Politics

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

Wednesday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Can Boris Johnson now afford to scrap the National Insurance rise?

After promising not to raise National Insurance in the 2019 manifesto, the Tories are preparing to do just that in April with their new ‘health and social care levy.’ The levy is set to add £200 to the average worker’s tax bill. Why have the Tories broken this manifesto promise? Because there was a pandemic, the government says. There was no choice. Tory MPs are getting antsy. Backbenchers, including former cabinet ministers David Davis and Robert Jenrick, are calling for the National Insurance rise to be postponed or scrapped, as relatively high inflation and the cost-of-living crisis is creating enough of a burden on taxpayers already, even before the new

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How much longer to wait for Gray?

14 min listen

The view on the Tory benches at the moment seems to be consistently ‘wait for Gray’ before they decide whether or not they will send a letter of no confidence. The 54 letters required is now more likely since the announcement of the police probe into Downing Street parties, but it is still by no means a certainty.Boris Johnson gathered a surprising amount of support at PMQs today. Helped in part. by opposition MPs calling on him to resign:‘Richard Burgon, a former member of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet making a grand statement of how the PM should resign is naturally going to bring the Tory MPs together on Boris Johnson’s

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Did Plan B work?

Today is England’s last day under Plan B restrictions, brought in by the government at the beginning of last month to curb the spread of Omicron. Work-from-home guidance was scrapped last week, while mandatory face coverings in shops and on public transport — as well as the need to show vaccine passports at large venues — are to be lifted tomorrow. Was there any point in these restrictions in the first place? We will never know, of course, what would have happened had the government not brought them in — no one has conducted a controlled experiment on an identical England where Plan B was never introduced. But what we

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

A rather pointless PMQs lets Boris off the hook

Given the extraordinarily low expectations, Prime Minister’s Questions went reasonably well for Boris Johnson today. That is partly because it was a pointless session: everyone is waiting for the publication of the Sue Gray report, so most likely it will be forgotten very quickly and will make no difference to the main event (whenever that comes). Most likely it will be forgotten very quickly Johnson decided to make a forceful argument that he and the government were focused on more important things than cakes and parties. He lectured Keir Starmer for raising the matter at all when he was busy bringing the west together to threaten Russia with the toughest package of

Steerpike Steerpike

Did Boris lie about the Afghan dog evacuation?

With Sue Gray keeping the lobby on tenterhooks, it’s a good day to bury bad news. Earlier today, the Foreign Office quietly divulged emails that appear to confirm that, contrary to the Prime Minister’s claims, he did intervene to authorise the evacuation of Pen Farthing’s animal evacuation out of Afghanistan. The campaign to get Farthing’s animals out was of course led by Dominic Dyer — a friend of Carrie Johnson, who features in her cover picture on Twitter. Released to the Foreign Affairs Committee, the files indicate Boris Johnson ordered the rescue of the animals from Kabul, despite the crisis on the ground and repeated denials to the contrary. An email from one Foreign Office

John McTernan

What it’s really like facing a Downing Street police probe

Boris Johnson and No. 10 staff could soon face being interviewed under caution over partygate. While this is remarkable, it is not unprecedented: Downing Street has been the focus of a police investigation before, when Tony Blair, my boss, was prime minister. Fifteen years ago, the ‘cash for peerages’ affair led to me and my colleagues being interviewed by police. So what advice would I give to Downing Street staffers fearing a call from plod? Those working behind the door of No. 10 should firstly remember that, while they are part of a team, when they speak to police in an interview, they will be alone. It’s an unsettling experience. Police officers are professionals,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Team Boris’s scorched earth strategy

Jacob Rees-Mogg is now arguing that the UK system has become so presidential that a new prime minister would feel obliged to call an election. The message to Tory MPs is clear: depose Boris Johnson and you’ll be going to the country in months — and do you really want to do that given the polls? Rees-Mogg’s argument is being used by the shadow whipping operation too. It has, from what I have been hearing, had some effects on new intake MPs. But among older intakes, there is a bit of a backlash to it.  There is a view that the argument takes them for fools. Yes, Labour and the

