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Uk politics

Friday

Steerpike

Laura Pidcock’s shadow cabinet buzzkill

Since joining Parliament in the snap election, the Labour MP created a media-storm last year when she declared that she would not be friends with a Tory. Happily, Jeremy Corbyn sees no issues with such a stance and has just promoted Pidcock – appointing her Shadow Minister for Labour. Only it’s a bit complicated. Just a few hours ago, Pidcock expressed her solidarity for her comrade Chris Williamson – who resigned from the frontbench – declaring that she was ‘buzzing’ to have him join her on the backbenches for ‘the struggle ahead’: #Solidarity to @DerbyChrisW, one of the most genuine and principled MPs around – a signpost, rather than a weathercock.

Douglas Murray

If Dawn Butler can’t forgive Toby Young, can she forgive herself?

I am fascinated as well as appalled by the new morality being created in our country. Last night, Dawn Butler MP was on the television again (this time Question Time) making charges against Toby Young and doubling-down on a point she had made earlier in the week on the Daily Politics. The essence of it is that because of Tweets, including one about a Labour MPs breasts from 2009, Toby Young has no right to sit as one member of a 15-member board in 2018. “I don’t think he should have resigned, I think the PM should have been stronger and should have said it was an inappropriate appointment” @DawnButlerBrent

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Question Time audience member calls out Labour hypocrisy over Toby Young

This week Question Time moved to Islington. David Dimbleby chaired a panel comprised of Dominic Raab, Labour’s Dawn Butler, Gina Miller, comedian Nish Kumar and Piers Morgan. However much of time was spent discussing Toby Young, who resigned from the Office for Students this week. With various derogatory comments made about Young, it fell to an audience member to address the elephant in the room: Labour’s hypocrisy. He said that it was inconsistent of Labour to call for Young’s sacking while they had only suspended Jared O’Mara, the MP for Sheffield Hallam, while the party investigates misogynistic and homophobic comments he is alleged to have made online: ‘Labour and the Tories can

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Justine Greening’s departure is no great loss

You could, I suppose, feel sorry for Justine Greening if you were a nicer person than me, not just for losing her job, but for being in the job after it had been occupied by Michael Gove. Mr Gove had the radical, indeed revolutionary perception that it was a scandal that there should be such a gulf in expectation and outcomes between state and private schools. And he acted on that basis – the best bit of his programme, in my view, being his hardening up of the curriculum, so state school pupils don’t get fobbed off with dud qualifications in dud subjects. Exams are harder, and harder to pass

Thursday

Steerpike

Chris Williamson rebrands as Labour’s attack fox

The news that Chris Williamson has resigned from the Labour front bench has been met with dismay by Conservative MPs who quite enjoyed his calls to double council tax on some of the highest-value properties. However, fear not, Williamson will continue to play a pivotal role in Corbyn’s Labour. In an interview with Corbynista site Skwawkbox (natch), Williamson lifts the lid on his new role – as requested by the Labour leader. he will be using his background as a ‘hunt saboteur’ to work on the party’s environmental stance: ‘Jeremy has also asked me to develop our thinking around environmental and animal rights issues, in line with my background as a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Chris Williamson’s resignation shows Labour’s determination to win

Chris Williamson’s resignation from the Labour frontbench shows that the party isn’t just a protest movement any more. The staunch Corbynite found himself the focus of Tory campaign graphics this week after suggesting that council tax should be doubled on some of the highest-value properties.  This afternoon, Labour confirmed that their Shadow Fire Minister had stepped down. Williamson said: ‘I will be standing down from my role with immediate effect so that I can return to the backbenches, where I will be campaigning on a broader range of issues. I will continue to loyally support the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn from the backbenches and hope to be a voice for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Nigel Farage’s referendum call should be greeted with caution

What to make of Nigel Farage talking about why there might need to be a second Brexit referendum? To some on the Remain side, this is a moment—the Evening Standard have splashed on it, the Liberal Democrats have welcomed it and Labour MP Chuka Umunna has declared that Farage for ‘the first time in his life is making a valid point’. They reason that if the man who was so influential in there being a referendum in the first place is open to a second one, surely it will happen? But I don’t think this is right. Farage’s comments were, I suspect, driven as much by a desire to be

