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There’s been no short of soul-searching in Birmingham this week, as Conservatives wonder how they can challenge an increasingly threatening looking Labour party. In a speech at an Institute for Economic Affairs bash last night, Treasury minister Liz Truss thought she was able to identify the problem: ‘There are some people in Britain who say
It’s day two of Conservative party conference and the Tory wars are in full swing. This morning it’s the turn of Philip Hammond to cause trouble. In an interview with the Daily Mail, the Chancellor repeatedly mocked Boris Johnson, saying that his former cabinet colleague is incapable of grown-up politics. But while Hammond was happy
Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and the Chancellor Philip Hammond are the big draws on day two of the Conservative conference, but there is plenty of action on the fringes too. Here are the highlights to watch out for: Conference listings: 10.00 – 12.30 Symphony Hall AN ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR EVERYONE Secretary of State for
Andrew Marr: Let me ask you about another burning injustice which you didn’t mention but I think a lot of people would regard as a burning injustice: the treatment of all of those West Indian people who came here in the 1950s and 1960s – asked here to work, people from the Caribbean and elsewhere.
The Tory conference hall is, so far, struggling to replicate the size and excitement of Labour’s gathering last week. This isn’t entirely the party’s fault: the venue itself might be great for listening to an orchestra, but it tends to dampen what atmosphere there is. But the decline in audience enthusiasm has been taking place
It’s day one of Tory conference and already the blue-on-blue warfare is rife. Aside from Boris-bashing in the main hall, the fringes have been witness to some choice comments. This afternoon’s ‘How Can Conservatives Win Back Under 45s in 2022’ fringe event, saw a panel comprised of Justine Greening, Neil O’Brien, David Willets, George Freeman
The most notable thing about this year’s Conservative conference is the disconnect between the leadership and the members. This afternoon the fringes have been ram–packed – particularly those with Brexiteers. Meanwhile, the hall and its ministers has at points seemed rather empty. So, perhaps it makes sense then that rumoured leadership hopeful Jeremy Hunt used
What’s the antidote to Corbyn? Thatcher, according to Priti Patel. Britain’s former PM might be public enemy number one in the eyes of the Corbynistas, but it’s vital the Tories return to Thatcher’s ideas and her way of doing things. That, at least, is the verdict of Patel, the Brexit-backing former international development secretary. Patel
Oh dear. Ahead of Tory conference there had been talk among the European Research Group of plans to ’empty-hall’ Theresa May’s leader’s speech in protest of her Brexit plan. That plot has since been abandoned. But it turns out that some Cabinet ministers are still being ’empty-halled’ all on their own accord. This afternoon party
The Conservative conference has only just begun and already blue-on-blue warfare has broken out on the main stage. Although No. 10 had been nervous that Boris Johnson’s popularity at the annual event could usurp Theresa May’s, there is little sign of Johnson-mania in the conference hall. Lord (Digby) Jones – the ex-CBI chief and Brexiteer
It’s now six months since the Windrush debacle that ended Amber Rudd’s career – but does Theresa May recognise what went wrong? Andrew Marr sought to find out this morning, saying that a general apology was not enough: ‘There are apologies which say: “I’m sorry something bad happened”, and then there are apologies which say:
The big Sunday of conference TV interview is a chance for a leader to set the tone for their party’s gathering. But Theresa May failed to seize that opportunity this morning. She was, oddly, bereft of a positive message on either Brexit or domestic policy and the interview ended up being dominated by Tory splits
What does Theresa May want to achieve from this week’s conference? No-one seems sure. There are some in No 10 who would be content so long as she survives it without a coughing fit. Others have higher hopes – that she could reset the dial and reinvigorate her flagging premiership. What seems most likely, however,
The seed of the latest assignment — to provide a tale of travel misery on behalf of a well-known voyager from the fields of fact or fiction — was a column in the Observer called My Crap Holiday, which invited readers to share their travel horrors: inclement weather, devil children, oven-like bedrooms, Arctic bedrooms, wardrobe-like
The Conservatives return to Birmingham and Theresa May has defied some predictions by even making it this far. But can she keep the show on the road? Or will the Tory party conference be as big a disaster as last year’s gathering? Here are the highlights to keep an eye out for today: Conference listings:
Conservative conference weekend is here, prompting the usual effort by Labour to mis-cast the Tories as a party of rich toffs. However, this seems to have backfired for Angela Rayner. This morning she posted a widely shared image of the Conference website, which is selling last-minute tickets at inflated prices: Tory party conference for the
The main problem with lefties is that they can’t decide in their own minds what exactly they want. And sometimes want two paradoxical things simultaneously. So, among the Twitter reactions from Corbynistas to my appearance on Question Time last Thursday was this: ‘I hope he dies a long and painful death TONIGHT.’ I mean come
