Uk politics

Thursday

James Forsyth

Macron charms, but won’t give ground on the City

Emmanuel Macron is revelling in his new status as the preeminent politician in Europe. In his joint press conference with Theresa May, he turned in a charming performance highlighting the ties between Britain and France and urging the two countries to ‘make a new tapestry together’. However, there was a sting in the tail. When Macron was asked about financial services and the single market, he emphasised that Britain’s choice was between Norway—full involvement in the single market but paying into the budget, accepting ECJ jurisdiction and free movement—and Canada, a much more limited free trade deal. Interestingly, though, he said he didn’t want to exclude any sector from the

James Forsyth

The Tories must hold their nerve on tuition fees

One upshot of last week’s reshuffle is that Number 10 will get its review of higher education. But a lengthy look at tuition fees would be a mistake in both policy and political terms, I argue in the magazine this week. Tuition fees have all but killed the Liberal Democrats. The breach of their manifesto pledge to abolish the charges, compounded by them voting for a fees increase, broke the party. Even the Tories can’t compete, nor should they want to, with Labour’s pledge to abolish tuition fees. So any plan to reduce fees isn’t going to work politically. All it would do is help Labour by pushing the issue

Steerpike

New Tory vice-chair culls ‘white public schoolboy’ Remainer from candidate list

With the new Tory vice-chairman for youth, Ben Bradley, currently making headlines for ill-judged blog posts from 2012, it’s safe to say that Theresa May’s plan to revamp CCHQ by appointing 13 MPs as vice-chairs, hasn’t gone entirely to plan. However, one vice chairman is determined to make a success of her brief – no matter the cost. Step forward Kemi Badenoch. The MP for Saffron Walden has been put in charge of selecting Conservative candidates for the 2022 general election. However, in this week’s edition of The House magazine, Badenoch reveals that her first task consisted of knocking a white public schoolboy off the list. Only it wasn’t any white

Steerpike

Karen Bradley gets on the wrong side of the DUP

Oh dear. Although Karen Bradley has only been in her new job as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for just over a week, she has already managed to ruffle a few feathers. Unfortunately for her, those feathers belong to the all-powerful DUP. It’s been reported that in a sit down with written press this morning, Bradley indicated that ‘release of the £1 billion from DUP/Tory confidence & supply deal at Westminster is contingent on ministers being in place at Stormont’. However, this is news to Nigel Dodds – the DUP’s Westminster leader. He has taken to social media to voice his concern that this is ‘not correct’: Hasn’t anyone told

Steerpike

Labour embrace Jared O’Mara

It’s been a difficult week for Ben Bradley, the new Tory vice chair for youth. In unearthed blog posts dating back to 2012, Bradley suggested that benefit claimants should have vasectomies rather than claim multiple child benefits, accused public sector workers of being ‘lost in their own fantasy land’ and said that in the case of the London riots that: ‘For once I think police brutality should be encouraged.’ Bradley has been quick to apologise for his comments – claiming he has matured since then. But this isn’t good enough for Labour. The party has been quick to go on the attack and hail this as evidence that the ‘nasty party’

Gavin Mortimer

Emmanuel Macron’s charm offensive is paying off

Summit? What summit? Coverage of today’s Anglo-French tête–à–tête at Sandhurst can best be described as low-key on the French side of the Channel. And that’s being kind. To say the French don’t care may be a slight exaggeration, so let’s settle for Gallic indifference. None of the newspapers cover the summit on their front pages and it was the seventh item on France’s equivalent of Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, sandwiched between a report on the Woody Allen allegations and the latest news from the Australian tennis Open. No analysis, little interest, just a brief mention that the president of the Republic will be in England for talks with

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Whips try to soothe post-reshuffle wounds

If you thought the main fallout from Theresa May’s reshuffle was last week, think again: over the past few days the Conservatives have been appointing their parliamentary private secretaries, which means the reshuffle has only just about ground to a halt. These PPS jobs are unpaid but count as government payroll, meaning the MP in question must be loyal to the government as well as carrying a minister’s bag around. The problem is that not every ambitious MP can be made a PPS. Worse, not every PPS can be made a minister, which means that there are a fair few Tory backbenchers and PPSs swirling around who are feeling a

