Politics

For a political figure so often described with the language of mystery and shadows, Dominic Cummings is doing anything but hiding. He’s become a professional heckler that Westminster hasn’t worked out how to deal with. In a theatre you’d throw him out – in Downing Street, his ghost has a permanent desk. Cummings is the troublesome pain in Westminster whose name pops up on breaking news notifications as a taunt for our political leaders. His reputation as a mastermind or guru behind Brexit has emboldened him to think he can continue wield influence without the need of a job at Downing Street. When Lord Frost announced that the government would seek to rewrite its election-winning Northern Ireland protocol , Cummings leapt onto Twitter to argue with politician, academic and pundit alike about the cosmic success of his project in 2016. Dominic Cummings is a bitter ex-employee who is still caught up in Brexit ( Image: VIA REUTERS) It’s a warped …

[Read more...] about ‘Arrogant Dominic Cummings is the furious ghost Downing Street cannot exorcise’

There can surely be little mystery about why Nicola Sturgeon has decided to put all of her not inconsiderable political energies into re-igniting the SNP’s clamour for another independence referendum. After all, what else does she have to offer? Breaking up Britain is all she has left for her party conference next month. The massive support of the Scottish public, which surged only a few short months ago and had excitable London-based commentators predicting the imminent end of the United Kingdom, has petered out. And internecine bickering which looked as if the SNP was engulfed in a civil war has left her once super-confident activists looking ill at ease and unsure of where their leader is taking them. It is true that she still wins plaudits from many for her handling of the Covid-19 pandemic; but even here the gloss which she acquired over much of the last year for her superior communication skills has dimmed considerably. There is no doubt that it was the vaccination …

[Read more...] about No wonder Nicola Sturgeon bangs on about independence – everything else the SNP controls is a mess

Boris Johnson has decided not to travel abroad for his summer holidays and will instead take a “staycation” in the UK later this month, The Telegraph understands. The Prime Minister’s move matches scores of Britons who have opted to avoid the complexity of foreign travel given the Covid-19 restrictions in place. “The PM’s going to staycation this year,” said a senior government source familiar with his holiday plans. The destination is yet to be announced. Mr Johnson faces mounting pressure to lift more travel rules as 10 Tory MPs called for the “wholly disproportionate and burdensome testing regime for travellers” to end. The group wants all tests for travellers returning from green list countries and for the double-jabbed coming back from amber list countries to be scrapped. Holidaymakers bringing back virtually no cases of Covid to the UK Analysis of official data seen by The Telegraph shows that fewer than one in 60 people returning from countries on the amber or …

[Read more...] about Boris Johnson ditches overseas summer holiday in favour of August staycation

Alex Salmond has accused Nicola Sturgeon of appearing to do "nothing at all" to deliver independence after Michael Gove ruled out another referendum before the 2024 general election. The Alba Party leader said Ms Sturgeon's Government was wasting time "having discussions about discussions", while Westminster was already plotting to "rig the ballot". The former first minister said it was "time to force the Scottish issue now" and get on with delivering a referendum rather than "have Michael Gove or Westminster dictating how Scotland is governed ". His intervention, in his weekly video message to Alba Party members, was the latest in a series of attacks he has made on Ms Sturgeon for failing to push home her claim for another referendum since the SNP's victory in last month's Holyrood election. He lashed out at his former protégé and successor after Mr Gove told The Telegraph this week that Boris Johnson would not grant another separation vote before the next general …

[Read more...] about Alex Salmond accuses Nicola Sturgeon of doing ‘nothing at all’ to deliver Scottish independence

“Alba are hoisting a flag in the wind - planting our saltire on a hill,” a customarily hubristic Alex Salmond declared last Friday, as he blew up the Holyrood election campaign just 36 hours after it began with the launch of his new pro-independence party. “We shall see how many will rally to our standard.” Those answering the battle cry, his opponents claim, were not of the "strong calibre" Mr Salmond predicted, but the misfits and conspiracists of the independence movement who had already found themselves sidelined by Nicola Sturgeon's moderate SNP. The former First Minister unveiled a slate of 32 candidates on Wednesday night, just six any with parliamentary experience, while he has largely relied upon a motley crew of hardcore nationalists, failed politicians and bloggers to spread his message online. Kenny MacAskill, a former Scottish justice secretary and the MP for East Lothian, was the first major defection from the party Mr Salmond led for two decades, and in the …

[Read more...] about Pro-independence cranks, bloggers and SNP outcasts flock to Salmond’s Alba banner

