Conservative party

The Tories are playing a risky game with Jared O’Mara

Why do politicians constantly bring plagues on their own houses? This week, the Tories have embraced the Jared O’Mara allegations with gusto, prompting Theresa May to speak about it at Prime Minister’s Questions, calling for emergency debates and writing letters about the matter. Some Labourites have been responding by pointing out that it’s highly unlikely the Tories will be entirely clear of sexists themselves. Of course, the Labour point is being deployed as whataboutery to distract from the party’s own nightmare with its Sheffield Hallam MP. But it is also true – and given there is now an appetite in the media for exposing other MPs for similar behaviour, it

Tory whips in a quandary over Labour social care challenge

If ministers are going to offer any concessions in the row over Universal Credit, they’ve decided to keep them back for a little while longer. This afternoon MPs have been holding an emergency debate on the reform, with Employment Minister Damian Hinds defending the reform and the roll-out, rather than suggesting that the government is going to accept the suggestions of Tory and Labour MPs on delayed payments. The emergency debate was called after Conservative MPs were whipped to abstain on Labour’s Opposition Day debate on the benefit reform last week. I reported after that vote that many Tories were peeved about this; either because they were in marginal seats

The Tory party is becoming ‘Labour light’

On the Andrew Marr show yesterday, the Communities Secretary Sajid Javid suggested that the government should ‘sensibly borrow more money’ and take advantage of the ‘record low-levels’ of interest rates in order to tackle the UK’s housing crisis. He added that the lack of affordable housing was the ‘biggest barrier to social progress in our country today’ and that such measures would go some way to re-balancing social inequality. Javid’s remarks also highlighted another crisis: that of the identity of the Tory party. It is true that the UK currently faces a severe housing shortage with the number of homes being built falling far short of the 200,000 target which

Isabel Hardman

Will Universal Credit conform to the normal pattern of policy disasters?

How far is the government going to row back on Universal Credit? This afternoon an emergency debate has been granted on the matter in the Commons tomorrow. Two of the pilot councils in the roll-out of the new benefit have warned that the new system could be a catastrophe once implemented fully, predicting rent arrears in ‘many hundreds of millions of pounds’ and reporting a huge surge in referrals to food banks. Southwark and Croydon Councils warned of ‘major flaws’ in UC, and urged the government to fix the policy immediately. The pressure, which grew last week with Labour’s Opposition Day debate on the roll-out, hasn’t diminished since ministers said

Tory MPs threaten to rebel and vote for government policy

The talk of the Commons tearoom today is last night’s Opposition Day vote on Universal Credit. This is unusual: Opposition Day votes are non-binding and have recently been used largely for Labour to bang on about pet projects rather than hold the government’s feet to the fire. But the Opposition has sharpened up its act, and used growing Conservative concerns about the roll-out of the new benefit to good effect in yesterday’s debate. The whips had already decided that one of the ways they could make these Opposition Day debates even less politically powerful when they are operating in a minority government is to instruct all Tory MPs to abstain,

The plots thicken

‘Worst week ever’ is one of those phrases that journalists are, perhaps, too quick to use. Alastair Campbell once quipped that if you added up all Tony Blair’s worst weeks, you got a full year. The real worry for the Tories, however, is not that last week was Theresa May’s worst ever, but that it represented the new normal. Even inside Downing Street, there are those who worry that leadership plotting and the like will continue until Mrs May leaves the building. They worry that while they are strong enough to repel the plotters — as they did so effectively this time — she isn’t powerful enough to take back

Andrew Mitchell to speak at plotter Grant Shapps’ dinner tonight

Grant Shapps isn’t the most popular man in the Tory party at the moment, but at least he has a friend to keep him company this evening. By sheer coincidence, Andrew Mitchell has long been booked to speak at the Welwyn Hatfield MP’s Conservative Association annual dinner tonight. But Mitchell is very keen not to appear to be a fellow plotter, having given a speech at the Cambridge Union last night in which he praised the Prime Minister’s ‘courage of high order’ for completing ‘what was an important and interesting speech in impossible circumstances, and I think all of us in politics should recognise that’. Speaking to Coffee House, Mitchell

Friends – or foes?

As the breeze of popular opinion — popularis aura — blows sweetly over the much-loved Corbyn-McDonnell Old Labour tribute act, the Tory party is faced with a dilemma: how to counteract it. This dilemma seems to centre on Mrs May’s leadership, and if that is the case, those ambitious to displace her need to consider what leadership entails. The word for ambition in ancient Greek was philotimia, ‘love of high esteem in the eyes of others’. This was considered a virtue in a society in which competition was endemic and winning meant everything. The problem was the tension between the desire to win and the desire to be liked at

Portrait of the Week – 5 October 2017

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, told her audience at the Conservative party conference that she wanted to continue, like them, to ‘do our duty by Britain’. She said the government planned to make it easier for local authorities to build council houses. On the eve of the conference, Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, in an interview with the Sun sketched out four ‘red lines’ that he said should apply to Brexit. These included a transition period that must not last ‘a second more’ than two years. His stipulations went beyond anything agreed by the government, but Mrs May sidestepped questions about whether he was ‘unsackable’. Later she said: ‘I

Diary – 5 October 2017

The best reason for visiting party conferences is to sniff the air. It’s fragments of conversation drifting through a bar, expressions on faces, tones of voice, that tell you the most. What I picked up in Manchester is first, that Theresa May is really fighting to stay; second, that Boris Johnson is overplaying his hand; but third, that this is over a profound issue of policy and not just ‘blond ambition’ . I gave Mrs May a relatively tough interview and I think she was pretty cross. But my impressions were that the ‘burning injustices’ leader of the Downing Street steps is the real one; she’s frustrated she went off-message;

