Politics

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

Thursday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Downing Street’s growing problem

In answers to questions following his statement in the Commons on Monday, Boris Johnson let drop an interesting statistic. He said that, ‘on busy days’, more than 400 officials work in 10 Downing Street. This figure explains a lot — why so many staff there got Covid, why, after long hours in overcrowded conditions, they might want to open bottles of wine, why factions struggle for mastery and leak against each other, and why the heart of government suffers from clogged arteries. With 400 rabbits in that warren, how can most of them know the Prime Minister personally, how can they feel much esprit de corps? The numbers are four

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris Johnson is drifting

Tory MPs only have one topic of conversation: the fate of Boris Johnson. They huddle together in offices in Portcullis House, comparing notes, assessing the Prime Minister’s survival prospects. At the time of writing, there is a sense in Westminster that attempts to oust Johnson have been delayed; that the danger for him will flare up again after the police end their investigation into Downing Street parties or after the local elections in May. But Johnson is not being helped by the fact that many of the hints of favour or policy change he has dropped to MPs as he has tried to shore up his position have not come

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Two years on, what’s the evidence for lockdown?

Did lockdowns save lives? We will never have a definitive answer to this vital question because it was impossible to conduct controlled experiments — we don’t have two identical countries, one where lockdown was imposed and one where it wasn’t. Nor is it easy to compare similar countries, for the simple reason that every country in the world — bar Comoros in the Indian Ocean — reacted to Covid by introducing at least one non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) by the end of March 2020. There was no clear link between lockdown stringency and fewer deaths in the spring of 2020, A team from Johns Hopkins University has, however, assessed the many

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Was the levelling up white paper worth the wait?

15 min listen

While Westminster politicians and journalists alike continue to predict exactly how many letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson have been officially filed. Michael Gove’s levelling up white paper has finally arrived. A bizarre document that references many ancient cites and how they ‘levelled up’, but does it propose any tangible solutions on how to achieve its goal in present-day Britain? Isabel Hardman is joined by James Forsyth and Katy Balls to dissect the document.

Steerpike Steerpike

Matt Hancock’s privacy probe

It’s not been a great few months for Matt Hancock. Every time the Casanova of the Commons tries to make a comeback, nothing seems to go his way. First, HarperCollins dismissed speculation that they would be publishing his self-justificatory book; then he faced mockery for his turtleneck outfit at the Capital Jingle Bell Ball. Even efforts to flaunt his sexual appeal came to nought after indignant Serpentine members slapped him down for swimming in their pool while a photographer snapped him topless. And now Steerpike can reveal that there’s still been no luck as to finding the perpetrators who leaked highly-sensitive images of Hancock in a passionate embrace back in June

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What’s the purpose of the levelling up white paper?

After months of delays, the government’s levelling up white paper is finally out. Boris Johnson has viewed this document as one of the things that will help him kickstart his premiership after months of negative headlines over partygate. However, MPs remain jumpy as letters of no confidence continue to trickle in.  As for the document itself, it comes in at a cool 332-pages and can be described as academic in places. While it sets out key missions, it is also heavy on history — complete with a timeline of the largest cities in the world since 7,000 BC including Jericho, Dobrovody, Yinxu and Ayutthaya. The biblical city, the paper states, ‘had natural irrigation

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Starmer knows that Boris is safe – for now

Calm returned to the bridge. Big Dog looked comfortable in the chamber as Sir Keir Starmer quizzed him at PMQs. It started with an exchange of fireworks. Sir Keir made a statement about Boris’s suggestion that he failed to bring Jimmy Savile to justice when he was director of public prosecutions. He called this slur ‘a conspiracy theory of violent fascists’. Strong stuff.  In reply, Boris quoted Sir Keir’s statement in 2013 which appeared to apologise for oversights in relation to Savile. However – and this is the point – Sir Keir didn’t follow it up. The mortal blow has failed to land as yet. More delays will play into

