Uk politics

Friday

Stephen Daisley

Boris Johnson has sent a troubling message to Scottish Tories

The sacking of David Mundell as Scottish Secretary has left Ruth Davidson’s Tories reeling. The response is not tribal or even ideological; Brexiteers and Remainers alike regard his replacement Alister Jack as a good sort. What most are still struggling to fathom is the thinking behind Mundell’s punting. Of course, he is an opponent of no deal — Jack, by contrast, has taken the pledge and says he could support a crash-out Brexit — but he was seen as hard-working and effective in the Scotland Office. He knew the brief, had the experience and was well-briefed in the tactics of the SNP.

Thursday

Steerpike

The top five moments from Boris’s Commons debut as PM

Theresa May's clashes with Jeremy Corbyn were usually dull affairs. Now that Boris Johnson is Prime Minister, Mr S. is looking forward to some livelier bust-ups in Parliament. Boris didn't disappoint in his first encounter with the Labour leader. Here are five of the best bits from Boris's government debut: Corbyn's 'terrible' Brexit 'metamorphosis': Boris wasted little time in going for Corbyn over his mixed-up Brexit position, accusing him of undergoing a “terrible metamorphosis” from “long-standing Eurosceptic” into reluctant Remainer. Boris said the change of heart matched Corbyn’s “turgivisating career”: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1154349931936641024?

Brendan O’Neill

The anti-Boris demo was a screech of middle-class rage

Last night’s ‘F**k Boris’ demo in London really was an extraordinary spectacle. It felt almost historic. For what we had here was a gathering of radicals raging against a new Tory PM for threatening to upend the political status quo. Yes, these supposedly edgy, rebellious, pink- and blue-haired haters of Conservatism were essentially pleading with Boris not to be so revolutionary. It was bizarre. There may have been music and dancing and weed — the soulless whiff of that deadening drug was everywhere — but this was fundamentally a conservative protest. Small-c, natch. It was a plea to keep Euro-technocracy intact and not to cave in to the demands of the hoodwinked masses who voted for Brexit.

Steerpike

Seven of the most hysterical reactions to PM Boris Johnson

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is already delighting his supporters, but not everyone is happy about Britain’s new leader. Boris’s first speech in Downing Street and the Cabinet bloodbath that followed has led to a fair bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth, not least on Twitter. From independent group MPs and David Lammy to the New York Times – and even a popular children's author – PM Boris is a prospect that is filling some with horror. Here are seven of the most hysterical reactions to Boris's big win: Mike Gapes: Alt-right is a ‘far-right, white supremacist, white separatist, anti-immigration and sometimes anti-Semitic movement’, according to Wikipedia. So Mr S.

Katy Balls

Coming soon: Boris Johnson’s tour of the union

When Boris Johnson stood in the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre and gave his victory speech, he spoke of his DUDE strategy for government: 1. Deliver Brexit; 2. Unite the country; 3. Defeat Corbyn; and 4. Energise the country. When it comes to step two, Coffee House understands plans are afoot to action an attempt to unite the country by putting Boris Johnson on a whistle-stop tour of the union. While the details are yet to be finalised – including at what point this summer – the idea is that Johnson will shortly visit England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Johnson's Brexit plan means that he has been accused by critics of risking the break-up of the union in pursuit of Brexit – he wants to prove otherwise.

Stephen Daisley

Who’s afraid of Jo Swinson? Corbynistas

When I was fresh out of university, I applied for a job as a parliamentary aide to Jo Swinson. The MP for East Dunbartonshire was full of promise and more to my political tastes then than the clunky managerialism of new PM Gordon Brown. She rejected me. If nothing else, this shows Swinson has sound judgement. After all, I would have made a terrible Lib Dem staffer. I was – and remain – in favour of the Iraq War, the war on terror, tuition fees, first past the post, nuclear power and erecting a statue of Tony Blair in every parish in the land. For many years, that was the Lib Dems’ strong suit: what they were for was so vague almost anyone could support them.

Wednesday

Noah Vickers

‘Britain’s new nadir’: How the world’s papers reacted to Boris’s victory

Love him or hate him, Boris Johnson is big news. His victory in the Tory leadership race – and imminent appointment as Britain's next PM – has filled newspapers around the world this morning. Brexit aside, it's rare these days for British politics to make the front pages of papers outside of the UK. But Boris is something of an exception. From the United States, to France, Italy and Spain, here is what the world's press makes of prime minister Boris. Across the Atlantic, the New York Times warns that the Brexit situation has escalated into a ‘nightmare’ and that Johnson’s ‘policy swerves, lack of attention to detail and contradictory statements leave the country guessing how things will unfold.

