All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
I am sure that Tooba Gondal, the latest Isis bride to beg for a return to Britain, would, as she says, rather face justice in a British court than in the detention camp where she is being held in a Kurdish-controlled part of Syria. Maybe she really is the “changed person” she claims to be
All of the following things are true. Naga Munchetty, co-host of BBC Breakfast, is a very good TV journalist, one of the BBC’s best assets in fact. That tweet Donald Trump sent in July telling the non-white, female members of the Democratic ‘Squad’ to ‘go back’ to the countries they came from was racist. The
On Coffee House last week, I wrote that the judgment of the Supreme Court shows that the Benn Act is unconstitutional. It is more than that: it constitutes a revolution in the way in which Britain is governed. Oliver Letwin, who helped draft the Act, made this abundantly clear when speaking in the House of
The former Tory MP Dominic Grieve may have voted against the parliamentary recess for Conservative party conference, but that certainly hasn’t kept him away from the action this week. The now independent MP showed up in Manchester yesterday, and this afternoon attended a ‘Conservatives for a People’s Vote’ event at the aptly named (for a man with
Sajid Javid has just announced that the national minimum wage will rise to £10.50 by 2024. This is another big hike. It is currently £8.21 and was just £5.93 as recently as 2010. It will end up going to everyone over 21, not 25 as currently. The politics of this announcement are clear. The Tories
Sajid Javid hates identity politics and has spent most of his political career avoiding it. But his speech today showed how effective he can be when he discusses his own life story. Having his mum in the hall was quite something: this is a woman who grew up in poverty in the Punjab and came
There is only one speech that matters this week, here in Manchester at Tory party conference. It will be Boris Johnson’s on Wednesday and it will be significant – potentially historic – for what he has to say about how and whether he hopes to break the impasse with Brussels on negotiating an alternative to the Northern
It is one of the most diabolical plots of all time, a conspiracy so vast, so deep, and so wicked it could have come from the pen of Dan Brown. A small cabel of powerful hedge funds have installed Boris Johnson at Number 10, paying for his campaign and his advisers. Once there, his task
The Tories have tried to jazz up their conference hall this year, after accusations that the whole thing was becoming a bit robotic and boring. It’s fair to say that this has had mixed results. One of the exciting developments is the use of panel discussions between ministers, which is supposed to encourage greater audience
Mark Francois, Arlene Foster and John Redwood have just taken part in a panel discussion on Brexit at Manchester’s Comedy Club (where else?). Francois quoted Robert Frost’s poetry as he made his plea to the audience that he wanted ‘to live in a free country’ outside the EU. It won’t come as much of a
Brexit is seen by some as the Conservative curse. The theory goes that David Cameron called the referendum to resolve the EU problem once and for all, only for this to blow up in his – and his party’s – face. Where this was once a Tory issue, now it is everyone’s problem. But might
I can’t say I like it much, but the slogan for the Conservative Party conference in Manchester is a work of political genius: ‘Get Brexit done: invest in our NHS, schools and police’. In ten words, it offers a simplicity and clarity of intent that none of those who stand opposed to Boris Johnson have
The Tory MPs who’ve bothered to turn up to conference this week are torn between two places. They’re on a three-line whip in case anything kicks off in Westminster, where parliament will continue sitting this afternoon. Solicitor General Michael Ellis joked this morning that he was on ‘red standby’ to return to the House of
Ben Bradley is full of optimism about the Tory party’s future. ‘This could be the best thing since Mrs T’, he said at a Blue Collar Conservatism fringe event last night. Bradley said the government’s plans to splash the cash on police officers and hospitals would go down particularly well with voters. But he was
One of Boris Johnson’s first acts as Prime Minister was to announce a review of HS2. With a panel of critics and supporters, the review has so far conducted its work quietly, with little sign of what its final assessment will be. But at a Conservative party fringe event last night, Chief Secretary to the
Dying is easy, comedy is hard. It seems it’s even harder when you’re a Tory politician. Mr Steerpike has barely had time to pick himself up from the floor after this afternoon’s humorous offerings from the Conservative party conference stage, with dreadful jokes infiltrating both the speeches and the awkward panel discussions between ministers. Here
It’s Sajid Javid’s time to shine on the second day of Conservative party conference. Today will be Javid’s first major speech as Chancellor, after his first outing was pulled by Number 10 in August. Here are the highlights on the main stage and on the fringes: Main agenda: 10.00: Boosting our Public Services Rishi Sunak MP, Matt
