Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Thursday

The Spectator

Does safety-first Boris Johnson have any ambitions on the world stage?

There is a large vacuum at the heart of this general election campaign. Aside from the topic of our relations with the EU, and Nicola Sturgeon’s statement that she would decline to press a nuclear button which is never going to be hers to press in any case, no leader has had anything of interest to say on foreign policy. This is not for want of matters to discuss. The elections in Hong Kong at the weekend presented an ideal opportunity to bring up foreign policy. A small political earthquake occurred in a former British colony, with reformers triumphing at the polls just as they had drawn huge support on the streets.

Andy Coulson

‘For the Jenni, not the few’: the anti-Boris attack line Labour missed

If the age of deference were still with us, the mortuary tag has now been tied to its toe following Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview. I saw him a couple of weeks ago at a military charity event where he did a good job, showing how the royals frequently but quietly add value to important causes. His performance in front of Emily Maitlis, fast becoming Britain’s best interviewer, was (to put it politely) less impressive. As is often the case, the advisers get a good kicking when such moments go wrong. But it was the words that came out of His Royal Highness’s mouth that were the problem. Boris must be chuffed by the ongoing royal carriage crash.

James Forsyth & Katy Balls

‘Austerity was not the way forward’

Only once in the post-war era has a British political party won a fourth term in office, but that is what the Conservative party are attempting to do in this election. It’s a tall order, but Boris Johnson has a plan: to make it clear that his is a new government — offering change, not simply more of the same. ‘I have great respect for my predecessors, it goes without saying, great respect, but this is a new government and we have a new agenda and it will be a different agenda,’ he insists, when we meet in an aircraft hangar in the marginal seat of Norwich North. ‘This is not a continuity government. This is a new government, we have a very different approach. If we can get in with a working majority, we will have a transformative agenda for the country.

Gus Carter

The eight big losers from YouGov’s poll

Labour is heading for its worst election performance since 1983, according to YouGov's long-awaited MRP forecast. The poll also makes for miserable reading for parliament's independent candidates, most of whom look set to lose their seats. Given that YouGov was one of the few pollsters to correctly predict a hung parliament in 2017, it would seem foolish to dismiss their predictions. Here are the eight big names who could find themselves booted out of parliament come 13 December: Don Valley - Caroline Flint, Labour Prediction: Likely Conservative GAIN A former minister for Europe under Gordon Brown, Flint is one of the few Labour Remainers to have undergone a full Brexit conversion. She was one of just 19 Labour MPs to have voted for Boris Johnson's Brexit deal.

Dominic Green

Allegations of anti-Semitism are damaging to Labour, but not toxic

Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, was right to take the unprecedented action of denouncing Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour for endemic anti-Jewish prejudice. James Cleverly, the Conservative chairman, was right to draw attention to polls showing half of British Jews are contemplating emigration if Labour wins. The Jewish Chronicle was right to turn its cover into an unprecedented open letter, begging Britain’s non-Jews not to vote for Corbyn. But if support for Labour does not collapse as a result of all this condemnation, don’t be surprised. In fact, Labour is doing rather well. Before the Commons voted to hold an election, Labour averaged 23 per cent support in the polls.

James Forsyth

Will the BBC hang tough in negotiations over the Boris Johnson interview?

So, will Boris Johnson sit down for an interview with Andrew Neil? Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon have done theirs while Jo Swinson and Nigel Farage are scheduled for next week. The Prime Minister hasn’t yet agreed a time for his. Given how tough an Andrew Neil interview is, just ask Jeremy Corbyn if you doubt that, it is hard not to be cynical about the Tories’ scheduling issues. Boris Johnson is, though, offering to appear on the Andrew Marr show this Sunday. This offers an easy solution to the problem. The Tory leader, who is clearly free on Sunday morning, could simply record his interview with Andrew Neil then and it could be shown that evening. I understand that the BBC have proposed a solution along these lines.

Steerpike

Three things we learnt from the Conservative party political broadcast

The Conservatives have launched a new party election broadcast that ran for the first time this evening on BBC One and ITV. The video (which you can view below) is made up of lots of different voters explaining why they're backing Boris Johnson. But what does this advert tell about the Tories' overall election strategy?   Getting Brexit done is still the central message Unlike the Labour party, who are reportedly changing their strategy just two weeks before election day, Boris Johnson is firmly sticking to his central message. But as Katy and James explained earlier on the Coffee House Shots podcast, Conservative strategists are more worried today than they have been at any other point during the campaign.

