Foreign Secretary David Lammy, die-hard Remainer whose fervour eclipses even Starmer’s, is sure to relish his new role as an architect of closer EU ties. Though he might find it tricker to deal with US-UK relations considering his previous vehement anti-Trump views if he reclaims the White House. If co-conspirators hoped that his trusty new SpAds would keep his hardline views in check, they may be disappointed…
Ben Judah, formerly of Europe promoting think-tank Atlantic Council and journalist, has had some choice comments on President Trump over the years. During Trump’s 2016 campaign, he wrote that Trump’s supporters didn’t care about his more controversial background as “Outside DC, where the voters might struggle to place Ukraine on a map or tell the difference between Nafta and Nato… White America can’t always get what it wants”. He later wrote a damning diagnosis of his election in the Guardian:
“Trump’s election was a symptom of a foreign policy paradigm in terminal decline… Trump is, of course, not alone. From Benjamin Netanyahu to Vladimir Putin, rightwing leaders are practicing foreign politics to advance their personal interests”.
Meanwhile, SpAd Will Heilpern will no doubt be an echo-chamber for EU loving Lammy, who called for a People’s Vote on Brexit in order “to save the country from this hard-right Tory fantasy, which was built on xenophobia, lies and a law-breaking campaign”. No wonder he loved Remoaner Corbyn so much:
To be fair to Lammy, at least this time he allowed men into his team, something he famously refused to do as he was “determined to get a woman”. He clearly opted for the ‘surround yourself with yes-men’ approach…
Home Office statistics released this morning show that in the twelve-month period from June 2023 to 2024, migrant returns rose by a fifth, enforced returns rose by a half and “irregular arrivals” fell by 26%. There was also a 36% reduction in the asylum backlog. Dependents of those on study visas are also down 81% over the first six months of this year. Not bad…
Reviewing the figures, Sky News has pointed out that it’s difficult to argue that the plan wasn’t working:
“If you just look at the cold hard facts… a 12-month period entirely under the Conservative government and those figures going down, it could be argued that actually maybe it was working. We know that they put in certain policies especially around student visas and the dependence of student visas but also interestingly there’s some figures around the enforcement of returns so 48% increase in that now that’s quite a lot.“
Cleverly has done a victory lap this morning:“That’s the inheritance I left Labour.” Sky helpfully notes that Sunak would have had a rate cut, immigration success and small boat crossings reduced had he not decided to go in July: “Rishi might be sitting this morning thinking to himself – ‘hmmm, maybe that was a mistake…’” Recriminations over that decision are far from forgotten…
John Whitby, the new Labour MP for the Derbyshire Dales, has been attracting attention for his Stakhanovite work ethic, dubiously claiming to be working 40 hours a week as a City Councillor alongside his job as an MP. Perhaps everything is not as it seems…
48 hours is the weekly working hours limit someone can normally work per week (under legislation introduced and championed by Labour), leaving Whitby theoretically with a paltry eight hours a week for his £92,000 per annum MP job – not bad for a part time gig. Seeing as the House sits for around 30 weeks a year that’s an hourly rate of £378…
Whitby’s vast appetite for work may have something to do with the precarious position Derby City Council find themselves in. Their leader was recently replaced after a vote of no confidence and the council desperately need Whitby to remain in his post and shore up their tiny majority. He missed a hustings in his Derbyshire Dales constituency to vote on a City Council matter. A poor call as Labour lost the vote anyway…
His constituents aren’t happy. Many have complained of unanswered emails and phone calls, while Whitby hasn’t set up a constituency office yet, or even spoken in Parliament. A risky strategy for someone with a razor thin majority of 350. So much for “country before party”…
This morning the Today Programme brought on the BBC’s North America editor, Sarah Smith, to give her analysis of Tim Walz‘ running-mate speech at the Democratic National Convention. What followed was pure fawning praise:
“It was a very impressive performance from somebody who is not an experienced public speaker and he gave the energy of your favorite high school teacher suddenly stepping up to the plate and telling the country things could be better I thought it was really interestingly brief which is always merciful in political speeches and extremely effective and he showed that this is a man who is a campaigner who is ready for the national stage even though I think most people in that hall had not heard of him three weeks ago.“
Nick Robinson tried to offer some counter by weakly adding that Republicans call Walz a “phony“. Smith was having none of it:
“That was a man dripping in authenticity that we saw appear there tonight. Somebody really very very unaffected by the national stage who looked entirely what he is: A former high school teacher a former football coach, the governor of a small state who’s proud of what he’s achieved in that state and who wants to bring things to America. There is nothing about him that seems contrived in any way at all. Now maybe you don’t want somebody bringing the ‘big dad’ energy to the campaign maybe you don’t like his small-town values but I think it would be very difficult to describe him as a phony of any kind.“
Robinson then also gave up with the impartiality malarkey and said Walz is a “very good warm-up act too“. To much agreement:
“He does, and and he was talking a lot about how proud he is of Harris and how great she will be for the country and he was a very very effective spokesperson for her.“
The entire 23-minute episode of Smith’s Americast episode about JD Vance’s RNC speech featured only impartial, to-be-expected coverage. Guido leaves it up to co-conspirators to decide whether today’s coverage corresponds with the BBC’s impartiality guidelines…
The Times reported last night that Government ministers are considering a plan to allow Europeans under 30-years-old to live and work in the UK as part of Labour’s crusade to “reset” post-Brexit relations with Brussels. Meanwhile, net migration is still four times higher than in 2019, even without this proposed scheme in place. Whilst free movement for young people itself isn’t such a terrible idea, it’s just another sign of Labour’s intentions to cosy up to the EU. This could just be the beginning of further cross-border movement talks…
Labour have denied the reports, slippery stating they have “no plans” (yet?) to agree a youth mobility scheme, though government sources say something has to give on free movement if Labour are set on redrawing agreements on trade, defence and immigration. As Guido has said before, give and take means give and take…
Multiple revelations of Labour hiring so-called “impartial” civil servants whose links with Labour are more than a little eyebrow-raising have surfaced this week. After Guido revealed two more sycophants parachuted into Civil Service roles, a faint memory came to mind of Labour’s never-ending campaign against cronyism from opposition, accompanied by exalted pledges to govern in full transparency. Safe to say they’ve ditched that policy now too…
Well that didn’t last long… pic.twitter.com/9odbcH4e4p
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) August 21, 2024
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”
