Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Wednesday

Brendan O’Neill

The snobbish attacks on Nadine Dorries

I see the establishment has a new sport: mocking Nadine Dorries. They really do hate her. Or rather, they love taking the mick out of her. She looks drunk! She only has one book on her shelf! She gives car-crash interviews! She wouldn’t know culture if it bit her on the behind! You don’t need a PhD in class studies to work out what’s motoring this frenzied Nadine-bashing: classic, old-fashioned snobbery. You know a political trend has taken off when it finds its way even on to Instagram, the only social media I use. When even this normally peaceful virtual world of cats and selfies is invaded by political memes, something’s afoot. The Nadine memes have come thick and fast. There’s a shot of her looking angry on Channel 4.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

What to make of the mini reshuffle?

15 min listen

A mini reshuffle has happened, but this time nobody has been fired. Is this a sign of Boris Johnson being strategic? Or is it more an advertisement of the little room he has to manoeuvre?Also on the podcast, James and Isabel discuss the NHS backlog. Today the Health Secretary was forced to admit to MPs that the NHS waiting list in England, which already stands at a record 6 million, will keep on growing for another two years.What are the holes in his new plan? All to be discussed as Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth.

Steerpike

The Saj gets a rebrand

Sajid Javid is having a bit of a tough time at the moment. Under pressure from Labour's new golden boy Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary was forced to admit to MPs today that the NHS waiting list in England, which already stands at a record six million, will keep on growing for another two years. In such difficult times, with the health service at breaking point and Tory tensions over tax rises to fix it, 'the Saj' will need every brilliant idea he can seize. So Steerpike enjoyed hearing about Javid's latest initiative to inspire his under-pressure health department. In his desperation for new ideas, the Bromsgrove MP has launched a new pun-based online feedback form for policy 'Saj-estions'.

Patrick O’Flynn

Will Starmer apologise for his slur against Boris?

Well I don’t know about you, but I definitely heard a nasty slur flung from one leader to another during the parliamentary debate on the Sue Gray report. Not Boris Johnson’s claim that Keir Starmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile while he was Director of Public Prosecutions. That was merely a pathetic, unbecoming, unwise and unfair insult thrown from a position of weakness and unattractive impetuosity. No, the insult that had me taking a sharp intake of breath was one made moments earlier by Starmer towards Johnson. It ran as follows:  'Just as he has done throughout his life, he has damaged everyone and everything around him along the way.

Steerpike

Peers go to polls in hereditary by-election

It's by-election day in Parliament. No, not another chance for voters to give Boris Johnson a bloody nose over 'partygate'; but rather the opportunity for one of Britain's blue-blooded families to take their place in the Upper House. For this contest is fought in the Lords, not the Commons, with votes limited to Tory peers choosing amongst themselves which of them should take Matt Ridley's seat, following his retirement from the chamber in December. Ridley was one of 42 hereditary peers elected by the Conservative hereditary peers, as part of the total 92 agreed as a compromise by Tony Blair in 1999. Voting is taking place on the parliamentary estate until 5 p.m today, with Steerpike's spies telling him this contest is one of the more keenly-fought in recent years.

Katy Balls

Boris’s reshuffle reveals his weakness

Boris Johnson's attempted reset is underway, with a mini-reshuffle announced this afternoon. The Prime Minister has made a number of changes to his top team as part of his efforts to signal to Tory MPs that he has taken on board criticism of his operation and will improve it.   The most striking aspect of this reshuffle is Johnson's apparent reluctance to upset anyone As part of the changes, Mark Spencer has been moved from his role as chief whip to leader of the house — with Chris Heaton Harris brought in as his replacement. Jacob Rees-Mogg has been moved from leader of the house to minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency — in this role he will attend cabinet.

Freddy Gray

The Starmer mob moral panic

In the long history of British democracy, politicians have from time to time been heckled and abused by rowdy loons on their way to the House of Commons. It was Keir Starmer’s turn yesterday, again, as a gaggle of hooligans shouted unpleasant remarks at him. When these things happen, it’s seldom an edifying spectacle. But it is probably a price worth paying for having a parliament in the middle of London which MPs travel to in open streets – rather than shuttling in and out of some hyper-secure and dystopian administrative bubble. What happened to Starmer yesterday is no worse than what anybody who has been with away fans to a football match in England will have experienced.

Ross Clark

A windfall tax on oil giants would harm – not help – pensioners

Look up this year’s performance of the shares and bonds which make up your pension fund and you will see that BP and Shell are the rare chinks of light. BP is up 15 per cent and Shell up 20 per cent, with both enjoying bumper profits on the back of high oil and gas prices. Cue, then, for Labour and the Lib Dems to demand a windfall tax in order to confiscate some of these profits. The money ought to be used, Eds Miliband and Davey have said this morning, to help people pay their heating bills. In both their minds ‘dividends’ and ‘shareholders’ are rude words – whereas in reality the people with a stake in BP and Shell are in many cases exactly the same people who are struggling to pay their heating bills.

Annabel Denham

The cost of online safety

Few people in Britain will have heard of the draft Online Safety Bill. Fewer still will oppose it. Protecting children against harm and exploitation online is an entirely rational goal in modern-day society. And when the Culture Secretary is boldly promising, as Nadine Dorries did at the weekend, to 'bring order to the online world' and 'force social media companies to take responsibility for the toxic abuse that floods their platforms,' it can be quite convincing: painting the web as a virtual Wild West that governments urgently need to regulate. Doubtless, the internet is home to abhorrent abuse that isn’t acceptable in any circumstance. Beyond that, there are instances of unlawful behaviour and serious crime — and anyone who sees it should alert the police. Many do.

