Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Wednesday

Andrew Tettenborn

Sunak’s smoking ban is a terrible policy

What, you might ask, has Rishi Sunak been smoking? There is no way to spin as conservative the idea of working towards a complete ban on cigarettes by legislating a progressive age-related bar on buying tobacco. This is not conservatism as libertarianism or as the Scrutonian practice of not taking the axe to existing social institutions. The only serious precedent is not happy: think supremely bossy Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand premier who brought in a similar draconian ban last December before abruptly leaving politics. Rather like Prohibition, this will open the door to bootlegging and racketeering Admittedly, there is on one level a kind of abstract logic here. A

Freddy Gray

The Republican party is a mess

In comparison to the Republicans in the United States, the British Conservative party is a model of unity and discipline. In Manchester this week, for all the blather about Nigel Farage and ‘pandering’ to the far right, the grumbling about nanny-statism and HS2ing-to-nowhere, the Tories held themselves together.  Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, a small group of right-wing representatives in Congress managed to throw out their own House speaker, Kevin McCarthy. A motion for him to ‘vacate to chair’ was won 216 to 210. That’s never happened before.  The trigger for McCarthy’s removal was disgruntlement over the spending deal he struck with President Joe Biden in order to avoid a US

Isabel Hardman

Penny Mordaunt reveals the Tory attack lines against Keir Starmer

‘What I have to say to you today is not for the faint-hearted,’ Penny Mordaunt said as she opened the final session of the Conservative conference. She didn’t have a sword as a prop, but the leader of the House of Commons spent much of her address calling on activists to ‘stand up and fight’ in the face of the polling, the ‘sneering’ from the commentators and the Labour party. The theme of the speech was standing up to bullies, taking in her own personal experience of watching the Falklands Taskforce leaving Portsmouth, and Britain’s identity in fighting the Nazis and being part of ending the Cold War. The tone

The Spectator

How many people work on farms? 

Overs and out Mark Nicholas, the new President of the MCC, suggested he would favour ending the annual Eton vs Harrow cricket match at Lord’s when its future is next reviewed in 2027. Which school is the better at cricket? – The fixture has been running since 1805, 72 years before the first test match. – Eton has won 60 matches, Harrow 57 and 68 have been a draw. – Harrow are the current champions, having won the last two matches. – The match used to attract crowds larger than some Test matches, with 38,000 spectators attending over two days in 1914. – Eton has produced the most players who

David Shipley

Overseas prisons will be disastrous for British inmates

Our prisons are overcrowded, dangerous and out of control. The prison population is rising faster than we can build new cells. Prisoners spend far too much time in their cells, developing mental health problems instead of skills. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Justice announced that it has the answer. Perhaps surprisingly they didn’t announce more new prisons, or a recruitment drive or to a new scheme to release non-violent prisoners earlier on home detention curfew or ‘tag’. In fact, the new policy is to send prisoners overseas. No, I didn’t have ‘bringing back Transportation’ on my Conference bingo card either. The press release states that the government will look to

Patrick O’Flynn

Suella Braverman is a force to be reckoned with

After Suella Braverman announced her candidacy for the Tory leadership on ITV’s Peston show in the summer of 2022 the liberal left laughed at the very idea. Someone even asked Robert Peston online: ‘How did you keep a straight face when Suella B said she’d stand for Prime Minister?’ Well, as Bob Monkhouse once observed of those who scoffed at his youthful declaration that he wanted to become a comedian, they’re not laughing now. Braverman’s Conservative conference speech confirmed what her recent Washington speech suggested: that she has become one of the most compelling figures in UK politics, unignorable indeed for the British left who find themselves lapsing into paroxysms

Charles Lipson

The Republicans are telling the world they can’t govern

Congressman Matt Gaetz pulled the alarm but, unlike the stunt by his fellow House member Jamaal Bowman – who recently set off a fire alarm to delay a vote – there really was a fire. Gaetz set it himself, with help from seven other Republicans on the party’s populist right. Now the whole party has to deal with the smoking ruins.  Make no mistake: the entire Republican Party will pay an enormous price for this manoeuvre Because the majority party has only a slim edge in the House of Representatives, any small, cohesive group among them can wield huge leverage. They can threaten to sink legislation or oust the Speaker by

