Theresa may

Leon Brittan’s memorial service on Tuesday packed the West London Synagogue, but there were some notable absentees. We in the congregation were informed that the government was represented by Lord Howe (the Earl Howe, not Geoffrey). He is an estimable man, but well below Cabinet level. Since Brittan had been Home Secretary, it would normally be customary for the present holder of the office, Theresa May, to attend. Was she absent because of the accusations against Brittan, among others, about ‘establishment’ cover-ups of child abuse in the 1980s? If so, it was cowardly. Absolutely nothing has been proved. Unless it is, ministers should stand up for those who have served

Unencumbered by the regressive Liberal Democrats, the new government has already managed to start taking extremism seriously.  The counter-extremism legislation which the Lib Dems managed to stall will be included in the Queen’s Speech next week. But the government already faces an early test of its policies. Muhammad Salah – a ‘star’ of Huda TV – is due to speak next month at ten venues across the UK, from Edinburgh to Crawley at a ‘Welcome Ramadan’ event. You can see the invitation from ‘Human Appeal’ here. Now Salah is a strange and disconcerting figure to ‘Welcome Ramadan’. And the Home Secretary can hardly deem his views to be conducive to the public

One of the odd decisions that the Tories made before the election was to pursue their net migration target, in spite of the fact that they cannot meet it. Today’s figures underline that, with net migration at 318,000 last year, which is the highest total for a decade. The Office for National Statistics said this represented a ‘statistically significant’ rise of more than 109,000 from 2013. Knowing that these figures were coming and wouldn’t be a particularly comfortable experience — more comfortable, though, than had they been published during the election campaign — the Conservatives are setting out their own plans to crack down on the things that annoy people

John Bercow has just been re-elected unopposed as Speaker of the House of Commons. Those who had been hoping to get rid of Bercow decided not to pursue this to a vote this week, and so he is back in the chair. In his speech, he cracked a joke at the expense of Labour, saying that he would like the words on his own tombstone to be ‘he was the backbenchers’ champion’. He then sat through a welcome speech from David Cameron, wearing a slightly wry smile. That wry smile was Bercow recalling the last hours of the last Parliament, in which the Tories tried to stitch him up by

The Tories are already putting some clear blue water between the coalition and the present majority government. Firstly, the new Business Secretary Sajid Javid has promised new tougher strike laws — ensuring that a minimum turn out of 50 per cent turnout is required for all strikes, while 40 per cent of all members will need to back a strike affecting essential public services. The TUC’s Frances O’Grady has already hit back, arguing the new rules will make ‘legal strikes close to impossible’. Secondly, Theresa May and David Cameron are promising to tackle our ‘passively tolerant society’. In the Queen’s Speech, due on May 27, the Tories will introduce a new counter extremism

As the dust settles on the outcome of the 2015 general election, one group of business executives who we can be sure are less than ecstatic at what the future may hold in store for them are the university vice-chancellors. During the last parliament, Theresa May was responsible for a raft of ministerial directives aimed at reducing the number of students coming to the UK from outside the European Economic Area. She introduced a quota system for these international students, and forced (through the withdrawal of visa sponsorship licences) the virtual closure of scores of non-taxpayer-funded educational institutions. A number of taxpayer-funded universities also had their sponsorship licences suspended (notably

David Cameron has reappointed several of the most senior members of the government. George Osborne stays as Chancellor, Theresa May remains Home Secretary, Philip Hammond Foreign Secretary and Michael Fallon Defence Secretary. Indeed, the only change is Osborne taking over William Hague’s old First Secretary of State title. This is formal recognition that Osborne will, in effect, be the deputy Prime Minister of this Tory majority government. We are told to expect the rest of the reshuffle on Monday. There’ll be particular interest in who Cameron chooses to be his chief whip, a role that takes on particular importance with this small majority. There’s also the question of what Cameron

For the longest serving Home Secretary in 50 years, Theresa May’s record in government is not without its blemishes. On this afternoon’s Daily Politics home affairs debate she made a clear recognition of the government’s failure to meet the Conservative manifesto promise to reduce immigration to the ‘tens of thousands’. May said: ‘We’ve accepted that we have failed to meet that particular target… [But] if you say to me, Andrew, that there’s nothing we have done on immigration, then you’re wrong. What we have done is not met that particular target. ‘Net migration from outside the EU is lower than it was in 2010, but one of the reasons is

