Politics

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

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Channel 4’s failed charm offensive

It’s Jubilee week in London. Boom times for royal hacks mean tough times for their lobby counterparts. Fortunately, today’s publication of the latest edition of the MPs’ register of interests is a godsend for story-starved journalists, scrabbling around to write about something that isn’t about Harry and Meghan. Perusing the register this morning, Mr S was intrigued to see the name of Channel 4 popping up regularly as a frequent donor to MPs across the House. The public broadcaster has desperately been trying to fight a rearguard action against privatisation in recent months and appears to have launched something of a belated charm offensive to aid that goal. Sadly for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Biden’s Ukraine policy should bolster the Western alliance

After the confusion about what weaponry the US would supply to Ukraine and growing talk of divisions within the Western alliance, Joe Biden has a piece in the New York Times trying to clarify what US policy is. Biden makes clear that he, like Zelensky, accepts that the war will end through diplomacy rather than total victory for one side or the other. He says that the US will supply Ukraine with weaponry, including longer range artillery, to ensure that it enters those negotiations in the ‘strongest possible position’. He is also adamant that the US will not pressure Ukraine to cede territory to try and bring an end to

Steerpike Steerpike

Kate Forbes, Tartan Thatcher

The SNP’s political gifts know no bounds. Mr S has to take his bonnet off to Kate Forbes – Sturgeon’s finance secretary and heir apparent. For no Tory minister could have ever announced the spending cuts which she did yesterday without facing the wrath of the Scottish establishment. Couched in managerial jargon-ese, Forbes’ spending review statement promised a ‘reset’ in the country’s public services over the next five years. ‘Reset,’ of course, is simply a shorthand for ‘real term cuts’, with the funding axe set to fall on a swathe of different areas including local government, higher education, the courts service and cultural affairs. Despite all this, there is still

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

How to win my vote

The repeated injunction that we should all ‘move on’ from worrying our silly heads about partygate is as otiose as it is arrogant. It is also, of course, a case of wishful thinking at its most extreme. And yet I hear it every day, on TalkRadio, on GB News, from pro-Conservative friends on Facebook and so on. Listen, you Tories, you need a new strategy, because ‘it’s time to move on’ hasn’t worked. Indeed, a good million or two voters have moved on and according to the polls will not be voting Conservative at the next election, if ever again. Nor is it any use whining about how we have

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris may be toppled by accident

Every Tory leader fears a plot against them. Their paranoia isn’t helped by the layout of Westminster, which lends itself to scheming. They worry about huddled groupings in the tearoom, cosy suppers in townhouses, and what’s said behind closed office doors in Portcullis House. It is no coincidence that before the publication of Sue Gray’s report the Tory whips were keen for their MPs to be in parliament, but once the report was released they were very happy for backbenchers to go home. MPs find it harder to plot when they’re away from the Commons. Yet the truth is that if Boris Johnson faces a no-confidence vote it won’t be

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Partygate is not going away

Tory MPs just want partygate to go away. The hope that the Sue Gray report would be the end of things was always likely to be thwarted by the fact the privileges committee was going to investigate the government too. But before that inquiry has even got going, the story continues to rumble on. This evening brings an annual report from Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on the ministerial code, which is written in Sir Humphrey-esque language but still makes clear how cross he is: It may be especially difficult to inspire that trust in the Ministerial Code if any Prime Minister, whose code it is, declines to refer to it.

Nicholas Farrell

Boris is a saint compared to ‘Bunga Bunga’ Berlusconi

It was only a matter of time before someone really twisted the knife in and compared Boris ‘partygate’ Johnson to Silvio ‘Bunga Bunga’ Berlusconi. Rory Stewart, who is now an ex Tory and was rejected in the leadership contest won by Boris, has done just that. The British Prime Minister’s sins, he claims, make Britain feel like ‘Berlusconi’s Italy’. Sorry Rory: no they don’t. The truth is that compared to Berlusconi, Boris is as pure as the driven snow. Yes, BoJo may once have invented a quote in an article for the Times, and he is all too often economical with the actualité on money and much else besides. But he has

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Why is Boris cutting the civil service?

16 min listen

The government wants to cut the civil service by over 90,000 people to 2016 levels. Part of the plan is to suspend the Fast Stream recruitment scheme, which hires high-achieving graduates out of university. Why is the government so set on the cut, and is this really the best way to do it? Cindy Yu speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth. James Forsyth: ‘If these graduates go and work in the private sector instead, frankly the civil service won’t be able to afford them in three, five or seven years time.’ Subscribe to The Spectator’s Evening Blend, Britain’s most-read politics email, to get an update on the day’s politics every

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Scotland’s census has failed

Today is deadline day for Scotland’s census. When threats of £1,000 fines were delayed at the start of this month just 74 per cent had returned their form. It’s now 86 per cent. Better, but far short of the 94 per cent national target. Some 370,000 households are yet to complete it. The target of 85 per cent in all local areas hasn’t been met either. Nicola Sturgeon has admitted the outputs could be unreliable. Academics have also warned the data could be ‘useless’ because of low uptake and extensions to the collection period. The minister responsible – Angus Robertson – jetted off to Brussels this morning. Why the low

