Politics

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

Thursday

Steven Fielding

What Keir Starmer can learn from Joe Biden

Even before the final result of the US Presidential election was known, the British left was ready with its hot takes. Momentum, which continues to proudly hold aloft the flickering flame of Corbynism, was amongst the first out of the traps, claiming that Joe Biden’s failure to achieve a landslide victory confirmed, ‘what we already know: that corporate centrism cannot deliver a decisive defeat to insurgent right-wing populism or deliver real change’. Expect more of this kind of thing from across the Labour party: somehow or other events in the US will be magically used to authenticate already-entrenched positions. Since the parallel rise of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, the

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The Bank of England’s terrifying economic projections

The Bank of England includes as one of its ‘conditioning assumptions’ in its forecasts today that the Bank Rate – the interest rate that is the benchmark for all rates – becomes negative for the first time in history next year, at minus 0.1 per cent. It describes a world in which banks are charged for not lending to us and we are charged for saving. And it is one manifestation of the desperate economic scarring caused by the virus. Another striking characteristic of today’s Bank of England projections is that UK GDP, or national income, is set to shrink by 11 per cent for the whole of 2020 –

The Spectator

Whatever the science of this lockdown, the execution has been a disgrace

The benefit of having a lockdown announced some days in advance is the ability to savour what is about to be lost. People have been able to visit friends and family, not knowing when it will be legal to meet again. Parishioners have attended church to say their farewells, as have small groups of friends and family. Small shops stayed open until midnight on Wednesday to serve customers, restaurants were booked up. Yes, we face the return of Covid-19. But was also face a government that seems in a flap, unable to decide what to do. Boris Johnson has said that this latest lockdown will last only four weeks, and there

James Forsyth James Forsyth

This lockdown comes at a high political cost

Keir Starmer has his first attack line of the next general election campaign. He will say that England’s second lockdown was longer than it needed to be because the Prime Minister didn’t act when he had the chance. If Boris Johnson had listened to the scientists, Labour will say, we’d have had a two week ‘circuit-breaker’ and controlled the virus. As things stand, a man who set his face against lockdown was then forced to adopt one — making it longer, more painful and costing far more jobs. A couple of weeks ago, there was a clear dividing line: Labour wanted national measures; the Tories wanted regional ones. So Starmer

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

France vs Islamism: how does Macron hope to prosecute his war?

Montpellier France is under attack. Two weeks ago, Samuel Paty, a middle school teacher, was decapitated in a leafy suburb of Paris after showing his students cartoons of the prophet Mohammed published by Charlie Hebdo in 2015. Last week, there were three killings at the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Nice, and after that, an Orthodox priest in Lyon was shot and gravely wounded. ‘Tell my children I love them,’ were the dying words of Simone Barreto Silva, a 44-year-old mother of three and herself an immigrant, killed in Nice. France has gone to ‘war’ with Islamic ‘separatists’, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has claimed. The police have been rounding up the

Wednesday

Matt McDonald

Biden wins Wisconsin and Michigan — is his victory imminent?

The 2020 election results have been rolling in. Joe Biden has won California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Washington DC. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming have been called for the President. CNN called Wisconsin for Biden on Wednesday. The Trump campaign is set to demand a recount of the state, citing ‘reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results.’ CNN

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Theresa May attacks lockdown

Theresa May has continued her campaign of criticism from the backbenches, questioning the government’s thinking over England’s month-long lockdown. The former PM pointed out the problems with the now-infamous 4,000 deaths a day graph used by Vallance and Whitty at Saturday’s press conference.  In fact, she went a step further, pointedly telling the Commons: ‘For many people, it looks as if the figures are chosen to support the policy rather than the policy being based on the figures.’ Ouch!

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: Starmer failed to land his punch

Today’s PMQs was not an enlightening affair. Keir Starmer tried to drag out of Boris Johnson an admission that the England-wide lockdown would continue past 2 December if the virus was not in retreat. But Johnson dodged that question. Johnson’s own side, while grumpy, is not in outright rebellion Of more concern for Labour will be the fact that Starmer failed to land his most effective point: that Johnson has now adopted the policy Labour was calling for on 13 October. The move from a regional system of tiered restrictions to a nationwide lockdown is a big shift from Johnson — but Starmer couldn’t pithily sum that up today. Indeed, Johnson claimed that

Matthew Lynn

Pollsters should shut up shop after this election disaster

High Street chains are closing all the time. The restaurant chains are shutting their doors. The gyms are going out of business and it doesn’t look as if all the airlines will survive. There have been lots of different industries that have been wiped out this year. But now we can add one more to the list: the polling companies. It remains to be seen who won the US Presidential election. Donald Trump and Joe Biden may fight it out for a few more days yet. But it is absolutely clear who lost. The people who are paid plenty of money to talk to voters and work out what they

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Should the government take a stance on the US election?

