Politics

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

Saturday

Michael Kelly

Boris’s green industrial revolution is doomed to fail

Boris Johnson’s ‘green industrial revolution’, which was announced this week, looks doomed from the outset. From our heating to how we transport food, the proposals would mean a complete overhaul in the way we live. Yet barely a word has been said about the immense practical difficulties involved in Johnson’s ten-point plan for Britain to go carbon neutral by 2050. Make no mistake, it will be close to impossible to achieve – and even trying could prove catastrophic. Nowhere is the flaw in the government’s plan more clearly exposed than in the announcement that sales of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars will be banned by 2030. There are more than 38.9 million

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Why are Ed Davey’s Lib Dems keeping such a low profile?

Paddy Ashdown once joked that he was the only leader of a major party to have presided over an opinion poll rating represented by an asterisk, denoting that no discernible support could be found anywhere in the land. While he was granting himself poetic licence in the telling of that anecdote – it was an occasional foible of one polling company only to list the Tory and Labour scores on the front page of its survey results – it was indeed the case that Lib Dem poll ratings of five per cent or less peppered the early stages of his leadership. This week an opinion poll by Savanta ComRes recorded that

Friday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

A minister for men would help solve one problem

Why don’t we have a minister for men? That’s the question Tory MP Ben Bradley asked this week, and he’s found himself the centre of a great deal of social media fury for doing so. I say ‘found himself’, but it’s highly unlikely Bradley really thought anything else was going to happen, not least because he made this call during a backbench debate he had organised with his Conservative colleague Philip Davies, who has a specialism in winding people up. In that debate, Bradley argued that ‘men are talked about, all too often, as a problem that must be rectified’, and complained that the equalities agenda seemed to exist to

Steerpike Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s anti-bullying week gaffe

Boris Johnson has been forced into an embarrassing row today, after the government published a report into allegations that Home Secretary Priti Patel bullied her staff – and which found that she broke the ministerial code. Despite this, the Prime Minister declined to punish Patel, which then led his advisor on ministerial standards to stand down. A protracted dispute with the civil service about bullying would be awkward enough, merely days after Downing Street promised a grand reset of its communications. But Mr S wonders if the Patel row may have come at the worst possible moment for the government: considering that it is currently anti-bullying week. That presumably explains

Sarah Ditum

No, Ben Bradley: we don’t need a minister for men

Happy International Men’s Day! Sorry I’m late by one day, it’s just that I don’t really know what it’s for. I mean, yes, I’m grateful for its existence on International Women’s Day whenever someone says ‘Ah, but when is International Men’s Day?’, and I can reply: ’19 November’. But even then, it basically spoils a much better answer, which is to say, ‘Every other day of the year is International Men’s Day.’  Anyway, it was International Men’s Day, and as usual the vast majority of men did not care. But one man who cared very much indeed was Conservative MP Ben Bradley, who gave a speech in Parliament about how

Matthew Lynn

A public sector pay freeze is completely fair

They’ve only received a fraction of their old salaries. Many have missed out on months of work. And their pension contributions and holidays have been completely scrapped. So it is perhaps understandable that teachers, town planners and tax officials are feeling a little aggrieved. Except, er, no, sorry I made a mistake there. That was a description of what happened to the self-employed over the last eight months, not the average public sector worker. Instead, it now looks likely that the government will impose a pay freeze on everyone who works for the government this year, and possibly next as well. The 5.5 million affected will reportedly include the police, armed

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Do some people have hidden immunity against Covid?

Remember ‘immunity passports’? Back in April they were floated as a possible means by which we could all get back to a normal life. We could be tested for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 – the virus which causes Covid-19 – and, if we tested positive, we could be allowed to go about our business. The presumption was that we would be immune from further infection, at least for a while. The idea quickly bit the dust. There was one good argument against it: it might encourage young people, who are very unlikely to come to harm from Covid-19, deliberately to set out to catch it in order to gain a positive

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Why Priti Patel is staying put

13 min listen

Sir Alex Allen, a top civil servant in charge of the report into allegations of bullying at the Home Office, has resigned, but the Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is at the centre of it all, has not. Why is the Prime Minister so keen to ‘stick with Prit’? Fraser Nelson talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

Andrew Willshire

Brexit could help Boris’s green revolution come to life

Boris Johnson announced his new ten-point plan for Britain’s transition to a net-zero carbon emissions economy this week. It is expected that other countries will follow. The EU has a stated aim of achieving a net-zero economy by 2050, with a 60 per cent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2030. This presents an opportunity to develop British industry to a position where it can capitalise on the opportunities presented. The word ‘develop’ is doing a lot of work in that sentence, of course. What might it involve? There is certainly an emphasis in the plans announced on more R&D, including innovations around hydrogen and nuclear power, low emission

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Why Boris, not Rishi, will lead the Tories into the next election

Some Tory MPs are hoping that Dominic Cummings’ departure from Downing Street will bring with it a vital lift to Boris Johnson’s premiership. Other Tory MPs have made up their minds about Boris already. Either they think he was always a flawed character whose only use was winning them the 2019 general election, a job long since passed; or they have been turned off by any number of things that have transpired in 2020. Basically, some Conservative MPs will be disappointed in 2021 when Boris turns out to be Boris; others are past caring. In spite of this, it seems almost certain that Boris Johnson remains in Number 10 for

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tory MPs rally to Priti Patel’s defence

In the weeks before the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic became clear, Priti Patel was the biggest story in Westminster. In March, her most senior Home Office civil servant, Philip Rutnam, resigned and when doing so read out a statement in which he said he had been subject to a ‘vicious and orchestrated campaign’  against him after he challenged the alleged mistreatment of civil servants by Patel. To deal with the furore that followed, a Cabinet Office inquiry into allegations of bullying by the Home Secretary began. It concluded some time ago yet nothing had been made public until now. That is now changing. The report has found that Patel’s behaviour could be described as

Thursday

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Boris in a spin: can the PM find his way again?