Steerpike Steerpike

Animal lobby turns on Guardian columnist

The Animal Sentience Bill is the centrepiece of the government’s environmental agenda, designed to protect helpless creatures and recognise they can feel pain. But will Guardian columnists be included under the new law? For it seems poor George Monbiot has been the victim of a rather unedifying pile-on in recent days. His crime? Suggesting that controlled trophy hunting should be used to incentivise animal conservation.  Monbiot has been the victim of a rather unedifying pile-on in recent days Monbiot, a devoted environmentalist of the public school kind, argued that such activities ‘when well-regulated’ can provide much-needed funds to poor communities in places like Africa and actually help improve the number of endangered species. That

Steerpike Steerpike

The Daily Mail’s curious partygate U-turn

The Daily Mail has long been the favoured mid-market newspaper of the masses, as the self-styled champion of Middle England. Its leaders are thumping; its splashes a must-read: so tight is its grip on the public imagination. Not for nothing do ministers live in fear of finding themselves in the paper’s crosshairs, given its reputation for having its finger on the pulse. Still, this morning Mr S can’t help wondering: has the Mail gone off the boil? For Mr S was curious to see yet another frenzied front page this morning declaiming Westminster’s focus on partygate as ‘A nation that’s lost all sense of proportion’.  It follows last week’s effort which told partygate plotters ‘In

Steerpike Steerpike

Jacob Rees-Mogg offers up another laughable defence of Boris

It’s a mark of the government’s desperation that, less than two weeks after his disastrous performance on Newsnight, Jacob Rees-Mogg was wheeled out on the same show again last night. Having done his bit for the Union by dismissing Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross suggesting he wasn’t a ‘very significant figure,’ the Somerset MP has now decided to rewrite the British constitution.  He told Newsnight that if Boris Johnson goes, ‘a change of leader requires a general election’ as the UK is now effectively a ‘presidential system’ and ‘the mandate is personal rather than entirely party’. This is news, of course, to Rees-Mogg’s Conservative colleagues in Parliament. Will more ministers be willing to

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Who cares about partygate?

Does anyone else feel uncomfortable with the idea of the police investigating the elected government? I have laughed and fumed at partygate as much as the next upstanding citizen of the United Kingdom. I’ve moaned to mates about the PM partying on the same day I sat in a park with one other person and several tinnies. I’ve shared all those memes featuring Boris looking dishevelled as he ‘comes down from another house party’ or showing bright nightclub lights blaring inside Downing Street as cops stand nonchalantly at the door. But the Metropolitan Police snooping around the seat of political power? The unelected armed wing of the state poring over

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Commons’ staffers in bonus boost

Inflation, fuel prices and a looming cost of living crisis: it’s a grim economic outlook for many out there. Fortunately, MPs are doing their bit to help, namely by giving extra cash handouts to the staffers in the offices. Steerpike has spotted that almost a million pounds – £951,000 – was shelled out in ‘reward and recognition’ payments last year, according to the 2020/21 figures from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). A follow up request from Mr S has established the identity of the most generous bosses in parliament, with Sir Keir Starmer in the top ten of the 352 MPs who sanctioned such payments last year. Top of the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Downing Street braces for Sue Gray’s party report

It’s groundhog day in Westminster as once again hacks and ministers ask: when will Sue Gray’s report come out? On Tuesday morning it seemed as though the publication of the investigation would be delayed indefinitely. After the Metropolitan police announced plans to launch a criminal investigation into a number of the alleged parties after the Cabinet Office passed on evidence, there had been indications from inside government that the report would not be published until the police investigation was over — which could take months. Any hopes Johnson had to use the publication of the report to draw a line in the sand and move on now seem overly optimistic

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Ian Hislop kicks off at Commons committee

