Uk politics

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

May announces NHS funding boost

Who is the most powerful person in government at the moment? In normal times, the automatic answer would be the Prime Minister, but things are rather more complicated at the moment. Theresa May’s stock has risen in recent weeks, thanks to her confident handling of the Salisbury attack – and partly because Labour is in a terrible mess. But today we learned a little bit more about quite how influential one of her ministers has become. The Prime Minister spent this afternoon giving evidence to the Commons Liaison Committee, the powerful group of select committee chairs who grill the Prime Minister periodically. She was in her usual defensive mode of

Steerpike Steerpike

Theresa May takes a swipe at herself

Over the past few weeks, Mr S has detected the faint whiff of May-mania on the horizon. The Prime Minister’s handling of the poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil has seen her popularity rise again. What’s more, she learnt a new trick – recently fist-bumping a Salisbury resident. Now she can add cracking jokes to that list. At her appearance before the Liaison Committee this afternoon, May was asked about the importance of the agriculture industry in Wales to the community. Here she pointed out that she had seen this herself on her many walking trips in Wales – only not everyone would appreciate this: ‘I’m

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Bercow blasts Boris’s ‘sexism’ over Lady Nugee jibe

John Bercow has been keeping a somewhat low profile of late, since bullying allegations were levelled against him. But now the Speaker has chucked himself firmly back into the spotlight with a spot of virtue-signalling in the Commons – by calling Boris Johnson ‘sexist’. Bercow took Boris to task after he referred to the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, as Lady Nugee (the name she is entitled to as the wife of the High Court judge Sir Christopher Nugee) telling him: ‘The shadow foreign secretary has a name and it is not ‘Lady something’, we know what her name is. It is inappropriate and frankly sexist to speak in those terms.

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Fear and loathing grips the gender debate

Since I started writing about issues of sex and gender here a few weeks ago, I have made all sorts of new acquaintances; a lot of people are interested in this topic, it seems. Many of the people I’ve been in touch with are women who worry about the direction of politics, policy and even popular culture when it comes to gender and sex. And many of them are frightened. Frightened of what happens if the law is changed to let people born male become legally female simply on the strength of their own declaration. Frightened that the word “woman” will become meaningless and allow the legal rights and protections

Monday

Steerpike

Watch: Labour MP turns on Corbyn in the Chamber over Russia

Oh dear. It’s no great secret that the Parliamentary Labour Party has struggled to get to grips with Jeremy Corbyn’s response to Russia over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil. However, up until now they had refrained from criticising him directly in the Chamber. Today John Woodcock decided to go there following Theresa May’s statement on Russia. After Jeremy Corbyn claimed in his response that he had always been an outspoken critic of Russian aggression, the Labour MP decided he ‘could not let that remark go by’: ‘I’m sat here reading his article in the Morning Star after Russia annexed part of Ukraine where the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

May praises ‘solidarity’ from EU and US on Russia, and backs her aide in outing row

Theresa May covered a fair bit of ground in her statement to the Commons on last week’s European Council meeting. She talked about how EU leaders were supporting Britain in the stand-off with Russia following the Salisbury attack, on the agreement that leaders reached on the next stage of Brexit negotiations, steel tariffs, and on allegations that her own political secretary Stephen Parkinson outed his former partner as gay. On Russia, the Prime Minister told the House that ‘I have found great solidarity from our friends and partners in the EU, North America, Nato and beyond over the past three weeks as we have confronted the aftermath of the Salisbury

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Labour supporters clash at rally against anti-Semitism

Although Jeremy Corbyn today wrote to the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council to say ‘sorry’ for the ‘pain which has been caused’ by his party’s handling of cases of anti-Semitism, this acknowledgement appears not to extend to all of his supporters. This evening around 500 members of the Jewish community gathered in Parliament Square to raise concerns over the Labour leadership’s attitude towards the Jewish community – after Corbyn apparently supportive message to the creator of an allegedly anti-Semitic mural in 2012. Only not everyone was happy to let this group have their say alone. The pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour group organised a separate rally to counter the

