Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Thursday

Peter Jones

How to lead, Persian-style

As Tory hopefuls bid to become prime minister, they might like to reflect on Cyrus the Great (r. 557-530 bc), who created the first Persian empire, stretching from the Mediterranean to Pakistan. The soldier-essayist Xenophon (d. 354 bc) spent eight books explaining why he was the model Supreme Leader. The Romans were wildly enthusiastic about it, as were Milton, Gibbon and Machiavelli. Cyrus’s secret was that he was able to command willing obedience from a vast range of peoples, cities and tribes. It was all down, said Xenophon, to his character: ‘The most humane of men, most devoted to learning and most ambitious for honour. The result was that he would put in any effort, however painful, and face any danger, for the sake of esteem.

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 13 June 2019

You would think it would be unarguable that ‘Serious times demand a serious leader’. This, with small verbal variations, is the slogan of both Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt in the current Tory contest, so it is obvious against whom their phrase is directed. Yet there is a counter-argument. The times we live in are undoubtedly serious, and for the past three years we have had, in Mrs May, the most unrelentingly serious leader ever. It has been a disaster. The post-2008 revolts across the western world have all been against seriousness as defined by existing leaderships. Trump, Salvini, Farage, Boris etc. strike a chord because they can burlesque the pomposity and self-righteousness of the conventional politicians who have led us badly.

The Spectator

Barometer | 13 June 2019

What’s in a name? If Jeremy Hunt wins the Conservative leadership election both prime minister and leader of the opposition will have the same forename. Has this happened before? — Between 18 July 1992 and 12 May 1994, John Major was PM and John Smith leader of the opposition. — Between 14 February 1963 and 18 October 1963, Harold Macmillan was PM and Harold Wilson leader of the opposition. — Jeremy would become one of only three forenames which have been held by leaders of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties. The other two are William (Hague/Adamson/Gladstone) and John (Major/Smith/Russell, 1st Earl of Russell). Life choices Jeremy Hunt said he personally believed that the abortion limit should be reduced to 12 weeks. How many people agree with him?

Steerpike

Change UK changes name again

You might think that things couldn't get any worse for the group of breakaway MPs, Change UK. First, the group was widely mocked for its poor branding and confusing name-change soon after its launch. Then, it had a disastrous showing in the European elections. And finally, earlier this month the party split and half of its MPs defected, leaving ex-Tory Anna Soubry in charge. But unfortunately, it appears that things are still going downhill for the ragtag bunch. When the group of MPs first changed its name to Change UK from the Independent Group, it was quickly pointed out that the petition website, Change.org, might not be happy with the similar branding. Sure enough, the petition site soon launched legal proceedings against the MPs, which now seems to have been successful.

Robert Peston

The two biggest threats to Boris’s leadership bid

Now the real shenanigans begin. Boris Johnson will – barring a disaster of Johnsonian scale – be on the ballot of Tory members to pick their next leader and our prime minister on or around 22 July. And, truthfully, given that he is by a margin the darling and chouchou of those members, it is challenging to see how he can be beaten. Except for one thing. His campaign has been wholly based on Boris Johnson as an idea, a concept – the idea being that only he through his force of personality and penchant for the arresting bon mot can sequentially deliver Brexit, boost the popularity of his party and then win a general election.

Steerpike

Watch: Rory Stewart calls for a new parliament to bring Boris down

The results of the first round of the Tory leadership election are in, with Boris Johnson achieving a resounding victory over his rivals in his bid to be the next prime minister. Further behind was his colleague Rory Stewart, who managed to make it through to the next stage after reaching 19 votes. The international development secretary was certainly in a triumphant mood after the result, but already seemed to be thinking about the possibility of  a Prime Minister Johnson.

Isabel Hardman

How Boris’s campaign predicted he would get 114 votes

Boris Johnson’s campaign team has been so well-organised that it predicted exactly the number of votes he would get in today’s secret ballot, I understand. According to WhatsApp messages between his supporters, one member handed Johnson a sealed envelope with ‘114’ written in it before the result, telling him to open it once the official numbers had been declared. The reason the prediction was correct is that the Johnson operation has been running a data-intensive targeting campaign for about three months, and therefore has a detailed understanding of where each MP is, and how likely they are to support each candidate. Parliamentary 'handlers' have offered information on every single MP as a result of repeated meetings and discussions.

