Uk politics

Saturday

Melanie McDonagh

The question is not whether upskirting is gross, it’s whether it requires a new criminal offence

From our UK edition

About three days ago, most of us wouldn’t have had much notion what upskirting was; now we are, I think, all very alive to the reality that there are creeps, pervs and predators who like to put their mobile phones up women’s skirts or dresses and take pictures of their crotch. And I think we are all at one in considering this is an outrageous thing to do. Nem con, so far, I’d say. Mrs May, for her part, has made clear that she’s very down on this sort of thing too, which is always nice to know. The question is not whether upskirting is gross; it’s whether it requires an entirely new criminal offence, potentially punishable by two years’ imprisonment and/or a place on the Sex Offenders register, or whether the existing laws will cover it.

Steerpike

JezFest, in pictures

From our UK edition

The day has finally come – it's Labour Live. The inaugural JezFest – first imagined as a follow-up to Jeremy Corbyn's Glastonbury appearance – has been beset by difficulties from slow ticket sales to failure to secure headline acts. Happily, thanks to some last minute giveaways, transport by Unite and price reduction, there are more people than first expected in the North London 15,000 capacity venue. 'Labour are for the many,' said Eddie Izzard as he told a half empty field of his recent hobby: learning Russian. Meanwhile, Len McCluskey found himself in the firing line in the peoples' Question Time with union members asking why he wasn't being more militant – and why there wasn't enough transport being provided for events.

Steerpike

Watch: Andrew Neil takes AC Grayling to task over Brexit stance

From our UK edition

Of the many public figures still struggling to come to terms with the EU referendum result, AC Grayling is one of the most vocal. The philosopher has been at pains to say what a mistake, he thinks, leaving the EU is. So, Mr S was curious to note his appearance on This Week. In conversation with Andrew Neil, the philosopher said the British must be given another vote on leaving the EU. Grayling's comments led Neil to ask what Brexit had done to the once rational man: https://twitter.com/bbcthisweek/status/1007398170249256960 AN: Hasn’t Brexit in a way discombobulated you?

James Forsyth

Theresa May can’t escape Brexit

From our UK edition

Next week, Theresa May will announce a massive cash injection for the NHS. As I say in The Sun this morning, in normal times, this would be one of the defining moments of her premiership. But this announcement will be overshadowed by the latest parliamentary drama over Brexit. Westminster will be waiting to see if May can win her Wednesday showdown with the Remain Tory rebels over how much control parliament should have over the Brexit process. Those close to May admit that they just don’t know if they have the votes to win. One of those intimately involved in trying to see off the rebels admits that they are now reliant on Labour Eurosceptics coming to her rescue.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

The Tories only have themselves to blame for the ‘upskirting’ row

From our UK edition

How embarrassing for Tory MPs: one of their own has managed to block the unblockable: a bill creating a new criminal offence of 'upskirting'. Plenty of Conservatives have turned on the culprit, Christopher Chope, both in WhatsApp groups and in public, to show that they do not have the same views as him. To be fair to Chope (and it is hard, especially for a magazine that prefers its motto of 'firm but unfair'), he wasn't suggesting that upskirting was in some way OK. He is part of a group of MPs with the odd hobby of objecting to Private Members' Bills on principle because they don't think that MPs from opposition parties should be able to write laws which could cost the government money or could be very bad policy. Oddly, though, this doesn't stop them introducing their own bills.

Isabel Hardman

Brexit row: Remainers point the finger at David Davis

From our UK edition

How did the government manage to engineer a 'compromise' amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill that's left it in greater danger of a defeat? On Tuesday, Theresa May gave the pro-Remain rebels assurances that there would be an amendment that they could support in order to avoid defeat on that day, but the amendment published by the government clearly hasn't met those assurances. It also initially seems bafflingly clumsy that the key figure on the Remain side, Dominic Grieve, was not consulted about the final wording of the government's amendment. Why drop something on the chief rebel when you want to avoid a rebellion?

Steerpike

John Mann’s encounter with Kim Jong-il

From our UK edition

We've all been there. You're at a work event, you don't really know anyone so soon you end up talking to the strange fellow in the corner. At least that's what happened to John Mann a few years back when he attended a conference and ended up having a chinwag with a North Korean dictator. Speaking on Question Time, the Labour MP revealed his encounter with Kim Jong-un's late father – Kim Jong-il: 'I once met his father, only in passing and he was like him – strange family, strange people. It was at a conference and no-one was talking to him and no-one was talking to me so I went and had a word with him. It's a bit like being in Parliament sometimes' https://twitter.

