Politics Archives

Tuesday

11 January 2022

How will Boris punish himself if his No. 10 party did break the rules?

The final arbiter of whether Boris Johnson should be punished or sanctioned for allegedly breaking lockdown rules by attending that bring-your-own-booze Downing Street party is not the second permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office Sue Gray, even though she has been given the delicate task of investigating what happened. Under the British system, the ultimate judge and jury of whether any minister should be punished is the Prime Minister. And that means only the PM can decide his own fate. Gray will set out what happened, presumably – in the words of one of her colleagues – 'with her admirable clarity'.

Steerpike

Watch: MP breaks down in tears during partygate debate

To look at the House of Commons this morning, you'd have thought Labour won the last election. The green benches on the government side were bereft of the usual Tory hordes, while the opposition was crammed with jeering Labour backbenchers. The reason? The Speaker Lindsay Hoyle had granted an Urgent Question on the subject of No. 10's parties in May 2020, following yesterday's revelations by ITV. Boris Johnson was busy elsewhere so the call went out for the Paymaster-General. Poor Michael Ellis was sent out for the most thankless task since the Charge of the Light Brigade, armed only with his legal training in dodging, ducking, deflecting and evading difficult questions.

Ross Clark

Banning tomato ketchup sachets won’t save the planet

Warning to the working classes: the government is coming after your pleasures again. It is you who are being blamed for environmental degradation and you who will be made to pay the price. The latest wheeze of environment secretary George Eustice is to ban plastic sachets of tomato ketchup, soy sauce and whatever else from takeaways. Evidence has shown, he says, that these little sachets 'can cause considerable harm to the marine and terrestrial environment when disposed of incorrectly'. Fair enough, in that we would all be better off if food manufacturers could find biodegradable substitutes for their packaging. But why is it always what might be described as common pleasures which ministers fixate upon when trying to solve social and environmental problems?

Steerpike

Seven times No. 10 denied breaking Covid rules

Oh dear. It seems the great government post-Christmas reset isn't going all too well after last night's revelation that Downing Street staff were invited to a drinks party in the No. 10 garden during the first national lockdown. Martin Reynolds, the PM's Principal Private Secretary, sent an email on 20 May 2020 to more than 100 people asking them to come and 'make the most of the lovely weather' and to 'bring your own booze!' Not Sir Humphrey's finest hour... Boris and Carrie Johnson are alleged to have attended the garden party too, which, er, makes something of a mockery of the Prime Minister's insistent denials that he knew of no such parties being held throughout the pandemic.

Patrick O’Flynn

How long until we tire of Boris?

The brilliant but troubled footballer Mario Balotelli once scored a goal in a Manchester derby match and then lifted up his jersey to reveal a t-shirt with the slogan: 'Why always me?' Those who had followed his chaotic career closely could have told him that being the sort of bloke who allows fireworks to be let off in his own bathroom — as he had done the night before, starting a fire that caused £400,000 worth of damage to his house — probably had something to do with it. Today Boris Johnson would seem to have pulled off a similar feat, as he faces the increasingly likely prospect of police questioning after details emerged of yet another lockdown-flouting gathering at Downing Street.

Katy Balls

Can Boris survive another Partygate scandal?

13 min listen

Another day, another party scandal. ‘Bring your own booze’ said Martin Reynolds, the Prime Minister's private secretary in a leaked email to around 100 staff in May 2020, inviting them to a picnic at 10 Downing Street. At the same time, the rest of the country was limited to socialising within household bubbles or one other person outdoors. 'This is the most serious party allegation yet when it comes to Boris Johnson specifically' - Katy BallsNo.10 have refused to respond to the leaked email whilst Sue Gray's investigation into other Downing Street parties are ongoing. Can this line of response last through to PMQ’s tomorrow? Boris Johnson can expect challenging questions from Keir Starmer as the crisis unravels.

