Uk politics

Friday

Robert Peston

Could Theresa May’s latest attack on Corbyn backfire?

The Prime Minister might have been a bit too clever when attacking Corbyn’s and Labour’s opposition to her Brexit deal. Some four hours in to her 14 hour flight to the G20 leading nations’ summit in Argentina, she told journalists: “What they are doing is advocating rejecting the deal we negotiated with the European Union without having any proper alternative to it. “They say they don’t want ‘no-deal’ but by appearing to reject a temporary backstop they are effectively advocating no-deal, because without a backstop there is no deal”. So she is accusing Labour of ushering in the kind of economic no-deal calamity – a devastating recession that would see the income of the U.K.

Thursday

Steerpike

Full text: Liz Truss’s Parliamentarian speech – the backstop, Andrew Bridgen and overpaid bureaucrats

With the 2017 Parliamentarian of the Year winner Ruth Davidson on maternity leave, Liz Truss stepped in to present this year's awards – taking the opportunity to send up her cabinet colleagues, fellow MPs and the US president. Below is her speech in full: It's fantastic to be here this evening. I have to admit it was quite late when I got booked in as your guest of honour. And I did wonder whether or not I was first choice, or if Fraser had had to ring as many people as the Prime Minister did to recruit the new Brexit Secretary. I hear that Ruth Davidson was unavailable. As you pointed out she's got a lovely new baby son and I do hope that he will grow up to see the day when we're out of the backstop.

Steerpike

Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year 2018, in pictures

To the Spectator's Parliamentarian of the Year awards where politicians from across the political divide gathered to celebrate the best of Westminster. After a year which saw numerous cabinet resignations, failed coups and Brexit barneys, the annual awards proved more topical than ever. Liz Truss stepped in for last year's Parliamentarian winner Ruth Davidson – currently on maternity leave – to host the event. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury set the tone for the evening with a speech which held no punches. Of her new Cabinet colleague Steve Barclay, Truss joked that when it came to picking a host for the evening's awards, she hoped she wasn't as far down the list as Barclay was for the role of Brexit Secretary.

Steerpike

Watch: Geoffrey Cox’s minister of the year acceptance speech

Geoffrey Cox's rousing warm-up act for Theresa May at Tory party conference elevated the Attorney General's public profile. In the weeks since, Cox's importance has continued to grow, as cabinet ministers – both remainers and leavers – have come to depend on his legal know-how to interpret the Brexit deal. And now, Cox has been named minister of the year at The Spectator's Parliamentarian of the year awards last night. Here's what he had to say: 'Well, I'm incredibly grateful, privileged and honoured to have been awarded this tremendous and distinguished award. I have to say that, after just four months in the cabinet, it comes as both a surprise and a pleasant shock....

James Forsyth

Why Theresa May might end up embracing a second referendum

There are few things in the Brexit debate that are not disputed. But there is one thing that pretty much everyone accepts: that Theresa May believes in her deal. She really does think it is the right answer to the referendum result. However, as I say in the magazine this week, her deal is unlikely to get through the Commons. But what can May do given that she wants her deal to pass? Well, there is one route that might work for her: a second referendum. If the Commons won’t back her deal, then maybe the country will. This would require a massive volte-face from May, and her exasperated reaction when asked about a so-called ‘People’s Vote’ shows she isn’t currently entertaining the idea.

Matthew Lynn

The problem with a ‘no deal’ Brexit

There have probably been worse branding campaigns in history. Cadbury’s apparent attempt to drop the word ‘Easter’ from its egg hunts was a clunker of cosmic proportions. The launch of New Coke has found its way into the textbooks as a masterclass in how to trash one of the greatest brands in the world, and Nivea's 'White Is Purity’ campaign for its skin creams last year had to be dropped very quickly after the inevitable backlash. The attempt to sell a ‘No Deal’ Brexit is not quite up there with those disasters. But it is getting close. In truth, there is nothing terribly wrong with leaving the European Union without an agreement, and it might well be better than the alternative we are being bullied into.