Ross Clark

This manic tree-planting contest has gotten out of hand

Whoever wins the election, three things are certain: borrowing is going to rise, taxes are going to have to go up – and there will be a lot more trees. There may even be enough trees to replace those lost to produce all those Lib Dem election leaflets and bogus newspapers. The election campaign has descended into a manic contest to see who can promise to plant the largest number of trees. The Conservatives have promised 30 million a year for five years, the Lib Dems have upped that to 60 million. The Greens have chipped in with 70 million a year for ten years. Never to be outdone, Labour has promised 100 million trees a year for 20 years. So there. It is all beginning to look like a Monty Python sketch.

Steven Fielding

When it comes to trust, our party leaders could learn from Tony Blair

According to a YouGov poll 45 per cent of Britons believe today's party leaders are worse than any of their predecessors in history. The survey fits neatly into the dominant narrative of the 2019 election, where ‘Don’t Know’ is the preferred option of prime minister for one third of the UK, only 14 per cent of the public trust politicians to tell the truth, and voters are fed up with their political leaders. But is this fair? You do have to wonder which titans of the past Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson are being unfavourably compared with. Perhaps Edward Heath, whose time as Prime Minister ended with power cuts and a three-day week? The infamously slippery Harold Wilson?

Patrick West

What happened to all the ‘vote Tory’ signs?

General election time in Britain invariably means one thing: lots of Labour, Green and Lib Dem posters displayed outside people's houses and in front windows but hardly any Conservative ones. In my 11 years living and travelling around Kent, I haven't seen a single one. The last time I saw one was in the Holland Park area of West London in the early 1990s. If you live in a city centre, they are a rare species indeed. So where are the 'vote Tory' placards? Their absence has been the norm for decades now, especially since the Thatcherite 1980s. This was when Rik Mayall's character in the comedy The Young Ones popularised the notion that Tories were 'capitalist scum' or 'fascists' (even though the character was an imbecile, and actually a send-up of student radicals).

Katy Balls

Nicola Sturgeon’s threat of Indyref2 could save the Scottish Tories

In the village of Waterfoot on the outskirts of Glasgow, a lady in her thirties is explaining to her local Conservative MP, Paul Masterton, why he has her vote. It can’t exactly be described as complimentary. ‘We were talking about this the other night. Corbyn’s an absolute clown and Nicola’s just horrific so… I don’t want to say the best of a bad bunch…’ Masterton chips in before things get awkward: ‘Don’t worry. I’ve heard lots of phrases said on the door. “Best of a bad bunch” would be acceptable.’ His seat, East Renfrewshire, was a Scottish Tory stronghold before the party’s 1997 wipeout.

Rod Liddle

I’ve found the country’s last Lib Dem voter

In Gerrards Cross, in the rain, dusk falling, attempting to gauge the political mood of the town through the pristine fatuity of ‘vox pops’. You scour the street in desperate search of anyone who is aware an election is taking place and try to avoid the drongos. I approach one chap — besuited, late-middle-aged — and strike lucky. He is aware that we are in the midst of a general election campaign. He explains to me: ‘I am absolutely pig sick of the lot of them. It’s an absolute disgrace! We voted to leave the EU three years ago and it still hasn’t been done. They’ve let us all down. The only thing that matters is let’s get out! Now!’ Thank you, sir. And what way will you be voting?

Wednesday

Andrew Willshire

Why someone on £80k might not feel rich

As in every election in recent memory, a debate has broken out over the point at which a person becomes ‘rich’ and is, therefore, able to cough up a bit more to fund public services. The magic number this time is £80k – the salary around which a person enters the top five per cent of all income tax payers and who, according to Labour, will be required to pay ‘a little bit extra’ to fund their massive splurge on public spending. There are roughly 1.5 million people in Britain who fall into the top five per cent, who already contribute 50.1 per cent of all income tax collected. When Andrew Neil pointed this out to Jeremy Corbyn  last night, he replied: ‘We think they could and should… pay a little bit more.

Yosef David

My plan to boot Jeremy Corbyn out of Parliament

For the first time in living memory, the Jewish community is deeply afraid of one of our two main parties. What makes matters worse is that this is the very party that, until recently, had felt like a natural home for many in the Jewish community. Labour is a party that is supposed to protect the interests of workers, ensure care and dignity for the vulnerable and advocate for marginalised groups. What has become clear is that the Labour party no longer considers that Jewish people require this support. And this is why I am standing against Jeremy Corbyn in Islington north. There is a left-wing idea that power structures must be challenged.

