Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

Katy Balls

Johnny Mercer is just saying what a lot of Tory MPs are thinking

Theresa May’s Hell Week 2.0 has aptly ended with a Conservative backbencher branding the current operation a ‘sh-t-show’. In an interview with The House magazine, Johnny Mercer has let rip – complaining that were he not a Conservative MP he wouldn’t vote Conservative. Mercer says the party’s values have changed since the Cameron days and

Steerpike

Conservative MP: I wouldn’t vote for the Conservatives

Oh dear. It’s not going great for Theresa May right now what with Brexiteers calling on her removal and Remainers also tiring of her dithering. But despite the rise in blue-on-blue hostilities, an interview with Johnny Mercer still manages to surprise. The Conservative backbencher – who has been branded a rising star – has used

In our ageing society, can we afford retirement?

Recently, Fraser Nelson, Editor of the Spectator, hosted a roundtable lunch in the boardroom at 22 Old Queen Street, in association with Prudential. On the agenda was the question: ‘In our ageing society, can we afford retirement?’ In attendance were Fraser Nelson; Will Heaven, the Spectator’s Managing Editor; Elliott Mears, the company’s Head of Partnerships;

How politicians failed to learn from the charity sex abuse scandal

When Tamsyn Barton was summoned before MPs last month to be quizzed on her suitability to run the official aid watchdog, she was asked about priorities in the post. She insisted she planned ‘to build back public trust in the effectiveness of aid,’ admitting support for the government’s £13.4bn spending spree was waning. This rising concern

Sam Leith

Books Podcast: detective work with Sara Paretsky

In this week’s Books Podcast I’m talking to the incomparable Sara Paretsky about her latest V. I. Warshawski novel Shell Game — which pits the original feminist gumshoe against art thieves, Russian mobsters and her fink of an ex-husband. I talk to Sara about keeping Vic young (skincare doesn’t come into it), chiming with MeToo

Katy Balls

Theresa May tries to de-dramatise the transition period

With Conservative MPs across the spectrum seeing red over a mooted extension to the implementation period after the UK leaves the EU, Theresa May attempted to dial down the rhetoric in her EU Council press conference this afternoon. After a disappointing evening which saw the Prime Minister granted neither dinner nor sufficient progress by the

Steerpike

Watch: Tory MP’s Glaswegian accent troubles

We’ve all been there. Having to ask someone to repeat themselves because you couldn’t understand them is embarrassing enough. Spare a thought then for Sir Paul Beresford. In the Commons just now, the Tory MP failed to understand the Glaswegian accent of the SNP’s David Linden. Twice. Luckily for Beresford, deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle eventually stepped in

Steerpike

Is Theresa May moving out of No 10?

It’s fair to say that it’s been a tough couple of weeks for Theresa May. As the Brexit negotiations have stalled and her Chequers plan crumbles before her eyes, the PM could be forgiven for deciding that she’s had her fill of leading the country and packing up her bags and going. No 10 certainly

Robert Peston

These are dangerous days for Theresa May

I am very sorry to do this to you, but it turns out that the incendiary extension to the UK’s period as a non-voting member of the EU – the mooted extra months in “transition” – isn’t really an extension. It is an “option” on an extension, the right to have an extension. Yes you

Steerpike

Michael Caine: Why I’m still a Brexiteer

With the Brexit negotiations hitting an impasse, Theresa May is under pressure from Brussels to make yet more concessions. Meanwhile, the ‘People’s Vote’ campaign is keen to tell anyone who will listen that public opinion has changed and Remain is now the mood of the country. Only as far as Mr S can tell the vast

Brendan O’Neill

Michael Moore couldn’t be more wrong about Brexit

How unfortunate that the person who once wrote a book called Stupid White Men now sounds an awful lot like a stupid white man. Yes, it’s Michael Moore, the dishevelled American filmmaker, who wasn’t in Britain for five minutes before he was making the most basic of factual errors. ‘You can’t leave Europe!’, he told the British

