Theresa may

Saturday

James Forsyth

Can Theresa May satisfy both Boris and the EU?

We are only six days away from Theresa May’s big Brexit speech in Florence. But it is far from certain what will be in it, as I say in The Sun today. The biggest domestic challenge for May, insiders say, is squaring Boris Johnson. I’m told that ‘there is quite a lot of nervousness about that’. ‘Boris has been the most hard-line’ of the Cabinet Brexiteers an insider tells me. One of those involved in the negotiations between the two camps predicts ‘it is going to be a tetchy week.’ Boris’s issue is money. He is opposed to paying a big exit payment to the EU and he’s told Number

Friday

Katy Balls

Ministers told to ‘think carefully’ about Tory conference

With no majority and disagreement rife about what went wrong for the Conservatives in the snap election, next month’s party conference presents Tories with the perfect opportunity to discuss new ideas and ponder the big challenges facing the party. However, don’t expect members of government to partake in the soul-searching. Coffee House understands that everyone from ministers down to Parliamentary Private Secretaries have been encouraged to keep their heads down and ‘think carefully’ about their behaviour at the four-day event. ‘It’s been put in no uncertain terms, that in the time of a hung Parliament, the media will be looking for stories to fill the vacuum so think carefully about what you

Thursday

Nick Hilton

The Spectator Podcast: Playing the race card

On this week’s episode, we ask whether Theresa May is jumping on a bandwagon by playing the so-called ‘race card’. We also look at the coalitions within our political parties which are being stretched to breaking point, and consider whether doping is the real lifeblood of professional sport. First up: Next month, Theresa May is expected to release the results of a race audit, which has investigated racial disparities in public services. Following hot on the heels of David Lammy’s review into the criminal justice system’s relationship with race, whispers are already abounding that it is being lined up by the Tories as a ‘game-changer’ in terms of their outreach to BAME

Munira Mirza

Theresa May’s phoney war

Next month, Theresa May is expected to launch her long-awaited audit into racial disparities in public services. We are being prepared for the worst. Unnamed Whitehall insiders say that they have been ‘shocked’ by the picture it reveals of racial discrimination in the UK. All this suggests the scene is being set for another bout of political self-flagellation regarding the subject of race in Britain, in which half-truths are peddled by lobbyists and swallowed wholesale by officialdom. Several studies have already shown   that some ethnic groups experience different outcomes in policing, health, employment and education. There are many causes behind these disparities but the evidence will be carefully selected

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can anyone unite the Tory tribes?

One of the reasons that coalition governments are so unusual in Britain is that both main parties are coalitions themselves. The Tories have long been a party of both social conservatives and libertarians, Eurosceptics and Europhiles, buccaneering free traders and economic nationalists. Labour has always brought together Methodists and Marxists, middle-class liberals and working-class trade unionists, hawks and doves. These internal alliances mean the parties mostly avoid the need for an external one. But the Labour and Conservative coalitions are nearing breaking point. Labour’s problem is that its far left now dominates, making the party unbalanced. The two years since Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership have seen his wing gain

Wednesday

Munira Mirza

Theresa May’s phoney race war is dangerous and divisive

Next month, Theresa May is expected to launch her long-awaited audit into racial disparities in public services. We are being prepared for the worst. Unnamed Whitehall insiders say that they have been ‘shocked’ by the picture it reveals of racial discrimination in the UK. All this suggests the scene is being set for another bout of political self-flagellation regarding the subject of race in Britain, in which half-truths are peddled by lobbyists and swallowed wholesale by officialdom. Several studies have already shown   that some ethnic groups experience different outcomes in policing, health, employment and education. There are many causes behind these disparities but the evidence will be carefully selected

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Yet another no-score draw at PMQs

