Will Starmer get a Covid fine?
19 min listen
Labour has admitted that deputy leader Angela Rayner, was also at an event where Keir Starmer was pictured drinking a beer. Could the pair be fined?
Politics
Read about the latest political news, views and analysis
Friday
Neil Parish investigated over Commons porn claims
Neil Parish has now been suspended from the Conservative whip after referring himself to Parliament’s complaints process following allegations he watched pornography in the Commons chamber. The Tiverton and Honiton MP spoke to the chief whip today and had the whip removed pending the outcome of the investigation. Two female Conservative MPs alleged earlier this week that they had seen a colleague watching porn in the chamber while sitting next to a female minister. The claims were naturally explosive and have dominated Westminster ever since. They have opened up the debate on misogyny and sexism in Parliament more widely. It has led to MPs making separate allegations against other figures in parliament.
Tory MP suspended over alleged porn-watching
War is raging and prices are spiking but there's only question on the people in Westminster's lips: who is the MP accused of watching porn in the House of Commons? The investigative sleuths of HM parliamentary press gallery – those fearless seekers after truth – have dedicated much of their energy these past two days trying to work out just which MP was spotted by two female colleagues looking at such images in the chamber and in a committee. Now though, the Telegraph has finally succeeded where many others have failed. Devon MP Neil Parish, 65, has this afternoon had the Tory whip withdrawn from him.
Pestminster’s return spells trouble for Boris
Some male MPs behave ‘like animals’. In the wake of the recent spate of bad behaviour among our lords and masters, Attorney General Suella Braverman's comments confirm what many of us already knew. So what is going on down at the Westminster farm? Whoever is to blame for the moral degradation in SW1, this string of stories should trouble Boris Johnson. After all, political scandal is often followed by political upheaval. Female MPs have claimed that a Tory MP has been openly watching porn on the green benches.
The hole at the heart of Boris Johnson’s premiership
No. 10 will be waiting nervously at 10pm on Thursday. Will the end of voting in the local elections bring forward more Tory MPs calling for Boris Johnson to go? At the moment, that seems unlikely: there is a sense among the plotters against the Prime Minister that Thursday is not the right time. So Johnson will move on to the Queen’s speech. But this will reveal another problem for the government. There will be lots of legislation but a lack of a defining theme. This has been a creeping issue for Johnson since his 2019 victory.
Sir Roger Gale’s Botswana bothers
Word reaches Mr S of a bizarre story emerging from Africa. Sir Roger Gale, king of the Tory discontents, is embroiled in an extraordinary war of words with the president of Botswana over allegations of corruption, hunting tourism and deliberate disinformation. Alongside bashing Boris and serving the good people of North Thanet, Sir Roger's interests include animal welfare, with the longtime backbencher being an ardent critic of big game trophy hunters. Gale attacked Botswana's president Mokgweetsi Masisi last Saturday in an online debate for committing ‘vandalism’ by allowing hunting tourism in his country.
Boris rewrites the rule book
Boris Johnson has never been a conventional politician. Whether it was spearheading Vote Leave or leveraging Have I Got News For You, he's always shown a willingness to embrace an unorthodox approach to public life – as evidenced, perhaps, by his colourful personal affairs. In office he's enraged the Sir Humphreys of Whitehall by bulldozing through various ministerial, political and constitutional conventions from the prorogation of Parliament and the Standards Committee saga to the Internal Markets Act and his claims in the House. So it's perhaps unsurprising then that the Johnson government is planning to rewrite the government rulebook.
Why is Rishi Sunak flirting with windfall taxes?
Rishi Sunak has had a few quiet weeks after an explosive one, in which the Chancellor had to deal with an avalanche of questions concerning his wife’s tax status and a partygate fine. But Sunak was back this week talking policy. And his most recent contribution is unexpected to say the least. In an interview with Mumsnet, the Chancellor indicated that he might start considering a windfall tax on oil and gas companies if they didn’t invest more profits back into their businesses to ‘support the economy’ and improve productivity. ‘If we don't see that type of investment coming forward, if companies aren't going to make investments in our energy security, of course that's something I'd look at,’ the Chancellor said.
Thursday
Sleepwalking into censorship: a reply to Nadine Dorries
In this week’s magazine I look at the threats posed by the so-called Online Safety Bill now making its way through the House of Commons. It gives sweeping censorship powers by creating a new category of speech that must be censored: 'legal but harmful'. The government will ask social media companies to do the censoring – and threaten them if they do not. The idea is for the UK to fine them up to 10 per cent of global revenue (ie: billions) if they publish 'harmful' content – but harmful is not really defined. So censorship potential is wide open. Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, has suggested that the jokes of the comedian Jimmy Carr would be "harmful".
Is Pestminster back?
17 min listen
This has been a bad week for the reputation of the House of Commons. From inappropriate comments toward female MPs, three cabinet ministers facing sexual misconduct claims and one MP accused of watching pornography in the chamber. Can anything be done to change this grotesque culture? And is it Westminster specific or an issue with society at large?Isabel Hardman talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.
Gupta raids rock devolved parliaments
Throughout the past three years, both Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have never been shy about taking a swing at Boris Johnson. Whether it be pandemic restrictions or Brexit negotiations, the SNP and Labour first ministers are among the first to stick the boot into their London counterpart in their haste to distance themselves from those dreadfully corrupt Tories. So Mr S was amused to see that for all their proclamations about the superiority of the squeaky-clean systems at Holyrood and Cardiff Bay, both administrations have now been dragged into the unfolding scandal around Liberty Steel.
