Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Steerpike

Watch: Theresa May channels her inner meerkat

Shortly after she came to power, Theresa May's stilted delivery, robotic responses and inability to answer even the simplest of questions led to her being dubbed the Maybot. It is a name which has stuck with the PM ever since. But now it seems as if May has undergone a startling transition: from Maybot to Meerbot. In a statement today in the House of Commons, May responded to a question from the SNP's Ian Blackford about Brexit, by saying that the best way to avoid no deal was to back her own Brexit deal with the EU.

Katy Balls

May offers MPs a vote to prevent no-deal Brexit

Faced with the prospect of defeat on an amendment to stop no deal, Theresa May has attempted to stave off that rebellion by promising MPs a vote to stop a no-deal Brexit. After a long and fiery Cabinet (James has the details here), the Prime Minister addressed the House to update MPs on her government's progress in the negotiations. She said that Geoffrey Cox was working with Brussels to win changes to the backstop and reconfirmed her promise to hold a meaningful vote on her deal by 12 March. However, should her deal be rejected by the House for a second time, May promised to hold a vote by 13 March on whether this House supports the UK leaving without a deal.

James Forsyth

Amber Rudd, Greg Clark and David Gauke labelled ‘kamikaze’ ministers in tense Cabinet

Today’s Cabinet was not a happy affair. I’m told that Liam Fox, Gavin Williamson and Andrea Leadsom all made clear their grave concerns about the Government’s new strategy. There was considerable anger at Amber Rudd, Greg Clark and David Gauke for how they have heaped pressure on May to offer this vote on a delay if the meaningful vote fails on the 12th of March. Liz Truss labelled them ‘kamikaze Cabinet Ministers’ and Andrea Leadsom was, I’m told, audibly furious. Brandon Lewis, Julian Smith, Jeremy Wright, Damian Hinds and James Brokenshire all criticised the way this trio had behaved. Michael Gove asked how May would whip in the vote on whether the UK should go for no deal or seek an extension to Article 50.

Brendan O’Neill

Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit betrayal is complete | 26 February 2019

Let us consider the gravity of Jeremy Corbyn’s announcement that Labour will push for a second referendum. In siding with the so-called People’s Vote lobby, Corbyn has betrayed Labour’s traditional working-class base, who tend to favour leaving the EU. He has betrayed his party’s own manifesto in the 2017 general election, which promised to respect the outcome of the referendum. He has betrayed his old Labour mentors, most notably his hero Tony Benn, who was the left’s most articulate critic of the EU. And he has betrayed himself. He has betrayed his own longstanding and correct belief that the EU is an illiberal, undemocratic, anti-worker outrage of an institution. Has any politician ever betrayed so many people in such a short space of time?

Melanie McDonagh

Why I find the George Pell verdict hard to believe

Sorry. I just don’t believe it. The conviction of George Pell – still Cardinal Pell – last December, on which reporting restrictions are lifted today, isn’t credible; he’s appealing against it. Fiat Justitia and all that, but the problem with the rerun of this bizarre trial on five counts of child abuse in 1996 is that the implausibilities of the case against the Cardinal are as great as ever – in his first trial, the Catholic News Agency reported the jury was divided 10-2 in Pell’s favour. Here is what Pell was accused of: “The complainant said that he and another choir boy left the liturgical procession at the end of one Sunday Mass and went fossicking in the off-limits sacristy where they started swilling altar wine.

Monday

Pieter Cleppe

The EU27 are far less prepared for no-deal Brexit than you’d think

As 29 March gets nearer and Theresa May tries to get a Brexit deal through parliament, preparations for no deal continue in both London and mainland Europe. It’s been well-documented that the UK government’s preparations haven’t been optimal, and many British companies aren’t really prepared for no deal. However, on the other side of the Channel, things aren’t going all that well either. Here is an overview of the EU27's no-deal plans: Germany In Germany, the government decided to hire an extra 900 customs officials (trade unions claim that 1300 are needed) to prepare for no deal, but at the end of January, none of these had been employed yet.

