Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Sunday

Katy Balls

Theresa May warns plotters: Oust me and Brexit won’t get any easier

Theresa May's problems have not let up over the weekend. With speculation mounting about an impending confidence vote, the Sunday papers are filled with reports of leadership rivals sounding out colleagues while Dominic Raab – the former Brexit Secretary – has used an interview to tell May to stand up to Brussels' bullies (though he has since told Andrew Marr he will still back the PM in any confidence vote). Appearing on Ridge on Sunday this morning, May tried to make the case for both her Brexit deal and her premiership continuing. She said that as far as she knew the 48 letters required for a confidence vote were not in.

Steerpike

Watch: Corbyn’s Brexit befuddlement

Since he became leader in 2015, Jeremy Corbyn has not exactly cultivated a sense that he's top of any political situation. But he reached new heights of incompetence when he was interviewed on Sky this morning. The Labour leader was asked by Sophy Ridge if he'd actually read the Prime Minister's draft Withdrawal Agreement which was released four days ago, and which he now says does not meet the needs of the country. Unsurprisingly, Corbyn had to admit that he had not found the time (no doubt he's been busy at the allotment), admitting: 'I've read a lot of it, not every last word' https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1064084581433905153 He was then asked an altogether simpler question: which way would he vote if there was a second Brexit referendum?

Steerpike

Til Brexit do us part

Brexit is one of the most divisive issues in the UK – splitting friends, family and all the main political parties along Leave and Remain lines. But if you think you've had some bruising arguments about Brexit these past two years, spare a thought for one particularly political household. Chief Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns has been a vocal supporter of (a) Standingup4Brexit (b) deposing Theresa May since July. The Conservative MP was among the first to openly call for May to go – using a memorable PMQs to accuse her of adopting a Remain strategy: https://twitter.com/andreajenkyns/status/1062804247362891776 At the other end of the spectrum is Jenkyn's husband Jack Lopresti – the pair have a son nicknamed Brexit Clifford.

Saturday

10 Downing Street

The Brexit deal: 40 rebuttals to Mr Steerpike’s 40 horrors

Is a deal better than no deal? In a bid to answer that question, Mr Steerpike published a list of the 40 horrors buried in the small print of Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Downing Street have since been in touch to put forward their own 40 rebuttals to those 40 horrors (we'll respond on Monday). No.10's points are in italics. After reading this list, why not try Mr Steerpike's 40 rebuttals to No.10's 40 rebuttals here. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The supposed ‘transition period’ could last indefinitely or, more specifically, to an undefined date sometime this century (“up to 31 December 20XX”, Art. 132).

James Forsyth

Why Theresa May should say she’ll go once her Brexit deal is passed

Right now, Theresa May’s Brexit deal isn’t passing the House of Commons. I argue in The Sun this morning, that Theresa May needs something to change the dynamic. What would do that? Well, if May said she would stand down once the withdrawal agreement was through, that would change things. It would separate off the question of how May has handled the Brexit negotiations so far, from the issue of what parliament should do now. If May pre-announced her departure, it would enable MPs to vote for the deal without that being an endorsement of her handling of Brexit or an invitation for her to go and negotiate the next stage of Brexit, the UK/EU trade deal. Interestingly, one Cabinet Minister tells me that May is now an impediment to this deal passing.

Steerpike

The top 40 horrors lurking in the small print of Theresa May’s Brexit deal | 17 November 2018

This week, Theresa May's government teetered on the point of collapse over her proposed Brexit deal. The withdrawal agreement between the UK and Brussels led to Dominic Raab and Esther McVey resigning in protest. However, May's remaining ministers have since attempted to rally around her at least in the short term. Speaking on Friday, Liam Fox – the International Trade Secretary – gave a speech in which he declared 'a deal is better than no deal'. This is rather different to May's old claim that 'no deal is better than a bad deal'. So, is Fox right? Mr S thought it best to let readers decide for themselves. In theory, Britain is leaving the EU on 29 March 2019. But the legal small print, published by Brussels, shows what this means.

