Uk politics

Tuesday

Steerpike

Gavin Williamson’s Christmas cheer

It’s party season in Westminster and last night saw the Women’s Lobby drinks reception, Jeffrey Archer’s festive drinks – or, if you were lucky enough to receive the invitation, Gavin Williamson’s Christmas drinks. The newly-installed Defence Secretary invited a select group of MPs to the vaults of the Ministry of Defence, where he gave a reportedly inspirational speech – telling attendees that the time had come for him to listen to the needs of MPs rather than tell them how to act, as he had done in his previous incarnation as Chief Whip. With the speech one that would not look out of sorts in a leadership campaign, MPs are

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What is Gavin Williamson up to?

What is Gavin Williamson playing at? That’s the question on the lips of Conservative MPs after two weeks of mayhem which have seen the beginnings of a defence budget rebellion complete with a briefing war with the Treasury. Since his surprise appointment as Defence Secretary, the former Chief Whip has been keen to prove his credentials – and commitment to his department – even if he does lack a military background. So far, this has involved banning Philip Hammond from flying in RAF jets until he paid his outstanding bill (now paid), a call for British jihadists to be hunted down and killed in the Middle East rather than allowed to

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Theresa May’s poll lead still gives the Tories little to cheer about

Corbynistas are curiously quiet this morning about the latest YouGov poll, which puts Theresa May narrowly ahead of the Labour leader for the first time since June. 42 per cent of voters back the Tories, with 41 per cent saying they would vote for Labour. May’s success in securing a deal with the EU in the first stage of Brexit talks seems to be the clear reason for this latest small boost. For a government low on confidence and on the back of a difficult year, it is a welcome sign. But this lead, which falls within the margin of error in polling, is nothing for the Tories to really

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Ed Sheeran has fallen for the ‘caring’ Corbyn myth

Jeremy Corbyn is going to be Prime Minister. There can no longer be any doubt. He has seen off Tony Blair; the Parliamentary Labour Party folded; and Theresa May just hopes no one notices her anymore. With Ed Sheeran’s endorsement, Corbyn’s transformation from Leninist crank to PM-in-waiting is complete. He has been sucked into the great banal morass of middle-class culture, embraced by the human form of Radio 2, accredited for the easy listeners and the Astra drivers and people who say ‘Pimms O’Clock’. Sheeran, the soundtrack to Wetherspoons, is the ultimate in early-onset centrist daddery, a millennial Phil Collins. He told the Sunday Times: ‘I love Corbyn. I love everything Corbyn

Monday

Katy Balls

Theresa May tries to calm Eurosceptic nerves over Brexit deal

After the excitement of last week’s Brexit negotiations – which saw Theresa May’s working lunch that didn’t work, the DUP veto the government’s Brexit plans and a last minute Brexit agreement on Friday – today’s statement from the Prime Minister proved a rather tame affair. With Jean-Claude Juncker recommending that the EU Council allow the Brexit talks to now move onto trade, the Prime Minister appeared at the despatch box to try and calm nerves over the contents of that draft agreement. May told MPs that it has been ‘give and take’ for both the UK and the EU when it came to reaching ‘sufficient progress’. With a number of

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour discovers that there is no easyBrexit

Despite the government reaching its long-awaited milestone of ’sufficient progress’ in the Brexit talks last week, certain key figures on both sides of the debate seem intent on muddying the waters as much as possible. Mr Steerpike reports on David Davis’s latest efforts on that front, while Labour MPs are trying to understand the implications of Keir Starmer’s latest utterances on their party’s Brexit position. The Shadow Brexit Secretary appeared to walk into a trap laid by Andrew Marr yesterday, in which the presenter asked him reasonably innocent questions about Labour’s demand for a ‘single market variant’ and the need for a new treaty enshrining the full access to and

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Labour’s Brexit single market muddle

