Politics

When Lexie Hill appeared on Question Time last month, she left Cabinet minister Liz Truss speechless when she offered up her argument for leaving the EU. The Brexit youth dismissed the Environment Secretary’s claim that the Prime Minister’s EU negotiation deal will reduce the ‘pull factors’ attracting migrants — arguing that a rise in the living wage would actually do the opposite: ‘I’m sorry but I can’t accept Liz’s arguments. What is increasing the living wage to £9-per-hour in 2020 going to do? Especially Eastern Europeans who have a minimum wage that’s already one tenth of what ours is’ With the clip going viral and Lexie championed as a new

One of the striking things about the European Union referendum debate so far – apart from how cross everyone is with each other – is how blokey the whole thing has been. There are high-profile women on either side of the debate – Theresa May (who has been rather quiet since her announcement that she was backing ‘In’), Nicky Morgan, Nicola Sturgeon and Caroline Lucas for ‘In’, and Priti Patel, Andrea Leadsom and Theresa Villiers for ‘Out’ – but most of the big interviews and rows about who is backing which side have featured men. Yet women are the key swing voters in this referendum. They are twice as likely

I accept it may take an effort to imagine Charles Moore dressed in a recyclable hemp skirt and organic cotton kimono, his body adorned with the bangles, tattoos and piercings of a genderqueer National Union of Students diversity officer. But you should try. No, really, you should. Students are not the only ones who lock themselves in safe spaces and no-platform all who disturb their doltish peace with argument. The poor dears of the Eurosceptic right are every bit as precious. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Moore, of this parish, found the courage to overcome the subaltern status a hierarchical society has imposed on him, and bring us a survivor’s testimony

Education Questions in the Commons is a chance for MPs to ask questions about Education – or at least to suck up to ministers by asking them questions about what a good job they are doing. But today Nicky Morgan seemed to be talking about something that wasn’t so much tenuously related to her department as completely irrelevant. In her exchanges with Lucy Powell, the Education Secretary managed to end up talking about Europe. She said: ‘Isn’t it typical, Mr Speaker, that on that side of the House, they need to learn the lesson that the Vote Leave campaign needs to learn as well, which is that if you talk about

Conservative eurosceptics are trying to hammer Number 10 on the suspension and resignation of British Chambers of Commerce Director General John Longworth over his comments about the EU referendum. David Davis has announced that he is putting in FOI requests to Number 10, Number 11 and the Business Department for details of conversations between ministers, officials or advisers and the BCC. It is unlikely that these requests will yield very much, but Davis is presumably sending them in order to make a statement about Longworth’s resignation and to keep up the pressure on a story that has been running for a few days now. The reason Tory MPs are so

For those uninspired by the current London mayoral race, there is still hope that things will get more interesting. Morrissey, the Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now singer, is said to be pondering entering the running. The Animal Welfare Party have asked The Smiths frontman to consider standing as their candidate in the election, while his fan website claims he is ‘considering the contest very seriously’. If elected, the singer’s number one concern would be animal welfare: ‘There must be a governmental voice against the hellish and archaic social injustice allotted to animals in the United Kingdom simply because those animals do not speak English, otherwise millions of very caring citizens are greatly concerned about