All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. A week after Britain backed Brexit, politics shows no sign of slowing down. David Cameron has resigned, Michael Gove has pulled out of Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign before
Oh dear. This morning Sarah Vine surprised Daily Mail readers after she declared in her column that both she and her husband Michael Gove had been ‘charged with implementing the instructions of 17 million people’ following the Leave vote. While Vine’s central role in the Brexit negotiations prompted laughter in some quarters, it now transpires that she
This is an extract from Charles Moore’s Notes in the new issue of The Spectator, out tomorrow. George Osborne says he can stay in the government in some capacity (‘a decision for the next prime minister’). Monday’s Financial Times reported ‘Friends say a move to the Foreign Office would be the only other job that
Rare to see a plank-walker at the helm of the ship. Today there were two. Cameron has accepted the inevitable and his demeanour at the despatch box was relaxed, amused, peaceable. Buoyant at times. Even foes like Bernard Jenkin exchanged warm words with him. And he handled Corbyn with extreme mildness until a rush of blood
Stephen Crabb is the first Tory leadership contender to formally declare his candidacy for the job, with a rousing speech about his working class Conservative values this morning. The Work and Pensions Secretary pitched himself as the candidate who not only understands the people who ‘are really struggling, who look at us all in Westminster
PMQs was always going to be an odd event today. David Cameron is going as Prime Minister and Jeremy Corbyn is trying to survive wave after wave of resignations from his front bench. When Corbyn rose to his feet, there was almost complete silence from the Labour benches—there was the odd chuckle from the Tory
As Jeremy Corbyn faces even more Shadow Cabinet resignations today, it’s becoming difficult to locate a Labour MP who thinks he should stay in the post. Now the Prime Minister has added his voice to the cause. David Cameron — who is stepping down in the autumn — used today’s PMQs to call on Corbyn to
In the past week, David Cameron has had to resign after losing the referendum on Britain’s European Union membership, and yet is still heading into Prime Minister’s Questions in a stronger position than his opposite number, who has not resigned. Jeremy Corbyn is now a Labour leader whose MPs have overwhelmingly stated that they have
Roger Scruton once observed, in his astute way, how important national feeling was to democracy: ‘Democracy is a form of government that depends upon a national, rather than a credal or tribal idea of loyalty. In a nation state the things that divide neighbours from each other – family, tribe and religion – are deliberately
Since Leave triumphed in the EU referendum, there have been growing concerns that the Brexiteers were not suitably prepared for success at the polls. As well as no clear plan of action, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been uncharacteristically quiet since the result came in. Happily Gove’s wife Sarah Vine has now filled us in
When you were a young child, did you ever throw away the packed lunch provided by your parents, then go around scavenging tastier alternatives from fellow pupils? No? Just me then. I can assure you this happens up and down the country every lunchtime and – believe it or not – tells us something about the benefits system.
‘Too close to home,’ is how most of my friends and colleagues in Istanbul described the attack at the city’s main airport. I feel the same. I fly in or out of Ataturk International airport a few times every month for work. I know its entrances and exits, the security barriers and shops, like the
After a number of dicey days on the markets, UK shares are regaining some of the ground lost in the wake of the Brexit vote. The BBC reports that after increasing 2.6 per cent on Tuesday, the FTSE 100 share index opened up 1.6 per cent at 6,240.31. The FTSE 250 index rose 1.6 per cent in early
The race to be the next Tory leader is underway. Conservative Party members will decide between Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom after Michael Gove was knocked out in the second round of voting. But which Conservative MPs are backing who? Theresa May (160): Michael Fallon Patrick McLoughlin Chris Grayling Nicholas Soames Guto Bebb Alan Mak Gavin
After a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn passed at 172 votes to 40, a Labour leadership election looks on the cards. With Corbyn vowing to stand again, his opponents hope that — post-Brexit — a high enough proportion of the membership will choose to oust him. Yet in a sign that a lot of the grassroots
I do love a good oyster. And I love the fact that here in Toronto it’s okay and acceptable to eat them in the middle of June without an ‘R’ in the month. My dear departed dad adored oysters and used to say that eating one was like having an angel copulate on your tongue.
