David Davis

David Davis is the Conservative MP for Goole and Pocklington and former Brexit secretary.

Friday

David Davis

LIVE: is it time for a Tory-Reform pact?

From our UK edition

51 min listen

As Reform chips away at the Tory vote, the Conservatives face a stark choice – join forces with Nigel Farage or fight alone. James Heale, The Spectator’s deputy political editor, will be joined by Conservative peer Daniel Hannan, journalist and politician Paul Goodman, shadow cabinet member Victoria Atkins, and former Brexit secretary David Davis as they lock horns over what a Conservative–Reform pact might look like – and whether it should happen at all.

Monday

David Davis

Podcast special: the global role of British aid

From our UK edition

45 min listen

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine shocked the world. Whilst fighting is happening in Europe, repercussions have been felt around the globe. Disruption to trade and supply chains means a rapidly worsening outlook for international development, making it harder to reach those that need support the most. Meanwhile the UK’s Covid recovery and the growing fiscal blackhole have forced Britain to make tough decisions on where our money goes, throwing into question our position as a world leader when it comes to international development and, with it, the reputation of ‘global Britain’.  Britain has always been a nation with a global mindset. But in times of crisis, do we need to reprioritise our commitments?

Saturday

David Davis

Does Nadine Dorries understand her Online Safety Bill?

From our UK edition

‘Read the Bill’. That was the response I got from Nadine Dorries, the Secretary for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when I warned of the danger her beloved Online Safety Bill poses to free speech. Dorries, a firm supporter of Liz Truss’s bid for the Tory leadership, indicated on Thursday that Truss backs the Bill in its unamended state. Numerous civil liberties organisations have campaigned against elements of the Bill from day one. And yet Dorries argues that the Bill will make free speech more secure, because somehow, she sees something they do not. Granted, the Bill does not impose outright, sweeping bans on speech.

Tuesday

David Davis

David Davis: Scotland – A deficit of power and accountability

From our UK edition

For the past few months, Scotland has been transfixed by the Holyrood inquiry seeking the truth of what went wrong with the investigations into the former First Minister, Alex Salmond.  The inquiry is investigating matters of the most serious kind. Serious for the proper handling of sexual harassment complaints in Scotland. Serious for the accountability of those in positions of power, including the Scottish Government’s Permanent Secretary and its Lord Advocate. And serious, if the former First Minister’s claims hold any water, for the future of the present First Minister’s administration of Scotland. These matters are unquestionably something that should properly be dealt with in Holyrood.

Wednesday

David Davis

Why the Cabinet must reject Theresa May’s Brexit deal

From our UK edition

Let’s be clear. If the Cabinet supports the Prime Minister’s proposed deal today, and they somehow manage to whip Parliament into allowing it to proceed, then a whole raft of irreversible consequences will flow from it.  This will begin the breakup of the United Kingdom, not just isolating Northern Ireland, but also undermining the Unionist cause in Scotland. The so called backstop will not actually be a backstop at all but a foundation for EU ambition to constrain our opportunities and limit our competitiveness. In Brussels they admit this privately. This deal will contrive to make the Customs Union inescapable forever and effectively trap the UK to perpetual domination from Brussels.

Saturday

David Davis

The great bailout

From our UK edition

Hank Paulson’s new book is called On the Brink, but it could well have been entitled Over the Edge. Hank Paulson’s new book is called On the Brink, but it could well have been entitled Over the Edge. The story of his role as US Treasury Secretary throughout the great banking crash of 2008–9 gives an impression of people being swept along by a swirling chaos of unexpected events, often completely out of control. ‘This is the economic equivalent of war,’ Paulson said in the middle of the financial crisis in 2008, scrambling to find a resolution for AIG before the insurance behemoth brought down the entire economy. Warfare is certainly what it felt like.

Wednesday

David Davis

Budget 2009: Politics before economics

From our UK edition

Quite simply, the 50p top tax rate is designed as a trap for the Tories. The IFS have already said that 45p wouldn’t raise any money, so 50p certainly won't either. It may well have the effect of driving talented people away from Britain to countries like America or Switzerland, where the top rates are 35 percent and 30 percent respectively. People may not cry over the bankers, but they will cry over us losing talented software writers and the like.  That will have a deletorious effect our ability to forge a new economy after the recession.  And it is a good demonstration of Brown doing harm to the country for the sake of politics and dividing lines. David Davis is the MP for Haltemprice and Howden.

Saturday

David Davis

A few thoughts on the apocalypse

From our UK edition

It is hard for me not to like James Lovelock. South London grammar-school boy, walker, mountain climber, scientist and admirer of Margaret Thatcher: what is not to like? But as the creator of the Gaia hypothesis, he is arguably one of the most influential and provocative radical thinkers of the last 50 years. Forty years ago he thought up the Gaia concept, and was attacked for what people misguidedly saw as a mystical idea, when it was a very scientific concept. He was described as a maverick, which he probably took as a compliment. He is doing it again, with his new book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia (Allen Lane, £20). In it he predicts that it is too late to reverse climate change. Worse, it is approaching a tipping-point, and will soon accelerate with cataclysmic consequences.

Wednesday

David Davis

Brown’s security strategy is the worst of all worlds

From our UK edition

It’s draconian, expensive and ineffective, says David Davis. All the evidence shows that the Prime Minister is eroding our civil liberties pointlessly As shadow home secretary for five years, it became an office joke that, faced with difficult policy questions, I would demand ‘get me the evidence!’ I am a scientist by training and, while 69 per cent of the public believe I took a principled stance in resigning from Parliament, that decision was also based on a rigorous empirical assessment of the evidence. The reality is that the relentless stream of repressive measures taken by this government over the last eleven years — whether 42 days pre-charge detention or any other — has not made us any safer. In many cases, they have jeopardised our security.

Saturday

David Davis

Victim nation

From our UK edition

The compensation culture costs Britain £10 billion a year. David Davis blames the human rights industry One hardly knows where to start. The teacher who won £55,000 from the taxpayer because she slipped on a chip. The parents of the Girl Guide who won £3,500 after singeing her fingers cooking sausages. The prisoner who successfully sued the government when he fell off the roof while trying to escape. The 200 travellers who were granted retrospective planning permission to set up a permanent camp on the edge of a small village because they had a ‘right to family life’. The serial murderer who successfully demanded the delivery of hard-core pornography to his prison cell because of his ‘right to information’.