Working out Labour’s position on the single market is no easy task. Jeremy Corbyn has said Brexit will mean Britain leaves it. So far, so simple. But not everyone in the party – including Corbyn himself, who has since guaranteed access to the single market – appears to agree. Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, suggested that it would be better to stay put as a member of the single market. But that stance is news to shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner, who could not have been clearer when he told Sky News: ‘We will not be members of the single market’. Unfortunately, a number of his other colleagues don’t

Steerpike Steerpike

David Davis’s curious turn on LBC

After David Davis caused a mini-furore over the weekend by claiming that the government’s Brexit compromise on the Irish border was a ‘statement of intent… much more than legally enforceable’, the Brexit Secretary was sent back onto the airwaves this morning to attempt a second time lucky. With the Irish government concerned over Davis’s comments on Marr, Davis hummed a new tune. He said that far from suggesting the UK could back out of Brexit deal on Irish border, he had meant is that it is ‘more than legally enforceable’. While only time will tell whether this is enough to calm Brussels nerves, Davis did at least manage to provide

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Davis calls for ‘Canada plus plus plus’ trade deal

David Davis: May’s EU deal ‘a statement of intent’ The Brexit Secretary David Davis joined Andrew Marr this morning to discuss Theresa May’s recent round of negotiations in Brussels, where the European Union finally agreed to progress to the second phase. Friday’s breakthrough included an agreement that there would be ‘no hard border’ between the UK and Ireland, and that the UK would maintain ‘full alignment’ with the EU’s single market and customs union. Marr asked Davis about how the Prime Minister’s deal would affect the negotiations going forward: DD: This [deal] was a statement of intent more than anything else. It was much more a statement of intent that

Douglas Murray

Are racist chants now acceptable on the British left?

On Friday the Guardian columnist and Corbyn-supporter Owen Jones sent out this Tweet to his followers: Palestinians urgently need our solidarity. Join me protesting Trump’s Jerusalem speech outside London’s US Embassy *tonight* >> https://t.co/JfGW6sTqjJ pic.twitter.com/2VPeqf21og — Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) December 8, 2017 As a video of the resulting demonstration shows, the crowd outside the embassy loudly chanted (among other things) ‘Khaybar Khaybar, ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud’. This is a famous Islamic battle-cry which might be translated, ‘Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.’ https://twitter.com/hurryupharry/status/939253702497628161 The battle of Khaybar relates to a 7th century attack on a Jewish community by the armies of Mohammed. Now two obvious

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Cutting the number of MPs would be a mistake

The slow-moving attempt to reduce the number of MPs trundles forward. When David Cameron announced the idea, it sounded a reasonable saving. But it has two flaws. The first is that our system of smallish constituencies with one Member is essentially good, and is recognised as such by voters, who usually have a higher opinion of their own MP than of MPs in general. The other is that, if you cut the number of MPs but keep the number of ministers the same, you make the ‘pay-roll vote’ even more significant than it is now. After Brexit, Parliament should grow stronger. Government should not get proportionally bigger. This is an

Saturday

James Forsyth

What will the Cabinet decide on Brexit?

Now that ‘sufficient progress’ has been achieved, attention shifts to the coming Cabinet discussion on what kind of trade deal the UK wants with the EU. I report in my Sun column this morning that the inner Brexit Cabinet were meant to meet on Monday afternoon, but that has now been postponed by a week. When the inner Cabinet do discuss the end state, on one side there’ll be Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd and Greg Clark who favour a cautious approach of staying as close to EU roles as possible to maximise access to the EU’s internal market. On the other will be Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Liam Fox and

Nigel Jones

Sex scandals ain’t wot they used to be

The death last week of Christine Keeler, a central player in the Profumo scandal which helped bring about the end to thirteen years of Tory rule in the early 1960s, can be seen as another salutary reminder of Britain’s decline. To put it simply: even sex scandals ain’t wot they used to be. British decadence is usually measured by such dull yardsticks as GDP, the fall in value of the pound, withdrawal from the far flung outposts of Empire, and the decision – taken by the then Prime Minister Harold MacMillan just before the Profumo affair broke – to apply for membership of the Common Market, today’s European Union. But

