All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Tim Bell has written to all Tory MPs urging them to back Boris Johnson in the Tory leadership contest. Here is the full text of the letter: The most important vote in your political career I am honoured to have been a member of the Conservative Party for forty years and am proud of my
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s announcement last week that it is to formally investigate Labour over anti-Jewish racism is an hour of great shame for the party. It is also, finally, a moment of hope for British Jews. The public body set up, with chilling irony by the party it is now to probe, has seen
In my old job as an investment banker, there were two schools of thought about how to get the best return. Long-term funds – where money was invested over a number of years; and short-term ones – which sought quick returns wherever it could be found. The Conservative party now finds itself facing a similar dilemma:
Michael Gove’s positioning in the Tory leadership race became clearer last night. In conversation with Fraser Nelson at a Spectator event, Gove made clear that he would be prepared to extend the Brexit deadline beyond 31 October if there were negotiations going on that would lead to a better deal. He argued that Sinn Fein’s
Arguably, the past six months could not have gone any better for the Liberal Democrats. At the beginning of the year, the party seemed cast adrift as voters continued to support the two main parties, and the newly formed Independent Group looked ready to usurp them as the party of Remain in the UK. But
With just a few days to go until nominations close in the Tory leadership contest, candidates are busy trying to shore up support in the parliamentary party. There are five – Sam Gyimah, Andrea Leadsom, Rory Stewart, Mark Harper and Esther McVey – who currently don’t have sufficient nominations to make it onto the ballot
In this week’s books podcast we’re talking about why the Father of English Poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer, at least half belongs in a French, Latin and Italian tradition. Marion Turner’s magnificently scholarly Chaucer: A European Life sets the great writer in his own times — one of a hinge between feudal and early modern ideas about selfhood,
A festival of inertia at PMQs today. A party without a leader, a Government without a purpose and a Parliament without a programme. Theresa May, in Portsmouth for the D-Day commemorations, was understudied by David Lidington who looks like a maths professor but performs like a comedian. His waggish streak is undermined by his gentlemanly
Leaving your party is brave because it is a costly and painful thing to do. You risk the loss of relationships, your sense of belonging and identity, your status and your income. The eleven MPs who formed the Independent Group took those risks knowingly. They saw Conservative and Labour parties transformed by blinkered nationalism and
It’s fair to say that recent campaigns and elections haven’t been kind to Ukip. First, the party fell apart and crumbled following the EU referendum campaign, and now it’s suffering the indignity of seeing Nigel Farage’s newly formed Brexit party surge in the polls, while its own organisation is taken over by YouTube stars. But
Camaraderie seems to be in short supply in Peterborough this week, ahead of the by-election tomorrow. In the centre of the city, a Brexit party activist cheerfully tells Mr S that he has barely seen the other parties knocking on doors and handing out flyers around the city. But he did run into the Labour
It’s hard to think of a more relaxing place to sit than Cathedral Square in the centre of Peterborough on a sunny day. Yet beneath the calm exterior, a fierce battle is taking place here between the political parties hoping to win tomorrow’s by-election, to see who will replace the disgraced former Labour MP Fiona
There’s only one day to go until the Peterborough by-election, which decides who will replace the former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya, and yet it’s still all to play for in this marginal seat. Under normal circumstances, with the last Labour MP found guilty of perverting the course of justice and thrown out by her constituents,
Donald Trump said in his interview with Good Morning Britain this morning that he ‘totally listened’ to Prince Charles’s views on climate change. It’s quite a feat for the future king to curry favour with the president and bend his ear on the issues most dear to him. But to anyone watching Trump’s State Visit unfold over
Lesbian tourism has long been a thing — women who once kissed a girl trying to appear more interesting while living a heterosexual life. Anne Heche, Madonna, Britney Spears and Ariana Grande have used lesbian/bisexual hints to titillate fans and sell more records. But nothing riles me like the Miley Cyrus approach which is to
What is a one nation Tory? On Tuesday evening, various leadership contenders descended to the committee room corridor to try and convince MPs that they could be described as one. Earlier this year, the One Nation Tory caucus was launched – led by Amber Rudd and Nicky Morgan – and was reported to be aimed
