Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Boris is right – Britain does need rich people. And plenty of them

Boris Johnson is about the only politician in Britain to stand up for the rich, pointing out that while they may be annoying, they tend to create jobs and prosperity and having plenty of that is no bad thing. The Mayor was interviewed for the latest Freakonomics podcast, boasting that: “London is attracting huge amounts of international investment… London is to billionaires what the jungles of Sumatra are to the orangutan. It is their natural habitat.”   Here it is the podcast – Boris is at the start:- “I’m sure you like your poor people too,” replied the presenter – which is an odd question. Does welcoming wealth imply being sniffy

Thursday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron to demand migrant benefit curbs in ‘game-changing’ immigration speech

David Cameron will make his ‘game-changer’ speech on immigration tomorrow in which he is expected to say that the UK will leave the EU if it does not secure reforms that allow the government to deny benefits to migrants. He will say: ‘If we cannot put our relationship with the EU on a better footing, then of course I rule nothing out.’ This is not the emergency brake or points-based system that the PM seemed to hint at previously and therefore unless there is more in the speech, some of his MPs may feel rather let down. Many were today saying that they expected it to be reasonably small beer,

Steerpike Steerpike

Theresa May pulls out all the stops at the Spectator Parliamentarian awards

If ever there was a tell-tale sign of who won the Great War between the Speaker and the Clerk of the Commons, it was today’s Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards. Sir Robert Rogers picked up the top prize, declaring: ‘Common sense and good governance will prevail before very long’. Mr Speaker failed to show up. The guest of honour, Home Secretary Theresa May, delivered her own comedy turn making jokes about George Osborne’s haircut. She had a point. Her barbed comment that her ‘special advisers had told her’ this would be a ‘good idea’ had a particular resonance given her starring role on the cover of this quarter’s edition of Spectator

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Net migration target fails as Cameron prepares to make more immigration pledges

We are still waiting for David Cameron’s immigration speech, expected ‘this week’. The Conservatives tried to get their apology in early for failing to meet their target to get net migration into the ‘tens of thousands’, with a series of interventions starting this summer in which top Cabinet ministers started to highlight the problems with having a target when you can’t control EU migration, ahead of today’s figures showing that the target is an ex-target, or a ‘comment’, as Theresa May tried to pass it off as recently. Fraser looks at why missing that target is a good thing for this country in his post here. But it is bad

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year 2014: the winners

The Spectator’s 27th Parliamentarian of the Year awards, sponsored by Mastercard, took place at the Savoy Hotel this afternoon. Here are the winners – and a few extracts from my speech. The awards were presented by Theresa May, and here was my spiel 1. Backbencher of the Year: Sarah Wollaston  She plotted a career way that redefines what it means to be an MP. She had never attended a political meeting before being selected for her party, in an open primary where any constituent could vote. Her election to the chair of the Health Select Committee this year underlines her status as an MP who is respected by her peers as much as

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The British jobs miracle is making a mockery of David Cameron’s migration target

Now we know why the Home Secretary did not commit the ‘tens of thousands’ immigration pledge rashly made by David Cameron in opposition. Britain is midway through a job creation miracle, with more jobs created each day in the UK than the on rest of the continent put together. And people with every right to live in Britain are coming here to work – as you might expect. Net migration from within the EU is now 75pc higher than when Cameron became Prime Minister. The chart below shows how immigration, which was coming down at first as Theresa May succeeded with her pledge to cut non-EU immigration, is now out of control again. It’s

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Never mind the general election: Tories are already fighting the Europe referendum

It is quite normal in British politics for a political party to turn on itself after an election defeat — but the Tories now seem to be preparing themselves for civil war in the unlikely event of victory. Already, the tribes are forming and snarling at each other. As ever, Europe is the casus belli. Ahead of the 2017 in/out EU referendum, the Tories will probably split into not two but three groups: the in crowd, the out crowd and the reform crowd. The fighting has already started. Take the struggle to lead the ‘out’ faction. It is at present being won by Owen Paterson, who in the last three

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The National shows just how much danger the Union – and Scotland – is still in

Nearly 20 years ago, during one of the many impasses on the road to ‘peace’ in Northern Ireland, Gerry Adams reminded his opponents that the republican movement would set the terms of any agreement. The IRA reserved a power of veto. ‘They haven’t gone away, you know,’ he said. Scotland is not Ulster, of course, but the Scottish nationalists haven’t gone away either. Anyone who thinks the referendum settled this country’s constitutional future hasn’t been paying attention. The long war continues, albeit — and mercifully — in figurative terms. If anything, defeat has encouraged the nationalists to redouble their efforts. The SNP is the only political party in Scotland that can

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Easy divorce has been catastrophic for British children (and I say this as a divorcee)

Would you find it difficult to remain friends with someone if he or she suddenly revealed that they intended to vote Ukip in the next election? Or perhaps it is the case that you yourself have told friends that you intend to vote Ukip and have seen those dinner-party invitations drying up, or have been shunned by acquaintances in the queue to order your Christmas turkey at Waitrose. A new survey suggests that Ukip is a ‘toxic’ party, with almost a quarter of people (24 per cent) reporting that we would find it hard to remain friends with someone who felt warmth and fellowship towards Nigel Farage. The implication was

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory detox mission continues as Liz Truss speaks softly to ‘Green Blob’

One of the major themes of this year’s big Tory reshuffle was the attempt to detoxify certain policy areas where a minister was involved in a stand-off with certain groups the Tory party would quite like to vote for them. Michael Gove lost his job as Education Secretary for this reason, and so too did Nick Boles find himself being moved from Planning to Skills. Owen Paterson’s departure was a bit more complicated: his aide warned in the days before the reshuffle that to move the Environment Secretary would be to leave 12 million voters in the countryside without a voice, but he was in the midst of pretty high

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will Cameron talk to his MPs before his ‘game-changer’ immigration speech?

