Guido pointed out this week that among Keir Starmer’s crop of hand-picked candidates is Andrew Lewin, who works as chief spin doctor for the Clarion Housing Group, which is condemned by the housing ombudsman as one of the worst social landlords in Britain. Lewin’s local campaign is backed by Unison, which is hilariously in a protracted battle with Clarion over fire and rehire…
It turns out Lewin isn’t the only Clarion representative vying to enter a Labour government. Oana Olaru-Holmes is Labour’s candidate in Bromley and Biggin Hill – she works as Head of the Chief Executive’s Office. A former Labour staffer and Sadiq Khan aide, Olaru-Holmes runs affairs for CEO Claire Miller, herself in receipt of a whopping £441,224 in salary and other benefits. Her leaflets in Bromley boast that she is “uniquely positioned to advocate for policies that improve our community’s quality of life” thanks to her “extensive experience in housing”. Some of the most common issues faced by Clarion residents are “rats in their homes, mould which leads to mushrooms growing on the walls, dangerous leaks that run past electric fuse boxes, ceilings that could ‘fall through any minute’, and asbestos”…
Clarion, once condemned by Labour members of the London Assembly for leaving 1,500 estate residents in squalor, will have two senior personnel inside Labour if they both win their seats. Can we expect it to be at the front and centre of Labour’s housebuilding putsch?
Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson was asked this morning on GB News how many billions Labour’s Net Zero plan would cost. She refused to answer the question, instead spinning the costly plan:
“The answer is how we move to a position of decarbonising our economy, creating more jobs, is through private investment, not just public money. So you can invest relatively modest sums of public money and that brings in real returns.”
It comes after The Telegraph leaked a recording of Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones admitting that their energy plans would cost “hundreds of billions” of pounds. He dubbed the original £28 billion black hole – already an eye-watering figure – a “tiny” amount compared to the reality. It’s clear they’re hiding the true cost of the plans, which will ultimately be shouldered by taxpayers. Labour will do as they always do: tax and spend, tax and spend…
Starmer said he wants a better deal with the EU, saying he’ll reopen the Brexit deal. He detailed that he’d like “a trading deal…a deal on research and development…and a deal on security and defence” with the bloc. Sounds like much closer ties to the EU…
Sunak hit back: “All the things he’s talking about involve accepting more migrants, free movement by the back door.” Give and take means give and take…
In a heated exchange between the two leaders, Sunak pushed Starmer on what he would do with the illegal migrants coming into the UK. Sunak pointed to his Rwanda plan, repeatedly asking Starmer “what will you do with them?”. Starmer’s response was a mere“we will process them”. Noting that “these people come from Iran, Syria and Afghanistan”, Sunak responded:
“Are you going to sit down with the Iranian Ayatollahs? … To try and do a deal with the Taliban? It’s completely nonsensical what you’re saying. You’re taking people for fools.”
Cue huge applause from the audience…
Starmer was asked about border control and the rise in small boat migrant crossings. Whilst slamming the Tory record on immigration, he delivered a strong line: “the biggest threat to our borders at the moment are the many people arriving by small boats“. He labelled it as not just a border issue but a “national security issue”. Echoes of Reform…
Sunak hit back: “people smugglers will need a bigger boat” if Labour get in. Feisty…
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are head to head in their final leaders debate. They’re struggling to deliver their points to the audience over the noise of protesters that are currently outside the venue of Nottingham Trent University. They appear to be pro-Palestine protesters. It’s been distracting from the debate since it began, and it doesn’t appear that it will die down anytime soon…
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.”