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem is nothing new

We may be witnessing a #MeToo moment in Labour anti-Semitism. Britain’s Jews, so damn accommodating and willing to extend the benefit of the doubt, have finally snapped and said ‘enough is enough’. At 5.30pm tonight they will gather in Westminster to protest in the most British way imaginable by handing the Labour Party a strongly-worded letter. The letter calls Jeremy Corbyn a ‘figurehead for an anti-Semitic political culture’ and says he has repeatedly ‘sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews’. If anything, it goes a little easy on him.  The spark was Corbyn’s defence of, and dissembling over, an anti-Semitic mural in east London but the frustrations have been building up

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

There isn’t as much consensus on NHS funding as you might think

Is there really a cross-party consensus on tax rises for the health and social care system? A group of MPs from across Parliament has written to Theresa May calling for a year-long parliamentary commission on funding for all branches of the health system. Meanwhile Jeremy Hunt is calling for a ten-year settlement for the NHS, attacking a ‘feast or famine’ approach to funding it. ‘There’s no doubt that NHS staff right now are working unbelievably hard and they need to have some hope for the future, but their real concern is this rather crazy way that we have been funding the NHS over the last 20 years,’ he told ITV’s

Katy Balls Katy Balls

After the Salisbury attack, who is isolated now?

No 10 can breathe a sigh of relief this afternoon. Not only has Theresa May’s response to the attempted murder of a former Russian double agent on British soil won her plaudits back home, it has also been met by a rigorous international response. With Germany, France, Ukraine and Canada already expelling envoys, today America joined the fold. Donald Trump has ordered 60 Russian diplomats to leave the country in response to Russia’s alleged use of a nerve agent in Salisbury. A White House spokesperson said: ‘The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia’s use of a military-grade

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Corbyn’s blindness to anti-Semitism is typical on the left

I don’t believe Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite. I think most Corbynistas aren’t anti-Semitic. But here’s one thing I can say with utter certainty: if any other politician in the land had commented favourably on an explicitly racist mural, on a vile, caricatured depiction of a certain section of society as evil and dangerous, he would be finished. He would be hounded out of public life. He would be told in no uncertain terms that there is no place for apologists for racial hatred in the political sphere. And you know who would tell him this? Who would do this to him? Who would be at the forefront of demanding

Steerpike Steerpike

Corbyn supporter: ‘Jeremy needs to apologise less’

Jeremy Corbyn is still refusing to apologise for his reaction to the removal of an anti-Semitic mural. But according to one of his followers, Corbyn’s big mistake isn’t not apologising – it’s apologising too much. Corbyn supporter Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, from Jewish Voice for Labour, appeared on the World at One this afternoon to defend the Labour leader who is under mounting pressure over the anti-Semitism scandal. According to her: ‘If I have one criticism of Jeremy, it is that he is far too nice, far too apologetic, far too reluctant to beard his enemies in their den…Jeremy needs to apologise less’ Mr S isn’t so sure…

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The EU’s petulance is turning its Galileo satellite into a white elephant

Moves by the EU to try to stop British armed forces from accessing the Galileo satellite system, and to prevent British companies from bidding for work on it, are, as one senior UK official told the FT, ‘outrageous’. Britain has contributed 12 per cent of the costs. The EU’s argument that to allow British involvement would be a security risk are perverse, given that China, Israel, Ukraine and Morocco are participating in the project. Does anyone really think that relations between post-Brexit Britain and EU will sink so low that European governments will consider us more of a security risk than China? Galileo isn’t principally a military system at all. It is

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Jewish community says ‘enough is enough’ on Labour’s anti-semitism