James Delingpole

Ministers of Sound: why this is the best Cabinet for years

This really ought to be called the Ferrero Rocher cabinet: truly with these appointments the Prime Minister is spoiling us. Sure I’ve got the odd quibble – Amber Rudd, for example, seems far too closely associated with the values of the discredited old regime to be welcomed back into the fold so soon; and I’d really been rooting either for Liz Truss or Jacob Rees Mogg to become Chancellor. But really this is nitpicking. Not since Margaret Thatcher, I doubt, has there been quite such an overwhelmingly sound Cabinet. Indeed, I’m not sure that even Maggie herself managed to accumulate such soundness around one table when she first became PM; later maybe, but not on her first shot.

Nick Cohen

Boris is a weak man posing as a tough guy

Boris Johnson is taking over the Conservative party like a gangster taking over a crime syndicate. Don’t let ideological labels mystify you. “Remainer,” “Leaver”,” “no dealer” – these are just words to confuse the credulous and stop them seeing their country clearly. Power is the only word that need concern you. Power, rather than ideology, is what runs together resignations and sackings, which have seen at least a dozen ministers go – a number that makes Harold Macmillan’s 'Night of the Long Knives' look restrained.

Isabel Hardman

Will Ben Wallace be allowed to turn on the defence spending taps?

Ben Wallace also has an Iran-shaped problem in his Defence in-tray. One of the complaints about the British government's handling of the tanker crisis is that the Navy's capacity is too thin. It is a long-established complaint from defence chiefs that there isn't enough money for the Armed Forces, and they are now expecting Johnson to show his true blue Tory credentials by turning on the spending taps. Jeremy Hunt pledged during the leadership contest to double defence spending, and there has been a regular drumbeat from Tory backbenchers on the need to push spending up. The Joint Committee on the National Security has warned that 'the cornerstones of UK national security are being undermined' and that the Nato target of spending two per cent of GDP on defence might not be enough.

Steerpike

Dominic Grieve: Boris Johnson is a ‘charlatan’

Boris Johnson has only been in Downing Street for a few hours but already Dominic Grieve is trying to stir up trouble. Asked to sum up the new Prime Minister, Grieve responded: 'He's a charlatan. I mean that is the clear evidence of his career and the way he has operated politically. And that is one of the things that has offered me so much disquiet ' Grieve also mocked Boris's first speech as Prime Minister, saying that now Boris is leader he can take Britain to the 'sunny uplands'. Grieve said: 'Well, I don't share his optimism about his opinion of himself' Mr S. is sure that Grieve's verdict on Boris will go down well with the two thirds of Tory voters who backed him...

Isabel Hardman

Dominic Raab has to handle a stand-off with Iran and his own civil servants

It's not an easy time to become Foreign Secretary, as Dominic Raab is about to find out. There is, of course, the crisis in relations with Iran, which threatens to escalate further in the coming days. Raab is taking over shortly after Jeremy Hunt announced a European-led mission to protect shipping in the Gulf, which may not necessarily accord with Boris Johnson's own foreign policy instincts. One of the reasons that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was able to seize the British-flagged tanker was that Britain had turned down the US's suggestion of co-operation to protect boats, for fear of appearing too cosy with Donald Trump. Johnson has no such qualms about working with the US President, something Freddy highlighted in his recent Spectator cover piece.

Fraser Nelson

Sajid Javid will give the Treasury a culture shock

Sajid Javid as Chancellor is the latest of a string of encouraging appointments. He knows finance better than almost anyone else in parliament, let alone Cabinet. When Osborne took the the brief, he would confess to people that he didn't have a clue about economics. In Sajid Javid, we have someone who was vice-president of Chase Manhattan bank aged 25: not because of any family ties but because of his sheer ability. Javid has the knowledge and nerve for a clear no-deal plan, and was always arguing for one in the Cabinet. This will be a bit of a culture shock to HM Treasury, which has been the HQ of Remain refuseniks for quite some time: it served to delay and frustrate others who were preparing for no deal.