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

PMQs: Boris doubles down on Jimmy Savile claims

Today’s PMQs suggests that some of the immediate heat has gone the partygate crisis, if only temporarily. Sir Keir Starmer did not make all his questions about parties, instead widening out his attacks to Conservative tax policy. The faces of most of his backbenchers froze as he doubled down, saying that Starmer had apologised for what the CPS had done Starmer did though open by complaining about the behaviour of the Prime Minister in Monday’s statement on the Gray report, saying that the leader of the party of Winston Churchill was now repeating the conspiracies of ‘violent fascists to try and score cheap political points’. Curiously, Boris Johnson chose to

Steerpike Steerpike

BBC political editor frontrunner’s thousand-dollar bash

Of all the jobs in Westminster journalism, BBC political editor is thought to be the hardest. Laura Kuenssberg will shortly be quitting the role after nearly seven years in post but it seems the corporation is having a hard time finding a successor. First, favourite Vicki Young, Kuenssberg’s deputy, ruled herself out of the running. And then, last week, Mr S revealed that the Beeb had had to extend the deadline by another fortnight to allow more applicants. The current frontrunner is Jon Sopel, who recently returned to Britain after almost eight years as the BBC’s main man in North America. Despite protestations that he is taking a ‘long break’ to write a book,

Matthew Lynn

The flaw in Boris’s levelling up agenda

Regional agencies pumping money into research and development. Targets for education and healthcare. Another layer of meddling local government, and possibly a new bus route or two. The government plans for ‘levelling up’ unveiled today are a mixture of 1960s statism, which could have been taken straight from Harold Wilson’s government, mixed up with some wishful thinking. But don’t despair: there is a far better strategy. The Tories should simply offer some meaningful tax breaks and incentives and let the private sector do the hard work for us. That approach can’t be worse than what has been offered up by the government. Even by the recent dismal standards of the Johnson administration the ‘levelling

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson’s position is still uncertain

Since the publication of Sue Gray’s update on partygate a trickle of letters of no confidence have been sent to the 1922 chairman Graham Brady. Two of the senders have gone public – Tobias Elwood and Peter Aldous – while Charles Walker has said he would ‘applaud’ Boris Johnson if he resigned of his own accord. It’s worth noting that Aldous said one of the reasons he had submitted a letter of no confidence is that it became clear Boris Johnson has no intention of resigning. One MP who has submitted a letter tells Coffee House they are frustrated that many colleagues who want Johnson gone still appear to be

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Levelling up: don’t copy the Germans

‘Germany has succeeded in levelling up where we have not,’ Boris Johnson claimed back in July last year, when talk of pork pie putsches lay far off in the future. But as the government unveils its levelling up plans today, the promise of a German-style investment package is unlikely to materialise. And that’s probably a good thing. Germany’s economic and social reunification is not the miracle it is claimed to be. In many ways, East Germany and the left-behind regions of Britain have similar economic problems, if for different reasons. When the Berlin wall fell in 1989, East Germany’s largely nationalised economy was sold-out to private investors at breakneck speed.

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory party away day is back on

The letters are mounting up and colleagues are on manoeuvres. So what better way for Boris Johnson to heal the tensions within his divided parliamentary party than by hosting a jolly-old away day? For this morning all Tory MPs have been invited by their Chief Whip Mark Spencer to attend such a gathering in Blackpool next month.  It will be held the day before, and the morning of, spring conference in the seaside town and comes after a planned away day in the West Midland last month was cancelled due to the Omicron variant. Details of the Blackpool bash are yet to emerge but according to Spencer, it will be: ‘An

Steerpike Steerpike

Pork pie plotters reunite at the Carlton

They always return to the scene of the crime. Less than a fortnight after the alleged ‘pork pie’ plotters met to discuss Boris Johnson’s future at the Carlton Club, several of their number gathered there again last night. But this time it was revelry, not regicide, on the agenda as a smorgasbord of backbench talent toasted the launch of the Global Britain Centre.  Among the stars out in show was Australian High Commissioner (and Liz Truss bestie), George Brandis, loudly banging the drum for the recent Australia/UK/US defence partnership Aukus, as part of the self-described ‘raucous sqwarkas Aukus caucus.’ Tories in attendance include uber-loyalists Paul Scully and Andrew Rosindell, mixing with the likes

