Politics

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

Friday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Hancock has made a mockery of his own rules

How much trouble is Matt Hancock in? The Sun splashes this morning on the Health Secretary’s affair with aide Gina Coladangelo. The paper has obtained screen grabs from leaked Whitehall CCTV footage showing very little the way of social distancing. The images are from the start of May, when laws were still in place to enforce social distancing. Hancock has issued a brief statement this morning, apologising for breaking the rules: ‘I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance. I have let people down and am very sorry. I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic and would be grateful for privacy for my

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Three questions Boris must answer over the Matt Hancock affair

Downing Street is trying to put a lid on the row about Matt Hancock’s affair with someone he appointed as an unpaid adviser and then non-executive director at the Department of Health following the Health Secretary’s own apology. At today’s lobby briefing, a spokesman for the Prime Minister repeatedly said the ‘Prime Minister has accepted the Health Secretary’s apology and considers the matter closed’. He insisted that ‘all the correct procedures were followed’ on Gina Coladangelo’s appointments. Johnson and Hancock were at this morning’s daily coronavirus meeting. But the spokesman would not give any details of conversations between the two men, or whether Johnson had asked for further assurances from

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Is Hancock’s position under threat?

14 min listen

The Sun broke the news this morning that Health Secretary Matt Hancock has seemingly been up to some extra-marital exploits with his aide Gina Coladangelo, possibly breaking many of the Covid restrictions that he himself put in place. What will be the consequences of his hypocrisy? ‘This simply demonstrates that we’ve been through a period where they decided to politicise things that should have never been in the political realm in the first place and that’s why I think Matt Hancock is in more trouble than he would otherwise have been.’ – Fraser Nelson Cindy Yu is joined by James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and another special appearance from Fraser Nelson.

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Will Hancock resign?

‘Speechless,’ was Matt Hancock’s reaction when told about Professor Neil Ferguson’s lockdown breaching liaisons on 6 May last year. The Health Secretary added that he thought Ferguson was right to resign from Sage — and that it was a matter for the police whether or not to prosecute the professor.  Will Hancock now be following Ferguson’s example and resigning? It is perhaps just as well that Hancock didn’t come up with any more quotable remarks as they would now certainly be quoted back at him following the publication of photographs of him embracing aide Gina Coladangelo — apparently on 6 May this year. It raises two questions: does 6 May have any significance

James Johnson

A plea from a pollster: stop listening to the public

When Dominic Cummings released his WhatsApp messages with Boris Johnson earlier this month, perhaps the most alarming was the one where both men fretted about ‘trends in polls and lots of focus groups over the past 2 weeks’. The texts, dated 27 April 2020, also saw the Prime Minister asking about ‘tonight[‘s] focus group and polls’. At the heart of government, at the height of the pandemic, public health decisions and the Prime Minister’s thought process were clearly being steered heavily by a perceived negative public reaction. I am a pollster. There are many advantages in knowing what the public think. It ensures politicians do not let otherwise hidden resentments

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

The hypocrisy of Matt Hancock

Matt Hancock has not, we can agree, made it his business to lighten the public mood during the pandemic. That lugubrious face was designed by nature for a downbeat message. Who can forget his injunction to ‘hug carefully’ and responsibly as lockdown eased? (Before that, his regulations meant no one got within hugging distance of anyone.) He would, he said, be hugging his parents outside: ‘I’m really looking forward to hugging you, dad, but we’ll probably do it outside and keep the ventilation going: hands, face and space’. Well! Hands, face and space weren’t quite what came to mind looking at the completely fabulous if grainy pictures in the Sun

Steerpike Steerpike

Hands, face: the Matt Hancock guide to social distancing

There’s only one story doing the rounds on SW1 WhatsApp chats this morning: the photographs in today’s Sun of the married health secretary in a clinch with a senior taxpayer-funded aide.  Matt Hancock caused headlines last November after bringing lobbyist Gina Coladangelo – his friend from Oxford university – into government as a non-executive director for the department of health, despite there being no public record of the appointment. Now it seems his relationship with Coladangelo has again got him into trouble. The Sun’s photographs are dated from 6 May, at a time when it was illegal to hug someone from outside another household as part of the ban on ‘private indoor meetings.’ Indoor

