Nick Tyrone | The Spectator columnists & writers

The Tories should pick Richard Tice for Hartlepool

The Hartlepool by-election is a big moment in British politics. If Labour retains the seat, it will take a lot of heat off Keir Starmer, whose rocky patch as leader continues. If the Tories win, it would likely be politically fatal for the Labour leader. He would either continue on, wounded almost certainly beyond repair, or Labour would get rid of him and replace him with someone much worse. In terms of red wall dominance, the Tories taking Peter Mandelson’s old seat would be highly symbolic as well. Therefore, the prize at stake here for the Conservatives is huge. Capture Hartlepool and the next general election looks to be theirs for the taking. This is why candidate selection is vital for them – and why the right person to win the seat for the party is staring them in the face.

The census is the latest Brexit battleground

The end of the Brexit wars have left some Remainers feeling redundant. A few are now turning their attention to a new target: the census. The small group of voters who are reluctant to accept the result of the referendum are responding to the question asking 'How would you describe your national identity?', not with 'British', or 'English' but, with the answer, 'European'. As a Remainer, this strikes me as somewhat embarrassing. For a start, of course, 'European' is not a nationality. But that small point aside, how is this going to convince Brexit voters that their votes were a mistake? The idea seems to be that if you state your nationality on the census form as ‘European’ as opposed to ‘British’ or ‘English’ or whatever else, this will send a message to the country about how widespread anti-Brexit sentiment really is.

Priti Patel’s cowardly response to the Clapham Common debacle

Priti Patel's reaction to the ugly scenes on Clapham Common on Saturday has been to point the finger. ‘Some of the footage circulating online from the vigil in Clapham is upsetting. I have asked the Metropolitan Police for a full report on what happened', she has said. But do we really need to wait for a report to work out what has happened? Perhaps, instead, the truth is rather simpler: the police were enforcing laws put into places by Priti Patel's own government. Of course, there is some debate as to whether officers should have exercised more judgement in the applications of these laws. On this point, though, Patel has been clear: there should be no ifs or buts in the way officers enforce lockdown rules. Back in January, the Home Secretary defended a strict crackdown on Covid rule breakers: 'Our police officers are working tirelessly to keep us safe.

The Met badly mishandled the Clapham Common vigil

A vigil was held last night on Clapham Common to both honour the memory of Sarah Everard and to protest about the societal backdrop to her death. People were told to stay away by the police beforehand – they came anyhow. Unfortunately, the whole thing turned ugly as the London Met responded in a heavy-handed manner, clashing with those who attended, leading to at least five arrests. What made it all the worse was that the Duchess of Cambridge showed up at the vigil, giving it the feeling of an occasion that should have been tolerated. The reaction for some to this incident will be, ‘They were told to stay away’; that those who attended the vigil did so knowing they were going against a public order. I think this response ignores two big issues.

Are the Tories trying to trash their reputation in London?

Shaun Bailey pulled off an amazing trick this week: he managed to unite Twitter. Left and right, Tory and Labour, Remainer and Brexiteer, all piled into a wondrously crass post by the Tory London mayoral candidate: ‘As a father and husband it breaks me to think that my wife and daughter have to live in fear in their own city. It doesn’t have to be this way. As Mayor, I‘ll ensure that we are working to deliver for the safety of women and girls in London.’ The message would have been in poor taste no matter what the timing. After all, why make crime in London about himself and his family? But coming at a time when a young woman had vanished from the streets of the capital, it looked like Bailey was making a bid to cash in politically on the tragedy.

The left’s illiberal turn

In the House of Lords this week, Baroness Jenny Jones of the Green party said she thought that a way to combat violence against women was to institute a six o’clock curfew on all men. She added, strangely, that ‘discrimination of all kinds would be lessened’ by such a move. Mark Drakeford took that sentiment a step further when he said he’d ‘consider all measures’ when asked if would implement a curfew on men — a sentiment he has now, thankfully, rowed back on. Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking Jones was suggesting something patently ridiculous in order to demonstrate that it always seems to be women who have to do the sacrificing when it comes to ensuring their personal safety. This might have come across more effectively if the message had been delivered by someone who is in a party that doesn’t regularly put forward completely ridiculous ideas with absolute sincerity.

