Politics Archives

Wednesday

25 May 2022

Sue Gray’s report makes for grim reading for No. 10

In the past few minutes, Sue Gray’s final report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street has been published. It makes for grim reading. The report is just 37 pages long, along with photos of the events that the senior civil servant was tasked to investigate. The key line is where Gray says that ‘the senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture’ of believing that events were permitted when they were not in line with the rules. She writes: ‘Whatever the initial intent, what took place at many of these gatherings and the way in which they developed was not in line with Covid guidance at the time.

Gus Carter

The dreary truth about partygate

I’m starting to get a bit annoyed about partygate. Well no, that’s a lie. I’m angry in theory. On paper I’m fuming. In real life? Meh. This whole saga has trundled on for so long now I’ve just stopped caring. I’m probably annoyed about something else. Train timetables or maybe the fact that broccoli is £1.60 in M&S. Given how miserable the rest of us were during lockdown, those making the rules should really have done the polite thing and followed them. But then when you read the details of ‘partygate’, you can’t help but think that they weren't really enjoying themselves. A Colin the Caterpillar cake in between meetings? ‘Wine time Fridays’?

Michael Simmons

Sturgeon’s record in eight graphs

Today, Nicola Sturgeon becomes the longest serving First Minister in the history of devolution. Surpassing Alex Salmond’s seven years, six months and five days. It’s a long time to be in charge: a full generation by some definitions. Certainly time enough to make your mark on a country with devolved powers unparalleled in the democratic world. But what difference has Sturgeon made in her time in office: 1. Life expectancy for Scots men and women has seen the sharpest fall in 40 years – accelerating in the time Sturgeon’s been in power. Scottish men born today can expect to live 77 years, the lowest of any UK country (it’s 79 in England) and a fall of some 18 weeks on the year before.

Sam Ashworth-Hayes

The moral decay at the heart of the Tory party

Pigs may fly, Hell may freeze over, and a month may pass without a Conservative MP revealing the moral decay at the core of the party. Yesterday, former MP Imran Khan was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. In Westminster, meanwhile, rumours circulated that a senior MP had sexually assaulted colleagues. Yet another member was bailed after being arrested in a rape investigation. These stories shouldn’t be confused with the unnamed Conservative MP who was arrested over rape allegations in 2020 before the investigation was dropped or the former government whip Charlie Elphicke who was jailed for sexual assault in 2020.

Lloyd Evans

The bizarre theatre of the BBC’s partygate exposé

Last night’s must-see TV show was Bury Boris – the Movie. In anticipation, the BBC released a trailer for a Panorama edition about parties in Downing Street. It’s a thrilling two-minute watch. It opens with a shot of a dodgy skinhead in a sleazy overcoat being released from Wormwood Scrubs. Or is it an international money-launderer being secretly filmed at Davos? Or perhaps a premiership star on his way to court for kicking his dog. But hang on. There’s a caption. ‘Lee Cain’s leaving do’. The date is November 2020 and a farewell bash is being held in Downing Street. Over this, we hear a tense, familiar voice. ‘Can you tell us what happened?’ The interrogator is Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s in-house Inspector Rebus.

Tuesday

24 May 2022

Robert Peston

A Treasury cost-of-living help package could be imminent

A £10 billion package of help with fuel bills and the cost of living targeted at those on lowest incomes could be announced as soon as Thursday, I am told. No final decisions have been made, but the prime minister wants to reset his administration before the Queen’s Jubilee parliamentary recess and after the publication tomorrow of Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties - which is expected to be damaging to the PM’s reputation.

Matthew Lynn

Andrew Bailey is floundering in the face of soaring inflation

Prices are rising at the fastest pace for 40 years. Real wages are falling rapidly. The cost of servicing the government's vast debts is escalating, and companies are struggling to keep up with the rising price of raw materials. Still, not to worry. Fortunately, a quarter of a century ago Gordon Brown wisely decided to hand over management of inflation to a supremely competent group of expert technocrats, so that we could have stable prices and steady growth forever - or indeed an ‘end to boom’n’bust’ as Brown would have inevitably put it. Oh, but hold on. It turns out it is not quite going to plan.