Robert Peston

The dramatic shift in the prime minister’s no-deal Brexit position

The prime minister is tonight preparing a dramatic shift in her Brexit policy, namely an announcement that if her reworked Brexit deal is not passed by MPs on or before 12 March she will shortly afterwards give MPs a binding vote on whether or not to go ahead with a no-deal Brexit on 29 March. This would be seen by many as a significant U-turn – because she will promise to abide by the will of parliament, and thereby admit that a significant Brexit delay may be necessary. As of tonight there was still uncertainty among her colleagues whether she would press the button on the volte face and put it to her cabinet tomorrow morning – where it will cause a furious row between Brexiters and Remainers.

Steerpike

Exclusive: Tony Blair responds to Labour’s second referendum policy

In yet another dramatic twist in the Brexit saga, Jeremy Corbyn announced this evening that Labour would now back a public vote on the outcome of the Brexit deal - albeit with some major caveats. His decision to support a second referendum has been met with delight by Remain supporting Labour MPs, who have been hoping for months that their famously Eurosceptic leader would eventually come round to supporting a People's Vote. But Mr Steerpike can reveal that one ardent Remainer and former Labour leader is still somewhat sceptical about whether today's announcement will bring about the end of Brexit.

Katy Balls

Sparks fly at Parliamentary Labour Party meeting on second referendum

Jeremy Corbyn's announcement that the Labour party is prepared to back another EU referendum to prevent a 'damaging Tory Brexit' was intended to placate Remain-leaning MPs. However, it's also managed to irk those Labour politicians representing Leave seats. Tonight MPs gathered for a fiery meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. It was standing room only as MPs crowded in to try and make sense of the latest Brexit development. Addressing MPs, Jeremy Corbyn struck a conciliatory tone – and according to a former shadow cabinet member present he gave one of his best speeches to date as he called on the party to come together.

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn backs a ‘public vote’ on Brexit

Jeremy Corbyn will tell Labour MPs tonight that the party will back a public vote on Brexit. This is the first sign of how The Independent Group has changed the political weather; it is hard to imagine Corbyn accepting this policy without the threat of more defections. Now, we wait to see the details of this policy and whether Labour is going to back a second referendum with Remain on the ballot. But if this is the shift, it is significant. In the 2017 election, Corbyn managed — to my surprise, and with some political skill — to successfully straddle the Leave / Remain divide. This decision will make that more difficult. But there is some talk in Westminster this evening that Labour’s eventual position will be to campaign for its Brexit deal in a referendum.

Douglas Murray

The UK’s Hezbollah ban is a victory for common sense

Britain is going to proscribe the terrorist group Hezbollah in its entirety. This is a victory, not least for common sense. For just over a decade the UK government has stuck to a very strange lie on this matter. In 2008 they banned the military wing of Hezbollah. This idea – only ever believed in by a few officials in the British Foreign Office – survived on an extraordinary presumption: which was that the Lebanese terrorist group had two totally separate arms. On the one hand was the military wing of Hezbollah, which has spent decades raising the levels of violence in Lebanon and bringing destruction to various neighbouring countries, including Israel and Syria, as well as further afield.

James Forsyth

The £1.6bn question: is Theresa May buying off Labour MPs for Brexit?

I understand that ministers are being pressured to rapidly approve a new, £1.6bn towns fund. The suspicion among ministers is that this fund, which is spread over seven years, is all part of Number 10’s efforts to get the support of some Labour MPs for Theresa May’s Brexit deal. The write round asking for ministers’ approval for this scheme declares that, ‘This government is committed to supporting communities that feel left behind’. The region which will receive the most money per capita is the Black Country. One cabinet minister tells me that while the write round letter has come from James Brokenshire ‘I don’t believe this has been invented in the MHLG (Ministry of Housing and Local Government)’.

Katy Balls

How can the government avoid defeat this week?

Theresa May begins the week with a chunk of her party growing increasingly frustrated with her handling of Brexit. The Prime Minister announced over the weekend that she would not bring her deal back to be voted on in the coming days – instead she has promised to hold a second meaningful vote by March 12. This has led to accusations of can-kicking from members across the House. However, May has grown used to such criticism – the thing No. 10 is worried about is whether ministers will be so dismayed by the move that they vote for an amendment on Wednesday which seeks to force the government to take the option of no deal off the table. On Wednesday, MPs are due to vote on a series of amendments to May's Brexit plan.