Isabel Hardman

The government must end the curious indifference to survivors of domestic abuse

What happens to a woman who leaves domestic violence? A layman’s impression might be that she gets on with her life and tries to forget what happened to her. But a question today in the House of Commons showed that this is just not the case. The SNP’s Lisa Cameron asked Theresa May about a constituent of hers who had left her violent partner: ‘A constituent of mine has informed me that she was repeatedly raped and beaten by her ex-partner, requiring an injunction. Much to her horror, her bank would not close their joint account unless she attended with the perpetrator. When banks are left to their own discretion,

Steerpike

Paul Mason’s elite panic

Oh dear. After three Momentum candidates – including key Corbyn ally Jon Lansman – were elected to Labour’s national executive committee on Monday, the NEC swiftly moved to oust Ann Black as chair of the Disputes Panel in favour of Christine Shawcroft. Given that Shawcroft was previously suspended by the party in 2015, the move has raised alarm bells in the Labour party. However, should you be concerned that Shawcroft is now responsible for deciding whether to investigate sexist, racist, homophobic and anti-semitic abuse, you’re probably just a member of the elite. Or at least that’s what Paul Mason thinks. The journalist-turned-revolutionary took to social media to cause an elite panic*

Lloyd Evans

Hopeless Jeremy Corbyn manages to out-feeble Theresa May yet again

Carillion. It doesn’t help that the name resembles a kiddie’s word, like gazillion, suggesting an astronomical sum of cash. The sudden death of this lumbering giant gave Mr Corbyn an easy route to victory at PMQs. He didn’t take it. Corbyn outlined Carillion’s recent woes: the collapsing share-price, the short positions taken by hedge-funds, the profit warnings.   This seemed to amuse Philip Hammond. ‘Profit warnings?’ he muttered audibly, ‘companies issue profit warnings all the time.’ An odd boast for a chancellor to make. Mr Corbyn’s performance lacked bite and precision. He simply rambled his way through a long description of the government’s conduct. Either, he burbled, the government had awarded contracts to

James Forsyth

Corbyn is missing an opportunity each week at PMQs

Neither Theresa May nor Jeremy Corbyn are great Commons’ performers. PMQs is, more often than not these days, a no score draw. Today’s exchanges were slightly better than usual. The collapse of Carillion is right in Jeremy Corbyn’s wheel-house. But, once again, his failure to be forensic let him down. At the end of the session, we didn’t know any more than we did at the beginning.  Corbyn failed to come back on the question of whether the government was awarding contracts to Carillion because of, not despite, its profit warnings. His blanket opposition to private sector involvement in the provision of public services also meant that he didn’t

James Kirkup

In praise of Michael Gove and his reusable cup

I’m drinking coffee as a write this. That’s not unusual. I drink a lot of coffee, much of it bought from the Pret a Manger that is almost dangerously close to my office in Westminster. (I judge my days by how many meals I eat from that Pret: often two and sometimes three. My life is awesome.) What is unusual is that the coffee isn’t in a paper cup. It’s in a mug, an ordinary ceramic mug, which I put in my pocket and took to Pret. I handed it over to be filled up and instead of paying the 99p Pret normally asks for a filter coffee (tip for

Alex Massie

Nicola Sturgeon is running out of popularity – and time

Time is beginning to run out for Nicola Sturgeon. That, at any rate, is one conclusion to be drawn from today’s YouGov poll for the Times. As many Scots now disapprove of Ms Sturgeon as approve of her and the SNP’s poll ratings continue to show no signs of benefitting from the Brexit bounce the party expected.  That bounce continues to elude the nationalist movement. And if this has surprised the SNP, it has also surprised every other party leader in Scotland just as, to be frank, it has surprised most of us in the commentary game too. It turns out there is limited enthusiasm for responding to one constitutional