Steerpike

Suella Braverman vows to shut asylum hotels

The blue-collar Conservative Common Sense Group’s event at Tory conference yesterday evening felt more like a celebrity visit than a political fringe. Following her conference speech, Home Secretary Suella Braverman was met with chants of ‘BRA-VER-MAN’ and rapturous applause from her Tory fanbase as she came on stage at the event, hosted by the Daily Express. Excited cheers then broke out as she made her big announcement: that asylum hotels – currently costing the government around £8 million a day – would soon be closed down. In her speech, the Home Secretary made a quick dig at Nicola Sturgeon’s gender reforms before asserting that she backed Rishi and was confident the

Eliot Wilson

Why does the BBC think we need a Today programme podcast?

Is there really room in the crowded market for a new podcast about politics, presented by two male Oxbridge graduates? The BBC thinks so: the team behind Radio 4’s Today programme is launching a new weekly podcast hosted by Nick Robinson and Amol Rajan. This is a ‘bold commitment from the BBC to continue to build the Today brand’, according to the, erm, BBC.  In case you are waiting for the punchline or the big reveal, there is nothing different about The Today Podcast. Its presenters will ‘give their take on the biggest stories of the week’, though the audience is also promised a range of guests and ‘insights from behind

Tuesday

Matt McDonald

Kevin McCarthy ousted as US Speaker

Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as the House speaker after losing a vote 216-210, becoming the first speaker ever to lose his role through a vote and the shortest serving speaker to date. Florida congressman Matt Gaetz had forced the motion to vacate, due to his dissatisfaction with the deal McCarthy struck at the weekend to avoid a government shutdown. Seven other Republicans voted with Gaetz and the Democrats to boot McCarthy from his leadership position: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana, who is currently running for Senate there.

Isabel Hardman

Sunak set to scrap HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester

Rishi Sunak will tomorrow confirm he is scrapping the HS2 link between Manchester and Birmingham, Coffee House understands. The prime minister will make the announcement in his conference speech as part of an argument about responsible government. He will, though, try to soften the political blow by detailing alternative rail projects in the north of England using the money.  The row about HS2 has dominated the Conservative party conference, with Sunak insisting only today that he wouldn’t be rushed into making a ‘premature’ decision about the future of the line. It seems he has now made that decision – or he has managed to stick to his own media grid which

Steerpike

Lee Anderson unleashed at Tory conference

Dogs bark, cows moo and Lee Anderson shoots his mouth off. The firecracker that is the Tory deputy party chairman took to the ConservativeHome stage on the Tory conference fringe this afternoon, and he certainly didn’t hold back. Speaking to Anand Menon, director of the think tank UK in a Changing Europe, the plain-talking Anderson fired off his thoughts on a number of topics, ranging from how he went from Labour to Tory and from hating to loving Margaret Thatcher, to his famous moniker ‘30p Lee’. Asked whether he would ever consider rejoining the Labour party, Anderson branded it a ‘ridiculous question’. He didn’t stop there though: ‘The working classes

Steerpike

Andrew Boff removed from Tory conference for heckling Suella Braverman

So much for a blue-on-blue ceasefire. The Conservative party conference is inching towards its close but not without some penultimate day drama. The Tory London Assembly chair was this afternoon dramatically escorted out of Suella Braverman’s speech today after heckling her comments on gender. After quietly remarking that the Home Secretary was talking ‘trash’ about ‘gender ideology’, Andrew Boff was forcibly dragged out of the hall in Manchester. Speaking to reporters as he was led away, Boff said: ‘It is making our Conservative party look transphobic and homophobic. Our party has a proud record of standing up for LGBT+ rights and she is destroying it.’ He said he had been a member of the party for over 50