You’ve got to hand it to Alex Salmond; whatever his shortcomings, and he has many, he’s never short of a ringing phrase. On the Today Programme on Thursday he said he had charged his 32-strong army of Alba footsoldiers to ‘advance the most noble cause of all … Scottish independence’. Leaving aside his love of hyperbole, I can’t believe that most electors haven’t already concluded that there’s nothing in any way noble in this man's make-up; only an overweening ego and an unbridled passion for revenge against Nicola Sturgeon for trying to bring him down. That, and a determination never, ever, to utter a word of apology to the women towards whom this self-styled great man has conceded he’d behaved ‘inappropriately’. Time and again yesterday he said the voters - indeed all ‘fair minded’ people - should respect the verdict of last year’s High Court jury which found him not guilty on 13 charges of sexual assault. Sturgeon is no heroine of mine but when set alongside Wee Eck …

[Read more...] about Can fair minded people really cast their votes for Salmond’s gang of thirty-two?

Nicola Sturgeon has dismissed Alex Salmond's demand to be included in TV leaders' debates for the Holyrood election by suggesting his new Alba Party is too small to qualify. The First Minister said she does not get to decide who takes part in TV debates but she could not see how his party could meet the criteria set by broadcasters. In another jibe directed at her former mentor, she said he would be disappointed by the number of SNP defections to his party, with only two MPs and no MSPs jumping ship. Ms Sturgeon said she did not want to spend "too much time talking about a party that doesn't look, on early polling, as if it's going to get any MSPs elected ". But she also attacked Mr Salmond's claim that Alba and the SNP could together win a "super-majority" in the Holyrood chamber by manipulating the voting system, with nationalists voting SNP in their constituencies and for his party on the regional list. He claimed this strategy could deliver a Holyrood chamber with 70 …

[Read more...] about Nicola Sturgeon dismisses Alex Salmond’s demand to be included in Holyrood election TV debates

Is there anything in politics more fascinating than the breakaway party? It’s the cruel romance of watching hardened politicians vainly attempt to start afresh. It’s the priestly talk of principle as they grind their axes. It’s the delicious speculation about whether they will disrupt the system or flop. Alex Salmond’s Alba surely won’t disappoint . At its recent media launch, the Scottish nationalist was clearly wrestling with his natural belligerence as he outlined his project’s “strategic” aims. These included actually helping his former SNP colleagues to win a pro-independence “supermajority”. His candidates list unveiled a fabulous motley crew of eccentrics. They feature populist bruiser Kenny MacAskill – most famed for lifting the ban on alcohol sales at international rugby union games as a cabinet secretary – and the co-host of Salmond’s talk show programme on Kremlin-backed RTV, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheik. Even a startup party headed by a politician as mired in controversy …

[Read more...] about Alex Salmond faces the curse of breakaway parties

On May 6, voters across Scotland will go to the polls to elect members of the Scottish Parliament. If the pro-independence parties gain a majority in the election, Boris Johnson faces an "uphill battle" to prevent Scotland from becoming independent and breaking the Union, according to Lucy Fisher. In the latest episode in our Westminster Source video series, The Telegraph's Deputy Political Editor examines Boris Johnson's plan to combat Scottish nationalism and why it represents one of the biggest challenges of his premiership. "If he fails, he will be cast as the man who clawed back UK sovereignty from Brussels, only to lose the country itself," she says. For more videos like this from The Telegraph, subscribe to our YouTube channel. …

[Read more...] about Watch: Why Scotland poses an ‘existential threat’ to Boris Johnson’s premiership

Alex Salmond has declared that his new political party is already a success because he had forced Nicola Sturgeon to make Scottish independence a dominant election issue. The former First Minister said that had it not been for him, nobody would be talking about Scotland leaving the UK and took a series of thinly-veiled swipes at his predecessor for not pursuing secession urgently enough. He also suggested that his Alba Party would see its support surge in future if it wins seats but pro-independence voters decide the SNP has not done enough to deliver on its founding mission. Ms Sturgeon has twice failed in attempts to hold a new referendum and sections of the independence movement have questioned her ability to deliver a new Scottish state. However, Mr Salmond’s party has so far struggled to attract support, with polls showing he is deeply unpopular with voters and faces a battle to win election. Mr Salmond's comments were broadcast on the same day that a new poll put …

[Read more...] about Nobody would be talking about independence if it wasn’t for me, Salmond claims