Alex Massie

The moment Theresa May sealed our Brexit fate

Theresa May is in Scotland today which is one way of ascertaining the depth of the hole in which she finds herself. One day, prime ministerial visits to Scotland – or, indeed, to Northern Ireland or Wales – will cease to be considered newsworthy events in their own right. Until such time as they are not rarities, however, they are doomed to be seen as gestures. A whistle-stop tour of the United Kingdom’s northern and western extremities is not enough, no matter how much the Prime Minister might enjoy a day or two away from the Westminster snake-pit. This visit, like so many others, will be an occasion for saying at least some of the right things but it will not make any meaningful difference to anything that is actually meaningful.

Matt Kilcoyne

Remaining in the EU would come at a big price for Britain

We're familiar with the warnings about the cost of Brexit. The 'People's Vote' campaign released an estimate yesterday suggesting that Theresa May's deal will leave the UK £100bn worse off a year. Tomorrow, the Treasury will unveil its forecasts of the economic impact of Brexit. But what about the price of staying put in the EU? Whatever those clamouring for a 'People's Vote' might claim, no Brexit does have a cost. Firstly, the price in terms of political capital will be significant. What does going back on the referendum result say to the 17.4million voters who voted Leave? What about the damage done to trust in our institutions and our politicians? Or to the idea that voters can change our country’s destiny by the power of their choices at the ballot box?

Wednesday

Steerpike

Gary Lineker’s Brexit muddle

When Gary Lineker isn’t talking about football there is another subject that he likes to bang on about: Brexit. Lineker has backed the 'People’s Vote' campaign and is calling for a second referendum. As the Chancellor Philip Hammond unveiled his Brexit forecasts this morning, Lineker was spurred into action on Twitter: The only problem? That is the message the Treasury was selling 2.5 years ago. Back in May 2016, the chancellor’s predecessor George Osborne warned that Brexit would tip Britain into a year-long recession and cause a ‘profound’ economic shock. We were also told by David Cameron that a vote to Leave would be the ‘self-destruct option’. Of course in the end that never happened.

Steerpike

Diane Abbott takes a pop at police

If Jeremy Corbyn makes it to No.10, then Diane Abbott will be Home Secretary. In that role, Abbott will be ultimately responsible for the police. But the Labour MP isn't doing much to win over the affection of the thin blue line. In a tweet yesterday, Abbott had a pop at police officers for knocking suspects off mopeds. Her criticism has unsurprisingly not gone down well with officers: Oh dear...

Alex Massie

The moment Theresa May sealed our Brexit fate | 28 November 2018

Theresa May is in Scotland today which is one way of ascertaining the depth of the hole in which she finds herself. One day, prime ministerial visits to Scotland – or, indeed, to Northern Ireland or Wales – will cease to be considered newsworthy events in their own right. Until such time as they are not rarities, however, they are doomed to be seen as gestures. A whistle-stop tour of the United Kingdom’s northern and western extremities is not enough, no matter how much the Prime Minister might enjoy a day or two away from the Westminster snake-pit. This visit, like so many others, will be an occasion for saying at least some of the right things but it will not make any meaningful difference to anything that is actually meaningful.

Ross Clark

Philip Hammond has exposed the problem with the Treasury’s Brexit forecast

It is the decimal point which really gets me. If we have a ‘no deal’ Brexit, according to Treasury forecasters, the economy will be 7.6 per cent lower in 15 years’ time than it would be if we didn’t leave the EU. What, not 7.7 per cent? It is an age-old trick: express your guesswork with a decimal point or two on the end and hope that it sounds a bit more convincing, as if a bit more science has gone into it. But sorry, the Treasury should not be fooling anyone this time.

Charles Moore

The UK must avoid the backstop trap

Theresa May, William Hague and others say that the EU will not want to trap Britain in the backstop because it is not in its interest. It will want to move to a free-trade agreement for its own benefit. If that is so, why is the backstop the thing above all others upon which the EU insists? One reason why Brexiteers have to oppose the backstop absolutely is that it is yet another manifestation of Britain’s delusion in every European negotiation over nearly 50 years, which is that we should grab ‘practical’ advantages and concede ‘windy’ principles. This sounds good, but it invariably means that we are trapped later. The principles acquire legal force.

