Uk politics

Thursday

James Forsyth

Tony Blair continues the campaign against Brexit

The campaign against Brexit continues today with Tony Blair’s speech in Brussels. I personally think that this campaign is unlikely to succeed, it is simply too much of a replay of the In campaign’s arguments from the 2016 referendum. But if this attempt to reverse the referendum result is to have any hope of succeeding, Blair’s leg is the most important. For he is asking the EU to make the UK an improved offer, to show that it is trying to address the concerns that led to so many people voting to Leave. Every time the European Union has asked a country to vote again on a treaty it has

Katy Balls Katy Balls

No 10’s new tactics

The DUP were shown an early draft of Brussel’s proposed legal text by the UK government ahead of its publication on Wednesday. After the painful lesson of December when Arlene Foster almost pulled the plug on Theresa May’s plan to achieve ‘sufficient progress’ after she was not consulted on the wording, the government is learning from its mistakes. So, when the DUP got up at PMQs and asked what the Prime Minister thought of it, they already knew the answer. ‘They’ve learnt their lesson from the last time,’ a DUP source explains. ‘That wording from Brussels was like a letter to santa, it’s a fiction. But we knew it was coming.’ It’s

Steerpike Steerpike

Theresa May’s Westminster correspondents’ dinner speech: Cameron, Rudd and Press Commissar Milne

What says ‘Theresa May’ more than a comic speech at a boozy dinner for a room full of journalists? That was the question the Prime Minister found herself asking a room of well hydrated hacks at last night’s Westminster Correspondents Dinner. May took a break from the Irish border to regale journalists with a speech poking fun at her former colleagues, current colleagues, the lobby and … Theresa May. To some surprise, May cracked several – successful jokes. She even found time to praise the Spectator’s James Forsyth. Alas, not everyone was in such a jolly mood – Labour’s Barry Gardiner was overhead muttering warnings to the press about what

Wednesday

Steerpike

Major hypocrisy

With the Irish border problem rearing its head once again this week, Sir John Major has popped up with an intervention Theresa May could probably have done without. In a speech today, the former prime minister urged May to keep Britain in ‘a’ customs union for the sake of the peace process. He went on to say MPs should be given a free vote on whether to accept or reject the final Brexit deal and that this should include the option to decide on a second referendum. However, Mr S can’t help but sense a whiff of major hypocrisy in the air. Firstly, Major did not practise what he is

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: MPs take the Barnier Plan seriously

The thoughts of M Barnier get barnier and barnier. Today’s crazy idea from the EU’s chief negotiator was a ‘common regulatory area’ on the island of Ireland. Perhaps he didn’t understand what he was proposing: the break-up of the UK, with Ulster remaining within the EU. This would turn the Six Counties into Brussels’s first colony. As it happens, Britain began its colonial adventures in Ireland so our politicians know a thing or two about annexing hostile territory over there. At PMQs they took M Barnier’s plan for direct rule from Brussels very seriously. Four questioners sought reassurance from the Prime Minister. Answering David Simpson, Mrs May pointed to the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Michel Barnier’s encouraging comment

Theresa May’s response to today’s Brexit developments has been revealing. At PMQs, she called staying in a customs union with the EU a ‘betrayal’ of the referendum result, a definite ramping up of her rhetoric, and said that ‘no UK prime minister could ever agree to what the EU’s draft legal text proposes on Northern Ireland.’ What makes May’s comments so interesting is that many believe, including the Foreign Secretary, that the EU is raising the stakes on the Irish border to try and get the UK, as a whole, to commit to staying in a customs union with the EU. May seems to want to make clear to other

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Brexiteers, you were warned about Ireland

If you wished to get to an easy Brexit, well, this isn’t the starting point you’d choose. Once again, the Irish question complicates life for Theresa May’s government. Today’s EU proposals suggesting that, in the absence of a satisfactory deal of the kind proposed back in December, Northern Ireland should, essentially, remain within the EU customs union are both evidently unacceptable to the UK government and a reminder that this is still a negotiated process. What is put on the table today is not necessarily what will be on the table when it is over.  It is difficult to see how any UK government could agree to a ‘solution’ which,

Ross Clark Ross Clark

What are Jeremy Corbyn and Michel Barnier up to?

The Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport recently investigated claims of Russian interference in the UK electoral process. The committee might soon be forced to go one further and investigate EU interference in our political system.  How remarkable that today’s ‘legally-binding’ document from Michel Barnier, which tries to keep Northern Ireland in a customs union with the EU comes just 48 hours after Jeremy Corbyn made a speech changing Labour’s policy in order to commit the UK as a whole to remain within the customs union. I am not party to any conversations Jeremy Corbyn might have had with Michel Barnier or his team, but the Labour leader

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Growing concern among Brexiteers over ‘exploitation’ of Irish border

Is the Irish border problem being used to frustrate Brexit? That’s the claim made by the Foreign Secretary this morning. After Sky News published an excerpt of a letter Boris Johnson wrote to the Prime Minister in which he appeared to concede that physical infrastructure at the border post-Brexit was an option, Johnson gave a breakfast interview (straight from his run) to try and clarify his comments. Johnson insisted the letter he wrote was ‘very good’ (and said he looks forward to publishing it in full) but warned that the border issue was being exploited by those who wish to frustrate Brexit: ‘What is going on at the moment is

Tuesday

Chris Pope

American Healthcare and the NHS

Donald Trump recently disparaged Britain’s National Health Service for “going broke and not working,” leading Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to express his pride in a system “where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance.” But the news has been filled for months with stories of people unable to access care they need under the NHS, regardless of their efforts or financial resources. Beyond the nationalistic pride and defensiveness of politicians both sides of the Atlantic, how do British and American healthcare really compare? Are both sides as crazy as the other imagines, or do they each know something the other can learn from? Sweeping generalizations regarding

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Are the Brexit talks bordering on collapse?

The question of the Irish border has almost collapsed the Brexit talks once, remember Mrs May’s first abortive December trip to Brussels, and it is threatening to do so again. A leaked copy of the EU’s proposed legal text of the phase one agreement that was finally reached in December says that if other options cannot be made to work Northern Ireland would be considered part of the customs territory of the EU. Given the UK’s plan is to leave the customs union, this would—in effect—create an internal economic border within the UK. It is doubtful whether this would be acceptable to any UK government, but it is particularly unacceptable

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Max Mosley’s disastrous Channel 4 interview – ‘that probably is racist’

Oh dear. This week the Daily Mail published the findings of an investigation into the ‘racist and thuggish’ past of ex-Formula One boss Max Mosley. The paper asked whether Mosley – who donated more than £500,000 to Tom Watson, lied at his orgy privacy trial. Under oath at the High Court, Mosley denied a leaflet allegedly published by him on ‘coloured immigrants’ existed. However, the Mail claims to have tracked it down in a historical archive. The pamphlet says ‘coloured immigrants’ spread ‘tuberculosis, VD and other terrible diseases like leprosy’. It says they should be sent ‘home’ because ‘coloured immigration threatens your children’s health’. Mosley denies the claims and appeared on Channel 4

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s slow running-down of the media

Yesterday, after Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on Brexit, he moved on from press questions about the substance of his policy change to seeking non-media questions. It was presumably to show that Labour is more interested in the real questions of real people rather than the biased agenda of the press. That real question ended up being ‘please will you hurry up and be our Prime Minister?’ Corbynites would argue that even a question as pointless as this is better than the mocking tone that journalists take as they try to claim, on the basis of whispered gossip, that this is a result of some kind of Shadow Cabinet falling out. Why

