Politics Archives

Wednesday

12 Jan 2022

When will firms like Ben & Jerry’s stop lecturing us?

Is anyone else fed up of corporate virtue-signalling? From banks boasting of their commitment to diversity and equality, to train companies changing their liveries to the rainbow flag, or supermarket chains proclaiming they are fighting racism, enough is enough. Thankfully, the moneymen who matter to big businesses – and whom they might actually listen to – are now finally speaking out. Fund manager Terry Smith and leading shareholder in Unilever – owner of the notoriously woke ice cream firm Ben & Jerry’s – has attacked the company for its underperformance, pointing a finger at its obsession with political posturing. ‘Unilever seems to be labouring under the weight of a management which

Steerpike

Watch: Starmer calls for Johnson to resign

It’s unfortunate for Boris Johnson that one of his worst appearances at PMQs has coincided with one of Keir Starmer’s best. The Leader of the Opposition has clearly had his cornflakes today as he tore into the shambling PM and did what many of his party have been wanting for months: calling on Johnson to resign. The embattled premier was initially somewhat helped by Lindsay Hoyle’s intervention to call for order but Starmer doubled down in his supplementary questions. He referenced the resignations of Matt Hancock and Allegra Stratton and noted Johnson said the former was ‘right to resign’ for breaking Covid restrictions. Sir Keir also cited one particularly moving case of a lady

Steerpike

Watch: Boris apologises for No. 10 party

It’s probably the most difficult PMQs he’ll ever have to face. Boris Johnson is on the back foot today over reports on a garden party which went on in No. 10 in May 2020. Just before he faced questions from MPs, Johnson took the opportunity to finally apologise to the House and to the country, telling them ‘I know the rage’ the public ‘feel towards me’ and saying ‘I must take responsibility. No. 10 is a big department with the garden as an extension of the office’ but ‘I believed implicitly this was a work event. Will that be enough? Here’s the full text of what Boris had to say: ‘I want to

Stephen Daisley

To save the Union, ignore Gordon Brown

As he blasts his way through the remaining support beams of the UK constitution, Gordon Brown is doing more to deliver Scottish independence than the SNP. The former Prime Minister is reportedly poised to recommend that Labour adopt ‘devo max’ as a policy, which would see the SNP-run Scottish parliament handed yet another tranche of powers. Only defence and foreign policy would remain in the hands of Westminster: everything else would be at the whim of Nicola Sturgeon. The theory is that by increasing the powers of Holyrood, the Scots’ appetite for independence will be sated. But is no evidence for this, and 23 years of evidence against it. From

Steerpike

Party-planners troll No. 10

Westminster’s finest are gathering today ahead of Boris Johnson’s much-awaited appearance at Prime Ministers’ Questions. The embattled premier is expected to be grilled shortly in the Commons about the garden party which took place in No. 10 in May 2020, following a morning media round blackout by the government in recent days. Yet while the House should be full today, government whips should not expect many of those on the Tory benches to be there in support. Some tell Mr S they are just there to watch the blood sport, putting in prayer cards to witness the unfolding drama in Parliament. Far more telling than the attendance rate is the number of Tories willing to put

Rod Liddle

The sooner Boris is gone the better

People seem surprised and a little doubting that the Prime Minister is incapable of remembering if he attended a party in his own back garden in May 2020. It does not come as much of a shock to me, seeing as he has difficulty remembering how many children he has. Beneath that albino mop resides a brain comprising plasma in a perpetual turbulent flux, like you get in one of those tokamaks used in the pursuit of nuclear fusion energy. Except Boris’s brain does not have the correct-strength magnets to hold it all in place, just a skull. As a consequence he possesses no judgment and nothing in the way

James Forsyth

It’s getting worse for Boris

Talking to Tory MPs this morning, it is clear that the mood today is even worse than yesterday. Even one of those MPs closest to Boris Johnson thinks that it is now 50/50 whether enough letters go in to force a no confidence vote. Ironically, the improving Covid numbers are changing the calculus for some Tory MPs about a contest. A few weeks ago, even the most ardent Boris critics didn’t think you could have a no confidence vote, given the situation with the soaring Omicron variant. But now it is somewhat in retreat, and that restrictions are likely to go on 26 January giving hostile MPs the chance to do so. PMQs today

Steerpike

Who is Sue Gray?