Katy Balls

Is the May-Corbyn television debate pointless?

Theresa May has two weeks to sell her deal to MPs ahead of the meaningful vote on Tuesday 11 December. The fact that Philip Hammond used an interview this morning meant for selling the deal to state that at present there was no consensus in favour of it tells you everything you need to know about how that is going. There are gloomy estimates that the government could lose the vote by as much as 200 – that seems steep but a defeat around the 100 mark is beginning to seem likely. So, how does No.10 plan to turn things around? There's a special Brexit grid which will see a topic focus for each day – economy, security, trade – in the build up. Perhaps the most striking part of the Downing Street campaign is the mooted TV debate. No.

Nick Cohen

The quack doctors of Brexit ignore the cure to Britain’s strife

The British are like patients with an incurable illness. Thinking and worrying can do no good, but those who understand Britain’s sickness can think of nothing else. Rationally, we understand there is nothing we can do about Brexit until and unless the balance of forces shifts in Westminster. No one knows what will happen next. No one can say when the European question will be settled, and we will be free to to get on with our lives as best we can. All options have been discussed to the point of exhaustion and beyond. But like patients who cannot shut their illness from their minds, we can’t help ourselves. We talk in circles in arguments without end. Brexit was meant to bring back control, but has left us impotent and at the mercy of impostors promising miracle cures.

Tuesday

Robert Peston

Could Jeremy Corbyn be about to back a second referendum?

We've all been focussing on the crisis that would ensue if – as expected – the PM loses the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal ‪on 11 December‬. But just for a moment think about the implications if she wins, because they too would be momentous. To state the obvious, we'd be out of the EU on terms that are semi-blind – we wouldn't know our long-term destination. But we would be out. And she, the PM, would rein supreme. She would have crushed her opponents, who would have lost all hope of political advancement or favour. And having delivered Brexit against the odds, she could be pretty confident in staying PM for as long as she wanted, perhaps well beyond the next election – and the election itself would be off the cards till 2022.

Matt Kilcoyne

Remaining in the EU would come at a big price for Britain | 27 November 2018

We're familiar with the warnings about the cost of Brexit. The 'People's Vote' campaign released an estimate yesterday suggesting that Theresa May's deal will leave the UK £100bn worse off a year. Tomorrow, the Treasury will unveil its forecasts of the economic impact of Brexit. But what about the price of staying put in the EU? Whatever those clamouring for a 'People's Vote' might claim, no Brexit does have a cost. Firstly, the price in terms of political capital will be significant. What does going back on the referendum result say to the 17.4million voters who voted Leave? What about the damage done to trust in our institutions and our politicians?

Monday

Steve Bell

The trouble with drawing Jeremy Corbyn

‘What would happen if somebody ever came to power that you actually agreed with?’ It's not a question that troubles most people, but spare a thought for the left-wing satirist who is used to lacerating Tory, Labour and coalition governments with equal ferocity. Yet while I am sometimes asked this question, any party – in government or in opposition ­– has been so far from representing my own views that it has always remained largely hypothetical. Until now. How on earth can I attack Jeremy Corbyn when I find myself agreeing with most of what he says? After all, political cartooning is an offensive, attacking medium. Or it is nothing.

Freddy Gray

Why Donald Trump thinks the Brexit deal is no good for US-UK trade

Donald Trump has always been consistent on Brexit. He admired the spirit of the vote, a freedom-loving people defying their elites, as his deplorables would go on to do. He likes Britain. He dislikes the EU, which he has always regarded as a sort of protection racket for German manufacturing and an institution that gets in the way of his golf course development. Ever since Trump’s inauguration, he has made it clear that America is ready to give Britain the ‘beautiful’ free trade deal that so excites Brexiteers. But he and his advisers have been consistently disappointed by May’s insistence that she must stick by E.U. terms and regulations at the expense of improving and deepening the UK-US relationship.