Conservatives

The government always knew it would have to expend political capital to get its planning reforms through. Making it easier to build houses was never going to be popular with Tories in leafy areas. The benefit of an 80-seat majority was meant to be the ability to push through difficult but important changes. The problem is, as I say in the magazine this week, that the government has been expending political capital on rather a lot of other things recently. Tory MPs are in a fractious mood, irritated by the number of U-turns, and opposition to planning reform is beginning to build up. One normally mild-mannered former cabinet minister tells

The last week has shown that Boris Johnson’s majority of 80 isn’t as big as it first appeared, I say in the Times on Saturday. Despite Boris Johnson throwing his full political weight behind Dominic Cummings, forty plus Tories still called for the PM’s senior adviser to go. The problem for No. 10 is that a majority of 80 ain’t what it used to be. It is, roughly, equivalent to a majority of 20-odd a generation ago, which is what John Major had in 1992. That the Tory majority is smaller than it first appeared has profound implications for how Boris Johnson governs. Every policy will now need to be

The idea of a flotilla of little ships crossing the English Channel from France to deposit their beleaguered human cargo safely on our shores was born in this country’s darkest hour during the second world war. To say that the method behind the success of the Dunkirk evacuation 80 years ago has been repurposed for the modern age is something of an understatement. These days the little ships are usually inflatable dinghies packed with desperate young men from Asia and Africa who seek to evade this country’s immigration laws. They land at various points between Dover and Hastings and – if undetected – many head for rendezvous points pre-arranged with

Here’s something Brexiteers might want to keep an eye on. While the country’s attention is welded to the Tesco delivery website, there are moves afoot to delay the Brexit negotiations. Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Centre, has called an extension of the transition period ‘an absolute must’ given the Covid-19 outbreak. He contends: ‘There will simply not be any bandwidth to focus on the negotiations, which require a delicate balance of give and take. In a situation with major healthcare challenges in the short- and long-term and economic challenges already requiring urgent action, there will not be enough political time and attention to successfully conclude this EU-UK

A slanging match has broken out between Nadine Dorries and the wife of a Tory MP. Dorries, who was diagnosed with coronavirus earlier this week, was criticised by Nevena Bridgen, the opera singer wife of Andrew Bridgen, who is currently in self isolation. Nevena Bridgen accused the health minister of putting her family at risk: ‘He can’t get the test now! I have the baby and a 75 years old mother jeopardised. You were treated but no one is coming to help us!’ Dorries then hit back, saying that while the pair were in the same room, they were not close or even on the same table: So much for the Conservatives coming together in a

Since Sir Philip Rutnam resigned as the Home Office permanent secretary, alleging that Priti Patel had created a climate of fear in the department, the Home Secretary has kept a low profile and made no public comment. Today the government were forced to formally respond to the claims thanks to an urgent question from Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader asked why the Prime Minister defended Patel over the claims and called her ‘fantastic’, when if true the allegations would ‘constitute a breach of the ministerial code’. Speaking for the government, Michael Gove put in a passionate defence of his colleague. He praised Patel as someone he had always found to