Labour’s Batley and Spen By-Election Candidate, Kim Leadbeater, has quite impressively managed to break campaigning rules before the election has even begun. Campaigning rules state that election posters cannot be erected until 4pm today, however Guido has received pictures of Labour posters already plastered round the Batley and Spen constituency. Labour never like to play fair… 

In addition to this, the overly-enthusiastic Labour team have reportedly fixed campaigning posters to private lampposts on private property, something they did not have permission to do. No surprise that socialists have no respect for private property, though this blatant disregard for homeowner’s rights may backfire on Kim Leadbeater by upsetting potential voters.

Last week Guido reported that neither Paul Halloran nor Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party would stand in this hotly contested seat. A statement from Richard Tice explained that the Reform Party will also be standing aside because they “do not want to split the vote and reduce chances of Labour being ousted.” With Galloway splitting the left’s vote, and right-of-centre voters uniting behind Ryan Stephenson, this may be another Red Wall seat to fall, bookies are making the Tory the hot favourite…

Britain is one of the world’s most generous foreign aid donors (third in the world), and when you add in the private charitable donations Britons give, the amount of aid originating from Britain is stupendous. British taxpayers funded the rapid development of the AstraZeneca vaccine which will save millions of lives and the same taxpayers are paying for it to be distributed globally to the poorest countries for free or on a not-for-profit basis. Yet for some, this is still not enough.

The same people that claim millions of British children are living in absolute poverty, want Britain to borrow billions more to give in foreign aid to governments that don’t look after their own people. Giving aid to states that prefer to prioritise developing nuclear weapons or a space programme over the basic needs of their people is subsidising the wrong priorities. The primary mission of governments, at home and abroad, should be to look after their own citizens.

The West of England’s self-proclaimed “more visible” Metro Mayor, who mysteriously vanished from public view as soon as he was sworn in, has revealed what he was up to after he got elected and became invisible. Following Guido’s campaign to find Dan Norris after he was elected, a Freedom of Information (FoI) response confirms the rumours over what happened to the Mayor during his unexplained disappearance. He stayed online and went on holiday. 

Despite Norris claiming he’d be a mayor who would “gets things done“, and his press team insisting he had a “packed diary” (a diary of meetings which they also initially refused to reveal), the FoI shows a remarkably light schedule for a man who made such bold promises during his campaign:

Monday, 10 May
TV interviews with Good Morning Britain, and then local ITV and BBC in the evening. The Mayor also spoke to Radio Bristol. Was officially sworn in and attended a legal briefing.
In addition he met with Combined Authority staff via Zoom.

Tuesday, 11 May
He made phone calls and replied to correspondence.

Wednesday, 12 May
He met with the three local Council leaders.

He didn’t actually meet them, it was a conference call:

Today's #BristolMayorAgenda 📆 includes:

– #Covid19 city leaders call
– Weekly interview on @BCfmRadio
– Call with @VoteDanNorris, @WestOfEnglandCA
– Call with @CllrKevinGuy, @BathNES
– Call with Cllr Don Davies, @NorthSomersetC

— Marvin Rees (@MarvinJRees) May 12, 2021

Thursday, 13 May
He attended a “Meet the Mayor” Stakeholder Event via Zoom.

Online.

Certainly a few phone calls and Zoom meetings, all of which can be made from any sunny locale in the British Isles. The meeting with “the three local Council leaders” might’ve given Norris a decent alibi – had the tweet from Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees not completely blown his cover…

Guido must commend Justice Secretary Robert Buckland for knowing precisely how to wind up Jolyon Maugham. He will shortly announce reforms to online legal fundraising, a practice most famously used by Jolyon’s Good Law Project. The changes come amid concerns the racket is ripe for exploitation of donors who may be unaware what exactly they’re funding. As one government source pithily explains:

“‘You could donate to fund a case seeking stronger protections for animals such as foxes only to see your money end up indirectly bankrolling a case to make it easier for children to get medical treatment helping them change gender.”

“Lawfare” is politics by other means; we’ve seen rich Europhiles try for years to frustrate the outcome of the referendum in the Courts. Inevitably, as a wealthy elite minority is increasingly at odds with a populist government, this is not an unexpected development. Responding to the clearly-targeted move, Jolyon told the Mail on Sunday that crowdfunding “puts into the hands of normal people a modest tool with which to try to keep government on the straight and narrow”. Guido looks forward to this modest tool being cut down to size soon…

UPDATE: Jolyon has since written a blog claiming the move is a “deceitful and bullying attempt to target a critic”. A government source responds:

“Typically, the fox-clubber thinks this is all about him and that the government are petrified of his vanity project. In reality, he’s an occasional and minor administrative irritant and what we’re looking at are reforms to a sector he himself suggests could be the next mis-selling scandal.”

“It is telling that he fails to address the issue raised about the potential for costs being awarded and then recycled into a totally separate cause– something several of his colleagues at the Bar have sounded the alarm over”

The hotly-anticipated rebellion on foreign aid by upwards of 30 Tory MPs has been thwarted – albeit by parliament’s rules, not the government. Commons clerks have determined the rebels’ amendment is “completely out of scope” of the ARIA Bill, and their unequivocal advice is that it should not be called. Unless Hoyle throws caution to the wind and calls it anyway – a.k.a the Bercow strategy – this should save Boris a major embarrassment…

Hat-tip: Lucy Fisher

UPDATE: Andrew Mitchell tells Sky News that Hoyle has told him he’s made no decision about whether to call the amendment yet