Uk politics

Friday

Katy Balls

Rudd’s enemies are losing patience with her. Trouble is, so are her friends

The government ends what has been a truly dismal week with a row over whether or not Theresa May supported ‘go home’ vans and reports that Amber Rudd privately boasted to the prime minister that she would give immigration officials greater ‘teeth’ to accelerate the UK’s deportation programme. There is much frustration in No 10 over how this week has played out. Despite winning all Commons votes on Syria and the much-anticipated Commonwealth celebrations, what was supposed to fly the flag for global Britain has manifested into a row over hostile environments and anti-immigration rhetoric with the Windrush scandal. Part of the difficulty is that No 10 are struggling to blame

Joanna Williams

Pilot Tammie Jo Shults sets an example for young women everywhere

School girls have a new heroine this week. Tammie Jo Shults was the pilot onboard Tuesday’s ill-fated flight from New York to Dallas. She safely negotiated an emergency landing after one of the aeroplane’s engines broke up, throwing debris into the fuselage. One passenger died after being partially sucked through a broken window. This could so easily have been a much bigger tragedy. That no one else on board that plane died is thanks to the skill and bravery of Shults. The audio of her calmly informing air traffic controllers, ‘We are single engine. Descending,’ followed by: ‘There is a hole and someone went out,’ is astonishing to hear. Her

Steerpike

Watch: Emily Thornberry booed on Question Time over Russia

This week Question Time moved to Chesterfield with a panel comprised of Liz Truss, Emily Thornberry, Vince Cable, Nesrine Malik and LBC presenter Iain Dale. However, the talk that proved the most newsworthy related to international affairs. Discussing the government’s strikes on Syria over an alleged chemical attack by the Assad regime, Thornberry suggested that the delay in inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) testing the site of the suspected chemical attack was the result of the United Nations and its ‘red tape’ – rather the Russian and Syrian governments not permitting their presence. Given that the OPCW were this week prevented from entering the site after a

Thursday

Steerpike

Boris and Gove find a common enemy

After the EU referendum, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were such a dream team that the pair looked destined to take the top two jobs in government. However, some political back-stabbing on Gove’s part soon put an end to that friendship and, as history shows, paved the way for Theresa May to become Prime Minister. This week, the Windrush row has reminded the Conservatives the hard way of the problems with her appointment. As Fraser details in his Spectator cover piece, there’s growing concern among Conservative Brexiteers that the problem with having a Remainer in No. 10 is that they ‘misread’ the referendum result and see it as a ‘battle

Steerpike

Michael Gove on manoeuvres

When Liz Truss gave the keynote speech at the launch of new Conservative think tank Freer, one attendee mused to Mr S that they ‘couldn’t help but wonder whether I was actually attending Truss’s leadership launch’. But if Truss is seen to be on manoeuvres as a result, then Michael Gove must be the on steroids version. The Environment Secretary is down to launch not one but two new Conservative think tanks. After taking on a role with Freer, Gove is now scheduled to give addresses at the launch next month of both the Centre for Policy Studies’ New Generation project and former No 10-er Will Tanner’s Onward. As Tim Shipman

Wednesday

Katy Balls

Government defeated on customs union in Lords

And we’re back to Brexit with a bump. After a brief pause in the negotiations and legislation, the government has this afternoon been defeated on a customs union amendment in the Lords. The defeat was by no means minor either – peers voted by 348 to 225 in favour of a plan requiring ministers to report on steps to negotiate a continued EU-UK customs union. This in itself isn’t catastrophic for Theresa May. When the bill returns to the Commons it will most likely be thrown out – and besides it only binds the government to report on the steps being taken to negotiate a customs union so there is

Lloyd Evans

John Bercow spares Jeremy Corbyn’s blushes at PMQs

Would she resign over Windrush? Having spent nearly eight years at the heart of government, Theresa May was clearly deeply involved in the scandal, and as PMQs began she seemed nervous and ill-at-ease. Lispy almost. She started on safe ground by thanking the Windrush generation for their ‘massive contribution’ to modern Britain. Then she garbled Windrush and turned it into ‘Windruss’. Then came this: ‘For those who have mistakenly received letters challenging them, I want to… apologise to them – and to say sorry to anyone who (has been) caused confusion and anxiety…as a result of this.’ Prezza couldn’t have put it better. She was floundering and Corbyn had yet to ask