It seems Bonfire Night has come early this year. First there were fireworks in the chamber after Labour tabled an Urgent Question on Sue Gray’s investigation into ‘partygate.’ And this afternoon Private Eye editor Ian Hislop had quite the argy bargy with Tory grandee Sir Bernard Jenkin over at the Standards Committee. Hislop was one of a number of journalists called up before MPs in the aftermath of the Owen Paterson scandal to give evidence on sleaze-related scandals. And the long-serving Have I Got News For You panellist was on feisty form as he locked horns with Sir Bernard, one of those who voted to let Paterson off the hook in November.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Met’s partygate probe has left the Tory party in limbo

The Metropolitan Police’s decision to investigate lockdown parties undoubtedly makes things more serious for Downing Street. It is now harder to argue, as some supporters of Boris Johnson had begun to do privately, that these matters are fundamentally too trivial to account for a Prime Minister departing if the police have been called in to investigate. The Met’s investigation also looks like it will delay publication of Sue Gray’s report. A large group of Tory MPs were waiting for the Gray report before deciding whether or not to send in a letter, though many had in reality already decided what they were going to do. What will they do now

Michael Moszynski

Boris will never regain his election winning magic

Even as the partygate stories continue to mount, some of Boris’s defenders still leap to his defence. This dwindling group of supporters believe the campaign to oust Boris is orchestrated by the PM’s enemies who have an axe to grind. Well, I worked on the Brexit campaign, played a part in helping Boris secure the leadership of the Conservative party and have been one of his staunchest supporters – until now. Make no mistake: I am – or was – a big fan of the Prime Minister. Boris’s stellar achievements in getting Brexit done and delivering the UK’s world-leading vaccination programme cannot be taken away. When voters handed him a landslide majority in December 2019,

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What does the police probe mean for Boris?

16 min listen

The latest in the scandal of Downing Street parties points to the Prime Minister’s own birthday, where a gathering took place in the Cabinet Office. Whilst this has been played off by a Downing Street spokesperson as being on ‘the edges of a work event’. Cressida Dick announced this morning that events at No.10 during lockdown have now been deemed serious enough to deserve a police investigation. How long does this now go on for? It could make the May election results terrible for the Tories, prompting more MPs to write a letter of no confidence.‘Someone close to Boris Johnson said to me that this idea to ‘delay to Gray’

Steerpike Steerpike

Michael Ellis gets another grilling

Another day, another party, another Urgent Question – and another dreadful outing for Michael Ellis. The Paymaster-General was sent out again, just three hours after the Met Police confirmed it would be probing ‘partygate.’ Deploying the finest lawyerly evasions and the best of his oleaginous charm, Ellis spent a gruelling 45 minutes fending off a barrage of outraged opposition MPs.  Highlights include the Member for Northampton North appearing to indulge in existentialism by questioning the very meaning of the word ‘party’. He mused to colleagues that ‘If whilst at work, someone eats a piece of cake for ten minutes, I don’t think conclusions can be drawn from that’ and suggesting that ‘Ten minutes of eating cake and

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Can the Tories afford to grant Boris Johnson a reprieve?

This was supposed to be the week of judgement for Boris Johnson and assorted Downing Street officials about whether they had breached Covid rules by holding parties. But they have won a temporary reprieve, because Sue Gray – the senior civil servant investigating the alleged rule-breaking parties – will delay publication of her report until the Met Police has conducted its own investigation of whether the Covid laws were breached and whether fixed penalty fines should be levied. The big question is whether the decision of Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, to investigate, and the associated stay of judgment for the Prime Minister, is good or bad for him.  My judgement,

Steerpike Steerpike

Extinction Rebellion target MPs’ offices

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is making its way through the final stages of the parliamentary process — and not a moment too soon it seems. For the legislation, which aims to deter direct action protests, might be called into action to deal with the latest shenanigans of Extinction Rebellion. Leaked documents obtained by Mr S reveal that the ‘eco-activists’ are planning another ‘mass resistance’ action day for 9 April, with the group aiming to have at least 3,000 so-called ‘Rebels’ arrested on that day alongside a demonstration in Hyde Park. According to the ‘XRUK Strategy 2022,’ the emphasis this spring will be on what XR is calling ‘Local Coup D’etat