Politics Archives

Friday

27 Jan 2023

Can Jeremy Hunt’s gamble pay off?

As the UK – and indeed the world – faces the prospect of an economic downturn this year, what exactly can the government do about it? This remains an ongoing debate within the Tory party, as Rishi Sunak continues to emphasise the importance of stability, while Liz Truss’s most loyal supporters keep pressuring the government to revive her focus on economic growth. This morning a trio of cabinet members showed up in the City to suggest that it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan, Business Secretary Grant Shapps and the main act, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, opened this morning’s conference at Bloomberg by insisting the

Steerpike

Johnsonites face off in TV wars

You’d think after the last few years, viewers have had enough of politicians on their screens. But studio bosses clearly disagree, given the increasing number of MPs who are now hosting their own television shows. This morning TalkTV have announced that former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries will be joining the channel as a regular presenter, with her first guest being none other than one Boris Johnson. Expect that one to be a tough grilling… And it’s not just TalkTV who have signed up a diehard Johnsonite. For GB News have poached their own ‘Boris backer’ in the form of Jacob Rees-Mogg, a longtime podcast host on ConservativeHome. He is the

Brendan O’Neill

Is Nicola Sturgeon a transphobe?

Is Nicola Sturgeon a transphobe? I ask because she has decreed that Isla Bryson, a violent man who identifies as a woman, should not be locked up at a women’s prison. And every woman who has said similar in recent years, every feminist who has said that no blokes should be allowed into women’s prisons, women’s domestic-violence shelters and women’s changing areas, has been horribly attacked by the right-on. They’ve been denounced as phobes, bigots, TERFs and worse. So is Sturgeon a bigot, too? Should she be cancelled? This is the disturbing story of the male rapist who says he is a woman. Scot Isla Bryson, whose birth name is

Isabel Hardman

Will Jeremy Hunt relent and agree to lower taxes?

Jeremy Hunt is giving a speech that is part of the government’s economic relaunch this morning. The Chancellor is going to argue that the ‘declinism’ narrative about Britain is wrong and that ‘the UK is poised to play a leading role in Europe and across the world on the growth sectors which will define this century’. He is trying to switch from his own previously downbeat tone about things getting worse before they get better, in part as a response to the Trussite Tories who are highlighting Britain’s anaemic growth. The interesting thing about the Truss bunch is that while many Tory MPs dismiss them as ‘deranged’, they then add

Philip Patrick

Is Japan doomed?

Japan is heading for trouble, the country’s prime minster Fumio Kishida has suggested. ‘Our country is on the brink of being unable to maintain the functions of society,’ he said in a speech earlier this week. Japan’s birth rate, the average number of children a woman will have, is too low, and still falling. It’s 1.3, and needs to be 2.1 to keep the population stable. With every year that passes, there are hundreds of thousands fewer Japanese people. Economics is mostly to blame. Once, there was a secure and predictable life was for the average Japanese person. The men would toil away at a big company in return for the assurance of

Thursday

26 Jan 2023

Steerpike

Hong Kong row embroils Commonwealth group

A most undiplomatic row has engulfed one of Westminster’s most prestigious groups. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association boasts 180 branches around the world, with the late Queen Elizabeth among its former patrons, with former Cabinet minister Maria Miller now serving as its chair. But among those upcoming speakers due to address it in London include two controversial Hong Kong legislators in March. Whether one can call the current assembly of apparatchiks a ‘parliament’ is of course debatable. But one of the pair in question is Dominic Lee Tsz-king, who is especially objectionable, even by the standards of Hong King’s debased assembly. A onetime spokesman for ‘Ban Gay Marriage Hong Kong’, he

William Moore

Rolling in it: the return of Tory sleaze

43 min listen

Katy Balls, The Spectator’s political editor, writes about the return of Tory sleaze. She’s joined by Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, to discuss the problems piling up for Rishi Sunak and the Tories. (00:50) Also this week, security expert Mark Galeotti writes about why Europe has been reluctant to give Ukraine tanks. Journalist Owen Matthews and Ben Hodges, former commanding general of the United States Army (Europe), join the podcast. (18:44) And finally, Gus Carter, The Spectator’s deputy features editor, writes in this week’s magazine about bison being reintroduced into the UK. He joins the podcast with the environmentalist Stanley Johnson. (33:40) Hosted by William Moore. Produced

Cindy Yu

Is No. 10 preparing to let Zahawi go?

