Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Katy Balls

What does the police probe mean for Boris?

16 min listen

The latest in the scandal of Downing Street parties points to the Prime Minister’s own birthday, where a gathering took place in the Cabinet Office. Whilst this has been played off by a Downing Street spokesperson as being on ‘the edges of a work event’. Cressida Dick announced this morning that events at No.10 during lockdown have now been deemed serious enough to deserve a police investigation. How long does this now go on for? It could make the May election results terrible for the Tories, prompting more MPs to write a letter of no confidence.'Someone close to Boris Johnson said to me that this idea to 'delay to Gray' is wrong.

Steerpike

Michael Ellis gets another grilling

Another day, another party, another Urgent Question – and another dreadful outing for Michael Ellis. The Paymaster-General was sent out again, just three hours after the Met Police confirmed it would be probing 'partygate.' Deploying the finest lawyerly evasions and the best of his oleaginous charm, Ellis spent a gruelling 45 minutes fending off a barrage of outraged opposition MPs.  Highlights include the Member for Northampton North appearing to indulge in existentialism by questioning the very meaning of the word 'party'.

Robert Peston

Can the Tories afford to grant Boris Johnson a reprieve?

This was supposed to be the week of judgement for Boris Johnson and assorted Downing Street officials about whether they had breached Covid rules by holding parties. But they have won a temporary reprieve, because Sue Gray – the senior civil servant investigating the alleged rule-breaking parties – will delay publication of her report until the Met Police has conducted its own investigation of whether the Covid laws were breached and whether fixed penalty fines should be levied. The big question is whether the decision of Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, to investigate, and the associated stay of judgment for the Prime Minister, is good or bad for him.  My judgement, and those of senior Tories, is that it is bad. Why?

Steerpike

Extinction Rebellion target MPs’ offices

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is making its way through the final stages of the parliamentary process — and not a moment too soon it seems. For the legislation, which aims to deter direct action protests, might be called into action to deal with the latest shenanigans of Extinction Rebellion. Leaked documents obtained by Mr S reveal that the 'eco-activists' are planning another 'mass resistance' action day for 9 April, with the group aiming to have at least 3,000 so-called 'Rebels' arrested on that day alongside a demonstration in Hyde Park. According to the 'XRUK Strategy 2022,' the emphasis this spring will be on what XR is calling 'Local Coup D’etat Action.

Steerpike

British Council’s Russian détente

It's all gone a bit Pete Tong down in the Crimea. Russia and Ukraine are tooling up on both sides, with the Western powers claiming there will be 'unprecedented' sanctions against Russia if it were to invade. Ben Wallace is set to meet with his Russian counterpart for crisis talks; the UK is among those nations shipping hundreds of anti-tank weapons out to Ukraine. The mood music is grim: the rhetoric sombre.  Yet there are those in London who are adopting a breezier approach to the current quandary. For the British Council, considered by many to be a key soft power extension of UK foreign policy, appears to have taken the prospect of imminent European war in its stride.

Katy Balls

Met Police to investigate parties in Downing Street

Boris Johnson's team thought that the biggest problem they would encounter this week was Sue Gray's report into allegations of parties at Downing Street in breach of Covid restrictions. However, they now also have a police investigation to deal with. This morning, the Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick confirmed that the police will investigate parties in No. 10.  Giving evidence to the London assembly this morning, Dick said her force had launched a criminal investigation into the allegations triggered by information provided by the Cabinet Office from Sue Gray's investigation. Dick said: 'As a result of information provided by cabinet office and my officers own assessment I can confirm (the) Met is investigating.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Katy Balls

Inside Operation Save Boris

Will Boris Johnson still be Prime Minister in a year's time? It's the question that haunts Johnson's closest allies. After news broke on Monday evening of another lockdown event in the form of a birthday celebration in Downing Street when social gatherings indoors were banned, Johnson is once again on the backfoot. With MPs frustrated by the damaging drip-drip nature of the leaks, Johnson doesn't just need to survive Sue Gray's report into partygate, he also needs to show his party he can change.