Katy Balls

How will Boris Johnson respond to the Gray report?

11 min listen

Sue Gray's report into Downing Street parties during lockdown is set to be released on Wednesday morning. The tone Boris Johnson takes will be vital to his political future. What will he say?Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.

Robert Peston

The unspoken argument behind a windfall tax

The Financial Times story on Rishi Sunak looking at a possible windfall tax on energy firms captures how difficult such a tax is for any government, especially a Tory one. Because it begs questions why, when electricity suppliers suffered unsustainable losses in autumn and winter, when under the price cap they suffered huge and unsustainable losses – what you might call a reverse windfall – they were allowed to go bust. If you believe in capitalism and competition, you believe in swings and roundabouts: windfall profits in good times are the obverse of extreme losses in the bad. Kwasi Kwarteng repeated that mantra as failing electricity suppliers would not be bailed out.

James Forsyth

Have any lessons been learnt from the Pen Farthing debacle?

Partygate is inevitably dominating in Westminster today – and will do so again tomorrow when the Gray report is likely to be published. But the attention on partygate should not obscure today’s Foreign Affairs select committee report on the handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. It is devastating, and should lead to a period of deep reflection in King Charles Street – and across Whitehall – of how badly things went wrong. The nature of the Afghan withdrawal shames our country: it was more scuttle than orderly evacuation. There are many shocking things in the report. But perhaps the most shocking is how the UK government failed to plan for the withdrawal – despite the fact it knew it was coming because US policy was not going to change.

Steerpike

SNP U-turn on power-sharing deals

Shock, horror! Another principled SNP stance has crumbled at first contact with the prospect of power. For much of the past three weeks the nationalists in Scotland have been screaming blue murder about opposition groups negotiating pacts on local authorities where the SNP are the largest party, to lock them out of office. Such deals between the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour should, perhaps, be unsurprising given that Nicola Sturgeon’s followers are still committed to the break-up of the UK. But that hasn’t stopped the First Minister’s lackeys from crying foul play every time a new deal has been announced. Take South Lanarkshire where the SNP won 27 of the council’s 64 seats but failed to win a majority, despite being the largest party.

Annabel Denham

There’s never been a better time to ditch the net zero agenda

The cost of living crisis is confronting Westminster elites with the stark reality of some of the dubious policy choices they’ve recently made. Last week, the government was forced to postpone its ban on buy one get one free deals on ‘junk food’. The foolishness of outlawing cheap food – a policy Boris Johnson adopted after his spell in intensive care – has been laid bare now that inflation has risen to a 40-year high. Soaring energy bills ought to give proponents of eco-austerity similar pause for thought. Dozens of retail energy companies have gone bust in recent months. We are shipping fracked gas from the US while banning the technology here.

Patrick O’Flynn

Boris has his enemies to thank for surviving partygate

The surest way to put people off an opinion they might otherwise agree with is to get somebody they actively despise to articulate it. Yet this is what the anti-Boris Johnson political class proposes to do repeatedly in the House of Commons on Sue Gray Day, perhaps as early as tomorrow. One does not have to be equipped with the clairvoyant powers of a Gypsy Rose Lee to envisage the moralistic huffing and puffing from Keir Starmer or the death stares and withering, shivering condemnation of Theresa May that will occur as they pound away at the lockdown partying antics of Boris Johnson and his team. Leaked photographs of Johnson proposing a toast at impromptu leaving drinks held for Lee Cain during lockdown certainly seem to depict enjoyment being had, verging on outright partying.

