Politics

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

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Starmer and the Speaker struggled for the same reason at PMQs

PMQs thundered back to life today. Boris was clearly thrilled to be there. Sir Keir seemed to be up to his eyeballs in self-doubt.  Evidently the Labour leader preferred the old pandemic days when the chamber was like a coroner’s court or a half-empty library at Lambeth Palace. The atmosphere back then was calm, studious and considered. This afternoon the playground riot was in full swing. It opened with a Boris special. He was asked by Craig MacKinlay if the next generation could seriously rely on cars powered by Duracell batteries and by houses heated with warm zephyrs that rise by magic through air-vents in the floor. Boris crushed this cynical

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tories brace for more tax rises to fund NHS

Any Tory rebellion on social care is unlikely to be very big this evening when the Commons votes on a resolution introducing it. There are a number of reasons for this, not least that voting against a money resolution, particularly one on an issue that is as big as a budget, is a much bigger deal than rebelling on normal legislation. Then there’s the prospect of a reshuffle, with everyone in Westminster busily trying to read runes about whether Boris Johnson will move around his front bench tomorrow. If it doesn’t happen, disappointed MPs are hardly going to complain in public that they’d supported the policy in the hope of career

Steerpike Steerpike

New office looms for rising star

It’s been a very good year for Serco. The British outsourcing company which runs the Test and Trace service is making some £50 million a month, according to an answer given this week by health minister Jo Churchill. Serco declared in June a 50 per cent jump in profits based off its work on various government contracts. Revenues for the FTSE250 giant are forecast to be £2.2 billion – almost 20 per cent higher than the same period in 2020. The company’s links with the Conservative party are well-known – its CEO is Rupert Soames, brother of the legendary Sir Nicholas who sat in the Commons from 1983 until 2019. The current minister of state

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How is Boris keeping the Tories so unified?

12 min listen

In the first session of PMQ’s completely Covid restriction free, Keir Starmer proved that the Prime Minster wouldn’t commit to definitely getting rid of the NHS waiting list within three years or the risk of people having to sell their homes to pay for care. But Boris Johnson seemed pretty bullet proof with not a whiff of tory rebellion even though some of his new policies go against his members more conservative principles. Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman about today’s session.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: Starmer’s caution lets Boris off again

Today was the first PMQs clash between Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer in a packed Commons chamber. Starmer tried to pin down Johnson on whether he could guarantee that no one would have to pay their home to fund their care. Johnson dodged the question. But Starmer was limited by the fact that Labour can’t say how it would raise funds for the NHS backlog and social care, allowing Johnson to claim that Labour has no plan. Starmer is a naturally cautious politician, but his caution is leaving the field clear for Johnson on social care. Things would have been more difficult for the Prime Minister today if Labour was explicitly

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Boris should keep copying Blair

Having written here at least once before that Boris Johnson is the heir to Blair, my first thought on the Prime Minister’s tax-to-spend announcement on the NHS and social care is a petty one: I told you so. The striking thing about making the Boris-Blair comparison is how resistant some people are to it. Among Bozza fans on the Leave-voting right, there is often fury at the suggestion that their man, the hero of Brexit, is anything like the Europhile they used to call ‘Bliar’. On the left, there is an almost pathological determination to believe that a Tory PM must, by definition, be a small-state free-marketeer intent on starving and

Steerpike Steerpike

Gavin Williamson’s excruciating interview

In recent years Steerpike has grown accustomed to watching car-crash interviews of Gavin Williamson. Whether it’s refusing to reveal his A-level results or declaring he wants to shut all schools, the under fire Education Secretary rarely misses a chance to channel his inner Alan Partridge. But now it seems the minister has decided to cross media and put his excruciating interviews in print too. Less than 24 hours before a mooted reshuffle Williamson has done an interview with the Evening Standard in which he makes a number of eyebrow-raising claims. Described in the piece as ‘surprisingly chipper’ the South Staffordshire MP waxed lyrical about an encounter with Manchester United star Marcus Rashford,

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

The rise and rise of Rishi Sunak

When Victoria Beckham noticed that her husband David had developed a winning way, not just with her but with almost everyone else too, she came up with a wry nickname for him: Goldenballs. What billionaire’s daughter Akshata Murthy calls her husband Rishi Sunak within the confines of their family homes is anybody’s guess but there is no doubt that he is on a golden run of his own right now. As his rivals to succeed Boris Johnson blow up — both Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel are currently subject to heavy speculation about imminent demotion — nobody seriously believes that Sunak’s position as Chancellor is in jeopardy.

Andrew McQuillan

When will the DUP realise the truth about the Tory Brexit strategy?

Are the Tories serious about getting rid of the troublesome Northern Ireland Protocol? The latest extension to the so-called grace period – the third in recent months – means that plans for post-Brexit checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland have been suspended again. But this isn’t the good news you might think it is for unionists in Northern Ireland. In the short term, of course, it avoids a repeat of ‘sausage wars’ and megaphone diplomacy around the Protocol’s Article 16 (which allows Britain or the EU to take unilateral action in certain circumstances). This can only be good news. Yet for nervous unionists there is a disturbing lack of security about what might happen when this grace

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Even Tories should be wary of Gove’s election stitch-up

Conservative politicians appear willing to revolt on every issue: tax rises, China, lockdowns. But on the accumulation of power by their party they remain silent. The system is being rigged to their advantage, and on that shady objective they are happy to give the Johnson administration a free pass. Imagine a football club giving itself the right to decide when the referee can grant a penalty – or a gang of potential criminals having a veto over police investigations – and you will understand the impact of the government’s latest proposals perfectly. Its Elections Bill places the referee under the control of the ruling party and the cops in the

