Uk politics

Wednesday

Steerpike

Claws out at the BBC over Peston’s Damian Green report

The news that Damian Green has resigned this evening as First Secretary of State following an investigation into his conduct has taken many by surprise. However, Mr S suspects that one Westminster hack may be the most surprised of all. Just this month, ITV’s Robert Peston reported that not just one but three well-placed sources had reported that Damian Green would be informed that he ‘does not need to resign’: Peston’s former BBC colleagues appear to be taking a less than charitable view of the situation: Sometimes a kite (even one steered by three different people) does not fly. https://t.co/c65a96L5mH — Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) December 20, 2017 Perhaps Peston’s sources

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Breaking: Damian Green resigns from the Government

Damian Green has resigned from the Government following an investigation into his conduct. Below are the letters between the former First Secretary of State and the Prime Minister:   May makes clear in her letter that she asked Green to resign – but it’s worth noting what the resignation was for, as the investigation into his conduct focused on two aspects. The summary of the Cabinet Secretary’s report on these allegations, which was released to the media this evening, says that it was ‘not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on the appropriateness of Mr Green’s behaviour with Kate Maltby in early 2015, though the investigation found Ms Maltby’s account

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Theresa May masters the art of saying nothing at Liaison Committee

Although staffers in No 10 have been busy this week celebrating Theresa May making it to Christmas, the Prime Minister had to first make it through an appearance in front of the Liaison Committee this afternoon. Summoned to give evidence on everything from Brexit and the intricacies of alignment to the now defunct social mobility commission and sexual harassment, May found herself in a very different position to the one she was in when she last appeared before the committee a year ago. With no Conservative majority and a divided party behind her, May was reminded of her problems by the very presence of the new chair of the committee

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs keep up pressure on government over refuge funding plans

One of the better questions at today’s PMQs came from Tory MP Chris Green, who asked about the government’s proposed funding model for refuges. Green was among the Conservatives who last week raised concerns about the plan for local authorities to pay grants to refuges rather than individual places being paid for by a woman’s housing benefit, and he did so again today, asking Theresa May the following: ‘Will my right hon. Friend join me in praising the work of Fortalice, which has provided domestic abuse support in Bolton for 40 years? Will she consider under the current reforms the benefits of a new funding structure for domestic abuse refuges

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

The SNP is a coven of hysterical exhibitionists

Have you noticed the temperature? It’s got weirdly balmy all of a sudden. And the forecasters are predicting a spell of bikini weather over the festive period. By Boxing Day, we’ll be tippling iced cocktails to take the edge off the muggy gusts breezing up from the tropics. This is bad news for the energy companies. And it’s even worse for Labour MPs who love a winter breakdown in the NHS. The party’s crisis-profiteers are praying for icy blizzards and vicious gales chiselling down from the frozen north. They were hard at it today. Jeremy Corbyn assumed a gloating tone when he asked Mrs May about underfunding, missed targets and other

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The bland secret of Jeremy Corbyn’s appeal

Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with Grazia (a 2017 sentence if ever there was one) was helpfully revealing. Not his assertion that ‘there will probably be another election in the next 12 months’ and that he ‘will probably win’. That just tells us that the man who supposedly never wanted the job really wants the job. His chat with the glossy magazine provides deeper insights into his character and his methods. Interviewer Anna Silverman writes: ‘I want to know whether his jovial good nature is genuine or whether he’s mastered the true politician’s art of charming the crowds. I ask a couple of members of his team – which, interestingly, is mostly female

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Corbyn and May drain the joy from Christmas PMQs

The last PMQs before the Christmas recess often has a rather pantomime atmosphere. Unfortunately, neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Theresa May are anywhere near nimble enough to be able to create anything more than the sort of play that everyone leaves at the interval – and today’s performance wasn’t helped by John Bercow’s decision to extend the previously half an hour session to 53 minutes with no apparent good reason. The Speaker himself contributed to the overrunning PMQs by providing interesting details about MPs’ weddings that he’d been invited to. Jeremy Corbyn had one Christmas pun, which was about there being ‘no room at the A&E’. Quite a difficult pun for

