Politics Archives

Thursday

21 February 2019

Take back control

Brexit was a mutiny. Like all mutinies, it was driven by anger at authority rather than by a strategy for the future. To date, the consequences have been to deepen polarisation, but triumphant victory for either side is not the way forward. That there is no majority for any of the current options is entirely understandable: they are all awful. We can only break the polarisation with a new strategy. The Brexit mutiny should have been a wake-up call. Instead, the elite are angry that the mutiny was not suppressed, while the mutineers have become ever more distrustful. There is a way out of this nightmare. Why are all the Brexit options awful?

Rod Liddle

New party, same old views

I once came up against Mike Gapes in a fraternal game of five-a-side football played at the Elephant and Castle leisure centre in south London in about 1985. Mike is one of the seven Labour MPs to have announced their resignation from the Labour party this week, in order to sit as members of the imaginatively named Independent Group. Back then he was something relatively senior in Labour’s Walworth Road HQ, I can’t recall exactly what. The match was between Walworth Road and the researchers and speech writers, of whom I was one, who worked for Neil Kinnock’s shadow cabinet, in the House of Commons. We viewed our Walworth Road comrades with enormous distrust, bordering on outright dislike, on account of their leftism, especially Mike.

Wednesday

20 February 2019

Katy Balls

What Geoffrey Cox wants from Brussels

What does Theresa May want to get from Brussels? At Prime Minister's Questions, Jeremy Corbyn pressed the Prime Minister on what type of concession she would be seeking from the EU on the backstop. May refused to divulge many details but the word in Whitehall is that the UK government is ready to present a specific proposal to Brussels. The expectation in government is that Attorney General Geoffrey Cox's aim is to secure a joint interpretative exit mechanism with a notice period attached to it. Government sources say that the notice period ought to be around 12 months – though this isn't necessarily a red line. Other government figures play down the specificity of the notice period.

Fraser Nelson

What today’s defections can teach the Tories

Three weeks ago, Anna Soubry and a small number of Tory Remainers gathered in a corner of the Pugin room of the House of Commons, all looking devastated. They had just failed to force the Cooper amendment upon Theresa May’s government. Meanwhile, their arch enemies, the ERG Tories, had succeeded in passing the Brady amendment. Some of them were in the Pugin room as well, drinking champagne. It was a bit of a Sharks vs Jets moment. Now and again, the Brexiteers would raise a glass to Soubry and her friends, who were drinking water. This scene was described to me by an MP who said it showed the party had already split. Today, that split was formalised as Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston joined the new Independent Group. There is nothing for Conservatives to cheer about today.

Sam Leith

Books Podcast: how climate change will transform geopolitics as we know it

In this week's Spectator Books, I’m talking to the American journalist David Wallace-Wells about his new book The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future. In it, he uses the best available scientific projections to underpin a picture of what the world would look like if it heats up by four degrees or more. Not pretty, is the conclusion he comes to. But what’s he trying to achieve with this book? Why, in his view, do we not take climate change seriously enough? And is this Project Fear — or Project Damn Well Pay Attention?

Stephen Daisley

How the Independent Group can survive – and thrive

And then there were eleven. The Independent Group has been enlarged today by the defection of moderate Tories Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen, who gave as their reason the Brexification of the Conservative Party. ConservativeHome's executive editor Mark Wallace and others might dispute many of the charges, but the splitters describe a mood in the Tory Party that many will recognise, and that mood was set by the unchecked belligerence of Brexit ultras. TIG is no longer solely about Labour anti-Semitism but a lurch from the post-1997 centre ground by both main parties. The latest YouGov poll puts TIG in third place on 14 per cent.

Steerpike

Watch: Labour mayor candidate’s Brexit bafflement

Mr Steerpike has a great degree of sympathy with those who have been trying to keep up with Labour's contorted Brexit position. First the party had its six tests - designed to be impossible to fulfil, then five demands - set out in a letter to the prime minister, and now a confusing hodgepodge of views with a commitment to take no deal off the table. But you would at least think that Labour politicians would have worked out what their own party's Brexit position actually was. Apparently not though. Jamie Driscoll, the Labour candidate to be the new North of Tyne Mayor was being interviewed by ITV news this afternoon ahead of the election on 2 May.

