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Joanna Cherry is the SNP's Justice and Home Affairs Spokesperson and a prolific QC, known for her successful legal challenge against the government over its decision to prorogue parliament. In the end, Boris Johnson's prorogation was declared unlawful. On the podcast, she talks to Katy about her Scottish Labour days, the misogyny she identifies in the current debate over trans rights, and taking the Prime Minister to court.
Can Boris Johnson really cut violent crime by 20 per cent? James reported recently that the Prime Minister has set his Cabinet this target, and is demanding that every department get involved in realising it. Most people have focused on the most salient political problem, which is knife crime. But if the Prime Minister is really serious about driving the overall violent crime statistics down, then he already has a piece of 'oven-ready' legislation which could help him do this - if he's prepared to spend a bit more money on it. The Domestic Abuse Bill is returning to Parliament very soon, after just making it through all the prorogation jamboree in the autumn.
Love him or hate him, you can't deny that John Bercow had an outsized political impact in 2019. The former Speaker was instrumental in the battles to block Brexit through legislation and parliamentary procedure, and his decision to delay his departure probably changed the course of British history. So it was perhaps unsurprising that Bercow was The Spectator's insurgent of the year at last night's parliamentarian awards. Unfortunately, he was not able to attend the event in person, but did provide this video message, which put to bed the rumours once and for all, that he was a Speaker who was obsessed with self-promotion and only concerned about flogging his own memoirs. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Prime Minister Boris Johnson won The Spectator’s much-coveted Parliamentarian of the Year award at a ceremony in London last night. The former Spectator editor was sadly unable to attend the event but sent a pre-recorded message in which he thanked the publication, calling it 'the greatest magazine in the English language'. The video also featured Boris and Carrie Symonds' pet dog Dilyn tearing into a copy of the Christmas edition. Perhaps the Welsh rescue puppy could be set loose on another notable publication. Former speaker John Bercow used a pre-recorded acceptance speech to plug his upcoming book Unspeakable. Mr S would be more than happy to see the pooch get his paws on a copy...
Last night Penny Mordaunt was the guest of honour at the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards. Below is an edited transcript of her speech. When Fraser first contacted me about presenting tonight, I have to say I wasn't convinced. I said, 'who, with a glittering Cabinet career ahead of them would ever be so stupid?' He said, yes, Penny – that is why we are calling you. I wasn't the first person he called. He tried Diane Abbott, and asked her to come along and do a quick round-up of 2019. She declined. She said she wasn't very good with numbers. He asked literally everyone. He couldn't get an ice sculpture to do this gig. So I'm sorry folks, you've got me.
Boris Johnson is a big fan of Mohammed bin Salman. But why? Back in 2018, the then-foreign secretary was keen to sing the praises of the Saudi Crown prince. In an article for the Times, Boris was clear that MBS was good news: ‘I believe that the crown prince, who is only 32, has demonstrated by word and deed that he aims to guide Saudi Arabia in a more open direction.’ A few months on, Boris came under fire for accepting a £14,000 trip to Saudi Arabia from the country’s foreign affairs ministry. Only days later, Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Boris has, to be fair, since mellowed in his warm words for MBS. But why was he so keen on MBS?
The Spectator’s annual Parliamentarian of the Year awards took place at the Rosewood Hotel in London this evening. The awards were presented by the guest of honour, former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt.
Emily Thornberry is the straggler in the Labour leadership contest. Unlike Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy, she's not going to get on the ballot with trade union nominations. She currently only has two nominations from constituency Labour parties, and doesn't poll well with members. She needs a breakthrough moment - or at least an explanation of why she's standing. This evening she had her grilling with Andrew Neil, where she struggled once again to explain how she would take the Labour Party on a different course, away from its catastrophic election defeat. Her main pitch seems to be that a Thornberry-led party would be Corbynism but without the disorganisation.
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is very keen that Prime Minister's Questions last its allotted half an hour, rather than turning it into the hour-long drone-fest that John Bercow indulged in during his tenure. Today he had to cut off one MP who was asking a question that wasn't just pointless (the Speaker doesn't adjudicate on the quality of interventions, more's the pity), but that was also taking longer than one of Bercow's famous soliloquies about himself. This most pointless question of the session - indeed the year so far - came from new Tory MP Sarah Dines, who asked this: 'My right hon. Friend will know that the quarries of the Peak district provide a huge proportion of the national building and mineral needs of this great nation.
With Lisa Nandy making it onto the ballot paper in the Labour leadership contest, the competition has just got rather less predictable. It had previously been assumed that the final fight before the membership would consist of a battle between Corbynism and not-Corbynism in the form of Rebecca Long-Bailey vs Keir Starmer. Now, presuming Long-Bailey makes it too, there will be a much wider debate. So far, though Nandy hasn't had any nominations from constituency Labour parties, while Starmer and Long-Bailey have got 15 and five respectively. While they don't need to get the required 33 CLPs if they already have three affiliate organisations, including two trade unions, the candidates will still want to show they have local party support.
