“May has asked Britain to let her stay on in Downing Street for “the next few years” so she can deliver Brexit. Addressing her future for the first time since the general election disaster, the PM said she will remain her party’s leader only for “as long as they want me”. She also repeatedly refused to commit to fighting the next general election as Tory boss, when interviewed by The Sun to mark her first year in power today. But Mrs May did appeal for more time to finish the huge job of delivering a successful EU exit, set for March 29, 2019.” – The Sun
Brexit:
>Today: James Arnell in Comment: Johnson is right. Brussels can go whistle for €100 billion.
>Yesterday: Duncan Sim in Think Tanks: Global Britain must advance Britain’s soft power – not just our trade
“Theresa May could be one the end of a humiliating defeat on her flagship Brexit legislation as Labour threaten to block her repeal bill. The Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer says his party cannot support it in its current form and is hunting for a number of concessions. And with the Prime Minister struggling with a wafer thin majority in the Commons it would only take a handful of pro-EU Tory MPs to help wreck the carefully crafted bill. Previously known as the “great repeal bill”, it will be published this morning by Brexit Secretary David Davis as the European Union (withdrawal) bill, and lays out how EU law will be transferred onto the British statute book.” – The Sun
>Today: ToryDiary: Tugendhat, Morgan, Halfon elected. The new power of the Select Committees.
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Tory MPs, the Repeal Bill, high motives for backing it, and a lower one too: self-preservation
“Personality matters in politics. May is temperamentally ill-suited to brokering anything historic with Merkel or Macron to break the deadlock. This is not a leader who can move history, as Kohl or Margaret Thatcher did. Who might be able to? I have written before of the rising next Tory generation, and it may be that one or more of its members runs in a leadership contest. But in what should be understood as a national emergency, this does not seem like a sensible time for an experiment. What is needed is the equivalent of a wartime appointment to restore grip and set direction.” – The Times (£)
Editorial:
“The Conservative Party is a failing organisation beset by an atmosphere of crisis that needs fundamental reform, one of its most senior backbenchers has warned. In an unflinching analysis of why the Tories failed to win a majority in June, Bernard Jenkin blamed an obsession with narrow sound bites that failed to offer hope or vision to the country. He said that this had been compounded by an “underlying malaise” in party HQ and an “over-reliance on a small pool of very large donors” that sent a message that the Tories were not committed to the “less fortunate”.” – The Times (£)
>Yesterday:
“Conservative MPs rounded on Jeremy Corbyn as they blamed his supporters for an increase in abuse directed at election candidates. A debate at Westminster Hall was told that Tory whips had been dealing with “three credible threats” to MPs’ security every week since the election, including death threats. Labour and SNP MPs said that abuse was not unique to one party, but several Conservative MPs pinned the blame on supporters of Mr Corbyn, whose leadership of the Labour Party they said had provoked vitriol from activists who “dehumanised” their opponents. Social media companies were criticised by both sides, and one MP said that anonymous accounts should be banned to stamp out trolling.” – The Times (£)
Comment:
>Yesterday:
“Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to end austerity would cost taxpayers £33 billion, economic experts have warned – and that’s before he imposes his radical plans to nationalise key industries and wipe-out student debt. It would end hopes of balancing the nation’s books by 2025 and keep the deficit at its current level of 2.4 per cent of GDP, the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies said. And yesterday deputy PM Damian Green warned Mr Corbyn that Labour will face an electoral wipeout in the long-term if he continues to offer youngsters unaffordable spending promises – such as his latest vow to cancel £100 billion of student debts.” – The Sun
>Today: Garvan Walshe’s column: The Taylor review is a distraction. The real problem facing Britain is that our Welfare State is bust.
>Yesterday: Henry Hill’s Red, White, and Blue column: Wales’ Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition raises tuition fees
“Gibraltar’s chief minister today warned that territories cannot be traded ‘like pawns in a chess game’ after the Spanish King hinted at ‘new arrangements’ for the Rock. King Felipe suggested the future of the UK’s overseas territory could be up for debate in an audacious speech to Parliament. But Fabian Picardo hit back saying the will of Gibraltarians must be respected and the territory remain ‘100 per cent British’. Spain has long tried to stake a claim to the territory which lies on Spain’s southern tip, but the territory has voted resoundingly to stay British. Mr Picardo said Gibraltar wants friendly relations with its neighbours, but have ‘no desire to form part of Spain or to come under Spanish sovereignty in any shape or form’.” – Daily Mail
“Susanna Reid seemed baffled as Alex Salmond appeared to confirm that there would be a Scottish independence referendum during an interview on Good Morning Britain earlier today. Although the former First Minister of Scotland has retired from politics, Reid couldn’t help but ask about the much-talked about Indyref2. Although Nicola Sturgeon, the current leader of the SNP, appears to have backed away from the idea of a second referendum, Salmond gave a different line on GMB.” – Daily Express