Uk politics

Wednesday

The Spectator

Full list: The Tory MPs who will vote down May’s latest Brexit deal

Theresa May’s latest Brexit bill is set to come back to the Commons early next month, but already the signs are that it won’t be fourth time lucky for the Prime Minister and her Withdrawal Agreement. Here is the full list of 74 Tory MPs who say they will vote it down: Adam Afriyie Lucy Allan Steve Baker John Baron  Guto Bebb Ben Bradley Peter Bone Suella Braverman Andrew Bridgen Conor Burns Bill Cash Maria Caulfield Chris Chope Simon Clarke Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Tracey Crouch David Davis Nadine Dorries Steve Double Richard Drax James Duddridge  Charlie Elphicke Nigel Evans Michael Fabricant Mark Francois Marcus Fysh Zac Goldsmith Chris Green Justine Greening

Ross Clark

The EU’s role in the demise of British Steel

How ironic that British Steel goes into administration on the day before the European elections, putting 4,200 jobs at risk in a leave-voting constituency. And how utterly fatuous to blame Britain’s vote to leave the EU for the failure of the Scunthorpe plant. There is a link with Brexit, but it is not the one mentioned in passing on BBC news bulletins this morning – that our leaving the EU has frightened off European customers. If anything, the fall in the pound since 2016 should have helped British Steel, making its exports to the rest of the EU cheaper. But that has not been enough to counter the mass of

Patrick West

Nigel Farage is not ‘far right’

It is now fashionable to describe Nigel Farage as an ‘extremist’, ‘far right’ or ‘fascist’ politician. Last month, Dame Margaret Beckett denounced his ‘brand of extreme right-wing politics’; this week, Armando Iannucci tweeted: ‘Any vote for Farage on Thursday won’t be seen by him as a protest but as support for his brand of far-right UK politics.’ And on Monday, the author and journalist Ben Goldacre described the Brexit Party leader as a ‘far right ideologue who wants to abolish the NHS.’ So what prompts otherwise intelligent people like Iannucci and Goldacre to describe Farage as ‘far right’? And is that description really fair? A quick glance at Farage’s politics

Tuesday

Steerpike

Theresa May’s latest Brexit pitch goes down badly with Tory MPs

Theresa May has made her latest Brexit deal pitch – and it isn’t going down well with Tory MPs. The Prime Minister used a speech this afternoon to say Parliament will get a vote on whether to hold a second referendum if it backs the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill. But Simon Clarke – a Tory MP who supported the PM’s deal the last time around – has changed his mind and vowed to vote the deal down. Here is what he said: And Simon Clarke wasn’t the only Tory MP to vent his fury at the PM in the aftermath of her speech. Owen Paterson said the offer is a

Katy Balls

Theresa May unveils her ‘New Brexit Deal’ – will it backfire?

Theresa May has this afternoon had one last roll of the dice in the Brexit saga. In a speech entitled ‘New Brexit Deal’, the Prime Minister threw the kitchen sink at passing her deal on a fourth vote. With May expected to step down if her deal is rejected again after recess, she made an appeal to MPs to get behind a Brexit deal. May conceded that the ‘challenge of taking Brexit from the simplicity of the choice on the ballot paper to the complexity of resetting the country’s relationship with 27 of its nearest neighbours’ had ‘proved even harder’ than she had anticipated: ‘While it has proved even harder than

James Kirkup

Can Brexiteers trust Boris Johnson to deliver a ‘real’ Brexit?