Is plastic the enemy? To watch Blue Planet and listen to Greta Thunberg, you might think so. But there are some things that plastic simply does better than the alternatives, which are not necessarily more eco-friendly in any case. So should we be looking for a better way to use the material, rather than to
I see library footage on a news channel of Boris Johnson slinging insults at Jeremy Corbyn over the despatch box and feel a strange sudden sense of déjà vu. I know I have witnessed this performance before. The penny drops. It is winter, 2002. I and my fellow firefighters, on strike over low pay, are
The judiciary has come in for a hard time following the Supreme Court’s decision that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament was unlawful. But Lady Hale and her ten fellow justices found a staunch defender at Tory party conference this evening in the form of Robert Buckland. The Lord Chancellor hit out at critics who said
After a successful turn on the main stage at Conservative party conference today, Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg made his way to a drinks reception this evening to continue the festivities and to give another speech. There, the Cabinet minister began by listing the three areas where he felt the UK had been held back the
What does a Tory rebel do after they have had the Conservative whip withdrawn and then voted against the Tories having a conference recess? Go to Conservative party conference of course. Dominic Grieve has caused a stir this evening at the party’s annual meet in Manchester. The former Conservative MP – who has said he
At a Policy Exchange fringe meeting at Tory conference, Arlene Foster has just ruled out any regulatory checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain that extend beyond agriculture, eliminating one of the possible Brexit compromises. She did say that she’d be prepared to consider a time limit on the backstop. But she thought that Leo
Boris Johnson came in for criticism last week for his language in Parliament, but are his critics any better? Mr S headed down to a protest in Manchester timed for the start of Tory party conference to find out. It was mostly good natured, with clowns banging drums, a Boris blimp and a decent turn
Jacob Rees-Mogg has just given a pretty accurate summary of the state of British politics. The leader of the House of Commons pulled no punches as he addressed the Tory faithful at party conference. Mogg said Corbyn is a ‘weak man’, likened shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer to Brutus and said the Lib Dems were
It is a great honour to be speaking at this conference. I, like many of you have belonged to this party since I was a mere youth – and I was once a youth. I have sat in these seats since the days conferences were held at the seaside and I am glad that the
Dame Margaret Beckett – the former Labour deputy leader and ex-foreign secretary – is emerging as the most likely compromise candidate to be caretaker prime minister, according to sources involved in opposition talks about ousting Boris Johnson. As I mentioned last week, the Scottish National Party would be prepared to accept Jeremy Corbyn as temporary
Boris Johnson – Death threats against MPs are not ‘humbug’ With the Conservatives gathering in Manchester for their party conference, the Prime Minister was Andrew Marr’s big guest of the day. After an eventful few weeks, Marr was not short of topics to discuss. He began with the furore created during the recall of Parliament,
In a feisty interview on The Andrew Marr Show, Boris Johnson defended his use of the term ‘surrender act’, calling it a ‘martial metaphor’ of the type that has long been used in British politics. He said that he had been a ‘model of restraint’ in his own language. He did, however, express regret for
We may still be small, but we have better speakers at our conferences than the major parties. At the Social Democratic party AGM on Saturday in Leeds we heard from, among others, Brendan O’Neill, Ben Cobley, Mo Lovatt, our leader William Clouston and the excellent Patrick O’Flynn. And me obvs, with the usual tirade of
The Conservative party may have improved its use of social media in recent years, ditching the staid pictures of Cabinet ministers at party conference for cheerful images of young activists and campaigners, but it appears that it still might be struggling when it comes to marketing its events. This week, in an Instagram post counting
As the Tories gather in Manchester for their annual conference, Boris Johnson hopes to use the event to push post-Brexit opportunities – saying that if the government can get Brexit done, a bright future awaits. Among those opportunities are the new relationships the UK can forge with countries outside of the EU. On the latest
When the Tories last came to Manchester for their party conference, delegates were greeted by a ‘Hang the Tories’ protest banner. Mr S is sad to report that the welcome this time from some is not any friendlier. ‘130,000 killed under Tory rule. Time to level the playing field’, declares a banner in Salford above