Politics Archives

Tuesday

11 June 2019

Can Sajid Javid reboot his leadership campaign?

On Thursday, MPs will have their first chance to vote in the secret ballot for their pick for the next leader of the Conservative party. At the moment, the consensus in the Parliamentary party is that the most likely pair to make the final two are Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt – after Michael Gove's campaign received a setback at the weekend when he admitted to previous drug use. But what about Sajid Javid? The Home Secretary had been touted as a good bet ahead of the contest commencing. However, Javid has at times struggled to make an impression – and have his message cut through – in what has turned out to be a very crowded leadership race.

Robert Peston

Rory Stewart is reassuringly bonkers

Brexit is both the cause of the Tory leadership contest – it was too much for Theresa May – and is the toxin that threatens to destroy the contest to replace her and her party. The reason is that even if the new prime minister were to take the UK out of the EU – which can by no means be taken for granted – there is unlikely to be a Brexit dividend for him or her or the Conservative Party. Because for most Tories or their potential supporters, Brexit is no more and no less than the duty that voters set the government in that 2016 referendum. So far the defining characteristic of this government is its failure to fulfil that duty.

Nick Cohen

Boris Johnson: everything about you is phoney

Rather rashly, Boris Johnson published The Churchill factor: How one man made history in 2015. It was without historical merit, or intellectual insight, but Johnson did not intend readers to learn about Churchill. The biography was not a Churchill biography but a Johnson campaign biography, where we were invited to see our hero as Winston redux. Both ignored party discipline and conventional routes of advancement, after all. Both were great company. Churchill stayed in the wilderness for years making a fortune from journalism, and so has Johnson. Churchill was a man of principle and so is… Hold on. That doesn’t work. It doesn't work at all.

Monday

10 June 2019

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson’s opponents have been too easy on him

Boris Johnson is currently the quiet man of the Tory leadership contest, lurking in the shadows rather than courting media attention as he usually does. His campaign team has deliberately held him back from touring the studios to avoid gaffes or rows. They're even nervous about the limited exposure he has, joking that he is 'always one Monday column away from disaster'. Of course, it's easier to do this when your candidate has as high a profile as Johnson: he doesn't really need any more attention than he's already got. It is, though, not the greatest of compliments from those members of his campaign team that they seem to feel Johnson cannot be trusted not to cause a career-damaging row when the stakes are so high.

Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove tries to come out fighting after cocaine row

Michael Gove is one of those people who enjoys finding themselves with their back against the wall, fighting. His leadership launch this afternoon was mired in questions about his past drug use, but the Environment Secretary looked totally unruffled by the rows of the past few days and the questions from journalists after his speech. His was a typical Gove offering, in that it was a beautifully-written and well-structured speech. He started with his back story of being adopted and never knowing his birth mother. He set out all he has achieved so far in government, running from his passion for improving all children's life chances through education reform, his approach to justice, and his current brief at the Environment department.

Alex Massie

If Boris’s supporters don’t trust him, why should the rest of us?

Is this the best the Conservative and Unionist party can do? Really? The extraordinary thing about Boris Johnson’s campaign to become the country’s next prime minister is that even the people supporting him do not think he’s up to the job of being prime minister. The best that may be said of him is that he may defeat Jeremy Corbyn though, frankly, I wouldn’t want to bet on that. But, his friends and allies say, you can set aside your concerns about Johnson’s suitability for the highest political office in the land. He will have help, you see. He’ll be surrounded by good people – though this is also something we are asked to take on trust – and they will limit the damage he can reasonably be expected to cause.

Steerpike

Watch: Gove’s message to Boris: ‘Don’t pull out’

The Tory leadership race is turning nasty. And not for the first time, it's Michael Gove who is taking a pop at Boris Johnson. After a disastrous weekend for Gove that was overshadowed by revelations of drug-taking, Gove has just attempted to start afresh at his campaign launch. Gove also used his speech to take a shot at Boris. Here is his message to his rival: 'If I get through – which I am sure I will actually – to the final two against Mr Johnson, this is what I will say to him: Mr Johnson, whatever you do, don't pull out. I know you have before and I know you may not believe in your heart that you can do it, but the Conservative party membership deserve a choice. So let's have a proper race' Gone are the days of Gove calling his old pal Boris....