Even on a day like this, a wet Tuesday in June, you would expect the British left to find a few thousand protesters to issue screaming denunciations of Donald Trump. So it was, and here they were: Quaker socialists and union activists, avengers for Palestine and gay priders, euro-federalists, vegans, concerned mothers, NHS idolaters and
Now that the Tory party has confirmed we’ll know the identity of its new leader and therefore in theory our new prime minister in the week beginning 22 July, it is also possible to capture the single issue that will dominate both the coming two weeks of voting by MPs – who will choose the
The Tory leadership contest rules are to change in order to whittle down the number of candidates, the party board confirmed this evening. After it became clear that the contest was going to be rather chaotic with more than a dozen candidates, the party agreed to raise the threshold for nominations to make it harder
Why did Change UK end up splitting? Well, there were the personality clashes. And then there was the failure to attract more MPs who were supposed to break off from their existing parties to join the quest to change politics. But the biggest reason the party ended up in this mess was that simply it
If it wasn’t already, Change UK is now surely on its last legs. Six of the party’s MPs – including leader Heidi Allen – have quit. But those left behind still remain defiant. In a Sky News interview, Mike Gapes – who defected from Labour earlier this year – said the party was alive and
‘We’re going to give this everything we’ve got until 10 o’clock on Thursday.’ There’s only two days to go until the Peterborough by-election, and it’s fair to say that Brexit party candidate Mike Greene is determined to win. In his campaign headquarters in Peterborough, the businessman, Secret Millionaire and former Tory supporter revealed he hadn’t
“Everything with a trade deal is on the table…so NHS or anything else, a lot more than that”. That was Donald Trump talking about a possible UK-US trade deal after Britain leaves the EU’s common trade policy. Cue political drama, headlines and Conservative leadership contenders trying to work out what to say when someone asks
Just a few months after becoming a political party, Change UK has announced it is splitting. Six of its MPs, including its leader Heidi Allen, have quit, with Anna Soubry now taking the crown. The party confirmed the split with a press release typical of its odd behaviour throughout its existence, focusing on Soubry’s election
Donald Trump adds to the jollity of nations, and his press conferences are hugely entertaining. He drops massive news bombs, laughs, and whisks himself away. I defy anyone not to be entertained. In terms of epic oddness, his encounter with May today one was a notch or two down from last year’s at Chequers, the
Over the weekend, Donald Trump endorsed Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign. Boris ‘would do a very good job’, Trump said. At today’s press conference, Jeremy Hunt was also backed by Trump. But one person who didn’t quite make it was Michael Gove. When asked about the Tory leadership contest, Trump had this to say: ‘So I
Jeremy Corbyn has made much of snubbing Donald Trump by refusing to attend a state dinner in his honour, but was it really Trump who got the cold shoulder? At a press conference this afternoon, Trump has just claimed that Corbyn wanted to meet Trump, but that it was he who turned down the Labour
For at least a year the Brexit debate has been conducted almost entirely on negative ground – arguing over how harmful it might be if we leave with no deal, or whether leaving the EU is already threatening the economy. There has been rather less discussion of the benefits of Brexit – what Britain will
I was an argumentative teenager, and after emigrating from China to London one of the biggest rows I had with my British school friends was over Tiananmen. They’d insisted on calling it a massacre. I was adamant – it wasn’t a massacre, and the government did what it had to. Did my friends not understand
American politics – like our own – is more polarised than ever. More than perhaps any other president in living memory, Donald Trump has divided opinion. To his supporters, he can do no wrong. None of the old political orthodoxies seem to apply. To his detractors at home and abroad, his presidency is an embarrassment, arousing
Manners maketh man. If you are going to be a prince, moreover, politesse really should be paramount. Monarchy is, if nothing else, all about ancient codes of conduct: honour, chivalry, formality, and bloody well smiling at people you don’t necessarily like. That seems a bit much for Prince Harry, who, if reports and photos are
The last time president Donald Trump flew to London, pandemonium ensued. A visit that was supposed to be ordinary turned out to be extraordinary. Thousands of Londoners protested the president’s arrival, launching a big baby Trump balloon into the air (which predictably captured the thin-skinned president’s attention). Trump took to the pages of the Sun and trashed Theresa May’s
The no-deal Catch 22 for the Tories is well-established, bringing comfort to those who oppose no-deal (and Brexit) and worry to those who rightly see no-deal as the only way of actually leaving the EU. The idea is that the Tories cannot fight an election until Britain has genuinely left the EU, but that it