Guido thought he’d spare a thought for those Labour MPs who served their time as junior shadow ministers and were swiftly snubbed by Starmer (or Sue Gray) as soon as the Party entered Downing Street. Though departments and roles have moved around and changed titles since Labour came into government, Guido has a breakdown of a list of MPs who held junior roles in Opposition until May 2024, though didn’t make the cut for the real deal:
Meanwhile, there’ve been cries of favouritism from MPs who’ve seen rapid promotions of a cadre of well-connected newly elected members. Some of which include:
Sadly for the former loyal lot, they’ve been shoved to the backbenches. Oh to be a part of the Labour elite…
Labour loved to bash the Tories over cabinet minsters’ penchant for flying on private planes whilst they were in government. Now that they’ve got their own in power, they’ve conveniently U-turned on their sanctimonious moans of the way of travel. Co-conspirators have seen their hypocrisy over the matter already got off to a flying start…
In 2022, the ever righteous Angela Rayner blasted then Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for jetting off in the government’s A321 plane to Australia as “obscene”, “brazen” and a “disgusting waste” of taxpayer money for “vanity and comfort”. Odd, then, that her Foreign Secretary David Lammy chose this vile mode of transport to fly to India today…in the exact same plane. Lammy used the government jet to fly to Dubai (to re-fuel) and then on to Delhi. The fuel for Lammy’s trip alone would have roughly cost the taxpayer $111,000. One rule for them…
One of Starmer and Reeves’ key messages as they entered Downing Street was clear: build, build, build. To many YIMBYs it was a relief to hear Labour signalling the drive to build new houses – their target isn’t small either, planning to build 1.5 million homes in the next 5 years. Though it looks like Starmer’s beloved European Court of Human Rights may end up getting in the way…
Now lawyers are warning that these plans could risk breaching human rights law over the government’s proposal to reduce compensation to landowners forced to hand over their assets. Tom Barton, a partner at law firm Mishcon de Reya, told The Telegraph:
“The ECHR protects the right to peaceful enjoyment of one’s possessions and respect for your right to a home, and capping compensation at ‘existing use value’ could be considered an infringement on this right. If this is a reform the Government is serious about pursuing, the likelihood of challenge is high.”
It’s not the only Labour plan that the Strasbourg court could block – Labour have also been warned that their VAT raid on private schools is “likely illegal”. The ECHR has long been a hot topic of debate – Sunak had said he’d consider leaving the court if it blocked flights to Rwanda, while Starmer has pledged to “never leave” it. Yesterday Nigel Farage called for a referendum on leaving the court. Starmer will soon have to get to grips with the fact that delivering on his promises is more difficult than he may have thought…
It’s a new dawn for work-shy civil servants. The proportion of them actually working in the office was published on a weekly basis from the summer of 2022 as the government pushed to get pen-pushers to show up for work. No wonder they were to elated to see the back of the Tories...
That data hasn’t been published since May before the election campaign. Now Guido is told by the Cabinet Office, after weeks of delay, that “ministers have not yet given a view on this matter“. Amid Starmer’s gushing “respect” for civil servants, trying to get the blob to actually do some work is a task that’s fallen to the wayside…
UPDATE: The government has revived the work from home data, now published less frequently than before on a quarterly basis. 4 months later…
Labour-led Wandsworth Council allegedly saw a whopping 6,558 votes go missing during the general election count. On election night, Putney’s results showed 42,737 votes and a 59% turnout, though now revised figures reveal a scandalous 6,558 votes were lost, bumping the real turnout to 68%. That’s roughly 1 in 10 votes unaccounted for…
Local Conservatives are outraged over this “alarming” democratic mishap. Leader of the Conservative group Cllr Aled Richards-Jones blasted the Council:
“The Council’s Labour Administration must stand up and take responsibility for – and, crucially, explain – this fiasco.In any democracy, people need to have confidence their votes will be counted. Previous elections in Wandsworth have been won by a handful of votes – three years ago, a by-election in Tooting was won by a single vote, demonstrating how important it is that every vote is counted.”
Democracy under Labour…
Among the many issues that plagued the previous Tory government but have now mysteriously fallen down the media’s agenda is the Post Office scandal. The Labour business minister now responsible is Justin Madders who just told the Commons:
“(We) intend to work cross-party, we believe that there’s absolutely no reason why that should not continue because we absolutely agree with him (on) the importance of delivering fast and fair compensation is at the heart of all we are trying to achieve here. We will be making a statement by the end of July, by the end of summer recess.”
Mr Madders added he is “working at pace with officials and those victims who are affected by the scheme to work up the detail and an announcement will be made in due course”. Labour on the clock to provide a fix to an issue they promised they’d solve…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”