All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
It’s safe to say Nicola Sturgeon had something of a rough ride in her interview with Andrew Neil last night. The SNP leader was taken to task over her party’s record in Scotland. And in a blistering 43 seconds, Sturgeon was challenged over whether the NHS is safe in the SNP’s hands: https://twitter.com/jackgIendinning/status/1199056353161043969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw ‘You haven’t
If all it took to become president of the United States was massive spending on television and digital advertisements, Mike Bloomberg would win the 2020 presidential election in a landslide. As the eighth wealthiest person on the planet with a net worth of over £41bn ($53bn), Bloomberg has a practically unlimited war chest at his disposal.
As a former civil servant, I long ago set aside the freedom to express personal political views, but I am as keenly interested in the possible outcomes as the rest of you. We can all read the polls, and follow the work of the many experts and as we sit here today the version of
It was one of the defining moments of the 2014 Scottish referendum campaign. In that early August TV debate, Alistair Darling said any 8 year old could tell you what a country’s flag, capital and currency were but that Alex Salmond couldn’t say what currency an independent Scotland would use. Salmond’s floundering that night badly
In their attempt to avoid a repeat of 2017, the Tories have cleared another hurdle. A day on from the launch of their manifesto, there are no policies that are alienating core voters (the dementia tax) or target voters (means testing the winter fuel allowances). Instead, the biggest row is over whether using a net
Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn had a tough message for rogue, profiteering property owners this morning. In an announcement calling for a ‘charter of renters’ rights’ – designed to protect tenants from landlords who rack up charges on properties in a state of disrepair – the Labour leader promised to ‘be on the side of tenants and take
Boris Johnson is today launching the Welsh Conservatives’ manifesto. For the Tories, this event comes with a trigger warning: it was where Theresa May defended her party’s social care U-turn in 2017 after its disastrous manifesto launch. The clip of her insisting that ‘nothing has changed’ became one of the defining moments of the election
A couple of years ago, I was briefly involved with Pitch@Palace – Prince Andrew’s initiative to link up fledgeling businesses with investors. On Friday, the Duke of York quit the project following a wave of criticism surrounding his connection to Jeffrey Epstein. But from what I saw of the scheme, the Prince has more questions
Transport for London doesn’t like Uber. It doesn’t like the innovations the app has created in transport; it doesn’t like how competitive platforms like Uber have become with black cabs; and it doesn’t like that customers have completely embraced the service. That’s why they’ve effectively banned the app – again. This morning TfL ruled that
It is unregulated, arrogant, unsafe and has destroyed the livelihood of the traditional black cabs. Ever since it was launched, the ride-sharing app Uber has been as controversial as it has been popular. Now it faces a ban in London that could see the ubiquitous Toyota Priuses favoured by its drivers disappear from the capital’s
Who likes Mike? The billionaire Michael Bloomberg has ended years of speculation by announcing that he is running to be president in 2020. You can see his twinkling piano new campaign ad here. The video pitches him as the reluctant hero who always steps up when America needs him. Keep those inspiring chord changes coming:
Boris Johnson just took a very big political risk, by not making any serious attempt to compete with Labour on bunging cash at public services and the fabric of the UK. Where Corbyn is pledging £83 billion a year of increased spending on students, the elderly, health, schools, public-sector pay and so on by 2023,
This election campaign has long since descended into a contest to see who can spray around the largest sums of cash. So it should come as no great surprise that the Conservatives promised an eye-catching initiative to outdo Labour on nurse numbers. Jeremy Corbyn wants to provide an extra 20,000 new nurses but Boris has
Boris Johnson has unveiled the Conservative manifesto in Telford this afternoon. The 59-page document – titled ‘Get Brexit Done: Unleash Britain’s Potential’ – is a far cry from the 2017 Conservative manifesto. That document still haunts Tory MPs to this day and is widely blamed for the Conservatives losing their majority in 2017. Today’s offering
Boris Johnson has launched his party’s manifesto in Telford this afternoon, joined by his Cabinet who were all confidently clapping away in the front row. All of them, that is, except for one Jacob Rees-Mogg. Eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted the conspicuous absence of the Leader of the Commons. Mr Rees-Mogg has been keeping a
John McDonnell – Businesses are not scared of Labour Sophy Ridge began the day with an interview with the Shadow Chancellor. Ridge asked McDonnell about last week’s comments from the CBI’s director general Carolyn Fairbairn that Labour’s plans for businesses would ‘crack the foundations’ of the economy. McDonnell did not refer to concerns about nationalisation,
Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner took to the Andrew Marr Show this morning to discuss her party’s Brexit position. The veteran BBC interviewer questioned Ms Rayner on whether her party would campaign for their newly renegotiated Brexit deal if a future Labour government was to put it to the people. The Labour frontbencher decided
So what is going to happen? There appear to be grounds for quiet confidence about the result. Almost all the polls are showing the same outcome: a twelve-point Tory lead. The data suggests that most voters have made up their minds about Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson and that is not good news for Corbyn.