Steerpike Steerpike

Peter Stringfellow’s bold Brexit stand

Breaking news in today’s Evening Standard. George Osborne has splashed on the revelation that Peter Stringfellow – the nightclub owner – has ditched the Conservatives in protest over its stance on Brexit. Stringfellow – who often attends the Tories’ black and white ball – says he is quitting the Tories ‘unless they change their direction and lead us towards Remain’. Today’s @EveningStandard exclusive: Peter Stringfellow quits Tories over Brexit as @SadiqKhan warns of job threat & May unveils plastic ban as former aide denounced as “tone-deaf Rasputin” + @RuthDavidsonMSP writes powerfully on equal pay and 100 yrs of female suffrage pic.twitter.com/JwlT8DBfjp — George Osborne (@George_Osborne) January 11, 2018 So, which

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Tim Farron can’t have it both ways on sin

Tim Farron is a conservative evangelical. Such Christians think they are braver than wishy-washy liberals when it comes to sin – they are not afraid to put it at the heart of their message. But in fact they’re in a muddle on sin. Farron embodies it. During the election he was repeatedly asked by journalists whether he thought gay sex was a sin. He tried to avoid the question by saying that such questions were beyond the bounds of normal political discussion; he implied that secular journalists framed the question in the wrong way, not understanding that we are all sinners. But they kept pestering him. So in the end,

Steerpike Steerpike

Gove’s leadership tip

This week, Theresa May’s Cabinet reshuffle proved rather underwhelming. In some quarters, the Prime Minister’s decision to not promote or move any of the big beasts in her Cabinet has been seen as a tactical move so as not to fuel speculation over her eventual successor. That plan may have backfired. Mr S was curious to read Andrew Gimson’s profile of Damian Hinds – the new Education Secretary – for Conservative Home. Gimson reveals that Michael Gove ‘foresees a day’ when Hinds fights for the Conservative leadership against Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary: ‘It would, Gove says, be a contest between two northern, state-school candidates, with Williamson the “tough and gritty”

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Interview: New Tory vice-chair – Toff can help solve the Conservative youth problem

Ben Bradley had an inkling that his first week back at work wasn’t going to be an ordinary one when he received a text at 7am on Monday. The MP for Mansfield was summoned to 10 Downing Street for 11.30am with no explanation as to why. Given that this was the day Theresa May was expected to reshuffle her Cabinet, it was an odd request for an MP who had been in Parliament for less than a year, after taking the seat from Labour in the snap election. ‘I thought if it’s health, I’m not sure if I want it,’ Bradley jokes. He did, however, begin to put two and

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tory nerves grow over No 10’s plans for tuition fees

Theresa May’s Cabinet reshuffle proved puzzling for a number of reasons – from what the point was, to why Chris Grayling was falsely announced as party chairman. However, within the Conservative party it’s the movement of figures from the Department for Education that has caused the most chatter. Justine Greening left government after she was ousted as Education Secretary while universities minister Jo Johnson was shuffled to transport. As Isabel has written on Coffee House, the Johnson demotion is particularly strange given that he was midway through setting up the new Office for Students, including the legislation to go through Parliament. There have been some suggestions that the move was a

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

Cuts, queues and death dominate PMQs

Cuts, queues and death. These motifs dominated the New Year instalment of PMQs. At the end of the last episode, shortly before Christmas, there were 12,000 patients lying in ambulances in hospital car parks. Two weeks later, according to Mr Corbyn, the figure stood at 17,000. Excellent news for Mr Corbyn because it sounds as if the queue has got nearly 50 per cent longer. But has it? In fact, the 12,000 pre-Christmas patients have been treated and sent happily on their way. The new figure represents the post-Christmas blow-out casualties. But Mr Corbyn obscured this point. And he created the impression that a patient in a nice warm ambulance is

