Downing Street is in bunker mode tonight. Insider veterans of political crises will recall that things get awfully quiet in these periods…
Guido hears senior No10 staff are privately meeting with Starmer in crisis talks tonight. A Downing Street source tells Guido it’s “not at all clear that McSweeney will survive” the coming hours and days. That notwithstanding McSweeney’s key defence remains – a No10 source said: “Starmer is very wedded to him and fears of a domino effect might protect him”…
Individuals inside Downing Street say the mood is “quietly bleak.” The government staved off a political death through a last minute Commons deal with the Tories. Things could move quickly now…
Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns told Times Radio she would have put a precondition on a China trip if she were PM:
“I would have put a precondition that I was not going to go if I was prime minister, unless Jimmy Lai was coming home with me. I would also put a precondition in the six months leading up to the visit that I wanted a reduction in hostile acts against our country. But that’s not what we saw. And actually, in contrast, what we saw was clearly the Chinese Communist Party did put a precondition, which was that the new embassy in London had to be signed off. So why is it okay for China to set preconditions and to make very clear red lines about what they require for a visit, but we go without having put any ourselves?”