Fraser Nelson

Supporters of Johnson could vote for Hunt, to ensure an easy final

If half of Boris Johnson’s supporters had stayed in bed this morning, he’d still have won by a safe margin. The number of MPs supporting Johnson is astonishing, given how many were saying until a few weeks ago that they despised him. They may well still do, but Nigel Farage is now grasping them by the ankles and dangling them over a cliff – which is focusing Tory minds. It’s wrong to see all Conservatives as ideologues. Some of them are, to be sure, but most of them like power and will go with those who offer it. In Boris Johnson, they see the candidate most likely to keep them in power by swatting away Farage with one hand and Jeremy Corbyn with the other.

Toby Young

Boris’s burka gag didn’t ‘bring shame’ on the Tories

Critics of Boris Johnson were quick to seize on the fact that when Beth Rigby, the political editor of Sky News, asked a question at his launch yesterday she was jeered by some of his supporters. Jessica Simor QC, an opponent of Brexit, tweeted: ‘The road to fascism – their boos at Beth Rigby made me shiver.’ Referring to the same incident, professor Colin Talbot asked: ‘How long before he goes full Trump and starts talking about Fake News?’ Had Rigby been non-partisan, these complaints might have some merit. But the words she used when she was jeered made it sound as if she was siding with Boris’s opponents. You can listen to her question here: https://twitter.

Isabel Hardman

Rory Stewart’s success is the real surprise of the first Tory leadership vote

It is isn’t a great surprise that Esther McVey, Mark Harper and Andrea Leadsom have been knocked out of the first round of the Tory leadership contest, with 9, 10 and 11 votes respectively. None of them had particularly organised campaigns or a sufficiently distinctive pitch to the Conservative party. McVey, for instance, was still ringing people known to be actively involved in other leadership campaigns last weekend, while Leadsom had deliberated over whether to re-run after her 2016 implosion. Harper has learned that being a former chief whip might give you in-roads into the party but doesn’t necessarily endear you to colleagues. The greater surprise from the lower-ranking contestants is that Rory Stewart has managed to do quite so well.

Katy Balls

Boris Johnson’s clear lead increases the chances of a short contest

Boris Johnson has today confirmed his place as the frontrunner to be the next prime minister. In the first voting round of the Tory leadership contest, the former foreign secretary romped home with 114 votes from MPs. This means that Johnson has already surpassed the magic number of 105 votes – which means a candidate will come at least second and thereby has a place in the final two. To put the vote into perspective, Johnson won more votes than Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Dominic Raab combined. However, the Boris Johnson camp aren't cracking out the champagne just yet. Boris allies are keen to press that there is still a lot of time to go in the contest – with more rounds next week. The message?

Tom Goodenough

Boris wins big in first round of Tory leadership battle

Boris Johnson won a landslide victory in the first round of the Tory leadership contest. The frontrunner picked up 114 votes – 71 more than his nearest rival, Jeremy Hunt. Andrea Leadsom, Mark Harper and Esther McVey were eliminated from the contest after the trio all failed to reach the threshold of 17 votes that they needed to make it through to the next round. Michael Gove came third with 37 votes and Dominic Raab fourth with 27. Sajid Javid came fifth with 23 votes. Matt Hancock came seventh with 20 votes. And Rory Stewart scrapped through to the next round with 19 votes.

Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s copycat campaign video

Is Boris Johnson's campaign keeping a close eye on Jeremy Hunt's? Three days ago the current Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, launched his campaign to become leader of the Conservative party in the decadent surroundings of Carlton Gardens, near his grace-and-favour home. Two days later his predecessor, Boris Johnson, kicked off his own campaign and chose to launch in the very same building. Coincidence? Possibly, but now it appears that Boris' campaign has taken another leaf out of Jeremy Hunt's book. In his latest campaign video, Boris sets out his achievements as London mayor to a backdrop of swelling violins as an orchestra crescendos, before finally cutting back to a shot of Boris Johnson. https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1139068440252227584?

Freddy Gray

End this farce and elect Boris now!

