Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Sajid Javid is wrong to strip Shamima Begum of her British citizenship

Sajid Javid’s decision to strip Shamima Begum of her British citizenship leaves me deeply uneasy. I can understand why a Home Secretary charged with keeping the public safe would want to do whatever possible to keep this woman out of the country. But Begum was born in this country, grew up here and was educated here. This, surely, makes her British. As a country, we should want to take charge of investigating her and, if the evidence is there, prosecuting her. After all, she offended against the ties that bind when she headed from this country—a liberal democracy with the rule of law—to go and serve in a so-called caliphate that offended against the values we hold most dear.

Stephen Daisley

Luciana Berger’s departure is the beginning of the end for Labour

Manny Shinwell knew how to deal with anti-Semites. Born in London’s East End, reared in Glasgow, and once jailed for inciting a riot on Red Clydeside, the pipe-smoking pugilist was a tough, proud Jew. During a debate in parliament in 1938, Shinwell (then Labour MP for Seaham) was jabbing at the government when Tory MP Robert Bower heckled: ‘Go back to Poland’. Shinwell got up, crossed the floor and thumped Bower clean in the face, then turned to the Speaker and said: ‘May I make a personal explanation?’.  Eight decades later, his great-niece has delivered another bloody nose to the face of anti-Semitism.

Freddy Gray

Bernie Sanders’ rivals will struggle to defeat him

The Democratic nomination process for 2020 is a race and Bernie Sanders should be the overwhelming favourite. He’s just announced his candidacy, and he’s the form horse, having come a close second in 2016. He won 46 per cent of elected delegates and 23 states. He smashed all sorts of fundraising records. He has a huge movement behind him, something which none of the other announced Democratic candidates have. Somehow, by hook and crook, the Clinton machine scuppered his candidacy last time. But the Clinton machine is nearly destroyed. Who can stop him now? Bernie has consistently polled as the most popular politician in America. He’s a social-media phenomenon who probably doesn’t know what Instagram is.

John Connolly

New polling suggests Labour should be worried about the Independent Group

When seven MPs announced yesterday that they were leaving Labour to form a new centrist faction called The Independent Group, talk soon turned to what impact it could have on the other parties' electoral chances. Corbyn's allies were quick to warn that it could lead to ten years of Tory rule, while Conservative MPs were rumoured to be considering joining. New polling conducted yesterday though by Survation for the Daily Mail suggests that it is Labour who should be most worried by the new party's success. When asked in the survey who they would vote for if there was a general election tomorrow, 8 per cent of the respondents opted for 'A new centrist party opposed to Brexit' if one existed.

Robert Peston

Tom Watson’s intervention spells trouble for Jeremy Corbyn

The second most important political act yesterday was the impassioned declaration of near UDI by the deputy leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson. His sorrowful response to the resignation of Berger, Umunna, Leslie, Smith, Gapes, Coffey and Shuker was that they were wrong to resign but they were correct to identify that the party he loves has lost its way, especially over anti-Semitism. Watson was in effect setting himself up as shop steward of a parliamentary Labour Party that feels almost totally detached from the Labour leader and the shadow cabinet.

Gavin Mortimer

Winston Churchill and the plot to smear Britain’s great men

The concerted attempt by left-wing figures to smear Winston Churchill last week is no surprise. In fact, it is another instance of a phenomenon I identified on these pages last November when I wrote about the cultural appropriation of the first world war. That process began in the early 1960s, with the myth of 'Lions led by Donkeys', but the liberal intelligentsia soon began to broaden their cultural appropriation of British history by impugning the reputation of its great men. In September 1967 the Sunday Times published an article by Len Deighton in which he accused David Stirling, the founder of the SAS, of imperilling the lives of his men during operations in the second world war through careless talk at cocktail parties.

