All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
If an MP has been overlooked for a government role, a coveted select committee chairmanship can provide an important platform in Parliament. As a result, lots of Tories have been jostling and manoeuvring in the past week to be in a with a short of just this. Now, the results are in: Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Labour)
Politicians have been busy swapping horror stories of the unacceptable abuse dished out to MPs and candidates running for Parliament. Fortunately for Labour frontbencher Jack Dromey, he appears to have escaped the worst of the vitriol. But when talking on the Daily Politics about his own experiences, Dromey resorted to some very unparliamentary language. Here’s what
Mrs May couldn’t make PMQs today. She was lunching with royalty up at the Palace. The happy atmosphere of the event may have been affected by territorial anxieties. The Queen’s principal guest, King Felipe VI, reigns over important parts of the Spanish mainland but not the pointy little bit down at the bottom which is
Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions could have been memorable purely for the novelty of Emily Thornberry deploying a tremendous amount of sass in her questions to Damian Green as the pair stood in for Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May. But it was also memorable because as well as leaning across the despatch box and delivering one-liners
Political scandals sometimes throw up deliciously eccentric minor characters. Trump-Russia — a scandal or merely a crisis, according to taste — now has one: Rob Goldstone. He is described as a British former tabloid journalist, a music promoter, former Miss Universe pageant judge, and friend of the Trumps. Facebook videos reveal a short, tubby man
During the election campaign, Tory MPs were queuing up to be snapped with Theresa May and the Prime Minister’s face was plastered all over Conservative party leaflets up and down the country. Now, though, it seems May has become something of an embarrassment to the Tories. The Prime Minister might be just about managing to
Last week it was Vince Cable trying to tell us that Brexit was depriving Wimbledon spectators of their strawberries – swiftly denied by the All England Club. This week it is the turn of pizza chain Franco Manca to try to scare us of the consequences of Brexit. Announcing the company’s results, chairman David Page said,
At the end of June, Pope Francis dismissed Cardinal Gerhard Müller from his position as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) – arguably the most important position in the Catholic Church after that of the Pope himself, since the CDF is in charge of doctrine. Müller was given no notice that the Pope was breaking from
This week, Jeremy Corbyn got himself into a spot of bother when photos emerged of the Labour leader enjoying a pizza alongside a pro-Assad campaigner. Marcus Papadopoulos, who denied genocide in Srebrenica, shared a picture of the pair – praising ‘a wonderful dinner and discussion’: I'm having a wonderful dinner and discussion with hopefully the next Prime Minister
Reactions to each development in the Trump-Russia scandal tend to follow the same pattern. At first, journalists express incredulity and then horror. It doesn’t matter if the Team Trump member under suspicion is Mike Flynn, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Junior, even big daddy Trump himself, everybody agrees this is big news. Dots are connected and
If you just listened to Corbynistas, one could be forgiven for thinking that (a) Labour won the snap election (b) the party increased its popularity among the working class. Last night offered a perfect example of Labour’s contrary rhetoric. Speaking at an Open Labour event, Clive Lewis boasted of how far the party had come
The likes of Uber and Deliveroo are shaking up the jobs market in such a way that one of Theresa May’s first acts as Prime Minister was to commission a report into the future of work. Yesterday, as the PM opted for a much-needed relaunch, that report came out. The likes of Rebecca Long-Bailey, the Labour
Despite Theresa May’s plea to opposition parties to contribute to policy, there is little sign of co-operation so far. Following the launch of the Taylor Report on employment practices, the SNP have said the findings ‘fall shamefully short’, while Jeremy Corbyn has called it a ‘huge missed opportunity’ to tackle insecure employment. As Isabel notes, Taylor could be
Let there be no doubt: it’s turning into the political equivalent of Defcon 1, the highest level of nuclear alert, for the Trump administration. There can be no greater irony than that Donald Trump, who thundered about Hillary Clinton’s secret email server during the election campaign, could be undone by an email disseminated by his
If a line is repeated often enough it becomes true. Or true enough, anyway. This, at any rate, is one of the axiomatic rules of modern politics. He who controls the ballyhooed “narrative” owns the truth. Which is why the interpretation of any given event swiftly becomes almost as important as the actual event itself.