The current Westminster consensus that Boris Johnson is the next Tory leader and prime minister raises all sorts of thoughts. Among them is to speculate about the sheer terror this consensus should strike in the man himself, given that Westminster consensus has been wrong about basically everything in the last three years.  For what it’s worth, I also think Johnson is the favourite to replace Theresa May, but I also thought Remain would win the referendum, that May could never be PM, and that she would win her general election with an increased majority. I suspect most of the people now sagely tipping Johnson as a dead cert made similar

Katy Balls

Theresa May is on course for an even worse defeat on her Brexit deal

By what margin will Theresa May’s Brexit deal be defeated when it returns to the Commons after recess? The expectation in government is that it will be voted down for a fourth time – and the loss will be greater than on the third vote. The hope in Downing Street is that a bad result for both the Tories and Labour in the European elections will incentivise MPs to take what could be their last shot at passing the Withdrawal Agreement – ahead of a new Tory leader coming in and shaking things up. May is also set to unveil a host of changes – what you could call concessions

Ross Clark

Brexit and the tragedy of Philip Hammond

It is still a few hours before Philip Hammond makes his speech to the CBI this evening but so much of it has been trailed in advance that delegates might as well just read the newspapers – and then book some entertainment from a juggler or fire-eater instead. We know he is going to attack what he calls the “populist right”. We know, in a thinly-veiled attack on Boris, he will say:  “There is a real risk of a new prime minister abandoning the search for a deal, and shifting towards seeking a damaging no-deal exit as a matter of policy.”  Then he is going to go on and accuse

Bruce Anderson

The case against Boris Johnson

In the old days, if the Tory party was in trouble, old hands who had seen it all before would attempt to steady the buffs with a traditional rallying-cry: ‘pro bono publico – no bloody panico.’ Today, that message is needed as never before, but would the MPs take any notice? In the nineteenth century, an Irish Parliamentarian lamented that: ‘Ireland’s cup of troubles is overflowing – and it is not yet full.’ For Ireland, read the Tory party. It seems quite likely that on Thursday, the Tories will come fifth in the Euro elections, behind the Brexit Party, Labour, the Liberals and the Greens, struggling to get into double

Monday

Brendan O’Neill

The truth about the Brexit Party’s ‘dark money’

I have a question. How come when someone like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez funds themselves through small donations it’s a sign of how engaged and democratic they are, but when the Brexit Party does the same thing it’s proof of how sinister and shady that party is? I think we all know the answer to this question. It’s because the liberal elite is staggeringly hypocritical and now applies a double standard to everyone in politics. If you’re on their side, you’re pure and clean; if you’re on the opposite side, you’re dirty and ‘dark’.  This is the news that the Brexitphobic sections of the political and chattering classes have

James Forsyth

Change UK’s latest transformation is its worst yet

As Change UK struggle for relevance, they have become a Revoke party. This is a significant shift from being a second referendum party. One might disagree with having a second referendum before the result of the first one has even been implemented; but there would be a check on the decision through the fact that the public would get to have a say before their previous vote was discarded. Parliament simply revoking Article 50, though, would be a fundamental breach of faith with the electorate. It would do untold damage to the democratic fabric of this country. Change UK’s argument, as made by Chuka Umunna on the Marr Show yesterday,

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Both no deal and referendum should be legally ‘off the table’, says Stewart

Jeremy Corbyn – Labour supporters voted ‘both Leave and Remain’ With the European elections taking place next Thursday, several senior political figures took to the TV studios to reiterate their case, including a handful of party leaders. One of these was Jeremy Corbyn, whose Brexit position has been criticised for its lack of clarity. Speaking to Andrew Marr, Corbyn defended his strategy of not picking a side: JC: Labour supporters voted both Leave and Remain, and every other party in this European election is appealing to either one side or the other, defining everybody on 2016. We’re not. We’re defining people as hopefully supporters of us – but also, people who

Rupert Darwall

One-nation Conservatism won’t help the Tories defeat Corbyn

There’s a useful rule of thumb in politics. When Conservative politicians pronounce themselves to be a One Nation Tory, you can be pretty sure they’ve got nothing sensible to say. Instead of addressing voters, they’re conversing with each other in a special form of Tory code. It’s an identifier without substance, a form of ritualistic preening often seen in the animal kingdom. Amber Rudd was at it last week. Claiming that the economy was her top priority, Rudd said she would oppose any Conservative leadership candidate who wanted to cancel HS2. The timing was unfortunate, with the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee subsequently producing a report recommending the government think

