Uk politics

Friday

Steerpike

John Mann’s encounter with Kim Jong-il

We’ve all been there. You’re at a work event, you don’t really know anyone so soon you end up talking to the strange fellow in the corner. At least that’s what happened to John Mann a few years back when he attended a conference and ended up having a chinwag with a North Korean dictator. Speaking on Question Time, the Labour MP revealed his encounter with Kim Jong-un’s late father – Kim Jong-il: ‘I once met his father, only in passing and he was like him – strange family, strange people. It was at a conference and no-one was talking to him and no-one was talking to me so I went

Robert Peston Robert Peston

A political showdown is on the way. Will Theresa May lose?

At 3pm yesterday afternoon, the Remainer rebels led by Dominic Grieve thought the government was honouring the PM’s putative commitment to draft an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill in the spirit of Grieve’s amendment. At 4.45, Grieve was told by an embarrassed solicitor general Robert Buckland that the deal was off. The Remainer rebels are not happy. And the scene is set for a final parliamentary showdown on the “meaningful vote” issue, in the Lords on Monday and the Commons on Tuesday or Wednesday. Here is what happened and what was at stake. It is complicated so please bear with me. The contentious amendment clause was all about the

Thursday

Katy Balls

Government plays divide and rule with Remain rebels

Oh dear. Although it was widely accepted that either the Tory Remainers or the Tory Brexiteers would be furious when the government published its compromise on the meaningful vote amendment, one had hoped that the peace might have lasted at least until the amendment was out. That wasn’t to be. Before the amendment was even out, Remain rebels were crying foul. The important thing to note about the government’s so-called compromise amendment is that it says it would be ‘a motion in neutral terms. This means that Parliament would only get a ‘meaningful’ vote along the lines of  ‘this House has considered…’. That would be unamendable – so Parliament could

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Change to visa rules shows May has learned from her recent immigration messes

The government has finally climbed down on visa restrictions for foreign doctors and nurses, scrapping the cap on numbers who can be employed using the tier 2 visa route. This was costing NHS trusts shocking amounts of money in processing applications from overseas medical professionals which were in large part turned down by the Home Office. It is striking that the government decided this week to relax these restrictions, given they are part of the tough immigration policy introduced by Theresa May. Time was when the then Home Secretary would repeatedly upbraid David Cameron for handing her a net migration target to deliver which her Cabinet colleagues were frequently trying

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Watch: Labour Brexit rebel vs Polly Toynbee

Jeremy Corbyn was given a taste of a Brexit rebellion last night when 90 of his MPs declined his suggestion of abstaining on the single market amendment and rebelled. Perhaps the most interesting aspect, however, was not who backed the amendment but the 15 Labour MPs who rebelled to vote against it. One such MP – Laura Smith – resigned as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office to vote against remaining in the EEA. Explaining her reasons, she said she would always put her constituents in Crewe & Nantwich first: It isn't acceptable to label the majority of my constituents as racist or to suggest they didn't know what they

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Donald Trump does Brexit, Part 1

‘Imagine Trump doing Brexit — what would he do?’ asked the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, at that dinner which was recorded and leaked to Buzzfeed. ‘There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think that he’d gone mad. But you might actually get somewhere.’ Well, let’s imagine. What follows, brought to you by Destiny Media, is Part I of how Prime Minister Donald J. Trump might negotiate and tweet his way through Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. June 24, 2016 5 a.m. The votes are in and Britain has elected to leave the European Union. Prime Minister Trump leaves Downing Street and calls a special

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Why Brexit will never end

I hate to take issue with a fellow Spectator writer, but Robert Peston’s revelation that a “no deal” Brexit is now off the table strikes me as a prime example of Westminster’s ability to ignore the bleeding obvious for months on end then talk cobblers in an authoritative voice when finally forced to confront reality. Robert is far from alone in his conclusion about last night’s Commons vote. To be honest, I’m just taking issue with his post because the spectacle of Spectator writers disagreeing seems to interest some people, probably because they struggle with the idea of one publication publishing multiple and contradictory viewpoints. I’m happy to oblige that