She’s the name that’s on everyone’s lips in Westminster. As Tory ministers flounder to defend their beleaguered leader over partygate, their oft-repeated line ‘let’s wait for Sue Gray’s inquiry’ has elevated the little-known civil servant investigating No. 10’s parties into something of a Delphic oracle, the woman whose judgements could make or break a Prime Minister. But just who is the mandarin dubbed by her colleagues ‘Deputy God?’ Gray is, in some respects, a classic Whitehall mandarin. Now in her mid-sixties, she’s spent the bulk of her career climbing the rungs in the civil service since the 1970s, with stints in the Transport, Health and DWP ministries. Yet what distinguishes

Nick Cohen

The Tories hold themselves in contempt

If by the end of today 54 members of the parliamentary Conservative party have not handed in the letters required to trigger a leadership contest — or if the cabinet has not told Boris Johnson he must resign — the Tories will have revealed their contempt for the public. The mob is fickle, they will be thinking. Granted, today’s opinion polls are dreadful — two-thirds of those questioned thought he should go. But their calculation will be that the voters can always be persuaded to ‘move on’. And no one is better than using a promise he intends to break, a stunt devoid of meaning, a bridge to nowhere or a phantom high-speed railway line

Ed West

The mind virus killing academia

We lost a giant last month with E.O. Wilson’s passing. A man who stood on Darwin’s shoulders, Wilson had that rare distinction of inspiring a whole discipline in the form of evolutionary psychology. The great sense of loss did not seem to be shared by Scientific American, however, which soon afterwards put out a piece reflecting on the ‘complicated legacies of scientists whose works are built on racist ideas’. Among the ‘problematic’ aspects of Wilson’s work, the author argued, was the ‘descriptions and importance of ant societies existing as colonies’. This was ‘a component of Wilson’s work that should have been critiqued’ because ‘context matters’. Scientific American is not Teen

Tuesday

11 Jan 2022

Katy Balls

Boris Johnson is running out of road

There has been no good news for Boris Johnson today. After an email leaked on Monday evening showing that the Prime Minister’s Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds invited over 100 staff to a drinks party in the No. 10 garden in May 2020, the Prime Minister has come under fire from his own side. Downing Street has refused to deny reports that both Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie were present at the event. Instead, all No. 10 will say is that Sue Gray’s inquiry into alleged Covid rule breaking at various Downing Street parties is ongoing. The atmosphere in the Commons has been notably muted. The Tory benches were rather quiet when

Steerpike

Tories move to stop dodgy donors

Amid all the hubbub of cheese, wine and garden parties, it can be hard to focus on non-Covid matters. Still, one Tory MP appears to have managed it, given the decision of Jesse Norman today to table an amendment to the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill. Norman, whose motion is seconded by a trio of well-respected colleagues — Sir Robert Buckland, Robert Halfon and Damian Green — wants universities to declare all donations over £50,000 from foreign donors and list those sums in an annual register published by the Office for Students. Mr S has spent much of the past fortnight banging the drum about the millions being given in donations and grants to the

Robert Peston

How will Boris punish himself if his No. 10 party did break the rules?

The final arbiter of whether Boris Johnson should be punished or sanctioned for allegedly breaking lockdown rules by attending that bring-your-own-booze Downing Street party is not the second permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office Sue Gray, even though she has been given the delicate task of investigating what happened. Under the British system, the ultimate judge and jury of whether any minister should be punished is the Prime Minister. And that means only the PM can decide his own fate. Gray will set out what happened, presumably – in the words of one of her colleagues – ‘with her admirable clarity’. Another official said of Gray: There is only one

