Tag: Tory

He is also a lousy leader, and at a time when Britain needs a leader of presence, courage, intellect and vision. The 2016 referendum result was indeed the outcome of a class society increasingly riven by inequality. Jeff Wallace Cardiff • John Harris is too kind to the Labour leadership. If a new vote changed the outcome of the last one, it would not put to sleep the issue of the relationship between the UK and the EU. Leadership is not just about charging in regardless. Corbyn has to think about how to make the best out of the situation we are in and how to reconcile irreconcilable demands and expectations: to be a statesman, not a demagogue. John Harris is more up to date – Brexit is indeed a “class issue” and Labour should challenge it by supporting a people’s vote. John Chowcat Hythe, Kent • John Harris’s use of the word “colluding” seems ill-judged, not in its use but in its scope. But it was not just a failure of the Conservatives to listen, it was Labour as well, in power from 1997 to 2010. He is also right that Jeremy Corbyn, the invisible man of politics, is barely interested in halting the damage Brexit will wreak on these downtrodden communities (which a mainly middle class membership does not represent) by calling for a people’s vote, because he is a thinly disguised closet Brexiter.

May's Brussels trip only start of 'endless' EU trade talks Read more Both sides are racing to complete the negotiations in time for Sunday’s EU summit, where the Brexit deal is due to be agreed between the UK and the 27 countries remaining in the EU, although May will then have to push the deal through parliament at a time when dozens of Tories have said they cannot support it. Cabinet discussed the political declaration at a two-and-a-half-hour meeting which overran because so many people wanted to speak, although sources said the meeting was “relatively calm” by recent standards. Senior ministers were particularly keen to find ways to sell the deal to Conservative colleagues. The EU’s deputy chef negotiator, Sabine Weyand, told ambassadors for the member states on Tuesday evening that negotiations on the political declaration had stalled on the issues of Gibraltar, the demands from European fishermen for access to British waters, and the UK’s hopes to link the language on the trade in goods to the Chequers proposals and “frictionless trade”. Earlier on Tuesday, Rees-Mogg was forced to deny that his attempt to remove May had ended in a humiliating failure, even though only 26 MPs had publicly said they had submitted a letter demanding a vote of no confidence in her leadership, well short of the 48 required. “We will see what letters come in due time. Asked whether it might prove tricky to oust May in a full confidence vote given that the group was struggling to secure 48 names, he said few of his colleagues wanted the prime minister to continue to lead the party into an election due in 2022. Overnight, critics of the prime minister did little to hide their frustration that a confidence vote had not yet been triggered. Eurosceptic MPs insisted that more letters had been submitted privately and Baker, a former Brexit minister and ERG member, suggested that MPs who had failed to deliver on promises. DUP refuses to support May's Brexit deal for second day in row Read more Rees-Mogg insisted he had not predicted that the contest would be triggered this week and suggested more colleagues would follow if the prime minister lost the vote on her Brexit deal in parliament.

Senior Conservatives have demanded that the party remove the whip from anonymous MPs who briefed violent rhetoric to Sunday papers, including one who quipped that Theresa May should “bring her own noose” to her next backbenchers’ meeting. During a statement by the prime minister in the Commons, May called for more care to be taken with the language used, even during heated debate. “There are passionate beliefs on this subject ... but whatever the subject, we should all be careful about our language.” Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister who has become one of the prime minister’s fiercest public critics, called for Tory whips to seek out who had made the anonymous remarks. He said colleagues using language about nooses and knives have “throughly disgraced” themselves. Speaking in Brussels, Duncan Smith said: “It has nothing to do with our politics, it has nothing to do with this issue.” Responding to May in the Commons, Corbyn said he hoped the debate could be conducted without similar language. Starmer called the briefings “nothing short of disgraceful” and said MPs should know better. A No 10 spokesman said that there would be “no investigation” by the whips into which MPs had briefed Sunday newspapers. “Personal vitriol has no place in our politics.” One Tory MP and public critic of May, Mark Francois, said the language was “unacceptable” but added that that he would not tell the Conservative chief whip, how to do his job. He said the language was born of frustration: “The problem is that there is a lot of frustration on the backbenches at the moment, both among leavers and remainers, at the general state of play. “We are fed up of seeing the ERG [European Research Group] bullying and undermining the PM because of their so called ‘vision’ of Brexit.” Former business minister Anna Soubry tweeted: “I am appalled that my colleague Mark Francois failed unequivocally to condemn the disgraceful and dangerous language used by a fellow Conservative MP against the PM.” She called it “shameful”.

Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, has told MPs that the Canada-style Brexit favoured by Tory Brexiters would be “a shortcut to no deal”. He made the comment in the Commons as he gave a statement on developments in the Brexit talks. He also insisted that any backstop agreed to by the UK government would be time limited, and he ruled out what Labour MPs said might be a “blind” Brexit, saying the deal would have to include precise details of the future trade relationship. Nicola Sturgeon has told the Scottish National party conference that Brexit makes independence more likely than ever, as she challenged activists to ramp up their efforts in persuading voters across the country of the case for leaving the UK. The economic boost of a Brexit deal involving preferential access to the UK for EU citizens could outweigh the benefits of ending free movement, according to the goverment’s migration adviser. As Jamie Grierson reports, the prime minister, Theresa May, has confirmed that people from EU countries will be treated the same as those across the rest of the world when the new immigration system is introduced after Brexit. But Prof Alan Manning, whose migration advisory committee (MAC) drew up a government-commissioned report recommending the change, said there would only be “modest” benefits from ending the current system. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, has warned Saudi Arabia that its friendship with the UK depends on shared values, after he demanded answers over claims that a Saudi hit squad may have played a role in the disappearance and possible killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That’s all from me for today. Thanks for the comments.

Labour has recovered three points since the end of last week. Voters strongly back ‘trustworthy’ May as Johnson’s leadership bid backfires Read more The poll, taken after Theresa May’s conference speech, revealed that her personal approval rating rose from -14% to -12% since last week. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s personal rating fell from -18% to -20%. In her conference speech she sought to drive a wedge between moderate Labour voters and Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Of the two party leaders, 25% of respondents said they thought May had performed best during the conference season, while 20% thought Corbyn had. He said he was determined “to rebuild our economy, communities and public services, but also to democratise them, and change the way our economic system is run in the interests of the majority”. Among Tory supporters this figure rose to 87%. The latest poll findings are a boon for May’s leadership, because they place her ahead of both Corbyn and her Tory rival Boris Johnson – 43% of respondents said they thought that May has the nation’s best interests at heart, compared with 38% for Corbyn and only 30% for Johnson. The figures suggest that Johnson’s star appeal, which drew long queues of conference delegates to watch his speech, does not translate into broader political support among Tory voters. Opinium’s findings are based on a survey of 2,007 adults online.

A fortnight ago, Jacob Rees-Mogg, David Davis, Steve Baker, Boris Johnson and other leading members of the European Research Group squeezed themselves into a Westminster committee room to share their excitement at having found a single economist who was optimistic about Brexit. Here was the way forward. Happy days all round. IEA's Brexit proposals: the main points Read more Until today, when many of the usual suspects – with the exception of Boris, who tweeted his undying solidarity with anything and anyone that helped him become Tory leader – rattled around in a barely half full Gladstone library of the Liberal Club to tell a handful of reporters that – much to their surprise – they had found a second economist who was tremendously enthusiastic about Brexit. Fickle doesn’t begin to describe them. The problem with the Brexit negotiations so far, he declared confidently, was that we had been treating them as a problem singular to the UK and the EU. PM urged to drop Chequers in order to win 'Brexit prize' Read more What we should have been doing is signing loads of other trade deals with the US and the rest of the world behind the EU’s back – the US was apparently just gagging to do deals before it knew what final trade arrangement we had agreed with the EU – because the EU would definitely never have found out was going on and pointed out its illegality, said the country’s leading trade lawyer, failing to grasp the basics of international trade. As if to prove he really was as stupid as he sounded, Singham went on to suggest that post-Brexit, the UK might do some individual trade deals with separate EU countries. Which explained both why he had invariably come off worse in all negotiations and why he had done almost nothing during his time as Brexit secretary. While everyone seemingly agreed Brexit was a terrible idea, the party leadership seemed to think the solution lay in only offering people a vote on a bad deal or an even worse deal.

It had always been the EU’s intention to have something on paper from their side on the political declaration about the future trade deal by the October leaders’ summit, and now this could be billed as a counter-offer. So many of the problems facing May come back to the so-called backstop proposal put forward by the government in December, which effectively means that in the event of a no-deal exit there would be no change at the Irish border – even if that means keeping Northern Ireland effectively inside the EU’s single market and customs union. So what happens to May’s plans? Norway would be the one you could assemble a cross-party majority for.” But other Tories are pulling in the opposite direction. At a meeting of the cabinet on Monday some of the frustrations will be played out. “The problem with a Canada-style free trade agreement is it doesn’t solve the Irish border,” said one cabinet minister. Since Salzburg, figures on both the Remain and Leave wings of the party believe she now stands less chance of being the person who actually delivers Brexit – raising the prospect of a leadership election before 29 March. Downing Street sources deny such planning is taking place – but senior figures also agree that, should the Commons reject all options, anything could happen. They may, however, back a new referendum on the final Brexit deal. Most would probably back a second referendum in the event of no deal.