There had been a general consensus among Conservative MPs that this year’s Tory conference would be an improvement on the last so long as Theresa May could get through her speech without coughing. However, it seems the forces that be may have other ideas. With the conference due to kick off tomorrow in Birmingham, CCHQ
Brexit dominates the headlines going into Tory conference. But as I say in The Sun this morning, the absence of a domestic agenda is an even bigger problem for them than their divisions over Brexit. Labour have over the last few days set out their vision for Britain. Unsurprisingly, I don’t agree with it and
I’m heartedly sick of hearing how feckless and selfish the young are. Maybe I move in enchanted circles, but I keep on meeting young people making a go of it, and frankly if they are the future, we should have no fear of Brexit. At Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Festival, there were (among the Glastonbury
Remember how the Democrats tried to block Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court by dredging up accusations of sexual assault? You don’t, because they didn’t. The Democrats played dirty politics against Gorsuch, but there were no allegations of sexual assault about Gorsuch, because there was no smoke from which to fan a fire. So
What is the difference between the SS and Isis? A big one, it seems, in the eyes of Canada, where this week a federal court refused to review a decision to strip the Canadian citizenship of Helmut Oberlander, a Ukrainian immigrant with alleged ties to a Nazi killing squad in World War II. According to
As we head into Conservative Party Conference, Theresa May has never looked more alone. We talk to Iain Duncan Smith and James Forsyth about a Prime Minister abandoned. And while chaos reigns in the Conservative Party, Labour is gearing up, led by a pragmatic but radical Shadow Chancellor. Just who is John McDonnell? And last,
As you’d expect on the eve of Tory conference, everyone in the party is offering plenty of advice for Theresa May. Some are tugging the Prime Minister leftwards, while others are fretting that the Conservatives risk abandoning their values. There’s Jacob Rees-Mogg arguing that the Tories need to support the institution of the family, Sam
At party conference last week, several Labour front benchers poured scorn on ‘fat cat bosses’ with excessive earnings. Jeremy Corbyn himself promised to end the country’s culture of ‘greed is good.’ It appears, though, that a bit of greed isn’t so bad when it comes to lining your own friends’ coffers. The Evening Standard reports
The 2015 Conservative Party conference in Manchester stood out for its ugly scenes – with protesters hurling eggs at attendees. Jeremy Corbyn inflamed tensions further by attending a rally on the eve of that conference which called on Tories to be ‘thrown out of Manchester’. Is a similar series of events on the cards this weekend
The least convincing thing said by Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell at the Labour party conference in Liverpool was ‘I believe we’ll be elected for a second term.’ In all his other remarks about plans for compulsory employee share schemes, workers on boards, higher corporate taxes, extended employment rights, attacks on the rich and below-market
It’s no secret that quite a few Tory MPs think Boris Johnson is on manoeuvres and must be stopped. But none are as vocal as his former deputy in the Foreign Office, Alan Duncan. He recently tweeted that ‘I’m sorry, but this is the political end of Boris Johnson. If it isn’t now, I will
Corbynista cheerleader Ian Lavery is used to dishing it out, but on the evidence of last night’s Question Time he is not quite so good at knowing what to do when it comes back at him. The Labour MP got a taste of his own medicine after Rod Liddle took him to task over the
When Dawn Butler made eye-catching comments last week at Labour conference praising the Militant-led, hard-left Liverpool council of the 1980s, it was presumed she was either talking off script, or courting the Momentum vote for a potential deputy leadership bid. But could she have been indicating a change of direction for the Labour party instead?
There comes a point in the tsunami of abuse allegations about the Catholic clergy when you have to say, stop it right there. The latest cleric to have been accused of abuse is in fact dead: my friend, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, who died last year. A conservative Italian blogger – and by conservative I mean
What was Vladimir Putin playing at? Earlier this month, he sent Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov on to state television to say they were not spies at all, just tourists who had travelled 3,000 miles to see Salisbury Cathedral while staying in the wrong city. Exposing them in this way would mean it would only
This article was originally published on Spectator USA. Did British prime minister Theresa May take a shot at Donald Trump in yesterday afternoon’s address to the UN General Assembly? Or was Trump a proxy target for a blond populist closer to home, Boris Johnson? On Tuesday, Trump rejected the ‘ideology of globalism’ and defended the
Looking around at my immediate group of female friends I notice a marked difference between the seven or so of us who are married with kids, and the three who have left their husbands and are going it alone. Guess which group appears to be more content? Yes, it’s the divorcees. I have been a