“The amendments are an attempt to ensure that we end up with a framework to deal with not just the goods we import and export but the services we trade in. The customs union amendment that we passed overwhelmingly a few weeks ago is only one half of the equation. The customs union deals only with goods. That is very important: it deals only with goods—tangible items such as cars, washing machines and televisions—where we have a £96 billion trade deficit.
The EEA deals with services—such as retail, tourism, transport, communications, financial services and aerospace, where we have a £14 billion trade surplus…without an EEA equivalent, it will damage our profitable export business and therefore the jobs and livelihoods of many thousands of people. It is for that reason we need to ensure that any continuation in the customs union must include continuation in the EEA or its equivalent…this is bigger than party politics. It is about people’s jobs. It is about the future of our economy.”
Questions about the motives of big Labour donor Lord Alli are swirling in SW1. The party’s line that he’s just a peer without any agenda, and that he doesn’t intervene politically apart from ‘being Labour’, took a hit when Guido exposed his arguments against the ousting of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Coupled with the fact he was sent to Iraq by Number 10 to meddle in the January 2005 elections, Labour’s defence line is quickly wearing thin…
Guido has dug through the archives and found more evidence of Alli intervening politically. Back in May 2018, then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged his MPs to resist calls for a Norway-style Brexit deal. Lord Alli was far from happy, denouncing the move as “cowardice.” He made his case in the Lords for why the UK should remain in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the Customs Union:
Eyebrows have long been raised about the widely-cited “independent” Institute for Fiscal Studies report into private school VAT. It has been used to “fact check” widely-held worries that Starmer’s class war on private schools will 1) funnel unsustainable numbers of children into the state system, and 2) not raise enough money. The report has for many months been the only shield for Labour politicians seeking to bat away legitimate concerns over its tax plan…
Last week it was confirmed that already 10,540 fewer students are at private schools – and that’s before Labour’s tax is even introduced. The IFS claimed 17,000-40,000 students in total would shift to the state sector. Co-conspirators might wonder why their report is so sympathetic to Labour’s policy…
As it turns out the caveat-filled report’s only author Luke Sibieta has been close mates for years with the Labour minister responsible for its implementation. Sibieta and Matthew Pennycook lived together in the noughties – Pennycook was even Sibieta’s best man at his wedding. Details of which have been meticulously scrubbed from almost everywhere on the internet…
The government has confirmed that the business rates policy change, one half of the tax raid on private schools, “will be legislated for through a Local Government Finance Bill led by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.” Pennycook’s department…
Lobby journalists treat interventions from ‘independent’ tax-fanatics at the IFS – such as today’s new call to massively hike capital gains tax – as gospel. Maybe when hacks work out that these wonks might not be as impartial as they are so desperate to appear they will treat endlesss calls for tax increases with a little more scepticism…
Questions are swirling around Gray’s departure from her £170,000 post in Downing Street. The government is refusing to say whether Morgan McSweeney will also be paid more than the PM as new Chief of Staff…
A Cabinet Office source reckons Gray won’t get a SpAd severance payment because she’s shifting to another role in government. Guido finds it hard to believe she won’t be given something like a three-month sweetener…
It has been confirmed at today’s Lobby briefing that Gray’s demotion to an advisory role will be a direct ministerial appointment to the Cabinet Office, and therefore subject to pay. They are usually reserved for part-time projects, though Downing Street’s spokesman refused to say if her role is time-limited. She’s firmly ensconced in the Civil Service…
That means Gray will keep on getting her Civil Service perks. Downing Street’s spokesman also refuses to say if Gray will be given a peerage. That’d be another £332 per day…
Reform hosted a press conference on law and order today in Westminster. New slogan for a new campaign: Family, Community, Country…
Reform UK Law & Order Press Conference https://t.co/aCaFlQMFxo
— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) October 7, 2024
Nigel Farage kicked off, hammering “two-tier policing and justice“. He reminded the audience of the Manchester Airport incident, where the offenders violently assaulted the police, though the police were the ones that got the backlash for retaliating. Tice slammed the fact the assailants haven’t been charged yet, while the police held “great restraint” in only using their tasers. Tice claims sources tell Reform that someone in Manchester police withheld the footage of assailants attacking the police shortly after the incident…
All 5 MPs have signed a letter to the Home Secretary about ‘two-tier justice.’ They’ve threatened that if the Crown Prosecution Service don’t charge the Manchester Airport assailants, Reform will organise a private criminal prosecution against them…
They are also going to be releasing a party political broadcast called “Labour: The Movie“. It will be aired on ITV at 6:25 p.m. and BBC One at 6:55 p.m.
Read the full letter below:
Continue reading “Reform Host ‘Law and Order’ Press Conference”
As Guido predicted yesterday the pundits have poured as much praise as they can get away with on the disastrous implosion of Starmer’s Downing Street 93 days into government. Got to keep those new sources sweet…
Remember when Gray was the person be be cosied up to? Profiles flattered where they could: “One Labour figure said Gray had been a good listener“, “She’s pretty ruthless at timekeeping.” Now it’s Starmer and McSweeney’s turn to have the spinning done for them…
Lobby journalists pretend to be shocked by Starmer’s “ruthlessness” in getting rid of Gray. Guido doesn’t recall them spinning Cummings’ departure as Boris “bolstering his No 10 operation”…
Sue Gray has unceremoniously been ousted from Number 10, after nearly three decades of being in the civil service, and just three months into her role as Chief of Staff. She’s been given the new role of Prime Minister’s envoy for the “regions and nations”, aptly described by Tory MP Simon Hoare as “a bit like the Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief’s Chief Assistant.” The ‘most powerful woman in Britain’ no more…
To add salt to the wound for Gray, she’ll be taking a pay cut from her hard-negotiated £170,000 salary. And for her first outing, she’ll be shipped 500 miles from London to Scotland (exact location unknown) to attend the first Council of the Nations and Regions meeting this Friday, discussing the “shared challenges” and “opportunities” across the UK. One week in to her new job, she’s literally been sent as far away from Whitehall as possible…
UPDATE: Starmer’s spokesman refuses to confirm if Gray is even on the list for Friday’s meeting in Scotland.
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”