Kate Andrews

Jeremy Hunt: we underestimated the impact of money-printing

Speaking at the Centre for Policy Studies fringe event at Conservative party conference this afternoon, Jeremy Hunt reiterated once again that there would be no big tax cuts this year. ‘Debt interest payments have gone up so much in the past six months’, he told CPS director Robert Colvile, taking estimates for debt servicing payments over the £100 billion mark this fiscal year. The Autumn Statement, the Chancellor said, will lay bare just how dire the situation is: ‘It’s likely that our debt interest payments… are going to go up by more than £20bn pounds a year in the Autumn Budget compared to what was predicted in the spring.’ In other

Lucy Dunn

Steve Barclay turns to AI to save the NHS

The NHS is struggling to cope with an ageing population. Disputes over pay have created a stand off between doctors and the government, while the crumbling social care system has seen bed-blocking reach record levels. So far, the suggested fixes have usually been calls for more money. But what about tech? That’s Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s big idea.  Speaking to a large audience at The Spectator’s event ‘Can AI and innovation save the NHS?’ this afternoon, Barclay outlined why introducing AI into the health service is right. Chaired by The Spectator’s assistant editor Isabel Hardman, Barclay was joined on the stage by Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP, shadow Scottish cabinet secretary

Andrew Tettenborn

Suella Braverman’s sex offender crackdown won’t work

It’s easy to see the thinking behind Suella Braverman’s plan announced in Manchester today to prevent sex offenders changing their name. In a country without ID cards or universal means of identification, it is fairly easy discreetly to disappear if you are at the margins of society, and possibly even to find a way of claiming at least some form of social security. This obviously defeats much of the object of having a sex offenders’ register, since it can in too many cases reduce the official record to something more like Gogol’s rentroll of dead souls. True, it is already technically a crime for anyone on the register not to tell the

Steerpike

Jacob Rees-Mogg: Put Nigel Farage in the House of Lords

Nigel Farage has been enjoying himself at Tory conference. The former Brexit party leader was filmed last night singing karaoke with Priti Patel and today he’s been propping up the bar in the Midland hotel in Manchester. Farage certainly looks comfortable rubbing shoulders with Tory delegates, but would he ever be welcomed back into the Conservative fold? Jacob Rees-Mogg says that the party should welcome Farage – whom he jokingly described as ‘a bit left wing’ – with open arms. Mogg also went further – suggesting Farage should be put in the House of Lords. He told a Spectator conference fringe event that his fellow Brexiteer’s ‘contribution to public life’

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf is talking nonsense about Scotland’s oil

For nearly half a century, the Scottish National Party based its independence project on ‘Scotland’s Oil’ which it claimed had been stolen by England. Now the SNP seems to be saying it wasn’t Scotland’s oil at all and wasn’t even the UK’s to steal. The SNP and their Green coalition partners have discovered that North Sea oil is owned by foreign capitalists and is anyway unusable in the UK. ‘Most of this oil will be shipped abroad,’ insisted the SNP First Minister, Humza Yousaf, last week ‘and then sold back to us at whatever price makes the oil and gas industry most profit’. New fields like Rosebank off Shetland, he says, won’t therefore help reduce

Isabel Hardman

The great Tory dilemma: try to win or prepare for defeat?

What are the Conservatives putting the most effort into: winning the next election, or life after defeat? While Rishi Sunak and some of his top team, including the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, still sincerely believe that there is a good chance that they could win the election, other Conservatives have switched their focus to what happens afterwards. That’s why Liz Truss has been on the fringe, why senior cabinet ministers have been making comments that they know will be viewed as a tilt at a future leadership contest, and why this does not feel like a pre-election party conference. Kemi Badenoch’s speech to the hall yesterday received the first sincerely warm

Isabel Hardman

Sunak stays quiet on HS2

Rishi Sunak is still refusing to offer any detail on what he plans to do with HS2, suggesting in a round of broadcast interviews this lunchtime that he hasn’t yet made the final decision. He told Sky that: ‘I think it’s right that I’m not going to get forced into making premature decisions. Not on something that’s so important that costs this country tens of billions of pounds.’ Instead, he told the BBC, he would ‘approach this the same way I approach everything: thoughtfully, carefully, across the detail and making what I believe is the right decision in the long term for our country.’ Sunak’s camp have long believed that