Alex Massie

The unfathomable inadequacy of Boris Johnson

There is no room for wriggling here and not just because multiple witnesses put Boris Johnson and his wife at the scene of the stupidity. If Boris Johnson had not been aware that 100 people who work in the same building as him had been invited to a post-work BYOB shindig, even he might have noticed a crowd of 30 to 40 gathering in his garden. And he might then have popped a prime ministerial head out of the window and asked what the bloody hell the partygoers thought they were doing. But of course nothing like that happened because the Prime Minister must surely have known about it all along. The invitation, after all, came from his principal private secretary, not some rogue Downing Street employee.

Monday

10 January 2022

Katy Balls

New No. 10 party leak puts Johnson under pressure

How much trouble is Boris Johnson in over partygate? Since allegations first emerged last year of a number of parties and gatherings in 10 Downing Street when the rest of the country was living under strict Covid restrictions, the Prime Minister has had to launch an investigation (now led by civil servant Sue Gray after cabinet secretary Simon Case had to step down over his own prior knowledge of said gatherings) and seen his approval ratings plummet. Just as Downing Street aides had begun to hope the saga was nearing an end, new evidence has emerged which appears to put Johnson in the firing line. ITV News has published an email sent by the Prime Minister's Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds inviting over 100 staff to a drinks party in the No.

Nick Cohen

What does Neville Chamberlain have in common with Brexiteers?

The false notes in Netflix’s adaptation of Robert Harris’s Munich come in the final scenes. Jeremy Irons, who has been portraying Neville Chamberlain so well that you forget he is an actor, suddenly sounds like an old stager the director has forced to splutter lines he suspects will convince no one. Chamberlain is on the plane back to Heston Aerodrome after allowing Hitler to carve up Czechoslovakia at the 1938 Munich conference. He is about to tell the crowds back home that he had Herr Hitler’s promise to work together to ensure that 'all Europe may find peace' – the vain and stupid boast for which history remembers him. His officials urge him to treat agreements with Hitler with caution. If he breaks his word, Chamberlain will look like a fool.

Katy Balls

How soon will Plan B restrictions lift?

13 min listen

With some early signs that the Omicron threat is waning, talk has begun around Westminster as to when we can get rid of the remaining Covid restrictions. To help Katy Balls, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman make sense of the latest figures, they are joined by Editor, Fraser Nelson with an update from The Spectator's data hub. 'When you look at the number of admissions to hospitals, that actually hit a peak of 2,370 on December the 29th. It hasn't been back at that.' - Fraser NelsonKaty, Isabel and James also assess Michael Gove's plan to address new-build cladding in the wake of Grenfell.

Steerpike

Wanted: a Budget co-ordinator for Rishi

Budgets can be tricky things to manage. George Osborne saw two of his unravel in 2012 and 2016, over hot pasties and welfare cuts respectively, while his 2013 effort was derailed by the Evening Standard breaking its embargo. Thankfully Rishi Sunak has largely avoided such embarrassments in his three efforts so far. Helped by a legion of Rolls-Royce civil servants – and a savvy social media team – the Richmond MP has enjoyed favourable poll ratings off the back of his well-received statements, accompanied, as always, by carefully-crafted images depicting the Chancellor at his best. But it seems all that isn't enough for the ambitious resident of No. 11.

Graham Watts

Gove’s cladding fix doesn’t go far enough

Michael Gove’s building safety announcement today addresses the two contrasting problems of the cladding scandal, but fails to provide any convincing solutions. On the one hand, the Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (with the unmemorable acronym DLUHC – apparently pronounced 'de-Luck') has finally brought to an end the absurdity of people living in buildings of between three and six storeys (11 to 18 metres), which are clad in unsafe external wall systems, being required to take out loans to remediate homes that were never fit for the purpose of keeping them safe when purchased.

Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s Israel entanglement

Over Christmas, Steerpike was just one of those enjoying the memoirs of doughty Brexit street-fighter Mark Francois. Some 4,000 copies have now been sold, according to the Essex MP, whom Mr S encountered at a favourite Westminster haunt last week. And book sales are not the only cause for the self-styled 'Spartan' to be celebrating, as Francois (successfully) proposed on New Years' Eve to longtime girlfriend Olivia Sanders, the mayor of Brentwood and one half of the Posh and Becks of Essex politics. What better way to mark the first anniversary of the end of the Brexit transition period?