Labour has stumbled into the royal culture war

Given Starmer’s aim of getting red wall voters back on side, Labour should not have touched the Harry and Meghan debate with a bargepole. It is a massively loaded cultural issue that can only hurt them. And yet it seems they couldn’t help themselves. Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, has said in a television interview that Meghan’s claims of racism should be ‘fully investigated’ by the Palace. This is exactly the kind of move that leaves only confustion when trying to work out about what Starmer is trying to accomplish. I feel like I’m the only person who lives in Great Britain who doesn’t really care that much either way about the whole Harry and Meghan ordeal. I am nominally a royalist in that I think the current system — at least with the head of state we have at the moment — is better than a presidential one.

Starmer’s Labour is doomed but it’s not his fault

Keir Starmer has caught a lot of flak this week for his response to the Budget. The complaints are that he wasn’t strong enough, his opposition to corporation tax rises was a mistake and that he had nothing to really say that managed to stick with the public. It has added to a sense of Starmer’s leadership of the Labour party being on a downward spiral. Yet Starmer has probably done as well in his opening year as Labour leader as anyone could have. He isn’t the problem – it’s his party. The reality is that Labour couldn't win the next election with anyone in charge. The problem goes well beyond the legacy of the Corbyn era (although his time in charge certainly didn’t help). No, it’s that the Labour party has no ability to change in any of the ways it would need to in order to make winning a general election a possibility.

What can Laurence Fox hope to achieve with his bid for London mayor?

As if the politics of the Western world wasn't well past parody already, this weekend sees Laurence Fox throwing his hat into the ring to be London’s next mayor. Before I start making fun of this idea, let’s try and give Mr Fox the benefit of the doubt. The London mayoral contest, which should have been put out of its misery last May, has been dragged into 2021 on account of the coronavirus crisis. The extra year hasn’t made the contest any more inviting to those of us who live in the capital. We still have an incumbent Labour mayor who is a disappointment on every possible level, but who is up against such a terrible flock of competitors, re-election is all but in the bag for him. The Tories chose very poorly in Shaun Bailey.

Labour is right to be scared of Rishi Sunak

Labour is terrified of Rishi Sunak. Today's Budget showed exactly why. The Chancellor put in an impressive performance: It was assured and hit the right notes at the right times. It also laid the groundwork for a narrative on the economy that will work very well for the Tories. Sunak told voters that George Osborne's cuts created the money that comprised the Covid recovery spending. This ties together the whole of the last decade of Tory rule in a neat package – something Boris Johnson has avoided doing with his ‘I’ve only been Prime Minister for five minutes’ routine. Labour folk will now complain and shout ‘Tory austerity!’ until they are blue in the face. But this is unlikely to be effective: Sunak’s narrative will soon become the orthodox view.

Scotland could become the EU’s next great problem

It is generally acknowledged, even by diehard Remainers, that the European Union’s handling of Cameron’s attempted renegotiation of the UK’s membership, as well as the EU’s subsequent interventions leading up to the 2016 referendum, was mishandled. It turned out they only added fuel to the Eurosceptic fire by appearing more as a foreign power attempting to interfere in British affairs rather than as a club of which the UK was an equal member. With Scottish independence seemingly the next constitutional tussle for the United Kingdom, with another referendum very possibly hovering into view, how should the EU be involved in this debate, if at all? A newly independent Scotland would have huge implications for the EU.

What’s the point of Nigel Farage?

Nigel Farage is in some ways a victim of his own success. It was the political threat he posed during the coalition era that more than anything else caused David Cameron to pledge to hold an in-out referendum on EU membership if he won a majority. It is safe to say that without his persistence, we would never have left the European Union. Yet Farage is now politically redundant and what’s so strange about that is that he did it all to himself. When Farage declared that the Brexit 'war is over' after the government announced its trade deal with the EU on Christmas Eve, my first thought was that he must have decided to pack the whole Reform party project in. That he had figured enough of what he had been fighting for all those years had come to fruition and he was laying down his arms against the Conservatives.