Robert Peston

A political showdown is on the way. Will Theresa May lose?

From our UK edition

At 3pm yesterday afternoon, the Remainer rebels led by Dominic Grieve thought the government was honouring the PM’s putative commitment to draft an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill in the spirit of Grieve’s amendment. At 4.45, Grieve was told by an embarrassed solicitor general Robert Buckland that the deal was off. The Remainer rebels are not happy. And the scene is set for a final parliamentary showdown on the “meaningful vote” issue, in the Lords on Monday and the Commons on Tuesday or Wednesday. Here is what happened and what was at stake. It is complicated so please bear with me.

Thursday

Katy Balls

Government plays divide and rule with Remain rebels

From our UK edition

Oh dear. Although it was widely accepted that either the Tory Remainers or the Tory Brexiteers would be furious when the government published its compromise on the meaningful vote amendment, one had hoped that the peace might have lasted at least until the amendment was out. That wasn't to be. Before the amendment was even out, Remain rebels were crying foul. The important thing to note about the government's so-called compromise amendment is that it says it would be 'a motion in neutral terms. This means that Parliament would only get a 'meaningful' vote along the lines of  'this House has considered...'. That would be unamendable – so Parliament could not amend the government’s proposals.

Isabel Hardman

Change to visa rules shows May has learned from her recent immigration messes

From our UK edition

The government has finally climbed down on visa restrictions for foreign doctors and nurses, scrapping the cap on numbers who can be employed using the tier 2 visa route. This was costing NHS trusts shocking amounts of money in processing applications from overseas medical professionals which were in large part turned down by the Home Office. It is striking that the government decided this week to relax these restrictions, given they are part of the tough immigration policy introduced by Theresa May. Time was when the then Home Secretary would repeatedly upbraid David Cameron for handing her a net migration target to deliver which her Cabinet colleagues were frequently trying to flout.

Steerpike

Watch: Labour Brexit rebel vs Polly Toynbee

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn was given a taste of a Brexit rebellion last night when 90 of his MPs declined his suggestion of abstaining on the single market amendment and rebelled. Perhaps the most interesting aspect, however, was not who backed the amendment but the 15 Labour MPs who rebelled to vote against it. One such MP – Laura Smith – resigned as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office to vote against remaining in the EEA. Explaining her reasons, she said she would always put her constituents in Crewe & Nantwich first: https://twitter.com/LauraSmithMP/status/1006974022343647232 So, it made for interesting viewing today when Smith was pitted against chief Labour Remain-er Polly Toynbee on the issue of honouring the referendum result: JC: Do you think Polly is part of the problem?

Freddy Gray

Donald Trump does Brexit, Part 1

From our UK edition

‘Imagine Trump doing Brexit — what would he do?’ asked the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, at that dinner which was recorded and leaked to Buzzfeed. ‘There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think that he’d gone mad. But you might actually get somewhere.’ Well, let’s imagine. What follows, brought to you by Destiny Media, is Part I of how Prime Minister Donald J. Trump might negotiate and tweet his way through Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. June 24, 2016 5 a.m. The votes are in and Britain has elected to leave the European Union. Prime Minister Trump leaves Downing Street and calls a special press conference at his golf course, Turnberry, in Scotland. 7.15 a.m.

James Kirkup

Why Brexit will never end

From our UK edition

I hate to take issue with a fellow Spectator writer, but Robert Peston’s revelation that a “no deal” Brexit is now off the table strikes me as a prime example of Westminster’s ability to ignore the bleeding obvious for months on end then talk cobblers in an authoritative voice when finally forced to confront reality. Robert is far from alone in his conclusion about last night’s Commons vote. To be honest, I’m just taking issue with his post because the spectacle of Spectator writers disagreeing seems to interest some people, probably because they struggle with the idea of one publication publishing multiple and contradictory viewpoints.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Stormzy’s Labour Live price tag

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn has promised to deliver '21st century socialism' to the UK if elected. Only Mr S isn't so sure all Corbynistas are on the same page as to what this will mean in practice. With the ill-fated LabourLive festival just four days away, the blame game has already begun on who is at fault over the low ticket sales. Making matters worse, is the fact that things could have been so different had the organisers managed to get Stormzy to perform. The chart-topping Grime artist is a big Corbyn supporter; 'My man, Jeremy! Young Jeremy, my guy. I dig what he says.' While his omission was first blamed on scheduling issues, the Evening Standard reports that it is actually down to... money. Jeremy Corbyn’s team apparently balked at his 'six-figure' fee.

