All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Corybn gave his wettest ever performance at PMQs. The party leaders had different theories about the authorship of the floods. Corbyn blamed Cameron. Cameron blamed the weather. Rainfall, he explained, had wept from the heavens in such unheralded quantities that a record-breaking dip-stick had to be lowered into the bucket to assess its full volume.
The substance of Jeremy Corbyn’s questions today in the Chamber was very good. The Labour leader used enough detail to make David Cameron look uncomfortable on flood spending and which defence schemes were approved and which weren’t. The Prime Minister tried to talk repeatedly about the government increasing money on flood defences and the importance
Jeremy Corbyn actually asked six reasonable questions at PMQs today. But his attack on the government’s handling of the floods will be completely overshadowed by his chaotic reshuffle; one shadow Minister actually resigned during PMQs. The Tories were itching to bring up the Labour reshuffle. The first question from a Tory MP asked Cameron to
Back in October, I wrote about how Corbyn had replaced the shadow cabinet’s Oxbridge and Harvard elite with red-brick university graduates. This week’s reshuffle has continued the trend. Maria Eagle – alma mater, Pembroke College, Oxford – has been demoted, and replaced by Emily Thornberry, who went to the University of Kent. Admittedly, the sacked Michael
Jeremy Corbyn made his views on changing the Labour party’s Trident policy pretty clear last night when he moved pro-Trident Maria Eagle out of the role of shadow defence secretary in favour of Emily Thornberry. Thornberry – who is anti-Trident – has been labelled as a controversial appointment by some given that – as well as
We should be more generous to refugees, said Justin Welby in his New Year message. Is he saying that the government should let more of them in? If so, should he be more specific? Does David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth, have a point? He wrote on his website: ‘How wonderfully saintly it must feel
Here come the resignations. 10.40am: Jonathan Reynolds, a moderate frontbencher, has stepped down citing Pat McFadden’s sacking as one of the reasons. Reynolds writes in his resignation letter that ‘I cannot in good conscience endorse the world view of the Stop the War Coalition, who I believe to be fundamentally wrong in their assessment and
David Cameron’s declaration that ministers will be able to campaign on the opposite side from him come the EU referendum has prompted much speculation about who will take advantage of this freedom. One of those regarded as being undecided on this matter was the Environment Secretary Liz Truss. She is ideologically close to the Out
Jeremy Corbyn is expected to make changes to his junior ministerial team today, though some might choose to walk anyway, particularly in protest at the sacking of Pat McFadden. Meanwhile sources in Hilary Benn’s camp are insisting that the decision to keep him in place as shadow foreign secretary but not allow him to take
Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn MP Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Party Chair and Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office Tom Watson MP Shadow First Secretary of State, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Angela Eagle MP Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell MP Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Seema Malhotra
So in the end, Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet reshuffle wasn’t the wide-ranging purge some had anticipated it would be. The Labour leader has sacked two people – Michael Dugher and Pat McFadden – moved Maria Eagle, promoted Emily Thornberry, and told Hilary Benn to toe his line. The Labour leader sacked McFadden as Shadow Foreign
This week Jeremy Corbyn has found himself battling with the media once again as he had to reprimand lobby journalists for loitering too close to his office during his Shadow Cabinet reshuffle deliberations. Happily he no longer has to deal with such proximity issues when he returns home this evening. Mr S revealed back in December that
In 2012 and 2013, The Spectator opened its Christmas special issue with a leading article counting the ways in which the world had never been a better place, and was set to get better still. We didn’t do so this year, as the list would have been a bit too similar to previous versions –
In his statement to the Commons this afternoon, David Cameron confirmed that ministers will be free to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union – and he gave a hint about when the referendum might be, too. The Prime Minister told the Chamber that he couldn’t guarantee agreement at February’s European Council summit, but:
In December, Julie Burchill had lunch with Jess Phillips MP, and decided in an article for Spectator Life that the gobby Brummie had the balls to drag the Labour party back from Korbyn’s Keystone Kommunism. It now seems that Phillips agrees. Speaking on Newsnight last night, she admitted – over a pint – that she was indeed interested
No doubt David Cameron looks back on his 2010 election victory with fond memories — the excitement on the night, the subsequent celebrations and of course the gifts that followed. So Mr S is sorry to report that one election present may not have been quite what it seemed. Julian Sayarer’s forthcoming book Messengers details his time
By the end of the day, it will be quicker to count the number of Labour MPs – including members of the Shadow Cabinet – who have not expressed their sadness that Michael Dugher has been sacked. Even though the outpouring of anguish on social media is interesting and suggests that Jeremy Corbyn is not
