Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

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

Debbie Hayton

We need trans-only wards

The Health Secretary Steve Barclay is expected to announce plans to ban transwomen like me from female hospital wards today. Let’s be clear, the privacy, dignity and safety of women in hospital have been overlooked for too long – but Barclay will also need to offer separate wards or rooms for transgender people. Yes, women should not be expected to budge up and make room for men who identify as transgender, but nor should the Health Secretary make the lives of those who transitioned – perhaps many years ago – more difficult than needs be.  There are solutions that don’t involve penalising those who’ve transitioned The goal for transsexuals (a term I prefer to ‘transgender’

Steerpike

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s defence of the British Empire

Jacob Rees-Mogg was in stirring form this morning, at a Tory party conference event on ‘Restoring prosperity, restoring Conservatism’ hosted by the Legatum Institute. The former minister for Brexit opportunities began his speech – where else? – at 1215 with Magna Carta before embarking on a potted history of English liberties, at one point digressing on the Anglo-Saxon root of the word ‘woman’, and why England is more successful than France (‘If you are an English peasant and you improve your land, who makes the money? You do.’) But Mr S struck most of all by JRM’s defence of our past. He remarked that: ‘we should rejoice in our history and not

Katy Balls

What’s going on with HS2?

14 min listen

It’s day three at Tory conference and the story that won’t go away is HS2. Rishi Sunak insisted in his media round this morning that a decision has not been made, meanwhile Downing Street sources are reporting that a decision has been made. Standing outside the Midland hotel, Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street urged the prime minister not to abandon HS2. Can we expect an announcement in Rishi’s speech tomorrow?  Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and James Heale. 

Steerpike

Lee Anderson reminisces about Thatcher bashing

Lee Anderson isn’t one to shy away from controversy and his speech on Monday evening at a fringe event at Tory conference certainly did not disappoint. The party’s deputy chairman addressed a packed out room at a Manchester club. While recounting  his life story, Anderson couldn’t resist taking a pop at Guardian journalists, Diane Abbott and, er, Margaret Thatcher. A rather brave move in a room full of Tories… Anderson said being voted ‘the worst man in Britain’ by the Mirror was the ‘greatest honour’ of his life. ‘Funnily enough, that year was a very close competition. I’d just beat Prince Andrew to it. Did you get that, Guardian?’ ‘I was brought up on a strict

Steerpike

Ben Houchen tells Tory rebels: ‘shut up and get out of the way’

It looks like the sniping has already begun here at Tory party conference. On Tuesday, Liz Truss decided to use the event as a vehicle to launch her ‘Great British Growth Rally’ – an attempt to push the party to reduce the size of the state. That has not gone down well though with some of her colleagues, who’ve seen it as an attempt to undermine Rishi Sunak. Chief critic has been Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, who said ahead of the rally that he wished Truss had ‘more awareness’ and stayed away. Yesterday, Houchen went further at a panel hosted by the Centre for Policy Studies and CapX. At the

Steerpike

Health Secretary heckled for skimping on the detail

Who pays up to £242 for a member ticket to the Conservative party conference only to disrupt its events? You’d have to ask the young man who heckled the health secretary during his Q&A at Monday’s Health and Care reception… Barclay spent 15 minutes hinting at what the latest Tory plan to save the NHS might be – something Mr S understands he will discuss in more depth in his main speech on Tuesday. His focus was on technological innovation, getting patients seen faster and utilising other types of healthcare workers. Indeed, Barclay was particularly keen to emphasise a service that relied less on doctors, in a perhaps covert response

Coffee House

Day three at Conservative conference 2023: The Spectator guide

And just like that it’s day three of the Conservative party conference in Manchester! With one full day left, there’s plenty to get stuck into. Today’s highlights include speeches by Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Over on the fringe circuit there’s a range of interesting events and The Spectator hosts its last six conference events. See the line-up below: Main agenda: Morning session 11:00 – Speech by Health Secretary, Steve Barclay MP 11:15 – Speech by Science and Technology Secretary, Michelle Donelan MP 11:30 – Speech by Levelling Up Secretary, Michael Gove MP Afternoon session 15:00 – Speech by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk MP 15:15 –

Gareth Roberts

Is Keir Starmer going to blow it?

When Boris Johnson won his eighty-seat majority, Labour looked to be destined to spend a decade or so in the political wilderness. But ‘Partygate’, the eventual defenestration of Boris plus the psychodrama of Truss and the fraught first year of Sunak meant that the tables turned. All of a sudden, dreary Keir Starmer – with his cardboard hair and his voice like the recently recreated Aztec death whistle, said to be ‘somewhere between a spooky gust of whistling wind and the scream of a thousand corpses’ – was not the lame duck Kinnockesque caretaker. Labour’s leader became the shoo-in next PM. Now the numbers seem to be shifting again. A

Gavin Mortimer

Does Germany want to bring down Giorgia Meloni?

