Theresa may

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Number 10 shows an odd lack of control at EU summit

Theresa May looking embarrassed and awkward as European leaders appear to make a point of ignoring her at last night’s EU summit is such a good symbol of Britain’s place in the world that Number 10 is going to struggle to shake it. The footage, of course, was rather selective, with other clips showing the Prime Minister deep in conversation with European colleagues. But the picture plays in to anxieties about Britain’s standing after Brexit, and also anxieties about whether May will really be able to sweet talk EU leaders into giving her the deal that she wants. The Prime Minister told leaders that she wanted an early deal on

Thursday

Steerpike

Theresa May left in the cold at EU summit

Theresa May is already not invited to the European Council summit dinner, and now it seems she’s not that welcome at the day activities either. Yes, the Prime Minister appears to have been given the cold shoulder this morning at the event — which sees the 28 leaders gather in Brussels to talk migrants, Turkey, Russia and Donald Trump. May was left looking as if she had no mates as she was blanked on the floor: https://twitter.com/EmilyPurser/status/809369281142157313 Let’s hope tonight’s solo dinner — when the 27 remaining leaders depart to talk Brexit without May — is more cheering than a ready meal for one.

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Confident Corbyn tries to cook up a Christmas crisis

Corbyn’s improvement continues. He thumped away at a single issue today – social care – in a determined attempt to corner Teresa May and stick the word ‘crisis’ on her jacket, like a brooch. A crisis for the elderly, he said. A crisis for families. A crisis for the NHS. ‘A crisis made in Downing Street.’ His delivery still havers and wavers a lot but the drum-machine technique, banging out identical noises in a hypnotic rhythm, was effective. She met his assault with verbal trinkets composed by back-room smart Alecs in Westminster: the future Osbornes and Camerons. Rejecting the word ‘crisis’ she called it ‘short-term pressure’. She also mentioned ‘sustainability’,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: Festive silliness before Corbyn gives his best performance yet

PMQs began with the Labour MP Peter Dowd asking Theresa May if she didn’t wish that she had told Boris Johnson to FO rather than sending him to the FO. To which, May replied that he was a fine Foreign Secretary — an FFS. At this point, it seemed that the session, the last PMQs before Christmas, might descend into festive silliness. But that didn’t happen. Jeremy Corbyn urged people to buy the Jo Cox charity single, a call May echoed, before moving onto social care. Over the next five questions, Corbyn turned in his best PMQs performance — admittedly not a particularly high a bar to clear. Corbyn kept

Steerpike Steerpike

Tom Watson makes a play for the JAMs at Christmas drinks

In the old days, Tom Watson used to attend Jeremy Corbyn’s Christmas drinks for hacks — and even offer a speech of his own. However, in a sign that relations between the Labour leader and his deputy may not be so tickety-boo, the pair held separate bashes this year. As Watson thanked hacks for their work this year — praising the Times‘s trouser-gate headlines and heralding ever closer relations with the Mail on Sunday — he couldn’t resist taking a few swipes at his boss in the speech: ‘I do know that many of you were at Jeremy’s event last night and I hear that it was genuinely a sumptuous

Tuesday

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Southern strikes, pig-headed militants and what Brexit means for Ireland

Social care was notable by its absence from the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. But the care system is now firmly back on the agenda following reports yesterday that Theresa May was set to allow councils to raise bills to plug the social care funding gap. The Daily Mail agrees that this is an issue that needs to be fixed urgently, saying that the UK is in ’severe danger of failing to meet’ the moral test of how well a society looks after the elderly. And for all the problems we’re seeing today, ‘things are about to get much worse’, the paper warns, with the introduction of the living wage, for one,

Monday

Will

Britain must lead the global fight against modern slavery

It has been 200 years since Britain abolished the slave trade and sent the Royal Navy out to enforce the ban across the world. Times have changed. Yet slavery at home and abroad is booming like nothing else. Theresa May knows this. It’s no wonder that alongside the chaos of Brexit negotiations she has made it her mission to fight what she calls ‘the great human rights issue of our time’. As the longest-serving home secretary for decades, she understands the nature of this barbaric business. Last week, the Prime Minister made her latest move to combat modern slavery. She convinced six Gulf countries to sign up to the WeProtect Global Alliance – a British-led

