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Andrea Leadsom’s decision to drop out of the leadership race — and by default make Theresa May the party’s new leader — has been met with a collective sigh of relief by the majority of Conservative MPs. However, for the same reason that many were worried by Leadsom’s appeal to grassroots Tories, they ought too to
Following Andrea Leadsom’s announcement that she is bowing out of the leadership race, Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, has confirmed that Theresa May is now the only remaining candidate. While he refused to confirm that she was now the country’s Prime Minister, he ruled out re-opening the contest, which means it is almost certain
He may have died in the seventeenth century but in his Mysterie of Rhetoric Unvail’d of 1657 John Smith showed he understood how sneaks such as Andrea Leadsom operate. Defining the rhetorical device of ‘apophasis’, Smith described it as A kind of irony, whereby we deny that we say or doe that which we especially
In what must be the shortest-lived leadership campaign in the history of the Conservative Party, Andrea Leadsom has just announced that she’s dropping out. She said in her resignation statement that there was not “sufficient support” from her colleagues – perhaps a nod to how many of them said that they would quit the party if she
Andrea Leadsom has withdrawn from the Tory leadership race, saying ‘the best interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported Prime Minister’ and that she did not have sufficient support to lead a strong and stable government. She said Theresa May was ‘ideally placed’ to implement Brexit
‘I am deeply concerned. I am usually quite the optimist but this is probably the first time that I have ever been pessimistic about the future of the European Union. Brexit will feed populism across Europe. And we can hardly expect to bounce back with the heads of State and government that we have today
Now that I’ve reached my 40s, I’ve started to notice a number of entirely unwelcome lifestyle changes. An involuntary ‘ooh’ when I sit in a comfy chair. A feeling of relief when a friend cancels a night on the town. A fear that I might need bifocals. A refusal to go down the pub unless
Employers have responded to the new National Living Wage by increasing prices or reducing profits rather than cutting jobs, according to a survey from the Resolution Foundation. The wage, which requires employers to pay staff aged 25 and over at least £7.20 an hour, was introduced in April. This report is the first snapshot of how firms
Andrea Leadsom initially tried to go on the attack following the row over her motherhood comments sparked by an article in the Times on Saturday. Today, the Tory leadership candidate appears to be attempting a different technique to put out this fire for good. At first, she was ‘disgusted’ by the presentation of the piece
At the march against democracy last weekend, tens of thousands of people wandered the streets of London, desperately trying to work out what democracy meant as they tried to call for the result of the referendum to be overturned. Now the Brexiteers are fighting back. However, instead of marching for democracy, the 20 or so
After weeks of uncertainty, the Labour coup is officially on. While Jeremy Corbyn made clear on Marr that he has no intention of stepping down, Angela Eagle has done the rounds on Peston and Sunday Politics declaring that she will run for leader if Corbyn refuses to go. So with a fresh leadership election on the horizon, it’s now
Britain voted for Brexit so Brexit is going to have to happen. That’s the way it works and there’s no point in Remainers wishing otherwise. But if Britain evidently voted for Brexit it is far less clear what kind of Brexit it voted for. As with the death of old man Talleyrand, we are left
Oh dear. Today Jeremy Corbyn fuelled concerns that he isn’t interested in winning power when he failed to say that winning a general election was a priority, during an appearance on the Andrew Marr Show. Now Jon Lansman, the Momentum chief, has waded into the ‘should winning matter to a major political party?’ debate. After tweeting
Jeremy Corbyn was insistent this morning on the Andrew Marr Show that he isn’t going anywhere. More than that: he insisted that Labour is ‘changing the way politics is done’. His opponents in the party would agree, as it happens. Corbyn is going nowhere, certainly not anywhere near to Number 10, but also nowhere near
A new poll has indicated that in last month’s referendum, younger voters turned out to vote in twice the numbers as was previously thought. A Sky Data poll in June suggested that as few as 36 per cent of 18-24 year olds had bothered to make an appearance at the polling station, alongside a relatively
Shocked Remainers want a new political party — pro-European, ‘pro-business’ and free of any viscerally right- or left-wing taint. They anxiously insist that it will not be like the SDP in the early 1980s, but it is hard to see why not. Both then and now, the appeal is to a particular idea of virtue
Andrea Leadsom presumably considers her aggressive pride in her maternity to be something to do with her Christian faith. To quote her heroine (who now seems wonderfully subtle): No, no, no. Pride in procreation is dull, banal, pagan stuff, not completely unrelated to fascism. Christians ought to steer clear of it. Did Jesus or St Paul
