All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
I succeed one of the most successful Home Secretaries of modern times. You may define success as holding the post for longer than any prior Conservative incumbent since World War Two. You may judge it by introducing the Modern Slavery Act … Which has delivered tough new penalties to put slave masters behind bars. Or,
Theresa May hasn’t been Prime Minister for 100 days yet but already she’s achieved what few other Tory leaders before her have done: get her eurosceptic backbenchers on board. In doing this, May will have made the likes of David Cameron green with envy. So how did she succeed in this task? It seems her
This week our party is putting forward a vision of a country that works for everyone. Where you can go as far as your talents take you. Ultimately the opportunity to get on depends on the security provided by our Armed Forces. Today British forces are fighting terrorism, countering aggression, and training troops in democracies
Brexit means Brexit. But for some, remembering that definition can be a challenge. For Welsh Tory leader Andrew Davies, it seems Brexit means something else altogether. Davies took to the stage at the Conservative party conference and proudly declared that: ‘Mark my words, we will make breakfast..Brexit a success’ Davies said after his gaffe that he
Theresa May has done enough, for now, to put Brexit into its box. The Prime Minister hasn’t offered up much, but the piecemeal announcements she has made at the Tory party conference – including setting out a rough Article 50 timetable – have helped stave off uncertainty. Crucially, they’ve also kept the Brexit band happy:
At this year’s Labour conference, the absence of several centrist MPs at the annual event was taken as a sign that the party was far from a united one. So, what about the Conservatives? It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the majority of the once omnipotent Notting Hill set have stayed away from Tory conference in
Jacob Rees-Mogg has been looking mightily pleased with himself at this year’s Conservative party conference. After the arch-Brexiteer spent years calling for Britain to leave the European Union, his wish was finally granted in June. However, he sill has work to do when it comes to convincing Remain-ers that Brexit will be a good thing. At a Politeia fringe event,
The Conservative party conference is now in full swing, with a host of top cabinet ministers taking to the stage in Birmingham today. Defence secretary Michael Fallon, Justice secretary Liz Truss and Home secretary Amber Rudd will all be speaking this morning. While Jeremy Hunt and Education secretary Justine Greening are up this afternoon. Here’s
As a Conservative, when I look at where we’ve had the biggest impact in government, there’s one area that really stands out. And that’s education. Through a lot of hard work, not least from teachers… ….we have come a very, very long way. Thanks to the reforms carried out by Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan…
Just when you thought economists might finally have got the message about their doom-laden predictions for the economy following the vote for Brexit, along comes another statistic showing they are still getting it hopelessly wrong. I wrote here last month about how the Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers Index – an early indicator of economic growth –
This afternoon’s session of speeches at the Tory conference might best be described as the ‘Why My Department Exists’ section. The ministers who spoke – Culture Secretary Karen Bradley, Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox – all reeled off statistics about sport, the countryside, exports and so on to show that
There was a time when the terms ‘Britain’ and ‘trade’ would have been almost synonymous. For over two centuries we were the trading nation. From the intellectual pioneers such as Adam Smith, whose book ‘the Wealth of Nations’ made the case for free trade, to the Royal Navy’s patrol of the world’s trade routes to
Spare a thought for Rachel Johnson. After the Mail on Sunday columnist was invited to speak on gender equality at this year’s Tory conference as part of a Bright Blue debate, she thought that with her brothers — Boris and Jo — and father Stanley in town, it wasn’t entirely out of question that one
With Nicky Morgan the new Peter Bone of the Conservative party, the former Education Secretary is making her mark at this year’s conference as a Cameroon without a brief. Her opposition to Theresa May’s grammar school plans has not gone down well with No.10. Today Patrick McLoughlin used his interview with the Mirror to question why Morgan had allowed
Philip Hammond’s speech has had a mixed reaction from his MP colleagues, it is fair to say. A number have run up to me and rolled their eyes at how terrible his jokes were, or at his skill in managing to make one of the most important jobs in government sound boring, even telling delegates
This Tory conference is making clear quite how topsy-turvy politics has become over the past few months. David Davis is sweeping around with a ministerial entourage. The Cameroons are largely absent. Nicky Morgan, who started the year as an ultra-loyal Cabinet minister prepared to help the Prime Minister out and soothe any row, has become
Philip Hammond is the unlikely headline act of the day at the Conservative party conference. The Chancellor used his speech to row back on his predecessor George Osborne’s plan to cut the deficit and also promised to up spending. But Hammond also had some words of warning about Brexit. He said that while the referendum