Stephen Daisley

A Boris Johnson victory spells trouble for Ruth Davidson

You might not have realised from his lack of appearances but Boris Johnson is standing to be Tory leader. There are MPs on the left of the party, and so he’s told them he’s a One Nationer. There are MPs on the right of the party, and so he’s told them he’s a tax-cutter. And what a tax-cutter he is. Johnson says in this morning’s Daily Telegraph that he wants to hike the higher rate income tax threshold from £50,000 to £80,000. This, the paper estimates, will cost £9.6bn annually and will be paid for using the £26.6bn fund for No Deal Brexit preparations and by raising National Insurance contributions. So far, so Tory, but what about Scotland?

Katy Balls

Jeremy Hunt reveals Brexiteer backing at campaign launch

After receiving a boost over his Cabinet rivals at the weekend with the endorsement of Amber Rudd, Jeremy Hunt has today used his official launch to unveil support from a senior Brexiteer. Penny Mordaunt has come out in support of the Foreign Secretary. Speaking at the launch in Westminster, the Defence Secretary said she trusted Hunt to deliver Brexit. Her endorsement is a coup for the Hunt campaign as it shows that he has support from a senior Brexiteer. Mordaunt's endorsement is more significant in many respects than Rudd's. This is because what Hunt's campaign has been lacking is support from Brexiteers – his support is largely from MPs who voted Remain in the EU referendum.

Isabel Hardman

Dominic Raab’s brazen Brexit pitch

Dominic Raab's launch was just downstairs from the event that Matt Hancock held, and rather more serious, too. He was able to underline his parliamentary support, filling the front row of his audience with MPs who cheered loudly at appropriate moments. He was introduced by Maria Miller, who joked that she hoped to persuade him to become a feminist and claimed that both had come from relatively humble backgrounds. Raab's campaign team had clearly decided that it was best to be brazen about something that is considered by some as a weakness. The candidate's pitch was as someone who is sufficiently brazen to achieve the kind of Brexit he and the Conservative party want, and then make Britain fairer for ordinary people.

Melanie McDonagh

The problem with Jeremy Hunt’s abortion stance

So it turns out that there may have been a quid pro quo behind Amber Rudd’s backing for Jeremy Hunt, her former political mentor, beyond the usual conversations about Cabinet jobs. Amber – who is for some reason that escapes me is considered a kingmaker – was interviewed this morning about one possible impediment to a shared world view between the two of them: Jeremy Hunt’s take on abortion, something that Amber says “is very important to me”. Of Hunt's view, expressed on Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday, that the legal limit for abortion should be reduced from 24 weeks to 12, she said it was his "personal, private view". "That has always been his view," she said.

Steerpike

Matt Hancock launches his shadow campaign

Today is a big day for the Tory leadership candidates, as the nominations for the race close, and several of the contenders officially launch their pitch to be the next Prime Minister. But if Tory leadership contender Matt Hancock was hoping to use the day to boost his profile and win over his fellow MPs, he's not had the best start. The health minister launched his campaign at a trendy location in the Southbank in London this morning, and spoke to the assembled hacks in front of a beautiful large window overlooking the city. Unfortunately, it appears that while Hancock's speech looked impressive in the room, the lighting didn't quite work on live TV, leading to Hancock looking more like a shadow than a cabinet minister: Oops.

Ross Clark

Boris Johnson is making the same mistake as Theresa May

The concept of Boris Johnson avoiding publicity takes some getting used to. Normally, the man seeks out TV studios like apes seek out trees – they are a natural habitat from which it would be cruel to separate him. Yet Boris has suddenly gone missing, to the point Boris-watchers might soon start to worry about possible extinction. He is refusing all broadcast interviews, and has limited his appearance in the Conservative leadership election campaign so far to a single newspaper interview with the Sunday Times. There is, of course, some logic behind his sudden shyness. When Boris meets a microphone there is always a possibility – or a probability – of a gaffe which will go on to dominate the news agenda for days afterwards.

Isabel Hardman

Can Matt Hancock be trusted on Brexit?