Jonathan Ray

Alcohol Consumption

Broadcaster Adrian Chiles has got us all clutching our livers in alarm (if we can find them: Chiles thought his was in his back) thanks to his confessional BBC documentary Drinkers Like Me, which details his longstanding reliance on alcohol. Chiles admits candidly that he drinks anything up to 100 units of alcohol a week,

Steerpike

Westminster votes to stay in… at the Kennington Tandoori referendum

Ever since the Brexit referendum, it’s been a fact of British political life that the most important decisions, that will have the profoundest impact on society, will not be decided by politicians, but by the people. Therefore it made perfect sense when politicians questioned Westminster’s favourite curry house’s decision to update its menu, that the

Isabel Hardman

Do ministers understand how financial abuse works?

Another question to the Prime Minister today that’s worth noting came from Labour MP Danielle Rowley on Universal Credit. She was asking not about the well-known problems with the roll-out of the benefit, but about a flaw with its very design: ‘The Work and Pensions Committee heard evidence that the lack of automatic split payments

Steerpike

NYT doom-mongers strike again: ‘Stockpiling for a chaotic Brexit’

Here we go again. It’s no big secret that these days the New York Times isn’t so fond of Blighty. The American paper frequently publishes gloomy articles about what’s gone wrong in the UK – whether it’s mistaking a newspaper sketch writer’s joke about the French for Brexit bias, factually incorrect articles about London’s once ‘mutton-filled’ culinary

Lloyd Evans

John Bercow finally delivered a Speaker’s masterclass at PMQs

A strange PMQs. Usually the session is dominated by honking throats and empurpled faces. Today there were interesting facts and useful opinions. Amazing! An expertly briefed Jeremy Corbyn put Theresa May on the spot by noting that she’d omitted to say ‘Chequers’ in her conference speech or during recent performances in parliament. So is it dead? No,

James Forsyth

Corbyn pinpoints May’s Brexit weak spot

The most testing half an hour of Theresa May’s day won’t be PMQs. Instead it’ll come this evening when she addresses EU leaders on Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn did, though, go on Brexit. The Labour leader rightly identified the December joint report, which Theresa May agreed to, as her biggest area of weakness. Much of what

Katy Balls

Theresa May’s Mufasa becomes a problem for Downing Street

Has Theresa May’s Mufasa just transformed into No 10’s most troublesome minister? Geoffrey Cox – the Attorney General – shot to the public consciousness this month thanks to his star turn as the warm up act for May at Conservative party conference. The seasoned QC gave a barn-storming speech (which drew Lion King comparisons) calling

Steerpike

Roll call of shame: the Labour MPs backing Bercow

Labour MPs like to see themselves on the front line when it comes to protecting women’s rights and creating safe workplaces for everyone. In fact, the slightest sign of impropriety in the Conservative Party or society at large is usually enough for them to call for sackings and public apologies. So you would expect after

Not all transsexuals think ‘trans women are women’

When equalities minister Penny Mordaunt launched the consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act she declared that “trans women are women”. Whether anyone really believes this remains to be seen. Yet our political leaders are willing to endorse this Orwellian thinking, and when it comes to the transgender debate, objective truth plays second fiddle to political expediency.

Robert Peston

How will Theresa May solve her backstop conundrum?

I’ve been asking officials and ministers for the prime minister’s cunning plan to solve the seemingly impossible Brexit puzzle – of proving to her Brexiters that the Northern Ireland backstop plan would be temporary while avoiding any specified fixed termination date (because a backstop with a fixed termination date cannot, by definition, be a backstop;

Steerpike

Margaret Beckett puts her foot in it

It’s been a curious day in Parliament after Labour MPs en masse came to John Bercow’s defence amid a damning report into bullying in Parliament. Despite the report concluding that the Speaker is among those who should consider their position, numerous Labour MPs have said that he should stay in place. It seems that treating