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What the trouser row really tells us about Theresa May

It would be extraordinary if a row about a pair of trousers had continued into a second week – if the row were just about a pair of trousers. As I wrote last week (when I thought the fight over Nicky Morgan’s comments about Theresa May owning a pair of £995 leather trousers was starting to fade), it was a curious intervention for a female politician to make about one of her sisters, especially when Morgan is an MP on a salary three times the national average anyway. But what this row is really about, as well as an ill-judged act of personal revenge from Morgan for being dispatched from

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Theresa May’s wrong trousers and why Boris is ‘bang on the money’

It would be ‘wrong’ to dwell on the subject of Theresa May’s £1,000 leather trousers, says the Times in its editorial this morning. But equally it’s a mistake to pretend those trousers don’t exist when Tory backbenchers think the cost of them brings the PM’s judgement into question, the paper argues. The Times criticises Theresa May’s adviser, Fiona Hill, for the manner in which she hit out at the PM’s trouser critic, Nicky Morgan. The Mail on Sunday revealed yesterday that Hill sent a text to Morgan’s colleague, Alistair Burt, saying: ‘Don’t bring that woman to Downing Street again’, after the former education secretary criticised May’s sartorial choice. So what

Steerpike Steerpike

Handbags at dawn in Downing Street

It’s handbags at dawn over in Downing Street. Last week, Nicky Morgan used an interview with the Times to criticise Theresa May for wearing trousers costing nearly £1,000 while claiming to be in touch with the ‘JAMs’. The former education secretary said that she herself had never spent that much on anything ‘apart from my wedding dress’. Now Morgan has found herself the persona non grata — once again — with No. 10. The former education secretary has been banned from entering 10 Downing Street, with May’s Chief of Staff Fiona Hill breaking the news in a text referring to Morgan as ‘that woman’. However, it looks as though there is a second reason Morgan is on

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Here’s how Theresa May can grant assurances to all Britain’s EU nationals

In the chaos after the Brexit vote, no one really noticed when Theresa May adopted an odd position on EU nationals*. Throughout the campaign, everyone – from Ukip to the Lib Dems, Boris Johnson to Andy Burnham – had been clear that the Brexit debate was not about deporting anyone. Those EU nationals who were in Britain should stay here. In a fractious debate, it was a note of rare consensus: no one’s status was in question. But days after the referendum, the then Home Secretary sat down on Robert Peston’s sofa and suggested that EU nationals might not be safe after all, and that she might use them as bargaining chips in her

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Theresa May: ‘I get so frustrated with Whitehall’

The Prime Minister’s office is a small, unimpressive room in 10 Downing Street with miserable views and unexceptional furniture. Since moving in, Theresa May has spruced it up — but only a little. There is now a large glass meeting table; her predecessor preferred to chat on the sofas. She has also delved into the government art collection to retrieve two pictures of Oxford, where she honed her interest in politics and met Philip, her husband. She has also picked a painting of an English country church (she is of course a vicar’s daughter), and that’s about it. It’s a place for work and — very occasionally — interviews. We

Saturday

The Spectator

Did the ‘rise of populism’ really cost David Cameron his job?

When The Spectator was founded 188 years ago, it became part of what would now be described as a populist insurgency. An out-of-touch Westminster elite, we said, was speaking a different language to the rest of London, let alone the rest of the country. Too many ‘of the bons mots vented in the House of Commons appear stale and flat by the time they have travelled as far as Wellington Street’. This would be remedied, we argued, by extending the franchise and granting the vote to the emerging middle class. Our Tory critics said any step towards democracy — a word which then caused a shudder — would start a

Friday

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: The trouble with Boris, and McDonald’s Brexit boon

