The government’s just confirmed the Mirror’s understanding that Baroness Gisela Stuart is their preferred candidate to take up the role of First Civil Service Commissioner – a job that involves overseeing appointments and hearing appeals under the Civil Service Code. A statement released just now confirmed:
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has today confirmed Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston as the preferred candidate for the role of First Civil Service Commissioner.
With Cabinet Office secretary Steve Barclay saying:
“I am delighted to confirm Baroness Stuart as the preferred candidate for the office of First Civil Service Commissioner. Baroness Stuart has all the attributes, experience and independence of judgement needed to lead the Civil Service Commission highly effectively.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ian Watmore for his work as First Civil Service Commissioner over the last five years and also extend my thanks to Rosie Glazebrook for carrying out the functions of the office while we recruit Ian’s successor”
An excellent choice – precisely because so many in the civil service will hate it…
As the UK government hits the ‘Plan B’ button in a moment of epidemiological stringency, in the past 24 hours both the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the EU Medicine Agency have both said cases remain mild.
15 hours ago the CDC Chief said that of the more-than-40 people in the US have been infected with Omicron, “nearly all of them were only mildly ill” and the “the disease is mild”. Just one person’s been hospitalised.
In the last few minutes the European Medicines Agency matched this, saying cases so far appear to be “mostly mild”:
“Cases appear to be mostly mild, however we need to gather more evidence to determine whether the spectrum of disease severity caused by Omicron is different (to) that of all the variants that have been circulating so far”
Meanwhile the UK government is preparing to hit the UK economy with a stay-at-home order, based on no hospitalisation or death data suggesting it’s necessary. Has the government secretly hired Jacinda as an adviser recently?
While furious Tories push back against Boris’s shift to Plan B, senior Labour figures want restrictions to go even further. This morning, Angela Rayner said “The government are not going far enough as far as I’m concerned”. What exact restrictions to Labour want therefore?
Perhaps Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Mark Drakeford has let slip the party’s true desires: Guido learns that last night he privately demanded a complete lockdown between Christmas and New Year during a phone call between Michael Gove, First Ministers and the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish Secretaries of State. All while deaths and hospitalisations in Wales remain relatively stable…
Reacting to the absurd demand, a government source privy to the call accused the First Minister of making “Ebenezer Scrooge look like Santa Claus”:
“On just a limited amount of data, the knee jerk reaction from Welsh Government is to cancel everything and lock everyone away. How long can that approach continue?
More businesses will go bust and more jobs will be lost, but it’s no surprise that Welsh Labour don’t care about that given their economic track record.”
Drakeford has already said publicly that Wales is at “a perilous moment” with Omicron. It looks like this might be his next step.
UPDATE: Drakeford’s press office responds:
“While there is increasing concern about the omicron variant, we do not anticipate making significant changes to the existing regulations at the moment.”
Co-conspirators will note the phrase “at the moment”, and the lack of any attempt at a denial…
Following the Electoral Commission’s Tory fine this morning, Sam Coates has highlighted an evidential inconsistency which will significantly add to the difficulties facing the Prime Minister. In Lord Geidt’s Annual Report by the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interest he says of the investigation into the payments for the refurbishing of the Downing Street flat in February 2021:
For the credibility of this inquiry, I have tested the assertions of Lord Brownlow and the relevant political and government officials that at no point in the eight months until late February 2021, as media reports were emerging, was the Prime Minister made aware of either the fact or the method of the costs of refurbishing the apartment having been paid. I have spoken to these individuals in person; they have confirmed to me that these assertions are correct. In particular, Lord Brownlow behaved in a confidential manner consistent with his own experience of blind trusts. I have also spoken in similar terms to the Prime Minister who confirms that he knew nothing about such payments until immediately prior to media reports in February 2021. At that point, the Prime Minister immediately sought the necessary advice about his interests and, as a consequence, settled the full amount himself on 8 March 2021.
However in today’s Electoral Commission’s report into the refurbishing of the Downing Street flat they found (after serving a legal notice for production of evidence) a WhatsApp message from the Prime Minister to Lord Brownlow about payments from the year before:
“29 November 2020: the Prime Minister messaged Lord Brownlow via WhatsApp asking him to authorise further, at that stage unspecified, refurbishment works on the residence. Lord Brownlow agreed to do so, and also explained that the proposed trust had not yet been set up but that he knew where the funding was coming from.”
How can the funding have been via a blind trust with the PM unaware of the backers until media reports in February 2021, if he was texting the backer for cash in November the year before? This inconsistency is hard to reconcile…
Paymaster General Michael Ellis confirming the Cabinet Office will investigate three parties: Cleo Watson’s leaving drinks on November 27th, Gavin Williamson’s Department for Education party on December 10th, and the Downing Street staff party on December 18th. Leaving out the Lee Cain Downing Street leaving drinks – where Boris is alleged to have delivered a speech – on November 13th…
Guido understands recess is being brought forward by two days, from Thursday to Tuesday next week. While he hears this is being spearheaded by the Speaker, who’s requested a couple of days for a firebreak in Parliament, there’s little incentive for the Government to decline the suggestion. It’ll mean yesterday’s disastrous PMQs was Boris’s last of 2021…
UPDATE: While the house did request the two-day early recess, it now sounds like the government are to reject the request and continue with shutting down on Thursday.
