Senior Tories faced bad ops earlier this week as they were filmed dashing from their annual winter fundraising ball to vote for the PM’s controversial social care reforms. A huge amount of cash was raised at the ball: an hour’s cricket with Rishi Sunak went for £35,000; dinner with Gove for £25,000; karaoke with Liz Truss fetched £22,000. All the while the 500 guests dined on smoked salmon and beef…
It seems not all the Cabinet are such high-value prizes however. Guido can reveal that at a gala dinner last week an auction was held at which “tea with Priti Patel, the Home Secretary” was on offer. While the email sent to attendees subsequently hailed the dinner as “a great success”, it confessed the tea with Priti prize “could not be sold as intended”.
The item is now being re-auctioned with bids being invited. Guido would be happy to pass on the auction details to Nigel Farage – he imagines the conversation would be more interesting than the finger sandwiches…
UPDATE: A source gets in touch claiming the item did, in fact, sell at the event, however it transpired the winning bid was from someone ineligible as they weren’t on the electoral register. Happy bidding.
Good Morning Britain welcomed Hassan Akkad onto the programme this morning, introducing him as a “Syrian refugee”. Throughout the show, Hassan characteristically slammed Priti Patel’s Afghan resettlement scheme and the government’s approach to asylum seekers. Co-conspirators will be more than familiar with Akkad, although once again, GMB failed to mention that he’s an active Labour Party member, documentary maker and campaigner. Along with Susan Michie, he may be Guido’s most frequently called-out activist expert…
Guido hopes listeners of the programme weren’t left with the misguided impression that Hassan was an ordinary member of the public, rather than a political activist and Labour Party member. It’s a step back for GMB, who Guido last praised after Richard Madeley called out Michie’s communist beliefs…
German politicians have finally reached a post-election agreement between the social democratic SPD party, the Greens and the Liberal Democratic FDP party, an agreement that will kick the centre-right CDU out of government for the first time since 2005. The deal will be presented later today and will make Olaf Scholz the new Chancellor, replacing Angela Merkel. If all parties approve, Scholz will be elected Chancellor the week starting December 6th.
Dominic Raab has brushed off claims in multiple papers this morning that some Tory MPs have sent leadership challenge demands to 1922 chairman Graham Brady. Speaking to Nick Ferrari this morning, he denied knowing any of the supposed MPs involved. Playing down the claims as “usual Westminster tittle-tattle”:
“There’ll always be the scrutiny, the noisiness that comes with British politics, frankly, overwhelming – and I talk to colleagues, MPs on the backbenches – there is huge support for what we and the PM are doing.”
Raab also claimed the Tories only just being behind in the polls “at this stage of the electoral cycle” is “testament to all the work we’ve been doing and there’s huge credit still to the boss and the government for the vaccine roll-out.”
Both The Telegraph and The Sun carry the story today, claiming letters have been sent to Brady – who needs 15% of Tory MPs (54) to submit letters of no confidence. While The Telegraph is more subdued, writing that one whip believes “some” letters have been submitted, The Sun goes as far as saying the number is around 12.
As everyone knows, unless the Telegraph and The Sun’s sources are the MPs who’ve written letters themselves – Graham Brady doesn’t tell anyone the total amount of letters he’s received, not even the PM – this is all pure speculation. Persistent criticism has been made of Mark Spencer and No. 10 advisors, however Tory MPs still sound overwhelmingly grateful to Boris for 2019 when speaking to Guido.
Boris didn’t make just one speech featuring Peppa Pig yesterday. After making a pig’s ear of it on his first attempt, he gave it another go later in the day – this time without losing his place, or upending the news flow for about 12 hours. Speaking at the big Centre for Policy Studies’ Margaret Thatcher Conference dinner last night, Boris said:
“I don’t know if you’ve heard the news my friends but yesterday I went to Peppa Pig World […] Hands up who has been to Peppa Pig World? […] I was initially quite hesitant but I found it was very much my kind of place, Peppa Pig World. It had good schools, excellent health care – there’s a bear called […] Dr Brown Bear who turns up no trouble too great, always turns up for in-person consultations. Superb infrastructure – novel transport, mass transit systems systems in Peppa Pig World. And safe streets, virtually no crime that I can see.
[…]
Peppa’s influence, – she’s got a younger brother called George by the way – Peppa’s cultural influence, is so pervasive that kids in America now say ‘to-mah-to’ instead of ‘tom-ate-o’ and ‘mummy’ rather than ‘mom’ … Anyway, and there you go – that is believed to be a direct result of Peppa Pig and that is the effect of the free trade in which Margaret Thatcher believed.”
If at first you don’t succeed…
The spirit of Corbynism lives long in Labour, it seems, as Starmer’s shadow Northern Ireland secretary tells GB News that the party would remain neutral in a Northern Ireland border poll. Speaking to Darren McCaffrey, Louise Haigh told viewers:
“We may be a Unionist party but it is not my job to advocate for the Union”
Present but not involved one might say…
Unsurprisingly the Tories are furious. A Tory source responds to Guido with the fiery:
“From a woman that wanted John McDonnell with his praise of bombs and bullets to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, it is perhaps surprising that Louise only went this far.
Labour’s Unionist identity crisis has never been resolved. With the SDLP as their sister party, and their shadow NI Secretary emphatically saying it is not her role to be a ‘persuader for the Union’, how they can claim to be Unionist party with a straight face is beyond belief.”
Starmer said in July that “I believe in the United Kingdom and I will make the case for a United Kingdom” and that in the event of a border poll
“I personally, as leader of the Labour Party, believe in the United Kingdom strongly, and would want to make the case for a United Kingdom strongly and will be doing that.”
Starmer emphasised he would be “very much on the side of Unionists, arguing for Northern Ireland to remain in the UK” even if he were to be Prime Minister at the time. Clearly the same can’t be said for his party or Shadow Cabinet.
