Boris johnson

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

PMQs: Boris relishes his new-found power

Jeremy Corbyn has stopped asking questions at PMQs. The lecture-circuit now looms for the Labour leader, so he uses the Wednesday sessions to practise the Grand Orations he will soon be making to drowsy socialists in overheated conference-halls around the world. He’s unlikely to match the fees commanded by the world’s top lecture-stars, Tony Blair and Barack Obama. His performance lacks bounce or crackle. He’s incapable channelling either passion or excitement and he simply recites his bullet-points like a sleep-deprived Bingo-caller. And his jokes misfire. Today he opened with a gag about the presenter of Just A Minute who died yesterday, aged 96. ‘Mr Speaker,’ said Corbyn, ‘can we take

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris risks backbench rebellion if he doesn’t get Huawei right

Tory MPs are not happy with the Huawei decision. Normally loyal MPs are expressing their bafflement at the announcement. As one of them put it to me yesterday: if they’re not safe to be at the core of the network, how are they safe to be in any of it? The crucial determinant of whether this row continues or not is what this 35 per cent cap on ‘high risk vendors’ means. The government has said that these ‘high risk vendors’ should be: ‘Limited to a minority presence of no more than 35 per cent in the periphery of the network, known as the access network, which connect devices and

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Boris is failing a crucial One Nation test in Scotland

Yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon unveiled a proposal to devolve certain aspects of our post-Brexit immigration policy to Scotland. Well, you might say, she would say that, wouldn’t she? But Sturgeon’s argument has some merit, for Scotland has a demographic problem that is not shared by the rest of the United Kingdom. A few thousand Scotland-only visas issued each year has the potential, assuming they proved sufficiently attractive, to address that. This is not just an SNP ploy, either. There is a widespread acceptance in Scotland that the country needs to be able to do more to attract more immigrants. On current trends, immigration is likely to be essential for the population

Monday

Ross Clark

HS2 does nothing for the new Tory heartlands in the North

If there is one thing that could yet save HS2 it is the ‘letting down the North’ argument. Didn’t Boris make a speech in the early hours of 13 December promising the party’s new-found voters in the north that he would never take their votes for granted and never forget them? How, then, would he escape the onslaught that would be launched against him if he decided to dump a high-speed rail line to the north? We’ve had endless open letters from council leaders, business people and so on in recent months begging the government to go ahead with the scheme. Boris is likely to be especially receptive to the

Thursday

Steerpike

Watch: Boris Johnson’s acceptance speech for Parliamentarian of the Year

Prime Minister Boris Johnson won The Spectator’s much-coveted Parliamentarian of the Year award at a ceremony in London last night. The former Spectator editor was sadly unable to attend the event but sent a pre-recorded message in which he thanked the publication, calling it ‘the greatest magazine in the English language’. The video also featured Boris and Carrie Symonds’ pet dog Dilyn tearing into a copy of the Christmas edition. Perhaps the Welsh rescue puppy could be set loose on another notable publication. Former speaker John Bercow used a pre-recorded acceptance speech to plug his upcoming book Unspeakable. Mr S would be more than happy to see the pooch get

Steerpike Steerpike

Did MBS kompromat Boris?

Boris Johnson is a big fan of Mohammed bin Salman. But why? Back in 2018, the then-foreign secretary was keen to sing the praises of the Saudi Crown prince. In an article for the Times, Boris was clear that MBS was good news: ‘I believe that the crown prince, who is only 32, has demonstrated by word and deed that he aims to guide Saudi Arabia in a more open direction.’ A few months on, Boris came under fire for accepting a £14,000 trip to Saudi Arabia from the country’s foreign affairs ministry. Only days later, Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Boris Johnson’s conciliatory approach takes the sting out of PMQs