Isabel Hardman

Media exposure was the worst thing that happened to Shamima Begum

Why has Sajid Javid announced that he is revoking the citizenship of Shamima Begum? The 19 year old, who travelled as a teenager to join the Islamic State in Syria, has asked for 'forgiveness' from the UK, but last night the Home Secretary responded by saying he would be removing her status as a British citizen. He can do this, he argues, because she has a right to Bangladeshi citizenship, which means the government will not be rendering her stateless. A fair few people have suggested that this is about Javid's own ambitions in the Conservative party, as this move will likely appeal to the Tory grassroots. It has already earned praise from key newspapers like the Sun. But it's not just about the politics of this.

Lloyd Evans

The Independent Group is doomed to follow in the SDP’s footsteps

It’s Day Three of the great insurrection against the tired, stale old politics. Only this morning, a fresh impetus was added to the movement. Chuka Umunna and his six escapologists have now been joined by four more asylum-seekers, one from Labour, three from the Tories. How these moral pioneers can bear to continue as members of our knackered and rotten parliament is unclear. The salary helps perhaps. The Houdinis made their first joint appearance at PMQs today and they tucked themselves up high on the opposition benches. The Speaker failed to invite any of them to open their gobs. A pity. The house would have hissed like a barbecue in a thunderstorm. Excited commentators have spoken of politics being reshaped, and of epochs fading and being reborn.

Steerpike

Watch: Anna Soubry’s resignation speech

After the dramatic announcement this morning that Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston were quitting the Conservative party to join the newly formed Independent Group, all three sidled over to a press conference in Westminister this afternoon to explain why they had chosen to leave. In her explanatory speech, People's Vote backing Anna Soubry sought to draw a clear line in the sand between the Conservatives she joined many years ago and the Brexit supporting party she was leaving today. Citing the attempts of local Tory associations to deselect the likes of Oliver Letwin and Nick Boles, and the Prime Minister's continued courtship of the ERG to get her Brexit deal through, Soubry declared that: ‘I am not leaving the Conservative Party. It has left us.

Isabel Hardman

Is the Independent Group already heading for a split?

The three Conservative defectors to the Independent Group gave a notably upbeat press conference this lunchtime. It was quite a contrast to the sorrowful tone struck by the seven Labour MPs who announced they were leaving on Monday. Heidi Allen claimed that she was ‘so excited and in a way that I haven’t felt since I was first elected'. She also cracked jokes about the three amigos as she opened the event. It has never been fully clear why Allen joined the Conservative party over any other, but Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston both argued that the organisation had been transformed in the years since they were first elected. Like the Labour defectors, they wanted to suggest that their values had not changed, but their party had.

James Forsyth

The Independent Group does more damage to Labour than the Tories

Today’s PMQs was a rather surreal occasion. Sitting high up on the opposition benches were the new Independent Group of MPs. But none of them tried to ask a question and both Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May chose to ignore the issue. Instead, we were treated to May repeatedly raising the defection of a Labour councillor in Brighton. I still think that this new group does more damage to Labour than the Tories. I doubt that many Tory voters will be attracted to a party led by the most ardent advocates of a second referendum. But the defection of these three Tory MPs risks creating an impression that the two main parties are as bad as each other.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dems to Independent Group: please be our friends

In a parallel universe, the MPs who've left the Labour and Conservative parties this week would be joining the existing centrist party that shares their views on Brexit. But the Liberal Democrats haven't had a look in, despite Vince Cable and before him Tim Farron claiming that they'd spoken to would-be defectors. Cable has just issued a statement saying that 'there is clearly some very radical changes now afoot' and offering to work with the new Independent Group. He said: 'We will hold out the hand of friendship to the independent MPs with whom we already have a good working relationship.' The Lib Dems have accepted that they have failed to provide a home for these despairing MPs.