Steerpike

Theresa May takes her cue from Italy

Theresa May flew to Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday to meet with EU leaders and to desperately seek a compromise on the backstop which she can take back home to her MPs. But it appears in her efforts to win over the EU's hearts, May might be taking a rather unorthodox approach to the negotiations. Last night, ITV's Robert Peston reported that a game of pool had taken place between the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte and Theresa May in the Egyptian resort town. Shortly afterwards the Italian premier released this video of the two playing: https://twitter.

James Kirkup

What MPs are still getting wrong about the trans debate | 25 February 2019

I am a little late in coming to the recent report on community cohesion by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hate Crime. It was published earlier this month but drew little attention at Westminster: yet another example of Brexit smothering the domestic policy agenda, I suppose. The report has lots to say about lots of different types of nasty behaviour.  Among the topics it covers is the gender debate, the discussion of trans rights and their potential impact on the rights of others. One one level, this is a good thing.  It is the job of MPs to debate and discuss matters of contention and controversy.

Sunday

Robert Peston

Theresa May has picked the day on which Brexit will live or die

  It is playing out just as Olly Robbins - the civil servant negotiating Brexit for the PM - told his mates it would in that Brussels bar, as overheard by my ITV colleague Angus Walker. Because the PM has just said that she will not put a reworked Brexit deal to MPs for a vote till 12 March. Well actually she said “we will ensure that happens by 12 March” - which probably means on 12 March. And that in turn means MPs will face what may be their last chance to decide whether the UK leaves the EU with a deal desperately close to the wire, 17 days before the fateful moment of no return, Brexit day on 29 March.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Chuka Umunna hits out at Jeremy Corbyn

Chuka Umunna – I cannot vote to make Jeremy Corbyn prime minister After a week which has seen 11 MPs leave their parties, Sophy Ridge interviewed Chuka Umunna, once seen as one of Labour's rising stars, about why he had decided to quit: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1099598726639833088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw CU: After really soul-searching on this issue, can I, in all conscience, say that I want to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister? And the team around him, put them in charge of our national security? At the 2017 general election, let's just be honest, nobody thought that was going to be a prospect. At a future general election, it could be a prospect and in all conscience I can't do that...

Steerpike

The New York Times continues its doom and gloom Brexit coverage

When it comes to Brexit, the New York Times has a track record in prophesying doom and gloom. Last year, the paper's coverage included the suggestion that everyone in London was eating boiled mutton and porridge until a few years ago and that nervous citizens are stockpiling food for a Brexit emergency, Mr S. is saddened but not surprised to report that the Times is still at it. And this week, the paper hit new heights of fantasy. ‘Roads gridlocked with trucks. Empty supermarket shelves. An economy thrown into paralysis,’ a would-be novelist named Scott Reyburn wrote earlier this week. His story, ‘As Brexit Looms, the Art World Prepares for the Fallout’, was recycled as a front-page item on the Times’s international edition.

Toby Young

There’s space for a new party in Britain, but not for another SDP

I was 17 when the Labour party last split, in January 1981, and for a variety of reasons got quite caught up in the moment. It was partly because my father, the author of the 1945 Labour manifesto, was close to the Gang of Four — the original band of defectors — and was one of a hundred people named as supporters of the breakaway group in a full-page ad in the Guardian. But really I was just swept up by the general enthusiasm for the new party that seemed to affect vast swaths of the middle classes. If you recoiled from the economic policies of the Conservative government, which prioritised reducing inflation over full employment, but were equally querulous about the leftward shift of the Labour party, the SDP was an appealing alternative.

Saturday

James Forsyth

What will the Commons do to Brexit next week?

Brexit is back in the Commons next week. As I write in The Sun this morning, two of the big questions are: what will Eurosceptic Tories accept in terms of changes to the backstop and will the Cooper amendment pass. A document circulating among Tory Eurosceptics sets out what MPs should and shouldn’t regard as a meaningful change to the backstop. It warns that assurances from the EU Council would be ‘worthless’ and that changes to the political declaration would be ‘not legally binding’. It says that an interpretative instrument would have, ‘Some legal value’ but ‘would be a face-saver that would be legally pretty meaningless.