Uk politics

Tuesday

Matthew Lynn

Stuart Rose is being vindicated for his Brexit wages warning

It was one of the more memorable moments of the referendum campaign. In the midst of a fevered debate between Remainers and Leavers – and with the Treasury and its allies rolling out ever more lurid predictions by the day – Stuart Rose, the former Marks & Spencer chairman who was in charge of the Remain campaign, made the point that leaving the EU might lead to higher wages. And that would, of course, be a very bad thing, at least from the perspective of a multi-millionaire businessman who had made his career as an employer of mainly relatively low-paid retail workers. The Remain campaign wasn’t the best run organisation

Steerpike

A message for the people… from Davos

Oh dear. Davos isn’t what it used to be if this year’s guest list is anything to go by. The annual gathering of the global elite in Switzerland is getting underway yet a number of world leaders – including Donald Trump – have decided to give it a miss. Still, at least the People are being represented. Mr S was amused to hear an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. As the campaign for a second referendum – or so-called People’s Vote – steps up,  People’s Vote chairman Roland Rudd – brother of Amber Rudd – appeared on the airwaves to give an interview on the issue. Only as

Monday

Katy Balls

Did Corbyn really just move closer to backing a second referendum?

After Theresa May appeared before the Commons to reveal that her Brexit Plan B looks an awful lot like her Brexit Plan A, MPs now have a chance to try and force the Prime Minister to change path. Next week, MPs will vote on May’s Brexit motion – along with a series of amendments submitted by MPs. A range of amendments have so far been submitted, with Labour’s Yvette Cooper attempting to take No Deal off the table (meaning Article 50 would be extended until a deal had been agreed upon) and Hilary Benn calling for indicative votes on four Brexit options. However, the amendment that has caused the most

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May is using Jeremy Corbyn to avoid blame for her Brexit mess

The Commons has grown rather used to Theresa May giving an update on Brexit each Monday afternoon, and still more used to the Prime Minister offering precious little in the way of new information each time she does so. Today’s statement was a little different, in that May is now asking MPs for more information, rather than MPs turning on her and accusing her of not telling them anything. She laboured rather heavily on the point that Jeremy Corbyn has so far refused to attend the cross-party talks designed to work out an agreement that the Commons can stomach, introducing it early in her statement, and returning to the point

Robert Peston

The Prime Minister’s Brexit plans are all the same: run the clock down to 29 March

The Prime Minister’s plans B, C , D and E are all the same: run the clock as close as possible to 29 March, Brexit Day, so that enough of the critics to her Brexit plan blink at the risk of either crashing out with no deal or seeing Brexit cancelled such that it passes at the last. In two words, the Brexit strategy is ‘Tick Tock’. Yesterday’s conference-call cabinet meeting was a masterclass in Theresa May as bulldozer and ministers ‘sitting back’, according to one of them. She outlined as her preferred course the only approach that stands a chance of keeping her party together, which I’ve been reporting

Anthony Browne

The problem with backing out of Brexit

Are we suffering a national humiliation? There has been a lot of commentary – not least from elements of the Remain-supporting press – about how the UK has become an international laughing stock. Papers in other countries have joined in the chuckling. Recent events have not been good for our reputation for stability and sanity. However, the one thing that the UK could do to destroy what international credibility it has left, is to change its mind on Brexit, and go back to the EU asking whether we can stay after all. Our national humiliation would be complete. We would be the employee who stormed out publicly, insisting to everyone

Katy Balls

The message behind Labour’s latest party broadcast

When Labour released the party political broadcast Our Town, it was enough to worry aides in No.10. The slick video saw the party zone in on voters in towns that had voted heavily to Leave. Filmed in areas including Mansfield, the video sent a clear message: Jeremy Corbyn is on a mission to appeal to the Brexit voters on whom the Tories now rely. Last week, the party released the next video in that series, Our Country. Although Corbyn’s confidence vote against the government stole the limelight at the time of release, the video does shed some light on how Labour plans to fight the next election (ideally this year):

Sunday

James Forsyth

May goes back to the backstop

Today’s Cabinet conference call was more illuminating in terms of direction of travel than the details of what Theresa May is actually going to do. It is now clear that May’s approach is to try and put the Tory DUP alliance back together by getting something on the backstop rather than trying to find some cross party consensus. One of the reasons for this is that the Labour leadership’s reluctance to play ball makes it very hard to get the numbers for any compromise deal. I am told that David Lidington, who had been leading the cross party talks, reluctantly acknowledged this point. As one Cabinet Minister put it to

Katy Balls

Are Tory Brexiteers slowly coming round to May’s Brexit deal?

After Theresa May’s Brexit deal was defeated by 230 votes in the Commons last week, there was speculation that May would lean towards a softer Brexit in order to get a deal through. Despite holding a series of cross-party talks in this vein, that now looks unlikely. As James reports on Coffee House, May is expected to announce that she will continue to seek backstop concessions in a bid to win back Tory and DUP support. Given the level of Brexiteer opposition to May’s deal, that may seem like a long shot. But it’s worth noting that in recent days, leading Leave MPs appear to have softened their opposition to

Saturday

James Forsyth

Why a customs union is looking less likely

Immediately after the government’s crushing defeat on Tuesday night, a slew of Cabinet Ministers thought that it was inevitable that Theresa May would have to make some kind of concession on the customs union to get a deal through parliament. But, as I say in The Sun this morning, this option has run into two obstacles. First, Corbyn and McDonnell aren’t playing ball. Without their blessing, there is no way you could get 116 Labour MPs to vote with a Tory PM. Secondly, it has become clear that agreeing to a customs union would not only split the Tory party, lead to at least one Cabinet resignation, but would also—according

Friday

Harry Mount

Is this finally Boris Johnson’s moment?

