Politics Archives

Friday

7 Jul 2023

The Kremlin is trying to humiliate Prigozhin

When corrupt Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was toppled in 2014, his private estate at Mezhyhirya turned out to contain an ostrich farm, chandeliers worth thousands and and a two-kilo gold loaf of bread. When Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s St Petersburg estate was raided, investigators found cash, guns – and a bizarre collection of wigs. But what does the eager ‘through the keyhole’ leak of footage from the raid tell us about the state of play in the Putin-Prigozhin grudge match? A giant sledgehammer in one room was inscribed, ‘For use in important negotiations’ Prigozhin himself is still at large. Although we were told the deal was for him to

Jawad Iqbal

Why won’t James Cleverly stand up to Iran?

The Foreign Office is making a big mistake in failing to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist group. The 100,000 strong organisation, the most powerful wing of Iran’s security apparatus, was established after the 1979 Islamic revolution. For decades it has been at the heart of Iranian support for global terrorism on foreign soil, including the UK and Europe. It also arms and supports militant groups across the Middle East. By any rational measure the group meets all the criteria for a ban under the 2000 Terrorism Act. Yet the Foreign Office continues to avoid the necessary step of proscribing the revolutionary guards, despite fresh evidence from

Steerpike

Watch: Question Time audience member takes Johnny Mercer to task

As Tory MP Johnny Mercer found out last night, any politician who chooses to go on BBC’s Question Time is brave soul indeed. Following an evening of bullish debate, one member of the audience decided to take the veterans minister to task after Mercer complained about people voicing their anger on social media. Pulling him up on what he branded ‘collective bed-wetting’, she said: Given that a number of Conservatives and the Conservative party have shut down any form of meaningful protest, and he’s shouting across every member of this panel tonight, how else are we meant to get our point across other than on social media? Now that’s a

Euan McColm

Has Humza Yousaf achieved anything in his first 100 days?

Perhaps Humza Yousaf’s greatest achievement in his first 100 days as First Minister is that he has survived them. Since succeeding Nicola Sturgeon in March, Yousaf has stumbled from crisis to crisis. His leadership has played out like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone where, long ago, the lead character got the message that they should be careful what they wish for. The new First Minister inherited a party that showed no sign of losing its position as the dominant force in Scottish politics. Three months on, the SNP is in a mess with voters abandoning it in favour of a unionist Labour party. Yousaf took power promising his supporters

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf is heading for an election drubbing

Today Humza Yousaf’s 100 days as First Minister, yet not even that has gone right: the nationalist leader has been upstaged by the departure of Mhairi Black earlier this week. The SNP Westminster group’s deputy leader announced she would not be standing for re-election on Tuesday, claiming that the culture of Westminster politics is too ‘toxic’. That makes six nationalist MPs who have now thrown in the towel, or six ‘Nats deserting the sinking ship’, as Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie put it. But this is certainly not the first time that Humza Yousaf has had the limelight stolen from him. His debut speech to Holyrood as First Minister

Thursday

6 Jul 2023

Steerpike

Keir and Khan clash on Ulez

Ding, ding, ding! That sound you can hear is two monumental egos colliding in a bit of vintage Labour politicking. In the red corner is Keir Starmer, the party leader and chameleon extraordinaire – a man with more positions than the Karma Sutra. And, er, also in the red corner is Sadiq Khan, London Mayor and virtue-signaller-in-chief. The pair have clashed today over the latter’s unpopular plans to extend the capital’s ultra low emission zone (Ulez) to try to improve London’s air quality. Ulez has gone down like a bucket of cold sick with ‘white van man’ types whose votes London Tories hope to win in next year’s elections. Keir

Brendan O’Neill

When will Jolyon Maugham take the hint?