What does Matt Hancock offer the Conservative party? He’s a former Remainer who has stayed loyal in Theresa May’s Cabinet and so has a bit of a tricky pitch to make to a party furious about the outgoing Prime Minister’s failure to deliver Brexit. He also hasn’t got an eye-catching drugs story to get attention, for better or worse. His solution this morning was to offer a slightly trippy leadership launch at which he went entirely overboard on the optimism, energy and bizarre motivational aphorisms. He told a slightly bewildered and haggard-looking press pack that “you are the future of Britain!”, gesticulated at the view behind him and declared “I look at the world around me and I think wow!

John Connolly

Breaking: Who’s in and who’s out of the Tory leadership race?

It's official: the Tory leadership contest to replace Theresa May as Prime Minister has now begun. At 5pm today, the nominations closed for candidates to enter the leadership race before hustings and the first round of voting takes place this week. In order to narrow down an already crowded field, each candidate had to receive the backing of at least eight Conservative MPs at this first stage: a principal, seconder, and six other parliamentary colleagues who could remain anonymous. Despite this, ten candidates still managed to make it through to the next stage.

Sunday

9 June 2019

Katy Balls

Hunt gains momentum over Gove ahead of crunch week

Which two candidates will make the final two of the Tory leadership contest? At the moment, the race is Boris Johnson's to lose with the former foreign secretary on course to make it to the membership ballot. However, the contest for the other place is tight. The make up of the Parliamentary party means there will be likely be only one no-deal Brexiteer candidate in the final two – with the other spot going to a Cabinet candidate. As of Friday, Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt were the two candidates with the most nominations after Johnson – with Sajid Javid trailing behind. This weekend, however, has seen several developments which could mix things up in the coming days – before MPs vote on Thursday in the first round of the contest.

Katy Balls

How the Parliamentary stage of the Tory leadership contest works

This week, the Conservative leadership content enters the Parliamentary stage. The various contenders – at the time of writing there are eleven – will be whittled down to two. The remaining pair will then tour the country for membership hustings ahead of a members' ballot. So, how exactly will it play out? All candidates must receive at least eight MPs' backing in order to enter the contest formally. Only the principal and seconder need be named – the remaining six MPs are able to stay anonymous. The deadline for this is 5pm on Monday. The threshold was raised from two MPs to eight in a bid to reduce the number of leadership hopefuls. At present, the candidates who could be in trouble include Andrea Leadsom, Sam Gymiah and Rory Stewart.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Michael Gove – taking cocaine was a crime I ‘deeply regret’

The Conservative leadership race continues in full force, with four contenders paying a visit to the TV studios today. Michael Gove has been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons after admitting to taking cocaine 'on several occasions' while he was a journalist for the Times. He expressed his remorse to Andrew Marr: MG: It was a crime, it was a mistake. I deeply regret it... I was fortunate in that I didn't [go to prison]... I've seen the damage that drugs do. I've seen it close up, and I've seen it in the work I do as a politician... The mistake I made is not a mistake I would want anyone else to make.

Steerpike

Confessions of a Tory leadership hopeful

The Tory leadership race is on and while it can be hard to keep track of the growing number of candidates entering the race, it is even trickier to stay on top of the lurid confessions of wrongdoing made by those who want to be PM. To help out, here is Mr S's full and comprehensive guide to the confessions of a Tory leadership hopeful: Michael Gove The environment secretary was the latest top Tory to confess to mischief yesterday, admitting that he took cocaine several times when he was a young journalist. Gove said he 'deeply regrets' doing so and that his 'mistake' should not be held against him.

Rod Liddle

How to save the Tory party | 9 June 2019

How do you feel about the standard of political debate in this country? I ask this question at the very moment two blimps are flying over London. The first attempts to depict President Donald Trump as a giant baby in a nappy and is the property of people who do not like Donald Trump; the other attempts to depict the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, as a kind of transvestite dwarf and is the property of people who do not like Sadiq Khan. Both groups habitually call each other fascists, doing a passable impression of Harry Enfield’s Kevin the Teenager. Both groups, I would venture, are irredeemable narcissists with the collective IQ of a block of Cathedral City cheddar cheese.