We still don’t know when David Cameron’s long-awaited ‘game-changer’ speech on immigration will be. Downing Street is only saying that it will be ‘before Christmas’, but it is still expected to be this week. Nick Clegg certainly thinks it is soon, as he’s been putting his own thoughts about today, saying he’ll support benefit curbs for migrants but not changes to freedom of movement. Some Tory MPs also think they should engage the Prime Minister in a spot of last minute lobbying, with varying levels of success. The Europhiles represented by European Mainstream have asked to meet David Cameron this week to put their views across but have been told

Charlotte Henry

The Labour MPs who deny planning to defect to Ukip

Ukip are desperate to build on the momentum from their Rochester win as the general election looms ever closer. At the very top of the party figures including leader Nigel Farage and Deputy Chairman Suzanne Evans have made no secret of the fact that they’d like their next major defector to come from Labour. So, are Ukip going to succeed in wooing over a Labourite, and if so, who? Former Cabinet member Kate Hoey has the right Eurosceptic credentials for Ukip, although her Vauxhall constituency doesn’t lend itself to joining the purple ‘people’s army’, given Ukip’s weakness in London. I got in touch with her office and Hoey replied saying ‘I

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: Ukip’s presence unnerves both the Tories and Labour

Ed Miliband is determined to talk about the NHS as much as possible at PMQs while David Cameron wants the economy to be Topic A. The result: Miliband asks about the NHS and Cameron replies by saying that you can’t have a strong NHS without a strong economy. At the moment, there is no sign of either side being able to break this PMQs stalemate. listen to ‘PMQs: Leaders battle over the NHS’ on audioBoom With the leaders stuck in a groove, the backbench questions are now where the action is. The SNP’s Pete Wishart previewed one of the SNP’s 2015 lines of attack, warning of a Ukip-UK as the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

PMQs: Ukip’s Mark Reckless begins his battle to hold his seat with local question

‘Oooooh!’ shouted MPs when Mark Reckless got to his feet today at Prime Minister’s Questions for his first chance as a Ukipper to grill David Cameron. The newly-re-elected MP had looked rather nervous for most of the session as he bobbed up and down trying to get the Speaker’s attention, but he probably didn’t need to be so anxious given Bercow is normally very happy to call new MPs, especially ones the Prime Minister doesn’t like. When his chance came, he asked the following question: ‘I’m grateful to the Prime Minister for spending so much time in Rochester and Strood. Dr Philip Barnes, acting chief executive of Medway Hospital, said

Steerpike Steerpike

Another gong for May

What a busy week for Theresa May as she picked up a gong for Politician of the Year at the Political Studies Association awards at Church House last night. The BBC’s Nick Robinson was in full sycophant mode as he presented the Home Secretary’s prize, laying it on thick for his academic hosts, thanking them for allowing the media ‘to make your wisdom, our wisdom’. He couldn’t resist a crack at ‘Mother Theresa’ though, describing the voting process as a ‘non binding’ but ‘indicative vote’ much like the one on the European Arrest Warrant. No doubt Downing Street will enjoy Mrs May soaking up some more of the limelight. Other

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ministers to unveil counter- terror laws

Today is the day ministers set out their new counter-terrorism legislation following Theresa May’s revelations on Monday about the number of thwarted terror attacks and yesterday’s publication of the ISC report into the murder of Lee Rigby. The new laws will include obligations for schools and universities to combat extremism but there is also a strong possibilities that internet companies will find legislation telling them what to do. Yesterday Facebook insisted it was taking tackling terrorism seriously but today Justice Minister Simon Hughes dropped a strong hint that these tech companies may find it set out for them quite clearly what the government considers to be a serious approach to

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Who used Rachel Johnson’s Twitter account to post a rude message about the PM?

‘Apologies everyone and especially to our Leader’ tweets Rachel Johnson after a very rude word appeared on her Twitter feed about the Prime Minister: Apparently the columnist and famous sibling was ‘hacked’. Mr S knows how these things are: you go out of the room for five minutes and bam! your naughty sibling has seized your computer and written all sorts of cuss words under your name about some chap he doesn’t like…

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

MPs to discuss legacy of Afghan conflict this week

Yesterday the final UK personnel left Kandahar airfield, with just a few hundred British defence workers left in Afghanistan to help train the country’s future officers. MPs have been assured that the country won’t end up the same way as Iraq, with the RAF returning to the skies above the country to combat Isis, but few of them are fully confident that these assurances will bear up. Defence Select Committee reports have cast further doubts on that and MPs have been pressing for a while to have a debate on the end of the conflict in the country. Yesterday Tory Julian Lewis received a nod from Defence Secretary Michael Fallon

Steerpike Steerpike

Eric Pickles puts John Prescott’s surplus stationery to good use

Since 2010, every government department has tried to highlight the profligate spending of their predecessors in the most imaginative ways possible. In return, Labour have been on the look out for the slightest whiff of waste upon which to jump in order to claim they have changed their ways. Parliamentary Questions are placed, diaries tipped off and John Prescott is still denying that the civil service credit card billing at his local Chinese was anything to do with him. This latest letter that I have been passed, however, takes the metaphorical biscuit. After a story appeared in the Sun on Sunday about glamorous Russian fans demanding photos of Eric Pickles, it seems