Tick-tock, tick-tock, the Brexit clock doesn’t stop. October 31st is the deadline and the next prime minister will barely have a moment to catch his breath before he has to make some vital decisions for the future of our country. That’s why, for the sake of the national interest, this farcical Tory leadership contest should be concluded as soon as possible and Boris should be made prime minister. Boris has got this, as they say. The first round is now in and it is obvious not only that, with 114 MPs behind him, he will make the final two. Everybody realises that he will win from there. The longer his opponents drag the fight on, the less time he will have to lead. They should all drop out now and accept defeat.

Brendan O’Neill

In defence of Jo Brand

What a bunch of big babies the right can sometimes be. These people spend oodles of time mocking lefty snowflakes and touchy students for taking offence at every off-colour joke or un-PC point of view. And yet it turns out they’re just as susceptible as any moaning millennial to having a fit of the Victorian vapours when someone says something they find offensive. Exhibit A: the unhinged fury over Jo Brand’s joke about battery acid. Seriously, over the past 24 hours right-wingers have given the PC left a run for its money on the boo-hoo offence-taking front. You thought it was only purple-haired SJWs who try to get comedians sacked and even arrested for cracking dodgy jokes? Think again.

Katy Balls

Is an autumn election inevitable?

There’s a joke going around the various warring tribes in the Tory leadership contest. They might not win this time, they tell each other, but not to worry: ‘We’ll all meet again in November.’ The point is that whoever succeeds Theresa May is doomed: the 31 October deadline will pass not with Britain leaving the European Union but with a political crisis and a general election that will be won by Jeremy Corbyn. After that, the Tories will in a few months go through the whole process again — this time to pick a leader of the opposition. ‘We’re using this leadership campaign as a test run for when the whole thing collapses in the autumn,’ says one aide.

Peter Oborne

It’s not just cricket

There are plenty of much-anticipated contests in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. But nothing to compare with this Sunday’s match at Old Trafford, where India are billed to play Pakistan in the latest epic in a rivalry that dates back to Partition in 1947. It’s a rivalry that is regularly punctuated by war. No cricket was played between the two countries from 1961 until 1978. The 1965 conflict, caused by Pakistani aggression, severed relations. By the time a ceasefire was declared, Indian tanks were on the outskirts of Lahore, where a 12-year-old Imran Khan was distraught not to be allowed to join a local militia. The two countries fought again in 1971 when India backed insurgents in the liberation war which led to the secession of East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Sajid Javid pitches himself as the ‘change candidate’ 

Sajid Javid’s leadership launch was delayed by over an hour because Parliament was trying to make up its mind on whether to stop a no-deal Brexit. When he eventually arrived, there was a rather jolly atmosphere in the room, encouraged in part by the fact that his campaign team had thought it wise to offer a free bar. He was also introduced by Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, whose typically rambunctious style set the tone for Javid’s own speech. Javid is pitching himself as the 'change candidate', despite having served in Theresa May’s Cabinet right up to her resignation. His reason for offering change?

Sajid Javid

Full text: Sajid Javid’s leadership pitch

The first time I felt like an outsider was when I was six years old. My cousin told me we needed to change our walking route to her school because of the ‘bad kids’ who supported the National Front. That was the first time. But not the last. When I was at secondary school, the other kids told me all about their summer holidays. I’d only ever go to Rochdale but pretended I’d been abroad like them, because they couldn’t tell if I had a tan. When I wanted to do the O-levels and A-levels I needed although I had a couple of inspiring teachers who I’ll be forever grateful to I was told that kids like me should know their limits and stay in their lane.

John Connolly

MPs reject Labour’s plan to block a no-deal Brexit

MPs have voted to reject, by 309 votes to 298, an opposition day motion which would have attempted to stop Britain leaving without a deal on 31 October. The motion, put forward by Jeremy Corbyn, Vince Cable, Oliver Letwin and other representatives of the opposition parties, attempted to carve out a day in the parliamentary calendar on 25 June, when backbench MPs would have taken control of the House of Commons timetable. The backbench MPs would then have been able to put forward legislation which could have blocked a prime minister, such as Boris Johnson or Dominic Raab, taking Britain out of the EU without a deal against the wishes of parliament. The fact that this motion did not pass today is a blow to the opponents of no deal.