Stephen Daisley

The SNP walk out was about attention, not accountability

From our UK edition

The SNP thinks Westminster is an anachronism but boy does it love those anachronisms. The Nationalists’ London leader Ian Blackford got himself thrown out of the Commons for disrupting Prime Minister’s Questions. Blackford attempted to move — inartfully and tagged onto a question rather than as a substantive motion — that the House sit in private. The Speaker showed no little patience in explaining to Blackford that the matter should be raised at the end of PMQs. Of course, that wouldn’t be the optimal time for capturing the attention of political correspondents and TV news producers. Blackford steamed away like an angry little pressure cooker, rumbling for a vote to clear the public gallery.

Lloyd Evans

Does the tantrum-prone SNP not realise how privileged Scotland is?

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn had one of his best PMQs ever. Then it all went wrong. His witty use of Boris’s recent tape-recorded solecisms went down very well in the chamber. The evening news would surely have celebrated Mr Corbyn’s deftness at the despatch box. But he was undone by the publicity-burglar, Ian Blackford. The SNP leader in Westminster accused Mrs May of expropriating ’80 powers’ from Scotland. Mrs May pointed out that these powers were not being removed from but restored to Holyrood. Replying Mr Blackford said, a little vaguely, ‘I ask that this house now sit in private.’ Some procedural kerfuffle ensued. Mr Bercow asked him to formalise his request since it would entail a debate and a vote immediately. Was that his intention?

James Forsyth

What did Theresa May promise the Tory rebels?

From our UK edition

The confusion about what precisely the government promised those Tory MPs attracted to the Grieve amendment hasn’t yet been cleared up. Today, Number 10 is saying that Part C of the Grieve amendment, which would have allowed the Commons to effectively direct the government if there wasn’t a deal by the 15th of February, is off the table. But several of those who went to see Theresa May last night think that she indicated the government would come up with its own, different version of C. In other words, that there hadn’t been a blanket rejection of C. Now, the word is that the government’s proposed amendment, which it will move in the Lords next week, will be published tomorrow. This will tell us how far the government has gone to meet the rebels’ concerns.

Alex Massie

The poor wee SNP

From our UK edition

Of course it was a “stunt” - the Westminster village’s preferred term for any piece of nonsense that disrupts the serenity of the mother of parliaments - and of course it was planned in advance. Pete Wishart, the SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, tweeted that prime minister’s questions would be unusually interesting this week.  For a given definition of interesting, that is. The SNP’s walk-out was engineered to win the party some attention and a place at the top of this evening’s Scottish news. Job done. Mission accomplished. Well done lads. It was all very reminiscent of the 1980s when Alex Salmond, among others, was forever making an exhibition of himself the better to win the SNP some - indeed any - attention at all.

Steerpike

Kezia Dugdale comes to the SNP’s defence

From our UK edition

When Kezia Dugdale stepped down as the leader of Scottish Labour, there were rumours that she was planning to defect to the SNP. Despite Dugdale's denial, odds were as short as 5/1 on Dugdale – whose partner is an SNP MSP – joining the Scottish Nationalists before the next Holyrood election in 2021. So, after today's drama at PMQs in which the SNP staged a widely-criticised mass walk out, Mr S was curious to learn Dugdale's take on the matter. In a tweet, Dugdale comes to the SNP's defence – suggesting that the Tories are worse when it comes to playing political games. https://twitter.com/kezdugdale/status/1006887979774824448 Watch this space.

Steerpike

Watch: John Bercow’s ‘women problem’

From our UK edition

Although the Serjeant-at-Arms Kamal El-Hajji has dismissed bullying allegations against John Bercow as a 'witch hunt', the Speaker's problems are not going away anytime soon. Claire Perry, the climate change minister, has today accused Bercow of 'sexist and demeaning' behaviour – accusing him of having a 'women problem'. This video shows the incident Perry is referring to. In it, Bercow bizarrely refers to dilation. https://twitter.com/jackcevans/status/1006865294093058048 How long can Bercow hang on?