So Jolyon Maugham loses again. The crusading barrister is now almost as famous for losing cases as he is for battering to death a defenceless fox. And he hasn’t disappointed with his latest legal shenanigans. The appeal against the LGB Alliance’s charitable status, which was spearheaded by troubled trans charity Mermaids and backed by Maugham’s Good Law Project, has been comprehensively dismissed. Clearly the gays are not as easy to beat as a fox. We must be grateful for every flash of sanity in these strange times. And the tribunal’s decision not to rescind the LGB Alliance’s charitable status is very sane indeed. The judges ruled that Mermaids and the

Ross Clark

Starmer’s right to roam pledge puts the Tories in a bind

Keir Starmer has come up with a good policy for once. He is promising to offer a Scottish-style right to roam across England, which would open up vastly more tracts of land for public recreation. The right to roam granted by the Blair government 20 years ago applies only to moorland, which is rare in the South East, while Starmer’s proposal would extend to woodland and other areas of uncultivated land. It is a clever policy not just because it is popular in itself – according to a YouGov poll today 62 per cent of voters are in favour and 19 per cent against; even among Conservative voters it is supported

James Heale

Cabinet Office forced to hand over Boris WhatsApp messages

It’s more bad news for the government today. The High Court has this afternoon ordered ministers to release Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks to the Covid inquiry. Judges said there were no grounds to block inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett’s order to hand over the material. It will mean inquiry officials will have access to message exchanges between Johnson and former and current ministers and officials, including Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. The Cabinet Office can apply to not provide documents if either they don’t have them, or if they think it would be ‘unreasonable’ to hand them over. But Baroness Hallett will rule on any application and there

Lara Prendergast

Why Europe riots

36 min listen

This week: In the magazine we look at the recent protests in France. The Spectator’s Douglas Murray argues that racism is not the problem but that a significant chunk of the unintegrated immigrant population is. He is joined by Dr Rakib Ehsan, author of Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities, to investigate why Europe riots. (01:16) Also this week: Journalist Ivo Dawnay and The Spectator’s associate editor Toby Young discuss the plight of ‘politically exposed persons’ in the magazine this week. This is of course in light of the news that Nigel Farage has had his bank account closed, with many speculating he has been ‘debanked’ simply because of his political

Stephen Daisley

Humza Yousaf’s leadership isn’t dead yet

If you just ignore the opinion polls, Humza Yousaf’s first 100 days as First Minister have been an unqualified disaster. Yousaf eked across the finishing line after an internal election drenched in ruthless skullduggery and bitter factionalism. In the aftermath, he alienated and exiled his party rivals and turned the SNP backbenches from a North Korean military parade into a Holyrood remake of House of Cards. His deposit return scheme imploded and his proposed ban on fishing in 10 per cent of Scottish waters was sunk by public opposition. His government just announced that two vessels commissioned for the state-owned ferry company in 2015, and which have never been delivered, will now cost an extra £20

Cindy Yu

Chris Pincher’s suspension spells more trouble for Rishi Sunak

14 min listen

A year on from allegations that Chris Pincher groped two young men at the Carlton Club (allegations that ultimately triggered the downfall of Boris Johnson), Parliament’s standards watchdog has now found that Pincher brought the House into disrepute and recommended an eight-week suspension. On the podcast, Isabel Hardman says that this makes a by-election in his constituency of Tamworth a question of when, not if. But even worse for the Conservative party, their newly-selected candidate in that constituency is the current MP of another constituency. Cindy Yu talks to Isabel and Katy Balls about the mess that CCHQ finds itself in now. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Steerpike

Watch: protestors disrupt Starmer speech

Hold a major sporting, political or national event these days and chances are you’re going to be disrupted by a gaggle of greenies. Today’s unlucky victim was Sir Keir Starmer, giving the latest of his much-hyped ‘five missions’ speeches. As the London lawyer droned away, a pair of eco-zealots unfurled a flag behind him, protesting Labour’s decision to U-turn on the £28 billion Green New Deal. The activists were from ‘Green New Deal Rising’, the latest Peoples’-Front-of-Judea style offshoot from the Extinction Rebellion and the other great unwashed types. One indignant protestor declared: ‘Young people want action, we need a green new deal right now’ to which Sir Keir coolly

