uk politics Archives

Friday

23 Feb 2018

Iain McNicol steps down as Labour General Secretary

Iain McNicol’s departure from the position of Labour General Secretary has been a very long time coming indeed. He wasn’t Ed Miliband’s first choice for the job, and he certainly wasn’t Jeremy Corbyn’s favourite person at Labour headquarters, either. After the snap election, Corbynites pushed for a ‘purge’ that involved ousting McNicol. They failed, then, but today he announced that he was off to ‘pursue new projects’, which is one of those Westminster formulae for ‘booted out’. Corbynite Jennie Formby is being mooted as his successor. In a sense, it’s admirable that McNicol managed to stay on for so long, given the constant attempts to get rid of him. Insiders

Isabel Hardman

The Tories should run a mile from the Corbyn spy story

It’s fair to say that the Conservatives’ attempts to use the allegations about Jeremy Corbyn’s links with a Czechoslovakian spy have had mixed results. The high point came when Theresa May managed to produce a joke about blank cheques and Czechs at this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, and everything else has been competing to be the low point, from Steve Baker’s deeply awful interview on the Daily Politics, to Ben Bradley receiving a letter from Corbyn’s lawyers. Perhaps there could have been a slightly less ham-fisted way of engaging with the story. Or perhaps it would be better for the Tory party’s dignity, if nothing else, if it left these

Katy Balls

Labour’s Brexit position could be about to evolve into a big problem for the Tories

Theresa May goes into the weekend safe in the knowledge that she has managed to reach an agreement with her divided ministers on the type of relationship Britain will seek with the EU after Brexit. But given that this unity is over a position of their own creation that Brussels may well say no to (and it’s not clear how the Irish border fits into it all), it’s safe to say that the Prime Minister’s troubles are far from over. With the government thought to be seeking a loose relationship that allows the UK to diverge from EU standard, Donald Tusk has been quick to criticise the reported position as ‘pure

James Kirkup

Does Seumas Milne hold Brexit’s fate in his hands?

Could Britain remain in the Customs Union after Brexit? That is the question of the moment, the issue that currently troubles a lot of people in politics and government. It raises another question: who will decide whether we do indeed remain in the Customs Union? Here’s an interesting answer being given, in whispers, around Westminster and Whitehall: Seumas Milne. The theory goes like this: the Tories are split on the CU, so Labour’s position on it will be decisive. If Jeremy Corbyn brings Labour in behind the pro-CU Tories (and the SNP) then there is a comfortable majority for staying in, no matter what either Theresa May, or the DUP

Brendan O’Neill

The terror of Corbynism

This week, the Corbynistas bared their teeth. They gave us an insight into the mob-like authoritarianism that lurks behind the facade of their ‘kind’ politics. They insisted Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t a spy for the Stalinists while at the same time exposing their Stalinist tendencies. ‘How dare you lump us in with Stalinists?’, they cried, while in the next breath making manic-eyed videos threatening the press and forming online mobs to punish those who criticise their Dear Leader. The irony has been dark. For the first time, I feel fearful of Corbynism. Until now, I’ve seen the Corbynistas as a somewhat tragic movement, a kind of cosplay for middle-class millennials who

Ed West

Citizenship is dead

Once in a while some Socialist Worker people set up a stall outside my local Tesco to shout slogans at the progressive middle-class folk who make up much of the local demographic. One of the phrases I’ve heard them use is ‘Refugees welcome! Tories out!’ which is great and everything, except – what if the refugees are Tories? But then there are Sacred Groups and Out Groups, and each has their role to play in the modern morality play that is leftist politics. Ideological tribalism is the subject of a new book by Yale’s Amy Chua, who argues that politics has replaced national or religious identity as a source of division. Chua