Friday

Ross Clark

Only a ‘people’s vote’ can save the Tories now

Brexit is, as we know, the most important issue facing the government and the country. Except it isn’t. For the Conservatives there is an even more pressing matter: how to prevent a socialist government. Yesterday, the pound plunged after ministerial resignations following Theresa May’s deal with EU negotiators. But were investors spooked by the thought of a ‘no deal’ Brexit or by the possibility of a government collapse, general election and Corbyn in Number 10? Who knows? One thing is for certain: the very worst outcome for markets would be a combination of the two, a Red Brexit. At least the EU would temper Corbyn’s ambition to turn Britain into Venezuela, through its rules on state funding of industry and so on.

Katy Balls

No. 10 manage to find a Brexiteer for Brexit Secretary

Thirty-two hours after Dominic Raab resigned as Brexit Secretary, Theresa May has managed to find a Brexiteer who is willing to take on the troubled brief. Steve Barclay – the MP for North East Cambridgeshire – is the new Brexit Secretary. He has been promoted from minister of state at the Department of Health and Social Care. It's certainly quite a leap and Barclay is the most low profile MP to take on the brief yet. However, the scope of the job has also been reduced. Barclay's role is to concentrate on domestic preparedness rather than the final stages of the EU negotiation. The expectation is that that part of the negotiations will be led by Theresa May with the help of her top sherpa Olly Robbins.

Katy Balls

Amber Rudd makes swift return to cabinet as May tries to steady nerves

Amber Rudd has returned to cabinet as Work and Pensions Secretary. The former home secretary has been appointed to the brief after Esther McVey resigned on Thursday over the Prime Minister's proposed Brexit deal. Rudd's appointment should help to calm nerves and steady the ship as No.10 try and find some calm following Thursday's turmoil. Rudd is well liked across the party – and when she resigned over the Windrush scandal in April, many of her colleagues – including figures in No.10 – urged her to rethink her decision and stay on. It's good timing for Rudd's return as earlier this month an inquiry into the events leading up to her resignation concluded that she was let down by her own officials.

Brendan O’Neill

Stopping Brexit means stopping democracy

I always shudder when I hear people say, ‘Let’s stop Brexit’. They say it so casually, so cavalierly. It rolls off the tongue as if it were no big deal. They seem utterly unmoved by what ‘stopping Brexit’ would entail and the consequences it would have. It would mean blocking the largest act of democracy in the history of this nation. And its consequences would be to sow mass doubt in Britain’s democratic institutions and bring about an exodus of ordinary people from public life. ‘What’s the point in voting’, they would ask, ‘when they just ignore us?’. We have to get real. Stopping Brexit means stopping democracy. If we kill Brexit, we kill democracy itself.

Cindy Yu

The Spectator Podcast: China’s new social scoring and the Brexit civil war

This podcast was recorded from the midst of the Brexit omni-shambles. Katy Balls talks to Tim Montgomerie, Sienna Rodgers, and James Forsyth on the latest. But first, something just as monumental is happening on the other side of the world. Watch this: [embed]https://twitter.com/psythor/status/1056811593177227264?lang=en[/embed] That was the announcement that technology journalist James O’Malley heard when he travelling on a high-speed rail train from Beijing to Shanghai earlier this year. It is just the tip of a social credit ice berg, James writes in this week’s cover piece. The Chinese government is working to create a system of scoring its citizens on their behaviours. James joins the podcast, together with me, Cindy Yu, in my capacity as a China commentator.

James Forsyth

Michael Gove will not resign from DEFRA

Michael Gove is staying as DEFRA Secretary. Yesterday, Theresa May offered him the job of Brexit Secretary. Gove said that he could only do that job if he was given the opportunity to pursue his own course. May said that she wanted the Brexit Secretary to stay on the exact same course she had plotted. So, Gove turned down the job. May, though, asked him to stay as DEFRA Secretary and Gove has now decided to do so. So, why is he staying? Well, I understand that he didn’t see what would be achieved by going. It might doom this deal, but there would be nothing to put in its place. He felt it would be a nihilistic act, not a constructive one.