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May ‘saddened’ as Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston quit the Tories

Theresa May has said she is 'saddened' by the decision of Heidi Allen, Sarah Wollaston and Anna Soubry to leave the Conservative party and join the new Independent Group of MPs. In statement released in the past few minutes, the Prime Minister said: 'I am saddened by this decision – these are people who have given dedicated service to our party over many years, and I thank them for it. 'Of course, the UK’s membership of the EU has been a source of disagreement both in our party and our country for a long time. Ending that membership after four decades was never going to be easy. 'But by delivering on our manifesto commitment and implementing the decision of the British people we are doing the right thing for our country.

The Spectator

Full text: Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston’s Tory resignation letter

Dear Prime Minister. It is with regret that we are writing to resign the Conservative whip and our membership of the Party. We voted for you as Leader and Prime Minister because we believed you were committed to a moderate, open-hearted Conservative Party in the One Nation tradition. A party of economic competence representing the best of British business, delivering good jobs, opportunity and prosperity for all, funding world class public services and tackling inequalities. We had hoped you would also continue to modernise our party so that it could reach out and broaden its appeal to younger voters and to embrace and reflect the diversity of the communities we seek to represent.

Katy Balls

The Tory defections to the Independent Group could help Corbyn

After days of bad news for Labour over the decision of several moderates to quit and form The Independent Group, it's now the turn of the Tories. Three Conservative MPs have today resigned the party whip to join the group. In a joint letter to the Prime Minister, Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen say they no longer feel at home in a party where the policies are so 'firmly in the grip of the ERG and DUP'. They will now join eight former Labour MPs in the newly formed group – bringing the total size up to 11. While the news has shocked some Conservatives, these three MPs were the politicians who were seen as the most likely to quit.

Steerpike

Update: Militant councillor Derek Hatton is suspended from the Labour Party

It's been a week of bad news for the Labour Party, after eight of its MPs announced they were leaving to form their own splinter group. But if the party was hoping to show that it wasn't dominated by far-left ideologues, news tonight suggests the party is heading down an altogether different path. Derek Hatton, the former deputy leader of Liverpool council has been readmitted to the Labour party, after being banned for 34 years. Hatton was a key member of the hard-left Militant faction which dominated Labour politics in Liverpool during the 1980s, and was behind the council's disastrous decision to set an illegal budget in 1985. As a result, the council went bankrupt and Hatton and his colleagues were forced to send redundancy notices in taxis to council workers.

Tuesday

19 February 2019

Ian Howells

Honda boss: Swindon closure is not Brexit related

Ian Howells, the senior vice president for Honda in Europe, and the most senior representative of the company in the UK was interviewed on the Today programme this morning. Below is an edited version of the interview: Q. You've been here since the 1980s, through some pretty thick and thin times. Why [leave] now in your own words? Well clearly it's a very sad day for us, as you correctly said, we've been operating from the factory for about 30 years now, but really what we're responding to and this was made clear by Takahiro Hachigo [CEO of Honda] as well, is that we're seeing unprecedented change in the industry.

Katy Balls

Could a meaningful vote come as early as next week?

Is a Brexit breakthrough imminent? The talk in Westminster tonight is that the government could soon have something to present to MPs on the Irish backstop. Geoffrey Cox – the Attorney General – has been in Brussels this week working with EU officials on a legally binding change. He has managed to charm some on the EU side and – in a sign of his commitment to the cause – is said to have threatened to sleep in the corridors if that's what it took to get a deal done. At Cabinet today, Cox urged caution, telling colleagues there is still some way to go – yet Cabinet sources are optimistic that a concession is coming in the form of a codicil. So, what will it look like?

Isabel Hardman

Joan Ryan quits Labour and joins the Independent Group

Another Labour MP, Joan Ryan, has tonight announced she is leaving the party to join the Independent Group. This is significant, and not just because it creates a sense of momentum. Ryan is the first Labourite to leave who wasn't involved in the months of secret planning meetings. She was, until fairly recently, arguing that the best thing to do would be to stay and fight to change the party back. Now, she has gone, releasing a potent statement about her reasons. Those reasons include what she calls 'the scourge of anti-Jewish racism', which 'simply did not exist in the party before his election as leader'. She argues that she has 'fought for as long as I can within the Labour Party'.