12 min listen

Over the last few days, Downing Street has been quietly distancing itself from Nadhim Zahawi, though seems unwilling to do anything until the investigation into Zahawi’s tax affairs finishes. Today, the Tory chairman’s plight was made worse by comments from Jim Harra, chief executive of HMRC. Cindy Yu discusses with Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Steerpike

Rod Stewart calls time on the Tories

Rod Stewart has been a Conservative supporter for some time – but no longer. The ageing rocker, who congratulated Boris Johnson after his landslide election win in 2019, says it is time for the party to move over and give Labour a turn. ‘This is a bad time for us in Great Britain – change the bloody government,’ he told Sky News viewers after phoning in during a discussion on the dire state of the NHS. Stewart described the cost-of-living crisis as ‘heartbreaking’ and suggested that Rishi Sunak’s government was failing: ‘I personally have been a Tory for a long time and I think this government should stand down now

Steerpike

Guardian in ‘institutional racism’ storm

Oh dear. It seems that the world’s wokest newspaper is in a bit of a mess of its own making. Stung by criticism of its historic slave trade links and support for the Confederacy in 2020, the Guardian resolved to create an editorial project on its past. This included an upcoming podcast about the connections between its founder, John Edward Taylor, and transatlantic slavery. But in an unfortunate twist, three producers who were working on the series have accused the holier-than-thou media outlet of ‘institutional racism.’ The trio all complained in writing to the Graun last year about their treatment before leaving the project. After hearing on Monday that the

James Innes-Smith

Tyre Nichols and the muted response of Black Lives Matter

The reaction to the brutal death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old, after he was stopped by police has been strangely muted. Nichols, a father-of-one, died of his injuries on 10 January, three days after a confrontation with five black officers in Memphis, Tennessee. Lawyers for the family said Nichols, an African-American, was beaten ‘like a human piñata’. The heartbreaking footage of Nichols’s mother, Rowvaughn Wells, breaking down in tears has made the headlines. But the coverage marks a sharp contrast to the fallout after the death of another man, George Floyd, at the hands of police. That incident back in 2020 triggered a worldwide outpouring of grief and anger; the

Wednesday

25 Jan 2023

William Atkinson

The Oxford-Cambridge arc shows why the Tories don’t get it

Rishi Sunak has long sought to give Britain its very own Silicon Valley. Partially because pseudo-Californian beaches would provide respite from snarling backbenchers, but mainly because creating a European hub for innovation in Britain would be a good way to rejuvenate our sclerotic growth rates. Hence why today the government is stumping up £2.5 million for a new ‘regional partnership’ driving investment towards Oxford and Cambridge. With two of the world’s leading universities in close proximity, turning swathes of South-East England into a haven for science and technology should be a no-brainer, surely? Alas, the philosopher John Stuart Mill didn’t label the Conservatives ‘the stupid party’ for nothing. Readers can

Lloyd Evans

Nadhim Zahawi is toast – and PMQs proved it

God. What a grisly PMQs. Last week, Sir Keir Starmer politicised the case of an NHS patient who died before an ambulance could save her. Today he tried to make a political point about a murder. ‘It’s hard to convey the agony they’ve been through,’ he said of a meeting with the victim’s family, ‘They say the government has blood on its hands.’ Poor taste. And poor tactics. His real aim today was to destabilise the forgetful minister, Nadhim Zawahi. By using a family’s grief as a warm-up act, he created a gruesomely funereal mood – when he turned to Tory sleaze it seemed stagey and opportunistic. Rishi Sunak is