Westminster is at its fastest-moving and most unstable for years. Portcullis House and the tea rooms are buzzing with MPs discussing the demise of their leader and who they’ll back in the contest to replace him: and that goes for both main parties, though of course the golden rule of politics still applies, which is
Labour MPs have passed a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn 172 votes to 40. There were 216 votes cast (out of 229 Labour MPs). This means that the Labour leader will continue to serve without the support of a majority of his MPs. Unless he decides to resign, he will lead Prime Minister’s
Politics is still moving at breakneck speed – David Cameron is in Brussels and meanwhile, in Brussels, the fight to succeed him is intensifying. The bookies suggest Theresa May is pulling ahead of Boris in the race to become the next Prime Minister. But others including Jeremy Hunt, Stephen Crabb and Sajid Javid are also
As the Labour party slowly implodes, Jeremy Corbyn is doing his best to keep the show on the road. To do this, the Leader’s Office today agreed that it would be a good idea to let Sky News film a meeting of the new Shadow Cabinet. Although Corbyn’s director of communications Seumas Milne clearly hoped this
Much of the media attention in recent days has been focused on the vacuum of leadership in Westminster. However, Britain’s momentous decision to leave the EU has exposed deep cracks in relations with the European Union. Almost immediately after the Brexit vote, nations across continent woke up to the new possibility of leaving the bloc.
Thankfully, many in Europe – not least the European Parliament – will have stopped listening to Nigel Farage a long time ago. The Ukip leader, no stranger to attempting to infuriate his MEP colleagues, has been winding them up again. In this morning’s session, he gloated: ‘You all laughed at me. Well, I have to say, you’re
Whenever I write – or think – about Jeremy Corbyn supporters, I sound like Quentin Letts. For this I apologise. It probably did not help that the first thing I found at the pro Corbyn rally in Parliament Square yesterday was an anti-Semitism special in a far left newspaper. (It is their bar of shame). It suggested
A quick update on the BBC TV News. At ten o clock last night the programme ran a report from its idiotic northern correspondent, Ed Thomas, which attempted to suggest that the Leave campaign was responsible for nasty things being said to immigrants. Thomas is an appallingly partisan correspondent and presumably has his job because
Labour MPs are today voting on the motion of no confidence on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. The rebels expect the vote to pass with 2:1 support from the parliamentary party. But what they do not know is whether the party membership has really shifted enough for Corbyn to lose when it moves to a new contest.
With Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet now somewhat depleted, brains at Labour are left with less choice when it comes to who to send onto the airwaves to protect the leader’s honour. As a result, readers ought to expect to hear a lot more from Diane Abbott — the newly appointed Shadow Health Secretary — in the
I have a confession. I’ve been unfaithful with a Spanish beauty I met on the internet a few weeks ago. All my life the object of my desire has been home-grown. I was born in the same place as Aston Martin (the unassuming north Buckinghamshire town of Newport Pagnell) and my loyalty never strayed. Until
As Labour MPs drowned their sorrows in Strangers’ Bar last night following a fractious meeting of the PLP, over in the Red Lion the pro-Corbyn contingent gathered for a pint. Mr S’s mole reports that Momentum’s Jon Lansman met with Richard Burgon, the Shadow Justice Secretary, and Seb Corbyn at the Westminster watering hole to give the
Despite the Chancellor’s efforts yesterday to calm the markets and soothe business fears, the pound hit a 31-year low against the dollar. There was more bad news when the UK lost its top AAA credit rating from S&P. The ratings agency said the the referendum result could lead to ‘a deterioration of the UK’s economic performance,
George Osborne has ruled himself out of the Tory party leadership contest. The Chancellor said that whilst he accepted the outcome of the referendum, ‘I am not the person to provide the unity my party needs at this time’. Osborne went on to say that: ‘As for my ow future, I will not be a
The only surprise result in Spain’s repeat general election on Sunday – rendered necessary by the impasse produced by December’s – was the failure of the new Spanish left to nudge the Socialists out of second place. The radical-left coalition Unidos Podemos (‘United We can’), a combination of Podemos (We Can) and Izquierda Unida (United Left), was
The demonstration in support of Jeremy Corbyn is starting to dissipate, but Labour MPs have this evening been contacted by their whips to advise them on their personal safety as they leave Parliament after the late votes. They have been advised on what entrances are being kept open for their safety, and told that anyone who is
Journalists aren’t allowed inside the meetings of the Parliamentary Labour Party. But this evening they got a glimpse of just how high tensions had been running when Jeremy Corbyn faced his MPs when the press briefing from the Labour leader’s spokespeople descended into a loud stand-off in the corridor between them and one of his
While Corbyn faced an open revolt from MPs at tonight’s meeting of the PLP, over in Parliament Square the Corbyn fightback got underway as hundreds gathered for a Momentum rally in support of the Labour leader. Not content with the drama at the meeting, Richard Burgon — Labour’s former blunder-prone shadow City minister who has just been promoted