Uk politics

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

The Boris Brexit court case isn’t as bad for his leadership bid as some hope

From our UK edition

Will Boris Johnson being told to answer to allegations of misconduct in a public office derail his leadership campaign? The former foreign secretary has been told he must appear in court to answer the claims, brought in a private prosecution by campaigner Marcus Ball, who objects to his claim during the referendum that the UK sends £350 million a week to the EU. Today a district judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence to proceed with a trial. This prosecution will naturally be seen by someone of Johnson's enemies as a chance to undermine him while he's the frontrunner in the Conservative leadership contest. But this isn't likely to have the effect they hope.

Isabel Hardman

How councils in crisis could open up an important Tory leadership battleground

From our UK edition

One of the issues that should crop up in this Tory leadership contest is local government funding. True, it's not a particularly enticing matter, but Conservative MPs are generally very worried about the state of their local councils. Today's BBC story on 11 authorities which could exhaust their reserves within four years underlines this worry. The Beeb used analysis by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance to work out which councils the organisation had listed - anonymously - as being most at risk. The Local Government Association is warning that councils will have to further cut back services and that 'ongoing funding gaps are simply too big to be plugged by reserves'. Of course, this also affects the debate about social care, with councils already struggling to fund its provision.

Tom Goodenough

Operation Stop Boris is backfiring. Again

From our UK edition

As the race to replace Theresa May heats up, Operation Stop Boris is now in full swing. Boris Johnson remains the clear frontrunner to win the Tory leadership contest and his critics are determined to prevent him doing so at any cost. But his detractors should learn an important lesson from the referendum campaign: going after Boris is bound to backfire. Boris’s critics are determined to have another go, with his Tory rivals queuing up to take a pop. Matt Hancock is the latest to hit out with his jibe ‘f**k ‘f**k business’, a reference to Boris’s comments about lobbyists warning of the damage of a no-deal Brexit. Jeremy Hunt has also targeted Boris. So, too, has roaming leadership candidate Rory Stewart.

James Forsyth

Talking about Brexit won’t be enough for the next Tory leader

From our UK edition

The Tory leadership contest has been dominated by Brexit so far. To a large extent, this is inevitable: Brexit is the biggest issue facing the country and the Tory party. But dealing with Brexit is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a Tory recovery. If the Tories are to win a fourth term in office, they are going to have a compelling domestic agenda as well. So far, the ideas put forward in this contest haven’t been particularly imaginative—doubling defence spending and a penny off the basic rate are standard Tory fare. The biggest question, to my mind, for the Tories is how to revive the ownership society. The Tories cannot expect people who don’t have any hope of obtaining capital, to be capitalists.

Matthew Lynn

Matt Hancock has missed the point about Boris’s business jibe

From our UK edition

If it was in a playground in one of the rougher parts of town, which increasingly it resembles, this could easily escalate. One candidate remarks that he thinks the party should ‘f**k business’ so another one wades in to argue ‘f**k 'f**k business'’. And perhaps by lunchtime some other candidate you have never really heard off will be tweeting that instead the party should ‘f**k, 'f**k, f**k business'’. Before long, the Tory party leadership contest will start to look like the bits that were edited out of a Malcolm Tucker rant in The Thick of It for being too sweary. And yet the row spectacularly misses the point. Of course the Conservative party should be pro-business. But that is not quite the same thing as being pro-Big Business and its lobbyists.

Steerpike

Graham Brady meets with an old hand at campaigns

From our UK edition

With twelve candidates so far declared for the Tory leadership contest, more MPs are expected to announce in the coming days. Those rumoured to be planning on throwing their hat into the ring include Mark Harper, Steve Baker and 1922 chairman Graham Brady. On Friday, Brady recused himself from a Conservative Party statement on the leadership timetable – on the grounds that he might himself run. So, Mr S was intrigued to learn of a meeting Brady attended on Tuesday at the MC Saatchi office in London. Steerpike's advertising man-in-the-know reports that Brady was spotted meeting Tory peer – and former chairman – Maurice Saatchi.

Ross Clark

Boris Johnson’s court appearance is nothing to celebrate

From our UK edition

I have often wondered what would happen if politicians were bound by the same rules as advertisers, or if manifestos were brought within the scope of the trading standards laws. What if we could take legal action against a government for failing to provide the extra NHS beds or school places they had promised? Given the propensity for governments to excuse themselves from their own legislation when it suits them – Blair’s government simply passed a clause excluding political parties when Labour’s women-only shortlists fell foul of sex discrimination legislation – it is hard to imagine such a law being passed by Parliament. But on 14th May, Westminster Magistrates heard an attempt to create one through political precedent.