Katy Balls

Johnson’s critics are circling once again

As Boris Johnson feels he has been vindicated in his resistance to new Covid restrictions, Downing Street had hoped that his party would give him due credit. However, after a tricky few months, the Prime Minister instead finds himself under fire from his own side on a number of fronts.

Steerpike

W1A: Michael Gove gets trapped in a lift

It seems the government reset isn't going exactly to plan. Michael Gove, Boris Johnson's trouble-shooter, was due to appear on Radio 4's Today programme in the coveted 8:10 a.m slot this morning to explain how he has finally solved the long-running cladding crisis as part of his housing brief. But what should have been a moment of triumph turned into an episode of farce. For, in scenes straight out of W1A, the Minister for Levelling Up appears to be unable to, er, go up a level, as he spent more than half an hour trapped in one of the Corporation's lifts. An embarrassed BBC presenter Nick Robinson was forced to explain the unfolding drama live on air as Gove's interview was pushed back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Steerpike

Will the Queen get her just desserts?

Victoria sponge, cherries jubilee and coronation chicken: a trio of Britain's best loved foods, all of which share a monarchical theme. Each of these dishes was either created for a member of the Royal Family or to mark a royal occasion, with the three being respectively linked to Queen Victoria, her diamond jubilee in 1897 and finally our own current Queen's coronation in 1953. Now, as Her Majesty prepares to mark 70 years on the throne, the search is on to find an appropriately delectable dish to mark the Platinum Jubilee. For today a call has gone out across the land for a 'Platinum Pudding' fit for a Queen.

Sunday

9 January 2022

Angus Colwell

Are free lateral flow tests about to be scrapped?

Could free lateral flow tests be on the way out? The Sunday Times says said so on its front page but Nadhim Zahawi has denied it outright. It’s clear there’s a split in government over this. Officials quoted in the Sunday Times article say the country needs to realise Covid is here to stay, and to accept that vaccines have blunted most of its force. David Spiegelhalter, one of the most respected statisticians who has been commenting on the pandemic, has said Britain is ‘certainly not going to see a big rise in intensive care admissions and deaths’.

Steerpike

Andy Burnham’s testing confusion

Andy Burnham has been undergoing something of a transformation in recent years. Gone is the Cambridge-educated career politician who underperformed in successive Labour leadership contests. Now he's reborn as the king of the north, an omnipotent Manchester mayor with fans across the capital and the country. His pugilist credentials have been honed by savvy social media skills, with Burnham always keen to take a pithy pop at Westminster/the Tories/London for another egregious slight visited on the north by those avaricious creatures down south. But could honest Andy's love of Twitter be his downfall?

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Zahawi denies plans to withdraw free lateral flow tests

The Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi was in the hotseat this morning as the Sunday interview shows make their return. He spoke to Trevor Phillips and immediately scotched reports in the Sunday Times from Whitehall sources suggesting that the current policy of providing free lateral flow tests could soon be on its way out: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1480100116883197952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw NZ: I don’t recognise [this] at all… TP: There are no plans at the moment to stop lateral flow tests being free? NZ: Absolutely not. Cutting isolation to 5 days ‘would certainly help’ Zahawi also spoke to Sophie Raworth, who is now filling the role vacated by Andrew Marr.

Steerpike

True claims torpedo partygate defence

Once upon a time it was the 'Notting Hill set' which ran the Tory party, with David Cameron, George Osborne and Michael Gove all boasting homes there. Now though, the Cameroons are largely gone and if there can be said to be an alternative London clique, it will be found seven miles south, in the leafy surroundings of Richmond. For the district is the power base of Carrie Johnson, who worked there for local MP Zac Goldsmith, the defra minister who now sits in the Lords alongside longtime Richmond council leader Nicholas True. The latter's daughter Sophia also works in No. 10 as a special adviser. But now a little-noticed answer by Lord True has made life slightly more tricky for Boris, Carrie, Sophia and their colleagues in No. 10.