Boris Johnson was slapped down by Theresa May yesterday for his comments about Saudi Arabia. And the Foreign Secretary earns himself a similar rebuke in the Guardian this morning. The paper describes his remarks as ‘plain speaking without a purpose’ and says that ‘he frequently shoots from the hip or goes off half-cocked’. It warns that while speaking out of turn as a columnist could be ‘embarrassing’, now the ‘potential consequences are far graver’. But if so, why is Theresa May still tolerating Boris? In the eyes of the Guardian’s editorial, it’s because the PM thinks that ‘a cannon that misfires so often is less dangerous in front of her

Thursday

The Spectator

Power and the people

When The Spectator was founded 188 years ago, it became part of what would now be described as a populist insurgency. An out-of-touch Westminster elite, we said, was speaking a different language to the rest of London, let alone the rest of the country. Too many ‘of the bons mots vented in the House of Commons appear stale and flat by the time they have travelled as far as Wellington Street’. This would be remedied, we argued, by extending the franchise and granting the vote to the emerging middle class. Our Tory critics said any step towards democracy — a word which then caused a shudder — would start a

Matthew Parris & Matt Ridley

Unforgiven

Now that almost six months have passed since the EU referendum, might it be time for old enemies to find common ground? Matthew Parris and Matt Ridley, two of the most eloquent voices on either side of the campaign, meet in the offices of The Spectator to find out.   MATTHEW PARRIS: Catastrophe has not engulfed us yet, it’s true. But I feel worse since the result, rather than better. I thought that, as in all hard-fought campaigns, you get terribly wound up and depressed when you lose. Then you pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again. But my animosities — not just towards the Brexit

Andrew Marr

Notebook – 8 December 2016

One remark from the Christmas party season knocks insistently around my head. It came from Nigel Farage on a staircase in the Ritz. For those who didn’t enjoy 2016, a year of political revolution, he gleefully promised: ‘2017 will be a hell of a sight worse.’ My, my. What did he mean? Had he taken one Ferrero Rocher too many? Or does Farage, like an increasing number of MPs, expect a general election next year, including further dramatic upsets? The biggest reason for pooh-poohing a 2017 election isn’t the Fixed-term Parliaments Act but Prime Minister’s character. Theresa May is extremely cautious and she doesn’t want to test the electorate just

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Boris Johnson is right about Saudi Arabia

In what sense does anyone actually disagree with what Boris Johnson said about Saudi Arabia and Iran? Does anyone actually think that his observation that they are both engaged in ‘puppeteering’ in Syria and Yemen is not only true, but understates the seriousness of the problem? Does anyone believe the Foreign Office when it says that Mr Johnson’s remarks do not reflect the position of the Government? Now I know the argument, viz, that Saudi Arabia is an important and very sensitive ally and the way to deal with its sensitivities is to make criticism in private, which is what, we are invited to believe, Theresa May did when she

Steerpike Steerpike

Theresa May makes Christmas look like child’s play

Although David Cameron tended to put a photo of himself and his wife Samantha on the front of his Christmas cards during his tenure as prime minister, Theresa May takes a different approach. Today the Prime Minister has released her official Christmas cards for 2016. Following her annual tradition as Maidenhead MP, May has chosen cards designed by children in her constituency: However, Mr S is concerned that one of the cards could only add fuel to the fire in the ongoing turf war between Larry the No. 10 cat and Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat. Given that Larry is a tabby cat, it looks as though Palmerston is the feline to make

Steerpike Steerpike

Theresa May vs Whitehall – round II

Theresa May, you may have read, is fed up with obsequious civil-servants and their ticky-box ways. ‘From the officials’ point of view, what they owe to the minister, and what the minister expects, is the best possible advice,’ she tells Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth in The Spectator Christmas issue. ‘Don’t try to tell me what you think I want to hear,’ she added. ‘I want your advice, I want the options. Then politicians make the decisions.’ Sound stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. The trouble is, civil servants who’ve dealt with May suggest the Prime Minister doesn’t practise what she’s preaching. ‘Theresa May is more the type who says “Who was that