The worst political speeches of the decade

In thinking about the worst political speeches delivered in Britain, I reached for lectures that weren’t just technically poor but epoch defining in their badness. Each one had to have said something larger about the inherent problems of the political class in our beleaguered age. With that in mind, in descending order, here are five that fell flat:Jeremy Corbyn’s 2015 Labour conference speech In his first conference speech as party leader, the reasons for Corbyn’s eventual defeat are all here, on full display. The speech itself is relentlessly boring and substance is remarkably absent throughout. For a guy who was supposed to shake up the established way of doing things, it is notable how free of any original ideas he seemed to be in his first big set piece.

Boris is the true heir to Blair

Boris Johnson’s political recovery in the last couple of months has been nothing short of remarkable. Not that he was ever down and out, of course, but having got a Brexit deal that both Farage and Starmer backed, followed by the success of the vaccine rollout, the Prime Minister once again looks unassailable. As for the Labour leader, things look much less rosy. But what hasn't been said in the criticism of Starmer is that what has mostly caused the leader of the opposition’s dip is not his own incompetence but the Prime Minister’s recent good form. This has made me realise something about Boris: he bears a lot of comparison with one former prime minister many wouldn’t immediately reach for – Tony Blair. And in the years ahead, Boris’ premiership could soon come to more closely resemble the architect of New Labour.

Keir Starmer is attacking a Tory party that no longer exists

There has been a bit of a commentariat pile-on against Starmer in the last couple of weeks; not just from the usual suspects but from centrist types who might normally be supportive of the Labour leader. Given that as background, one would have hoped that Keir Starmer would have used his speech today on a ‘New Chapter for Britain’ to launch something of a comeback. Unfortunately, the speech didn’t really work as I think it was intended. On the whole, it felt a little like something the Labour leader had been chivvied into delivering due to recent negative press, as opposed to a set of ideas that had ripened enough for public consumption. Basically, there just wasn’t enough substance in it to warrant a whole set-piece event.

Where are Keir Starmer’s ideas coming from?

Exactly what a Keir Starmer government would look like in terms of policy still remains a mystery to most people. During his leadership campaign Starmer ran on a platform consisting of ‘ten pledges’, which were essentially just reheated Corbynism. Without publicly disavowing them, Starmer seems to have been trying to move away from these pledges toward something that represents a solid break with his predecessor since winning the leadership contest. Yet we still don’t have a clear idea on what that would look like in real terms. Starmer has defined himself so far not on who he is, but rather, who he is not. To this end, Starmer’s people are talking about a ‘policy blitz’ in the coming weeks. As leader of the opposition, following through on such a thing is a mixed bag at this point in a parliament.

Mandelson’s return is a sign of Labour’s problems

It is instructive that, faced with his first wobbles as leader of the opposition, the person Keir Starmer has reached for is Peter Mandelson. From the sounds of things, Mandelson is working with Starmer’s team on communications and strategy. I certainly don’t think this is a bad idea by Starmer, at least as far as recent Labour party appointees go, but I can’t help but feel that Mandelson’s return to the top says a lot about Labour’s problems, how they got into their current mess and where those issues might lead the party from here. Part of the problem is that the Labour party has been hollowed out talent-wise. Under Corbyn’s leadership, a lot of potential future ministers were either effectively kicked out or decided to leave before they were pushed.

Has Starmer’s Labour found the Tories’ weak spot?

A leaked email from Keir Starmer’s director of policy that hit the headlines this week contained an interesting line: that Labour must become ‘unashamedly pro-business’ in order to ‘be the party of working people and their communities’. This has caused predictable outrage on the left of the party. At the other end of the political spectrum, the Tories have been quick to mock the whole idea. At this week’s PMQs, Boris reminded Starmer that at the last election Labour wanted to dismantle capitalism – now it wants to be the party of business? Really? But the Tories need to be careful about how hard they laugh at this one. While Starmer’s bid to make Labour the home of British business has so many things going against it that on balance it will probably fail, if Starmer does succeed that could well win him the next general election.

