It has escaped most reporting around the appointment of Richard Hermer as Attorney General that he was a significant donor to Starmer’s leadership campaign. Records show the prominent KC – and legal beagle buddy of Sir Keir – donated £5,000 to Starmer’s leadership drive in December 2019. He made the donation apparently just a month after he was appointed as a Deputy High Court Judge. Money talks…
Hemer’s record on Palestine is causing real anxiety. If the Tories had made a leadership donor a Cabinet Minister overnight – and given them a peerage – there would be outrage – Angela Rayner would be writing to the Independent Advisor on Ministers’ Interests…
This barbed briefing from a Labour voice in Andrew Pierce’s read today caught Guido’s eye:
Another senior figure told me: ‘If it goes wrong for Starmer, he will find out how ruthless McSweeney is. Just as Boris found with [ex-adviser] Dominic Cummings.’
McSweeney – or ‘McIavelli’ as he has been christened by the Labour high command – takes the helm in Downing Street this week titled ‘Head of Political Strategy’, reporting directly to Starmer. It appears some are content to deliver an account of his influence with just a hint of menace – quite possibly a threat made on his behalf. One to bookmark…
Here’s an interesting one for the next five years of Tory parliamentary politics. Under the current rules for electing the leader of the Conservative Party – introduced in 1998 – a leadership contest can be triggered in two ways: if 15% of Conservative MPs write to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee saying they no longer have confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party, and the leader then loses that vote; or, if the current leader resigns. In the previous parliament, the threshold was 54 letters – it slowly reduced due to by-elections but it was around that mark…
The Tories now have 121 MPs. Under the 15% rule, that would mean just 18 MPs could remove the leader with letters of no confidence. In a parliamentary party of this size, with its loose allegiances and slightly random makeup in terms of factions, the Conservatives could well be caught in endless leadership elections over this parliament under the current rules. After all, they managed multiple votes of no confidence in leaders last time. That’s probably especially true if the Tories choose a strongly ideological leader, either from the right or from the centre…
The rules are controlled by the 1922 Committee executive, which will be elected today after the existing executive was pretty much wiped out and Sir Graham Brady, the previous Chairman, stepped down. The only two executive members to survive were Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown and Bob Blackman, who are both standing for Chairman – any other declarations of candidature are due by 1500 today with the vote taking place at 1900. What will the men in grey suits do with the current rulebook…
Some dark corners of the sanctimonious left’s presence on Twitter have been frantically trying to come to terms with the fact that Reform did so well at the election. Their chosen conspiracy? That Reform’s “paper candidates” in unwinnable seats aren’t real people at all. A theory based on the fact that one candidate, an antique dealer called Mark Matlock, had a photo that looked a little bit edited…
And their chosen champion is none other than the fox-beater himself, Jolyon Maugham. The anti-government crusader-turned-government-enthusiast (as of 4th July) bravely said on Twitter: “If you’re an MP who lost by fewer votes than a Reform candidate who didn’t exist you’re gonna be speaking to your lawyers.” Jolyon then went round pointing out Reform candidates who didn’t speak to the press or turn up to the counts (normal if you are a paper candidate – hence the name). He was even assisted by defence minister Maria Eagle…
The Guardian jumped on the bandwagon last night and even spoke to Matlock, who “insisted that he did exist“. Some saner hacks in that newsroom must have been seriously biting their tongues as this one got written up…
GB News went so far as to get Matlock on air last night to chat to him about his existence. Never fear, though – Jolyon is still going on about it this morning…
Sir Tony Blair has sounded the alarm: Sir Keir Starmer will have no choice but to slap the public with a tax hike of £53 billion, according to a report from the Tony Blair Institute today. Labour’s tax-and-spend tendencies are laid bare, with forecasts predicting taxes must rise by 1.9% of GDP by the end of the Parliament just to keep debt in check. Meanwhile, Starmer has appointed two Blair-era cabinet ministers into his government. This latest move only makes Blair’s involvement more evident…
Tony himself doesn’t think Keir’s growth agenda will cut it against future challenges. Even speeding up house-building, reforming infrastructure planning, and cosying up to the EU won’t spare taxpayers from the inevitable raid. Blair letting the cat out of the bag…
Sunak’s interim Shadow Cabinet has been appointed from the remains of the party. It is:
CCHQ also says Lord Cameron and Richard Holden have both resigned, and Richard Fuller is appointed as the interim Chairman. “The interim Shadow Cabinet draws upon much of the Conservative Party’s existing experience and expertise, to ensure that and ready to hold the new Labour government to account from day one.” Emphasis on the word “existing”…
UPDATE: For those pointing out that the quote “to ensure that and ready” is incorrect – it is the official press release quote.
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.”