Monday

Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s lockdown birthday

'Wait for Sue Gray' has been the mantra on every ministers' lips these past few weeks. But with just days to go before the senior civil servant is due to deliver her findings on 'partygate' how much longer can that line continue to hold? For this evening ITV have dropped yet another bombshell: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors.  Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where his wife surprised him with a cake, with Lulu Lytle — the designer who was doing up the Prime Minister's flat at the time — among those who came down to the party. Turns out that redecoration might have cost Johnson a whole lot more than £112,000... https://twitter.

Steerpike

Gavin Williamson’s new gig

With his Whips' Office in crisis, how Boris Johnson must be wishing he'd kept Gavin Williamson in government. The former Chief Whip was praised for the political intelligence operation he ran during both the 2016 and 2019 Tory leadership elections when he helped secure victories for Johnson and his predecessor Theresa May. Now though Gavin – or Sir Gavin, as he is reportedly set to become – is left lolling on the backbenches, defending himself against attacks from Labour defectors about the methods he employed while in office. Still, the ex-Education Secretary clearly sees his former brief as his calling, given his desire to educate the public on his work in politics.

Steerpike

Watch: Blow for Boris as Treasury minister quits

Some rare fireworks in the House of Lords this afternoon. Lord Agnew, the minister responsible for Whitehall efficiency, has just resigned his ministerial posts after he told peers he was unable to defend the Treasury's record. Responding to an Urgent Question by Labour, he strongly criticised the UK government’s 'lamentable track record' in tackling fraud in a flagship state-backed coronavirus business loan scheme.  The bounce back loan scheme handed out £47 billion, of which £4.9 billion was fraudulently claimed, the Business department estimates. It has a target to recover just £6 million from organised crime over three years.

Steven Fielding

Boris’s partygate troubles mean a welcome dilemma for Starmer

The last time a Conservative government was in the midst of a crisis like partygate, Labour had a choice. Should it stick or twist? Should it passively allow Conservative voters, who had kept the party in power for more than decade, to drift away from John Major, thanks to his troubles over the economy, ‘sleaze’ and the EU, hoping they would remain with Labour come a general election? Or should it make a bold and positive case for why they could actively support Labour?  Both approaches held dangers. Under John Smith, Labour opted to let nature take its course. At the time, it was described as a ‘one more heave’ strategy.

Steerpike

Serpentine swimmers slap down Matt Hancock

Oh dear. As part of his comeback tour, Matt Hancock is trying every trick to aid his post-Gina rehabilitation. There has been talk of a self-justificatory book, cringeworthy Twitter clips of him doing meet and greets, an appearance at the Capital Jingle Bell Ball in a dreadful turtleneck, backbench interventions and even talk of him mounting a leadership bid. But it seems one of Hancock's stunts has backfired somewhat, after the master of the breast stroke was last week spotted taking a dip in the open-water swimming site of the Serpentine.

Cindy Yu

How damaging are Nusrat Ghani’s claims?

16 min listen

Over the weekend the MP Nusrat Ghani accused the government of sacking her because allegedly her Muslim faith was an issue, and they thought she didn't defend the Conservative party's charges of Islamophobia more. In the week of the release of the infamous Sue Gray report into Partygate how are the Tories dealing with these two scandals? 'The whip's office is caught between Sandhurst and a HR department.' - James ForsythCindy Yu is joined by James Forsyth and Katy Balls to unpack the weekend's revelations.And if you are interested in learning more about Nasrat Ghani's Journey to become an MP do listen to Katy's interview with her from last year's Women with Balls podcast here: https://spectator.

Katy Balls

When will Johnson discover his fate?

As concerns rise in government over the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson is facing problems both abroad and domestically. The UK is withdrawing staff from the British embassy in Ukraine while ministers are attempting to manage expectations over how far the government will go in the event of an incursion — with a military response viewed as very unlikely. But back home, this is viewed as the week that could decide the Prime Minister's fate over partygate.  As for the contents of the report, the scope of the inquiry has been widened out once again While there is still no confirmed date for the publication of Sue Gray's report into alleged Downing Street parties, the hope in No. 10 is that it will come mid-week.