Philip Hammond is a very different kind of Chancellor than George Osborne. Osborne’s conference speeches ranged across the policy landscape; Hammond’s was tightly focused on his brief. You wouldn’t have known from it that Hammond had been Foreign Secretary until a few months ago. On the economy, Hammond confirmed that the government was no longer
It’s great to be back in Birmingham – and a privilege to address this conference as Chancellor of the Exchequer. I don’t think I am giving away any state secrets in admitting that I just might have hoped to have been a Treasury Minister a little bit earlier in my political career! In fact, having
A country votes against the EU in a referendum in which rabidly anti-immigrant sentiments are aired by senior politicians. That is Hungary, of course, where voters have just rejected — with a majority of 98 per cent, albeit it on a turnout of 44 per cent, too low to make it binding — an EU
Although there have been efforts in recent years to make the British media less London-centric, problems persist. While the BBC opened their Salford office in a bid to widen the net, it’s Channel 4 who now seem to be struggling to get to grips with the North. Cathy Newman — the Channel 4 news presenter — has
In the run-up to the referendum, Philip Hammond was one of those warning of the dire consequences of a vote to leave the EU. He predicted that Brexit would have a ‘chilling effect’ on the UK economy and said there would be uncertainty for years to come. Since being made Chancellor, Hammond has softened his
Philip Hammond takes to the stage today at Tory party conference to discuss the Conservative’s plans for an economy that ‘works for everyone’ – echoing Theresa May’s first pitch as Prime Minister on the steps of Downing Street. We’ll also hear from Sajid Javid, Andrea Leadsom and Liam Fox in some of the other big
Poor customer service is endemic across swathes of British industry. It plagues some of our biggest companies and as customers we should not have to put up with it. After all, this is the UK, one of the richest countries in the world. Or am I wrong? It’s time, I say, to stand up, be counted
Hallelujah, everybody. The Archbishop of Canterbury has been pontificating again. Justin Welby says we must try to understand radical Islam a little better. He explained last week, with great patience, that the jihadis think they’re in an end-time war against Christians and Jews, so killing them is exactly what they expect to happen. It sort
Sterling has fallen to its lowest level against the dollar since early July after Theresa May set a date for starting Brexit negotiations. The Prime Minister said she would trigger Article 50, the clause needed to start the process, by the end of March 2017. That means the UK is likely to leave the EU by mid-2019.
Matt Ridley, well known to Spectator readers, is giving the Global Warming Policy Foundation’s Annual Lecture on 17 October, at the premises of the Royal Society. The venue has annoyed New Scientist magazine. How dare the great home of science give house room to ‘those who deny climate science’, asks the paper’s ‘biology features editor’,
On Sunday afternoon both Boris Johnson and David Davis gave speeches on Brexit in the main hall at Conservative conference. Happily, their fellow Brexiteer Liam Fox was not too left out and had a chance to share his thoughts at the Conservative Voice’s ‘Brexit, Europe and the world’ reception that evening. Clearly stung after Nick Clegg
While Scottish Labour struggle to fill their events with supporters, the Scottish Conservatives can take heart that their resurgence is still going strong. Attendees for the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party reception queued around the bend to hear Ruth Davidson speak. Davidson spoke of her surprise that officials had put the Scots in a room where they
Boris Johnson’s speeches at Tory conference have normally been dedicated to making the audience laugh. As Mayor of London, he was freed from the constraints that Cabinet Ministers must labour under and so could have more fun than any other speaker. But as Foreign Secretary, Boris is constrained both by the conventions of diplomacy and
The Conservative party conference has started and Theresa May has kick-started this year’s gathering with her big speech on Brexit. The Prime Minister revealed earlier that Article 50 will be triggered by March next year. And when she took to the stage in Birmingham, she offered up a few more small glimmers about her Brexit
I was at the UN general assembly in NY the other day and talking to the foreign minister of another country. I won’t say which one, since I must preserve my reputation for diplomacy, but let’s just say they have an economy about the size of Australia (though getting smaller, alas). Plenty of snow, nuclear
We had heard a great deal of Theresa May’s Brexit speech to the Conservative party conference before – to the word, in fact, with the Prime Minister using the same scripted soundbites that she’s deployed as a shield against having to answer questions about Brexit directly. ‘We will not be able to give a running
Ladies and gentlemen, on the 23rd of June the British people voted for change. And this is going to be the biggest change for a generation: we are going to leave the European Union. It was we, the Conservative Party, who promised the British people a referendum. It was David Cameron, a Conservative Prime Minister,