uk politics Archives

Thursday

15 Mar 2018

‘Seumas Milne has to speak for himself’: Labour splits in three over Russia

What is Labour’s position on the government’s response to the Salisbury attack? There seem to be at least three. If you listen to Jeremy Corbyn, it’s that there needs to be definitive evidence and that Britain needs to maintain a dialogue with Russia. If you listen to his backbenchers, it’s that Labour should wholeheartedly support Theresa May’s position, both on Russian culpability and on the government’s response. But if you listen to his spokesman, it’s that there is a ‘problematic’ history of UK intelligence on chemical weapons and that there was not yet proof that the Russian state had carried out the attack. It turns out that a large number

Tom Goodenough

The Special Relationship still trumps Putin

For a president who usually tweets first and asks questions later, Donald Trump’s initial reaction to the Salisbury attack has been curiously slow. Eleven days on from the poisoning of a former Russian agent, Trump’s Twitter account remains silent on the subject. But now that Theresa May is ramping up the rhetoric against Russia – ordering 23 Russian spies to leave Britain – the Trump administration is finally riding firmly behind May, and pointing the finger at Putin in a way it never has before. The White House issued a statement last night saying it ‘stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the United Kingdom’. While the evidence linking the

Wednesday

14 Mar 2018

Steerpike

Steve Bannon: Brexit is down to Nigel Farage

During the EU referendum, there was a fierce rivalry not just between Leave and Remain but between the two groups campaigning for Brexit. It’s safe to say there was little love lost between Vote Leave – fronted by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove – and Leave.EU which relied heavily on Nigel Farage. So, which side swung the vote? According to Steve Bannon – President Trump’s former adviser – it was all down to Farage. In an interview with Spectator USA, Bannon says that Brexit was down to two things: the website Breitbart London and… Nigel Farage. ‘Brexit would not have happened if Breitbart London had not started,’ he claims, referring

Katy Balls

Labour moderates turn up the heat in Cold War with Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn’s response on Russia continues to send ripples through the Labour party. After the Labour leader failed to say that he believed Russia to be responsible for this attempted murder, his spokesman went one further in the post-PMQs briefing. They appeared to compare the intelligence about the Salisbury attack to the reports of weapons of mass destruction ahead of the Iraq war: ‘I think obviously the government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others don’t; however, also there’s a history in relation to WMD and intelligence which is problematic to put it mildly.’ But this view is not one that is echoed across the party. As Isabel

Lloyd Evans

John Bercow was curiously quiet at PMQs

John Bercow, parliament’s anti-bullying tsar, was strangely reticent at PMQs today. The all-but-speechless Speaker limited himself to a single intervention. ‘Order! Lots of questions to get through. And they must be heard.’ That was it. Twelve brisk words. Usually he spends several minutes bobbing up and down and screeching at MPs about the importance of behaving decorously in the chamber, and ‘conducting themselves in a statesmanlike manner’ – one of his favourite phrases. Allegations of misconduct seem to have curbed his interfering verbosity. What a relief. With no interruptions from the umpire, the session moved fast for once. The Russian crisis has made the PM look imposingly Churchillian in the last

Isabel Hardman

How can Labour moderates campaign for Corbyn after this?

Jeremy Corbyn was isolated not just by the rest of the House of Commons but also by his own party this afternoon. The Labour leader was the only MP who refused to condemn the culpability of Russia and call for a robust response. Even his normal allies didn’t manage to support his line: Chris Williamson, who had come into the Chamber with a copy of the Morning Star, bobbed to get the Speaker’s attention for a good while but ended up asking about police cuts. Those from other parties laid into the Labour leader, with the DUP’s Sammy Wilson accusing him of ‘appeasement’ and Iain Duncan Smith repeating his assertion