Tom Slater Tom Slater

Nadhim Zahawi and the sad state of student radicals

When did student radicals become so pathetic? There’s a lot of talk – often rightly so – of how sinister woke student activism can be today. Think balaclava-clad blokes protesting against Kathleen Stock at the University of Sussex over her alleged ‘transphobia’ – that is, her heretical belief in biological sex. Or students at Essex University condemning gender-critical academic Jo Phoenix and proclaiming in a flyer ‘SHUT THE F**K UP TERF’ next to an image of a gun. But much of the censorious agitation that goes on on campuses today is often just embarrassing – the wail of entitled, overgrown infants afraid of hurty words. Events at the University of

Cristina Odone

Johnny Depp and the truth about male domestic abuse victims

James looks nothing like Johnny Depp. For one thing, he is a lot taller than the 5 foot 8 star; and unlike Depp, he doesn’t sport 37 tattoos. But James identifies with much the Pirate of the Caribbean star is telling the court in Virginia (and the millions following proceedings through social media).   The first time James was attacked by his wife, he convinced himself it was a one-off. They had had a row over the quality of a meal they’d shared at the local restaurant. Suddenly his wife rushed at him, battering him with her fists. He was shocked, but thought she must have drunk too much. He caught her hands

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A confidence vote for Boris is a matter of when, not if

When, not if, is fast becoming the sense among Tories about a no confidence ballot. One former cabinet minister tells me that he expects the 54 letters to be in even before the two by-elections on 23 June. But, interestingly, he thought that Boris Johnson would win the confidence vote, albeit not handsomely. Another former minister, who thinks the Tories would be best served by a new leader, argues that it would be better for the rebels to wait until after the two by-elections next month before triggering a ballot as that would increase the chances of Johnson losing it. The fundamental problem for the Tories is that they are

Debbie Hayton

Suella Braverman is right: schools shouldn’t pander to trans pupils

For saying that teachers shouldn’t pander to trans pupils, Suella Braverman has found herself in hot water. The Attorney General suggested in an interview with the Times that male pupils should not be able to use girls’ toilets, and that single-sex schools can indeed restrict admission to children of just one sex. These are hardly revolutionary ideas, but they appear to have upset the National Education Union. Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the NEU, took just a few hours to respond to Braverman: ‘Discrimination against transgender pupils is illegal under 2010 Equalities Act,’ she warned, adding that: ‘Schools should ignore the misleading advice from the Attorney General and

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Jesus College plots overhaul of its China Centre

During the past two years Jesus College has been a regular in the newspaper headlines. The Cambridge University college was last month found to have accepted cash from a ‘very high risk’ Chinese university for research into China’s prime tool of foreign influence. It came after a string of stories which contrasted the willingness of Jesus to accept donations from controversial Chinese sources with its efforts to remove a historic memorial linked to the slave trade from its chapel. Now though, it seems that the college has been moved to act. According to an email seen by The Spectator, ‘following a detailed review by a panel of Fellows, the college has

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris is fast approaching his moment of maximum vulnerability

Another day, another couple of Tory MPs calling on Boris Johnson to go — this time it is Jeremy Wright, the former attorney general, and Elliot Coburn, who was elected in 2019 and has a wafer-thin majority over the Liberal Democrats. The worry for No 10 is that this trickle of letters does not appear to be coordinated and seems to be just individual MPs making up their minds. Having to fight a vote of no confidence would be a huge blow to the Prime Minister’s authority. The steady, if not spectacular, flow of letters since the Gray report was published indicates that it isn’t the end of the matter

Steerpike Steerpike

Is Diane Abbott against migration?

It’s a strange time in British politics. Brexit signalled the ongoing political re-alignment that is underway. Red Wallers and blue shires united; old alliances are at an end. Still, Mr S is surprised to see a surprising new addition to the legions of Tories in parliament who are concerned about the ongoing levels of high migration to the UK. Step forward Diane Abbott, who today found herself in the unusual position of being criticised from the left of British politics for being too hostile to the free movement of people. Abbott of course distinguished herself during the Corbyn years as Shadow Home Secretary when she refused to answer questions about

Julie Bindel

What Stella Creasy gets wrong about trans rights

Stella Creasy thinks that trans-women are women and should be treated as such. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the Labour MP said: ‘Do I think some women were born with penises? Yes, but they are now women and I respect that.’ Yet what was left unspoken is the fear among those of us who were born female about what this means for women’s rights. Creasy supports self-identification because she thinks it’s ‘bonkers’ that a man who wishes to be legally recognised as a woman has to have the backing of two doctors. But what is ‘bonkers’ is the risk that single-sex spaces, such as prisons, changing rooms, hospital

Steerpike Steerpike

Bungling DVLA claims it’s ‘a great place to work’

Which government agency has performed the worst in this pandemic? It’s a difficult question to answer. The Passport Office has its critics; delays at HMRC have meant tax rebates have gone months overdue. But for Steerpike’s money, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is hard to beat. In March, the Times reported that some 3,400 civil servants there had done no work on full pay for significant periods of the pandemic. Some staff even boasted to undercover reporters that they had watched Netflix at the expense of the public, all while thousands waited for their driving applications to be processed. Still, such public embarrassments appear to be of little

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Could Boris be toppled by accident?

11 min listen

The Sue Gray report came in last week, but we haven’t seen a coordinated effort to either stand behind the Prime Minister, or kick him out. Instead, there has reportedly been a drip of letters of no confidence letters coming in from individual Tories, rather than an organised group. Could we finally see the 54 letters needed to trigger a vote on Johnson’s leadership? Cindy Yu, Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth discuss.