Katy Balls

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s new Brexit role will worry No 10

Although Jacob Rees-Mogg missed out on a promotion in last week’s reshuffle, the Moggster has at least got a new string to add to his bow. The Conservative backbencher has been appointed chairman of the all-powerful ‘European Research Group’ – replacing Suella Fernandes. The group has been described by the Times as the ‘most powerful opposition force in British politics’ but in effect is a place for the Conservative party’s most dedicated Brexiteers to congregate, liaise and come up with a counter to any position (government or not) that looks a bit too Remain for their liking. In that vein, they have a special Tory WhatsApp group – separate to the

Gavin Mortimer

Theresa May could learn a lot from Emmanuel Macron

Theresa May hosts Emmanuel Macron at Sandhurst tomorrow, an encounter that is unlikely to paint the British Prime Minister in a flattering light. Their styles of leadership are chalk and fromage, one assertive and confident, the other apologetic and diffident. In particular, May’s growing custom for contrition is eroding her authority. Unless she’s personally responsible for spreading Aussie flu why did May say sorry for the recent NHS crisis? It’s not a Prime Minister’s job to grovel to the public; it’s her ministers. But now she’s set a precedent and so every time something goes wrong her opponents will demand an apology. If she refuses, they’ll say she’s callous. Macron

Stephen Daisley

Labour’s beleaguered moderates must act now before it’s too late

When is left-wing not left-wing enough? Veteran Labour organiser Ann Black is finding out the hard way. Yesterday morning, she was the respected chair of the disputes panel, the party’s internal disciplinary committee, and responsible for investigating anti-Semitism and other accusations against members. Now, she is the respected former chair, ousted in a Momentum-led coup as the far-left celebrates its majority on the National Executive Committee with a bit of muscle-flexing.  Black is not some Blairite ultra. She was elected on the leftist Grassroots Alliance slate. What changed? Well, some comrades have not been impressed by her handling of suspensions. As Paul Waugh notes, Black wrote last year: ‘Anyone who

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

The case for more NHS cash is growing

Theresa May likes to boast at Prime Minister’s Questions that mental health spending is increasing. The problem is that this is rather difficult to see on the ground. The King’s Fund today published a report saying the gap between spending on hospitals and mental health widened further in the last year. The think tank even said that there was an increased risk to patient safety in more than a half of mental health trusts because of staffing shortages, and that ‘the government’s mission to tackle the burning injustices faced by people with mental health problems will remain out of reach if things stay the way they are’. The King’s Fund’s

Steerpike

Watch: Ken Clarke sends fellow Tory MP to sleep

Ken Clarke is back on his feet talking about Brexit in the Commons again – but his speech has not gone down well with all of his colleagues. Sitting behind him, his fellow Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne struggled to stay awake as Clarke talked about the rights of EU citizens. Swayne even appeared to nod off at one point. Mr S thinks Swayne could be forgiven for thinking he had heard it all before…

James Forsyth

Donald Tusk’s Brexit comments should worry the government

Donald Tusk’s comments, echoed by Jean-Claude Juncker, that Britain could still change its mind on Brexit should worry the UK government. Why? Because as long as senior figures in the EU think there is a chance Brexit won’t happen, there’s very little incentive for them to think creatively about the future relationship. Instead, the temptation for them is to offer as little as possible in the hope that this might prompt a change of heart in London. Now, realistically, I think Brexit is going to happen. The referendum and the parliamentary vote to trigger Article 50 means that it is very hard for it not to, though what kind of Brexit

Ross Clark

Has the era of low inflation really come to an end?

How many times have you heard in recent months that the era of low inflation is at an end?  The case for that assertion is beginning to look somewhat shaky. This morning brings news that the rate of inflation last month – at least as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) – fell slightly in December from 3.1 per cent to 3.0 per cent. While that is hardly a dramatic move it shows that, once again, the surge in inflation predicted by some has failed to materialise. Now that the inflationary effect of a fall in the pound in the second half of 2016 has dropped out of the