13 min listen

Dominic Raab refused to comment on Donald Trump’s claims of election ‘fraud’ this morning, after the President said he planned to contest the result in the Supreme Court. Boris Johnson also refrained from being drawn into a conversation about the race, saying at PMQs that the UK would not comment ‘on the democratic processes of our friends and allies’. Is the the government right not to take a stance? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Donald Trump and the death of identity politics

Wow, for a white supremacist Donald Trump has done very well among black and Latino voters. Literally Hitler, as some woke agitators loved to call him after he won the election in 2016, seems to have boosted his support among black men and black women and, most strikingly, among Latinos, who appear to be swinging things for Trump in some areas. Not bad for a president who, as the correct-thinking section of society constantly insisted, cares only about white folks. The results from the US are still unclear. Joe Biden might very well end up in the White House. But the stronger-than-expected showing for Trump has delivered an almighty body

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Boris Johnson is the big winner in this presidential election

The US presidential election currently sits on a knife’s edge. It could go either way, and if you were in Trump’s camp right now, you might be justified in feeling optimistic. It wasn’t supposed to be this way – the polls yesterday had Biden up nine points nationally, and ahead in almost every major battleground state. But it could have real repercussions for British politics. When the dust settles – regardless of whether Biden or Trump is declared the eventual winner – this result should be very good news for Boris Johnson. Not because of Brexit or US-UK relations, but because of something much more basic and long term. First of

Tuesday

Daniel DePetris

Lame-duck Trump has plenty of time to cause trouble

Making political predictions can be about as foolhardy as walking into a Las Vegas casino and predicting success at the blackjack table – better to pipe down, be humble, and watch how the action develops. But if there is one thing we can bet our money on, it’s that a defeated Donald Trump (assuming, of course, he will be defeated tonight) will still have quite a lot of time to enact policies and make history before vacating the Oval Office. There is a popular assumption that U.S. presidents who will return to normal life in late January are lame-ducks twiddling their thumbs for the remainder of their terms. History, however, demonstrates

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Vallance and Whitty hit back over ‘scary’ lockdown graph criticism

Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Chris Whitty have come under fire over slides used during the weekend announcement of the second Covid-19 lockdown. Today, the pair hit back.  A chart suggesting there could be up to 4,000 deaths per day by December under a reasonable worst-case scenario was described by Oxford expert Carl Heneghan as ‘now proven to be incorrect’. The modelling on which the chart was based appeared to be out of date, indicating that daily deaths would have already hit 1,000 a day. In fact, in the most recent stats yesterday, the UK saw 136 coronavirus deaths. Despite this, Vallance insisted the purpose of the graphic was ‘not to frighten people’. While Whitty, the Chief

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The BBC chairman stitch-up

The best way to understand contemporary Britain is to stop thinking of it as a liberal democracy. If we lived in Russia, Hungary or Venezuela we would have few problems in understanding the manoeuvrings around the BBC. The governing clique wants the state broadcaster to be run by a fellow traveller, who has paid his dues by giving it money, and shown a willingness to conform by subscribing to its ideology. What else do you expect? In the case of Britain, the Johnson government is briefing it wants to appoint one Richard Sharp as chair of the BBC. Never heard of him? Then, dear reader you clearly don’t move in

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Douglas Ross’s criticism of Boris is no mistake

It’s not uncommon for Conservative politicians to complain privately that Nicola Sturgeon has proven herself to be a better communicator than Boris Johnson during the pandemic. However, it is unusual for a Tory to say so publicly. This is what Douglas Ross did this week in an interview for ITV News. On top of saying that ‘most objective people’ would say the First Minister is a more ‘effective communicator’ than the Prime Minister, Ross suggested that Johnson – who has negative approval ratings – might not be such an asset when it comes to making the case for Scotland staying in the UK:  ‘We can’t say that the people of Scotland are absolutely wrong with their ratings

John Connolly John Connolly

Is mass testing the way out of lockdown?

16 min listen

As England heads into a second lockdown, today brings a glimmer of hope. Liverpool will be the first UK city to undergo mass testing, including a fast turnaround saliva test. John Connolly talks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth about whether Moonshot, this time around, is more realistic. Tell us your thoughts on our podcasts and be in for a chance to win a bottle of Pol Roger champagne by filling out our podcast survey. Visit spectator.co.uk/podcastsurvey.

Roger Awan-Scully

Mark Drakeford still has the support of Welsh voters

In the current circumstances it is strange to recall that, until very recently, a common complaint of devolved politicians in Wales – as well as academics studying devolved politics – was a lack of media attention and profile. The ill-wind of Covid-19 has blown few people much good, but has unquestionably done a lot to raise awareness of some of the realities of devolved government. There has been plenty of evidence in the past that many people in Wales were unaware that even health – on which the Welsh Government spends the majority of its budget – was devolved. Meanwhile, for his first year in the job Welsh First Minister

Monday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

What do the final polls say?

20 min listen

With Americans heading to the polls on Tuesday, the final polls continue to give Joe Biden a clear lead. What do they say, and what are the early signs on the night that his support might not be as strong as expected? Freddy Gray speaks to YouGov’s Marcus Roberts.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Johnson lays out the lockdown exit strategy

Boris Johnson’s statement to the House of Commons this afternoon was a reminder of how much more difficult this second lockdown will be politically for the government. Before he could begin, he had to sit through the Speaker ticking the government off for the fact that news of the lockdown had leaked to the media on Friday night. Johnson’s statement was very similar to what he had said at Saturday’s press conference. But at the end, he was clearer about what the government’s exit strategy was. He said that its plan was to use mass testing to stay on top of the virus once this England-wide lockdown has ended. Now,