Wednesday

Steerpike

Stormzy’s Labour Live price tag

Jeremy Corbyn has promised to deliver ’21st century socialism’ to the UK if elected. Only Mr S isn’t so sure all Corbynistas are on the same page as to what this will mean in practice. With the ill-fated LabourLive festival just four days away, the blame game has already begun on who is at fault over the low ticket sales. Making matters worse, is the fact that things could have been so different had the organisers managed to get Stormzy to perform. The chart-topping Grime artist is a big Corbyn supporter; ‘My man, Jeremy! Young Jeremy, my guy. I dig what he says.’ While his omission was first blamed on scheduling issues,

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The SNP walk out was about attention, not accountability

The SNP thinks Westminster is an anachronism but boy does it love those anachronisms. The Nationalists’ London leader Ian Blackford got himself thrown out of the Commons for disrupting Prime Minister’s Questions. Blackford attempted to move — inartfully and tagged onto a question rather than as a substantive motion — that the House sit in private. The Speaker showed no little patience in explaining to Blackford that the matter should be raised at the end of PMQs. Of course, that wouldn’t be the optimal time for capturing the attention of political correspondents and TV news producers. Blackford steamed away like an angry little pressure cooker, rumbling for a vote to

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Does the tantrum-prone SNP not realise how privileged Scotland is?

Jeremy Corbyn had one of his best PMQs ever. Then it all went wrong. His witty use of Boris’s recent tape-recorded solecisms went down very well in the chamber. The evening news would surely have celebrated Mr Corbyn’s deftness at the despatch box. But he was undone by the publicity-burglar, Ian Blackford. The SNP leader in Westminster accused Mrs May of expropriating ’80 powers’ from Scotland. Mrs May pointed out that these powers were not being removed from but restored to Holyrood. Replying Mr Blackford said, a little vaguely, ‘I ask that this house now sit in private.’ Some procedural kerfuffle ensued. Mr Bercow asked him to formalise his request

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What did Theresa May promise the Tory rebels?

The confusion about what precisely the government promised those Tory MPs attracted to the Grieve amendment hasn’t yet been cleared up. Today, Number 10 is saying that Part C of the Grieve amendment, which would have allowed the Commons to effectively direct the government if there wasn’t a deal by the 15th of February, is off the table. But several of those who went to see Theresa May last night think that she indicated the government would come up with its own, different version of C. In other words, that there hadn’t been a blanket rejection of C. Now, the word is that the government’s proposed amendment, which it will

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The poor wee SNP

Of course it was a “stunt” – the Westminster village’s preferred term for any piece of nonsense that disrupts the serenity of the mother of parliaments – and of course it was planned in advance. Pete Wishart, the SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, tweeted that prime minister’s questions would be unusually interesting this week.  For a given definition of interesting, that is. The SNP’s walk-out was engineered to win the party some attention and a place at the top of this evening’s Scottish news. Job done. Mission accomplished. Well done lads. It was all very reminiscent of the 1980s when Alex Salmond, among others, was forever making an

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Kezia Dugdale comes to the SNP’s defence

When Kezia Dugdale stepped down as the leader of Scottish Labour, there were rumours that she was planning to defect to the SNP. Despite Dugdale’s denial, odds were as short as 5/1 on Dugdale – whose partner is an SNP MSP – joining the Scottish Nationalists before the next Holyrood election in 2021. So, after today’s drama at PMQs in which the SNP staged a widely-criticised mass walk out, Mr S was curious to learn Dugdale’s take on the matter. In a tweet, Dugdale comes to the SNP’s defence – suggesting that the Tories are worse when it comes to playing political games. Tories would never play political games would they…

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: John Bercow’s ‘women problem’

Although the Serjeant-at-Arms Kamal El-Hajji has dismissed bullying allegations against John Bercow as a ‘witch hunt’, the Speaker’s problems are not going away anytime soon. Claire Perry, the climate change minister, has today accused Bercow of ‘sexist and demeaning’ behaviour – accusing him of having a ‘women problem’. This video shows the incident Perry is referring to. In it, Bercow bizarrely refers to dilation. https://twitter.com/jackcevans/status/1006865294093058048 How long can Bercow hang on?