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more. That was the message of Boris Johnson’s speech this morning at a JCB factory in Staffordshire. He admitted this week that he regretted bottling his leadership bid in 2016. This time is his last chance to have a go at swiping the ultimate prize – the keys to Downing Street – a prize he’s coveted since he was a boy. Boris’s earliest known quotation is when, asked by his sister Rachel as a child what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, “World King.” He’s thinner and more smartly dressed than he’s been for years. That might have been influenced by the

Brendan O’Neill

The cheer on Question Time that will terrify Corbyn’s Labour

How brilliant was that cheer on Question Time last night? Isabel Oakeshott said Theresa May should just walk away from the EU. Fiona Bruce asked her if she meant we should pursue ‘No Deal’. ‘Yes’, said Oakeshott and there it was, instantly, contagiously, the loudest cheer I can remember hearing from a Question Time audience. This was no polite applause or murmur of approval. It was a statement — a noisy, rebellious statement of the people’s continuing and profound attachment to the idea of leaving the European Union, deal or no deal. It was a cheer that should echo through the nation. That will chill the bones of the political establishment. Which

Steerpike

Corbyn gives his verdict on a second Brexit referendum

Jeremy Corbyn is under mounting pressure to back a second referendum. Labour MPs have grouped together to try and persuade their leader to side with the People’s Vote campaign in order to break the Brexit deadlock. But so far, Corbyn doesn’t seem keen on the idea, preferring instead to sit on the fence. The same isn’t quite true of his brother, Piers, who in the early hours of this morning took to Twitter to make his views on a second referendum perfectly clear: Mr S thinks the People’s Vote brigade will be hoping that Jeremy doesn’t turn to Piers for advice on what to do next…

Katy Balls

Will the DUP pave the way for a softer Brexit?

On Monday, Theresa May must return to the House of Commons and lay out her Brexit Plan B following the government’s historic defeat on her preferred deal. After losing that vote by 230 votes, even May’s closest allies believe she must propose something different to her Plan A. In that vein, the Prime Minister has been meeting with MPs from across the House in a bid to work out what Brexit deal can command a majority in the Commons. So far the groups who have gone to see her have demanded rather different things. The Green’s Caroline Lucas is after a second referendum (the government has issued a one-page document

James Forsyth

The Norway v People’s Vote fight

One of the bitterest divides in British politics right now is between advocates of a second referendum and those who favour the Norway option. They both want to be the last alternative standing to no deal; and are happy to trash each other in the process. On Politics Live tonight, Tony Blair, the most prominent advocate of a second referendum, laid into the Norway option. He derided it as a ‘pointless Brexit’, as it would leave the UK following the rules of the single market but with less say in how they are made. Nick Boles, the principal Tory advocate of Norway plus, then hit back in his own interview

Rupert Darwall

What’s the real reason Greg Clark doesn’t like Brexit?

To those who’ve known Greg Clark for any length of time, the transformation of the mild-mannered business secretary into the Cabinet’s most fervent Remainer requires some kind of explanation. So what’s the real reason Clark finds Brexit a threat? Forget about protecting the automotive industry and manufacturing generally. The car industry is already reeling from the government’s hostile environment towards car ownership. Last year, car sales fell for the second year in a row, with diesel vehicles down 29.6 per cent. Supply was hit by testing to meet new emissions standards and demand dented by the government’s ongoing war on diesel. And there’s worse to come with Michael Gove’s air quality

Thursday

Graham Gudgin

The vote on May’s deal was less important than you might think

Now that the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement has been decisively rejected by Parliament, the challenge, as Theresa May said last night, is to find an alternative way forward. But the reality is that the fall of the agreement is less important for the UK than widely assumed. It did not pin down any long-term trade arrangements. Even in the short term, the main gain to the UK was a transition period which now looks less essential than was the case when it was first mooted over a year ago. It is true that there is now a possibility of tariffs from March 30th but these tariffs are mostly small and the

James Kirkup

Brexiteers are destroying their own dream

Are some Brexiteers addicted to disappointment and frustration? Do they so crave the righteous indignation that flows from being thwarted that they are actively trying to sabotage their own project? How else to explain the extraordinary strategic incompetence of Tory MPs who say they want Britain to leave the EU yet behave in a way that makes it increasingly likely that Britain will not do so? Brexit-backing readers may well dismiss my thoughts on Brexiteer strategy because I am, of course, a dreadful Remainer. More accurately, I voted to remain and I believe that leaving the EU will give the UK a range of possible futures that are less economically

James Forsyth

How long can Corbyn hold out against a second referendum?

Jeremy Corbyn is no enthusiast for a second referendum. He wants to, as his speech today suggested, hold further motions of no confidence in the government to try and force an election rather than have to decide on what other option he is going to support. But having tried and failed in one confidence motion, this is a more difficult position for him to maintain. Vince Cable has now said that Corbyn can’t rely on Lib Dem support in future confidence motions and has suggested that other opposition parties will soon take the same view. The aim of this tactic, to make clear that Labour can’t force a general election

Steerpike

Watch: Labour supporters heckle the media

You would think that after being Labour leader for three years, some of the shine would have worn off Jeremy Corbyn. But among the devoted, ‘JC’ is still an object of veneration who can do wrong, which means of course that any criticism of him is considered blasphemy. The Corbyn cult were in strong form today, when the Labour leader gave a speech in Hastings to set out his Brexit policy. While the crowd were initially quiet, at the first sign of a journalist asking Corbyn a difficult question (about why he would not talk with the Prime Minister about Brexit) they immediately sprang into action, booing the journalist and