Uk politics

Thursday

Alex Massie

Brexit has become England’s white whale

From our UK edition

Brexit must happen. Of course it must, for the people have decreed it should and, in this instance, their command cannot, as it can be in other circumstances, be countermanded. That leaves ample room for argument over the precise shape of Brexit – for it turns out there are many kinds of Brexit – but the essence of the matter is clear: Brexit must mean Brexit. It is possible to be sanguine about this and to recognise that even as the net impact of Brexit is likely to be negative in an economic sense, some sectors of the economy may benefit from it. In many areas, there is undoubtedly an opportunity to do some things differently and, who knows and with some luck, perhaps even do them better. The sky may darken; it should not fall.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Policy Exchange summer party: Theresa May takes a swipe at Michael Gove

From our UK edition

It's summer party season in Westminster. Tonight it was the turn of Policy Exchange with the think tank securing a speech from Theresa May. In a buoyant mood after narrowly dodging a Tory rebellion on the EU withdrawal bill, the Prime Minister spoke about the need to respect the EU referendum result. However, May's speech was notable for two other reasons. Firstly in an apparent case of déjà vu the set began to dissolve around her – thanks to a gust of wind. Secondly, the Prime Minister used the opportunity to have a go at Michael Gove.

Isabel Hardman

Rebels climb down on ‘crunch’ Brexit vote – again

From our UK edition

One of the laws of Brexit is that every Commons division and Cabinet meeting billed as being a 'crunch vote' or 'crunch talks' ends up postponing the crunching again, and again and again. This afternoon, Dominic Grieve announced that he would 'accept the government's difficulty' on the matter of a meaningful vote and 'support it'. He was speaking in the Commons shortly before a division was supposed to be called on this matter, and not long after the government had offered a compromise. That compromise involved David Davis issuing a Written Ministerial Statement which clarifies that the Speaker can decide whether or not a motion issued by the government using the EU Withdrawal Bill is amendable. Last week, the government had said that it would not be, but now it will.

Steerpike

Phillip Lee’s bad press

From our UK edition

The Remain rebels have this afternoon backed down and found a compromise to the government's meaningful vote amendment that they can live with. So, was it all worth it? That's a question Phillip Lee may well be asking himself – following his decision to resign his junior ministerial post last week so he could speak freely on his issues with the government's Brexit strategy. Alas, it seems not everyone in Lee's Leave-voting Bracknell constituency about his escapades. Today's issue of the Bracknell News sees the MP for Bracknell on the front page along with the headline 'MP faces fresh calls to resign': 'Furious residents are calling for the resignation of Dr Phillip Lee from his seat as a member of parliament.

Steerpike

Labour councillor who said ‘no proof’ Isis exists to help protect children from radicalisation

From our UK edition

Remember Safia Akhtar? Back in May, Mr Steerpike reported how the Birmingham Labour candidate had ‘waltz[ed] to victory’ in the local elections and been elected as a Labour councillor. Given that the Labour representative once said there was 'no proof' that Isis existed, not everyone was thrilled by her appointment. After Khalid Masood murdered five people including PC Keith Palmer in the March 2017 Westminster terrorist attack, Akhtar posted to her Facebook: ‘Can people relax and stop fighting on Facebook, sadly people died in Westminster today but people die everyday in Syria Palestine Africa Rohingya Kashmir.. Need I carry on?!! Grow up and stop pointing fingers!

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn lets Theresa May off the hook at PMQs

From our UK edition

PMQs today was a missed opportunity for Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn chose to go on the NHS, rather than Donald Trump’s border policy. But this needn’t have been a mistake. Corbyn, after a rather long preamble, started off by asking what taxes would rise to pay for this increased spending. Theresa May replied that Philip Hammond would set all this out in due course. At this point, Corbyn should have asked May to rule out specific tax increases, for example an increase in National Insurance, or to embrace certain measures, such as removing the earnings cap on National Insurance contributions. This would have put May on the spot more. Instead, he kept his questions general, allowing May to block away with relative ease.