Julius Strauss

The looming battle for Chasiv Yar

In the eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar, seven-year-old Symon was clinging to a chocolate bar and a packet of biscuits he had just been given by an aid worker. With the sound of each new shell landing – and they were coming every few seconds – his small body shook and shivered in sympathetic rhythm. Eventually he buried his head against his mother, Svetlana’s, coat and closed his eyes. ‘We are terrified’, said Svetlana, a 47-year-old who worked as a chemist in a laboratory before the war. ‘Of course we want to leave.’ Using back roads, and in a borrowed helmet and flak jacket, I visited Chasiv Yar this

Max Jeffery

Is Tory sleaze cutting through?

12 min listen

Today, Rishi Sunak faced another round of questioning over the two ongoing Tory sleaze scandals. What is it about these stories that infuriate voters, and can the Prime Minister close the chapter on them as he promised to do? Max Jeffery talks to Katy Balls and pollster James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners. Produced by Max Jeffery and Cindy Yu.

Steerpike

No, David Lammy: plumbers can’t just hop on the Tube

If Sadiq Khan has his way, drivers of old cars will soon be stumping up £12.50 every time they get behind the wheel in London. Much to the outrage of Londoners, the Labour mayor has grand plans to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone across the whole city in several months’ time. But for plumbers and window cleaners worried about how the daily charge will affect them, David Lammy has some advice: they should hop on the train. Lammy was challenged by Nick Ferrari on LBC yesterday as to how tradesmen and women could travel around London once the Ulez prices them out of using their vans. Lammy answered: ‘One thing we have got is a fantastic transport system across London.

Steerpike

Labour’s latest conference wheeze

The Starmer army are doing all the Very Serious things necessary to convince the commentariat that they’re Ready For Office. Whether it’s fiscally credible policies, schmoozing at Davos or the reassuring sight of ‘boring, snoring’ Rachel Reeves, the party are straining every sinew to depict themselves as responsible realists. The left is on the run with Keir-leaders in safe seats; there’s money pouring in from the woker parts of the City and even George Osborne is saying nice things. But has Labour now stumbled across a new and original wheeze to help them seem like the natural party of government? Traditionally, Labour has hosted its party conference on the final

Katy Balls

Rolling in it: the return of Tory sleaze

When Rishi Sunak stood on the steps of Downing Street to give his first speech as Prime Minister, he had a simple message: ‘This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.’ He wanted his premiership to move on from the scandal, mayhem and psycho-drama of his two predecessors. As Michael Gove later put it: ‘Boring is back.’ The government, he said, has an ‘utter determination to try to be as dull as possible’. But the Tory scandal stories that Sunak is so keen to avoid are not, it seems, over yet. His party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi, is reported to have had to pay a penalty of more

James Snell

Germany – and Nato – should be ashamed of its grudging support for Ukraine

At long, long last, it might seem that things are coming to a head. After a year of phony excuses, ridiculous claims and constant back-peddling, some of Nato’s bigger nations are planning to give Ukraine some fairly modern main battle tanks. Not very many. And not exactly soon. But I suppose it’s the thought that counts. Events are moving chaotically, and fast. But as things stand, the United States is mulling the delivery of 30-50 Abrams tanks – America’s primary workhorse. Germany has implied that it will, at some point in the future, supply a handful of Leopard tanks. As has Poland – no doubt a larger number. Norway will give up

The Spectator

Britain’s asylum crisis

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21, an Afghan convicted this week of murdering a man in Bournemouth last year, had previously murdered two men in Serbia. He had also been caught drug-dealing in Italy. He had been allowed to stay in the UK despite doubts about his claim to be 14 years old (he was then 18) and was placed with a foster carer and enrolled in a secondary school. When his foster carer caught him carrying a knife, a social worker was sent to his home to give him a talk about the dangers of knives. The case of Abdulrahimzai shows just how easy it is to outwit our authorities. It tells