Giles Kenningham

The government must wake up to the danger of fake news before its too late

Fake news has been around for decades. But it was normally the preserve of despotic regimes. Now it’s threatening to undermine democracies across the world. The rise of the internet means that, in the words of Mark Twain, ‘a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes’. You can normally assume newspapers, irrespective of their political stance, have sourced and doubled checked their facts. But with the explosion of social media, we need to adapt our mentality to make sure people start questioning the sources and veracity of their news more. While the government, rightly, commits billions to tackle cyber security to protect

Max Hastings

The great Brexit unsayable

On Monday, we held a dinner party in the Cavendish Room at Brooks’s, one of the most beautiful spaces in London. Our guest list started with Matthew Parris, whom my wife was panting to meet, observing that she agrees with him about absolutely everything except that she is reluctant to become gay. After that, it was merely a matter of ensuring that we included nobody who might profess enthusiasm for Trump, Brexit or — following their treatment of Dwin Bramall, Edward Heath and now Damian Green — policemen. We discussed the problem that scarcely anyone active in British politics dares to tell voters important truths, foremost among these that Brexit

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Cressida Dick’s response to the Damian Green row deserves credit

Because there is a hue and cry against Damian Green, the media underreported the remarks of Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, on Monday. They were notable, though, for their jargon-free English and their clarity. This is what she said about the ex-policemen reviving allegations of having found (legal) pornography on Mr Green’s computer nine years ago: ‘Police officers have a duty of confidentiality. We come into contact with personal information very regularly, sometimes extremely sensitive… We all know that we have a duty to protect that information and to keep it confidential. In my view, that duty endures… after you leave the service, so I believe that what this

The Spectator

Returning jihadis must be brought to justice

At first sight, the evidence presented in David Anderson’s report into the four terror attacks committed between March and June sounds damning. The security service, MI5, had had three of the six attackers on its radar. The Manchester bomber Salman Abedi, who murdered 22 people, had come to the attention of MI5 in 2014. As recently as the beginning of this year, he had been implicated in criminal activity, which MI5 officers now admit might have led to his attack being thwarted had it been investigated. Khuram Butt, one of the attackers at London Bridge, had been under investigation for two years, yet still he and his two accomplices were

Friday

Steerpike

Boris diverges from the party line

As Theresa May attempts to keep her party on side over the terms agreed in stage one of the government’s Brexit negotiations, leading Brexiteers have been sent out to praise the deal so far. Michael Gove began the day on the Today programme – praising the Prime Minister – and Steve Baker has been tweeting his support. Keen to prove that the Foreign Secretary is behind May’s plan, the Chief Whip thought it would be helpful to share picture of the two meeting in the early hours ahead of May flying to Brussels. By doing this there is an implication that Johnson must be signed up to May’s plan –

Katy Balls Katy Balls

A guide to Parliament’s Brexit tribes

There’s relief in No 10 today after Theresa May and Jean Claude Juncker finally reached deal on the Irish border, EU citizens’ rights and the so-called Brexit bill. The European Commission have subsequently recommended that ‘sufficient progress’ has been achieved in time for this month’s EU council meeting – and that the Brexit talks should move on to trade in the new year. In order to get to this point, May has agreed a £40bn Brexit bill, time-limited ECJ role and a promise of no hard border between Northern Ireland and the republic. However, for the government the hard work is only just beginning. The second round of negotiations is

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Deal agreed in first stage of Brexit talks

Britain and the European Union will progress to the next stage of Brexit talks following a breakthrough in negotiations overnight. The European Commission said that sufficient progress had been made in discussions on the Brexit divorce bill, the Irish border and citizens’ rights to allow trade talks to get underway. There is no doubt that the deal is good news for the embattled Prime Minister, with some suggesting that her survival depended on progress being made before Christmas. But the agreement will not be without controversy. In particular, a passage in today’s text promising that the government is committed to maintaining ‘full alignment with…rules of the Internal Market and the