James Delingpole

If only the Tories understood economics

‘I don’t think I’m quite as Austrian as you are,’ a Tory minister said to me the other day. And I knew then that the party is doomed. It wasn’t what he said so much as the way that he said it: in the fond, amused, each-to-his-own tone you might use to dismiss a friend’s enthusiasm for Morris dancing or Napoleonic re-enactment or dogging… But personally, I think free market economics (of the Austrian or any other classical liberal school) is far too important to be left to wonks, think-tankers and out-there right-wing commentators. So did Margaret Thatcher. ‘Hayek’s powerful Road to Serfdom left a permanent mark on my own

Forget the Nasty Party. This is the Knackered Party.

Tory conference is yawning on with neither furious fights nor much evidence that anyone knows how to fix the party’s problems. The most energetic bit of it so far has been Theresa May’s round of media interviews this morning, in which the Prime Minister appeared to have been turned on to 1.5x speed as she nervously gabbled her answers and tried to sound happy. Other spots of colour come from non-MPs, such as Ruth Davidson. The hall isn’t packed, the atmosphere flat, and members and MPs look bewildered and miserable. The Tories are starting to resemble Labour at the end of its last spell in government. The party was exhausted.

Why we need more than Help to Buy to fix the housing market

The Conservative Party conference kicked off with news that the government plans to earmark an additional £10 billion for the Help to Buy scheme to support 135,000 home buyers. Theresa May’s extension to David Cameron’s flagship housing policy, which has helped over 320,000 buyers since its launch in 2013, is part of a raft of eye-catching measures to win over voters under 45 who deserted the Conservatives in the last election. With house prices now almost eight times the average income and many struggling to afford a home, housing has become a critical political issue. The increase in cash is a clear attempt to appeal to the young hoping to

Isabel Hardman

Ruth Davidson: Tory party needs to man up

Where can Conservatives go if they’re looking to cheer themselves up at their rather nervous, doleful conference? A fringe with Ruth Davidson seems to be the answer. The Scottish Tory leader gave an interview to the Times in a totally packed room at the Midland Hotel this lunchtime, and it was clear that Tory members were there hoping to hear from a Conservative who is doing well and in good cheer. There’s something about Davidson’s blunt approach to politics that Tory members seem to like. She tells them they’re in a miserable state and need to pull themselves together, and gives the impression that she’s already got it together –

Why young Britain is repelled by the Tories

Of all the difficulties Theresa May faces, the importance of denying the truth may be the most acute. There are certain things a prime minister cannot say; certain fabrications that must be insisted upon because political expedience cannot withstand too much daylight. Mrs May, then, must pretend her position is secure and that, contrary to the expectations of her party and the country, that she will lead the Conservative party at the next general election, whenever that may be. If this makes her seem modestly ridiculous then so be it; the alternatives are even worse. Even so, some fictions would be better abandoned. Last week the prime minister was asked

Tom Goodenough

Conservative party conference, day one: The Spectator guide | 1 October 2017

The Conservative party conference is underway. In the days after the doomed snap election, Theresa May didn’t look as though she would make it this far. But the Prime Minister has clung on. Here are the highlights to look out for on day one: Party conference: 10.30 – 12.30: Meeting of the National Conservative Convention. Alexandra Suite, Midland Hotel  14.00 – 14.50: Welcome to Conference: Conference Chairman; Conservative Party Chairman; First Secretary of State 14.50 – 15.45: Delivering a fairer future for young people: Secretary of State for Education; Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 15.45 – 16.20: Strengthening the Union between all our citizens: Leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party; Secretary of State

The Conservatives weren’t seen as divided during the campaign

Earlier this week Nick Timothy and Tim Montgomerie had a short spat on Twitter about the reasons for the Conservative party’s failure to win a majority in June’s general election. Nick Timothy tweeted that: ‘We had a small majority and a divided cabinet, party and country’ https://twitter.com/NickJTimothy/status/912615649322717184 When other things are equal, people are generally less likely to vote for parties that are seen as divided. If the Conservatives had been seen as divided in the run-up to the election, that might have hampered their chances of doing well. In fact, the Conservatives were seen as one of the most united parties. Whatever the reasons for the party’s failure to

The lady’s not for quitting

Even Damian Green seems to find it odd that he’s the second most important person in the government. When asked, the First Secretary of State plays down his influence — in fact, he plays down most things. When David Cameron wanted the Tories’ immigration policies out of the spotlight, he put Green in charge of them. And when Theresa May wanted someone she could trust to be her deputy after the disastrous general election, she chose one of the few people in the cabinet whom she can call a friend. The pair have known each other since Oxford, and now talk face-to-face every day. When we meet in his magisterial

James Forsyth

A clear run for Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn, Prime Minister. This used to be one of the Tories’ favourite lines. They thought that just to say it out loud was to expose its absurdity. The strategic debate within the Tory party was over whether to attack Corbyn himself, or to use him to contaminate the whole Labour brand. But Corbyn has transformed that brand, not damaged it. He has successfully fused together a Social Democratic party with a radical left one. Labour conference this week was the gathering of a movement that thinks it is close to power; just look at the disciplined way delegates justified the decision not to debate Brexit, on the grounds that