Politics

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

Tuesday

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Diane Abbott has revealed Labour’s biggest political problem

Peter Mandelson said just before the 2001 general election, that ‘no politician would declare that they were “against” ambition’. And yet, that’s what Diane Abbott did on Newsnight yesterday evening. In an interview with Lewis Goodall, she spoke about Keir Starmer and the time she shared with him in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. Asked about his evident desire to become Labour leader, Abbott replied, ‘Keir Starmer’s ambition is fairly apparent’, with ‘ambition’ said in an accusatory way, as if having such a thing was an obviously bad thing. ‘I blame his mother for calling him Keir’, the former shadow home secretary added at another point in the interview. Abbott’s comments are

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Burnham’s war won’t end any time soon

Who will win in the stand-off between Downing Street and Greater Manchester leaders over Covid restrictions? At first glance, it seems as though central government will inevitably emerge victorious, given ministers have the power to unilaterally impose tier-three restrictions on the area. Last night Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick threatened to do just that, saying:  There are now more Covid-19 patients in Greater Manchester hospitals than in the whole of the South West and South East combined. But, unfortunately, despite recognising the gravity of the situation, local leaders have been so far unwilling to take the action that is required to get this situation under control. I have written to local

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Diane Abbott takes on Starmer

Corbynite ultra Diane Abbott has given an interview to Newsnight in which she denounces Labour leader Keir Starmer in her own particular, Abbott-esque way. Starmer’s problem? Ambition. Oh, and also being named ‘Keir’ by his mother.  In reality, this is just a return to form for Diane. Her political career has been defined by the struggle against the prevailing Labour leader — that is, every leadership except Jeremy’s.  Her criticisms come hot on the heels of reports that the Corbynite rump of the parliamentary Labour party are forming their own socialist ERG to take on Starmer. Hear that? That’s the sound of harmony being restored…

Martin Howe Qc

Why Boris should reject this Brexit deal

Boris Johnson says the EU has refused to negotiate seriously with the UK for the last few months, and time has now run out for reaching a trade agreement before 31 December when the current transition period ends. The PM has been pressing the EU for a free-trade agreement comparable to Canada’s deal with the EU (CETA). He is right to say that what the EU is offering the UK is inferior to CETA, despite the UK’s close relationship with the EU for the last 45 years which should, if anything, lead to a better deal. The problem isn’t just the EU’s demands for permanent ownership of a large slice

Monday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

No. 10: EU must go further to restart Brexit talks

The government’s negotiations with the EU appear to be going a little better than their talks with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham. While there is yet to an agreement on moving Greater Manchester into Tier 3, there has been a development on Brexit. On Friday, the Prime Minister used a video clip to warn the country to prepare for no deal. He complained that EU intransigence meant that unless there was a shift from Brussels, there was little point continuing the trade talks. Michel Barnier’s offer to come to the UK this week was declined and Michael Gove toured the television studios on Sunday insisting the UK is willing to go it

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Theresa May glares at Michael Gove

It can be a hard task adjusting to life on the backbenches after leaving front-line politics. One minute you’re running the country, the next you’re being batted away by busy ministers. Former Prime Minister Theresa May appeared to learn that lesson this afternoon in the Commons, when submitting a question on Brexit to Michael Gove. May was quizzing the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on security arrangements after Britain leaves the EU and wanted to make sure the UK is still able to access European police databases in the event of no deal. But the former PM appeared less than pleased with Gove’s response, when he suggested that we could police

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Why are bishops meddling in the Internal Market Bill?

What century is it? I ask because, this morning, the five most senior bishops in the country publicly rebuked our democratically elected government and effectively called on the unelected peers of the House of Lords to rebel against a Bill passed by the House of Commons. Bishops throwing their spiritual weight around to try to force political representatives to change course? I feel like I’ve just stepped out of a time machine into the 15th century. In a letter published in the Financial Times today, the Archbishops of Canterbury, York, Wales and Armagh, as well as the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, laid into the Internal Market Bill. As

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

What will break the Manchester deadlock?

14 min listen

The government is today expected to announce whether Greater Manchester will be placed into a tier three lockdown after negotiations with Andy Burnham continued over the weekend. Why have the talks been so protracted? Does the Mayor disagree with lockdown, or simply want more financial support? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will the Welsh ‘firebreak’ be successful?

Wales’s introduction of a two week so-called Covid ‘firebreak’ is the most dramatic divergence between the UK nations yet. The ‘firebreak’, which will see people told to stay home and non-essential retail and hospitality closed, will give us some sense of how effective or not the ‘circuit-break’ that Sage proposed would have been. The ‘firebreak’ is strict. People will be banned from meeting people from other households indoors and out, senior years at secondary school will not return to the classroom after half-term, and places of worship will be closed for everything other than funerals. The new rules will undoubtedly cause social and economic harms. Mark Drakeford, the Welsh First

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Is Boris Johnson ready to blow up a free trade deal?