Tuesday

Daniel Rey

What I’ve learned from talking to Americans about Brexit

From our UK edition

I’m an Oxbridge graduate in my twenties and a native speaker of a Romance language. I’m a citizen of nowhere rather than somewhere, and two years ago I moved to the United States. I could be the illustrated dictionary’s definition of a Remoaner. And I am. So why is it that, whenever I have a proper conversation with a liberal, knowledgeable American who criticises the idiocy of leaving the EU, I find myself leaping to the defence of Camp Brexit? For a few minutes, mid-conversation, I’m manning the barricades of Thanet with Nigel Farage, throwing real ale at the Provençal set. Except that, being British, I don’t dare voice my objections. I nod and smile while the repute of my country is crushed like a bulldog sat on by a bison.

Ian Acheson

How Rory Stewart can save the Tories

From our UK edition

What does Rory Stewart’s time at the helm as prisons minister tell us about his fitness to lead the Conservative party and our country? In January last year, I wrote an open letter to his boss, Justice Secretary David Gauke with some thoughts on how to deal with Britain’s shameful prisons crisis. In it, I referred to Gauke’s new prisons minister, who, ‘given his diplomatic experience in conflict zones, will know a bullshitter when he sees one, which can only be good news when he meets the people who are running the wreckage of our probation system.’ I was right about Stewart’s low tolerance for bureaucratic abstractions and managerial verbiage.

Ian Acheson

The equality watchdog’s probe leaves Labour with a painful choice

From our UK edition

Today’s confirmation that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is launching a formal investigation of the Labour party has huge personal significance for me. I was the chief operating officer for the Commission between 2012 and 2015, responsible for redesigning the approach to statutory enquiries and investigations. I also had a role in making the Commission a warmer house for Jews. The EHRC I joined was not an organisation beloved of the state. Unfortunately this was not a function of its fearless independence, more that it wasn’t taken terribly seriously with a poor reputation amongst ministers. Budget cuts and obsessive introspection by some staff who regarded the body as a pressure group for leftist causes had seriously imperilled its very existence.

Isabel Hardman

Ministers take advantage of power vacuum left by May resignation

From our UK edition

Parliament is in recess at the moment, though the difference between a House of Commons Chamber that is sitting and one that isn't is scarcely noticeable at present, given how few votes MPs are being required to attend. There is a similarly thin distinction between a government led by Theresa May as she insists she's not going anywhere, and one led by the Theresa May who, last week, finally conceded that she was going. Not much is happening, as per usual. In fact, there will be even less happening as a result of May's resignation announcement. Today at the Number 10 lobby briefing, the Prime Minister's official spokesman was asked whether the Withdrawal Agreement Bill was really going to return to the Commons next week as planned.

Steerpike

Alastair Campbell expelled from Labour party

From our UK edition

Alastair Campbell has been something of a Labour party fixture for the last twenty years – but not any longer. Blair's former spin doctor has just been given the boot from the party for revealing that he voted Lib Dem at the European elections. Campbell said he was 'sad' and 'disappointed' to get an email from Labour expelling him from the party: 'I am and always will be Labour. I voted Lib Dem, without advance publicity, to try to persuade Labour to do right thing for country/party. In light of appeal, I won't be doing media on this. But hard not to point out difference in the way anti-Semitism cases have been handled.

Isabel Hardman

Tory leadership candidates avoid the C-word

From our UK edition

Kit Malthouse's entry into the Conservative leadership contest has created quite a problem for the other candidates, not so much because he appears to offer a serious threat to the more established campaigns, but because he is the architect of the 'Malthouse Compromise', which once promised to solve all of Theresa May's Brexit problems. The trouble with the Malthouse Compromise is that its name includes a now highly-toxic C-word. Theresa May used 'compromise' so much in the weeks before she finally gave up and announced she was resigning that no leadership candidate worth their salt wants to drop it into conversation now. Even those who think that the best way through the Brexit deadlock really will involve a lot of compromise know they can't use that word.