Is there a plot afoot to oust Giorgia Meloni as Prime Minister and replace her with someone more to the progressive left’s taste?  There have been rumours in the European media that Meloni’s government is teetering and that it ‘could fall and make way for a technocrat government.’ The audacity of Germany is breathtaking In 2011 Mario Monti formed such a government after the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi and he filled his cabinet with unelected technocrats, prompting Berlusconi to accuse him of ‘adopting the rules of austerity proposed by Germany.’ The former European Commissioner lasted just over a year in office before he resigned. A decade after Monti was parachuted

Monday

John Connolly

West Midlands mayor rebels over HS2

Well, it didn’t take long for Rishi Sunak’s conference to be derailed by the fate of the HS2 rail link. Today reports began to emerge that Rishi Sunak would officially announce at conference that the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the route would be scrapped – ending over a week of speculation about his plans for the route. The reports have been denied by Downing Street, with a spokesman saying that ‘No final decisions have been taken on Phase 2 of HS2’. But the news has already managed to create ructions at conference. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first person to head for the soap box was Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who

Linden Kemkaran

A school phone ban is long overdue

Around the time my eldest son started secondary school, I had a worrying glimpse into his private life. We’d put him to bed at 9 p.m. but asked that he leave his mobile, one of my old iPhones, downstairs next to me. I was horrified to see the non-stop barrage of messages coming in as late as midnight. These children – all just 11 or 12-years-old – clearly were not asleep as they should have been on a school night. Other parents, with children as young as six, say they’ve experienced similar realisations.   I heartily wish my son’s school had banned smartphones during the school day, something the government has

Katy Balls

Coffee House Shots Live: Who would vote Tory?

47 min listen

The Spectator’s Fraser Nelson, Katy Balls and Kate Andrews are joined by special guest Frank Luntz for a live recording of Coffee House Shots from Tory party conference. It was at this event two years ago that Frank first declared Liz Truss to be the next Tory leader. Who might succeed Rishi Sunak? And is a Labour 2024 victory certain? 

Isabel Hardman

Why won’t Jeremy Hunt talk about HS2?

Despite the excitement outside the Tory conference hall in Manchester about Rishi Sunak deciding he would indeed scrap the Manchester leg of HS2, Jeremy Hunt didn’t mention it in his speech. He talked about the need to reduce costs long-term and said that public spending needed to come down. But the contribution of the high speed rail line to that public spending bill wasn’t something he covered at all. So the mystery and leaks continue. What Hunt did want to say, and very early on in his rather short speech, was that ‘the level of tax is too high’. This was the line he needed to offer to rebellious Tory

James Heale

Liz Truss’s ‘growth’ rally upstages Jeremy Hunt

It says something about the standing of the current Tory leadership that, away from the party’s half-empty conference hall, some 250 Conservatives packed into a room to attend the ‘Great British Growth Rally’. Headlined by Liz Truss, the former PM was joined on stage by three former cabinet members: Ranil Jayawardena, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel. The reception was a marked contrast with the gloom that many activists in Manchester say they are currently feeling. Jeremy Hunt’s speech later this afternoon is unlikely to garner similar cheers. The ‘fab four’ delivered speeches along familiar themes: the state is too big, Brits are too taxed The ‘fab four’ delivered speeches along

Steerpike

‘Stop Brexit Man’ Steve Bray gets into a scrap at Tory conference

Fresh from mingling with Bully XL owners, ‘Stop Brexit Man’ Steve Bray has popped up again – this time at a conference fringe event asking ‘Can the Tories win?’. Mr S thinks he knows what Bray’s answer to that question might be. During the event, Bray stood up to unveil his ‘Stop The Tories’ top. But before he could yell ‘BREXIT’, one of the crowd decided to take matters into his own hands. The delegate tackled Bray into the corner before attempting to wrestle him out of the room. ‘This is assault,’ screamed Bray as security rushed to intervene. ‘Losers!’ he bellowed as he was hustled from the room. ‘No,

Kate Andrews

Can the Tory party afford to keep delaying tax cuts?

The whispers going around last year’s party conference largely centred on the state of government – how it was deteriorating so quickly. This year’s whispers are about something that is by no means as dramatic, but possibly as existential to the future of the party: the prospect of tax cuts. The official line is simple: no tax cuts this year. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has spent his summer trying to quell expectations that his Autumn Statement next month will include any major changes to the tax burden, which is set to reach a post-war high by the time of the next election. This morning he said now is ‘not the right

Cindy Yu

Does China care what Britain thinks?

62 min listen

In 2010, David Cameron and George Osborne ushered in what they called ‘a golden era’ with China, the world’s rising superpower. They argued that Britain could be China’s best friend in the West. Thirteen years later, after a global pandemic, up to a million interned in Xinjiang, and a Communist Party General Secretary seemingly keen to roll back democratic progress in the mainland and in Hong Kong, that policy looks ill-thought-out, at best. But are we at risk of swinging the other direction now, going from ignorance to hysteria within a handful of years? Did we get China wrong, and do we keep getting China wrong? Is Britain now losing

Isabel Hardman

Mark Harper wants you to know how much he loves cars

Mark Harper is rebranding himself as the Secretary of State for Cars, rather than Transport. He didn’t even mention HS2 in his speech to Tory conference this morning: in fact, he barely talked about rail at all. He opened by congratulating his department on ending some of the industrial action on the railways, and linking the ongoing strikes from RMT and ASLEF to the Labour party. He had a brief line about being ‘proud to support our railways’ and the risk of following ‘Labour’s lazy, ideological approach of forking out yet more money from the public purse with no benefit to passengers’, but that was that for trains. Harper moved