Katy Balls

Why YouGov’s MRP poll will worry the Conservatives

When the 2017 snap election result came through, it proved a shock to many who had been covering the campaign in depth. The bulk of the polls had suggested Theresa May was on course for a comfortable majority. However, there was one poll that had predicted a hung parliament – YouGov's MRP model. This poll of 100,000 people uses a different method than normal – with predictions focussed on small geographic areas based on a mix of data and demographic. In 2017, it suggested the Tories were on course to lose 20 seats. Tonight's poll paints a different picture – it suggests the Tories are on course for a large majority in the region of 68. The YouGov/Times poll says in an election held today, the Conservatives would win 359 seats, Labour 211, the SNP 43 and the Lib Dems 13.

Dominic Cummings

Dominic Cummings: Let’s honour the referendum and get Brexit done

Dear Vote Leave supporters, Let’s honour the referendum result and get Brexit done so the country can move on. Days after the 2016 referendum, I emailed all of you to say thanks for your heroic efforts.  I also said — keep an eye on my blog, if Brexit is in danger then I will send up a ‘bat signal’ here. Here we go… All of you who helped Vote Leave win should ask yourself: what should I do, and not do, to ensure we leave in the best way possible? This is my answer to this question… Boris fought for Leave in 2016. I worked with him closely in the referendum. I know how committed he was.

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn’s failings are being critically exposed

After last night’s interview with Andrew Neil, Jeremy Corbyn desperately needs to change the conversation. He attempted to do that this morning, presenting a set of leaked documents that he said showed the NHS would be sold out if the Tories won the election. But the problem for Corbyn is that these documents don’t show that. Yes, the US wants to extend patents on drugs—which would push up their prices—but there is absolutely no indication that the UK has agreed to this. It is tempting to compare Corbyn’s desire to get the idea going that the NHS will be sold out as part of UK/ US trade deal to Vote Leave’s warnings about Turkey joining the EU. But there is a crucial difference: it was government policy that Turkey should join the EU.

Steerpike

Watch: SNP candidate forgets where he’s standing

Elections are a frantic time for parliamentary candidates, as they scrap for a place in the House of Commons. Nonetheless, one of the few things you expect from them is to know the seat they're actually standing in. Apparently not though. Step forward John Nicolson, who was the SNP MP for East Dunbartonshire before he lost his seat to the Lib Dems' Jo Swinson in 2017. Since then, Nicolson has switched constitencies and is standing this election for the Nats in Ochil and South Perthshire. It appears though that Nicolson may have been struggling to keep abreast of the changes. Speaking at a local hustings, the candidate promised to protect his constituents and assured the audience that: 'As you know, only the Scottish National Party can beat the Tories here in East Dunbartonshire.

Steerpike

Factcheck: Corbyn’s ‘NHS for sale’ claims

Jeremy Corbyn claims he has the 'proof' that the NHS is at risk in a post-Brexit trade deal with the US. The Labour leader this morning called a press conference to reveal a series of leaked UK papers from trade talks with the US, which he said contained comprehensive evidence that the NHS was for sale to the Americans. But do Corbyn's claims actually stack up with what the documents say? Mr S. examines the facts: Drug patents Labour claim: 'Labour and experts said big US corporations want to force up the price our NHS pays for drugs as part of the toxic deal being negotiated with Trump. The Conservatives said this was nonsense. The documents show that we were right. In fact, negotiations have advanced even further than we feared they had.

Steerpike

Did Corbyn give the game away on the Chakrabarti Report?

Jeremy Corbyn was grilled by Andrew Neil last night in an interview for the BBC (you can read the full transcript here). The results were less than flattering. Labour's leader was asked about his party's response to anti-Semitism and gave a reply that raised more questions than it answered. Corbyn referred Neil to Shami Chakrabarti's supposedly independent inquiry into anti-Semitism in the Labour party. The subsequent report, published in June 2016, was widely seen as a whitewash, with the Board of Deputies calling it 'beyond disappointing'. That perception was compounded when Corbyn decided to give Chakrabarti a peerage in August that same year. Marie van der Zyl, the Board's vice-president, described the situation as a 'whitewash for peerages scandal'.