Thursday

22 Feb 2018

James Forsyth

Brexit inner Cabinet agree a common position, and it favours divergence

‘Divergence has won the day’, a source told me after the inner Cabinet’s Brexit away day at Chequers. I am informed that Theresa May’s view expressed at the meeting is closer to the Boris Johnson position than the Philip Hammond one. However, I am also told that there were ‘no winners’; unsurprisingly, no one is getting everything that they wanted. In the words of one insider, ‘everyone gave some ground’. But I understand there is now a position that May can present to the Cabinet next week. This is based around the UK’s opening position being that it wants mutual recognition on goods standards. However, the UK will declare that

Steerpike

Socialist Party’s jibe over PM’s Tessa Jowell meet

Here we go. Ahead of today’s crunch Cabinet away day at Chequers, Theresa May held a meeting with Dame Tessa Jowell. The Labour stalwart is suffering from a brain tumour – and the pair met to discuss what can be done to improve the ‘woefully low’ survival rates going forward. It was lovely to spend time with @TessaJowell and her family, talking with @Jeremy_Hunt about working with @CR_UK to provide a £45 million boost to brain tumour research to tackle a disease where survival remains woefully low. She truly is an inspiration to us all. pic.twitter.com/ys2nkKmn0M — Theresa May (@theresa_may) February 22, 2018 Only such cross-party co-operation appears to be

Steerpike

The cost of the Matt Hancock app

When Matt Hancock released the ‘Matt Hancock app’ this month, there was much mockery from his critics. While some found the idea of a personal app egocentric, others queried whether the Culture Secretary’s app was in breach of data protection laws. Now thanks to the latest register of interests it’s possible to know what the app is worth in real terms. It turns out that the app cost a whole £6,000 to make and maintain (per annum): Well, at least it hasn’t cost Hancock – or the taxpayer – a penny. The app services were a donation from Disciple Media.

Isabel Hardman

Vince Cable asks: what’s the point of PMQs?

A common question in Westminster is ‘what is the point of the Liberal Democrats?’ The Lib Dems, it turns out, are asking their own existential questions: about PMQs. Since taking over as leader of the party, Vince Cable has been oddly absent from a number of these Wednesday sessions. His office says he has been to three out of the six PMQs held so far this year, and tends to turn up when he has a question allocated, which is around once a month. Tim Farron would make a great show of bobbing up and down to get Speaker Bercow’s attention at every PMQs, his face growing redder and redder

Isabel Hardman

How Theresa May could demonstrate her commitment to tackling domestic abuse

Could domestic abuse be the latest policy area to fall foul of the government’s inability to get anything done? It certainly seemed so yesterday when Theresa May told MPs at PMQs that the planned Domestic Violence Bill would not be published in draft form in the next few weeks, as ministers had previously suggested, but that there would be a consultation first. I say in the Sun today that this means we won’t see even the draft legislation until the autumn, and so the full bill will come still later. On one level, announcing a full public consultation on the new legislation before going to a draft bill before legislating

Steerpike

Downing Street vs Stormzy

Theresa May has a lot on her plate this week. As well as today’s crunch Brexit Cabinet away day, she is facing a Tory backlash over her university funding review and working to stave off a rebellion on the customs union. Now she has another problem to deal with: Stormzy. Yes, the Prime Minister has awoken to find herself in a full-blown row with Stormzy. The grime artist – and Corbynista – used a performance at last night’s Brit Awards to accuse the Prime Minister of turning her back on the Grenfell fire victims: ‘Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell?’ He went on to accuse the government of forgetting

Steerpike

Diane Abbott makes another numbers blunder

Diane Abbott is no stranger to getting her numbers in a muddle, and it seems the shadow home secretary has now done it again. Abbott warned this week that some were using immigration as a euphemism for race, but Mr S was surprised by one passage in her speech. The Guardian reports that Abbott told those in the audience at King’s College London: ‘I remember Enoch Powell’s speech, I think I was in primary school, and I wasn’t following it in huge detail, but I do remember how I felt.’ Given that Abbott was born in 1953, and Powell’s famous speech was delivered in 1968 – making her at least 14

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: A Brexit transition deadline is essential

