As Andy Burnham prepares to become Prime Minister next week, Mauritian Government and Whitehall officials have scented their chance to attempt to resurrect Starmer’s doomed Chagos deal. Good luck with that…
As Guido first reported – repeated by the Telegraph over the weekend – Burnham’s team is currently minded to continue with the deal. However, Burnham is no foreign policy expert and is said to not be involved personally. Sellout architect Jonathan Powell is set to stay in place…
Minutes of a meeting of the Mauritius Cabinet held on Friday reveal the FCDO is planning yet another costly UK delegation to Port Louis in October. The Mauritius Government has also been busy lobbying peers – who held up Starmer’s attempt to ram the deal through the Lords. The minutes claim Mauritius is trying to ensure “key members of the House of Lords hear more balanced views”. There is enormous and lively parliamentary opposition to the sellout…
The Mauritius Government was informed of the upcoming change of UK administration on 2nd July, and in response demanded a ‘road map’ to complete the deal from the next PM. That road map will only lead to a car crash for Burnham if he pursues it…
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.”