Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

Lloyd Evans

The Independent Group is doomed to follow in the SDP’s footsteps

It’s Day Three of the great insurrection against the tired, stale old politics. Only this morning, a fresh impetus was added to the movement. Chuka Umunna and his six escapologists have now been joined by four more asylum-seekers, one from Labour, three from the Tories. How these moral pioneers can bear to continue as members

Steerpike

Watch: Anna Soubry’s resignation speech

After the dramatic announcement this morning that Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston were quitting the Conservative party to join the newly formed Independent Group, all three sidled over to a press conference in Westminister this afternoon to explain why they had chosen to leave. In her explanatory speech, People’s Vote backing Anna Soubry

Isabel Hardman

Is the Independent Group already heading for a split?

The three Conservative defectors to the Independent Group gave a notably upbeat press conference this lunchtime. It was quite a contrast to the sorrowful tone struck by the seven Labour MPs who announced they were leaving on Monday. Heidi Allen claimed that she was ‘so excited and in a way that I haven’t felt since

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dems to Independent Group: please be our friends

In a parallel universe, the MPs who’ve left the Labour and Conservative parties this week would be joining the existing centrist party that shares their views on Brexit. But the Liberal Democrats haven’t had a look in, despite Vince Cable and before him Tim Farron claiming that they’d spoken to would-be defectors. Cable has just

Katy Balls

The Tory defections to the Independent Group could help Corbyn

After days of bad news for Labour over the decision of several moderates to quit and form The Independent Group, it’s now the turn of the Tories. Three Conservative MPs have today resigned the party whip to join the group. In a joint letter to the Prime Minister, Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen

Steerpike

Watch: George Galloway compares journalist to Goebbels

George Galloway has just waded into Labour’s anti-Semitism row and it is safe to say his intervention won’t do much to calm things down. The firebrand former politician said the claims of anti-Semitism agains the Labour party were a lie – and he then compared the Sky News journalist interviewing him to Josef Goebbels. Here’s what

The true cost of fake hate crimes | 20 February 2019

Some years ago I was introduced to one notion of how to tackle dishonest and insincere accusations of racism. It was not just that there should be a social cost to making a dishonest claim, but that the cost should equal that borne by somebody who is accurately and correctly identified as a racist. Without

How the Democrats plan to revive the special relationship after Trump

Last weekend’s Munich Security Conference could perhaps best be summarised by two sentences in the 102-page report produced by a group of Western luminaries, politicians, military officials, and ex-statesmen (and stateswomen): After ‘two years in office, the Trump administration has triggered a reassessment of transatlantic relations in Europe,’ the report somberly declared. And ‘with President Trump under increasing

James Kirkup

Honda’s departure is bad news for Brexiteers – and Remainers

The story of Honda leaving Swindon is another case-study in how Brexit is a political circus-mirror, warping and twisting perceptions on all sides. Basically, everyone is wrong and should shut up. Honda isn’t leaving Swindon because of Brexit. We know that because Honda has said it, about as clearly as a company can. Ian Howells,

Honda boss: Swindon closure is not Brexit related

Ian Howells, the senior vice president for Honda in Europe, and the most senior representative of the company in the UK was interviewed on the Today programme this morning. Below is an edited version of the interview: Q. You’ve been here since the 1980s, through some pretty thick and thin times. Why [leave] now in

Katy Balls

Could a meaningful vote come as early as next week?

Is a Brexit breakthrough imminent? The talk in Westminster tonight is that the government could soon have something to present to MPs on the Irish backstop. Geoffrey Cox – the Attorney General – has been in Brussels this week working with EU officials on a legally binding change. He has managed to charm some on

Freddy Gray

Bernie Sanders’ rivals will struggle to defeat him

The Democratic nomination process for 2020 is a race and Bernie Sanders should be the overwhelming favourite. He’s just announced his candidacy, and he’s the form horse, having come a close second in 2016. He won 46 per cent of elected delegates and 23 states. He smashed all sorts of fundraising records. He has a

Robert Peston

Tom Watson’s intervention spells trouble for Jeremy Corbyn

The second most important political act yesterday was the impassioned declaration of near UDI by the deputy leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson. His sorrowful response to the resignation of Berger, Umunna, Leslie, Smith, Gapes, Coffey and Shuker was that they were wrong to resign but they were correct to identify that the party

Ian Acheson

David Gauke is wrong about short prison sentences

‘Short term custody isn’t inherently bad, but the way we do it is awful.’ I didn’t expect Justice Secretary David Gauke to start an otherwise thoughtful speech yesterday on prisons like this, but he should have. No one wants people in prison when there are better alternatives that will properly punish them and give them the

Universities should resist calls to ‘decolonise the curriculum’

Meghan Markle has reportedly backed calls to ‘decolonise the curriculum’. This campaign to promote ethnic minority thinkers in place of ‘male, pale and stale’ academics also has support from the Labour party. Angela Rayner, shadow education secretary, has said that ‘like much of our establishment, our universities are too male, pale and stale and do not

Steerpike

Watch: Angela Smith apologises over ‘funny tinge’ gaffe

The Independent Group is only a few hours old but already one of its leading members has made a blunder on air. Talking about race on the BBC’s Politics Live, Angela Smith said: ‘It’s not just about being black or a funny…tin…from the BME community’ Oh dear. Angela Smith has since apologised for her comments,

Steerpike

Len McCluskey: the whole Labour anti-Semitism issue is ‘contrived’

Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters in the Labour party have been on the defensive today, following the announcement that a group of moderate MPs have defected from the party. In particular, the Independent Group’s scathing description of Labour as ‘institutionally anti-Semitic’ has left many worried that the charge may harm their electoral chances. But if the Labour

James Forsyth

Will any Tory MPs join the Independent Group?

Is this a split in the Labour party or something more? At today’s launch, Chuka Umunna was clear that the Independent Group want to attract MPs from parties other than Labour. Tory party sources admit that they ‘would not be surprised’ if some Tory MPs were to join this new group. Right now, the values

Steerpike

The Independent Group’s website woes

Oh dear. When Chuka Umunna announced that he and six other Labour MPs were leaving their party and forming ‘The Independent Group’, as a new separate political faction, he said that the TIGs would have an extremely simple message: ‘Politics is broken. It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s change it.’ But if politics