Every political leader and government goes through a phase when their spin doctors feel they need a relaunch. For some, the relaunch comes after a number of good years. For Theresa May, her relaunch came on the anniversary of her becoming Prime Minister – and after a rather tumultuous year. As relaunches go, this wasn’t
Theresa May’s decision to announce plans to launch an inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal on the day she ‘reboots’ her leadership, has been read by many as a sign of her growing weakness. With no Tory majority in sight, the Prime Minister today issued a plea to other parties to contribute – before giving way on
A year ago, I stood outside Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister, and I set out the defining characteristics of the government I was determined to lead. A clear understanding that the EU referendum result was not just a vote to leave the European Union, but a deeper and more profound call
The Brexit divorce bill isn’t on the table yet but it’s already provoking plenty of debate – and quite a bit of anger. Figures bandied about have ranged from the tens of billions upwards, with some speculation the final demand could be as much as 100bn euros. Ministers have done their best to avoid being drawn on
It’s the casualness with which they’re saying it that is truly disturbing. ‘I’m beginning to think that Brexit may never happen’, said Vince Cable on Sunday morning TV, with expert nonchalance, as if he were predicting rain. He echoed Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt, who a few days earlier informed viewers that there is talk in ‘some
Oh dear. This morning, Rebecca Long-Bailey risked alienating the three million people who use the Uber taxi app, when she said that it was ‘morally unacceptable’ to do so. While the shadow business secretary cited concerns with the gig economy as her reason for doing so, it seems not everyone in her team agrees. Somewhat
On the front page of today’s Times it says ministers are thinking of scrapping the free schools policy in order to give more money to schools. I hope it’s not true. Not only would it constitute a terrible loss of self-confidence on the Government’s part and confirm the narrative that the Conservatives are enacting Labour’s
Thinking of hopping into an Uber today? Think again. At least that’s the message from Labour frontbencher Rebecca Long-Bailey. The Corbynite MP – who has been widely tipped as a possible successor one day to Jezza – said she doesn’t use Uber because she doesn’t think it’s ‘morally acceptable’ to do so. Here’s what she told
‘Workers,’ says Matthew Taylor, whose report into modern practices is published this week, ‘should be treated as human beings, not cogs in a machine’. How very grand – and how fatuous. His entire report, commissioned by Theresa May in one of her first acts after becoming Prime Minister last July, is pointless, based on the
When the Conservatives aren’t busy plotting against one another over a warm glass of prosecco, they are taking the struggle public in the select committee chairmanship elections. While young MPs Johnny Mercer and Tom Tugendhat attempt to usurp the older generation in the defence and foreign select committees, the two frontrunners for chair of the Treasury
You know a Man Having Baby story really would be a story if it were true. But the latest Man Mother story is only true if you accept the notion that the mother in question really is a man. And that depends on whether you go down the whole notion that being transgender involves biological
Theresa May has withdrawn the whip from the Tory MP Anne Marie Morris after Morris talked about ‘the n—– in the woodpile’ at a think tank meeting. May has made the right decision. Morris claims that her use of the phrase was unintentional, but it is hard to see how that could be the case.
Gay lefties have hated gay Tories ever since learning of their existence. The concept baffles them, like pro-life women or alcohol-free wine. Those with long memories are aware of the Conservative Party’s ugly record on gay equality. This is the party of Section 28, of differential consent laws, of fretting about children ‘being taught that
Is Theresa May’s working majority about to get even smaller? After the Prime Minister called out unacceptable abuse directed at MPs, Theresa May is having to contend with bad behaviour from one of her own. The Huff Post UK has obtained a recording of Anne Marie Morris, the MP for Newton Abbot, using the N-word during an appearance on
Even before the election delivered a hammer blow to the Tories, their ‘strong and stable’ mantra was coming back to bite. Now, their warning of a Labour-led ‘coalition of chaos’ is also rearing its head once again. Fresh from wrapping up their deal with the DUP, the Government is calling on the opposition to come
Imagine if some far right militia had just taken to the streets of Germany. Imagine that the militia covered their faces with balaclavas. Imagine if they smashed up buildings, set light to cars and otherwise made the centre of a major German city resemble a war-zone. Would it not attract attention? Would it not also,
With a recent YouGov poll giving Labour a six-point-lead over the Conservatives, it’s little wonder that Jeremy Corbyn is keen to pitch his party as a government-in-waiting. In this vein, the Labour leader has been visiting Tory marginals on weekends. On Saturday, Corbyn was in Hastings & Rye, where the Home Secretary clung onto her
What a difference three months can make. In April, Theresa May stood on the steps of Downing Street and announced that she was calling a snap election to increase her majority and stop opposition parties from ‘political game-playing’ during the Brexit process. Having lost that majority in the subsequent election, the Prime Minister will this week mark
Was it really worth it? Rioting on the streets, hundreds of people injured and administrative costs of €100 million – all to host an inconsequential waffle fest, resulting in a vague set of resolutions, most of which we knew about already. We all knew nineteen of the G20 leaders are in favour of free trade.