The soon-to-be-outgoing Chief of the Defence Staff Tony Radakin’s relationship with Downing Street is cited by multiple sources as the trigger for Starmer’s unprecedented gagging order on military personnel. The farcical order means a bizarre mishmash of officers are on or off-record at events where journalists are present…
Downing Street’s comms team has enforced the order on the MoD – to much consternation in the chain of command. The gag is widely seen as unsustainable, as Defence Chiefs have always been free to speak their minds…
Guido hears it is Admiral Sir Tony Radakin and his office that has caused the most anger in Downing Street – particularly over his remarks around the Strategic Defence Review. Radakin has been careful in his wording on the SDR. When it came out the adjectives he used to describe it to the press were “brand new”…
A few days ago he said of European allies: “Never mind our 50 tanks or our modest increase in the Army; they are increasing their armies by tens of thousands and they are increasing their tanks by hundreds.” He said of the Royal Navy: “We continue with the existing programme and we make some progress in the 2020s, but the really significant progress is in the 2030s when we’re heading to three per cent.” Starmer won’t guarantee it…
Radakin views the 3% defence spending rise as a priority. Starmer has been bruised by his failure to secure a path to that target, which remains only an “ambition.” Relations between the MoD and Downing Street are extremely frayed, and the gagging order is unlikely to be lifted under the current CDS. Radakin’s extended term runs until autumn this year. Downing Street will be hoping that the installation of a new CDS may change things, it will be Starmer’s pick…
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”