Steerpike

Watch: MP breaks down in tears during partygate debate

To look at the House of Commons this morning, you’d have thought Labour won the last election. The green benches on the government side were bereft of the usual Tory hordes, while the opposition was crammed with jeering Labour backbenchers. The reason? The Speaker Lindsay Hoyle had granted an Urgent Question on the subject of No. 10’s parties in May 2020, following yesterday’s revelations by ITV. Boris Johnson was busy elsewhere so the call went out for the Paymaster-General. Poor Michael Ellis was sent out for the most thankless task since the Charge of the Light Brigade, armed only with his legal training in dodging, ducking, deflecting and evading difficult questions. After a predictable

Ross Clark

Banning tomato ketchup sachets won’t save the planet

Warning to the working classes: the government is coming after your pleasures again. It is you who are being blamed for environmental degradation and you who will be made to pay the price. The latest wheeze of environment secretary George Eustice is to ban plastic sachets of tomato ketchup, soy sauce and whatever else from takeaways. Evidence has shown, he says, that these little sachets ‘can cause considerable harm to the marine and terrestrial environment when disposed of incorrectly’. Fair enough, in that we would all be better off if food manufacturers could find biodegradable substitutes for their packaging. But why is it always what might be described as common

Steerpike

Seven times No. 10 denied breaking Covid rules

Oh dear. It seems the great government post-Christmas reset isn’t going all too well after last night’s revelation that Downing Street staff were invited to a drinks party in the No. 10 garden during the first national lockdown. Martin Reynolds, the PM’s Principal Private Secretary, sent an email on 20 May 2020 to more than 100 people asking them to come and ‘make the most of the lovely weather’ and to ‘bring your own booze!’ Not Sir Humphrey’s finest hour… Boris and Carrie Johnson are alleged to have attended the garden party too, which, er, makes something of a mockery of the Prime Minister’s insistent denials that he knew of no such parties being held throughout the pandemic. Steerpike has rounded up just

Patrick O’Flynn

How long until we tire of Boris?

The brilliant but troubled footballer Mario Balotelli once scored a goal in a Manchester derby match and then lifted up his jersey to reveal a t-shirt with the slogan: ‘Why always me?’ Those who had followed his chaotic career closely could have told him that being the sort of bloke who allows fireworks to be let off in his own bathroom — as he had done the night before, starting a fire that caused £400,000 worth of damage to his house — probably had something to do with it. Today Boris Johnson would seem to have pulled off a similar feat, as he faces the increasingly likely prospect of police

Katy Balls

Can Boris survive another Partygate scandal?

13 min listen

Another day, another party scandal. ‘Bring your own booze’ said Martin Reynolds, the Prime Minister’s private secretary in a leaked email to around 100 staff in May 2020, inviting them to a picnic at 10 Downing Street. At the same time, the rest of the country was limited to socialising within household bubbles or one other person outdoors. ‘This is the most serious party allegation yet when it comes to Boris Johnson specifically’ – Katy Balls No.10 have refused to respond to the leaked email whilst Sue Gray’s investigation into other Downing Street parties are ongoing. Can this line of response last through to PMQ’s tomorrow? Boris Johnson can expect challenging questions

Alex Massie

The unfathomable inadequacy of Boris Johnson

There is no room for wriggling here and not just because multiple witnesses put Boris Johnson and his wife at the scene of the stupidity. If Boris Johnson had not been aware that 100 people who work in the same building as him had been invited to a post-work BYOB shindig, even he might have noticed a crowd of 30 to 40 gathering in his garden. And he might then have popped a prime ministerial head out of the window and asked what the bloody hell the partygoers thought they were doing. But of course nothing like that happened because the Prime Minister must surely have known about it all

Monday

10 Jan 2022

Katy Balls

New No. 10 party leak puts Johnson under pressure

How much trouble is Boris Johnson in over partygate? Since allegations first emerged last year of a number of parties and gatherings in 10 Downing Street when the rest of the country was living under strict Covid restrictions, the Prime Minister has had to launch an investigation (now led by civil servant Sue Gray after cabinet secretary Simon Case had to step down over his own prior knowledge of said gatherings) and seen his approval ratings plummet. Just as Downing Street aides had begun to hope the saga was nearing an end, new evidence has emerged which appears to put Johnson in the firing line. ITV News has published an email sent by the Prime