Jeremy Corbyn has improved at PMQs to the extent that he now touches on the topics that will cause the Prime Minister the most embarrassment. So, today public sector pay and tuition fees both got an outing. But Corbyn isn’t a good enough—or forensic enough—parliamentary performer to really makes these points tell. Theresa May for her part is capable of parrying, but not counter-punching. The result: PMQs is now routinely a no-score draw. Today was no different and with an unexceptional set of backbench questions, the session rather petered out. These no-score draws quite suit both May and Corbyn. As long as May gets through these sessions intact, the morale

Tuesday

Katy Balls

Theresa May’s power play pays off as government wins committee vote

Government whips can breath a sigh of relief. On what turned out to be the second late night sitting in a row for MPs, Andrea Leadsom’s motion to ensure that the government has a majority on public bill committees passed at 320 votes in favour to 301 against. This means that even though the government did not win a majority in the snap election, they will have a majority on key committees which scrutinise legislation. In the debate before the vote, opposition MPs accused the Conservatives of an undemocratic power grab – with Labour’s shadow leader of the House, Valerie Vaz, likening Leadsom to a North Korean news reader sent out to say

Steerpike Steerpike

Evgeny Lebedev’s peace offering to Theresa May

Since taking on the editorship of the Evening Standard, George Osborne has discovered that revenge is a dish best served daily – rarely missing an opportunity to attack Theresa May and her government. So, Mr S was surprised to see that today’s edition of the paper, not only doesn’t attack the Prime Minister – but actually praises her work. It appears that the paper’s proprietor Evgeny Lebedev is keen to find common ground with May. He has tweeted out today’s front page – which reveals the paper’s annual special investigation is focussed on modern slavery – an issue May has led the way on: Pleased to announce this year's special investigation,

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Labour MPs rebel as the government’s EU repeal bill wins Commons vote

After David Davis warned that MPs opposing the government’s EU repeal bill would be voting for a ‘chaotic’ exit from the EU, the Brexit secretary can take heart that the majority of Parliamentarians took his advice onboard. This morning MPs voted in favour of the government’s EU (withdrawal) bill at its second reading by 326 votes to 290, in the first key Commons test of the legislation. On hearing the news, the Prime Minister issued a statement on the ‘solid foundations’ the bill provides: ‘Earlier this morning Parliament took a historic decision to back the will of the British people and vote for a bill which gives certainty and clarity ahead of our

Monday

James Forsyth

Theresa May must make sure that Brexit doesn’t just become a process story

The EU Withdrawal Bill is undoubtedly an important piece of legislation. But I suspect that the bickering over Henry VIII clauses and affirmative statutory instruments passes most voters by. This is why it’s imperative that Theresa May keeps reminding voters of what the point of Brexit is, of what it will enable this country to do. One of the many problems with the Tory general election campaign was that it turned Brexit into a process story. May talked endlessly about the need to strengthen her hand in the negotiations. But as Andrea Leadsom complained in the political Cabinet’s post-mortem of the election campaign, May never said what Brexit was actually

Ross Clark Ross Clark

When will Theresa May realise that Parliament hates a ‘power grab’?

Nothing has the potential to harm Theresa May’s weakened government more than a battle over the rights of Parliament. Just remember the PR disaster for the government that was the government’s High Court battle with Gina Miller over the right for a Parliamentary vote on the exercise of Article 50. Having fought and lost in the courts, the government had no trouble whatsoever in passing the Article 50 legislation. Why expend so much energy in a battle which makes you look authoritarian and yet which you never needed to fight in the first place? Tonight, Labour will be hoping to repeat the exercise with the vote on the second reading

Saturday

James Forsyth

Theresa May’s exit strategy

Nearly all Tory MPs now agree Theresa May should stay on as Prime Minister. She must get the party through Brexit, they say. A leadership contest now would risk splitting the party over the European issue. One senior Tory who was agitating to depose May back in July has told me that he has now decided it would be best if she stays until 2019. But this desire to keep her in place for Brexit should not be confused (especially not by Mrs May) with a desire to see her fight the next election. The number of Tories prepared to even contemplate following her into another battle remains vanishingly small.

