Uk politics

Thursday

Steerpike

Michael Caine: Why I’m still a Brexiteer

From our UK edition

With the Brexit negotiations hitting an impasse, Theresa May is under pressure from Brussels to make yet more concessions. Meanwhile, the 'People's Vote' campaign is keen to tell anyone who will listen that public opinion has changed and Remain is now the mood of the country. Only as far as Mr S can tell the vast bulk of Brexiteers are still... Brexiteers. Speaking on the Today programme this morning, Michael Caine explained why he is still a Brexiteer in a conversation on optimism: MC: I'm a Brexiteer myself. JW: Still are? MC: Oh yeah, certainly. And people say 'oh you'll be poor', you'll be this, you'll be that'. Well, I’d rather be a poor master of my fate than having someone I don't know making me rich by running it. Some food for thought...

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Do ministers understand how financial abuse works?

From our UK edition

Another question to the Prime Minister today that's worth noting came from Labour MP Danielle Rowley on Universal Credit. She was asking not about the well-known problems with the roll-out of the benefit, but about a flaw with its very design: 'The Work and Pensions Committee heard evidence that the lack of automatic split payments for universal credit means that women are being trapped in abusive relationships. That absolutely disgusts me, but how does it make the Prime Minister feel?' Currently, Universal Credit is paid to the household as a whole. The problem with this is when one member of a couple is abusing the other, and controlling all their finances.

Steerpike

NYT doom-mongers strike again: ‘Stockpiling for a chaotic Brexit’

From our UK edition

Here we go again. It's no big secret that these days the New York Times isn't so fond of Blighty. The American paper frequently publishes gloomy articles about what's gone wrong in the UK – whether it's mistaking a newspaper sketch writer’s joke about the French for Brexit bias, factually incorrect articles about London's once 'mutton-filled' culinary scene or questionable claims about 'Austerity Britain'. But the latest issue of the NYT may just take the biscuit. The front page carries a story on the many Brits who have apparently started to 'stockpile for Brexit'. Apparently Brits are already getting rationing underway with one interviewee comparing the situation to WW2: https://twitter.

Steerpike

John McDonnell attempts to reinvent himself

From our UK edition

In recent months, there has been speculation that John McDonnell has leadership ambitions – and a rift has formed between the shadow chancellor and his one-time comrade Jeremy Corbyn. So, it won't have gone unnoticed by the Leader's Office that McDonnell today embarked on a charm offensive of the MSM – also know as the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Speaking at a Press Gallery lunch, the socialist politician told hacks that he had decided to address lunch after his local priest suggested he needed to 'soften' his image: 'He persuaded me to do this. He said you need to soften your image. So do Mumsnet and do this…. I’m trying to soften my image.' The republican shadow chancellor even joined in on a toast to the Queen at the start of the lunch.

Isabel Hardman

Focusing on Bercow won’t change the ‘toxic culture’ of bullying in the Commons

From our UK edition

Today's Prime Minister's Questions was a little shorter than usual. This was partly because, as James says, John Bercow spoke rather less. Normally, the Speaker likes to lecture MPs about how their behaviour will appear to the public, even sometimes using the word 'bullying'. Such lectures will have considerably less force now, given Bercow is one of those criticised by the Dame Laura Cox report for failing to tackle the 'toxic culture' of bullying and sexual harassment in the House of Commons. There has, though, been undue focus on Bercow as a result of the way some on both sides have been approaching this matter.

Lloyd Evans

John Bercow finally delivered a Speaker’s masterclass at PMQs

From our UK edition

A strange PMQs. Usually the session is dominated by honking throats and empurpled faces. Today there were interesting facts and useful opinions. Amazing! An expertly briefed Jeremy Corbyn put Theresa May on the spot by noting that she’d omitted to say ‘Chequers’ in her conference speech or during recent performances in parliament. So is it dead? No, she said. And the question forced her to mention her orphaned love-child by its baptismal name – ‘the Chequers plan’ – for the first time in weeks. Next, a financial shock. Corbyn asked her to confirm Philip Hammond's warning that quitting without a deal will still land us with a divorce bill of 36 billion smackers. May hedged, but didn’t deny it. Two strikes against her.