Theresa May and her Cabinet are meeting at Chequers today to try and finally thrash out an agreement on what kind of Brexit the Tories want. Six hundred days have now passed since the referendum vote, and ministerial discussions on Brexit have so far failed to deliver any ‘white smoke’ moments, says the Daily Telegraph. The problem for the Government until now, says the paper, is that the clear aims Theresa May set out in her Lancaster House speech were ‘bisected’ by a general election which undermined her statement of intent. We were promised a ‘tough negotiation’; but in the wake of the Tories’ lost majority, Brexit talks have, instead,

Wednesday

21 Feb 2018

Steerpike

Tories learn to Confide in one another

Oh dear. It’s safe to say that the Conservative party’s foray into WhatsApp hasn’t always been plain sailing. After MPs formed an official Tory MPs’ group on the encrypted messaging app to communicate with one another, many presumed their conversations would be secure. Alas this hasn’t proved to be the case – with the papers frequently filled with details of embarrassing exchanges on the group from bust-ups over Brexit to MPs outing each other for failing to understand what the customs union is. Happily, a solution is on the horizon. In today’s i paper, Katy Balls reports that a number of Tory MPs are defecting to Confide – a “military-grade encryption”

Lloyd Evans

Does John Bercow think politics is illegal?

Bit of a rum PMQs today. Jeremy Corbyn, who has always loathed the EU and now pretends to admire it, asked May about Brexit. May, who has always admired the EU and now pretends to loathe it, fobbed him off with glib sound-bites. ‘Take back control of our borders,’ ‘protect workers’ rights,’ and so on. Corbyn asked a long question about the Government’s ‘desired outcome’. He got a four-word answer: ‘A bespoke economic partnership.’ Mr Speaker decided that he should be the star-turn today. Perhaps he sought to wow a posse of French MPs who were witnessing the bun-fight from the gallery. Quelling an early outbreak of shouting, the Speaker

Steerpike

Steve Baker’s disastrous Daily Politics interview

Brexit minister Steve Baker has his colleagues to thank for his disastrous turn on the Daily Politics. Tory ministers have been piling in to the Corbyn Czech spy row, but it’s fair to say that some may have taken things a little too far. The Labour leader has been accused of having ‘betrayed’ his country, while another Tory MP even compared Jeremy Corbyn to Kim Philby. It was left to Baker to explain his fellow Tory MPs’ choice of words, when he was taken to task by Andrew Neil. Asked six times to explain how Corbyn had betrayed his country, Baker failed to answer each time: AN: Do you think

Steerpike

Watch: Theresa May’s Czech spy gag

The Jeremy Corbyn Czech spy story is something of an open goal for the Tories. It was no surprise then that Theresa May used the ongoing row to make a gag at the Labour leader’s expense at PMQs. During an exchange on Brexit, the PM told Corbyn: ‘Normally he stands up every week and asks me to sign a blank cheque. I know he likes Czechs but…’ Corbyn responded by pretending to yawn. Mr S isn’t surprised that he is growing tired of this story…

The Spectator

The European Research Group’s Brexit letter, in full

Dear Prime Minister, We are writing to thank you for your reassuring comments about Britain’s approach to the upcoming trade negotiations with the EU27, and to underline our support for both your Brexit leadership, and for the vision of your speech at Lancaster House a year ago. We share your view that free trade lowers prices, creates jobs and economic growth, and that leaving the European Union will create opportunities for freer trade with many more countries around the world. We also agree with you that we can only grasp those opportunities if we can negotiate trade deals with as many other countries as possible, which we will be legally

Katy Balls

The ERG’s so-called ‘ransom note’ could be a lot worse for May

It’s red letter day for Theresa May. Only rather than a happy momentous occasion, the Prime Minister’s red letter day consists of receiving a letter listing all the Brexiteers’ red lines on the EU. With the inner Cabinet due to meet on Thursday for their ‘away day’ to decide a Brexit negotiating position, the influential European Research Group have sent May a letter listing their ‘Brexit demands’. Signed by 62 backbench MPs, the letter – in which the group pledge their ‘continued, strong backing’ for May and her Brexit plan as per the Lancaster House speech – kindly offers the Prime Minister a list of suggestions on how to achieve