Politics

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

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Keir Starmer’s unseemly performance at PMQs

It was a day of awful numbers. And even more gruesome cliches. The Labour leader started it. ‘Yesterday we passed the tragic milestone of 100,000 deaths,’ said Sir Keir Starmer. Then he informed us that, ‘this is not just a statistic.’ He explained that each dead person has connections to other individuals who remain alive. He gave three examples. ‘A mum, a dad, a sister.’ Then he gave four more. ‘A brother, a friend, a colleague, a neighbour.’ Next he premiered a well-crafted denunciation of government failings that relied on the repetition of ‘slow’ at the start of each phrase. ‘Slow, slow, slow’, he boomed, like the tolling of a

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Boris’s border crackdown raises some big questions

Throughout the pandemic, Britain has taken a relatively relaxed approach to controlling its borders. Restrictions on travel have come and gone since last March, but, on the whole, Britain has always leaned towards openness. The government has trusted people to make sensible judgements and follow quarantine rules upon return. Now attitudes have shifted. This afternoon, Home Secretary Priti Patel laid out the details of the government’s new, quasi-Australia style quarantine policy. Arrivals from 22 ‘high-risk’ areas will soon be forced to quarantine in a hotel when they arrive in Britain. There will be no exceptions to the rule, and travellers must stay put for ten days, even if they test

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How the EU vaccine row could escalate

The EU is now insisting that AstraZeneca use vaccine produced at its UK site to make up for a shortfall in its supplies to the EU. This is likely to kick off a major row as the UK went to great trouble to ensure that it had first refusal on all the Oxford vaccine produced in the UK. Indeed, AstraZeneca’s willingness to accept that condition is a major reason why Oxford ended up partnering with them. It is not hard to see how this situation could escalate. The EU is already saying that companies should notify them before exporting vaccine out of the bloc, and the German government is going further, calling for

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will Tory MPs accept a March return of schools?

16 min listen

In his statement to the Commons today, Boris Johnson suggested March 8 as a date for schools to return. This is earlier than some predictions but certainly later than many were expecting when schools were shut earlier this month. Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman about what this tells us about when a more general lockdown easing may happen.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris confirms schools will not reopen before March

England’s national lockdown is set to run on until at least March. Speaking in the Commons chamber this afternoon, Boris Johnson confirmed that the return of pupils to the classroom would be the first thing to be eased – and this would not happen in February as he had previously hoped. Addressing the House, Johnson said ‘it will not be possible’ to reopen schools in England after the half-term break next month. However, he remained hopeful that so long as the UK’s vaccination programme remained on track, the return of pupils to the classroom would be able to begin from Monday 8 March. Given that No. 10 have no plans to

Dr Mark Toshner

Controlling borders is a critical step in the fight against Covid

Over the last two months our fight against Covid-19 appears to have changed dramatically. The emergence of novel variants in the UK, South Africa and Brazil has generated plenty of headlines and concern. We shouldn’t panic. But one thing is clear: if we don’t act now, we could come to regret it. In the UK, for obvious reason we have been most focused on the B.1.1.7 variant. The evidence seems pretty clear that it is more transmissible and potentially more severe. Part of the reason we have such extensive data on virus mutations in the UK is the quite astonishing efforts that have gone into sequencing the viral genomes. With

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

PMQs: Starmer’s opposition is strangely muted

Boris Johnson had a very difficult backdrop to today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, having marked 100,000 deaths in the coronavirus pandemic last night. But, strangely, he didn’t have a particularly difficult session in the Commons. Sir Keir Starmer did, as you might expect, lead on the death toll, asking the Prime Minister repeatedly why he thought the UK had such a high death rate, and why he wouldn’t learn the lessons from the pandemic now so that the government didn’t repeat its mistakes. Johnson was able to deal with this reasonably easily, arguing that while he did think there would be a time to learn the lessons of what happened, that

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why Boris’s tree planting plans could damage the environment

Tree planting is one of those motherhood-and-apple pie policies that it’s quite hard to argue with. We have a climate crisis, and a dreadful decline in biodiversity, and more trees will help with that. They will restore our denuded landscape to something more natural, and they’re good for our mental health. Only a curmudgeon could carp about tree planting, which is presumably why the main political parties spent the last election having a plant-off about how many trees they want to get in the ground. The government has a target of 30,000 hectares a year across the UK by 2025, and Boris Johnson has been linking his tree ambitions to

Debbie Hayton

Why sex matters when it comes to the census

What sex are you? It’s a simple question and one that most of those filling out this year’s census will answer quickly before moving on. But for others, the decision to ask this – rather than allow people to state what gender they think they are – is one laced with controversy. This shouldn’t be the case. After all, we have known that there are two sexes since the dawn of time, and we are quite capable of distinguishing them. These two sexes have different needs; and men and women also face different risks.  Only one will need cervical cancer screening, for instance. And while men are more likely to get a high-flying

Arabella Byrne

Jared, Ivanka and the art of the social pariah

In New York society, you’re nobody until somebody hates you. By which maxim Jared and Ivanka Kushner will be extremely high-profile indeed. Expelled from the White House after four years, President Trump’s shoe-designer turned special advisor daughter and her real-estate mogul husband find themselves in need of a job and, perhaps more pressingly, somewhere to live.  Will they return to New York’s playground of the filthy rich where they used to pose on the Met Gala carpet and hobnob with the likes of Murdoch’s ex-wife Wendi Deng and oil tycoon Mikey Hess? Given not only the past four years but more recent indiscretions in DC, it seems unlikely.  New York

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Backbench MPs are doing Labour’s job on school closures