36 min listen

After two of Boris Johnson’s most influential advisers left Downing Street last week, can the PM reset his relationship with the Tory party and find his way again? (00:58) Lara is joined by the Spectator’s deputy political editor, Katy Balls, and former director of communications for David Cameron, Craig Oliver. A coronavirus vaccine seems to be the only way out of continued lockdowns, so should everyone be forced to have the jab? (13:49) The Spectator’s literary editor, Sam Leith, joins the podcast with Professor Mona Siddiqui, who sits on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. And finally, should we start referring to people by their surnames again? (25:30) Historian Guy Walters

Steerpike Steerpike

When will Twitter crack down on Corbyn?

Whenever Donald Trump tweets something these days, it doesn’t take long before Twitter moves in with a warning. ‘This claim about election fraud is disputed,’ is one of the latest hectoring messages to be slapped on the outgoing president’s tweets. Yesterday no fewer than nine of Trump’s tweets were accompanied by similar links added by moderators. It’s clear that when Twitter wants to, it can act quickly.  So Mr S wonders how long it will be before it acts against another politician with a disputed claim on his profile? Jeremy Corbyn was told yesterday that he won’t be getting the Labour whip back. This effectively means Corbyn is now an independent MP.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris should heed Douglas Ross’s warning about the Union

Boris Johnson’s comments about devolution having been a ‘disaster’ were not entirely wrong: it is hard to point to a problem devolution has solved. But given the popular support for devolution, it was a mistake for Johnson to say this out loud, I say in the magazine this week. The comment was a gift to Scottish Nationalists who will now claim that Scots must vote for independence to stop Westminster from taking away their parliament. Given that the SNP could deprive him of his premiership — and end this 300-year-old Union — Johnson must learn how his words will be interpreted north of the border. His enemies seek to portray

Steerpike Steerpike

Michel Barnier’s Brexit team catch Covid – again

Oh dear. Readers may remember that back in March the Brexit talks between Britain and the EU were briefly derailed, after the EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier tested positive for coronavirus. Shortly afterwards, the UK negotiator David Frost also began to develop symptoms and was forced into isolation. You would have hoped after the incident, the two negotiating teams would be keenly aware of the way Covid can interrupt talks – especially as we inch closer to Britain failing to reach a trade with the bloc at the end of the year. Unfortunately though, it appears that lightening does strike twice. This afternoon, Barnier announced that one of his team had

Ben Habib

Red Wall voters won’t be impressed by Boris’s green agenda

The Red Wall, Blue Collar Conservative, Old Labour, Workington Man – or whatever name you wish to attach to this loose coalition – will be unimpressed by Boris’s ‘green industrial revolution’. This group of voters, many of whom had never turned to the Tories before, backed Boris Johnson to ‘get it done’. Their vote for Brexit was a vote for the economic prosperity that has eluded them for decades. Boris would be wise to remember this. Would Red Wall voters have got behind David Cameron? It’s not likely, given that Cameron arguably saw his mission as being to ingratiate himself with disaffected Liberal Democrats and the great and the good on the international stage. But

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Cummings goes, Corbyn returns and pigeon sells for £1.4m

Home Dominic Cummings, the chief adviser to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, left Downing Street after a week in which the public learnt that Lee Cain was the director of communications at No. 10, and that he had resigned after his appointment as chief of staff was withdrawn. The imbroglio directed focus on the performance of the Prime Minister and gave an opportunity for politicians to air their grievances. Mr Johnson then went into 14 days of quarantine, having been contacted by the national Test and Trace system after breakfasting with Covid-ridden Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield. Mr Johnson’s own Covid test proved negative. He had intended to set out

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Are our churches safe from Justin Welby?

‘Frost & Lewis’. It sounds like a programme amalgamating two of the most famous TV detectives. The former diplomat, Lord (David) Frost, is our chief Brexit negotiator and Oliver Lewis, an expert on the Irish aspects, is his right-hand man. Until recently, they were simply considered the two best men for the job. Since the departure of Dominic Cummings, they have acquired a political role too. Close colleagues of Cummings who did not walk out with him, they stayed to Get Brexit Done, so they act as reassurance to anxious Brexiteers that the government will not throw in the sponge. Their staying also implies a threat. Dom has said he

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Inside the court of Carrie Symonds, princess of whales

Carrie Symonds, the Prime Minister’s fiancée, ‘gets’ the media. That’s what her friends are quick to tell you. She’s a PR professional. If she doesn’t like the thrust of a story, she lets you know. She contacts journalists to tell them how ‘disappointed’ she is in their sloppy work. And she doesn’t seem all that scared of senior newspaper editors, perhaps because her father co-founded the Independent. It’s said she even thinks she can ‘edit what goes in the Mail on Sunday’. When the Times ran a silly piece suggesting she had ‘grown weary’ of Dilyn, her rescue dog, and that the poor creature was facing a ‘reshuffle’, she is