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Why Brexit will never end | 13 June 2018

I hate to take issue with a fellow Spectator writer, but Robert Peston’s revelation that a “no deal” Brexit is now off the table strikes me as a prime example of Westminster’s ability to ignore the bleeding obvious for months on end then talk cobblers in an authoritative voice when finally forced to confront reality. Robert is far from alone in his conclusion about last night’s Commons vote. To be honest, I’m just taking issue with his post because the spectacle of Spectator writers disagreeing seems to interest some people, probably because they struggle with the idea of one publication publishing multiple and contradictory viewpoints. I’m happy to oblige that

Tuesday

Katy Balls

Which set of Tory MPs will be furious with Theresa May come Monday?

The main takeaway from the confusion surrounding today’s meaningful vote amendment is that no-one knows what it means. Although the government technically successfully defeated the Lords amendment calling for a meaningful vote on the final deal, confusion reigns over who is the winner: the Remainers or the Brexiteers. The would-be Tory Remain rebels are convinced that they were assured by the Prime Minister herslef that by voting with the government they would be awarded with a concession that would give them some form of binding vote on the next steps were Parliament to reject the government’s Brexit deal. They believe that this involves the first two parts of Dominic Grieve’s

Robert Peston Robert Peston

After today’s vote, there is now no chance of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit

So MPs have (narrowly) rejected the Lords’ amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill, which would (if passed) have given parliament the power to force the PM back into negotiations with Brussels if MPs and Lords reject whatever Brexit deal she ultimately negotiates. (Phew: that was a mouthful). But the price Theresa May is paying for that victory – paying to Tory Remainer rebels led by Dominic Grieve – is that she has agreed to redraft the Bill when it returns to the Lords so as to account of Grieve’s own amendment to the bill. After some fraught and dramatic negotiations, May is now conceding:- 1) That within seven days of her agreeing a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Government avoids defeat on ‘meaningful vote’ – but is this a win?

Given this morning’s ministerial resignation, all looked set fair for an afternoon of high drama in the Commons over the EU Withdrawal Bill. In the end, though, the drama was rather quieter, with the government managing to persuade the Remainer rebels to stand down – temporarily – on the matter of a ‘meaningful vote’. Chief Whip Julian Smith spent the majority of the debate buzzing about the Chamber, consulting with ministers and backbenchers and also beckoning MPs out of the room in little groups. It is since clear that Smith was negotiating the compromise that Solicitor General Robert Buckland started offering during the debate. Initially, Buckland offered the rebels ‘structured

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Phillip Lee explains why he resigned over Brexit

Phillip Lee struck a sorrowful tone when he spoke in the Commons this afternoon, explaining why he had felt it was necessary to resign over Brexit. The Bracknell MP was congratulated for his “courage” as he spoke by his two vocally pro-Remain colleagues, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston. He also received some applause as he sat down. Lee took care as he spoke to argue that this resignation was not about a plan to destabilise the government or Theresa May, but because he could not abide by collective responsibility given his disquiet about the direction in which Brexit is heading. “I fully support Theresa May,” he insisted, but said that

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Arron Banks walks out of select committee

What is it about Brexit campaigners and select committees? First Vote Leave’s Dom Cummings declined an invitation to appear before Damian Collins’ select committee (leading MPs to back a motion demanding he does so by 20 June). Now Arron Banks – of Leave.EU – has cut his time before the committee short. Banks appeared before the same DCMS committee this morning – following allegations at the weekend over his links to the Russian ambassador – but left early after he decided that lunch was his priority: ‘Sorry, we’re late.’ Collins appeared in a state of shock that he could not convince them to stay – pleading for a few more