Uk politics

Interviewing Boris Johnson last night on my show, I ended up feeling a bit sorry for Jo Swinson, leader of the Liberal Democrats. Because for him the election is a proxy for another referendum. His whole mantra is ‘get Brexit done, and move on’. Swinson’s position of ‘revoke and move on’ is a wholly rational response in the context of Johnson’s framing. But apparently what is democracy in action for Johnson is anti-democracy when the Lib Dems react. We are truly in the ‘age of unreason’. Some of you will be screaming that ‘we had a referendum, so the only legitimate way to cancel it is to hold another one’. Except

Jo Swinson had a terrible session on Question Time earlier in the election campaign, but tonight in her interview with Andrew Neil, she showed that it is possible for a leader who believes what they are saying to survive a very tough grilling with their dignity intact. She faced difficult questions on her party’s Brexit position, on her voting record in the Coalition government, and on what she would do if her party lost seats at this election, but managed to stick to her guns in a way that showed up Jeremy Corbyn for not doing so in his interview – and Boris Johnson for not having the guts to

With ten days to go until polling day, the election campaign has turned to national security. Following the London Bridge knife attack on Friday by a convicted terrorist which left two members of the public dead, the Conservatives have made a concerted effort to get on the front foot on the issue. Over the weekend, Boris Johnson announced plans for tougher sentencing for terrorists – including a minimum sentence of 14 years. There’s more to come – with Johnson to announce a five-point plan to prevent serious criminals and terrorists from entering the country after Brexit. Given that this is the week the NATO summit comes to town, the Tories were

Tonight’s ITV election debate had a slightly different cast to the seven-way BBC programme on Friday night, but its spokespeople offered pretty much the same soundbites throughout the show. It started with the parties arguing about the lessons from the London Bridge attack, with Conservative Rishi Sunak and Labour’s Richard Burgon repeating the lines their leaders have used over the weekend: Sunak had a slightly softer way of putting the Prime Minister’s argument that only a Conservative government can provide the necessary security for voters. But he did say it was important that the leader of a country responded to attacks like this, and emphasised what he claimed was Boris

For a seven-way debate which didn’t even feature the two main party leaders, tonight’s BBC election programme was remarkably good. It felt as though it started with a jolt, with all the senior politicians present looking dazed as they struggled to find the words to respond to this afternoon’s terror attack at London Bridge. It is too early to debate the consequences, the policies which may change, the mistakes made and so on, and the awkwardness was palpable. There was visible relief when they were able to move on to the second question, and a different topic. Because Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn had both sent along substitutes, the debate

So, will Boris Johnson sit down for an interview with Andrew Neil? Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon have done theirs while Jo Swinson and Nigel Farage are scheduled for next week. The Prime Minister hasn’t yet agreed a time for his. Given how tough an Andrew Neil interview is, just ask Jeremy Corbyn if you doubt that, it is hard not to be cynical about the Tories’ scheduling issues. Boris Johnson is, though, offering to appear on the Andrew Marr show this Sunday. This offers an easy solution to the problem. The Tory leader, who is clearly free on Sunday morning, could simply record his interview with Andrew Neil then

Jeremy Corbyn is desperate to move on from talk of his mauling at the hands of Andrew Neil last night but some journalists still won’t play by the Labour script. At a Labour event this morning, two reporters asked questions about anti-Semitism. It’s safe to say it didn’t go down well with shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner, who accused the reporter of ‘having a dig’ at the leader: ‘Do you have a question on the issue we are actually discussing today or was that an opportune moment to get a dig in about something else?’ Oh dear…

Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with Andrew Neil was one of the most uncomfortable half hours of the Labour leader’s tenure. In contrast to the ITV debate, where he appeared confident and quick-witted, Corbyn struggled to answer questions on a number of different issues, complaining all the while that Neil wouldn’t let him finish. By the end, he might have wished that he’d had more interruptions as this was a very poor interview. His refusal to apologise for the Labour party’s handling of anti-Semitism has naturally attracted the most attention. He point blank disagreed with the Chief Rabbi, saying he was ‘not right’ to say it was ‘mendacious fiction’ that Labour had

It was one of the defining moments of the 2014 Scottish referendum campaign. In that early August TV debate, Alistair Darling said any 8 year old could tell you what a country’s flag, capital and currency were but that Alex Salmond couldn’t say what currency an independent Scotland would use. Salmond’s floundering that night badly hurt the ‘Yes’ cause. This evening, when Andrew Neil pressed Nicola Sturgeon on what currency an independent Scotland would use, she replied the pound but without a monetary union. She indicated that this would be the case even if Brexit had happened. So, Sturgeon is saying that Scotland would be applying to join the EU

Boris Johnson has unveiled the Conservative manifesto in Telford this afternoon. The 59-page document – titled ‘Get Brexit Done: Unleash Britain’s Potential’ – is a far cry from the 2017 Conservative manifesto. That document still haunts Tory MPs to this day and is widely blamed for the Conservatives losing their majority in 2017. Today’s offering is much more risk-averse when it comes to contentious issues and policy areas. A lot of the big spending announcements were made at the beginning of Johnson’s premiership. As reported on Coffee House previously, there is a line which clarifies that the party will not hold a free vote on the fox hunting ban (Tories

Who won Friday night’s Leaders’ Question Time? On the latest Coffee House Shots podcast, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and the New Statesman‘s Stephen Bush tell me it’s Boris Johnson who will be the happiest – despite criticism, he got his key messages across. However, the format – which saw hostile audience member questions for Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon, Jo Swinson and Johnson – proved testing for all sides. The news line of the night came from Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader said that in a second referendum – held by a Labour government – he would remain neutral and campaign neither for Leave nor Remain. James Forsyth describes this as the