PMQs began with a tussle over Universal Credit. Jeremy Corbyn’s team of wordsmiths and brainstormers had spent the morning ransacking a thesaurus for words meaning ‘destructive’. They found ‘broken, damaging, dangerous, callous, cruel, punitive and vicious.’ They added ‘very cruel’ for good measure. These were the labels Corbyn applied to Universal Credit. ‘It should go,’ he urged. As for ‘very cruel’, he spoke of ‘the very cruel and callous two-child limit which caps benefits for larger families.’ Now that Britain’s parents have received this warning, they can avoid the ‘very cruel’ cap by capping their fecundity.
Until Labour gets a new leader, PMQs will be a rather predictable affair. Whatever topic Jeremy Corbyn goes on, Boris Johnson has an ace up his sleeve: Labour’s defeat in the election. In today’s session, Boris Johnson trumpeted, ‘I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer that the British people gave some moments ago’. It is very hard for Corbyn to come back from such an answer. Perhaps the most striking thing about today’s session was how keen Boris Johnson was to go after the SNP on domestic issues. When the Tory MP for Mansfield Ben Bradley asked a question about schools in his constituency, Boris Johnson pivoted from the question to attacking the poor record of schools in Scotland under the SNP.
*According to Labour party members. Research carried out by the polling company YouGov reveals the surprising fact that party members rank the absolute boy as the absolute best Labour leader of the last hundred years. When asked whether members had a favourable or unfavourable view of each of the last 13 leaders, JC came out on top. Yes, that's the same Jeremy Corbyn who just last month managed to secure the party's worst defeat since 1935. Corbyn beat the founding father of the modern Labour party Clem Attlee and far outstripped the most successful leader since the party's foundation, Tony Blair. As YouGov points out, the results are partly down to the fact that one in four (!!) Labour party members don't actually seem to know who Attlee is.
Rebecca Long-Bailey denies she is the 'Continuity Cobynism' candidate in Labour’s leadership election. Her public statements suggest otherwise. Having given Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership a remarkable 10/10, Long-Bailey proposes to double down on the party’s 2019 manifesto commitments and simply present them in a new way. At least members know what they’re getting with a Long-Bailey leadership: more of the same but with a different face. Had Labour not suffered its worst defeat since 1935 that might have been enough to secure her victory in April. Instead, the disaster in December means it is Keir Starmer who looks likely to become the next Labour leader. But what does he stand for?
Given that Labour has just faced its worst electoral defeat, arguably since 1935, it always looked odd – and dangerous for the Opposition – that the final run-off might have been between two candidates, Sir Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey, whose hands were well and truly in the blood of that disaster, as part of Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet. So the decision of the big GMB union to endorse Lisa Nandy will make for a more interesting contest and a proper choice for Labour members. Nandy's most important claim to be leader is she is the only candidate to have argued as a backbencher that Labour should have worked seriously to agree a Brexit deal with ex-PM Theresa May.
The proposal to relocate the House of Lords to York is harmless enough, though residents of York might disagree. The idea of an upper chamber of philosopher kings to check democratic excitability is sound in principle but when your definition of a philosopher king extends to John Prescott, you begin to question the merits of philosophy. If immediate abolition is too radical for the Tories, let’s punt the peers to the north east, note the inevitable drop-off in attendance and go in for the kill at a later date. But just as important as the de-Londonisation of the state (and the economy) is the de-Londonisation of the intellectual life of the UK.
Lisa Nandy has won the endorsement of GMB and is one step away from reaching the final stage of the Labour leadership contest. Announcing the decision, the union's general secretary Tim Roache said: 'Lisa Nandy is a breath of fresh air in the debate over Labour’s future. The more members see of Lisa in this contest the more impressed they will be by her ambition, optimism and decisive leadership. GMB is proud to nominate her. Lisa won’t shy away from the tough challenges or bold decisions that lie ahead, because she knows that after fifteen years of losing elections, more of the same won’t cut it.' This is significant for two reasons. Firstly, it means Nandy is very likely to make the final stage of the contest.
Rebecca Long-Bailey has been criticised over comments she made on abortion that set her apart from many of her Labour colleagues. Long-Bailey said in a response to a questionnaire asked by Salford deanery: “It is currently legal to terminate a pregnancy up to full-term on the grounds of disability while the upper limit is 24 weeks if there is no disability.“I personally do not agree with this position and agree with the words of the Disability Rights Commission that ‘the context in which parents choose whether to have a child should be one in which disability and non-disability are valued equally’.” These views stem from her Catholic faith.
In the past few minutes, Jess Phillips has confirmed that she is pulling out of the Labour leadership race, saying the party needs a candidate who can unite people across its movement. In a video message, she said: 'I have to be honest with myself, as I said I always would be throughout this campaign, that at this time that person isn't me. In order to win the country, we need to find a candidate in this race who can do all that and then take that message out to the country of hope and change for things to be better.' https://twitter.com/jessphillips/status/1219635765698678784?
Who should be able to celebrate Durham's proud legacy of mining? Maybe those who represent the miners' constituencies in Westminster? Not according to the man who organises the annual miners gala, which takes place every July. Durham Miners president Alan Mardghum told the BBC: 'To paraphrase Johnson, I'd rather be found dead in a ditch than invite them or Johnson to the gala... Why would we invite Tories to the Durham Miners' Gala?' Never mind that many ex-miners voted Conservative at the general election and one former pit man is now a Tory MP. So what is Mardghum's advice to Tories who do decide to ignore his snub and come to celebrate their voters' history?