Monday

Doug Stokes

Universities should resist calls to ‘decolonise the curriculum’

Meghan Markle has reportedly backed calls to ‘decolonise the curriculum’. This campaign to promote ethnic minority thinkers in place of 'male, pale and stale' academics also has support from the Labour party. Angela Rayner, shadow education secretary, has said that 'like much of our establishment, our universities are too male, pale and stale and do not represent the communities that they serve or modern Britain'. If Labour comes to power, Rayner promised to use the Office For Students to change things. But this move to ‘decolonise the curriculum’ is in fact a big mistake. Firstly, the campaign conjures up images of dusty old men engaged in an unconscious conspiracy to ensure ‘non-western’ worldviews are stamped out.

Alex Massie

In praise of the Labour splitters | 18 February 2019

The first thing to note is that it’s not about policy. The not-so secret seven MPs who left the Labour party this morning have not changed their policy preferences. They have not become Tories. Nor have they even become liberals. They could, with little difficulty, endorse much of the Labour party’s 2017 manifesto without compromising themselves in the slightest.  Because this break, this rebellion, this journey into exile, is not about policy. It is about character and values and so many of the other things the Labour party believes it holds dear to the extent it often behaves as though it thinks it owns a monopoly on these things.

Steerpike

Watch: Angela Smith apologises over ‘funny tinge’ gaffe

The Independent Group is only a few hours old but already one of its leading members has made a blunder on air. Talking about race on the BBC's Politics Live, Angela Smith said: 'It's not just about being black or a funny...tin...from the BME community' Oh dear. Angela Smith has since apologised for her comments, saying that she 'misspoke': https://twitter.com/angelasmithmp/status/1097518807357288448?

Steerpike

Len McCluskey: the whole Labour anti-Semitism issue is ‘contrived’

Jeremy Corbyn's supporters in the Labour party have been on the defensive today, following the announcement that a group of moderate MPs have defected from the party. In particular, the Independent Group's scathing description of Labour as 'institutionally anti-Semitic' has left many worried that the charge may harm their electoral chances. But if the Labour stalwarts were hoping to convince voters that the party takes the issue of anti-Semitism within its own ranks seriously, they may want to make sure that Len McCluskey is kept off the airwaves.

James Forsyth

Will any Tory MPs join the Independent Group?

Is this a split in the Labour party or something more? At today’s launch, Chuka Umunna was clear that the Independent Group want to attract MPs from parties other than Labour. Tory party sources admit that they ‘would not be surprised’ if some Tory MPs were to join this new group. Right now, the values of this group seem fairly—for want of a better word—Blairite. The addition of any Tory MPs would make this group more ideological heterodox; and show if it can carve out a distinctive intellectual position. Politically, it would also mean that it was not just Labour who are split.

Steerpike

The Independent Group’s website woes

Oh dear. When Chuka Umunna announced that he and six other Labour MPs were leaving their party and forming 'The Independent Group', as a new separate political faction, he said that the TIGs would have an extremely simple message: 'Politics is broken. It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s change it.' But if politics is really broken as Chuka thinks, it appears that the party's new website may be in an even worse state. It's only been two hours since the site was unveiled for the first time, and it's already falling apart. New visitors (perhaps hoping to sign up or find out new information about the party), have been met with 503 errors, frequent crashes and rather alarmingly, random website code on display: https://twitter.

Steerpike

Chuka Umunna identifies the Independent Group’s big flaws

Chuka Umunna has quit the Labour party and set up a new political party. Calling itself the Independent Group, Umunna said the party wants to go about 'building a new politics'. But in a Q and A with journalists, Mr S couldn't help but notice that Umunna also managed to spell out quite clearly the new group's big problem. He told reporters: 'The usual way things are often done in Westminster, is a little bit, you know, you have a podium, someone goes up and tells you how it is going to be.' Perhaps this message might have been somewhat more compelling if Umunna had not just been addressing journalists in Westminster...from behind a podium. Umunna then went on to say this: 'The idea that you can cook this up in Westminster is not the way people want things to be done.