Isabel Hardman

Starmer commits to oracy classes for children

Keir Starmer is giving another speech on one of his five missions (remember them?) today. The Labour leader has a lower bar to meet with his five pledges than Rishi Sunak. While the Prime Minister has to achieve things like halving inflation by the end of the year, the Labour leader just has to stick to his policies all the way to the election manifesto. On current form, that’s enough of a challenge, but today’s announcement on smashing the ‘class ceiling’ is a particularly personal interest of Starmer’s, which gives it a better chance of survival. In a speech in Kent, Starmer will commit to oracy being a key element

Steerpike

CCHQ’s by-election bind

The report into Chris Pincher is out and it makes for damning reading. An eight-week suspension is recommended for the Tamworth MP following allegations he groped two people at the Carlton Club last summer. This means that a by-election is now highly likely. A 10 per cent threshold of petitioners is necessary to trigger a contest; across the three previous recall cases, there has been an average of 18 per cent. Official announcement of a contest could come as soon as next month. This then raises the question as to what CCHQ has been doing to prepare for the contest. The Pincher scandal broke in July last year; the Standards

Isabel Hardman

Chris Pincher’s suspension spells more trouble for Rishi Sunak

Chris Pincher should be suspended as an MP for eight weeks following allegations he groped two people at the Carlton Club last summer, Parliament’s standards watchdog has recommended. The Standards Committee report into the Tamworth MP – who was a Tory MP – found that Pincher ‘groped [two people]…and that this was unwanted, inappropriate, and upsetting’. The lengthy suspension means that Pincher’s constituency can be subject to a recall petition – the threshold needed for these petitions is a suspension of ten days or more – and that a by-election is therefore on the horizon. Pincher may choose to quit straight away and trigger that election earlier, though a problem

Gavin Mortimer

Who really helped end the French riots?

It wasn’t president Macron who brought six days of rioting in France to an end, nor the brave bands of mothers who called for calm in some of the inner-city estates. It wasn’t even the presence of 45,000 police and gendarmes on the streets that persuaded the rioters, arsonists, vandals and looters to stand down. Instead, it seems that it was the drug gangs who decided enough is enough. Having so many boys in blue patrolling the streets was bad for business and so gang leaders exerted their influence and ordered the young hoodlums back to their bedrooms. That, at least, was the news broken to Macron at the start of

Tony Abbott

The myth of Brexit-broken Britain

With inflation rampant, growth stagnant, government disintegrating, and nothing working – so I’d read, all due to Brexit, naturally – it was a wonder to fly into Heathrow, breeze through customs, and smartly get to a smoothly-functioning, clean and new London hotel via train and tube. What had happened to the strike-bound Britain that Poland was about to overtake in GDP per person? Largely the Remoaner fantasy, it seems, so prevalent even among Britons who should know better. Mind you, there were plenty of signs about disruption to come via a Pride march; and there was a vital street near Trafalgar Square partially dug up on the Sunday I arrived,

Wednesday

5 Jul 2023

Steerpike

Spectator summer party 2023, in pictures

It’s 75 years today since the NHS was founded. So what better way for Westminster’s elite to mark the occasion than by knocking back a glass or four at The Spectator’s summer shindig? Last year’s event coincided with Boris Johnson’s resignation and the subsequent leadership contest. Tonight saw something of a reunion for the two main protagonists in that drama, with both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss in attendance at 22 Old Queen Street. James Cleverly, Wes Streeting, Michael Gove and Lindsay Hoyle were among those enjoying the Pol Roger and political gossip, as Mr S mingled with SW1’s finest to hear all their secrets. Below are a selection of

Steerpike

Why is Mick Lynch now speaking up for railway passengers?

Mick Lynch, the tough-talking general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), is on the warpath again. This time, it’s the train companies who are once again the object of his ire, over plans to close 1,000 ticket offices. Lynch says this proposal amounts to a ‘savage attack on railway workers, their families and the travelling public’ – and will prove ‘catastrophic for elderly, disabled and vulnerable passengers trying to access the rail network.’ Of course, many of those same elderly, disabled and vulnerable passengers have encountered difficulties ‘trying to access the rail network’ on numerous occasions throughout the last year: during train strikes. Later

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