Reform has sent a round robin to all MPs today. The message – if you want our help on select committees, you need to help us…
The parliamentary squad is protesting its being “locked out” of select committees in favour of “political lightweights who understand nothing of how business operates“. All thanks to seat-based weighting…
Reform say MPs (Tory ones) have been getting in touch asking for support to elect committee chairmen. Their response: “We will only consider supporting candidates who will publicly support us in our quest to seek fairness and allow us to be allocated places on our Select Committees.” Seems fair…
Read the full letter below:
Continue reading “Reform Offers Select Committee Deal to Canvassing MPs”
Baroness Jenkin is really tightening the straps in the Lords. After whipping up a storm with her written question about fetish clothing in the civil service, she’s now got her sights set on a matter that really binds the nation:
What is she smoking…
UPDATE: A co-conspirator gets in touch to say it appears Jenkin has mixed up the BDSM acronym with the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions Movement while the question was written during minutes of the meeting. Still, there does seem to be a bit of a theme…
Jolyon is almost losing faster than he can start soliciting donations for new campaigns. After failing against the IEA, GambleAware, Wes Streeting, and the previous government so far this year, the fox-beater has taken another shocking defeat. This time it’s against the Global Warming Policy Foundation…
The Good Law Project teamed up with crank MPs Layla Moran, Clive Lewis, and Caroline Lucas in October 2022 to complain to the Charity Commission that the Foundation “flies in the face of rules that state the outputs from educational charities must be ‘balanced and neutral’” and is funding its trading subsidiary, Net Zero Watch. Jolyon spent months complaining that the Charity Commission was “sitting on its hands” by not investigating his complaints. He must be happy now that they’ve all been dismissed…
The Charity Commission says it “examined how the charity ensures its output meets appropriately rigorous standards of objective analysis and factual research to support the conclusions being presented” and is satisfied, all while finding no evidence to support the claim that “the charity was financially supporting Net Zero Watch and that it had consistently operated at a loss.” It also notes that Net Zero Watch doesn’t as a matter of policy accept donations from the energy industry or anyone with a significant interest in it. Not that it’s a legal requirement…
GWPF Chairman Dr Jerome Booth says:
“There are those who employ moral reasoning with little respect for opposing views. Sometimes they employ heavy handed means to shut down debate and persecute and attack anyone with whom they disagree… We welcome the Commission’s findings and will continue to pursue our charitable objectives.”
Another notch on Jolyon’s belt. Talk about blowing hot air…
The events of yesterday afternoon rolling into today have opened up Labour to numerous seriously punchy attacks. If only there was a functioning opposition…
Those attacks, in just this 24-hour cycle, include:
- Reeves destroying her credibility with thin spin on a made up “black hole” in public finances.
- Labour teeing up disastrous growth-killing tax rises.
- Huge oncoming fallout over January’s private school VAT imposition.
- Labour’s blatant hypocrisy over the Winter Fuel Allowance.
- Diverting billions of taxpayer funds to union-favoured public sector pay hikes and misleading on its true cost.
Apart from one tweet, Leader of the Opposition Rishi Sunak has been silent – no broadcast appearances either. Hunt did his best in the Commons and has written a letter, but without a leader it’s not enough to break through. Waxing lyrical in PMQs is all well and good – it doesn’t provide a counter narrative…
Guido hears employment contract non-renewals swept through CCHQ earlier this month. The campaign team is now a skeleton crew. Months of crickets to come…
Labour’s casting around for cash to fund its political projects is descending into farce. They’re struggling to keep a straight face on the media round…
Just two months ago Starmer made a big song and dance about the elderly’s inability to pay their heating bills, which he described in a campaign video as “awful” and “the biggest thing in the world” which “eats away at people“. Darren Jones sent a formal complaint over rumours that the Winter Fuel Allowance would be means tested last year. Meanwhile, Wes Streeting told the BBC just a few weeks ago:
“One of the things that we have committed to is, obviously the cap on care costs is due to come in, I have wanted to give the system the certainty this side of the election of knowing we are not planning to come in and upend that and scrap that.”
Means testing benefits is fine, deceiving the public over what your priorities are isn’t…
The Select Committee allocations are finally out after some wrangling, setting the stage for MPs to interrogate ministers, executives, and civil servants. Labour chairs over two thirds of the committees as they reflect the balance of seats in parliament. Here’s a breakdown of party allocations:
- Business and Trade (Lab)
- Culture, Media and Sport (Con)
- Defence (Lab)
- Education (Lab)
- Energy Security and Net Zero (Lab)
- Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (LibDem)
- Foreign Affairs (Lab)
- Health and Social Care (LibDem)
- Home Affairs (Con)
- Housing, Communities and Local Government (Lab)
- International Development (Lab)
- Justice (Lab)
- Northern Ireland Affairs (Lab)
- Science, Innovation and Technology (Lab)
- Scottish Affairs (Lab)
- Transport (Lab)
- Treasury (Lab)
- Welsh Affairs (Lab)
- Women and Equalities (Lab)
- Work and Pensions (Lab)
- Environmental Audit (Lab)
- Petitions (LibDem)
- Procedure (Lab)
- Public Accounts (Con)
- Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs (Con)
- Standards (Con)
The Liberal Democrats have unsurprisingly chosen to chair their core areas of Social Care and Environment, while the Tories have gone with Digital, Culture and Media. With Starmer snubbing many former shadow ministers, watch as those Labour MPs scramble for Chair roles as their new career lifeline…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”
