Uk politics

Thursday

James Forsyth

Theresa May’s diminishing authority

What happened yesterday is quite remarkable. The Prime Minister summed her inner Cabinet to discuss the biggest question facing the country, the defining issue of her premiership. She told them what she thought the right solution was. Then, a majority of the committee rejected her preferred outcome. What makes this rebuff of Theresa May all the more extraordinary is that two of the members of the committee who went against her are people who she has recently promoted. On Monday, Theresa May elevated Sajid Javid to a great office of state. On Wednesday, he took the opposite position to her in this crunch meeting of the Brexit inner Cabinet.

Steerpike

Tory MP: I take a spanking without any problem

MPs are busy debating criminal barristers in the House of Commons: not the most exciting of topics, admittedly, but some are at least doing their best to liven up the discussion. Step forward, Tory MP Bob Stewart, who responded to being rebuked by John Bercow by saying: 'As ever I take a spanking without any problem' Sounds painful...

Ross Clark

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s critics are missing the point

Surprisingly though it may be to some of my readers I have never been that bothered about Brexit. I even voted Remain – not on the strength of the economic arguments, which I thought fairly evenly balanced – but because I could see the danger in precipitating the break-up of the European Union: that it might lead to the drift back eastwards of former Soviet bloc countries. But once the decision was made I was very happy that it be executed, so long as it be in an economically liberal way and done properly; not leaving us stuck in some halfway house where we are bound to EU rules, bound to its trade policy, paying into its coffers and yet without a hand on the tiller.

Tom Goodenough

The key battlegrounds to watch in the 2018 local elections

The Tories are in for a torrid time in today's local elections if the polls are anything to go on. Results are expected to be particularly bad for the party in the capital, with the Conservatives trailing Labour by 22 points in London, according to YouGov. But can the polls be trusted? Or could Tory gains in the Midlands undermine Labour’s success in the south? Here are the key battlegrounds to watch overnight: 1am: Basildon: Ukip was the only party to make gains in Basildon in 2016; two years on, their prospects are rather bleaker. The Tories – who have 19 seats on the council – will be hoping to snatch away some of the ten seats Ukip are defending in order to take back overall control of the council.

Wednesday

Katy Balls

May’s Customs Partnership takes a hammering at Brexit cabinet meeting

Theresa May will be wishing Amber Rudd was still Home Secretary tonight following a fiery meeting of her Brexit inner cabinet on the issue of the customs union. The Prime Minister convened a three hour long meeting of her senior ministers in a bid to finally thrash out a plan for a post-Brexit customs arrangement to put to Brussels. However, things did not go quite to plan – with a decision delayed after a number of ministers raising serious concerns with No 10's favoured option. The most revealing aspect of the meeting relates to the customs partnership that Downing Street wants to push. This hybrid customs model would in theory keep trade flowing freely by having the UK collect tariffs on the EU’s behalf.

Steerpike

Revealed: the truth about Evening Standard’s Conservative MP ‘defection’ letter

Although the Conservatives have managed a successful expectation management campaign ahead of the local elections, were the Tories to lose control of Kensington council, it would be hard to spin it as anything other than a total disaster. So, a letter from a former Conservative MP in today's Evening Standard declaring his intention to vote Labour in the borough appears to be a taste of bad things to come. Keith Raffan – the Conservative MP for the Welsh seat of Delyn from 1983–92 – says he was left with no other choice after meeting two less than ideal Tory candidates: However, before the Tories get too worried it turns out Raffan's 'defection' isn't such a scandal as the paper suggests.

Lloyd Evans

Jeremy Corbyn’s PMQs capitulation

It was a masterclass in capitulation, a stunning act of self-slaughter. And yet, in a way, it was pitifully inept. At PMQs, Corbyn behaved like a quicksand victim who sucks in his breath in order to speed his descent.  May arrived at the House in trouble. Her Home Secretary has resigned and the PM has not yet picked her way clear of the Windrush omnishambles. Corbyn seemed unaware that Amber Rudd’s scalp was dangling from his belt and he surrendered the trophy as soon as he opened his mouth. He blamed Windrush on ‘successive home secretaries’. May pounced on this lazy soundbite, and extended its scope: 'Including the last Labour government.

