Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Alister Jack defends blocking the SNP’s gender bill

It would have been news if the Commons debate about the Scottish Gender Recognition Bill hadn't turned ugly quickly. The questions and answers following Scottish Secretary Alister Jack's statement about using Section 35 of the Scotland Act to stop the progress of that legislation were deeply uncomfortable. Jack insisted that he was merely focusing on the constitutional issues, something Labour's Ian Murray looked grateful to be able to do, too, given the splits within his own party on this matter.

James Snell

Is Germany’s defence minister up to the job?

After yesterday's abrupt and humiliating departure of Germany's defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, beleaguered chancellor Olaf Scholz has today appointed her replacement. If you were expecting a stellar appointment, prepare to be disappointed. If, however, you have followed Scholz’s pilgrim’s progress on the war in Ukraine closely, then you can enjoy the sensation of your low expectations being met.  The new hire in question is Boris Pistorius, a stalwart of Scholz’s Social Democratic party (SPD). He has never held military rank. He has never held national office. He is a former mayor of Osnabrück, and was, until his elevation to the federal cabinet, the minister of the interior and sport for the state of Lower Saxony.

Steerpike

Watch: Labour’s Rosie Duffield jeered from her own benches in transgender row

Oh dear. It seems that not all in the Labour party share their leader's professed scepticism of Scotland's new Gender Recognition Reform Bill. This afternoon, Rosie Duffield rose in the Commons to support Scottish secretary Alister Jack's decision to block the new legislation. But she had barely started speaking before the jeers rang out across the House. Barracking is hardly unusual in parliament, yet what was remarkable was how they came exclusively from the opposition benches. Members of Duffield's own party joined in unison with the SNP to express their displeasure at her words of encouragement for Jack. Jack responded by praising Duffield's 'courage in standing up for this issue' to warm cheers of approval from Conservative MPs.

Brendan O’Neill

Nicola Sturgeon and the truth about ‘transphobia’

This is a shameful week for Scottish nationalism. Let us state plainly what has happened: the government in Westminster has had to intervene in Scotland to save women’s rights. Central government has had to use its legal powers to defend women’s safety and liberty from Scotland’s devolved nationalist government that seems to have diminishing regard for such things. Nicola Sturgeon’s reputation deserves never to recover from this. This is the news that the government intends to block Scotland’s Gender Recognition Bill. This is the bill that would make it easier for people in Scotland to legally change their gender. It would also lower the age at which they can do so, from 18 to 16.

Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak bows to the Online Safety Bill rebels

Rishi Sunak and Michelle Donelan will this afternoon bow to the inevitable and accept rebel changes to the Online Safety Bill. They are doing so after it became obvious that the government was going to lose a vote on the legislation, due to have its remaining stages in the Commons later today. The Online Safety Bill has already been significantly changed in order to get past Tory MPs Tory backbenchers Bill Cash and Miriam Cates have said they won't be pressing their amendment to a vote after reaching an agreement with ministers. Their proposals, which had the support of at least 50 Conservative MPs, as well as the backing of the Labour Party, would have meant tech bosses would face jail if they failed to protect children from harmful content on their platforms.

Cindy Yu

Will the Scottish trans row go to court?

15 min listen

Westminster and Holyrood are going head to head on Scotland's newly passed Gender Recognition Bill. Last night, the UK government blocked the legislation from Edinburgh, citing that the powers it gives – requiring those identifying as a different gender to only live in that gender for three months, and reducing the age of self-identification to 16 – would contravene the UK's Equality Act. In the end, it may be the courts that decide. Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Steerpike

Even Iran’s mullahs have turned on Prince Harry

Is there anyone left who likes Prince Harry? His popularity is plunging, his allies have turned on him – and now even the mad mullahs of Iran have come out against him. Tehran's butchers have managed to find time between atrocities to issue a public condemnation of the dilettante Duke of Sussex's recent book Spare. Apparently it's in poor taste. Twitter may be banned under Iran's internet censorship laws but that didn't stop the country's foreign ministry from firing off a series of tweets this morning, indignantly responding to Britain's condemnation of the hanging of Alireza Akbari.