Steerpike

Watch: Theresa May taken to task on LBC phone in

Theresa May has just been doing her best to sell her Brexit plan to voters. But the Prime Minister's pitch didn't go down well with those calling into LBC. The PM's first call came from a Tory councillor who urged her to stand down and let someone else negotiate with the European Union. And she finished off her half-hour stint by being compared to Neville Chamberlain: 'Do you consider yourself the modern day Chamberlain, who also went to Europe and negotiated with a foreign power and came back as having appeased that foreign power and not having stood up for our country?' Mr S. thinks it is safe to say that things could have gone better...

Thursday

Jo Johnson

Diary – 15 November 2018

Jacob Rees-Mogg observed that my resignation last week was ‘the “Emperor’s New Clothes” moment in the Brexit process’. If this is right, that makes me the child, too young to understand the importance of maintaining pretences, who blurts out before the embarrassed townsfolk that the emperor is naked. I’ve been surprised by the noisy reaction to my departure from the middle ranks of the government. The video I made in my office setting out my reasons for going had two million views in two days. Maybe this is an example of Orwell’s dictum that in a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act. The deceit is that we’re making a success of Brexit.

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 15 November 2018

‘It’s time for Bond — Basildon Bond,’ is the joke among pro-Leave MPs as Theresa May serves up her mess of pottage as Brexit. Market research, however, shows the joke does not work on MPs under 40 because they do not know what Basildon Bond is. So perhaps I should explain to the hip Spectator crowd that Basildon Bond remains the commonest brand of quality paper on which to write letters. There need to be 48 such letters sent to Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, to provoke a vote of confidence in Mrs May among Conservative MPs. There are certainly far more than 48 who do not, in fact, have confidence in her. It does not automatically follow, needless to say, that they will say so when asked.

Peter Jones

Call the polis

If Brussels is willing to offer the British Parliament only a dog’s Brexit, that should tell Parliament everything it needs to know about any future prospects for a Britain tied in with the EU. It is about time for Parliament to say, ‘Enough is enough’. As every Greek polis (city state), however small, averred, its aim was to ensure that it alone was the arbiter of its own freedom. Antiochus III, a distant successor to Alexander the Great, had ambitions in 196 bc to ‘bring all the cities of Asia under his domination, as they once had been’.

The Spectator

A bad deal

During last year’s general election campaign, Theresa May declared that ‘You can only deliver Brexit if you believe in Brexit’. Unfortunately, her deal proves this point. It was negotiated by a team of people who imagined their job to be a damage-limitation exercise. They did not see Brexit as an opportunity and this is reflected in the terms put before the cabinet. The deal falls far short of what was promised in May’s Lancaster House speech. She said she’d bring back a clean Brexit, taking Britain out of the Single Market, the Customs Union and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. The deal she ended up presenting to her cabinet will, in several important regards, fail all of these tests. But May has conveniently forgotten her tests.

Jacob Rees-Mogg

Jacob Rees-Mogg: why I no longer have confidence in Theresa May

Dear Sir Graham, A few weeks ago, in a conversation with the Chief Whip I expressed my concern that the Prime Minister, Mrs. Theresa May, was losing the confidence of Conservative members of Parliament and that it would be in the interest of the party and the country if she were to stand aside. I have wanted to avoid the disagreeable nature of a formal vote of no confidence with all the ill will that this risks engendering. Regrettably, the draft withdrawal agreement presented to Parliament today has turned out to be worse than anticipated and fails to meet the promises given to the nation by the Prime Minister, either on her own account or on behalf of us all in the Conservative party manifesto.

Suella Braverman

Suella Braverman: Why I had to resign

Dear Prime Minister, This is very difficult letter to write. One which I never expected to compose. It has been an immense honour to support you in delivering the historic opportunity of leaving the EU as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union. It has, in many ways, been a dream job which I have enjoyed tremendously. However, despite my strenuous attempts, I now find myself unable to sincerely support the deal agreed yesterday by Cabinet. It is therefore with deep regret that I tender my resignation. My reasons are simple. Firstly, the proposed Northern Ireland Backstop is not Brexit. It is not what the British people—or my constituents—voted for in 2016. It prevents an unequivocal exit from a customs union with the EU.