Jeremy Corbyn this evening said he was ‘sincerely sorry’ for the pain caused by ‘pockets of anti-semitism’ in his party, and is arranging to meet representatives of the Jewish community this week. Tonight the Labour leader has had something of a preview of how that meeting might go, with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council publishing a furious letter in which they accuse him of ignoring the ‘mainstream majority of British Jews’. The letter, entitled ‘enough is enough’, says Corbyn personifies the form of politics that repeatedly fails to take antisemitism seriously, and says that ‘again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with antisemites

Steerpike Steerpike

Vote Leave row: Isabel Oakeshott vs Carole Cadwalladr

Here we go. After much anticipation over the weekend, the Observer‘s Vote Leave investigation is finally public. The paper alleges that the Brexit campaign group may have flouted referendum spending rules and then attempted to destroy evidence. While those involved with Vote Leave vehemently deny the claims, Carole Cadwalladr – the journalist behind the ongoing investigation around Trump, Brexit, Russia and Cambridge Analytica – appeared on the Andrew Marr show to discuss her claims. However, her fellow paper reviewer Isabel Oakeshott appeared to put Cadwalladr on the back-foot when she asked whether she would now commence a similarly thorough investigation into Remain campaign spending: IO: I have one question for

Saturday

Nick Cohen

Corbyn has won the battle for the left

Joseph Goebbels said fascists should not worry about their propaganda being too rough or too mean. ‘It ought not be decent nor ought it be gentle or soft or humble; it ought to lead to success.’ No one could accuse the anti-Semitic propaganda in London’s East End of being ‘soft’. The Los Angeles graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman, who calls himself ‘Mear One’ to sound more street, painted a mural on the side of a house near Brick Lane showing bankers sitting round a monopoly board resting on the backs of suffering humanity. The bank that crashed the British economy almost a decade ago was the Royal Bank of Scotland. But

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why no deal preparations must continue

Theresa May has had by far her most successful EU Council this week. The terms of the transition deal were signed off and, in a genuine diplomatic achievement, she got the EU to collectively recognise that no one other than Russia could have been responsible for the Salisbury attack. But as I say in The Sun today, that doesn’t mean the government should ease off on ‘no deal’ planning. There is a sense in Whitehall that with the negotiations progressing well, there’s not much point in rocking the boat by preparing for a no deal scenario or spending money on things that might not ultimately be needed. One of those

Friday

Steerpike

Listen: Diane Abbott’s Brexit hypocrisy

This evening Owen Smith has been unceremoniously sacked by Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour front bench after he called for another EU referendum. However, given that the Labour frontbench aren’t exactly known for sharing a coherent Brexit position, some are questioning how fair the move is. After all, when it coms to calling for second referendums, Diane Abbott actually beat Smith to it. Back in November, the Labour frontbencher was reported, by the Guardian, to have written to two constituents pledging she would argue in favour of a referendum on the final Brexit deal – a policy that had been ruled out by the party: ‘I will argue for the right

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is Owen Smith’s sacking an attempt to distract from Labour’s anti-Semitism row?

In the past few minutes, Owen Smith has been sacked from Labour’s Shadow Cabinet after he wrote an article calling for a second referendum and continuing single market membership. The party this evening released a statement from Jeremy Corbyn which did not thank Smith for his work but instead praised the record of his successor as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Tony Lloyd: ‘Tony is a highly experienced former Government Minister who is committed to ensuring that peace in Northern Ireland is maintained and helping to steer the devolution deal back on track.’ This is an interesting time of the day to put out a statement about a sacking. It’s also

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Cambridge Analytica row moves to Brexit

The Cambridge Analytica row looks set to move from the US presidential election to the EU referendum. After Christopher Wylie blew the whistle in the Observer and claimed that Cambridge Analytica used questionable Facebook data to win the US election, the paper looks set to re-focus its investigation on the Brexit campaign. In an 8,000 word blog post, Dom Cummings – the Vote Leave strategist – says that the Observer and Channel 4 investigation has moved onto Brexit. Cummings says that the author behind the investigation – Carole Cadwalladr – has sent Vote Leave figures a list of questions concerning allegations from Wylie along with a number of new whistleblowers.