Uk politics

Leaving your party is brave because it is a costly and painful thing to do. You risk the loss of relationships, your sense of belonging and identity, your status and your income. The eleven MPs who formed the Independent Group took those risks knowingly. They saw Conservative and Labour parties transformed by blinkered nationalism and dogmatic socialism, each of them over-run by zealots whose commitment to their ideology is exceeded only by their unkindness towards those who do not share the faith. I remember seeing the relief on the faces of those eleven MPs back in February when they made the break. All of them seemed happier without the burden

There’s only one day to go until the Peterborough by-election, which decides who will replace the former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya, and yet it’s still all to play for in this marginal seat. Under normal circumstances, with the last Labour MP found guilty of perverting the course of justice and thrown out by her constituents, you would expect the Conservatives (who only lost by around 600 votes in the 2017 general election) to be favourites to win. But the recent rise of the Brexit party in the local and European elections means that conventional wisdom no longer applies. The Brexit party are currently frontrunners in the race and some bookies

What is a one nation Tory? On Tuesday evening, various leadership contenders descended to the committee room corridor to try and convince MPs that they could be described as one. Earlier this year, the One Nation Tory caucus was launched – led by Amber Rudd and Nicky Morgan – and was reported to be aimed at keeping the Tories in the centre rather than lurching to the right in a leadership contest.The party has since declared a list of its core values – which range from protecting the union to the environment and free enterprise. The view that they have garnered the most attention for, however, is their opposition to

The Tory leadership race officially starts next week when nominations close for the first stage of the contest. Until then, each campaign is doing their bit to show they are not falling behind. Today the Boris Johnson campaign have stepped up a gear with the release of their campaign video. It comes after a series of mixed videos from contenders so far. Dominic Raab was mocked for a decisive head turn, Sajid Javid for using his Parliamentary office and Jeremy Hunt for mispronouncing Culloden. Boris Johnson’s has tread a different path. In his campaign video, the former Mayor of London is seen out of Westminster meeting with ordinary voters. The

Matt Hancock is the youngest of the candidates running to be Conservative leader but he’s starting to look like the grown-up in the room. At the weekend he published the outline of a Brexit plan that might just prove the basis for a way ahead that averts either economic or political disaster. The plan, as I read it, entails accepting the Withdrawal Agreement as negotiated by Theresa May is the only viable way to avoid a No-Deal exit in October and shifting the focus of British ambitions to the Political Declaration on the future relationship between the UK and EU that would follow Withdrawal. That’s both sensible and smart. Sensible