Steerpike Steerpike

The best and worst of ministerial reshuffles

Westminster is ablaze with rumours about a long-awaited government reshuffle. Half the lobby think it’s happening; half of them insist it’s not. Scraps of information are compared and scrutinised in pubs and bars across Whitehall; Whatsapps blaze with talk of three line whips and special advisers cancelling leave. One thing’s for certain: tomorrow will be an excellent time for making phone calls to ambitious Tory MPs from withheld numbers… A good reshuffle can re-energise a flagging regime; a bad one risks causing confusion and discontent. Examples of the former include Churchill bolstering his ranks in 1942 or Thatcher’s purging the wets in 1981. Cases of the latter are (sadly) more frequent

Steerpike Steerpike

Sturgeon pushes for independence (again)

It’s Groundhog Day in Holyrood. Amid criticisms about her administration’s underwhelming ‘Programme for Government,’ Nicola Sturgeon has returned to her favourite hobby house: Scottish independence. Much like ABBA’s reunion, the First Minister combined some new tunes with her greatest hits, declaring that May’s election was an ‘undeniable’ mandate for such a plebiscite by the end of 2023 ‘once the Covid-19 crisis is passed’. Steerpike is not surprised at Sturgeon’s choice of priorities, preferring to have her civil servants devote their energies to indyref2 rather than letting Scots take their masks off when sat on a train. The SNP and its acolytes have had no compunction in undermining the Union at every opportunity throughout the pandemic; a strategy that

Joanna Williams

Lindsay Hoyle is right to give scruffy MPs a dressing down

MPs are making their way back to Parliament with an order from Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle ringing in their ears. In the post-Zoom world, they must smarten up their appearance. ‘Members are expected to wear business attire in and around the Chamber,’ Hoyle reminded them.  ‘Jeans, chinos, sportswear or any other casual trousers are not appropriate. T-shirts and sleeveless tops are not business attire,’ continued his memo. ‘Men are encouraged to wear a tie, and jackets must be worn.’ Good for you, Mr Speaker! Perhaps you could send a similar directive to the rest of the country too. After 18 months of working from home, it’s not just MPs who

Steven Fielding

When will the real Keir Starmer stand up?

Who is Keir Starmer, and what does ‘Starmerism’ stand for? Well into his second year as Labour leader and most Britons remain unsure. It’s not as if Starmer hasn’t spent a lot of time and effort – and so many words – in trying to define himself: he was even interviewed by Piers Morgan for an hour on ITV to highlight his human side.  But something has gone wrong. Is it the message or the messenger? Or is the difficult Covid-dominated times in which he became leader that is to blame? Whatever the reason for Starmer’s curiously forgettable leadership, it is now imperative that Starmer starts to make a clear and positive

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The red herring at the heart of Boris’s tax hike

One of the most dubious and meaningless parts of today’s health and social care plan is the pledge that the new tax will be a ‘legally hypothecated levy’ – ring-fenced so that the money raised can only go to health and social care services.  It’s dubious in the same way that the Tory manifesto pledge not to raise taxes turned out not to be worth the paper it was printed on. And it’s meaningless because a government that wants to unlink the tax could just pass a law doing that – and no legal ring-fence can stop it. It’s also worth remembering that the ring-fence around health and social care is

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris dodges a tax hike Tory rebellion – for now

After emerging relatively unscathed from his appearance in front of MPs, Boris Johnson addressed the public in a bid to sell his plan to raise taxes as part of a a new health and social care levy. Given that polling suggests broad support for the proposals, the press conference was – at least on paper – the easier outing of the two. Appearing alongside Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister tried to justify his decision to break a manifesto pledge and raise national insurance in order to clear the NHS backlog and fund social care.  Johnson said he was fully aware it meant reneging on an election promise – but

Steerpike Steerpike

War of words engulfs Chinese ambassador’s visit

Boris Johnson may be focusing on the NHS backlog but for some of his parliamentary colleagues there’s another logjam to be addressed: an excess of invites to belated summer shindigs. Among the various soirees flying around, one caught Steerpike’s eye: the All Party Parliamentary Group on China’s reception next Wednesday on the Commons terrace pavilion. The guest of honour at the wine-fuelled bash will be none other than the Chinese ambassador to the UK Zheng Zeguang, Beijing’s man in London. The APPG on China is chaired by Tory Richard Graham but understandably the invitation sent by his group has naturally not gone down well with those Conservative colleagues sanctioned by the regime earlier this year. One

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Johnson’s tax hike won’t fix social care

Another day, another tax hike. This is presumably not how Boris Johnson saw his first term in office going; he’s reneged on manifesto promises left and right, including one that defines modern Conservatism: a healthy scepticism of tax rises. The new health and social care levy of 1.25 per cent for employers and employees (so, really, a 2.5 per cent levy) is now part of an emerging trend. This is not a one-off tax, but the follow-on from a March Budget that included £25 billion worth of tax hikes. In fact, it’s record-breaking. The levy is estimated to raise an additional £12 billion a year extra for the Treasury’s coffers.

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Boris Johnson is the ‘Queen of Mean’

Leona Helmsley died 14 years ago so it is surprising to find her setting fiscal policy for the UK Government. When the New York real estate billionaire, dubbed the ‘Queen of Mean’, was on trial for tax evasion in 1989, her housekeeper testified that Helmsley had told her ‘only the little people pay taxes’.  This government, lacking any discernible philosophy of its own, appears to have adopted Helmsleyism, for it too believes it is the little people who should bear the tax burden. Indeed Helmsley, who commissioned upgrades to her $11m mansion then tried to leave the contractors with the bill, would probably admire the sheer chutzpah of what No. 10