Ed West Ed West

The boredom of living through ‘interesting times’ 

Robert Tombs, author of the majestic ‘The English and their History’, has written in the latest Spectator about how Brexit has become the trigger for a new culture war in Britain. He likens it to the sectarian arguments of the 18th century, pointing out that: ‘When I hear prominent Remainers unquestioningly supporting the demands of the EU Commission, however incoherent and excessive, I cannot but remember the opposition leader Charles James Fox happily admitting during the Napoleonic Wars that ‘The Triumph of the French government over the English does in fact afford me a degree of pleasure which is very difficult to disguise.’ ‘Is this just coincidence? There does seem

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Why Barnier must ‘button it’

Ever since the referendum, the reality has hit home for the British government as to ‘the weakness of (its) bargaining position’, says the Financial Times. This ‘dawning’ of reality has led ministers to realise that ‘they are accepting Brussels’ demands rather than genuinely negotiating’ during discussions with the EU. When talk turns to trade in the new year, this is unlikely to change, says the FT. It’s true, of course, that given the importance of the City of London, the EU will not want to ‘cut off’ European companies from accessing it when Britain leaves the EU. Yet even when it comes to this subject, Britain ‘will not have the

Tuesday

Katy Balls

Theresa May educates her Cabinet on the joys of cherry-picking

Today the Cabinet finally held its first discussion on what type of relationship the UK should have with the EU post-Brexit. The reason the discussion had been put off for so long is that it is potentially a toxic one – with strong feelings on both sides of the debate. In recent weeks (or months, if you’re a regular Coffee House Shots listener) the two tribes in Cabinet have come to be known as the divergers and the aligners. The first camp – composed of the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Gavin Williamson – think it’s vital that Britain is able to diverge from EU regulations in any

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

The new Bishop of London is comically evasive on the issue of gay marriage

A bishop of the Church of England cannot really express his or her view on gay marriage. The secular media has little interest in asking about anything else. Result: bishops sound comically evasive, having to ignore repeated questions on the issue with Michael Howardish determination. This is what happened in the newly-appointed Bishop of London Sarah Mullally’s first grilling on the Today programme. This is what she should have said: ‘I don’t know. Sorry, but I don’t know what line the Church should take on gay marriage, or the ordination of homosexuals. I reject the secular assumption that everyone ought to have a firm opinion on every issue. So I

Ross Clark Ross Clark

By rebalancing Britain’s economy, Brexit is succeeding where George Osborne failed

Yet again this morning comes a demonstration of the enormous gulf between gloomy economic forecasts pumped out by those opposed to Brexit and much more positive data from the real world. And guess which received the biggest headlines. Britain, claims PwC, is about to miss out on a surge in global growth – the best in seven years – as ‘uncertainty relating to Brexit’ acts as a drag on the UK economy. A survey by the CBI and a recruitment firm claims that 63 per cent of businesses think that Britain will become less competitive in the next five years. Meanwhile comes a remarkable insight into current conditions in the real

Steerpike Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn downgrades his election forecast

Oh dear. Given that Jeremy Corbyn is reported to have told Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis this summer that he would be in Downing Street by Christmas, time is running out for the Labour leader. Perhaps that’s why he has downgraded his prediction to a definitely maybe. Grazia – the weekly glossy – has snagged the Labour leader’s first interview with a women’s magazine. In the interview, Corbyn strikes a hopeful tone as he predicts ‘there will probably be another election in the next 12 months’  and he ‘will probably win’: ‘I’m ready to be Prime Minister tomorrow.’ With two polls putting the Conservatives ahead of Labour for the first time since the

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: May’s Brexit Britain is a fantasy island