Steerpike

Corbynistas go into meltdown over Labour splitters

Oh dear. After months and years of speculation, this morning seven Labour MPs announced that they are quitting the party over Jeremy Corbyn's unsuitability to be prime minister. Chuka Umunna and Chris Leslie are among the MPs to say they are quitting the party and forming an independent group which is proud to be British and doesn't blame the world's problems on the West. Unsurprisingly the news hasn't gone down all that well with the Corbynistas. Corbyn allies have been quick to accuse the splitters of ushering years of Tory rule. So, how are the socialists coping with the loss of seven MPs? Mr S will let readers decide: https://twitter.com/YoungLabourUK/status/1097439224310231042 https://twitter.com/AyoCaesar/status/1097421052563648512 https://twitter.

Isabel Hardman

Seven MPs leave Labour and form ‘The Independent Group’

There are seven MPs leaving Labour: Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith, Chuka Umunna, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey. They have revealed that they will call themselves 'The Independent Group'. They will publish a full statement of what they stand for this morning. The MPs are setting out their reasons for leaving. Berger said she had become 'embarrassed and ashamed' of the Labour Party, which she said was 'institutionally anti-Semitic'. Leslie insisted that his values hadn’t changed, but said it would be 'irresponsible' to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister and accused the Labour leader of a 'betrayal' on Europe. Smith set out her family history and said the Labour Party now contradicted what her family had campaigned for.

Steerpike

Watch: Luciana Berger’s damning verdict on Labour

Luciana Berger and six other Labour MPs have just quit the Labour party. Explaining her reasons for quitting Corbyn's party, Berger said she had come to the conclusion that Labour is 'institutionally anti-Semitic'. She said she was 'embarrassed' to stay put in Labour. Here is her damning verdict on the party: I have become embarrassed and ashamed to remain in the Labour party. I have not changed. The values which I hold really dear, and which led me to join the Labour party as a student almost 20 years ago, remain who I am. And yet these values have been consistently and constantly violated, undermined and attacked as the Labour party today refuses to put my constituents and our country before party interests.

Isabel Hardman

Five questions for Labour’s ‘splitters’

A group of Labour MPs are expected to announce they are leaving the party this morning. While the numbers and names aren’t yet confirmed, this has been a very long time coming, with members planning their exit for months, and rumours about it swirling for almost as long. Finally, the question is now not whether some MPs will leave, or indeed when. But today’s announcement raises many more questions which are even more difficult to answer: 1. Are there more to come? It’s not expected that much more than half a dozen MPs will announce they are going today. These are the ones who’ve been considered almost a dead cert to leave for a good while. But other colleagues have been rumoured to be interested in breaking away, too.

Robert Peston

A Labour split may make a second referendum less likely

It looks as though the longest rumoured split in a major British political party since the creation of the SDP almost 40 years ago will happen this morning. The reason I think this is because last light I texted the Labour MPs Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Luciana Berger and Gavin Shuker asking them if they were holding a press conference this morning to announce the split, and none replied. For what it is worth, I could also have texted Mike Gapes, Angela Smith or Ann Coffey among other critics of the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Katy Balls

Labour splitters expected to quit party in morning press conference

Here we go. After over a year of speculation about a Labour party split, the departure of Labour moderates appears imminent. Over the weekend, speculation mounted that this will be the week a number of Labour MPs quit the party. Now a press conference has been scheduled for this morning on the 'future of British politics'. Labour sources are adamant that things are about to move and the expectation is that the press conference will see those MPs present announce that they are quitting the party. Those thought to be on the verge of quitting – Chris Leslie and Chuka Umunna – are refusing to comment. Other Labour MPs thought to be considering their options include Angela Smith, Gavin Shuker and Luciana Berger.

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: John McDonnell reveals Labour’s anti-Semitism response

John McDonnell - We've got to be ruthless on anti-Semitism The Shadow Chancellor sat down with Andrew Marr this morning and they broached the topic of anti-Semitism within the Labour party. Figures were released earlier this week showing that the party had received 673 official complaints since April, with 96 individuals having been suspended for their conduct. Marr asked McDonnell if the party was doing enough: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1097090801773891585 AM: Has Labour got a 'no tolerance' for anti-Semitism policy? JMD: Yes we have... Where it's intolerable, where it's repeated... not only should we kick them out of the party, my view is there should be life bans as well. AM: You're not kicking many people out.