Freddy Gray

Who do Harry and Meghan think they are?

It is quite funny that Jeremy Clarkson, having written that silly joke about the Duchess of Sussex being paraded naked through the streets, should now find himself so ritually humiliated.  Clarkson, now in danger of losing his role as a television presenter and the acceptable face of British men who like cars, has felt compelled to apologise not once not twice but thrice. He first said sorry on Twitter, before Christmas. He also wrote to Harry. Then yesterday, in a statement, he performed the full grovel.  With vulgar haste, the couple poured more scorn on Clarkson ‘I really am sorry,’ he said. ‘All the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head. This is me putting my hands up. It's a mea culpa with bells on.

Steerpike

Education Secretary flounders on changing gender at 16

Back to school for Gillian Keegan. It seems that the Education Secretary hasn't learnt her lines properly, judging by her performance on this morning's media round. The Chichester MP appeared on Sky's breakfast show today, follows last night's news that the Westminster government will block Holyrood's Gender Recognition Reform Bill. Keegan was invited by Kay Burley to give her thoughts on whether 16 is too young to decide your gender identity; the Education Secretary obligingly took the bait. 'No, I don't actually, I think 16, I was working at 16, I was paying tax at 16, I was making decisions for myself at 16.

Steerpike

Watch: Green MSP suggests eight-year-olds could legally change sex

Crisis! Outrage! Fury! It's all kicking off in Scotland today, with much nationalist self-righteous anger at the impertinence, nay the audacity, of a Tory government daring to object to a law passed by Holyrood. Why, it's nothing less than a fundamental breach of the founding principles of the Scotland Act on which the parliament was built – including of course, er, Section 35, the mechanism by which Westminster has blocked Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform bill. It is of course worth considering what exactly the GRR would mean – especially as it allows 16 year-olds to change their gender without parental consent.

Gareth Roberts

The great Tory delusion

Spare us from feeble, timid Tories. At times, the party's MPs are so afraid of what the Guardian or their daft teenage kids might say they forget they are supposed to be conservative. Take the party's laggard attitude to months of protests; or the total disaster of the Channel migrant boats crisis; or mimsying about with the universities freedom of speech bill. Do they really think this approach is going to win them the next election? Remarkably, there’s something even worse than mere squirming incompetence and conflict avoidance: the airy nonchalance of a certain strain of Tory MP. Even MPs touted as future leadership hopefuls are guilty.

Monday

Katy Balls

Why the government will block the SNP gender bill

The UK government has this evening confirmed that ministers will move to prevent the Scottish government’s gender recognition legislation from receiving Royal Assent. Announcing the decision in a statement, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said he had made the decision to make an order under Section 35 of the Scotland Act to stop the legislation passing – on the grounds that it ‘would have an adverse impact on the operation of Great Britain-wide equalities legislation’. This is the first time in the history of the devolution settlement that the government will make a Section 35 order to block a bill in the Scottish parliament.

James Kirkup

Being attacked by the BMA is good news for Keir Starmer

Here are two facts about British healthcare that not enough people know.  First, GPs don’t work for the NHS. They are private contractors who sell services to the NHS via GP partnerships which are profit-making businesses owned by GPs.  Second, the British Medical Association is not a medical body. It’s a trade union for doctors, representing the financial interests of medics including GPs and their profit-making partnerships.  These two facts should be known by any voter thinking about politicians and health policy.  Yet many people appear unaware of them. That’s partly thanks to poor journalism. And it’s partly thanks to the success of general practitioners and the BMA in wrapping themselves in the NHS flag in order to conceal their true nature.

Ross Clark

Do we truly know the cost of net zero?