James Forsyth

Corbyn pinpoints May’s Brexit weak spot

From our UK edition

The most testing half an hour of Theresa May’s day won’t be PMQs. Instead it’ll come this evening when she addresses EU leaders on Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn did, though, go on Brexit. The Labour leader rightly identified the December joint report, which Theresa May agreed to, as her biggest area of weakness. Much of what May now says is unacceptable when it comes to Northern Ireland flows from that document. But, as is so often the case, his questioning wasn’t forensic enough. He didn’t pin the Prime Minister down or follow up on her answers. This was a fairly low-key session of PMQs. John Bercow spoke less than usual, perhaps a product of the controversy following the Cox report.

Katy Balls

Theresa May’s Mufasa becomes a problem for Downing Street

From our UK edition

Has Theresa May's Mufasa just transformed into No 10's most troublesome minister? Geoffrey Cox – the Attorney General – shot to the public consciousness this month thanks to his star turn as the warm up act for May at Conservative party conference. The seasoned QC gave a barn-storming speech (which drew Lion King comparisons) calling for his fellow Brexiteers to get behind May and prepare to compromise in their quest for a good deal for the UK. As regular Coffee House readers will be aware, this was the second time Cox had thrown May a lifeline. Prior to his appointment to the Cabinet, the Conservative MP demonstrated his loyalty to Theresa May at a difficult 1922 committee after Boris Johnson had resigned over Chequers by defending the Prime Minister’s plans.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Margaret Beckett puts her foot in it

From our UK edition

It's been a curious day in Parliament after Labour MPs en masse came to John Bercow's defence amid a damning report into bullying in Parliament. Despite the report concluding that the Speaker is among those who should consider their position, numerous Labour MPs have said that he should stay in place. It seems that treating employees well pales in comparison to having a chair sympathetic to your party's Brexit opposition. The majority of Labour MPs (see Steerpike's full roll call of shame) have been vague when it comes to their real intentions. However, in an interview with the BBC, Margaret Beckett has broken rank and offered an honest explanation as to why she and her colleagues want Bercow to stay in place: Brexit – which apparently 'trumps' bullying.

Brendan O’Neill

The problem with hate crime | 16 October 2018

From our UK edition

It always amazes me that people think it is normal and acceptable to have hate-crime legislation. To have laws which allow for the harsher punishment of people who entertain prejudiced thoughts while committing an offence. To have it written into the actual statute books that the man who punches a Buddhist because he hates Buddhism can be punished more severely than the man who punches a Buddhist because he hates that individual Buddhist for some reason. When are we going to twig that this represents the punishment of thought, of ideology, of belief (warped belief, but still)? I don’t like that Britain has become a country in which people, especially the political class, think it is okay for the state to punish individuals for what they think.

Isabel Hardman

Labour chooses party political interest over tackling Commons bullying

From our UK edition

Why has Labour decided to give John Bercow at least a stay of execution as Speaker? Emily Thornberry was asked about whether Bercow should go following Dame Laura Cox's damning report on bullying and harassment in the House of Commons, and argued that she shouldn't go. She told Sky News: 'I think this is absolutely not the time to be changing Speaker. We don't know for example with regard to Brexit as to what is going to happen, whether there's going to be technically an amendable motion or not, whether it'll be the Speaker's discretion as to whether it is. We do need to have all hands to the deck at the moment.' You have to give Thornberry some credit for being totally honest about Labour's motivation here.

Isabel Hardman

Delays to Universal Credit won’t fix its fundamental flaw

From our UK edition

It's rare that a government pauses the implementation of a flagship policy. There's so much ego involved in these matters that to do so is to admit a failing, rather than merely being sensible. But the government has had little choice but to further delay the roll-out of Universal Credit while it sorts out some of the problems with it. The plan had originally been that a further roll-out to four million people would start in January, with more claimants moving in July. But today the Work and Pensions department confirmed that the July deadline has moved to November as a result of fears across Parliament that those who are already receiving the benefit are severely struggling.

Steerpike

Revealed: the truth about the People’s Vote’s Leave voter

From our UK edition

Last week, Mr S pointed out that many (possibly all) of the celebrities who featured on a People’s Vote video pushing for a second Brexit referendum, had in fact not changed their minds’ about Brexit, but voted Remain all along. And it seems as though Mr Steerpike’s article has touched a nerve. In order to prove that they are not solely made up of malcontent Remainers, the People’s Vote released another video this morning, casting a light on those who had voted Leave in 2016 and have now switched sides.