As far as I can gather, the EU has only one genuinely non-negotiable red line that could prevent a resumption of talks on a free trade agreement with the UK – which will be made clear by its negotiator Michel Barnier in a telephone call on Monday with the UK negotiator David Frost. Barnier and the EU are insisting the UK adhere to the EU’s framework for limiting subsidies to businesses, what is called ‘state aid’, and there should be a UK enforcement mechanism for those state aid rules. The prime minister, counselled on this issue by Dominic Cummings, has been saying this is unacceptable because: 1) Boris Johnson wants

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Andy Burnham vs No. 10

Is Greater Manchester about to go into tier three restrictions? That’s the hope in government following a week of negotiations, a war of words playing out in the media and internal Tory division. Metro mayor Andy Burnham — known in some parts of the internet as the ‘king of the north’ — has been resisting pressure from No. 10 to move to ‘very high risk’, complaining that the financial support is lacking. There is a determination in No. 10 to stick with the localised approach rather than move — as Burnham and Keir Starmer have suggested — to nationwide measures. To do that, the government is now offering extra funding and there’s a

Sunday

Daniel DePetris

Even Trump’s friends are turning against him

If there is one word that best describes Senate Republicans in the age of Donald Trump, it’s “docile.” With the exception of a few independent-minded lawmakers who have been able to make a name for themselves or who have spent decades cultivating their own brand, the Senate GOP conference has played the roll of cannon fodder–dewey-eyed shock troops at the front waiting for instructions from the General residing on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue. It doesn’t matter what Trump says or what controversy he creates for himself: the GOP will defend him until the last man standing. Yet a little more than two weeks from Election Day, this dynamic

Dr Chris Papadopoulos

Chess vs football: the vital distinction in lockdown strategy

Nearly a month ago, I called for an urgent 24-day full national lockdown, arguing that the restrictions were unlikely to make a significant difference in reducing transmission. If we had acted strongly and decisively then, and implemented a circuit-breaker lockdown — as we now know that the government’s scientific advisory group Sage also wanted — we would be in a much stronger position today. Many readers considered it a controversial and unwise strategy. The government agreed, declining Sage’s advice and instead announcing the eventual rollout of a three-tier system covering areas of ‘medium’, ‘high’ and ‘very high’ risk, each with their own restrictions. Yet case rates, hospitalisations and deaths continue to increase across the country.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows roundup: Burnham – tier three will ’cause real harm’

Andy Burnham – Trapping us in tier three will ’cause real harm’ The government’s standoff with regional leaders in the north west was played out on television this morning. Andrew Marr spoke to Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, who has been the most prominent voice in resisting the highest level of coronavirus restrictions being imposed on the county. Citing Greater Manchester’s adherence to local lockdown measures for just under three months, Burnham argued that adopting the tier three controls was unrealistic without added economic support for his constituents: AB: Protecting health is about more than controlling the virus… Peoples’ mental health is pretty low… What I would say

Dr Waqar Rashid Dr Waqar Rashid

The end of the Sage supremacy

Something very significant happened during Boris Johnson’s national address this week. It was not the announcement of the new three tier local risk-based system of restrictions – imaginatively titled medium, high and very high. It was what didn’t happen. The Prime Minister resisted applying a ‘circuit break’ national lockdown which it now transpires was being pushed by the government’s scientific advisors (Sage). In doing so, he rejected this most blunt of tools as a means of controlling this pandemic. I do not know how close the Prime Minister was to calling for a national lockdown. But the over-reach from his scientific representatives Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance, during their televised

Saturday

John Connolly John Connolly

Introducing the Northern Research Group: the trade union for Tory MPs

Boris Johnson has not had the easiest of relationships with the north lately. While the Prime Minister started his premiership promising to ‘level up’ northern regions, during the pandemic he’s ended up spending more time clamping them down, as Covid restrictions have been introduced across swathes of the north, and he’s clashed with local MPs and regional mayors. So you’d imagine he was not exactly enthused when it was announced last week that a new group of Tory MPs were banding together to form a ‘Northern Research Group’ (NRG) to make sure the ‘levelling up’ agenda was not forgotten. These days ‘Research Group’ tends to spell trouble for the government.

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Burnham’s gamble could collapse around him

If they were to give out awards for best use of an anorak to communicate stroppy defiance then Andy Burnham would be about to break the stranglehold of former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher. In a city where it rains on more than 150 days a year, it is perhaps unsurprising that the anorak has become the garb of the everyman. And it was surely no accident that Greater Manchester’s Mayor was clad in one as he spoke out on Thursday against Whitehall’s plans to put his region into the highest tier of lockdown controls. After successfully launching his theme on the BBC’s Question Time last week (when he told viewers

Friday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Spectator TV: Boris ‘needs to look after us, bluntly’ urges northern Tory MP

Despite being barely two months old, Spectator TV — The Spectator‘s latest broadcast venture — is already making headlines from New York to New Zealand. Andrew Neil‘s interview with Dr David Nabarro of the World Health Organization was raised in the House of Commons and even tweeted by Donald Trump. In this week’s episode, Andrew Neil is joined by feminist activist and former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali to discuss Emmanuel Macron new bid to tackle Islamic extremism. However, she has her reservations about the French President’s plans: Leaders have failed constantly, and they’ve failed in four ways. They failed to make it very clear what Islamism is; they’ve allied with the wrong people; they’ve failed to

John Connolly John Connolly

Boris Johnson piles the pressure on Andy Burnham

In a press conference this afternoon, Boris Johnson stepped up his war of words with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, after the government failed to reach an agreement with the region about moving into Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions again today. The Prime Minister first singled out for praise the Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and local leaders in Lancashire, for ‘working constructively’ with the government and entering into Tier 3 restrictions this week. In contrast, he said the government has not yet managed to reach an agreement with Greater Manchester. The Prime Minister then stressed the ‘grave’ situation in the area, with cases doubling every nine days,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris’s Covid strategy could lead to stricter lockdowns

Boris Johnson will hold a press conference later this afternoon to discuss the new local restrictions — and how they’ll work. Even if he wanted to do a national circuit-breaker lockdown it is now almost politically impossible for him to do so given that Keir Starmer has now called for it, I say in the Times today. One cabinet minister who knows the Tory parliamentary party better than most warns: ‘If they do it after all this, they’ll be in absolutely the worst possible place.’ ‘It will be very different to March. That community spirit has just gone’ Rejecting the idea of what would, in effect, be a second national