Although David Cameron insists that he wishes to remain on good terms with his Brexit-supporting Cabinet members, he’s not planning to make life easy for them. Today Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, has issued new guidance relating to the referendum that means SpAds and civil servants are banned from assisting Eurosceptic ministers with any material that could be used to back Brexit
It wasn’t quite David Cameron and his down-to-the-wire talks with the EU leaders, but it’s as close as we get in Scotland. For the last eight months, the Scottish and UK governments have been trying to secure agreement over the financial settlement which will underpin the new tranche of powers to come to Holyrood – the
The number of Tory MPs who have yet to declare what their stance is in the EU referendum is dwindling. Some of those are away, including Tracey Crouch, who is on maternity leave and gave this very amusing response to those asking about her priorities, while others have decided not to reveal which way they
Something very strange is happening in London: its state schools are going through a huge renaissance – while attainment in many northern English schools is going into reverse. The chief of Ofsted, Sir Micahel Wilshaw, laid the problem bare in a speech to the IPPR today:- Three in ten secondary schools in Manchester and four in ten in
As some light relief from all this EU discussion, I thought readers might like to hear about Isis. Or at least what to do about Isis. The week before last I teamed up in London with General John Allen to argue that Western boots may be needed on the ground in Syria and Iraq to
Bernard Hogan-Howe was up in front of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee today where Keith Vaz did his best to soften up the Met Police commissioner at the start of the hearing by asking him for his views on the EU referendum. But Hogan-Howe said he wasn’t getting involved: Whilst on the subject of
Labour’s angst over Trident has taken something of a back seat over the past few days as the party tries – relatively unsuccessfully – to revel in the split opening up in the Tories on Europe. But this evening, those tasked with developing Labour’s foreign policy, and particularly its stance on the nuclear deterrent, are
Ed Miliband has been keeping a low profile since stepping down as Labour leader, but could he now be angling for a return to frontline politics? Miliband was spotted engrossed in conversation this lunchtime with Team Corbyn. A beady-eyed spectator snapped a photo of Ed having a coffee with Seumas Milne — Corbyn’s director of comms —
The Third Wayists are quaking in their boots. The middle-class, middle-of-the-road technocrats who have dominated politics for the best part of three decades are freaking out. These people who bristle at anything ideological, are disdainful of heated debate, and have bizarrely turned the word ‘moderate’ into a compliment feel under siege. And no wonder they
Trying to navigate your way through the internecine wars in the Conservative Party over the referendum? Please allow the BBC’s Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg to help. This was her intro on the BBC website yesterday: Silence abhors a vacuum, and forgive me if you are not a fan of political conspiracy, and on a day
David Cameron must be getting fed up with questions about Boris by now but unfortunately for the Prime Minister they’re not going to go away anytime soon. That much was clear in his public press conference this morning. The PM managed to avoid making direct reference to Boris during his speech, in which he again
Although the Out campaign has gained momentum since Michael Gove and Boris Johnson backed Brexit, there are still concerns that the campaign is yet to find a leader. However, could their prayers be about to be answered? Step forward David Icke. Yes, the Corbyn-loving purple-tracksuit-wearing-lizard-conspiracist has plumped for Out, with a series of eye-catching pieces of
Forget Boris Johnson or Michael Gove, it could be a former Ukip candidate that convinces the nation to vote for Brexit. Mandy Boylett — the party’s former candidate for Stockton North — has recorded a parody version of Three Lions — titled ‘Britain’s Coming Home’: ‘We’re coming out, we’re voting leave Believe in Britain coming home Scare
How come so few big business leaders signed up to David Cameron’s letter in favour of remain? As the Daily Mail reported this morning: High street shops including Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Next and banks such as Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland did not put their names to the letter published today. It had been suggested
First, it was Michael Gove. Next, it was Boris Johnson. Now, a slightly smaller political beast in the form of Bromley council has come out and backed Brexit. The South London council voted last night to say it believed Britain was better off out of Europe. It passed a motion saying: This council agrees that
David Cameron’s rather pointed digs at Boris Johnson in the Commons yesterday surprised his own MPs, who had thought that they were going to be ordered to be pleasant to one another, not attack senior colleagues who had taken different stances on the European Union. At the party meeting with the Prime Minister last night,
Jeremy Corbyn was still stuck in the Commons chamber when the Labour Party held its weekly meeting this evening. He had been due to attend after MPs had complained that he was avoiding them, but this has now been moved to another week. Instead, Hilary Benn and Alan Johnson gave brief speeches on the EU
Poor Boris. Subjected to both the BBC PM programme’s satire and an evisceration by Nick Cohen right here. I just hope that, in time, he will be able to overcome both of these slights. If Boris was at fault it was in perhaps pretending to have an open mind on the issue of in-out. I
Boris Johnson is a slippery fish, but I don’t think Nick Cohen quite captures him in his blog post earlier today. To accuse him of putting career before country in the EU referendum campaign, as Cohen does, is to fall into the trap of viewing politicians too dichotomously, as if they’re all either men and women
The main difference between David Cameron’s statement to MPs on his EU deal and the two statements he has already given on the matter was that this one had added digs at Boris Johnson. Quite a few of them, in fact. The Prime Minister is clearly furious with the Mayor of London for his weekend announcement