Steerpike

Watch: Minister taken to task over ‘Brexit dividend’

From our UK edition

Theresa May has said a Brexit dividend will help fund the NHS cash boost, but does it actually exist? It was left to health minister Jackie Doyle-Price to convince viewers on the Daily Politics that it does. But Mr S wasn't entirely convinced by her explanation: Andrew Neil: It surely stands to reason that there is no Brexit dividend to finance these rises. Jackie Doyle-Price: Well, the secretary of state made clear in his statement that this would come in a reduction of subscriptions (to the EU) but also, we will have to look at taxes as well. AN: But there is no reduction of subscriptions in 19/20 or 20/21, they continue during the transition period. So in these two years at least and probably for a third year, there is no Brexit dividend, correct?

Steerpike

David Davis makes an entrance

From our UK edition

To the Westbourne summer party where James Bethell and Iain Anderson were celebrating the new merger between their respective companies Westbourne and Cicero. Only the speech didn't go quite to plan. To much laughter, Bethell told partygoers that the Cabinet big beasts hadn't been able to make the bash – but had sent their apologies. Boris Johnson had wanted to have his cake and eat it, Theresa May to try and bake a cake and David Davis was too busy delivering said cake... Only as the public affairs honcho was reading out the Brexit Secretary's 'excuse', Davis walked in to the party and grabbed the mic: 'Let me read it out for you... sorry not to be here I am an SAS man who is busy delivering cake' Davis was certainly in a cheery mood at the bash.

Gavin Mortimer

Macron is restoring France’s dignity

From our UK edition

Has there ever been a time when the leaders of France and Great Britain are so diametrically opposed in character and style? One is weak and indecisive, a Prime Minister who avoids confrontation, the other is forthright and forceful, a president who relishes a fight. Emmanuel Macron seems to take a perverse delight in upsetting his compatriots; one can detect in his behaviour a healthy contempt for a section of French society. These are the slackers to whom he referred in a speech last year, the coasters, the self-entitled, the people he believes have grown up believing the state will look after them, whatever.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May’s ministers make the decisions while the Prime Minister prevaricates

From our UK edition

Who is taking all the big, difficult decisions in government at the moment? Not Theresa May, who seems to be caught up in a particularly bad bout of prevarication. Sajid Javid's announcement today that there will be a review into the use of medicinal cannabis came just 24 hours after his boss said there was a 'very good reason' for the current rules being in place. Yesterday May had also tried to block Javid from raising the matter at Cabinet, arguing that it hadn't been on the agenda. It's just one example of Cabinet ministers mounting very public campaigns for a policy change which they then get all the credit for.

Steerpike

Ruth Davidson’s potshot at Theresa May

From our UK edition

Theresa May has managed to surprise absolutely no-one this afternoon with her spokesman's confirmation that the Prime Minister has never smoked cannabis. Cue widespread jokes that May was too busy running through fields of wheat – the activity that May herself describes as the naughtiest thing she has ever done. Now not even May's colleagues can resist taking a pop at the boss's idea of fun. Ruth Davidson has intervened on Twitter after a user asked how many fields of wheat she had run through: That will go down well in No 10...

Katy Balls

What happens if the government loses today’s vote?

From our UK edition

It's that time of the week again: crunch time for Theresa May. Tomorrow MPs will vote again on Dominic Grieve's meaningful vote amendment along with the government's 'compromise' meaningful vote amendment. The problem with that compromise is it's already been rejected by several Remain Tory rebels – who say the Prime Minister personally misled them last week on the issue. The problem with their preferred amendment is that it has been rejected by the government on the grounds that it would tie their hands in the negotiations. Only one side can come out of this the winner. Government figures are sounding increasingly confident that they have the numbers to defeat Grieve's amendment.

Alex Massie

Brexit has become England’s white whale | 19 June 2018

From our UK edition

Brexit must happen. Of course it must, for the people have decreed it should and, in this instance, their command cannot, as it can be in other circumstances, be countermanded. That leaves ample room for argument over the precise shape of Brexit – for it turns out there are many kinds of Brexit – but the essence of the matter is clear: Brexit must mean Brexit. It is possible to be sanguine about this and to recognise that even as the net impact of Brexit is likely to be negative in an economic sense, some sectors of the economy may benefit from it. In many areas, there is undoubtedly an opportunity to do some things differently and, who knows and with some luck, perhaps even do them better. The sky may darken; it should not fall.

Why are NHS funding critics silent on Quantitative Easing?