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris Johnson’s fightback has been cut short

Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the defence select committee, has this morning announced that he is sending a letter to the 1922 chairman calling for a no confidence vote in Boris Johnson. In a way this is not a surprise: Johnson cut Ellwood from the government when he became Prime Minister and the two are temperamentally very different. But the worry for No. 10 is that there are rather a lot of former ministers on the backbenches these days, and if a lot of them start writing letters then a no confidence vote will become a near certainty. Another concern for No. 10 this morning is whether they can live up to

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Boris is dragging the Tories down with him

Tories occasionally like to pretend that they are not wasting their talents and lives defending a bottom-feeding demagogue. They lecture critics who damn Boris Johnson as a British Trump and tell us we have him all wrong. Fraser Nelson, my own editor here, once argued that, far from being a sponger and fraud, the Prime Minister was a liberal conservative, a centrist, indeed, who had absorbed and defeated populism.  I wonder what Fraser thinks now. I wonder whether Conservative MPs and Conservative voters realise what Johnson is doing to them. All power corrupts, but Johnson’s power corrupts all who defend him. To maintain it, Johnson is screaming desperate lies at

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Five ways Boris might save his premiership

Boris Johnson doesn’t even like parties, by all accounts. He prefers to be left alone with women. Yet parties are killing him. His premiership seems horribly stuck in the news huis clos that is partygate: every time he thinks he’s out, those rule-breaking sessions in Downing Street pull him back in. His various stratagems aren’t working. The kicking-the-can ‘wait for Sue Gray’ approach only drags the crisis on. The sabre-waving at Putin over Ukraine isn’t doing much either. It’s all a bit complicated. The media and (let’s admit it) quite a lot of the public would rather gawp at party photographs and talk about how much we, the people who didn’t

Steerpike Steerpike

The SNP’s partygate deceit

For weeks now, much of Westminster has been in full hue and cry of Boris Johnson over partygate. While some of the PM’s critics have legitimate grievances; others frankly, do not. Mr S has rarely seen a scandal spawn so much cant, humbug and windbaggery, as life-long opponents of the PM queue up to issue yet another demand for him to go. And what better embodiment of such self-righteous moralising than ardent Boris-basher, Ian Blackford? The SNP leader popped up at yesterday’s Commons debate to play another game of Blackford bingo. All the usual buzzwords were there: ‘public trust’, ‘shame’, ‘dignity’. Honour in public life – drink! Tory sleaze and corruption –

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Sending a mean tweet about Captain Tom shouldn’t be a crime

Captain Tom Moore captured the nation’s hearts during the pandemic. The World War II officer completed 100 lengths of his garden at the age of 99 to raise money for NHS-related charities, attracting more than £30 million in donations and being knighted by the Queen. When he died last February, aged 100, the fond tributes and outpouring of sadness were universal. Well, almost.  Glaswegian Joseph Kelly marked Captain Tom’s passing by tweeting a photograph of the veteran and the words: ‘The only good brit soldier is a deed one, burn auld fella, buuuuurn’. Criminal patter should not land you a criminal record Undoubtedly these words were offensive: to British soldiers,

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Have Tory MPs forgiven Boris?

13 min listen

While Boris Johnson’s performance in the Common’s yesterday was seen broadly as tone deaf – thanks to comments about Jimmy Savile and drug-taking on the Labour front bench – he was given a chance to redeem himself at a private meeting with his party yesterday evening.  ‘One of my favourite questions was when one 2019 MP asked if they could reschedule the Parliamentary away day. This received a number of groans from politicians.’ – Katy Balls.  Today, the Prime Minister leaves the Westminster drama behind him as he embarks on a diplomatic trip to Ukraine.  Isabel Hardman speaks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth about the mood in the Tory