Alex Massie

The Brexit delusion

As time passes, some things become clear. The problem isn’t Brexit; the problem is the Brexiteers. Or, to put it slightly differently, while Brexit may be sub-optimal, the Brexiteers are much worse than that. They are awful.  Extraordinarily, Jacob Rees-Mogg is now the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next prime minister. As the champion of the backbench Brexiteers he can no longer be dismissed – or, indeed, indulged – as an enjoyable eccentric. He is serious and perhaps now merits being taken seriously himself.  As an intellectual matter, Brexit remains a respectable cause.

Steerpike

Dominic Raab: I don’t eat the same lunch every day

Dominic Raab has finally broken his silence on the key question every one wants to know the answer to: does he eat the same lunch every day? The Daily Mirror reported last week that one of his staff members, who had been caught out in a sugar daddies sting, revealed that Raab’s daily lunch order from Pret consisted of a ‘chicken Caesar and bacon baguette, superfruit pot and the vitamin volcano smoothie, every day’. Not any longer, Mr S is pleased to report. Raab was asked whether he has ditched the ‘Dom Raab special’ in favour of something more adventurous.

Steerpike

Chris Williamson’s Russia Today ‘scandal’

Chris Williamson is no stranger to appearing on Russia Today, and it seems the Corbynista MP is not going to break the habit any time soon. Or could he? The latest register of interests reveals that Williamson landed himself £300 for a TV appearance back in January. So where was the money from? Williamson declared that the cash was paid by Studio Sixty Billion, the producers of Russia Today show 'Sam Delaney's News Thing', which he popped up on earlier this year. That appearance was, of course, before John McDonnell urged Labour MPs to have nothing to do with Russia Today in the wake of the Salisbury poisoning. And after the shadow chancellor's intervention, Williamson does indeed appear to have changed his tune on the channel, but not for the reason Mr S. thought.

Steerpike

Gavin Williamson channels his inner Churchill

Although Gavin Williamson has managed to get through the week without telling any world leader to 'go away and shut up', he's also had to deal with a new leadership rival entering the scene in the form of Amber Rudd's successor Sajid Javid. Not one to be outdone, Williamson has made sure to have a rather packed schedule himself. On Monday, the Defence Secretary told hacks at the Irish Embassy that the Prime Minister had told him to be 'more diplomatic in your language, in your tone' following his Russia comments: 'Gavin, it’s all well and good being a direct-speaking Yorkshireman but as Defence Secretary you have Being Defence Secretary is about carefully and thoughtfully choosing words.’ And what diplomatic language ought he use?

Tuesday

Steerpike

Watch: Former Bercow staffer – ‘There was bullying’

Although John Bercow once said he would only serve as Commons Speaker for only nine years, the Conservative MP has since suggested that he plans to stay on longer. But will he get a say in the matter? Mr S only asks as Bercow is in the line of fire after an explosive Newsnight package on more bullying allegations against the Speaker. Bercow's former private secretary Angus Sinclair has told the current affairs show that he was subject to angry outbursts and obscene language when he worked for Bercow. As for the reason Sinclair is going public now, he says he was paid £86,250 in 2010 as part of a departure deal that included having to sign a  non-disclosure agreement about the alleged behaviour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DbbBnWDqe8&feature=youtu.

Isabel Hardman

What’s the point of the women and equalities Minister, anyway?

Lucky Penny Mordaunt. She’s the latest minister to find themselves the holder of the women and equalities brief in the great pass-the-parcel of this role. It was created for Harriet Harman under the Labour government, and she knew exactly what she wanted to do with it. Since then, though the Tories have never quite understood what this Minister should do, other than chivvy other departments, they daren’t abolish it, lest they seem to be anti women and equalities.  The women and equalities pass the parcel has been incredibly awkward at times, with the job skipping Nicky Morgan, for instance, because of her opposition (at the time) to gay marriage. It has had to move around departments to prevent any embarrassment over certain ministers’ voting records.

