Newly installed British High Commissioner to Mauritius Paul Brummell has wasted no time congratulating Mauritian PM Navin Ramgoolam for the Chagos surrender deal, praising the “historic” sellout. Historic for all the wrong reasons…
Brummell replaced Charlotte Pierre earlier this month, after a series of embarrassing leaked phone calls between UK officials – including Pierre herself – found their way onto a Mauritian Facebook page during the height of the Chagos talks last October. Unsurprisingly feeding into security concerns around Diego Garcia…
Now, in a gushing Mauritian government press release, Brummell is quoted “congratulating the PM on his role in the signature of the historic Chagos Archipelago Agreement.” The Foreign Office official joins Beijing in applauding Mauritius’s £30.3 billion payday at the UK taxpayers’ expense. What’s the going rate for surrendering national interest these days?
Government sources tell Guido Dinsmore is due to start the job in November 2025. No dice (yet?) for Tim Allan despite the breathless Sunday Times briefing…
Chief Executive of Government Communications Simon Baugh – Dinsmore’s effective predecessor once he enters post – held an ’emergency’ all-staff meeting this morning to explain Dinsmore’s appointment to staff. The recruitment process has been underway for months, a formal press notice has been drafted this morning…
Pearl-clutching Labour types are predictably uncomfortable with a Sun man entering government – they seem to have forgotten that staggeringly the paper actually endorsed Starmer as PM during the general election. Officials are grumbling that there are: “growing concerns about his appointment from staff at the coalface and what signals his Starmer-agreed appointment sends to the Civil Service.” Not very grateful…
Nigel Farage is continuing his six-week crime campaign in Reform HQ’s new briefing room, announcing retired detective Colin Sutton as the party’s Police and Crime adviser. Sutton is famous for solving two high-profile cases. He’s known as the ‘The Real Manhunter’…
Watch LIVE as I announce Colin Sutton as Reform UK’s Police and Crime adviser. ⚠️ https://t.co/D2piTExtbK
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 28, 2025
Chairman Zia Yusuf says Reform will repeal the Online Safety Act if elected. American conservative media pundit Ann Coulter and Dr James Orr are in the room…
Labour could ban the use of Virtual Private Networks after their use has skyrocketed to avoid the restrictions imposed by the Online Safety Act. Logical next step for the authoritarians…
A VPN reroutes a device’s internet traffic through another country. Swiss Proton VPN became the UK’s top free app on Apple’s app store over the weekend with downloads up 1,800%. Nord VPN reported a 1,000% spike in purchases from the UK. Half of the top ten free apps on the store are VPNs now. Well done lads…
Labour has previously supported moves to restrict VPN usage when the Online Safety Act was first going through parliament. Prominent backbench MP Sarah Champion launched a campaign against them:
“My new clause 54 would require the Secretary of State to publish, within six months of the Bill’s passage, a report on the effect of VPN use on Ofcom’s ability to enforce the requirements under clause 112. If VPNs cause significant issues, the Government must identify those issues and find solutions, rather than avoiding difficult problems.”
Champion was supported by the Labour frontbench – the party said there were “gaps” in the bill that needed to be amended. Shadow digital minister Alex Davies-Jones said at the time that the clause “touches on the issue of future-proofing, which Labour has raised repeatedly in debates on the Bill.” VPNs currently destroy the operation of the badly-designed legislation…
Under the terms of the act platforms are not allowed to promote VPNs as an alternative to ID checks. Labour will be minded to go much further. If China can’t do it…
After months of dodging the B-word, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds finally admitted that Brexit is to thank for securing a better trade deal with the US than the EU. Over the weekend Trump agreed 15% tariffs on EU goods, still higher than the UK’s 10%…
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Reynolds conceded this was a Brexit benefit. He said:
“I’m absolutely clear, this is a benefit of being out of the European Union, having our independent trade policy, absolutely no doubt about that.”
Reynolds makes an eloquent argument for an independent Britain breaking free into global markets. Shame his government is returning the UK to the bloc by the back door…
Back in April David Lammy refused to admit the deal had anything to do with Brexit, while and Reynolds could only bring himself to say that the UK was in a “better position than a lot of other countries.” Will Starmer thank Brexit voters yet?
Jonathan Reynolds was asked on Sky News this morning when Labour would recognise Palestine. A move that would have huge repercussions inside the Labour Party…
The business secretary said Labour “want to” and “will” recognise it, but the government hasn’t worked out when:
“The question is – how can we use that in a way that gives a genuine breakthrough to a real peaceful process? I know many countries around the world have already done this. To be frank, to be candid, it hasn’t stopped the appalling scenes that we’re talking about this morning.”
Rayner has been a key figure pushing for the move inside Cabinet. Reynolds said the US was – obviously – the most important factor in this and was pressed by Wilfred Frost if recognition will take place in this parliament:
“In this parliament, yes. I mean, if it delivers the breakthrough that we need. But don’t forget, we can only do this once. If we do it in a way which is tokenistic, doesn’t produce the end to this conflict, where do we go to next?”
Sounds like Starmer wants to do it sooner rather than later…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”