A rogue briefing from National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell to his friends at The Guardian went wrong on many levels yesterday – not least the suggestion that the doyenne of centrist geopolitics will soon be returning to his “consultancy“. The organisation that, er, happens to be in China a lot…
Now it emerges – further to forensic reporting by The Spectator’s Tim Shipman – that a phalanx of senior No10 political advisers are actively opposing the Chagos handover and are attempting to persuade Starmer to U-turn. Starmer is contemplating giving Chagos deal supporters – Powell and Hermer – a ladder to climb down ahead of the locals…
Well-connected Labour insiders with direct access to Starmer told Guido that Vidhya Alakeson, Starmer’s joint Chief of Staff, remains opposed to the Chagos deal and has lobbied the Prime Minister to U-turn on the matter. Alakeson is seen as holding the balance of power in No10 as she is “smart, popular and not a dinosaur”. She is said to be supported by a team of “younger” advisers in Downing Street who believe the deal is electorally toxic. Labour just U-turned on its local elections cancellation today – advisers are now asking why Chagos cannot be next…
U-turning on the disastrous Chagos deal would demonstrably improve Starmer’s position ahead of a crunch set of local elections. Multiple polls have established the public oppose Starmer’s Chagos plan by a large margin. By scrapping the deal, Starmer would immediately return £30 billion of revenue to the balance sheet. “The Chagos plan was all Powell’s” said one adviser, who pointed to the briefing regarding his imminent exit as a sign that his enthusiasm for continuing in government has waned. “Plans cooked up by the ‘boys club’ are now being killed off”, said another source. When Powell goes, will the hated Chagos deal go with him?
Starmer was read out a list of his 13 U-turns on BBC Radio 2, to which he responded:
“Well, I am a common sense merchant.”