Eu

The ‘Out’ campaign in the EU referendum has seized on comments made by Jean-Claude Juncker where he appears to say that Britain doesn’t need the European Union. He ‘appears’ to say it in the sense that the key word is rather muffled – and his team are insisting he said Britain does need the EU. You can listen to his comments in the European Parliament below, and it’s worth listening as it’s not clear whether he said ‘personally I don’t think that Britain needs the European Union’ or ‘personally I do think that Britain needs the European Union’. https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/jean-claude-juncker-says-that-britain-does-not-need-the-eu His aides are insisting that he meant that Britain does need the

For all the leadership positioning, one of the striking things about Tory conference in Manchester was the level of agreement about what the party’s strategy should be. There was almost no one calling for the party to move right. Instead, the emphasis was on how the party could expand its electoral coalition. Boris Johnson and George Osborne may have very different styles, but the argument of their speeches was essentially the same: the Tories have to show that they are the party for low paid workers. This determination to look for new converts, which was the defining feature of David Cameron’s speech too, is a product of the election campaign.

The Tories had a good few days in Manchester. But one Tory had a particularly good week, Boris Johnson. A week ago, Boris looked becalmed. As we said in the Spectator, he was struggling to make the transition from being Mayor of London to being both the Mayor and an MP. But this week, he has delivered the best speech of his political life, shown new Tory MPs his talents, and renewed his relationship with Tory activists. It was telling that when Cameron paid tribute to Boris during the leader’s speech, the hall gave him a standing ovation. Now, the tricky thing for Boris will be coming up with a

Boris Johnson’s speech today was the best that I have ever heard him give. It was a potent cocktail of political vision, humour and optimism. But the most significant line it was about Europe. He declared that: ‘It should be up to this parliament and this country – not to Jean-Claude Juncker – to decide if too many people are coming here’ It is impossible to read this as anything other than a demand that freedom of movement rules are fundamentally altered as part of the UK’s renegotiation with the EU. Now, Number 10 are clear that they aren’t seeking to challenge the principle of freedom of movement, they know

Nigel Farage has kicked off the first day of Ukip party conference at Doncaster Racecourse with a speech claiming that anti-EU groups are united and ready to push for a UK exit from the European Union: ‘We are together, we are united, and we believe that the tide has turned. I believe that we are on course to win the most historic and the most important political victory in any of our lifetimes.’ United as they may be, perhaps one of the brains at Ukip ought to have done a bit more research regarding their conference venue before going ahead with the booking. For all their preaching about the need to

This morning Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party, outlined the extent to which she agrees with Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party. Both wish Scotland, and indeed the United Kingdom, to remain a member of the European Union. It is true, as Ms Davidson noted, that the SNP oppose even holding a referendum on the terms of British membership but it is also the case that, at least notionally, each wish, or are on record as desiring, a broadly comparable set of EU-wide reforms. Now, as Mark Wallace rightly observes, Davidson’s case for continued EU membership is a purely practical one. The emotional and

Jeremy Corbyn has taken to the Financial Times, the newspaper of big business, to say that Labour will support Britain staying in the EU whatever happens in the renegotiation. This is a reversal of Corbyn’s previous view that such a position was equivalent to giving David Cameron a blank cheque to negotiate away social and environmental ‘protections’. But there is a twist. Corbyn says that if Cameron does win changes in these areas, Labour will commit to reversing them if it wins the next election. Now, I think this could pose a problem for the In campaign because it confirms that the settlement that is being put to the electorate