Miss Brexit? Another bust-up is looming
In the past few months, relations between the UK and the EU have been the best they have been since Brexit. Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine reminded the two sides of the need for the world’s democracies to co-operate. It is tempting to hope that relations could continue to improve, especially now that the French presidential election is out of the way. But, as I say in the magazine this week, this is unlikely to happen. The Northern Ireland protocol is about to return to the agenda. The EU thinks that the UK must be made to abide by what was signed, and that allowing London to wriggle out of the letter of its commitments would set a terrible precedent. The British view is that the protocol is causing a crisis for Northern Ireland’s devolved institutions.
Can Elon Musk take on the tech censors?
25 min listen
In this week’s episode: Is Elon Musk heading for a clash with the British Government over free speech?Elon Musk is buying Twitter. But might the Tesla CEO be in for a battle he wasn’t expecting with the UK government? Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson writes about this potential clash in this week’s issue and he joins the podcast to expand on his thesis. (00:49)Also this week: Where is it ever ok to stare at someone? If you’ve been on the tube recently you might have spotted a rather startling sign. This poster warns passengers about intrusive staring on public transport, so as to protect women from feeling intimidated on their commute. But who, we ask, will speak up for those who love staring at people on public transport?
This is how to save the Union
Devolution has failed in Scotland. Nothing that follows will be of use to you if you remain in denial of this fact. Facing up to a quarter-century of needless, self-inflicted constitutional harm is the admission price to any credible conversation about how to go about fixing the problem. Devolution, sold with the assurance that ‘the Union will be strengthened and the threat of separatism removed’, has weakened the Union and armed the separatists. All historic errors have their guilty men and devolution has an unholy trinity. Labour loves legends, especially those felled on the cusp of greatness, and Donald Dewar — MP at 28, architect of devolution, inaugural First Minister, dead at 63 — ticks all the boxes.
The SNP’s own goal hat-trick
It's just one week to go until the local elections and up in Scotland, the SNP have sportingly decided to dedicate a day to highlighting the kind of successful administration which voters can expect if their party candidates are voted into office. For no less than three separate incidents happened in the last 24 hours which perfectly demonstrate the nats' commitment to thrifty, frugal and competent government. First up was belated confirmation from Sturgeon's deputy John Swinney that his colleagues blew more than £7 million of taxpayers' money on a flawed Covid vaccine passport app.
Liz Truss’s foreign policy pivot
How long will the war in Ukraine go on? Speaking last night at Mansion House, Liz Truss suggested that western allies would be in it for the long haul when it comes to supporting Ukraine – suggesting the only acceptable outcome is for Russian forces must be pushed out of ‘the whole of Ukraine’. The Foreign Secretary said western allies needed to ‘double down’ in their support for Ukraine – saying Putin's invasion ‘must fail and be seen to fail’. Her comments were echoed by the Defence Secretary this morning. Speaking on the morning media round, Ben Wallace agreed that Russia must be pushed out of the whole of Ukraine.
The quiet dignity of Angela Rayner
In those gentle days before internet pornography there was a book you could buy which listed the precise moment in each Hollywood film when the sex scene began, or when the leading lady – very often Greta Scacchi – got her kit off, thus enabling one to buy the video, or rent it from Blockbuster, and fast-forward to the, uh, important bit. Apparently the most requested fast-forward was of Sharon Stone in Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct: a film as dumb as pretty much everything else the Dutchman has committed to celluloid, even if his reputation has lately been rehabilitated (for reasons I do not understand).
EU: normal disservice resumes
In the past few months, relations between the UK and the EU have been the best they have been since Brexit. Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine reminded the two sides of the need for the world’s democracies to co-operate. Disputes over fishing rights could wait. It is tempting to hope that relations could continue to improve, especially now that the French presidential election is out of the way. But this is unlikely to happen. This week Bruno Le Maire, France’s economy minister, dismissed the suggestion that fixing relations with Britain will be a priority for Emmanuel Macron’s second term.
Ben Wallace attacks Westminster drinking
Emerging blearily from his hangover this morning, Steerpike was greeted with the dulcet tones of a Cabinet minister, gravely intoning on Times Radio about the perils of Westminster drinking. Recent revelations about MPs' behaviour, they suggested, raise more fundamental questions about the culture at the very heart of our democracy and the temptations available to our honourable members. Who was this model of moderation, you ask, this totem of temperance? Why, none other than Ben Wallace, the Forces' Flashheart, sent out to deliver a sermon to self-restraint on behalf of, er, Boris Johnson's government.
The Nadine Dorries Edition
46 min listen
Nadine Dorries is the Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sports and MP for Mid Bedfordshire. After leaving school at 16, Dorries went on to become a nurse and an entrepreneur before entering politics at the age of 49. She was a minister in the Department of Health during the pandemic, and in her current role is leading five bills at DCMS through Parliament, including the controversial Online Safety Bill. On the podcast, she talks to Katy Balls about her plans for the BBC and Channel 4, why she believes much of the criticism against her comes from those unable to accept her background, and where her red line would be in sticking up for Boris Johnson, as one of his most loyal allies.