All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Italian politics is like a game of musical chairs. One government resigns or collapses, another takes its place, until that government is either rendered irrelevant a year later or voted out during the next election. Italy has had 68 governments in the last 74 years and 10 prime ministers in the last 20. Italians will
In January 1993 Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Tony Blair announced a key pillar of the opposition’s future election policy in a New Statesman op-ed. He wrote that a Labour government would be ‘tough on crime and tough on the underlying causes of crime’ – a phrase that would be often repeated after he ascended to
Notwithstanding this week’s excitement, millions of Brits are fed up discussing Brexit, Brexit and nothing but Brexit. They want to know when we’re going to address some other important issues. Issues like identity politics. And transgenderism. So-called ‘culture war’ issues. If reports are to be believed, No. 10 have been trying to find out what
Boris Johnson is trapped. He has thrown away his working Commons majority by expelling 21 reality-based Conservatives. He gambled on his political enemies doing the thing he wanted them to, vote for an early general election, then appeared surprised when they declined to do so. If he can’t get a Commons vote for that election
Opposition parties will again vote against a general election on Monday. The debate between leaders of Labour, SNP, Liberal Democrats, Plaid and Greens is whether to vote for an election a day or two after Queen’s Speech on October 14 or day or three after EU summit on October 17-18. Either way, it is all
So there goes the reputation of Boris Johnson’s henchmen as cunning operators. It has been a bad week for Dominic Cummings and others in the Downing Street bunker who were widely assumed to have gamed every possibility and to have some genius strategy for delivering Brexit by 31 October, in spite of the assembled forces
This week, Boris Johnson decided to seek a general election. But will his gamble pay off (00:20)? Plus is trophy hunting really as immoral as Carrie Symonds says it is (18:25)? With James Forsyth, Antoinette Sandbach MP, Joe Twyman, Patrick Galbraith, and Dr Mark Jones.
As the Labour party currently decides whether it wants to fight a general election, many observers are still trying to work out (three years after the referendum) what the party’s actual Brexit policy is. Does Labour want to Remain? Does it want to fight a second referendum? And if there is a second referendum, what
A conspicuously rattled and tired Boris Johnson – flanked surreally by the police in Wakefield – said yesterday he would ‘rather be dead in a ditch’ than obey the expected new law that would force him to ask the EU for a Brexit delay. Which carries only two implications. Johnson could quit as Prime Minister
Although Downing Street heralded Thursday the ‘first day of the election campaign’, Boris Johnson is yet to be able to call an election. Today Labour and other UK opposition parties have agreed not to back the Prime Minister’s call for general election before the October EU summit. Explaining the decision, the SNP’s Ian Blackford said
On Tuesday, the former Conservative MP Rory Stewart won GQ’s Politician of the Year award. It was probably the best part of the week for Stewart, who has had the Conservative whip removed and been roundly mocked after posting a series of photographs on Twitter, in which his typical grinning selfie smile disappeared when he was next
For onlookers it is astonishing to see the British establishment, commentators and a majority of MPs try to scuttle the negotiating position of their own country in its most important negotiations in living memory. Admittedly Iceland, my small country, has had its own share of fifth column interventions in times of crises. Still, it is
Boris Johnson was dealt a bitter blow this morning. Not only did the Prime Minister suffer his first ministerial resignation, a mere 43 days in to his premiership, but it was his own brother Jo who wielded the dagger. The former universities minister, who signed up to Boris’s government in July, dramatically announced his resignation
So now we know. There is no point in denying it and no advantage in wishing away plainly observable reality. The Conservative and Unionist party that exists today is not the Conservative and Unionist party of old. In spirit, and increasingly in personnel, it is now closer to Nigel Farage and the Brexit party than
The former Labour MP Luciana Berger has announced today that she is no longer an independent in parliament and has joined the Liberal Democrats. Berger becomes the party’s sixteenth MP in parliament, and is the second former Labour defector to join the Lib Dems, after Chuka Umunna made the jump this summer. In an interview
Boris Johnson has suffered his first resignation from around the Cabinet table – and it’s from his brother Jo. Jo Johnson has announced via social media that he will be stepping down both as a minister and an MP. The Minister of State for universities and science said that in recent weeks, he had felt
Both main British parties are now characterised by intolerance of dissent, leader worship and racism. You can take a historical view and see the rise of extremism as a reaction to the great crash of 2008 and the longest period of wage stagnation since the Napoleonic wars – a country that suffers the economics of the
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Readers of my weekly ‘Any Other Business’ column know I occasionally find reason or excuse to slip a restaurant tip in amongst the financial commentary. In that spirit, let me start by saluting the venue for our encounter with North-West & Wales finalists for The Spectator’s Economic Disruptor of the Year Awards 2019. This was 20
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Boris Johnson has lost his third government vote – and his first bid for an early election. MPs voted against his call for an early election under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, with Johnson failing to get two thirds of the Commons to vote for it – 298 MPs voted in favour with 56 against.