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

French democracy is in trouble – and the EU is to blame

France’s airwaves have been crackling with indignation this week, as politicians wring their hands at the record abstention in the first round of voting in the regional elections. Sixty six per cent of French voters found something else to do last Sunday other than vote, prompting Gabriel Attal, a government spokesman, to proclaim that the ‘abysmal’ turnout ‘imperilled democracy’. ‘French democracy is sick,’ said Emmanuel Rivière of polling institute Kantar Public. It was perhaps unfortunate timing for Monsieur Attal that his remarks were made on Wednesday June 23, five years to the day since the British people voted to leave the European Union. The milestone didn’t pass unnoticed in France, particularly among

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Katie Perrior Edition

35 min listen

Katie Perrior is a public relations expert who co-founded inHouse Communications. She’s worked for two prime ministers and several senior Tory MPs, and today her clients include the spiritsmaker Diageo and the football Super League. On the podcast, she talks about leaning into Boris Johnson’s rambunctious style on the London mayoralty campaign; coming into blows with Theresa May’s chief advisors Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill; and, reflecting on the Super League disaster, how there are more liars in football than even in politics.

Thursday

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

The house mafia: the scandal of new builds

29 min listen

This week…Why should the first time buyer be so scared of new builds? (00:36) Plus… will the catholic church come to the defence of the word mother? (09:33) And finally… Why does it take so long to understand Japanese culture, even for the Japanese? (18:50) With John Myers founder of YIMBY, Vickey Spratt housing correspondent of the I newspaper and author of the up coming book Tenants, Spectator Columnist Mary Wakefield, theologian Theo Hobson, former editor of The Tablet and author of Martyrdom: Why Martyrs Still Matter Catherine Pepinster, Professor Philip Patrick and comedian Ollie Horn (@olliehorntweets). Presented by Lara Prendergast. Produced by Cindy Yu, Natasha Feroze and Sam Russell.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A home counties rebellion is brewing

With the polls regularly showing double-digit Tory leads and the Covid restrictions on course to go on the 19 July, you might expect Tory MPs to be in a fairly relaxed mood. But, as I say in the new edition of the magazine, last week’s by-election, which saw the Liberal Democrats replace a 16,000 Conservative majority with an 8,000 majority of their own, has sparked a panic among Tories sitting for similar seats.  ‘You can’t overstate the rage of southern MPs at the moment,’ says one ‘blue wall’ Tory. ‘Whatever their gripe is, it is why we lost Chesham and Amersham.’ There is a view among southern Conservatives that northern seats have

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Will Brits be welcomed abroad this summer?

10 min listen

Daily new cases are just under 17,000 today, and Angela Merkel has advised other EU leaders to make British tourists quarantine upon entry to the bloc. So even if the British government allows a more liberal green list, would British tourists be welcomed abroad? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls. Katy points out that this bodes well for July 19: ‘So I wouldn’t be surprised if you get some scientists used to commenting on this sounding the alarm in the coming days if it keeps going up at this rate. But I think from Boris Johnson’s perspective, ultimately deaths and hospitalisations are the most important things and

Steerpike Steerpike

Mumford & Sons banjoist quits in cancel culture row

Oh dear. Back in March, Mumford & Sons banjoist Winston Marshall landed himself in hot water after praising a book by conservative American journalist Andy Ngo.  Following the publication of Unmasked – Ngo’s recent critique of the antifa movement – Marshall tweeted his praise, declaring: ‘Finally had the time to read your important book. You’re a brave man.’ The subsequent backlash over Ngo’s alleged status as a ‘notorious right-wing agitator’ forced Marshall to take ‘time away from the band’ culminating in today’s announcement that the latter is leaving his band after 14 years. In an emotional post, Marshall, the son of multi-millionaire Sir Paul, wrote of his long history with the band, recalling those first gigs – ‘odysseys

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Ever weaker Union: The Tories lack a constitutional theory