A fair few political gamblers will be counting their losses after Ruth Davidson’s firm denial that she harbours any wish ever to become prime minister. The Scottish Conservative leader made clear in an interview at the weekend that her personal life, her burgeoning family and her mental health would all suffer were she to become a Tory MP, or enter national politics. The result of our culture is a cavalcade of politicians bearing no resemblance to those they claim to represent The Scottish Tory leader’s frankness has been applauded by campaigners for helping to combat the stigma surrounding mental illness. Self-harm in particular is rarely disclosed or understood in discussions about psychological wellbeing, although Davidson must surely see the tension inherent in seeking to end stigma about mental illness while the party she proudly represents tears down mental health provision. Riffling through biographies of senior politicians, it’s clear that seeing elected office as a career end in itself is hardly an anomaly: Theresa May spoke of her desire, while still at university, to be the first female prime minister, and was reportedly enraged when Margaret Thatcher beat her to it. A recent article by Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph lamented the fact that for the first time in history, a Conservative cabinet has no Old Etonians, thanks to Boris Johnson’s departure. This lingering deference to the performatively posh, brashly arrogant and those convinced they have been groomed for power is not unusual. The admission by the Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, that she didn’t understand the politics of the province revealed how so many politicians see the pursuit of power as the main motivation, with deep knowledge viewed as passé. We need people with nonprofessional backgrounds, older people and candidates with children and interesting personal histories that inform their politics. But who would be a politician when you can, instead, have a life?

Theresa May has insisted the only alternative to her Chequers plan is crashing out of the EU with no deal, prompting her critics on the right of the Conservative party to say she risks a “car crash” if she sticks to her policy. The prime minister told the BBC on Monday she was confident of getting a deal based on Chequers, whereby the UK would agree to sign up to a “common rulebook” for food and goods, which is deeply unpopular with hard Brexiters. May said she would then put the anticipated exit agreement to parliament for MPs to endorse, probably in November, and insisted there would be no alternative other than no deal. May also dismissed alternative plans for the Irish border, including the one put forward last week by the ERG. It is still a hard border,” the prime minister said. “What we’ve done is listen to the people of Northern Ireland … They don’t want a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. The only proposal that has been put forward that delivers on them not having that hard border, and ensures that we don’t carve up the United Kingdom, is the Chequers plan.” Johnson had written in his Telegraph column that Brexit would be “a total write-off” unless May ripped up her plans for the Irish border. “I think it is worth pointing out that Boris Johnson was a member of the cabinet which agreed to the December joint report, including the backstop. And he was also a member of the cabinet subcommittee which agreed the UK’s proposed customs backstop.” May had earlier told the BBC the options put forward by the EU for Brexit were unacceptable. “Or, on the other side, a basic free trade agreement but carving Northern Ireland out and effectively keeping Northern Ireland in the European Union and Great Britain out.

It was mercilessly lampooned last summer as the “Tory Glastonbury” – a paddock of largely male Conservative supporters in red chinos who could only dream of aping the adulation Jeremy Corbyn received from young fans at the music festival months earlier. The vision behind the Big Tent Ideas festival, brainchild of the Tory MP George Freeman, was to to connect the party with young people and build a centre-right movement to propel it forward. One year on, however, the festival has returned with a new strategy. “It’s totally different. I have made it non-party political so that MPs, peers and others from the centre left can also get involved,” said Freeman. The writer Maya Goodfellow, a Labour supporter, said it also derived from a notion that politics and culture should not be separate. Goodfellow said of her experience as a speaker at Labour Live: “The thing I really enjoyed was that people came up to me afterwards and wanted to continue with the discussion after the event had officially ended, and we were able to do that. Meanwhile, “festivals of ideas” have become part of the university landscape. “People are genuinely concerned and, personally, I think that they like engaging more directly with speakers because they often just don’t feel they are listened to by political decision makers.” Freeman said events like the Big Tent Ideas festival were important because “for a generation under 40 the traditional party conference is as dead as a dodo”. The left has actually been a bit better at recognising that but we are changing that.”