Green scare: Labour should stop chasing the eco vote

Should the Labour party be worried about the Greens? Some Labour activists think so. The Greens have just become the third most popular in British politics, if the latest IpsosMORI poll is anything to go on. The party won eight per cent support in the survey, putting them ahead of the Lib Dems. It's enough to give even the staunchest Starmerite cause for concern. But the reality is that Labour needn't sound the alarm. In fact, the very last thing Labour should be worried about at the moment is losing potential voters to the Greens. Why? Because we've been here before. In early 2015, support for the Greens went as high as 11 per cent in some polls. It led to grave worries among denizens of the Labour left that Miliband’s bland 'centrism' had led young urban voters to abandon the party for the more solidly leftist Green party.

After Starmer: Labour’s liberals should plan for a new party

Labour's left appears to be licking their lips at the thought of Starmer’s ignominious end as leader, something which they now seem to hope will be coming sooner than they could have ever dreamed back in the summer. Should the party do poorly at the May local elections, the plan seems to be to agitate for a change at the top and unite around John McDonnell as Corbyn’s true successor. If the Labour party was taken over by the far left again, this would leave liberals in a difficult position. Since Keir Starmer took over, most liberals have folded into Labour, correctly seeing that they are the only vehicle for ousting the Tories from government in the relatively short term. The Lib Dems have essentially become a Starmer tribute act since the election, betting their entire future as a party on 'winning where the reds can’t' in order to form a government with the newly centrist Labour.

Keir Starmer is Labour’s last hope

Only a few months ago, Keir Starmer was hailed as a prime minister in waiting who was giving Boris Johnson serious jitters. Now the shine appears to be coming off Labour's leader. Starmer's 'forensic' approach can only get him so far. And there are serious questions about whether he has what it takes to get the Labour party back to winning ways. The postponement of last year's elections hasn't helped, as it meant Starmer missed a chance to show what his party could achieve without Corbyn at the top; everything about how a Labour party with Starmer at the helm might fare with the electorate remains theoretical. For his critics, the worry is that Starmer could be Ed Miliband 2.0: a leader, not without strengths, but just simply not good enough.

Why are some Labour supporters embarrassed by the Union Jack?

How does Labour plan to win back the Red Wall? A leaked internal Labour strategy document gives one answer: it says the party must make 'use of the flag'. This sounds like a sensible way to woo those voters put off by Jeremy Corbyn. But the deranged backlash from some Labour activists suggests that not everyone agrees. It also shows why the party is doomed to fail in its bit to change its image for the better. Labour activists took to social media yesterday to decry Keir Starmer on the strategy, asking why the Labour leader is risking alienating so many of his party’s core support. That just mentioning the Union flag in a positive light could actually alienate these supporters tells you everything you need to know about why the Labour party can’t win general elections any longer.

Starmer needs to be more like Blair to beat Boris

If Keir Starmer has a strategy, it's this: to paint his party as more competent than the Tories while keeping his head down on almost everything else. The aim of this is to ensure Labour can crawl across the line come the next election, winning a majority with a bit of help from the SNP. There's a big problem with this approach though: it's the same one that failed to work for Ed Miliband. To beat it, Boris Johnson need do little more than recycle the Tories' 2015 campaign, which depicted Miliband in Salmond's pocket, substituting Sturgeon in his place. The other problem with the 'do as little as possible' strategy is that it will almost certainly result in the break up of the Union. And what then for Labour? Beyond the obvious ideological horrors of the Union falling apart, losing Scotland would also presumably lose Labour their majority in the rest of the UK, making the whole thing a short-term bet at best.

The EU vaccine debacle poses a dilemma for Remainers like me

There is no question about it, at least if you want to evaluate things objectively: the UK has handled Covid vaccine rollout well (at least so far) and the EU has dealt with it badly. For a Remainer like me, this raises a difficult question: does this prove that Brexit was a good idea after all? Compared to the EU27, the UK has been able to act nimbly in vaccine negotiations. While Brussels has been held up by various delays and supply issues, these have not affected the UK. This is thanks in large part to the fact that its contract with AstraZeneca was signed three months before the EU vaccine deal. The UK also took a gamble, betting on a vaccine that had not yet passed clinical trials. Yet in the context of the cost of the various restrictions brought in to curb the spread of Covid-19, this seemed like a wise move at the time, and an ever smarter one with hindsight.

The sad state of Scottish Labour is bad news for Boris

Nicola Sturgeon has laid down the gauntlet to Boris Johnson over Scottish independence: if the SNP wins, as it inevitably will, in May's Scottish parliamentary elections, a 'legal referendum' should be held. How should the PM respond to the First Minister? The uncomfortable truth for Boris and the Tories is that there may be no good way out of this situation. Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has so far offered his riposte: the Scottish Tories will boycott the whole thing. As counterattacks go, it’s not without its strategic merits. However, one thing looks set to completely undermine this plan: the weakness of Scottish Labour and the other opposition parties in Scotland. This is something that could make this tough stance backfire on the Tories big time.

Has Covid killed the EU’s dream of open borders?

‘All non-essential travel should be strongly discouraged both within the country and of course across borders,’ Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, has said. As a result of the Covid crisis, the dream of open borders across the continent of Europe has never seemed so imperilled. Meanwhile, a post-Brexit Britain has the ability to flex its borders as much as it chooses. To some Brexiteers, this alone makes Brexit worth it. The Schengen agreement was signed in 1985 and became pan-EU in 1999, meaning that, from then on, any country without an opt-out needed to allow free movement of people from any other signatory country (almost all of the rest of the European Union). The United Kingdom and Ireland were amongst the few countries within the EU to opt out, meaning that, while freedom of movement still applied in those countries, it was tempered by the ability to carry out passport checks.

Ed Davey is leading the Lib Dems to extinction

Ed Davey became leader of the Liberal Democrats almost five months ago. Since then, his party has achieved nothing. The Lib Dems currently poll at around five per cent, meaning that a party that only six years ago was in government now enjoys less support than the Greens. If this is embarrassing, it isn't surprising: the Lib Dems have had little to say for a very long time and certainly not since Davey took the reins. Davey fought hard to become Lib Dem leader. But it seems that his ambition stopped there. So why did he ever want to become leader in the first place? Don't get me wrong: I have something of a fondness for a party I was a member of for ten years. Yet even someone like me who follows politics closely and has a soft spot for the Lib Dems couldn't tell you what on earth Davey stands for or what his party is currently trying to achieve in any real sense.

Why attempts to cut red tape almost always fail

Rishi Sunak has been appointed to chair a new committee that will be tasked with cutting red tape, particularly anything that originated from a European Union directive. Part of me thinks Boris has tasked Sunak with this as a means of taking some shine off of his Chancellor’s star — this latest venture to cut down on red tape is bound to fail as badly as the many other attempts that have been made over the years to drastically change the regulatory environment in this country. A lot of the thinking around regulatory reform in the UK is deeply wrongheaded, not from a left-wing or Remainer standpoint but from the perspective of anyone who really wants to make doing business in the UK easier and better. I speak from some position of knowledge, having myself been the director general of an organisation that explicitly searched for examples of EU red tape, something called the Red Tape Initiative.

Why does Keir Starmer always play it safe?

Keir Starmer’s keynote speech at the Fabian conference today was focused almost completely on foreign policy. The thrust of the Labour pitch was that Starmer is ‘pro-American but anti-Trump’. Given Corbyn’s tendency to see the United States at the Great Satan, this marks a huge shift in Labour’s foreign policy outlook. However, the speech was also classic Starmer and not in a good way: correcting the most obvious mistakes from the Corbyn era but going absolutely no further. I should take a moment to applaud Starmer for at least pivoting Labour back to a foreign policy position that is sensible and won’t stand in the way of the party trying to win elections again. It is worth noting that while declaring that the party is pro-American and anti-Trump (a president no one considering voting Labour would support) is political obviousness at its most basic, Corbyn or his chosen successors would have struggled to do the same.