Boris Johnson has been Prime Minister since July, but he has done PMQs relatively few times. This means that he is still developing his style. What was striking about his appearance today was just how conciliatory his tone was with everyone but Jeremy Corbyn and Ian Blackford. When Wera Hobhouse asked about the difficulties facing a Kurdish refugee in her constituency, Johnson replied that she should send the details of the case to him personally. Teesside Labour MP Alex Cunningham pushed him on a campaign to prevent nuclear waste being dumped in the region. The PM expressed sympathy and asked him to send the campaign to him. SNP MP Dave

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Boris Johnson is the real heir to Blair

Boris Johnson is to ‘take personal charge’ of a new crackdown on crime and gangs. So reports Steve Swinford of the Times, one of the Lobby’s best reporters. While this is a good and new story, for a jaded and ageing ex-hack like me it crystallises a vague feeling that’s been nagging at me for a few weeks and prompts this realisation: Boris Johnson is turning into Tony Blair. These days Blair is often remembered as the quintessential metropolitan liberal politician, a champion of globalisation, economic openness and, above all, the EU. I became a Lobby reporter in 2001 and my memory of the Blair government that I covered is

Tuesday

Gus Carter

Six things we learnt from the Boris BBC Breakfast interview

Boris Johnson has just given a wide-ranging interview to BBC Breakfast in which he signalled support for a new Trump nuclear agreement with Iran and promised to bring forward plans for social care by the end year. Here are the six things we learnt from the interview: 1. Boris backs Trump’s Iran strategy The Prime Minister told viewers that the US had been right not to notify the UK before the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, saying ‘This was not our operation. There was no reason for us to be involved.’ Addressing the nuclear deal negotiated by Obama, the PM said: ‘If we’re going to get rid of it, let’s replace

Monday

Katy Balls

The strategy behind Boris Johnson’s incoming government shake-up

Boris Johnson’s first week back in Parliament did not lead to the type of fireworks many had been expecting after the Prime Minister’s decisive election victory. Over Christmas, there was chatter that Johnson was building up to a mass restructuring of Whitehall, a cull of the Cabinet and a reorganisation of the civil service. This was expected to take place in what had been dubbed the ‘Valentine’s Day massacre’ by government insiders. Next month, changes are still expected – with a reshuffle coming and a reorganisation of departments. However, it will likely not meet initial expectations in terms of scope. Over the weekend, Boris Johnson met at Chequers with key

Saturday

James Forsyth

The Brexit drama to come

This week has shown how much the election has changed. The withdrawal agreement has sailed through the Commons and in Northern Ireland, there has been an agreement to get the assembly and the executive back up and running. As I say in The Sun this morning, ministers were struck by how Brexit got only the briefest of mentions at Cabinet this week despite the legislation being before the House. Pre-election, the whole conversation would have been about whether the government had the votes and what it should do if it did not. Boris Johnson is very keen that this year isn’t dominated by Brexit. Sat Cabinet this week, he again

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

Judge Boris by what he does, not how he does it

The night before our last issue went to press, I received a message from the Prime Minister saying that he was sorry, that he had hoped to write the diary but couldn’t find time. No problem, I replied, he’d just seen off Jeremy Corbyn and had a Queen’s Speech to agree and deliver and our print deadline was 10.30 a.m. At 7 a.m. the next morning, I woke up to find a new message ‘Have done diary. Am finishing now.’ At 10.20 a.m.: ‘It’s done. 860 words.’ Then another message: ‘Still in car.’ At 10.28 a.m., with two minutes to go, I gave up hope. Then, at 10.29 a.m., it landed, word-perfect. Boris Johnson likes to take things close

The Spectator

A big Tory majority. So where are the Conservative policies?