Isabel Hardman

What’s waiting in Priti Patel’s new Home Office in-tray?

Priti Patel is the new Home Secretary. This is likely to attract a fair bit of opprobrium from Boris Johnson's critics, given she is a supporter of the death penalty. Whether or not she has been given any remit to examine that particular policy issue, she has a big job on her hands. The Home Office is one of the hardest departments to run. Theresa May managed to survive it, largely by micromanaging everyone else into the dust. Her successor Amber Rudd did not, finding that obeying her boss too well led to her being implicated in the Windrush scandal. Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, May's aides in the Home Office and then in Number 10, would constantly tell friends that they were always trying to avert disaster in the department or one of its agencies.

James Kirkup

Can the Tory party survive Prime Minister Boris Johnson?

Some thoughts on the arrival in office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, based on his first speech, his first appointments and some conversations with people in different parts of the Conservative party and Whitehall today.  These are not all my own predictions; some belong to others. But they’re under my name, so I’ll be happy to answer for them when – and if – they’re proven wrong: 1. A no-deal exit from the EU is much more likely than financial markets currently imply, and much more likely to become the de facto object of UK government policy Johnson’s speech gave him very, very little room for manoeuvre over Brexit. As his first act, he’s committed to leaving on October 31.

The Spectator

Watch: Boris Johnson’s first speech as Prime Minister

Boris Johnson has just delivered his first speech as Prime Minister. On the steps of No.10 Downing Street, Boris hit out at 'doubters...doomsters (and) gloomsters' as he pledged to take Britain out of the EU by October 31, 'no ifs no buts'. 'The buck stops with me,' he said. Here is the full video: And here is the full text of Boris's speech: Good afternoon. I have just been to see Her Majesty the Queen who has invited me to form a government and I have accepted.

Isabel Hardman

‘Never mind the backstop, the buck stops here’: Boris launches his premiership with domestic focus

Boris Johnson has just given a rather urgent-sounding, fast-paced speech in Downing Street. So fast-paced, in fact, that it almost appeared he was in a hurry to catch a train. He of course promised to deliver Brexit by 31 October, but the bulk of his statement was in fact focused on what he wanted to do on domestic policy. He did so using typically tangible promises, telling voters that 'my job is to make your street safer', that 'my job is to make sure that you don't have to wait three weeks to see your GP' and 'my job is to make sure your kids get a superb education'. He also promised that his government would 'fix the crisis in social care one and for all with a clear plan we have prepared'.

Lloyd Evans

Meet the Tories who think Theresa May is Britain’s greatest PM

Forget Churchill. Never mind the Iron Duke. Ignore the claims of Pitt the Younger. The greatest prime minister in British history is Theresa May. That was the message from PMQs today. Tory after Tory stood up to heap praise on their departing chief. Wages are up. Homelessness is falling. Employment is on the rise, thanks to her brilliant captaincy of the nation. We heard about honour, duty, courtesy and public service. It seems that she carried each of these virtues to a pitch that no successor can surpass. ‘Fantastic’ was the only word to describe her policies on mental health. Her domestic violence agenda, we were told, will be an eternal legacy. And on modern slavery she has led the world. It was as if the Tories were in the presence of a demi-god. Superwoman herself.

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May leaves Downing Street with best wishes for Boris

Theresa May's final statement in Downing Street before she left for Buckingham Palace was very dignified and generous to her successor. She offered her 'warm congratulations' to Boris Johnson and wished him 'every good fortune in the months and years ahead'. As with her performance at Prime Minister's Questions, May was keen to emphasise her commitment to continuing in public service, saying: 'I am about to leave Downing Street but I am proud to continue as the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead. I will continue to do all I can to serve the national interest.

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May looks back in anger at her final PMQs

Theresa May's final Prime Minister's Questions had all the tributes you’d expect for an outgoing leader. Members from across the House praised her commitment to public service and the way in which she has made tackling mental illness, modern slavery and domestic abuse her priority throughout her time in government. She received a standing ovation from her party at the end, with the Liberal Democrats and the DUP joining in from the opposition benches. A few female Labour MPs clapped too. Her final remarks made a dignified end to a premiership beset by failure and procrastination. She told MPs that the Commons was ‘rightly at the centre’ of ‘extraordinary times’ and that her greatest motivation would always remain her constituents.