In January Guido reported on Jolyon Maugham’s bizarre campaign backing a Judicial Review against the Charity Commission, which had refused to retract the conclusions of its report into the (now defunct) disgraced charity Kids Company. The judgment is out and it’s bad news for Jolyon as the High Court “dismisses” his challenge on all but two minor points…
Those two points relate to:
The Charity Commission has put out a punchy statement this afternoon which confirms it is “clear that the overall findings of our report were not ‘irrational.’” It said the “High Court judgment has upheld our finding of mismanagement of the charity’s finances and has confirmed that it was based on “ample evidence.'” It adds “firmly rejected allegations we predetermined the outcome of the inquiry, stating the threshold for this was ‘not met in this case by a wide margin.’“ That won’t stop the fox-beater…
Despite the action being dismissed on all but these two points, Jolyon is still claiming his Good Law Project has “won” its case against the Charity Commission. Things work differently on Planet Jolyon…
The UK has suspended trade deal negotiations with Israel over its military operations in Gaza. Foreign secretary David Lammy told the Commons:
“We have suspended negotiations with this Israeli government on a new free trade agreement. We will be reviewing co-operation with them under the 2030 bilateral roadmap. The Netanyahu government’s actions have made this necessary. I say now to the people of Israel, we want I want a strong friendship with you based on shared values and with flourishing ties between our people and societies. The conduct of the war in Gaza is damaging our relationship with your government. And as the prime minister has said, if Israel pursues this military offensive as it has threatened failing to ensure the unhindered provision of aid, we will take further action in response.”
The Israeli ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office in London. A big escalation…
UPDATE: An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson said:
“If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy – that is its own prerogative. External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction.”
At PMQs last week Starmer told Liz Roberts that the one belief he held which lasted longer than a week was that she “talks rubbish.” You could therefore expect it to last more than seven days. Guido Verify has analysed Starmer’s claim…
The PM apologised to the MP today, saying he was “overly rude” and that he “respects” her. A Guido Verify analysis shows that this retraction took place six days after the original claim. Guido Verify has also confirmed that this not one full week. Another rapid U-turn…
Starmer has clearly been listening to Stella Creasy’s band of EU rejoin campaigners in the Labour Party. Replying to Ed Davey in the Commons the PM said the surrender deal was just the first step:
“It is intended that this is beginning of a process to complete on what we’ve already agreed but also to have annual summits so that we can take our cooperation and coordination further step by step and we will do that whilst keeping to the red lines that we had in our manifesto.”
One example from yesterday has raised eyebrows in the UK defence community. The existing defence statement doesn’t commit to the Barnier 2018 template on defence cooperation and there are no binding commitments to European Defence Fund, European Defence Agency, and Permanent Structured Cooperation systems. Von der Leyen hinted yesterday there is worse to come on defence:
“Then there comes the second step that is necessary to negotiate a second agreement and here we detail out it’s again a process of detailing out budget contribution reciprocal market access and rules on security of supply and this will give that’s important in the end the UK industrial participation this is the goal that we have together.”
There is more to negotiate – on youth mobility Starmer refused to set a timescale and said Labour was aiming to “move at pace” to reopen the border to EU under-35s. Annual summits will demand annual progress towards the EU…
Last February then-defence secretary Grant Shapps ordered a full “root-and-branch review of ethnicity, diversity and inclusivity policies” in the Ministry of Defence after it emerged the British Army had issued guidance to “challenge security clearance requirements” in the name of boosting diversity. In the RAF, diversity-hiring disasters led to a whopping 30% shortfall in pilots at the flight lieutenant and squadron leader ranks after an attempt to sideline white male applicants backfired….
Under Labour, the review into the woke guidance was quietly binned in September. In response to a written parliamentary question by Tory MP Richard Holden, ministers have now admitted that they axed the review because “it was commissioned by the previous Government and did not align with the new Government’s priorities for the Department.” Difficult to claim Labour is the party of putting merit above all else when they cancelled a review trying to do just that…
Starmer is in the Commons to give a ministerial statement on the UK-EU surrender summit. He will field questions from MPs. Expect fish, energy, and defence to come up…
Starmer says of youth mobility: “And it delivers for our young people, because we are now on a path towards a controlled youth experience scheme with firm caps on numbers and visa controls. A relationship we have with so many countries around the world, some actually even set up by the party opposite. We should be proud to give our young people that opportunity.” No word on how much it would be ‘capped’ by…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”