What is the point of a Conservative majority? The answer might once have been to implement Conservative policies. But now it’s not so clear. Budgets are normally the way to judge a government, but we didn’t have one last year. On 11 March, we will learn how Sajid Javid intends to govern the public finances and just how far the Tory government is able to take advantage of the unprecedented political opportunity. It will become clear whether the government sees this moment as a time for boldness, or caution. Leaving the European Union is a radical act, but its effect is mainly political. It will remove a constraint, but will

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Revealed: Boris’s blueprint for Brexit

For the first time since the referendum, the United Kingdom has a strong government that knows what it wants from Brexit. This will make the second round of the negotiations with the EU very different from the first. Theresa May famously declared, and repeated, that ‘Brexit means Brexit’. This was a soundbite designed to conceal fundamental differences within her cabinet about what it did actually mean. They were never resolved. Many in her cabinet, and especially the Brexiteers, thought that Brexit must mean fully leaving the customs union and the single market. But Philip Hammond, her Chancellor, and Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, thought that it was essential to avoid

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

For cod’s sake, don’t sacrifice the fish

One of the more dispiriting experiences of the British supermarket is a visit to the fish counter. On a  historically seagoing island, the selection is often abysmal, frequently imported, and always expensive: farmed Norwegian salmon, farmed Vietnamese basa (blech), cod gone a suspicious taupe and priced like its weight in saffron (83 per cent of the cod consumed in the UK is also imported; why?) and maybe a few locally sourced mackerel or sardines, depending on the day. Otherwise, vinegary cockles, leathery kippers and smoked haddock the garish colour of a child’s toy substitute for a fresh catch from British waters. Worse, at my nearest Tesco, as of two months

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

My fellow Remainers should not aim for a ‘soft Brexit’

‘I like to write when I’m feeling spiteful,’ remarked D.H. Lawrence. ‘It’s like having a good sneeze.’ A perennial challenge for a Fleet Street columnist is how to walk the fine line between writing as though your opinion mattered, and writing as though it were just an entertaining sneeze. My fellow Spectator columnist, Rod Liddle, has developed a very marketable pitch in the columnar sneeze. I perhaps err on the other side: writing with the implicit suggestion that the nation waits upon my verdict. I know, of course, that nobody does, but have to pretend to myself (and inhabit the pretence) that I’m a kind of prime minister-in-waiting, and my

Wednesday

The Spectator

Full text: New EU president says full trade deal not possible by end of 2020

The new president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen made a speech to the London School of Economics earlier today. During the speech, von der Leyen said: ‘Without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. We will have to prioritise.’ You can listen to the speech and read the full transcript below: Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to be back here at the London School of Economics – a place which brings back so many happy memories for me. The year I spent here taught me so much – both in

Matthew Lynn

Three ways Britain should refuse to stick to the EU’s rules in trade talks

It is hard to imagine there will be much of a meeting of minds. As the new president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen meets with the newly re-elected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson today the pleasantries will quickly give way to a strong clash of views. With our departure from the EU set for the end of the month, trade talks are about to open. Brussels is desperate to lock the UK into its regulatory system. But quite rightly, the government is resisting that. After all, there was no point in leaving only to accept all the EU rules and regulations, except this time with no say

Tuesday

Stephen Daisley

Boris Johnson’s dismal response to Qasem Soleimani’s assassination

Two weeks ago, I asked what kind of prime minister Boris Johnson might be and whether he could be ‘the great disruptor’ on foreign policy, defying standard practices and elite assumptions as Donald Trump has. I think I might have my answer. On Trump’s decision to take out Iranian terrorist-in-chief Qasem Soleimani, the Prime Minister was silent for two days. When he finally spoke, it was hardly worth it. Of course Johnson was right to say, given the Quds Force head’s role in the killing of thousands of civilians, ‘we will not lament his death’. He was right too to warn Tehran against escalation. But in stopping there and failing

Tuesday

Matthew Goodwin

Nine lessons from the election: Boris was lucky – but he also played his hand right

The 2019 general election will be remembered as one of the most consequential elections in Britain’s recent history. Aside from rejecting a more economically radical Labour Party, the British people used the election to provide what their elected representatives had been unable to provide: an answer to Brexit. For Boris Johnson and the Conservative party, the election was a triumph. They won their largest majority since 1987 and the largest majority for any party since New Labour’s second landslide in 2001. Remarkably, and despite older arguments about the ‘costs of ruling’, a Conservative Party that had been in power for nearly a decade attracted nearly 44 per cent of the vote; this was not