Labour Minister Abena Oppong-Asare has been forced to correct the record after she “misspoke” when talking about the UK’s approach to China. To be fair, it must be hard for Abena to keep up with Labour’s line on the state. In opposition they pledged to call the treatment of Uyghurs ‘genocide’ – in government Lammy jetted off to Beijing to meet the Chinese minister who denied it…
Yesterday, Abena said to Shadow Paymaster General John Glen in the Common:
“We will ban China’s economic engagement and make sure we strengthen our national security.”
She must have not got the memo that Labour’s now not-so-hawkish on China. Today, she issued an apology to Hansard, stating she actually meant to say:
“We will balance China in terms of economic engagement and make sure we strengthen our national security.”
Co-conspirators can only imagine the stern words she received from China-lover Lammy…
Read her full letter below:
Labour is this week advertising for a role as chairman of the ‘Diversity and Inclusion Committee.’ The group’s purpose is to keep the honours system “representative of UK society” and is also “guided by the Prime Minister’s strategic priorities for the honours system.” Strategic priorities like fast-tracking gongs to people who showed “unity and defiance” to Summer’s riots…
The application deadline is 11th November, with interviews ending in December. Funnily enough, the last government also advertised for a similar role – the only difference is that it was for ‘Representation & Outreach’ at the time. Who needs representation when you can have diversity?
Whoever put up the new job advertisement hasn’t even bothered to get rid of the old name throughout the page. The old name is still there three times…
A bemused Tory source tells Guido:
“Re-running an important recruitment process just for this – costing taxpayers’ money and insulting candidates who had taken time to apply – is a telling sign of where Labour’s priorities are.”
Woke is as woke does…
Eyebrows have been raised in SW1 over Housing Minister Matthew Pennycooks’s attendance at an event hosted by Landmark Chambers last week. Tickets went for £199 + VAT…
Leasehold reform was up for discussion at the event. Four of Landmark Chambers’ team are suing the government on behalf of Freeholders against Gove’s Leasehold Act, which the last Tory government pushed through in washup. Labour went further in their manifesto, pledging to “act where the Conservatives have failed and finally bring the feudal leasehold system to an end.” Since the King’s Speech Labour ministers have kept studiously quiet on the leasehold issue and that pledge…
One Landmark Chambers barrister posted on LinkedIn: “It was a privilege to be able to advocate in favour of saving leases with a Minister in attendance. Let’s hope the plan to abolish the “feudal” system of leasehold is just a sound bite!” Pennycook was directly lobbied…
Leader of the Commons Lucy Powell posted on Twitter over the weekend that Labour is “quickly enacting” leasehold reform. That tweet is now deleted. Curious…
Pernicious lawfare is increasingly dominating in the UK since Labour has come to power. Love-ins with vested interest lawyers won’t do much to reassure the public that Labour is serious on its manifesto pledge…
While Labour continues to reverse its pre-election definition of “working people” to justify tax hikes, the Adam Smith Insitute offers another path for raising money from Capital Gains Tax. Scrap it…
Statistical modelling in the ASI’s new report suggests that national income would grow by £25.08 billion thanks to increased saving if CGT was gradually phased out. Further revenue increases from higher investment and productivity would more than replace revenue lost from CGT and boost growth…
Without Capital Gains Tax national income would, according to the modelling, rise by 0.9% annually, in perpetuity. That’s thanks to a 2.4% increase in national savings as a percentage of national income. Bean-counters will know that two-thirds of the lost revenue from scrapping the tax would be offset by increased revenue from other taxation as a result. Multiplier effects to growth would more than compensate for lost Treasury revenue while every family would be £1,000 a year better off…
Reeves should rule out a rise in CGT in the budget, and better still scrap it altogether. Talk about a rabbit…
The number of Channel migrants arriving in Britain in 2024 has surpassed the total for the whole of last year, according to GB News. 55 migrants arrived on the shores of Dover this afternoon, bringing the total illegal crossings for this year to a whopping 29,451. The overall for 2023 was 29,437. So much for smashing the gangs…
Today the Southport attack suspect Axel Muganwa Rudakubana was due in Liverpool Crown Court for a pre-trial preparation hearing. His case has not been listed and Guido can find no explanation. The highly emotive killings of young girls at a Taylor Swift dance party sparked rioting over suspicions that it was a terror motivated incident. The authorities went to great lengths to disabuse the public of this notion in carefully phrased language which cast doubt on that possibility. No doubt with the intention of calming public concern.
After four months police investigators and prosecutors must surely have compiled their case, so why is the hearing not going ahead? This will give rise to the suspicion in some quarters that it’s because the authorities having carefully misdirected the media and the public and are now panicking about how and when to reveal ‘inconvenient facts’ which will cast the fury and the riots in a very different light. There are sometimes mundane reasons for a case to be delayed or moved. However, the fact that Tommy Robinson is planning a big march tomorrow in London might not be unrelated… Robinson is due to attend Folkestone police station today at 3pm.
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”