Steerpike Steerpike

Michael Gove takes a swipe at Barnier

Here we go. Although Theresa May and her government are meant to be on a Brussels charm offensive ahead of next month’s crunch EU council meeting, Michael Gove couldn’t resist a dig at the other side today. The Defra minister – who has recast himself as an eco-warrior in recent months – took issue with a meeting between Donald Tusk and Michel Barnier on Brexit. The problem? The pair used plastic bottles – a strict no-no in May’s green Cabinet. Why the plastic bottles @eucopresident? You should be aligning with us in ditching this environment-damaging habit… #greenbrexit https://t.co/oODv4EiClt — Michael Gove (@michaelgove) February 27, 2018 It seems the reasons to

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: John Bercow gives the Chancellor a ticking off – ‘stick to your abacus!’

Oh dear. It’s no secret that there is little love lost between the Conservatives and the Speaker. John Bercow rarely misses an opportunity to discipline his former comrades in the Chamber. Today was no exception. During Treasury questions, Philip Hammond found himself in the firing line. Bercow interrupted Liz Truss as she responded to a question from Labour. Taking objection with her reply – which appeared to consist of her listing Labour council spending failures – the Speaker but her response short. When the Chancellor pulled a face, Bercow saw red – and told Spreadsheet Phil he ought to stick to his abacus: ‘If the Chancellor is confused about it

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Are we tired of Brexit yet?

If you wish to understand this government you might begin with Robert Conquest’s third law of politics. Namely, that ‘The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies’. This is certainly a more plausible hypothesis than any obviously available alternative. Indeed, there are times when you begin to think this government’s mission must be to persuade us that, contrary to the evidence hitherto presented, a government led by Jeremy Corbyn might be no bad thing. Or, at any rate, no worse than the government we have now.  Take Liam Fox and Boris Johnson, for instance,

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Rumour about May’s customs union stance excites Remainers

Could the Conservatives crash out of government in the next few months? That’s certainly a prospect that Theresa May’s allies want to talk up in order to scare would-be supporters of Anna Soubry’s amendment on Britain staying in ‘a’ customs union after Brexit. We discuss whether making the amendment a confidence issue is really the smartest move on our latest Coffee House Shots podcast – and in today’s Evening Standard I report that Remainers really do think the whips would be calling their bluff by adopting this strategy. But I’ve also picked up an interesting theory doing the rounds among would-be rebels, which is that Theresa May will use her

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Labour is no longer ‘for the many’

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech today in which he confirmed that a Labour government would keep Britain in a Customs Union with the EU was about so much more than trade. It was about the future of the Labour party itself. It sent a clear message about what, and more importantly who, Labour is for these days. It confirmed that Labour has finally made its choice between which of its two, quite conflictual support bases it will represent in public life: the better-off ones, the middle-class ones, the Southern ones. This is what Labour’s cosying up to the idea of a Customs Union — which is a betrayal of Brexit, whatever Labourites

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tory Remainers dial down the rhetoric

Can Jeremy Corbyn’s big Brexit speech be classed as a success? It really depends on who you think it was aimed at. Unsurprisingly the softening of Labour’s Brexit stance has been welcomed by the party’s Remain-backing membership. On top of that, the Labour leader managed to please big business – for a change. Corbyn’s announcement that Labour would back the UK staying in ‘a’ customs union with the EU post-Brexit has been praised by the Institute of Directiors while the CBI say the policy would ‘put jobs and living standards first’. However, sceptics argue that the target audience for the speech was actually the Conservative party. With Anna Soubry tabling an

The Spectator

Full text: Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit speech | 26 February 2018

It’s great to be speaking here in Coventry, which has long been at the core of Britain’s industrial heartland and is now set to be our next city of culture. Next month, the government will embark on the second and most crucial phase of negotiations to leave the European Union to set the terms of Britain’s relationship with the EU for the long-term. We are now 20 months on from the referendum that voted to leave and a year on from the triggering of Article 50. But the country is still in the dark about what this divided Conservative government actually wants out of Brexit. They can’t agree amongst themselves