No doubt Michael Gove is satisfied with how his latest comments on Scottish independence have gone down. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, de facto minister for the Union (even though that’s meant to be someone else’s job), told the Telegraph he couldn’t see any circumstances under which the PM would allow Nicola Sturgeon a second referendum on breaking up Britain. This is exactly what Scotland’s embattled unionists want to hear and seem not to tire of hearing, even though they hear it a lot. Sturgeon has obliged by accusing Gove of ‘sneering, arrogant condescension’, ‘completely refusing to accept Scottish democracy’ and helping ‘build support for independence’. And so

Christopher Snowdon

Boris’s junk food crusade is absurd

The government is to ban ‘junk food’ adverts before the 9 p.m. watershed as well as restricting online food ads. Boris Johnson seems to have realised that he is overweight and so now we must all be subjected to an ever-growing assortment of gastronomic restrictions.  The first of many problems, however, is that civil servants don’t actually have a definition for ‘junk food’. The category used instead is ‘high in fat, sugar and salt’ (HFSS), a designation that is ridiculously broad. So now certain foods that would normally fall into the category are exempt. Honey, olive oil, avocados and Marmite are among those reportedly saved. If this is a representative sample, it seems that fatty and sugary foods

Matthew Lynn

Has the Bank of England just blown its chance to stop inflation?

The economy is growing at a blistering pace, and likely to recover all its Covid losses by the autumn. Labour shortages are emerging across a range of industries, as the supply of Eastern European workers dries up. Prices are starting to edge upwards, house prices are soaring, and commodities are getting more expensive. But, hey, it is probably a good moment to keep the printing presses rolling and pump plenty of freshly minted pounds into the economy. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided not just to keep base rates at 0.1 per cent today – that was largely expected – but also to maintain its programme of

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Are Hancock’s health reforms doomed from the start?

Are the Conservatives going to repeat their mistakes of a decade ago on NHS reform? If a week is a long time in politics, perhaps ten years is such a lengthy period that it erases the memory entirely. The current Health and Social Care Bill is due for publication any day now and contains much of the same potential for an almighty political row as the Andrew Lansley reforms of 2011. Senior Whitehall figures and MPs have predicted that Matt Hancock’s new legislation could be ‘Lansley mark ii’, as I write in today’s i paper. In talking to MPs across the Conservative party, from backbencher to minister, and from lockdown sceptic to restrictions

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Boris must face the truth about the ‘triple lock’ pensions promise

The Tories have a pension problem – and it’s not strictly financial. Over the coming weeks, the cost of pension promises is likely to be in the spotlight. The pensions ‘triple lock’, which the Prime Minister reportedly refuses to scrap, means that the state pension is upgraded each year in line with average earnings, the Consumer Price Index or by 2.5 per cent – whichever is higher. This year, it’s likely that earnings will be the highest of these figures by a long way. Here we encounter a problem: the triple lock was not designed with a pandemic in mind. The crazy world of ‘Coronomics‘ has led to the biggest

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne grabs his eleventh gig since No. 11

Journalist, banker, academic, think tanker and now culture vulture — is there nothing to which George Osborne cannot turn his hand? The former chancellor has today been appointed the chair of the board of trustees of the British Museum — an institution that incidentally was spared from the 20 per cent cut he forced on the culture department back in 2015. It was of course just last month that culture secretary Oliver Dowden pledged to replace ‘metropolitan bubbles’ with Red Wall voters. Osborne admittedly has long been a fan of the museum, writing for The Spectator in February about how he tried to impress China’s vice premier by touring the site

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Keir Starmer’s days are numbered

I think Keir’s had it. This may not discomfort you terribly, I know. Still less the fact that Labour will rummage around in its idiot box and find someone even more un-electable to lead the party. Cheeky Nandos perhaps, or Angela No-Brayner. Someone mental for whom patriotism is an anathema and who finds it difficult to rise up for a moment off their knee, all the while banging together saucepans for the NHS, Cuba and transgender rights. Starmer’s days are numbered because of what just happened in Chesham and Amersham and what is about to happen in Batley and Spen. Sacking his closest ally and election edgelord supremo, Baroness Chapman