Theresa May’s Brexit statement in the Commons yesterday ‘told us a great deal about what has happened already,’ says the Daily Telegraph. But the detail on ‘what happens next’ was thin on the ground. Once again, the PM ‘reaffirmed that the UK is leaving the EU on March 29, 2019’. Yet this told us little we didn’t already know when Article 50 was triggered six months ago. ‘The question now to be resolved is not whether we are leaving but on what basis,’ says the Telegraph. So what does Britain actually want from Brexit? The PM said, not for the first time, that the aim was to secure a “bespoke

Monday

Steerpike

Mhairi Black rejects Alex Salmond’s sartorial advances

Since arriving in Parliament in 2015, Mhairi Black has caused a stir in Westminster. The 23-year-old SNP MP rarely misses the chance to criticise the place – whether it’s the ‘old and defunct’ systems and procedures or the ‘sociopaths’ that inhabit it. Now it seems that not even her own party is beyond criticism. In an interview with Holyrood magazine, Black recalls an incident involving Alex Salmond, then an SNP MP. The party veteran took Black to lunch in a Commons restaurant, where he offered her some fashion advice: ‘I was just sitting chatting away to him and the whole time I’m thinking, what’s the point of this meant to be

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Theresa May must still be prepared to call the EU’s Brexit bluff

As the Brexit ‘war cabinet’ meets this morning to discuss what future trading relationship Britain would like with the EU there is a grim inevitability about the next few months. We know what we want – free trade with the EU, in services as well as goods, as well as free trade with the rest of the world. The EU, as it has made clear in recent days, has other ideas. Its plan is to allow us a Canada-style deal – a free trade deal in goods but not services, something which will be completely unacceptable to Britain, with our financial services-dominated economy. Moreover, it is going to try to

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: The new Brexit divide

‘Remain’ and ‘Leave’ is no longer the basis of the divide over Brexit, says the Daily Telegraph. Instead, the new split is over to what extent post-Brexit Britain should ‘mirror what the EU does on trade and services’ or whether the UK should ‘plough its own furrow in the world’. 18 months on from the referendum, this key debate has not been ‘addressed by the Government’. ‘Convergers’ – those who want Britain’s trade arrangements to remain broadly in line with the status quo – ‘have the upper hand’ at the moment, says the Telegraph. Philip Hammond has confirmed this with his vow for Britain to maintain, at least in the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

I’m a Celeb’s Toff highlights the Conservatives’ youth problem

The Conservatives have a youth problem. The average age of a Tory party member is 57, Labour leads by 35 points among 18 – 24-year-old voters and – to add the cherry on the cake – those young conservatives who do wish to get involved have no obvious party youth organisation to join. So, surely it must have been a case of warm prosecco at the ready in CCHQ when the winner of this year’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here was announced. The newly crowned queen of the ITV reality show – which boasts viewing figures over 12m – is not only a Tory but a young one

Huw Onllwyn Jones

The Family Court is not fit for purpose

When I agreed to serve as a magistrate in the Family Court, I thought that I would be dealing with babies and young children whose lives were in serious danger. I expected to hear about broken bones, filthy clothing, sexual abuse – and parents taking so many drugs that they were unable to care for their offspring. The sad truth, of course, is that too many children are living with abusive parents – and it is quite right that we should do all we can to protect them and to remove them from danger. What I witnessed during my short time on the Family Bench, however, were cases where babies

Sunday

Steerpike

Another day, another Labour MP who won’t befriend Tories

Here we go again. Earlier this year, Laura Pidcock caused a stir when the newly-elected Labour MP announced that she could never be friends with a Tory MP. The reason? ‘I feel disgusted at the way they’re running this country, it’s visceral – I’m not interested in being cosy.’ Although Pidcock has since come under criticism for her narrow world view, it seems she is far from alone in her approach. Appearing on Pienaar’s Politics, her Labour comrade Mike Amesbury rules out keeping Tories as friends: JP: Could you have a conservative as a friend? MA: No So much for a kinder, gentler politics…