Labour had an urgent question about schools reopening in the Commons this afternoon, but once again it wasn’t the Opposition that really increased pressure on the government but Conservative backbenchers. They are getting increasingly agitated by the prospect of classrooms remaining empty for many weeks longer than ministers had originally suggested, and were keen to convey their concerns to schools minister Nick Gibb. Gibb had to field questions about rising mental health problems among young people who’ve spent the best part of a year trying to learn at home, about parents struggling to work and home-school their children, and about the criteria for reopening. Almost every question from Conservative MPs

Alistair Bonnington

The Salmond inquiry is a farce

There never has been a clearer case made out for the utility of law and lawyers than the so-called Salmond Inquiry in the Scottish Parliament. The ‘Committee on the Scottish government handling of harassment complaints’ to give it its correct title, has thus far failed to unearth the truth about the machinations within the Scottish government quite simply because it isn’t equipped to do so. Inevitably there is strong suspicion that this Committee was given the job precisely because it would have insufficient expertise or powers to investigate adequately. Committee members appear to have worked extremely hard at carrying out their task. But without counsel to their inquiry, indeed not

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Did Boris Johnson do ‘everything he could’ to limit Covid deaths?

Boris Johnson, Chris Whitty and Simon Stevens held a very sombre press conference in Downing Street this evening to mark the awful milestone of more than 100,000 UK deaths in this pandemic. The Prime Minister offered his ‘deepest condolences to everyone who has lost a loved one’, and promised that ‘when we have come through this crisis, we will come together as a nation to remember everyone we lost, and to honour the selfless heroism of all those on the front line who gave their lives to save others’. He also pledged that ‘we will make sure that we learn the lessons and reflect and prepare’. This was the closest

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour’s faux sexism row

With Sir Keir Starmer struggling to make a mark and the Tories maintaining a poll lead, there’s been a concerted effort of late among those on the Left to take on Rishi Sunak. Labour brains view the Chancellor as the government’s biggest electoral asset – particularly among swing voters. That perhaps goes some way to explain why certain members of the commentariat along with Starmer’s front bench were so quick to go on the offensive this afternoon. The problem? An answer Sunak gave during Treasury Questions on the efforts of working mothers during the pandemic. Sunak was quoted online as saying:  ‘We owe mums everywhere an enormous debt of thanks for doing

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

When will unemployment peak?

Unemployment continues to rise. Today’s update from the Office for National Statistics estimates that unemployment in the three months to November hit 5 per cent — that’s an estimated 1.7 million people out of work, a 0.6 per cent rise on the previous quarter.    Not every figure is as positive as the surface data would suggest The gradual climb suggests that the furlough scheme continues to hold off mass redundancies and provides further evidence that England’s second national lockdown didn’t hit as hard as the first. But the unemployment rate is set to worsen before it improves, with more optimistic forecasts estimating a peak of around 6 per cent

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Could the EU’s vaccines spat impact the UK’s supply?

10 min listen

In the last 24 hours, the EU has threatened to place export controls on vaccines manufactured in the EU; while a German paper has been corrected by Berlin for misreporting that the German government thought the Oxford-Astrazeneca jab was only eight per cent effective in over-65s. Isabel Hardman talks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth about what’s going on and whether it could impact Britain’s supply.

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

The sad state of Scottish Labour is bad news for Boris

Nicola Sturgeon has laid down the gauntlet to Boris Johnson over Scottish independence: if the SNP wins, as it inevitably will, in May’s Scottish parliamentary elections, a ‘legal referendum’ should be held. How should the PM respond to the First Minister? The uncomfortable truth for Boris and the Tories is that there may be no good way out of this situation. Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has so far offered his riposte: the Scottish Tories will boycott the whole thing. As counterattacks go, it’s not without its strategic merits. However, one thing looks set to completely undermine this plan: the weakness of Scottish Labour and the other opposition parties

Steerpike Steerpike

Captain Hindsight strikes again

A third stint in self-isolation and some extra time alone doesn’t seem to have given Keir Starmer time to reflect on his opposition strategy. Last night Labour called on the government to prioritise the reopening of schools when the time comes to lift lockdown restrictions.  Clearly a good idea — so good in fact that it’s already government policy. Boris Johnson has spent the best part of a year making clear that he will prioritise face-to-face education above almost all other social activity, telling the Commons three weeks ago that schools would be the first thing to reopen.  Starmer can hardly complain when the PM mockingly calls him ‘Captain Hindsight’ —

Jake Wallis Simons Jake Wallis Simons

The uncomfortable truth about BLM, Malcolm X and anti-Semitism

Fifty-five years ago, Martin Luther King delivered a speech to 50,000 Americans in which he demanded justice for persecuted Jews behind the Iron Curtain. ‘The absence of opportunity to associate as Jews in the enjoyment of Jewish culture and religious experience becomes a severe limitation upon the individual,’ he said. ‘Negros can well understand and sympathise with this problem.’ He then stated, in typically uncompromising style, that Jewish history and culture were ‘part of everyone’s heritage, whether he be Jewish, Christian or Moslem.’ He concluded:  ‘We cannot sit complacently by the wayside while our Jewish brothers in the Soviet Union face the possible extinction of their cultural and spiritual life.

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Why is a trade union spreading doubt over the vaccine roll out?

We hear a lot these days about the need for responsible discourse around the pandemic. People who put into the public domain arguments and claims that are not fully supported by evidence and which can have harmful consequences are being called to account for their actions. Anyone with a public profile should always be willing to answer for their words. And in the midst of a public health emergency, it’s only reasonable that anyone with a voice in the public square should take care to avoid unduly eroding public trust in Covid mitigation measures by spreading baseless claims and sowing unjustified doubt. This is especially true of the Covid vaccination