Politics

Is Brexit going soft? In the aftermath of the election, some are worried that might be the case. While others are hopeful that a hard Brexit (i.e. leaving the single market) is now off the table. Michael Gove’s interview on Today was a reassurance that whatever type of Brexit Britain does end up with, a consensus is being sought out. Gove made it clear that the majority of Brits, by voting for Labour and the Tories (82.4 per cent backed the parties last week), opted to vote for parties committed to Brexit. This is a sensible rebuke to those trying to read into voters’ lukewarm enthusiasm for Theresa May a sign

There are many lessons to learn from the utter calamity of the general election, but here is just one: be cautious of any politician who asks you to judge their ideas via their clothes. Theresa May did – and it should have been a warning sign. As she discussed ‘boy jobs and girl jobs’ on The One Show, she wore pearls and a tweed jacket, to keep the Daily Mail happy. The election was announced, business-like, in a blue-and-white pinstriped power suit. She appeared in Vogue – her favourite magazine – wearing expensive leather trousers, then spent the following weeks having to defend the decision. The chainmail necklace became her talisman throughout the campaign. Then there were the

Liz Truss, I think it’s fair to say, was miscast as justice secretary. She was appointed only last July by Theresa May and demoted rather cruelly on Sunday night to be Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Truss is far more capable than her critics allow; but I would still argue that the job wasn’t right for her. Before her move to 102 Petty France, she had been an impressive education minister under Michael Gove and – bar one excruciating speech – was said to be a very capable environment secretary. But justice was a bad fit. There are a few reasons for this. Whitehall whispers suggest that Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, didn’t think she was ready to run such a

Here’s the full transcript from Andrew Neil’s interview with Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 committee, on the Sunday Politics show: AN: Graham Brady, you think Mrs May should soldier on, why? GB: Well, there’s no other party that is in a position to form a government. Clearly these aren’t the circumstances that either the Prime Minister or I or any of my colleagues would have wanted to be dealing with at the moment but they are the circumstances the electorate has presented us with and I think it’s our duty to make the best of that. It’s our duty to try to offer a government as resilient as

Theresa May’s Cabinet reshuffle in full: Michael Gove makes a Cabinet return as Environment Secretary; Damian Green is promoted to ‘First Secretary of State’, replaced as Work & Pensions Secretary by David Gauke, who is replaced as Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Liz Truss, formerly Justice Secretary. David Lidington replaces Truss; Andrea Leadsom is the new Leader of the House of Commons Liam Fox is reappointed as Secretary of State for International Trade; Justine Greening stays put as Education Secretary; Sajid Javid will remain Communities Secretary; Alun Cairns keeps his job as Secretary of State for Wales; Gavin Williamson remains Chief Whip; Jeremy Hunt stays put as Health Secretary; Chris Grayling stays as Transport Secretary; Priti

With Theresa May currently AWOL, Jeremy Corbyn has been making the most of her absence this morning. As Tory ministers attempt a damage limitation exercise, the buoyant Labour leader appeared on the Andrew Marr show to say his party is ‘ready and able to form’ a government. Corbyn was in good spirits as he declared his party’s election result ‘incredibly good’ – even if they did fall well short of gaining power. Confident of momentum building behind his party, Corbyn said he thought there was a good chance of another election wither ‘later this year or early next year’ – concluding that this ‘might be a good thing’. He insisted his party