Last week Guido revealed CCHQ has now banned activists from campaigning in person during lockdown, despite major local elections still technically set to go ahead in May. Since then, Guido’s learnt Labour activists will also not be door knocking, delivering leaflets in person or conducting street stalls during lockdown. On Sunday, Layla Moran told Westminster Hour the LibDems are also not asking their deliverers “to deliver anything, given the national lockdown and given the advice”,

Which is odd, because one day before Layla’s promise to keep activists safe, the official LibDem activist guidance was updated, encouraging members to go on delivering leaflets:

“The current lockdown guidance and legislation expressly permit people to leave their home to provide voluntary services that cannot reasonably be undertaken from home.”

Neglecting to reflect the guidance that emphasises the “essential” nature of permitted services. If the LibDems continue to deliver leaflets not only will that give them a clear advantage, it must also make their activists question why their instructions are different to that given by other parties. One aspect of the LibDems’ interpretation of lockdown rules rings true, campaigning for the party is certainly an act of charity…

Red faces at Labour HQ this morning as the party has been caught with its pants down sending a wad of internal comms emails to their friendlies email list

To make the chaos at Southside even more Thick Of It-esque, at one point prisoners are referred to as “prison users”. Starmer’s quiet bat people…

UPDATE: A Government source gets in touch with Guido. Pulling no punches…

“Labour’s desire to let loads of “prison users” out early under the cover of covid makes perfect sense when you think about it. Getting criminals out of jail and on to electoral rolls ahead of the local elections would pad their vote very nicely indeed. It would also have the dual benefit of freeing up cell space should it be needed for their MPs, Claudia Webbe and Apsana Begum who are soon to face trial for serious criminal offences.”

Remainer-in-chief Peter Mandelson seems to have had a recent Damascene conversion to the cause he spent five years fighting against. Last month he finally realised that Boris’s deal was “the price the rest of us in the pro-EU camp will pay for trying, in the years following 2016, to reverse the referendum decision rather than achieve the least damaging form of Brexit.” You can only imagine Theresa May’s eye-roll when reading this…

This week it further emerged that Lord Mandelson has been embracing the opportunities of global Brexit Britain for a while now; with his strategic advisory business Global Counsel having been won a £25,200 no-competition contract with the Department for International Trade last year, to provide:

“Trade Policy and Legal training in the field of international economic policy, cross-border financial services policy and European integration, as well as IP and Trade Law” 

Strange that the Government with its “Rolls Royce” diplomatic service has to hire outside help in these fields. How is it that with thousands of civil servants the government still needs help from Mandelson?

Guido hears that the once thriving Global Counsel is not as thriving as it was, with much of Mandelson’s lifestyle relying on political clients in Brussels whose doors are now closed and the faces have changed since he was a Commissioner in 2004. Just as well that he has qualified for his EU pension of £31,000-a-year since he turned 65 in 2018. Labour’s left will be thrilled to know Mandelson is working for a Tory government. Those who can adapt to new opportunities thrive…

Hat-tip: Gabriel Pogrund

Policing figures are swarming this morning’s airwaves as part of the Government’s new stick and stick approach to cracking down on Covid. Everyone from Cressida Dick to policing minister Kit Malthouse are appealing to the public to follow the rules, which are clearly not being as strictly adhered to as in March. To compound the tough enforcement message, briefing has found its way into papers about what could happen if the rules continue to be flouted. These include closing…

Piers Morgan might be keen to social distance himself from his ITV co-star Lorraine Kelly for a while, after he admitted flying from Tier 3 London to the other side of the world for a Christmas getaway. While Piers was sunning himself in Antigua, however, Lorraine was delivering a special Christmas Message on Channel 4 show The Last Leg. In her message she presciently spoke of people “flying to the other side of the world to spend two weeks in a five star hotel with 24 hour room service and stunning views…”. Who could she mean?

The showstopper came, however, when the queen of morning TV delivered a frank message to those who flouted restriction rules:

“So to all of us who sacrificed so much this year, I wish you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous 2021. Unless, of course, you are a celebrity who broke the rules of lockdown. In that case, you can go f*ck yourself.”

Ouch!

As Parliament returned this afternoon, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle had to remind MPs to wear their masks when sitting in the chamber and not speaking. Most MPs, who have repeatedly voted to mandate the British public wear masks in enclosed public spaces, were not wearing masks themselves. While the mask-less Commons may have been within the letter of the law – as are all office-workers – it’s certainly not within the spirit. After the Speaker’s intervention, frontbenchers Steve Reed and Robert Jenrick were among those to quickly and sheepishly put on their masks…