Security is the watchword of this Tory election campaign. But today the Tories put just as much of an emphasis on national security as economic security. The message was, to put it crudely: it is a dangerous world out there with threats at home and abroad, so who do you want on that wall—Cameron or Miliband? This new emphasis began with Theresa May introducing David Cameron. She talked about the threat from Islamist extremism and how the Tories would combat it. Cameron continued this theme in his speech, declaring in some of the punchiest language of the campaign from him that: ‘We also need to assert the British values of democracy,

As Fraser Nelson says on this morning’s Spectator podcast, David Cameron will likely be regretting yesterday’s announcement for the rest of his premiership. He’s not a ripe watermelon; highlighting that he has a best before date won’t encourage anyone to eat him now, before he grows mould. Worse, he’s announced a shortlist of three possible successors: ‘the Theresa Mays, and the George Osbornes, and the Boris Johnsons’. We all know the troubles a similar announcement caused Tony Blair, but even if Dave managed to sleep through the Blair-Brown years (from the opposite green benches), dipping into the biography of any pre-modern English monarch should have taught him of the dangers of

A month after the Magna-Carta-mangling Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill crept onto the statue book, leaked documents seen by the Daily Telegraph over the weekend reveal Home Office proposals which are likely to have significant, if apparently unintended, consequences for free speech in this country. I haven’t seen the full strategy papers myself, and nor will you. They have been deemed too ‘sensitive’ ever to face public scrutiny, and only a two-page executive summary is due to be published. At this stage, it is worth considering the few choice quotes the Telegraph have dutifully passed on. The leaked papers make some confident claims about ‘British values’, with citizenship and even temporary visa applicants required

“There’s a lot we need to do in this party of ours. Our base is too narrow and so, occasionally, are our sympathies. You know what some people call us – the nasty party.” Theresa May, October 8th 2002. February 17th 2015, David Cameron announces plans to make 50,000 youths spend 30 hours a week on community service schemes to keep their “Youth Allowance” benefits. The Youth Allowance, by the way, is £57 a week. And today’s announcement follows suggestions that fat people should lose access to benefits unless they lose weight. Look, it’s not the goal that’s the problem here. When Cameron says there is a moral quality to

This election is going to be terribly confusing, something the latest TV debate proposals from the broadcasters highlight very nicely indeed. The debates are starting to resemble an episode of Take Me Out with the number of parties who’ll be standing behind lecterns growing – and calls for even more to join. One of the things that’s adding to the confusion is that no party appears to have the momentum, and what momentum there is has become difficult to discern in the usual ways as Parliament is emptying on a Wednesday night as MPs head off to take part in 650 by-elections. Because no one party has momentum, both main

On Wednesday the Home Secretary made a statement in the House of Commons about the terrorist attacks last week in Paris. Here is part of the Hansard transcript of the resulting debate: Mr Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con): Is the Home Secretary aware that when the Prophet Mohammed moved from Mecca to Medina all those years ago to establish the first Islamic state, he did not set up a sectarian caliphate, such as that demanded by the Paris murderers, but rather, under the charter of Medina, he created a multi-faith society, where Jews and Christians had the right to worship and were able to proclaim their faiths? Mrs May:

The Tories’ front of house team turned up today to try and stoke up a row about Labour’s spending plans. The Tory aim was twofold. First, to try and cement in voters’ minds the idea that Labour would spend too much, pushing up taxes and second to claim that Labour is in chaos when it tries to distance itself from previous spending commitments. The latter is why the Tories are so relaxed about people pointing out that various commitments in their own dossier do not appear in Labour’s official policy prospectus, the one issued after the party’s National Policy Forum. Osborne, Hague, May, Morgan and Javid all came carrying the same

There’s little sign of a Christmas truce in the Conservative party this morning. Instead, the row between Theresa May’s camp followers and the rest of the Conservative hierarchy is still being played out in the newspapers. This might be a particularly public episode of it but this row has been going on in private for quite some time. The cause is really quite simple, Number 10, other Cabinet Ministers and CCHQ believe that May’s followers regularly put promoting her future leadership ambitions above the interests of the party. Harry Cole’s recent profile of May for Spectator Life which claimed that she had given up on Cameron and no longer rated

The increasingly bloody feud between Theresa May’s political operation and David Cameron’s has claimed another victim. Nick Timothy, May’s long-serving special adviser, has been spectacularly kicked off the candidates’ list. The precise reason for Timothy’s ejection from the list is in dispute – Paul Goodman has Timothy’s version of events on Conservative Home. But Timothy is not the first of May’s special advisers to run into trouble, Fiona Cunningham was forced to resign by Number 10 after— in a flagrant breach of the rules —Cabinet correspondence was published on the Home Office’s website. Timothy, though, is not leaving the candidates list without a fight. He has written an explosive letter