James Forsyth

Corbyn’s Russia response could reignite Labour’s civil war

Theresa May has just told the House of Commons that there is ‘no alternative conclusion’ other than that Russia was responsible for the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal. She said that Moscow’s response to the UK’s request for an explanation of what had happened in Salisbury had demonstrated ‘complete disdain’. In response to the incident, the government will expel 23 Russian diplomats who it believes to be spies. The UK will also break off all high-level contact with Russia – so there’ll be no British dignitaries at the World Cup this summer – and pass its own Magnitsky act. This UK response is not small. But it is clearly designed

The Spectator

Theresa May’s Russia response, full text

First, on behalf of the whole House, let me pay tribute once again to the bravery and professionalism of all the emergency services, doctors, nurses and investigation teams who have led the response to this appalling incident. And also to the fortitude of the people of Salisbury. Let me reassure them that – as Public Health England have made clear – the ongoing risk to public health is low. And the Government will continue to do everything possible to support this historic city to recover fully. Mr Speaker, on Monday I set out that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Novichok: a military grade nerve agent developed by

Katy Balls

What a ‘general debate’ on European affairs reveals about the government

After PMQs today, Theresa May will give a statement on Russia – and the government’s proposed response to the attempted murder of a former Russian double agent on British soil. Then there will be a ten minute rule motion on ‘supervised drug consumption facilities’ and after that a ‘general debate’ will commence on European Affairs. This will run on through the afternoon until 7pm – and should any MPs not have the chance to offer their two cents worth, they need not fear as there is a second day of general debate planned. Given that it’s now 380 days until Britain leaves the EU, you’d be forgiven for thinking there

Tuesday

13 Mar 2018

Isabel Hardman

Trump to May: I’m with you ‘all the way’ on Russia

Theresa May has been continuing to call Britain’s allies today to discuss the poisoning of Sergei Skripal. She is expected to give a statement to the Commons tomorrow about Russia’s response to the allegation that the state was responsible for the attack, and has been seeking assurances that countries such as France, Germany and the United States are on her side. This evening, she spoke to Donald Trump, who told her that ‘the US was with the UK all the way, agreeing that the Russian Government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used’, according to the Downing Street read-out. You can almost hear

Ross Clark

Don’t pinch the penny!

It always takes a few hours for the nasties in a Budget to become clear. That is as true with today’s seemingly content-less Spring Statement. In the small print is a proposal to do away with one pence and two pence coins. Of course, inflation eats away at the value of coins so as to make the smaller ones pretty value-less over time – an argument made by the Treasury. The country survived the abolition of the farthing in 1971 and the halfpenny in 1984. A halfpenny in the mid-1980s, indeed, was worth more in real terms than a penny now. Yet the Spring Statement documents also propose to do

Steerpike

Labour MP deserts Corbyn

Oh dear. Although the Labour party has tried to put on a united front since the snap election, the party remains divided when it comes to Jeremy Corbyn. So, Mr S was intrigued to hear Kerry McCarthy – the Labour MP and former shadow cabinet member – speak frankly about her preference on Labour leaders. Asked on Pienaar’s Politics which Labour leader – out of Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn – she would like to be stuck an island with, McCarthy said… Blair: JP: Kerry McCarthy, who would you choose to be marooned with – Tony Blair or Jeremy Corbyn? KM: Oh God… hmm… I would probably actually go for

Nick Cohen

Brexit Britain: confused and alone

Here is a message Russian propagandists are sending to Western commentators. It is from Yuliia Popova of REN-TV (which was once an independent Russian station but sold its soul long ago) to David Allen Green of the Financial Times. Hello David, My name is Juliia Popova. I represent Russian state TV channel. Would appreciate it if Matt Singh or any other political analist [sic] could give us a short comment on the matter of the following. We will be happy to know why the British government tries to blame Russian government for the attempted murder of ex-Russian spy, why is it happening right now when even USA on behalf of