Labour’s split over the timing of any election has deepened this evening. In an interview with Andrew Neil, John Healey repeatedly declared that as soon as the extension legislation has got Royal Assent, Labour would want an election. Andrew Neil put it to Healey that this contradicted what Keir Starmer said today at the despatch
As an illustration of how chaotic things are in Parliament right now, the Commons has just accidentally revived Theresa May’s Brexit deal. An administrative problem meant the amendment tabled by Stephen Kinnock and others to bring the deal back to the Commons, in order to prevent a no-deal exit, went through. The Tories didn’t put
Rebel ex-Tory MPs are complaining of ‘unconstitutional’ treatment by their party and are planning to stand at the next election as Conservatives, I have learned. The MPs who lost the whip last night when they backed a motion to take control of the Order Paper were this morning told all their constituency data had been
The government’s majority this evening fell just a little more, as Caroline Spelman joined the rebels to vote in favour of legislation forcing an extension to the Brexit deadline. This latest defeat, 329 in favour of the bill and 300 against, was not a surprise in itself. But it is interesting that Spelman, who backed
With MPs arguing and agonising about when the general election should be, we may have hit peak parliamentary insanity. The PM wants a general election on 15 October. Tory rebels, led by Sir Oliver Letwin, and many Labour MPs, including frontbenchers, want polling day to be any time after 31 October. What is this dispute
That was fun. Boris Johnson’s debut at PMQs had a bit of everything. Comedy, passion, swearing, name-calling, and oodles of synthetic outrage. Several parliamentary conventions were tested to breaking point. The PM instantly took the fight to his opponents who are conspiring to halt Brexit by passing a delaying measure later today. ‘The Surrender Bill’,
In the debate on Tuesday, the standard of speaking was high. As well as Jacob Rees-Mogg, Ken Clarke, Anna Soubry, Nick Boles, Liam Fox and David Cameron’s replacement in Witney, Robert Courts, were all excellent. On the whole, the rebels were the more eloquent, as rebels usually are. Their one false note, however, was that of
Does Boris Johnson want an election or does he not want an election? He managed to make both claims this afternoon at Prime Minister’s Questions, accusing Jeremy Corbyn of being a ‘chlorinated chicken’ for not wanting an election, while also continuing to insist that he didn’t want one either. He then – apparently accidentally –
Jeremy Corbyn backtracked on one of his core political messages yesterday, when he told Boris Johnson that he no longer wants a general election. The Labour leader is now briefing that his MPs will not vote for an election until a bill has been passed blocking a no-deal Brexit. Is this not quite the U-turn
The Remainers are celebrating after Tuesday night’s defeat of the government and writing Boris off as a busted flush. ‘Johnson’s Brexit strategy in ruins as anti-no deal MPs inflict defeat,’ says the headline on this morning’s FT. But I’m not convinced this was such a bad night for the Prime Minister. Boris’s response to Tuesday’s
What should the next steps be in the battle between Parliament and the people? First, Boris should appoint about 500 peers who are committed to leaving the EU. The House of Lords is dominated by Remainers and the appointment of additional peers should ensure that representation of Leavers and Remainers in the Lords is the
Jeremy Corbyn is now in charge – even though he isn’t prime minister. And he faces the most important judgement of his life in the coming days. Does he allow a general election before the EU council of 17 October and take the risk of Johnson winning that election and repealing the law (likely to
In a week where Remain MPs have been trying to foist an extension of the Article 50 period onto Boris Johnson, you might be forgiven for thinking that it is Parliament that has provided the arena for the latest battle in the Brexit war. But, if a group of legal campaigners have their way, it