The Liberal Democrat leader had an awful time on Friday night’s Question Time special. The audience was, at best, uninterested in her pitch. A notable moment was when a Remain voter criticised the Lib Dems for their policy of revoking Article 50, calling it ‘undemocratic’. You can watch the clip below:
Who won Friday night’s Leaders’ Question Time? On the latest Coffee House Shots podcast, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and the New Statesman‘s Stephen Bush tell me it’s Boris Johnson who will be the happiest – despite criticism, he got his key messages across. However, the format – which saw hostile audience member questions for Jeremy Corbyn,
What happened last time means that the Tories are extremely nervous about their manifesto launch tomorrow. As I say in The Sun this morning, the Tories have had teams poring over it to see what might blow up in it. One of the many problems with the 2017 document was that it failed to understand
One thing I miss about taking part in a general election is the travel. Really. I loved it. In 2015, I criss-crossed the country every day for a month in a helicopter, getting an amazing view of our islands as we descended on the marginals. That included a visit to Chorley in Lancashire, to buy
The morning of 13 December. A series of salacious revelations about his private life have sunk Boris Johnson’s campaign. A re-energised Nigel Farage has led a Brexit party surge in the north, splitting the Leave vote. The ousting of Jo Swinson in a coup organised by refugees from the People’s Vote campaign led to Remainers
George Eliot deserves some praise 200 years after her birth. But the sort of praise she is getting is predictably blinkered by the literary assumptions of our day. She is celebrated as the great fore-runner of the secular feminist literary culture of today, as if she was Margaret Atwood in lace, or Zadie Smith in
I was pleasantly surprised when I read Labour’s manifesto. Not only did the party promise to end ‘mixed-sex wards’ in hospitals but they also vowed to “ensure that the single-sex-based exemptions contained in the Equality Act 2010 are understood and fully enforced in service provision.” Soon after the manifesto was published yesterday, a number of
Nigel Farage has never been particularly sold on manifestos or the hard slog of policy formulation in general. His aversion dates back at least to the Ukip manifesto of 2010 which was accompanied by detailed policy documents that ran to the length of an old telephone directory and proved a rich source of material for the
Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, Jo Swinson and Nicola Sturgeon have all faced a grilling from a studio audience in tonight’s live Question Time leaders’ special. Here are all the highlights as they unfolded:
This week, as the Tories continue to lead in the polls, Lara Prendergast speaks to Alastair Campbell about what Remainers can do to turn things around. James Forsyth writes in this issue’s cover article that the Remain side’s inability to unite may well cost them this election and, if Boris Johnson wins, put the last
To excited cheers, Angela Rayner last week promised Labour supporters that a Jeremy Corbyn-led government ‘would knock the socks off’ the one led by Clement Attlee. Given Attlee oversaw the creation of the NHS and the nationalisation of 20 per cent of the economy while establishing a universalist welfare state, not to mention building nearly
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party manifesto has made the front of all the papers today. The response is mixed. While the Daily Mail labels it a ‘Marxist manifesto’ and the Telegraph an ‘£83bn tax blitz on the middles classes’, the Mirror hails it as proof for readers that Corbyn is ‘on your side’. However, the issue
Tooba Gondal, the so-called Isis “matchmaker” who acted as a megaphone and recruiter for the terror group, is reportedly on her way to France, as part of an initiative by Turkey to deport foreign jihadists in its jails. Gondal, who holds a French passport but spent most of her life in Britain, travelled to Syria
If there was one person who could directly tie president Donald Trump to the alleged quid pro-quo with the Ukrainians, it was Gordon Sondland. The multimillionaire hotel executive-turned-ambassador had a regular channel of communication with Trump and was a central driver of Washington’s Ukraine policy. As Rep. Mark Meadows, one of Trump’s most committed defenders, said,
The former SNP leader Alex Salmond appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh this morning charged with various sexual offences against ten women. He entered not guilty pleas to each of the fourteen counts. Details of the allegations are outlined below: June and July 2008: Indecent assault on various occasions on woman A in Glasgow
I am not sure if it is class war exactly but something very like it is back. Perhaps it is a hybrid of a class, eco and generational war. In that Labour is planning to sting those earning £80,000 a year or more with an additional tax burden just short of £20bn from higher taxes