Michael Dugher has today been fired by Jeremy Corbyn from his role as Shadow Culture Secretary after serving less than five months on Corbyn’s frontline. Just been sacked by Jeremy Corbyn. I wished him a happy new year. — Michael Dugher (@MichaelDugher) January 5, 2016 While the move will no doubt come as a blow to
How’s this for dark irony: throughout 2015, ‘white male privilege’ was the buzzphrase on every rad tweeter and liberal hack’s lips, as they fumed against the easy, pampered lives allegedly enjoyed by human beings who had the fortune to be born with a penis and pale skin. Railing against ‘white men’ and their cushy existences
The Glasgow Effect is a term given by epidemiologists and sociologists to describe the disproportionate levels of ill health and early death in Scotland’s second city. Disproportionate, because even when the usual factors of poverty are accounted for, Glasgow exceeds expectation. People in Glasgow have the lowest life expectancy in Scotland but even the wretched
As expected, David Cameron is to suspend collective responsibility for ministers who wish to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. The Prime Minister will give a statement this afternoon in which he is expected to announce a free vote on the matter. Ministers will not be able to speak out until after the
It seems that Jeremy Corbyn’s reshuffle has actually started for real. This is what Michael Dugher, Shadow Culture Secretary, has just tweeted: Dugher losing his job isn’t a huge surprise given his comments on Pienaar’s Politics at the weekend. The Barnsley East MP told the programme that Corbyn would be left with a ‘politburo of
The Monday after the massacre in Paris, I walk into a bank near the Place de la République to deposit a little over 1,000 euros into a friend’s account. After a number of tut-tuts the transaction passes. ‘Why all the fuss?’ I ask, only to be informed of new laws being phased in that will
Oh dear. After Nick Robinson declared that he was on a mission to tackle anti-Corbyn bias in the BBC’s political coverage, it appears some brains at Broadcasting House may be taking his sentiment a little too far. It now seems that there is also an anti-Corbyn bashing rule when it comes to satire. Barry Humphries — who
Jeremy Corbyn is expected to announce the results of his reshuffle today, after keeping everyone in suspense with hours of secret talks yesterday in his office. His ‘even reshuffle’ is being served rather cold, and its ingredients are being kept a mystery. The Labour leader is believed to be going for a less fearsome set
It isn’t just Iran who have been angered by the execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Protests have erupted in Bahrain, Lebanon, Pakistan and Iraq, all places where the 1400-year-old Shia-Sunni divide remains a faultline. Iran’s reaction may seem uncompromising, with Ayatollah Khamenei tweeting: ‘The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences’; but they
Jeremy Corbyn is currently conducting his reshuffle, with a group of journalists huddled at a discreet distance from the Labour leader’s office. So far, not much has happened, other than Corbyn asking the journalists not to stand outside his office, and Barry Gardiner emerging with a smile on his face. But still the briefings around
When Jeremy Corbyn formed his Shadow Cabinet after he was voted in as Labour leader, he soon became the subject of much mockery in the media. This wasn’t so much because of his appointments, but because his late night discussions about who to appoint were overheard by loitering hacks who then published the private discussions.
Jeremy Corbyn wants to get rid of the British Empire Medal and David Cameron wants to ditch the Human Rights Act. But I have a different nomination for the national institution most desperately in need of abolition: the FTSE 100 index. It is harming our economy by consistently underplaying the returns to be made on
David Cameron’s announcement today that the government will be involved in the direct commissioning of new homes on public land isn’t a huge surprise in that it continues an exploratory policy announced in the last Parliament. But what is a surprise is that this policy was announced by the Lib Dems and is now being
Jeremy Corbyn is expected to carry out his much-awaited and much-briefed ‘revenge reshuffle’ this week. Given he will have to face a shadow cabinet meeting on Tuesday, it would make more sense for the Labour leader to get on with moving and sacking today so that he faces the shadow cabinet he wants, rather than
Although the first rule of spin doctoring is to never become the story, Leave.EU’s Andy Wigmore appears to be taking the Alastair Campbell approach when it comes to managing the campaign’s comms. After the Mail on Sunday revealed that Nigel Farage may have been the victim of an assassination attempt — after a wheel on
When British troops were on patrol in Iraq and Afghanistan, we faced many enemies, from jihadis to press-ganged civilians. But he most terrifying ones lay buried. Bullets usually miss. Improvised explosive devices – IEDs — don’t. They are frighteningly simple. Old munitions wired together or plastic bottles packed with fertiliser and ball-bearings could destroy a
In January 2014, Douglas Murray explained in The Spectator how relations in the Middle East were becoming increasingly tense. With Saudi Arabia having now cut diplomatic relations with Iran, Douglas’s insight seems prescient. Syria has fallen apart. Major cities in Iraq have fallen to al-Qa’eda. Egypt may have stabilised slightly after a counter-coup. But Lebanon is starting