From our UK edition

After the prime minister’s announcement that the NHS would be given a large boost in funding only partly paid for by taxes, some backbenchers called for fiscal responsibility. For them it is paramount that a government should live within its means and avoid increasing the budget deficit. And yet they have nothing to say about monetary policy. Quantitative Easing (QE), the creation of money out of thin air by the Bank of England, with the intention of boosting demand has been carried out in a manner highly beneficial to owners of existing assets. The Bank’s website explains how it works.

Steerpike

World Cup 2018: Tory MPs pay the penalty

From our UK edition

A promising early start that got everybody's hopes up before getting bogged down and allowing a mediocre opposition to equalise. To many Tory MPs watching the football last night, it was all too familiar. George Freeman took to Instagram to share his own sense of déjà vu: 'It's a shocker. Lacking coherence. Command of the game. Any sense of direction. Another night in Parliament watching the national team. A v quiet tearoom dreaming of a super sub. "We need some inspiration from somewhere".' The big question, can Theresa May take inspiration from Harry Kane's final moments on the pitch. Has the Prime Minister got an injury time win in her?

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Commons defeat looms as peers back ‘meaningful vote’ amendment

From our UK edition

This time a week ago, Theresa May and her whips were trying to avert a looming Commons defeat on Brexit. As if the lengthy farce of the government trying to negotiate its way out of the European Union wasn't surreal enough, the Prime Minister now seems trapped in one of those repetitive Hades-style punishments in which she is forced to go through the same miserable exercise over and over again. Except this time, after peers sent back the issue of a meaningful vote to the Commons again, it's going to be even harder. The Upper Chamber backed Viscount Hailsham's amendment which roughly reflects what Dominic Grieve had been calling for by a significant majority of 119.

Stephen Daisley

The myth of the SNP’s Brexit ‘power grab’

From our UK edition

Forgive me if I seem out of sorts but my country has been through a lot this past week. We have been subjected to 'provocation' and our imperial masters in Westminster intend to 'exert a kind of colonial authority' over us. Our parliament has been 'slighted' and we are bearing the 'impact of such condescension on the psyche'. The UK Government has sought to 'lessen the ability of the people of Scotland to govern their own affairs' and in doing so its 'contempt for Scotland was laid bare'.  The amen corner of the Scottish commentariat is once again standing up and bravely telling it like Nicola Sturgeon says it is. The SNP leader has decreed Scotland the victim of a 'power grab' and Westminster the destroyer of the devolution settlement.

Nick Cohen

Brexit exposes the limits of Jeremy Corbyn’s radicalism

From our UK edition

The left middle class is filled with anger as it sees the right, and, in its terms, the far right, triumph. Every time I write about Brexit I feel its fury pulsating around me. Brexit threatens the left’s core beliefs in international cooperation and anti-racism, while making its dream of ending austerity by reviving the economy unattainable. It must be resisted. Yet in a classic struggle against nationalist conservatism, Jeremy Corbyn, supposedly the most left-wing Labour leader ever, is at best an irrelevance and at worst an enemy when it comes to Brexit. His supporters sound like supporters of Tony Blair in the 1990s as they say Labour members must hold their noses and accept a policy they regard as immoral and economically disastrous out of electoral necessity.

Steerpike

Love Island’s government adviser

From our UK edition

When the contestants of ITV2's Love Island discussed Brexit earlier this month, it led to widespread ridicule after one reality star – by the name of Hayley – suggested that Brexit could mean the UK no longer had any trees. However, should you be in the market for a slightly more informed political discussion on the hit reality show – in which contestants try and find love – you could be in luck. Last night, a 'government adviser' entered the villa. Step forward Zara McDermott.  In the past eight months, Zara has worked for the Department of Education under Damian Hinds, advising on policy. On entering villa, she said: 'I think I'm a catch. I'm definitely a catch.

Steerpike

Thomas Markle: Prince Harry thinks Brexit is an experiment we have to try

From our UK edition

Oh dear. First Meghan Markle's father declined an offer to walk his daughter down the aisle for her wedding to Prince Harry. Now, Thomas Markle has performed a royal faux pas and given an interview to the UK press on his son-in-law's political leanings. In an interview with Good Morning Britain, Markle is asked by Piers Morgan about Prince Harry's views on Brexit: TM: It was just a loose conversation about something we have to try. There was no real commitment to it. PM: Do you think he was in favour of it? TM: I think he was open to the experiment https://twitter.com/chrisshipitv/status/1008580175859154944 Mr S wouldn't call that a ringing endorsement...