Steerpike

Watch: Rory Stewart called out over made-up Brexit ‘fact’

From our UK edition

Rory Stewart is emerging as something of a dark horse in the Tory leadership contest. But while the international development secretary is an impressive candidate he is not immune to making a mishap. Richard Madeley reminded him this morning of a particular low point for Stewart: his made-up 'fact' about Brexit –that 80 per cent of people backed Theresa May's deal – during a radio interview last year: RM: Why did you say that? RS: It was a weird thing to say. It was straight after it was announced, and I wanted to say that I felt the vast majority of the country were in the centre ground and I couldn't have been more wrong. Actually as soon as I said it, I apologised 15 seconds later.

Katy Balls

What Hunt’s no deal warning reveals about the Tory leadership contest

From our UK edition

The Conservative leadership contest doesn't officially commence until June but that hasn't stopped the various contenders parading their credentials. With ten candidates now declared, the expectation is that this number will rise to at least fifteen before the nomination period starts. Jeremy Hunt is seen as one of the favourites and has today set the news agenda with an article for the Telegraph in which he suggests pursuing a no deal Brexit amounts to 'political suicide' – as it would mean going into a general election before Brexit had been delivered (as – he says – Parliament would block it): 'Attacked by the Brexit Party on the Right and the Liberal Democrats on the Left, we will face extinction.

Monday

Zoe Alipranti

Why Eurosceptics still won’t be able to crash the EU Parliament

From our UK edition

The results from the European parliamentary elections shows how EU politics is increasingly polarised. It also demonstrates how old party allegiances are fading in favour of loyalties for parties with more specific ideological and policy platforms. Against the backdrop of Brexit and divisions convulsing global politics, these elections – which have been marked by issues such as immigration and climate change becoming inextricably linked to the role of the EU – saw the highest participation in 20 years. Fragmentation that is shaking up politics domestically has been transferred to the European level. So what do these elections mean for the health of the EU project?

Steerpike

Corbynistas turn on one another over EU election meltdown

From our UK edition

There's a lot of soul-searching in the Labour party after Sunday's abysmal results in the European elections. On Monday, Corbynista commentator Paul Mason was one of the first out of the blocks, with a lengthy autopsy of Labour's electoral failure. He placed the blame squarely on Corbyn's Brexit-leaning advisors, and urged those responsible to be fired. 'Three point plan for Labour. 1. A members ballot on Remain/Reform as the new line. 2. Sack the officials responsible for this fiasco. 3. Defend Corbyn against the inevitable coup. More from me tomorrow - sign our petition here https://www.left2030.org/petition/ ' https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/1132940829335654400 Unsurprisingly, the column didn't go down well in all quarters of the hard left.

Steerpike

Jesse Norman keeps his fans waiting

From our UK edition

Is Jesse Norman standing for the Tory leadership? The Conservative MP has just taken to Twitter to provide an answer. But unfortunately 33 tweets later we are no closer to finding out. Norman wrote: ‘In recent days I’ve been asked a lot if I would stand for Leader of the Conservative Party. It’s already a crowded field, and my reply has been that the views of my constituents, party members and colleagues should shape that decision, and I will carefully consult among them’ So is it a ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Norman followed that tweet up with thoughts on the nature of ‘true conservatism’, Burke, Disraeli and Baldwin.

Robert Peston

Boris Johnson is the big winner from the Tories’ election drubbing

From our UK edition

I never thought I would live to see the Conservative and Unionist Party, dominator of British politics for centuries, falling to a vote share of nine per cent in a national election. Hindsight is mind-bending, which means I now find it impossible to believe that David Cameron could ever have conceived that holding an EU referendum would bring peace, stability and strength to the divided Tories. And as for Theresa May she will be seen by many as guilty of a strategic error to rival any in the history of this democracy, with her failure to establish what kind of withdrawal from – and future relationship with – the European Union would command a majority in the Commons before negotiating her deal with the EU.

Steerpike

Listen: Lib Dem MEP on Brexit Party: ‘They are not a real party’

From our UK edition

The Brexit Party has convincingly won the European elections, picking up nearly a third of the vote. But it seems that their success still isn't enough for some. One Lib Dem MEP – Barbara Gibson – dismissed Nigel Farage's outfit, saying it is 'not a real party'. Gibson, who was elected in the East of England alongside three Brexit Party MEPs, said she didn't recognise the legitimacy of the Brexit Party – despite the group getting nearly twice as many votes as the Lib Dems in the region in which she won her seat. Here's what she had to say: 'They are not a real party. They have not even published a manifesto. They could not do this in a general election.' Interviewer: 'Do you not recognise the validity and legitimacy of those three MEPs?' 'I don't, no.