Saturday

Claire Fox

Meet the secret Brexiteers

Much has been made of the Brexit Party’s insurgency amongst people in Leave-voting communities, who have been subject to disparaging and patronising establishment contempt ever since they dared to vote the ‘wrong’ way in the EU referendum. But far less attention is given to the minority of Leave voters who work and live in the professions and other areas where support for Remain is the default position. One woman who approached the Brexit Party stall in Chester last week told me his: “I am a solicitor; my friend here is a physiotherapist and we are both fed up of being shunned by colleagues because we voted Leave. I just don’t

Friday

Tom Lowe

Behind the scenes at a Brexit Party rally: why Labour and the Tories should be terrified

In a small town in the Black Country last night, a political rally took place which should have the two main parties feeling extremely nervous. Willenhall, on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, doesn’t even have a train station. Yet well over a thousand supporters packed out a wedding venue to see the Brexit Party’s latest rally, filling every seat, standing in the aisles and exhibiting a greater enthusiasm than has been seen in British politics since the rise of Jeremy Corbyn. The Brexit Party launched only a few weeks ago but already this is looking like a movement which could have a profound effect on Britain’s politics. “I’ve never seen anything like this,”

Matthew Lynn

Jeremy Corbyn and the Project Fear we should all be afraid of

Factories would move abroad to escape punitive tariffs. The ports would be blocked up. The hospitals would run out of medicines and fruit would remain unpicked on trees. Over the last three years, we have become used to wildly over-the-top predictions about all the terrible things that would happen to the British economy if we ever get around to leaving the European Union. But if you thought that was bad, and global investors were nervous about putting money into the UK markets, wait until you see what happens as they start to get to grips with the plans should Jeremy  Corbyn and John McDonnell ever move into Numbers 10 and

Thursday

Soutiam Goodarzi

Corbyn’s half-baked plan to raise the minimum wage for under 18s

My fellow sixteen year olds can’t vote, but that doesn’t stop us being the target of Jeremy Corbyn’s magnanimity. His latest idea: to make sure we are paid the same as adults. So he proposes raising the minimum wage for everyone, including those under the age of 18, to £10 an hour. You can see the superficial appeal. Gone are the days of £5 an hour work. Thanks to Corbyn, a £20 top will take two hours of work to buy, as opposed to four. Which 16 or 17 year old could complain at that? But in reality, the idea isn’t so good. When applying for work, we’re not just

James Kirkup

Theresa May’s successor should be careful what they wish for

Let’s assume this really is the start of the last act of Theresa May’s premiership. Let’s assume too that her Withdrawal Agreement dies a fourth and final death in the Commons in early June. The Conservatives will then go looking for a new leader and prime minister. There are already no end of candidates.  But I have a question: why would anyone want the job in those circumstances? If the WA dies, there are only two options left for Britain: leave with no deal on October 31, or revoke Article 50. Anyone who tells you there is a third option is trying to sell you something.  Yes, I know that

Robert Peston

Theresa May will be gone by August

Today’s joint statement by the 1922 Committee and the PM may seem opaque but it means something very simple and unambiguous: the Tories will have a new leader – and we will have a new prime minister – by August. That is what a majority of Tory MPs want. But for reasons of decorum, they have not spelled out the exact timetable ahead of the European Union parliamentary elections, which take place on Thursday, or before the fourth and final attempt to have the PM’s Brexit deal ratified, in the week beginning June 3rd. Theresa May is being allowed the flimsiest fig leaf of control over her destiny. But sources tell

James Forsyth

Theresa May is clinging on – but not for much longer

Theresa May’s promise to bring the withdrawal agreement bill to the Commons next month has proved enough for the 1922 Executive. A statement just released by its chairman Sir Graham Brady following their meeting with the Prime Minister says simply that he and her ‘will meet following the 2nd reading of the bill to agree a timetable for the election of a new leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party’. If second reading of the bill fails, Theresa May will be out of options. At that point, she will have little choice but to stand down. Some loyalist MPs fear that a desire to hasten her departure will lead to