Finally, the Labour coup is about to begin. Or at least, Labour MPs are talking about the fact that the Labour coup is about to begin, after weeks of threatening it. After talks between the party’s Deputy Leader Tom Watson and Labour’s trade union backers broke up today, Angela Eagle has said she will launch
Well! It hasn’t taken long for the commentariat to get over their excitement at the prospect of another female prime minster, has it? Can you imagine what the Guardian would be making of it were the contest between Angela and Maria Eagle, Venus and Serena Williams-style (or even, David and Ed Miliband-style)? It’d be triumph
The Dallas shooting brings together two of the worst problems in American politics: racial mistrust and guns. It also shows that both problems are intractable. Most Americans like the idea that if something’s wrong they can fix it. Hard experience suggests otherwise. First, race. The old heritage of slavery, followed by a century of segregation
One of the rules of modern leadership contests is that at some point there is an almighty row about whether one of the candidates is just better than the other because she happens to have had children of her own. Labour reached that stage on 6 July 2015 when Helen Goodman wrote a piece saying
Theresa May’s biggest weakness in the Tory leadership race is that she backed Remain while most Tory members went Leave. But, as I say in The Sun this morning, if she can sound confident and optimistic about Brexit, then she will win and become Britain’s next Prime Minister. May needs to make clear that now
Before she was murdered, Jo Cox MP had written most of a report. She worked on it jointly it with the Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat for the Britain in the World project at the think-tank Policy Exchange. Its publication had been intended to coincide with that of the Chilcot report this week. Because of her
Although John McDonnell has been busy of late helping fight off the Labour coup, he was able to find time this week to mark the 30th anniversary of the rate-capping rebellion of the eighties. The Shadow Chancellor joined forces with Ted Knight — the former leader of Lambeth council who once warned ‘no compromise with the electorate’
The invitation to supply a report on a Uefa Euro 2016 match written in the florid style beloved of some sportswriters produced entries of inspired awfulness. How about this, from Mike Morrison: ‘The craven defence unravelled like cartoon knitwear, enabling Dottirdottir, the archetype of stoic strategy, to blithely torpedo the decider through the enmeshed architraves
While frustrated Remain campaigners continue to speak of economic Armageddon, a very significant move happened yesterday. Business secretary Sajid Javid flew off to Delhi to begin preliminary negotiations for a trade deal between Britain and India. It is significant because this is exactly the sort of deal that we have been forbidden from doing for
Most Tory MPs are back in their constituencies today, and several of those that I have spoken to are now predicting a closer race between May and Leadsom than Westminster expected. One May supporting MP tells me that the councillors they have spoken to are intrigued by Leadsom, a fresh face they want to hear
Since Andrea Leadsom announced her leadership bid, the Conservative candidate has been dogged by allegations that she lacks the experience and knowledge to lead her party — let alone the country. Reports this week from Leadsom’s former colleagues claiming she exaggerated her banking credentials on her CV have only fuelled concerns that she could be out
Things have gone mysteriously quiet in the Labour party. Every so often, Len McCluskey and Tom Watson emerge from a meeting, asking their comrades to give them a little bit more time before any of them move against Jeremy Corbyn. And nothing seems to happen. How much more time do the plotters need to give
Blair’s great mistake was his desire to believe the best of America. It must know what it’s doing in invading Iraq, he thought. And in 2002, for once, this mighty superpower was hurt, needy – he felt needed by the leader of the free world. Which must be an intoxicating experience. Many of the rest
All hail social media. In January, I lost my beautiful pussycat Mr Mew, and I have spent six long months worrying about him. But last week he came back. His return is entirely thanks to nice people on Facebook and Twitter posting pictures and then alerting me when a sad, similar looking stray was found
You don’t have to be an economist to know that if you spend more than you earn, you’re in trouble. As Micawber famously said in David Copperfield: ‘Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.’
Mortgage rates are continuing to drop, as the markets bet on a cut in interest rates next week. A 10-year fixed rate launched by Coventry Building Society is thought to be the cheapest such deal on record at 2.39 per cent. The BBC reports that Barclays, HSBC, Metro Bank, the Leeds and the West Bromwich Building Society
Even in an age of ridiculousness there is something preposterous about the sight of so many prominent Leavers clutching their pearls in horror as they contemplate the possibility – the real possibility – that Andrea Leadsom could become the next leader of the Conservative party and, by golly, Prime Minister too. I mean, where do