Toby Young

Justine Greening is wrong to pick on Eton

The former education secretary, Justine Greening, has urged firms to discriminate against applicants from Eton on the grounds that it is easier to get good A level grades if you’ve been to Eton rather than a comprehensive. There are several odd things about her statement. First, why single out Eton? In terms of A level passes at grade A* or A, Eton is 12th in the independent school league table, behind Westminster, Wycombe Abbey, St Paul’s and City of London School for Girls, among others. Cardiff Sixth Form College is top, with 91.9 per cent of its students gaining A* or A in their A levels last year. I guess urging employers to discriminate against applicants from a sixth form in Cardiff wouldn’t have generated the same headlines.

James Kirkup

Why are some MPs trying to shut down the transgender debate?

Even if you don’t know who Stephen Doughty MP is, if you’re vaguely familiar with the history of New Labour, you’ll know his story: Oxford, a job for a senior Labour politician and a brief spell working in charities. Then selection for a safe seat in his early 30s, thanks to a combination of talent and friends in the right places. Now 38 and having resigned from Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench over, well, Jeremy Corbyn, Doughty sits on the Home Affairs Committee, which, among other things, is inquiring into hate crime, and its causes. To that end, the committee last week took evidence from a bunch of newspaper editors about the way their papers covered groups including British Muslims and transgender people.

Stephen Daisley

Why is the SNP trying to rewrite history?

One of the joys of living under a nationalist government is the exciting pace at which the facts change. What was axiomatic yesterday may be contested today and heretical tomorrow. There is no burden of knowledge because what has happened can unhappen as the need arises. Nationalists, Orwell diagnosed, are 'haunted by the belief that the past can be altered' and the spectre of revisionism is never far from the SNP's account of even recent events. So it is that Nicola Sturgeon deplores 'the appalling treatment of the children of the Windrush generation' and urges 'a system that respects human dignity' rather than 'unjustly forcing people to leave the country that they have come to call home'.

Monday

Katy Balls

Sajid Javid promises to put his own stamp on the Home Office

Sajid Javid has only been Home Secretary for seven hours but already he appears to have settled into the role with gusto. In his first appearance at the despatch box as Home Secrtary, Javid was greeted with cheers from the Tory benches before warning Diane Abbott – his opposite number – that she did not have a 'monopoly' on anger over the Windrush debacle. Javid also made sure to put some clear blue water between himself and his predecessor's predecessor – one Theresa May. Asked by Labour's Stephen Doughty whether about the net deportations target, Javid said he was not currently aware of any cases of wrongful deportation – before adding that he will not be using the term 'hostile environment' as it does 'not represent our values'.

Tom Goodenough

Can May’s Brexit stance survive its latest Lords defeat?

Another day, another Brexit defeat in the House of Lords for the Government. This time around, peers have voted to back an amendment to the Brexit bill which would hand Parliament, rather than ministers, the power to decide what to do if MPs reject the final deal agreed with Brussels. The margin in today’s vote was considerable: 335 to 224. But more worrying for the Government is the number of times it has been now been defeated in the Lords on Brexit, with this afternoon's vote marking the seventh time peers have gone against the Government on the issue. Among those who backed the amendment were 19 Tory lords, including 11 former ministers. The names of those who rebelled are no surprise. But make no mistake: this vote will worry ministers.

Ross Clark

Is Brexit a human rights emergency? The UN seems to think so

How easy it would be to be goaded by the visit of Tendayi Achiume, the UN’s “Special Rapporteur on Racism” to Britain. “My mission...will focus on explicit incidents of racism and related intolerance as well as attention to structural forms of discrimination and exclusion that have been exacerbated by Brexit,” she says, as well as “xenophobic discrimination and intolerance aimed at refugees, migrants and even British racial, religious and ethnic minorities”. How tempting it will be for some to tell her to bug off and deal with some real human rights abuses.

Isabel Hardman

Can James Brokenshire fix the Tories’ housing woes?

James Brokenshire is back in government after his illness. He is the new housing secretary, which marks quite a change from Sajid Javid. Brokenshire is one of those ministers May trusts deeply: he worked with her in the Home Office where she found him to be a quietly loyal colleague. What does this mean for housing policy? It means May has now got one of her people overseeing this crucial policy area: Javid is not known for his quiet loyalty, as yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph interview showed. He is also known for his desire to push May to back radical ideas to get housebuilding going.