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May’s Windrush woes continue at PMQs

The government has got at least two colossal messes to deal with, and yet Theresa May managed to survive today’s Prime Minister’s Questions. This was all the more surprising given the topic of PMQs was on a mess created as a result of one of May’s own policies.  Jeremy Corbyn chose, rightly, to lead on the treatment of the Windrush generation, and had a decent series of questions for the Prime Minister. These ranged from a case he had previously raised of a man called Albert Thompson who had been denied NHS treatment, to highlighting Amber Rudd’s comment about the Home Office being too concerned with policy and strategy to

Steerpike

Watch: Chris Williamson’s spat with Nicky Morgan

Jeremy Corbyn has few defenders over his handling of Labour’s anti-Semitism problem. But there is one man staying loyal to the Labour leader. Step forward, Chris Williamson. The Corbynite MP has just traded blows with Nicky Morgan over the matter. During the heated Sky News row, Morgan accused Williamson of ‘chuntering away’ while he watched PMQs. Williamson then responded by saying the Tory MP was trying to play ‘party political football’ with the issue of anti-Semitism, and suggested that right-wing trolls were responsible for some of the abuse blamed on lefties online. After going on a rant – and finally allowing Morgan to speak – Williamson then said: ‘Good Lord, Nicky, I

Steerpike

Watch: Corbyn’s PMQs attack backfires spectacularly

Theresa May should have been on the backfoot at PMQs today as a result of the Windrush scandal. But, somehow, Jeremy Corbyn still managed to ensure the Prime Minister got the upper hand. The Labour leader started off the session by going on the attack; unfortunately, for Corbyn, it backfired spectacularly: JC: Yesterday, we learned that in 2010, the Home Office destroyed landing cards for a generation of Commonwealth citizens, and so have told people: we can’t find you in our system. Did the Prime Minister – the then-home secretary – sign off that decision? TM: No, the decision to destroy the landing cards was taken in 2009, under a

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May now has authority for further military action

Aside from the need to act swiftly and with an element of surprise when striking Syria’s chemical weapons capability, it is still fair to say that Number 10’s preferred option was not to have a vote before the strikes took place at the weekend. David Cameron’s experience in 2013 of failing to get parliamentary consent for action has left institutional bruising which means everyone is now cautious of asking MPs for approval, despite the fact that the Commons has in fact consented to air strikes both in Syria and Iraq since that failed vote. Parliamentary recess did make it much more convenient to avoid such a vote, and there was

Alex Massie

Windrush, Syria and the miserable state of British politics

What a dismal week this has been for British politics. And it is still only Wednesday. The distinguishing feature of this political moment is its shabbiness. The two stories dominating the news this week, Windrush and Syria, each demonstrate as much.  The Windrush scandal – it ceased being a saga some time ago – is shameful. But it is not simply a question of Home Office incompetence (some of which is only, when dealing with matters of significant complexity, to be expected) but, worse, one of Home Office vindictiveness. It is a feature of the system, not a bug within it. A system which, quite deliberately, excises humanity and common

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

What will happen to Millennials when they retire?

Recently, a rather agitated Tory MP came to me and asked why on earth his party wasn’t talking more about pensions. It was an important message to voters, he argued, managing to stay agitated about an issue that normally sends people off to sleep. This MP thought that highlighting the importance of a sound economic policy to public sector workers’ pensions would be a good way of persuading them that the Conservatives are on their side. He has a good point: the Tories could do with working out how to talk to public sector employees, given their current tendency to vote Labour, and given the importance that many of those

James Kirkup

If Mumsnet can stand up for free speech, why can’t MPs?

