Uk politics

Will the Scottish Conservatives face near extinction in the snap election? In recent months, talk in the Tory party has turned to what seats the party can pick up in the Midlands, North and Wales to make up for the seats they will lose north of the border. The thinking goes that a combination of the departure of Ruth Davidson, the arrival of Boris Johnson (regarded as unpopular in Scotland) and a hard Brexit policy means that the Tories will shed voters. However, the mood among sitting Scottish Tory MPs has improved in recent weeks. The reason? The general election campaign in Scotland is being dominated by talk of a

The Liberal Democrat election campaign launch was beset by technical difficulties which meant that Jo Swinson was at times hard to make out. However, the anti-Brexit message was loud and clear. The enthusiastic Liberal Democrat leader said she was ‘excited’ to stand as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Prime Minister. Swinson said there was a very real chance she could be the next inhabitant of 10 Downing Street as it was not about ‘the red team or the blue team anymore’. Swinson was clear that only her party could be trusted to stop Brexit. She pitched the Liberal Democrats as the party of the centre ground – stuck between two extremes

The era of John Bercow as Speaker is no more. This evening MPs voted for Sir Lindsay Hoyle to succeed Bercow as Speaker of the House of Commons. Elected by secret ballot through a series of knockout rounds, Hoyle was triumphant with 325 votes, following four rounds of voting. Chris Bryant came second with 213 votes. Although it was a crowded field, going into the contest Hoyle was the frontrunner. As deputy speaker under Bercow, the Labour MP for Chorley had impressed colleagues with his no frills approach to the role. Compared with Bercow’s style, Hoyle earned a reputation as a fair and neutral speaker. During the hustings, Hoyle continued to show

Normally wrangles about TV debates go on for weeks before one is agreed. Yet, before the election campaign has even formally started, ITV have announced a TV debate between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson on November 19th. This’ll be the first election head to heard this country has had. Agreement on this debate has been reached so fast, as I say in The Sun this morning, because  both Labour and the Tories think they benefit from this one on one format. On the Labour side, they hope that it helps them unite the anti-Tory vote behind Corbyn. While the Tories want a one on one debate because they think the

There’s been much speculation this week about how the Brexit party will approach the incoming general election. Varying reports suggested Nigel Farage’s party could choose to target anything from 20 to 100 seats. However, speaking in Westminster this morning, Farage made clear that he had bigger ambitions. The Brexit party leader said that unless Boris Johnson changed his Brexit position, his party would stand candidates in every seat in England, Wales and Scotland: ‘We will contest every single seat in England, Scotland and Wales. Please don’t doubt that we are ready. Do not underestimate our determination or organisation.’ Farage said that his party would change tack if the Tories changed

As Jeremy Corbyn launches the Labour campaign today, talk has turned to the key battlegrounds that will decide the result of the general election. However, when it comes to where the most pivotal campaigning will take place, increasingly the answer is online. Digital campaigning has risen in importance with each election. With bad weather likely to put off some of the less enthusiastic campaigners this year, the efforts online will be particularly crucial. This poses a challenge to the Tories. In 2015, the Conservatives were praised for running a carefully planned digital campaign that focused on key voter groups. But in 2017 they dropped the ball. The party is reported

Nicky Morgan has announced she is standing down as a Conservative MP at the next election. She isn’t the first to say she’s off, but what’s different about this resignation is that Morgan is a serving member of Boris Johnson’s cabinet. In her resignation letter, she cites the need to send more time with her family – and the toxic political environment: ‘But the clear impact on my family and the other sacrifices involved in, and the abuse for, doing the job of a modern MP can only be justified if, ultimately, Parliament does what it is supposed to do – represent those we serve in all areas of policy,

As a vote on the government’s plan to hold an election beckons, the Prime Minister has made the decision to restore the Conservative whip to 10 of the 21 Brexit rebels. This group collectively lost the whip when they voted for the Benn bill which forced the government to seek an Article 50 extension rather than leave the EU with no deal. These MPs have been welcomed back following a meeting with Boris Johnson: Alastair Burt Caroline Nokes Nicholas Soames Greg Clarke Ed Vaizey Margot James Richard Benyon Stephen Hammond Steve Brine Richard Harrington Those who have returned to the fold have voted with the government on key votes: for the

The stronger the prospect of a general election, the easier it will be for Boris Johnson to get through the week that Britain was supposed to be leaving the European Union. He had said he would rather ‘be dead in a ditch’ than miss the deadline, but is now taking a two-pronged approach to distracting everyone from the fact that Thursday will come and go, and Brexit will still not have happened. The first part of this plan is to make sure that it is clear parliament is to blame for missing the 31 October deadline, rather than the Prime Minister who placed so much emphasis on it. So the

When Rory Stewart declared his candidacy for the London mayor, there was some concern in CCHQ that the former Conservative MP could eat into Tory candidate Shaun Bailey’s vote share. Stewart has been keen to pitch himself as an outward looking politician in touch with modern Britain. While there’s still some way to go to polling night, the initial signs suggest that Stewart’s own efforts will be no walk in the park. Stewart has found himself under criticism after he described three East London men he met back when he was campaigning to be the next leader of the Conservatives as ‘minor gangsters’. Stewart attempted to speak to the group as