Steerpike

Where next for ‘party Marty’?

Westminster is gearing up for 'Sue Gray week' as the top civil servant is due to finally release her long-awaited findings into 'partygate.' There's been much speculation as to how bad the forthcoming report will be for Boris Johnson and his gang, with both political appointees and civil servants expected to be implicated. TheTelegraph reports that Downing Street police officers have been interviewed about what they saw on the nights in question while the Sunday Times claims that Johnson's former aide Dominic Cummings will be grilled today. While Mr S awaits the publication of the report's findings with interest, it's clear that one or two people's careers in Whitehall have already been badly hit by the claims which emerged in recent weeks.

Matthew Lynn

The WFH bubble has burst

We would work over Zoom. We would all exercise on our Peletons. We would order in organic vegetable boxes, stream live shows, and network globally from our kitchens. At the height of the pandemic, with most of the major economies locked down, a group of work-and-live-from home companies boomed. And yet, right now that is starting to turn. The headlines might be dominated by stories of a stock market crash. In fact, however, something else is happening. The WFH bubble is bursting. There are a whole series of reasons why the stock market has turned very wobbly this month. Inflation is soaring and central banks, led by the Federal Reserve, are about to raise interest rates to control that.

Sam Leith

Downflood: the Good Ship Boris is sinking

In Sebastian Junger’s book The Perfect Storm, there’s a near-matchless description of how big boats go to the bottom. 'The crisis curve starts out gradually and quickly becomes exponential,' Junger writes of a boat wallowing and taking on water in a big sea: The more trouble she’s in, the more trouble she’s likely to get in, and the less capable she is of getting out of it, which is an acceleration of catastrophe that is almost impossible to reverse... If there’s enough damage, flooding may overwhelm the pumps and short out the engine or gag its air intakes. With the engine gone, the boat has no steerageway at all and turns broadside to the seas.

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Dominic Raab: ‘Serious consequences’ if Russia invades

Dominic Raab – ‘Serious consequences’ if Russia invades Ukraine The Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab took to the TV studios this morning after another turbulent week for the government. Perhaps the most pressing issue on the agenda is deciphering the motives of Vladimir Putin, as a reported 100,000 Russian troops envelop Ukraine’s eastern border. Trevor Phillips asked Raab what was being done in the West to try and face Putin down as the icy Ukrainian winter threatens to heat up: There will be very serious consequences if Russia takes this move to try and invade, but also install a puppet regime… It will involve a range of financial and economic sanctions. https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1485171773570228225?

Steerpike

Science Museum axes slavery exhibits

An iconoclastic spirit has swept much of Britain's institutions over the past two years. Just last month Mr S revealed that a painting of a fictitious scene from the American Civil War had been removed from Liverpool University's library, despite it having hung there for decades. And it seems the university is not alone in its efforts, with Steerpike discovering that London's Science Museum has removed no fewer than eight exhibits for historical or political insensitivity reasons. Among the items are three objects from the vast collection of pharmaceutical entrepreneur Henry Wellcome, including two nineteenth century slave whips and a German man-catcher which pulled riders off horseback.

Bruce Anderson

It’s time for Boris Johnson to go

The partygate farce drags on. Do we have a government, sustained by a dominant political party or do we have an ill-run children's playground? The PM has suffered a humiliating loss of authority, which is surely irreversible. He is no longer the First Lord of the Treasury. He has become the first laughing-stock of state. In one respect, Boris Johnson was always an improbable Prime Minister. From Attlee onwards, all post-war premiers could have claimed to be serious people. History might question whether that was really true of Harold Wilson or Tony Blair but at various stages they both dominated British politics. At least for a season, to use a phrase of Joe Chamberlain's, they made the weather. That was never true of Boris, for one overriding reason.