate?

We knew that Humza Yousaf wasn’t the sharpest tool in the ministerial box but no one expected him to mess up quite so spectacularly on his first day. It only took the new First Minister a couple of hours to undermine his own authority and provoke a potentially ruinous split in the Scottish National Party. Way to go, Humza! Forcing his rival Kate Forbes out of his cabinet by making her an offer she couldn’t accept – demotion to rural affairs – Yousaf has deepened the divisions that emerged during the leadership campaign. He has also exposed as false his claim to be a unifier; has lost the most capable minister in the Scottish

Gavin Mortimer

Is Macron heading for his Margaret Thatcher moment?

There was a sense of foreboding in France at the start of this week. After the anarchy of last Thursday and the extraordinary violence in western France on Saturday, where radical environmentalists fought a pitched battle with police, what would the next seven days bring? Much of the media speculated that the 10th day of action organised by unions in protest at the government’s pension reform bill would result in the sort of scenes witnessed across France five days earlier, with city halls torched, shops sacked and police stations attacked. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise, was accused by the government on Monday of tacitly encouraging the

James Heale

Will cruise ships solve the migrant housing crisis?

In an ironic twist, cruise ships are being hailed as the latest measure to help ‘stop the boats’. Most Fleet Street newspapers have today splashed on briefings that Channel migrants will be housed on ex-military bases, disused ships and barges, under plans that are expected to be announced later today. The aim is twofold: to act as a deterrent for future migrants and to cut the £6 million-a-day hotel bill to house the 50,000 people who are already here. The Times reports that ministers have procured an ‘accommodation barge’ capable of holding hundreds of migrants, which is being refitted. It will probably be moored in port rather than at sea, with the

Tuesday

28 Mar 2023

Steerpike

Humza’s latest gaffe has cost him a finance secretary

Dear oh dear. It seems the newly-elected gaffe-prone First Minister of Scotland has blundered once again. Shortly after announcing that former social justice secretary – and Sturgeon’s old chum – Shona Robison would be his deputy, Humza Yousaf spoke to Kate Forbes about her place in his new cabinet. Widely expected to give her a top job, if only for appearances, the former finance secretary was said to be less than happy when he proposed to, er, demote her to rural affairs. She was so displeased in fact that she reportedly told the FM ‘where to stick it’, and promptly quit the government thereafter. So much for party unity. Yousaf’s

Stephen Daisley

Kate Forbes quitting is a nightmare for the SNP

Kate Forbes has reportedly quit the Scottish government after new SNP leader Humza Yousaf offered her the job of rural affairs secretary. Given that Forbes has been finance secretary for the past three years, and a junior finance minister for two years before that, it’s a fairly transparent play: humiliate her into quitting government altogether. After all, it would be the equivalent of Rishi Sunak reshuffling Jeremy Hunt to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Arguably it’s worse, because Forbes spent years rebuilding relations with the business community, which had been good under Alex Salmond but fell off a cliff once Nicola Sturgeon took over. It is widely understood that

Natasha Feroze

Will exiling Corbyn backfire on Starmer?

12 min listen

Labour has voted to block Jeremy Corbyn from running as a Labour candidate in the next general election. For the podcast, Natasha Feroze speaks to Katy Balls and Gabriel Pogrund who is the Whitehall editor of the Sunday Times about whether this was a fight worth picking for Starmer. Also, given the former Labour leader has had ten consecutive successful campaigns for his seat in Islington North, is he likely to run again as an independent?

Lucy Dunn

Kate Forbes quits government after Humza Yousaf’s job snub

Humza Yousaf announced on Tuesday, after being voted in by 71 MSPs as Scotland’s First Minister, that Shona Robison would be his deputy. The long-term friend of Nicola Sturgeon will now help Yousaf decide who he will appoint to his cabinet, a decision that will set the tone for the next year and a half of his leadership. While earlier it was unclear what Yousaf would offer Kate Forbes, it was on Tuesday evening revealed that Yousaf’s main competitor has been offered the rural affairs portfolio. Rejecting this offer, Forbes has now quit government and will go to the back benches. Now it has been confirmed that Ivan McKee, Forbes’s original campaign

James Heale

Four things we learned from the PM’s Liaison Committee meeting

The remarkable thing about today’s Liaison Committee is how unremarkable it was. During the ninety-minute session with the chairmen of the House of Commons’ select committees, the contrast with Boris Johnson’s box office battles could not have been clearer. Sunak sought to conciliate, downplay and comfort at every turn, seeking to offer warm words and switching his focus between the macro and the micro: matching MPs on specifics to assure them he was across the detail while taking difficult questions back to his first principles. Child refugees? We have to stop the boats. If Northern Ireland is in the single market, why not Scotland? The 2014 vote remains in force.

Mark Galeotti

Nikolai Patrushev, the man dripping poison into Putin’s ear

If I were to have to pick the figure in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle who scares me the most, it would have to be Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council and the closest thing there is in the Russian system to a national security adviser. Patrushev’s profile has grown steadily as both cause and symptom of the system’s drift towards nationalist imperialism, and he best channels the worst impulses within the id of Putin’s clique. Whenever he speaks, it is sadly worth listening. After all, he does not just channel but shape those worst impulses. The Security Council itself is not the Soviet Politburo 2.0 that some assume.

Steerpike

Gary Lineker scores a victory over the taxman

The good news just keeps coming for Gary Lineker. The Match of the Day host has won his appeal against HMRC over a £4.9 million tax bill. The taxman claimed Lineker was an employee of both the BBC and BT Sport – and that, as a result, he owed them money. But a judge ruled that Lineker was a freelancer and threw out HMRC’s case. Lineker’s tribunal victory comes after he emerged victorious from his scrap with the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie over his tweets. The TV host was taken off the air after criticising the government’s asylum policy. But he returned to the show a week later after his fellow football

Cindy Yu

Why has the former Taiwanese president been cosying up to Beijing?

‘We must peacefully strive to rejuvenate the Chinese nation. This is an unshirkable duty for Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, one that we must work to achieve’. These aren’t the words of a Chinese Communist Party politician – but rather those of the former president of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, who is on a ten-day trip to the People’s Republic. Ma’s first stop was Nanjing, where he called for friendlier relations between Beijing and Taipei, appealing to their shared Chinese ancestry. Ma’s visit just happens to coincide with the incumbent Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen’s own visit to the US later this week, where she’ll meet the new