The foreign secretary is clearly having a tough time toeing the government line on foreign affairs. He was slapped down by Downing Street for his emotional comments about tariffs on Friday…
On Sunday Darren Jones admitted Britain had been ‘protected’ from a higher tariff rate by dint of its exit from the EU: “We’ve been treated differently from the European Union, that’s correct.” Lammy was having none of it…
He told Italian newspaper la Repubblica: “We are facing a significant change in the way the global trading system works, but this has nothing to do with Brexit.” Lammy’s message discipline has been increasingly waning of late…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”