James Forsyth James Forsyth

New Year, same old PMQs

Anyone hoping that 2018 would bring an improvement in the quality of debate between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, or a reduction in the length of John Bercow’s interventions, would have been disappointed by today’s session. Corbyn and May traded the usual blows on the NHS. There was little in the exchanges that was enlightening. Jeremy Corbyn listed examples of people being treated in car parks, Theresa May said that the NHS had been better prepared for winter than ever before. She then tried to turn the conversation to the shortcomings of the NHS in Labour-run Wales. The rest of the session wasn’t much more enlightening either. Indeed, Justine Greening’s

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Debbie Abrahams grilled on double standards over Toby Young criticism

This week, Toby Young stepped down from the Office for Students over concerns his appointment had ‘become a distraction’ from the ‘vital work’ needed. His decision came following a series of historic tweets that were described as sexist. Since then, Labour have been quick to go on the attack – asking why he was ever appointed in the first place. However, given that many supported giving Jared O’Mara – the suspended Labour MP who made a series of sexist remarks on social media – a second chance, there has been talk of hypocrisy. Happily, Andrew Neil was on hand to put this point to shadow cabinet member Debbie Abrahams on the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

It’s now the Tories who don’t get the digital age

With Theresa May’s reshuffle now complete, a consensus is forming that it’s been a rather underwhelming rearranging of the deck chairs. All the big beasts remain in place and some junior ministers appear to have been moved from their briefs just for the sake of moving them. Matters weren’t helped by a shambolic roll out which saw Chris Grayling falsely announced on Twitter as the new party chairman – and reports of disarray with ministers refusing to budge thanks to hacks tweeting the time each had spent in Downing Street. It’s clear that no-one in No 10 has mastered the art of completing a reshuffle in the digital age. As

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why Virgin Trains really wanted to stop selling the Daily Mail

Is it really ‘censorship’ that Virgin Trains won’t be stocking the Daily Mail any more? An internal company memo to staff this week announced that ‘we’ve decided that this paper is not compatible with the VT brand and our beliefs’ and that staff had raised ‘considerable concern’ about the Mail’s stance on ‘issues such as immigration, LGBT rights and unemployment’. This has prompted accusations that the train company is cracking down on free speech and therefore censoring views that it doesn’t like. Is this true? Many have argued that as Virgin is a private company and not a newsagents, it has no obligation to give every newspaper a platform. This

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Britain needs a second referendum – but not on Brexit

Nigel Farage has called for a referendum on the House of Lords. Earlier this week, on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, wearing his trademark dapper hat and velvet-collared coat, Farage laid into Lord Adonis’s anti-Brexit agitation, branding him a ‘dishonest, disconnected, twisting little weasel’ — ouch! He then said that if Adonis’s antics are ‘what the House of Lords is all about’, maybe we do need a second referendum — not on Brexit, but on the Lords itself, ‘a referendum to sack the lot of them’. This is the most correct and brilliant thing Farage has ever said. We do need a referendum on the Lords, and I know which side

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory Toff shock

The times they are a’changing. Just last month a row broke out within the Conservative party over the winner of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. It wasn’t so much a difference of view over who should have won but over what the party should do about the winner. The winner – Georgia ‘Toff’ Toffolo, who first made her name on Made in Chelsea – is a Tory supporter who kindly volunteered to utilise  her million followers for the party. Alas brains at CCHQ weren’t impressed. Last month, Tory chiefs blocked Toff from becoming a poster girl for the Conservatives over concerns she’s ‘too posh to win over Labour supporters’.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

What the government plans to do with social care after the reshuffle

Will Jeremy Hunt’s new job title make any difference to the rather precarious state of the social care sector? Opposition parties have been accusing Theresa May of ‘window-dressing’ by changing the name of the Health department to the Department of Health and Social Care – though if this reshuffle is about window-dressing, May must never, ever consider a career in retail. Changing names does signal intentions, but it can also have no more effect on policy than a change in stationery. Hunt will be taking control of the government’s green paper on social care, which as I’ve been reporting, hasn’t been so much kicked into the long grass as chucked