Monday

Katy Balls

MPs from across the House turn on Theresa May

From our UK edition

In the Prime Minister's statement to the House, Theresa May did her best to insist that despite an impasse in the Brexit negotiations it was business as normal. However, for all May's claims that the differences between the UK and the EU were solvable, the hostile questions that followed from MPs showed just how hard it would be to get any deal through Parliament. Jeremy Corbyn's attempts to say that the government's 'Groundhog Day' Brexit plans would fail Labour's six Brexit tests were met with laughter and derision. The Leader of the Opposition's shouty performance gave the beleaguered Prime Minister little reason for worry. However, the questions from the backbenchers did.

Katy Balls

Crisis, what crisis? Theresa May keeps calm and carries on

From our UK edition

With the government on the brink of a full blown crisis, there was speculation that Theresa May would use today's Brexit statement to the House to turn her ire on Brussels. In the end it wasn't to be and the Prime Minister adopted a conciliatory tone – praising both sides – as she did her best to insist that it was business as normal. After Dominic Raab's fruitless trip to Brussels marked an impasse in the Brexit negotiations, the Prime Minister insisted that she did not believe the UK and the EU were actually so 'far apart' on the remaining issues.

Isabel Hardman

Can Parliament really end its toxic culture of bullying and harassment?

From our UK edition

How could the sort of bullying and sexual harassment detailed in Dame Laura Cox's report on the treatment of House of Commons staff really have gone on for so long? There were policies in place for dealing with complaints, and on paper everything looked as though it was working well to prevent the rise of the 'serial offenders' that Cox refers to. This was the very defence initially mounted by the parliamentary authorities themselves when the allegations first came to light in the press earlier this year, but Cox's report shows how structures and cultures can be very different indeed.

James Forsyth

Brexit is the only thing keeping John Bercow in the Speaker’s chair

From our UK edition

John Bercow’s job is being saved by Brexit. Not just because the Brexit drama means that Dame Laura Cox QC’s damning report into the bullying and harassment of parliamentary staff is receiving less attention than it otherwise would, but also because many MPs are prepared to forgive Bercow’s failings because they think he is the Speaker who’ll give them the biggest chance to influence things if the government and the EU fail to reach a deal. The majority of MPs are opposed to no-deal. I suspect that even if the EU refused to budge an inch from its current unreasonable position, there would still be a Commons majority against it. But with parliament having voted to invoke Article 50, no-deal is the default scenario.

Steerpike

Caption contest: Jeremy Hunt and the Brexit maze

From our UK edition

Will Theresa May's government find a way out of the Brexit maze? As the Prime Minister's backstop plans are deemed a dead end by her colleagues, it looks as though Downing Street are fast running out of options. But could inspiration be found in Jeremy Hunt? The Foreign Secretary took to social media to boast that he and his fellow European foreign ministers had managed to navigate Chevening maze in the rain – making the Brexit negotiations seem comparatively straightforward: https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt/status/1051512481435275265 Captions in the comments.

Sunday

Steerpike

The Chief Whip can’t take your call right now, please leave a message after the tone

From our UK edition

No one has their finger on the pulse in the House of Commons like the government’s chief whip. To make sure every bill gets through parliament unscathed, the whip has to understand exactly how every MP in the party plans to vote, what they're thinking about the government - and work out how they can get rebellious MPs to change their minds. But it looks like Theresa May’s chief whip Julian Smith has drawn up the drawbridge tonight. The man in charge of relations with backbenchers might just have had enough of talking with his own MPs. The government enforcer posted this picture (without caption) on social media at 9 p.m. tonight: https://twitter.com/JulianSmithUK/status/1051567081177698310 What possibly could the whip be receiving this many calls about on a Sunday night?

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Emily Thornberry defends Labour’s Brexit tests

From our UK edition

Iain Duncan Smith - The PM should put £2-3 billion of extra funding back into Universal Credit Sophy Ridge was joined this morning by the former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith. Duncan Smith resigned from the coalition government two years ago in protest at a lack of funding for his Universal Credit reforms. With Labour now calling for the policy to be scrapped, Duncan Smith outlined how he felt Universal Credit could be saved ahead of the 2018 budget: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1051395445958856704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw IDS: The government has a really really transformative policy on its hands... If you [underfund it] you lose the great benefit of it and then end up starving people of cash...