Just why is Chris Skidmore’s review into the government’s target to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 called an ‘independent’ review? It somewhat stretches the definition of the word ‘independent’. Skidmore was the very minister – the Energy and Clean Growth Minister – who pushed the net zero commitment through the House of Commons in the first place in 2019. He remains a Conservative MP. Putting him in charge of an ‘independent’ review on net zero is analogous to Rishi Sunak putting Boris Johnson in charge of a ‘independent’ review into Brexit. That, of course, would be laughed out of the House of Commons. But things seem to work very differently in the world of net zero.

Katy Balls

Is Sunak heading for trouble on the Protocol?

There has been excited chatter in recent days that a breakthrough on the Northern Ireland Protocol could be imminent. Last week, the UK government and Brussels agreed a new technical arrangement on sharing trade data, which was heralded as a ‘new basis’ for talks, following a meeting between EU chief negotiator Maros Sefcovic, and James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary. Since then, there has been speculation that the two sides could enter the ‘tunnel’ – the intensive end stage of negotiations – as soon as this week. There is a desire on both sides to find an agreement on changes to the Protocol could ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. However, today Downing Street urged caution – with No.

James Snell

Germany’s missteps in Ukraine have left Scholz fighting for his political life

Difficult though it may be to believe, there is chaos at the top of the German government over its mishandling of the war in Ukraine. Germany’s defence minister, Christine Lambrecht of the Social Democratic party, has quit her post after the most extraordinary series of unforced errors.  The war has brought all of this to a head. It has exposed Europe’s lax security and complacency. But German defence has been in a league of its own for many years. Over the course of the war, there has been no end to the amount of troubling information that has emerged.

Steerpike

Coming soon: Boris Johnson’s memoir

Ping! An email pops up in Steerpike's inbox. 'Boris Johnson's memoir acquired by HarperCollins' roars the subject line, heralding the arrival of an effusive press release to mark the exciting news. Not content with earning £250,000 per speech and unveiling portraits of himself, it seems our former PM has decided that the time is now right for his considered reflections on his time in office (read: settle some old scores and make off with the moolah.) In suitably gushing tones, Arabella Pike, the publicity director of the HarperCollins publishing house, promises that: ‘This will be a prime ministerial memoir like no other.

Robin Ashenden

Russia’s wives and mothers are mobilising against Putin

On a Russian Telegram channel, Svetlana from Samara is making a public plea. She has not heard from her brother since the shelling of Makiivka on 31 December, which may have killed up to 400 Russian soldiers. Enquiries to the military registration, the city governor, the Ministry of Defence have apparently turned up nothing. ‘After all my appeals, requests, calls, I became desperate that no one was listening to me. Ordinary, simple people are not needed by anyone.’  Another, older woman, Valentina, posts from the same region. ‘Please help me find my son,’ she says. ‘He was in Makiivka on 31 December. Since then, there’s been no news. He is neither [registered as] alive nor dead. In the military registration and enlistment office they say “wait”.

Isabel Hardman

The looming challenge on police protest powers

MPs and peers are going to spend the next few weeks in an almighty fight about strikes and protests. Today the Commons debates the second reading of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill. Business Secretary Grant Shapps and Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner are going head-to-head on legislation requiring unions in key sectors to provide minimum service levels even during strike action – or face being sued. In the Lords, peers will soon be debating the final stage of the Public Order Bill, which today gains a big new amendment that gives the police more powers to stop protests from becoming disruptive.  The amendment could give a lot of powers to the police that end up clamping down on peaceful and legitimate protest The protests amendment is a big deal.

Katy Balls

What will be on the agenda at Davos?

12 min listen

It's looking like a busy week in Westminster. So busy in fact that prime minister Rishi Sunak will not be attending the annual Davos meeting, organised by the World Economic Forum. His opposite number Kier Starmer will be making the trip however, is this a shrewd move from Labour?  Also on the podcast, amended plans to widen police powers when it comes to public protests are being introduced to parliament today, what impact will the Public Order Bill have on civil liberties? Will the government come to regret this?  Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and Kate Andrews.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson.