Amid the furore over Kanye West’s upcoming performance at the Wireless festival Labour has now blocked his entry to the UK. He can still get in by small boat presumably…
The Home Office said an application was made for a visa waiver – an Electronic Travel Authorisation – yesterday which has been refused on the grounds that his presence would not be conducive to the public good. So Labour policy is now that distasteful rap artists are banned from the country…
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.”