Steerpike

‘A disaster’: Six damning revelations from the Afghanistan inquiry

Away from the shenanigans of partygate pictures, a rather more sobering publication has today been released by the Foreign Affairs Committee. The dozen-strong panel of MPs has issued one of the most damning parliamentary reports in modern times, describing Britain's evacuation from Afghanistan as 'a disaster and a betrayal of our allies that will damage the UK’s interests for years to come.' The 66-page report said Afghan allies and British soldiers were 'utterly let down by deep failures of leadership' in the government during last August's evacuation of Afghan translators and others who worked alongside British troops for more than 20 years.

Stephen Daisley

Are the Australian election results a bad sign for the Tories?

Scott Morrison’s Liberals were absolutely thrashed in the Australian elections this weekend. The party’s vote collapsed, and there were big-name defeats, with the man touted as Morrison’s successor – Josh Frydenberg – ousted in Kooyong, a suburb which had been in the party’s hands for 121 years. Whatever went wrong for the Morrison government, Saturday’s results might have relevance closer to home, even if teasing out domestic lessons from elections on the other side of the world is problematic. Australia is a different country, with a different political culture and a different electoral system. Scott Morrison was also an unloveable figure — stolid, gaffe-prone and not outwardly empathetic.

Steerpike

Tory MPs play leadership hokey cokey

It's groundhog day in Westminster, where the leaked images of a No. 10 leaving party have prompted the re-emergence of some of the Prime Minister's most vocal yet indecisive critics. Cometh the hour, cometh the carpers as veteran Sir Roger Gale and Scottish satrap Douglas Ross returned to their familiar place in the headlines yesterday by attacking Boris Johnson once again. Mr S would have much more sympathy with both Gale and Ross if they both didn't seem to keep changing their minds on Johnson's future. Take Sir Roger – a veteran backbencher and longtime Boris-basher. He submitted a letter of no-confidence in the PM to 1922 chair Sir Graham Brady as far back as May 2020 over his handling of the Barnard Castle affair.

Monday

23 May 2022

Katy Balls

Partygate’s final chapter could be the most damaging yet

There was relief in Downing Street last week when the police concluded their investigation into Covid rule breaches across government. Despite being investigated for several alleged incidents, the Prime Minister only received one fine – for an event involving birthday cake in the middle of the day. Boris Johnson was not fined in relation to the more serious allegations of events in breach of Covid rules – which included late night drinking and partying in the No. 10 flat. Only that sense of optimism may prove short lived. It also serves as a reminder to MPs of the risks of backing Johnson when they don't know what else could come out. The impending publication of Sue Gray's report into the whole affair means that the whole episode is not over yet.

Steerpike

Partygate pictures are finally released

As Westminster waits for Sue Gray to release her report, ITV has got there first. The broadcaster released images this afternoon of one of the Downing Street parties during lockdown – specifically the 13 November 2020 leaving drinks for Lee Cain, Boris Johnson's former director of communications. Bottles of alcohol and party food are pictured on the table in front of the Prime Minister, with eight people pictured standing closely together, as well as the photographer. In several of the photographs, Boris Johnson appears to be making a speech and raising a toast, with half a glass of fizz in his hands. On a chair sits his red box, and on the table next to him are two bottles of champagne or cava, four bottles of wine and half a bottle of gin.

Steerpike

Revealed: Durham students’ woke culture commission

It looks like Steerpike's favourite students are it again. Six months after the furore about Rod Liddle's speech at South College, members of Durham University's student body have published a fabulously self-lacerating screed about their seat of learning. For on Friday, Durham’s Students’ Union (SU) released a 48-page 'Culture Commission' which seeks to 'articulate what "Durhamness" really means.' And it transpires that it, er, doesn’t mean much good, given the university’s ‘deep-rooted classism, racism and misogyny’ in the words of its authors.

Isabel Hardman

What do we know about the Sue Gray report?

13 min listen

It's finally happening! This is the week the infamous Sue Gray report into partygate will be released. Details are few and far between, although we do know that the Prime Minister will be mentioned by name in the document. Mutterings from Tory HQ are that this is not going to be a good week for the government but not the end of Boris Johnson. Only time will tell.Isabel Hardman talks with Katy Balls and James Forsyth.