Politics

Parliamentary procedures and conventions are often dismissed as ‘arcane’ or ‘byzantine’ by commentators. Still, on occasion, they can have a significant impact on politics – as demonstrated by the recent furore over a Labour amendment to the Gaza ceasefire motion in February. Last week, a new paper in the House of Lords was published which has the potential to have a similar political impact – and could even save the government’s controversial Rwanda Bill, which is in its Report Stage today. The paper, by the convenor of the crossbench peers Lord Kinnoull, is on the Salisbury-Addison convention, which says that the Lords will not vote against Bills which were in the government’s manifesto. The convention began

Oh dear. It never takes long for the perpetually-warring SNP to take a pop at someone — but now the party’s leaders are, er, squabbling among themselves. The cause this time? Whether or not the nationalists should boycott Westminster, following Gazagate last month. At least we’d be spared Ian Blackford’s bloviating… Keith Brown, the party’s deputy leader, yesterday took to the pages of that august journal, the Sunday National, to attack Labour for being ‘unrepentant about the illegitimate thwarting of the SNP’s Opposition Day debate’. He then suggested that the issue of withdrawing SNP MPs from Westminster ought to ‘be re-examined’, arguing: An incompetent Speaker and a contemptuous Knight of the Realm

Rishi Sunak has just appeared on the steps of Downing Street to give a speech on the need to take action after ‘a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality’ in recent weeks. On the day former Labour MP George Galloway was announced as the new MP for Rochdale, the Prime Minister said ‘this situation has gone on long enough’, arguing that ‘Islamist extremists and far rights groups are spreading a poison, that poison is extremism’. Responding directly to Galloway’s victory in the by-election, Sunak said: It is beyond horrifying that last night the Rochdale by election returned a candidate who denies the horror of what happened on October 7th,

The Prime Minister has given the following speech tonight outside 10 Downing Street. In recent weeks and months, we have seen a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality. What started as protests on our streets, has descended into intimidation, threats, and planned acts of violence. Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveal their identity. Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with. Now our democracy itself is a target. Council meetings and local events have been stormed. MPs do not feel safe in their homes. Long standing Parliamentary conventions have been upended because of safety

When Hacked Off first launched in 2011, Hugh Grant was its lead spokesman, regularly appearing on shows like Question Time to preach the importance of press regulation. And while others like the-then DPP Keir Starmer are now less keen to talk about their role in the subsequent phone-hacking scandal, Grant remains a vocal supporter of Hacked Off. Indeed, such is his enthusiasm that the Love Actually star is tonight expected to appear at a £175-a-head fundraiser in aid of the Press Justice Project, a newly-launched charity to ‘complement’ Hacked Off’s work, as well as Yellow Press Books. An advert for the event gushes that the night will consist of ‘drinks followed by an