A new YouGov poll now puts the Conservatives 15 points ahead of Labour nationally, with the Tories on 45% against Labour’s 30%. That’s a 2% gain for the Conservatives since the week of the local elections, and Labour’s worst result since the 14th April. It’s also only the second time Labour have dropped to 30% or below in the last year…
Worse yet for Sir Keir is that his own favourability is still stuck in the gutter. YouGov polling shows that not only is Starmer polling worse than Corbyn did at the same point of his leadership – with Sir Keir now on -48 compared to -40 for Corbyn in September 2016 – new data released today shows that nearly half of Labour’s 2019 voters believe that Andy Burnham would do a better job as Labour leader than Starmer. Of course, not that that matters to Burnham, who’ll be too busy with his mayoral duties to care about leadership rumours – it’s not like he’s just secured a column with the Evening Standard or anything…
SNP’s Westminster turmoil continues after two senior members of their front bench were accused of sexually harassing a member of staff – Patrick Grady and Patricia Gibson.* A punchy email from the member of staff behind two-thirds of the allegations has now been leaked in which he wrote to SNP staffers “to let you know that you are not safe working for the SNP Westminster Group”:
“These concerns were raised with HQ, who have yet to approach any witnesses or even do anything other than get a statement over 2 months ago.
Two MPs witnessed the harassment by Patricia but she is still serving and neither witness has been approached. Why?
Ian Blackford knows about the Patrick Grady harassment, he’s still an SNP MP speaking on the SNP benches. Why?”
He ends the communiqué warning fellow staffers that they may be the “next to receive sexual harassment when you are expected to work on the Parliamentary Estate.”
The jaw-dropping email was not only sent by a serving member of staff, it was sent to Ian Blackford and Kirsten Oswald, CC’ing in members of staff. Incredibly, he continues working for the SNP…
*Ms Gibson says she will sue Guido if we name her. On what grounds we do not know.
Howard Beckett, Len McCluskey’s deputy and frontrunner in the race to succeed him as Unite General Secretary, had an evening that went from bad to worse last night:
- Being called to resign after being ordered to pay £1.3 million after a libel case against former MP Anna Turley
- To tweeting that Priti Patel should be deported – to universal condemnation
- To a swift suspension from the Labour Party.
All in a night’s work for the hard left…
The Patel tweet was the most egregious. At 20:17, Beckett posted that the Home Secretary – a brown British woman born in London – should be deported in order to combat institutional racism:
Fury from the right was swift, and the post came down in less than an hour. A Tory source told Guido “We look forward to Labour’s swift condemnation of this vile racism.” Condemn it Labour did, initially telling Guido they take “these allegations extremely seriously and appropriate action will be taken.” Just over an hour later he was suspended from the party. To pour fuel on the fire, a Labour source told Lewis Goodall “Keir is prising McCluskey’s cold, dead hand from the Labour Party.”
Howard tells Sky News that despite the suspension, and widespread condemnation within Labour – from Chris Bryant to Owen Jones and Jon Lansman – he is still in the running for the leadership of Unite. He also claimed the calls for Patel to be deported were “metaphorical”. It could still get worse for Beckett, as the deadline for Union seats on Labour’s NEC is the 11th June. If he’s still suspended it’s unlikely he’ll be eligible for renomination…
Beckett had already faced calls to be sacked earlier yesterday afternoon, after losing a £1.3 million legal battle in a libel case against Anna Turley. Turley had won the legal battle and £75,000 of damages against Unite and Skwawkbox in 2019 over a libellous article from 2017 on the blog, featuring a press statement from Unite implying she’d been dishonest when applying for union membership. A subsequent battle then launched over the legal costs, which Unite has also now lost. In the words of Tom Watson, “Their legal guy, @BeckettUnite should be sacked. Instead he’s actually running to be the new @LenMcCluskey!”
The previously dovish Speaker of the Commons Lindsay Hoyle has announced he will now move to massively speed up the previously-announced roadmap for returning the Commons to ‘normal’ post-Covid. A new message sent to MPs says he will now encourage the Commons Commission on Monday to implement “all changes possible” under the current government guidance, due to the reduction in the Covid-19 alert level. Previously he was dragging his feet…
The changes he wants:
- The Chamber: Subject to final public health advice the chamber should consider moving from 2m social distancing to 1m+
- Catering: Introduction of rule of 6 – up from the current situation of tables with just one chair
- Terrace Pavillion to open indoor and outdoor
- Smoking room to be opened
- Bellamy’s to be opened subject to demand
- Members’ Dining Room and Adjournment to offer at-table service dining options
- Additional chairs in Members’ Tea Room
- Additional chairs in PCH
- Non-passholders: It is hoped the Commission will be able to support a limited return of access for non-passholders for a greater variety of business reasons
- Resuming of overseas committee visits
A rocket-boosted acceleration…
Paul Mason will be providing the comedy tonight…
Siobahn McDonagh and Angela Eagle hardly pulled their punches in their interrogation of David Cameron during today’s committee hearing. McDonagh in particular left Cameron looking pretty uncomfortable…
A few highlights include McDonagh asking if Cameron believed Greensill ‘was a ponzi scheme’, and Eagle claiming the 56 messages Cameron had sent looked ‘more like stalking than lobbying’. A few red-faced moments for Dave, to say the least.