Andrew Tettenborn

Brexit-bashing bishops could ruin the Church of England

When politicians take to preaching, we feel uncomfortable. When bishops take to politics and managerialism, the sinking feeling gets worse. Now it seems we should brace ourselves for more pulpit politics: a Church of England proposal suggests that church leaders could be appointed to full-time cabinet-style roles such as 'Brexit bishop' or 'Covid bishop'. These plans should seriously concern any Anglican well-wisher. After all, why would the appointments stop at Brexit and the pandemic? Knowing the C of E, it seems a racing certainty that if these proposals come to anything others would include matters like climate change and anti-racism. What about preaching the Gospel?  Hidden within proposals for political bishops is a drastic rewriting of what bishops stand for.

Steerpike

Mandarins troll exiting No. 10 staff

Clashes between special advisers and civil servants have become a fixture of the Whitehall landscape in recent years. Who can forget the Cabinet Office tweeter who fired off the ‘arrogant and offensive’ message in the middle of Barnard Castle-gate? But now it seems the Sir Humphreys of SW1 are content to leave direct confrontation aside and confine their expressions of discontent to veiled digs at those in No. 10. For Mr S couldn’t help but notice that among the documents uploaded yesterday to the official gov.uk website included a handy guide to seminars on ‘How to stand out in an interview and get the job you want’ with promised ‘tips on how to get ahead in an interview and secure a new job.

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson is running out of options

The No. 10 operation’s decision to double down on the Starmer/Savile row after the Labour leader was accosted in the street by anti-vaxxers shows us how limited the options are for Boris Johnson as he tries to recover from the turmoil of the past few weeks. The line from his allies and aides is that these protesters were shouting all manner of things, including about Savile but also about Julian Assange. In other words, they were wrong’uns before Johnson offered the slur in the Commons last week, and they would have threatened the Labour leader regardless. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPl2intEdpk This may or may not be true but as a line of argument it hardly gives Boris Johnson a statesmanlike demeanour.

Steerpike

Chatty MPs fuel podcast boom

Whether it's online, print, radio or broadcast, it seems we can't get enough of politics these days. And not content with traditional forms of media, an ever-expanding number of MPs are branching out into podcasts to share their thoughts with the wider world. Around half-a-dozen have launched their own shows in recent months, following in the footsteps of perhaps the most high-profile parliamentary podcaster: Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has hosted his fortnightly Moggcast show for ConservativeHome since 2018, often providing news lines which Mr S is only too keen to follow up.

Monday

Steerpike

Mob hound Starmer outside parliament

An uneventful Monday was enlivened this evening by some rather unappealing scenes outside parliament. Walking back from a Ministry of Defence briefing, Sir Keir Starmer was surrounded by a group of foul-mouthed anti-lockdown protesters who yelled he was a 'traitor,' forcing the Labour leader to leave with a police escort.  Starmer had to be bundled away into a police car after numerous insults were aggressively hurled at him. Several demonstrators claimed the former top lawyer was guilty of 'protecting paedophiles' while other shouted  'Jimmy Savile' — a presumed reference to Boris Johnson's comments last week about the reviled TV personality.

Robert Tombs

Cambridge’s Jesus College is guilty of double standards

An event took place in Cambridge last week that was rare enough to reach the national press: a public hearing by the Diocese of Ely Consistorial Court in Jesus College chapel. It was brought about by a group of alumni who were opposing a move by the Master and Fellows of the College to remove a commemorative plaque to one of their greatest benefactors, the 17th century courtier and financier Tobias Rustat. His financial bequest was equivalent to over £4 million in present values, and his munificence is – or rather, was – celebrated in an annual College feast. I attended much of the hearing, spread over three days.

Isabel Hardman

Boris’s new No. 10 team can’t save him from himself

Boris Johnson's new No. 10 hires have given him a chance to catch his breath, very briefly, from the turmoil of the past week. But it's worth noting that the plot has always thickened as a result of something the Prime Minister himself has done, rather than the mistakes or otherwise of his team.  Guto Harri, Andrew Griffith and Steve Barclay now have the unenviable and – many Conservative MPs think – impossible task of encouraging the party to feel more forgiving towards the Prime Minister whenever he next makes a mistake. They cannot, though, stop him from making mistakes, and this is why he is still in a great deal of trouble.

Steerpike

SNP councillor: ‘Prosecute Jimmy Carr’s audience’

Oh dear. It seems that the most illiberal party in Great Britain is at it again. In the nationwide haste to condemn the comedian Jimmy Carr for his remarks about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community in his Netflix special, an elected councillor from (who else?) the SNP has called for prosecutions. Not just for Carr himself, mind you; Julie McKenzie, who sits on Argyll and Bute council, wants the many members of Carr's audience prosecuted too for 'applauding' the remarks.  The show, called His Dark Material, was released on Christmas Day but received widespread attention last Friday after a clip was posted and shared online.

Katy Balls

Will Boris’s new appointments win over backbenchers?

14 min listen

On Saturday night, No. 10 announced two new appointments: Steve Barclay would become chief of staff, and Guto Harri would become director of communications. Will Downing Street's reshuffle improve the mood of Tory MPs? And what else does Boris Johnson have to do?  Katy Balls talks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about the new faces inside No. 10.

Craig Oliver

Carrie Johnson and the problem with anonymous sources

The publication of extracts from a biography of Carrie Johnson this weekend is another stark reminder that we need a serious look at the over-use of anonymous sources in journalism. I first began to worry about the problem when extracts from another Lord Ashcroft biography – this time of David Cameron – were published. When I was told it included the claim that he once performed a sex act on a pig, I was sure it was a complete fabrication, not least because it was based on a single, anonymous source with nothing else to substantiate it. Seeing the prime minister’s sickened reaction confirmed this view. The claim was deeply cynical, because those behind it knew that even though there was no proof, it would be toxic anyway.