James Kirkup

May is finally embracing Osborne’s agenda

Here are the two words that matter most in today’s Spring Statement: “balanced approach”. Those words appear five times in the official text of Phillip Hammond’s speech, and I suspect we’ll hear them again through the course of this year and beyond. Here they are in context: “We will continue to deliver a balanced approach. Balancing debt reduction against the need for investment in Britain’s future. Support to hard-working families through lower taxes. And our commitment to our public services.” In terms of macroeconomics, this is a possible signal that in the Budget in the autumn, Hammond will finally yield to arguments that have been made in No 10 and elsewhere

Isabel Hardman

Labour’s HQ exodus continues as Executive Director Emilie Oldknow quits

Labour’s Executive Director for Governance, Membership and Party Services Emilie Oldknow has announced she is leaving, just weeks after Iain McNicol was ousted as General Secretary. At the time, Corbynite insiders had told me that Oldknow was the ‘power behind the throne’ and had been responsible for the real running of HQ as McNicol was increasingly sidelined by the party leadership. Now, that power behind the throne has left too. In a letter to party staff, she says ‘I will be leaving in the summer to pursue some new and exciting opportunities’. Oldknow was a moderate, and had also been sidelined: I understand that she only found out about McNicol’s

Fraser Nelson

Good, bad and ugly: Philip Hammond’s Spring Statement in nine graphs

Philip Hammond declared himself to be an optimist in his Spring Statement today – and he had a few boasts to prove it: manufacturing enjoying the continued longest growth in 50 years, three million more jobs, borrowing down. He was laying into Labour, in a way he wishes he’d been allowed to during the general election campaign. But the news was in the accompanying financial forecasts: here’s what jumped out at me. 1. The Tories have given up trying to balance the books. Hammond didn’t make an announcement to this effect, but he laid out plans for deficits for years to come. George Osborne at least pretended to be, say,

Isabel Hardman

Spring statement: Philip Hammond learns the value of politics

Philip Hammond used to pride himself on being ‘spreadsheet Phil’, the Chancellor who didn’t waste his time on politics because he preferred crunching the numbers. But today’s Spring Statement showed that he has learned the value of being overtly political. It was, as we had expected, an economic statement that was rather thin on the announcements. But what was striking was how heavy this speech was on the politics. Unlike David Cameron and George Osborne, the Tories under Theresa May haven’t spent much time making the argument for fiscal restraint – and the effect has been that Labour has enjoyed much more sympathy for its calls for higher public spending

The Spectator

Full text: Philip Hammond’s Spring Statement

The UK was the only major economy to make hundreds of tax and spending changes twice a year. And major international organisations and UK professional bodies alike have been pressing for change. In 2016 I took the decision to move to a single fiscal event in the Autumn. Giving greater certainty to families and businesses ahead of the new financial year. And allowing more time for stakeholder and parliamentary engagement on potential fiscal changes. Today’s statement will update the House on the economic and fiscal position. Report progress on announcements made at the two budgets last year. And launch further consultations ahead of Budget 2018, as set out today in

Tom Goodenough

Bercow’s ‘bollocks to Brexit’ sticker disgraces his office

‘I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak, in this place, but as the house is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here,’ said speaker William Lenthall, the idea being that it was parliament’s views – not his own – that mattered. John Bercow has a message to his predecessor: bollocks to that. Or more specifically: bollocks to Brexit. That is the message printed on a sticker emblazoned on a car parked in the speaker’s personal parking spot outside parliament, as revealed by Guido Fawkes. If Bercow’s choice of number plate – B13 RC0 – is bad enough, the sticker itself is unforgivable. A speaker is

Freddy Gray

No, Britain shouldn’t invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty

Theresa May might regret using such strong language in her statement on the Skripal case last night. Saying that there had been the ‘unlawful use of force’ on British soil and that a response would be imminent has led to a lot of people invoking Article 5 of the NATO treaty – something mentioned in newspapers today. Lord Ricketts, a former UK national security adviser, is one of many to say that this ‘unlawful’ act warrants the use of NATO. For its part, NATO has released a statement saying ‘the UK is a highly valued ally and this incident is of grave concern to NATO’. May did not say ‘armed