Friday

Frank Young

The Conservative Party needs to be the party of family once again

Earlier this week, academics at Oxford and Cambridge were likely to be cock-a-hoop that their universities top international leagues tables taking both gold and silver spots. Britain leads the world when it comes to getting top places in international league tables of higher education. As a country, we sell TV shows across the globe and are cultural leaders pushing our soft cultural power; the Premier League is the most watched football league in the world; the City of London is the money capital of the world. Unfortunately, there are things we are less good at. In another league table published recently, Britain sits pretty much rock bottom when it comes to

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Parliament needs to do far more than just stand up to the latest government power grab

What a surprise: a government trying to make it easier to get legislation through the House of Commons. Today’s Huffington Post story that Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom is trying to ensure that there is a Tory majority on every committee scrutinising legislation is just the latest example of Theresa May’s government making every effort to make life easier for itself. Journalists at the Number 10 lobby briefing today pointed out that the Tories haven’t actually won a majority and therefore do not deserve to have a majority in public bill and delegated legislation committees. Rather astonishingly, the Number 10 spokesman responded that ‘the government has a majority on

James Mumford

Family is the key for breaking the reoffending cycle

Lord Farmer’s review on prison reform, launched this week at the Centre for Social Justice think tank, is ground-breaking for a number of reasons. For starters, it gets family. In an incontestably broad consultation, comprising hundreds and hundreds of interviews with prisoners across Britain, the resounding message that came back was about family. ‘If I don’t see my family I will lose them, if I lose them what have I got left?’, one prisoner told Lord Farmer. The statistics bear this out: the odds of reoffending are 39 per cent lower for prisoners who receive family visits than for those who don’t. To be left bereft by the family sucks

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The letter row is a reminder of Theresa May’s weakness

Some things never change. It’s the end of the first week of the new term and the Conservatives are finishing it with a row about Brexit. Although there are several rows currently brewing on Brexit – from amendments to the EU (withdrawal) bill to David Davis’s ‘stability’ – the one that is giving the Prime Minister the biggest headache involves a letter and a minister. The letter – thought to have been destined for the Sunday Telegraph – says that Britain should not pay into the EU budget during a transition period and must be able to sign trade deals straight after Brexit. These demands go further than current government policy and

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 7 September 2017

Home On being asked if she meant to lead the Conservatives into the next election, due in 2022, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said: ‘Yes. I’m in this for the long term.’ Echoing Peter Mandelson’s remark in 2001, she said: ‘I’m not a quitter.’ Research by Conservative Home found that 52 per cent of Conservative party members wanted her gone before 2022. A memo from Lynton Crosby sent in April, before Mrs May called an early election, turned up in the Mail on Sunday: ‘Clearly a lot of risk involved with holding an early election, and there is a real need to nail down the “why” for doing so now.’

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Theresa May gets a Brexit lesson from Parliament

Today has been a reminder of just how hard getting the Brexit legislation through parliament will be for Theresa May. In the Commons today, various Tory MPs made clear their concerns about the EU withdrawal bill and the powers it gives to the executive. While the bill will pass easily at second reading, the government is almost certain to have to give some ground to get the bill through committee stage. Already there is talk about a compromise involving votes on statutory instruments on the floor of the House. At the same time, there’s been the leak of a letter that is being circulated among clean Brexit Tory MPs which

James Forsyth James Forsyth

May’s exit strategy

Nearly all Tory MPs now agree Theresa May should stay on as Prime Minister. She must get the party through Brexit, they say. A leadership contest now would risk splitting the party over the European issue. One senior Tory who was agitating to depose May back in July has told me that he has now decided it would be best if she stays until 2019. But this desire to keep her in place for Brexit should not be confused (especially not by Mrs May) with a desire to see her fight the next election. The number of Tories prepared to even contemplate following her into another battle remains vanishingly small.