OK, I admit I’m a bit of a Mumsnet groupie, but this needs to be said: Justine Roberts is great. Roberts is the founder of Mumsnet who has this week come out fighting for free speech and sensible political discussion, both of which are at risk in the debate about gender laws. Why Mumsnet? Because a website previously best known for chat about childcare, biscuits and something called a penis beaker has developed an important role in an important political debate. As I and others have noted before, it can be hard to talk about the politics and policy of gender and sex if you aren’t prepared to simply repeat, without question,

Isabel Hardman

Whips struggle with emergency debate on Syria

This afternoon’s emergency debate on Syria isn’t quite working out as anyone had really planned. For Labour, it was an opportunity to undermine the government by complaining about the lack of parliamentary consent for the weekend strikes on the Assad regime’s chemical weapons capability. For the Tories, it was an opportunity to show that there was still strong support across the House for that action. Some MPs may even have come along to debate the principles in question; namely the balance of powers between executive and legislature. Jeremy Corbyn certainly tried to pitch it thus when he spoke, arguing that what the Prime Minister had done was anti-democratic: ‘It seems

Ross Clark

The Brexit bounce making a mockery of George Osborne’s Project Fear

We are now just two months away from the second anniversary of the Brexit vote and therefore in a position to judge the apocalyptic forecast made by the Treasury in May 2016 in the run-up to the vote. In a paper signed off by George Osborne, which neither the former chancellor nor anyone else who has made a grim prognosis for Britain’s departure from the EU should be allowed to forget, the finest minds in the Treasury came up with two scenarios for the aftermath of a vote to leave the EU. In the ‘shock’ scenario, GDP would be 3.6 per cent lower after two years (compared with if the country

Stephen Daisley

Jeremy Corbyn and our golden age of paranoia

Tony Gilkes is a very English hero. The Middlesborough pensioner wanted nothing more than what all hungry Englishmen want: a hearty meat pie. Yet when he tried to procure pastries from his local Morrisons at 8.45am he was rebuffed; staff at the supermarket refused to serve him before 9am. So what did Gilkes do? He went to war on the retail chain until it backed down and agreed to serve flaky fare from 7am. But most English of all was Tony’s suspicion that sinister motives were afoot. He mused: ‘There’s more to this. Morrisons have got their own agenda. They don’t want people to know about it. They have given too many ridiculous

Katy Balls

The Tories’ biggest problem at the next election? Generation Rent

The government is currently busying itself trying to win retrospective Commons votes on Theresa May’s Syria intervention and clearing up the Home Office’s Windrush mess. But should they have time for some morning reading, today’s Resolution Foundation research on millenials’ property prospects ought to give cause for alarm. The think tank predicts that one in three millennials will never own their own home. Instead, they will have to live – and potentially raise families – in privately rented accommodation throughout their lives. And that’s before we get to what happens when they stop working and rely on a pension. What’s more, half of current UK 20-35-year-olds are expected to be renting

Melanie McDonagh

Why is the BBC preaching to the Commonwealth on gay rights?

There’s a curiously two-faced aspect to the British take on the Commonwealth, wouldn’t you say? On the one hand, there’s justifiable contrition about the treatment of the elderly Windrush generation and a general feeling that the Commonwealth leaders assembled for this week’s summit might be justified in taking Britain to task for its cavalier approach to postwar Caribbean immigrants. On the other, when Commonwealth countries get uppity and show signs of not conforming to the social norms of this country, why, they get very short shrift indeed. There was an ugly little interview this morning on the Today programme which expressed precisely this ambivalence. Homosexual acts are illegal in Trinidad,

Brendan O’Neill

Why Theresa May is to blame for the Windrush scandal

To see the cruelty of bureaucracy, the injustice that can spring from reducing public life to mere process and human beings to paperwork, look no further than the Windrush scandal. Scandal is an overused word these days. Everything from a politician’s ill-advised tweet to a celeb’s extramarital affair gets chalked up as scandal. But if we abide by the true definition of the word — to mean something that is morally wrong and which stirs outrage among the public — then the British state’s sudden, hostile turning against the Caribbean people and others who have made their home in Britain over the past 70 years genuinely fits the bill. This