Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has called for the Dartmoor ponies to be saved from a mass cull at the hands of civil servants. Is it silly season already?
Unaccountable quango Natural England says that livestock grazing on the moor have to be cut by 75% to protect ‘biodiversity.’ Farmers will not be culling their own livestock…
The Dartmoor ponies – semi-wild today – have been present in the area since 3500 BC until coming against Natural England. Nine in ten of them would have to be culled according to the quango’s demands. The ponies also provide crucial grazing and combat invasive species of flora…
Natural England says it’s up to the landowners to carry out its arbitrary demands. Badenoch said this morning:
“This is total madness from another unaccountable quango. The government must overrule Natural England and stop it immediately.
Keir Starmer is on his way to making his last acts in office the shameful underfunding of our military and the mass slaughter of Dartmoor ponies.”
Cull the quangos…
The latest from YouGov:
| Reform | 24% ▼1 | |
| Conservatives | 19% = | |
| Labour | 19% = | |
| Greens | 15% ▲1 | |
| LibDems | 13% ▲1 |
The Tories and Labour are now neck and neck on 19%…
Sam Coates also has fresh polling showing Burnham is still the only Labour leadership contender the public think would make a better Prime Minister than Starmer, with a net score of +11 (29% think he’d be better, 18% think he’d be even worse). Every rival is underwater, with Wes Streeting on an abysmal -18. Team Burnham has briefed the FT this morning that they’ll at least give Starmer the “space” to resign after Friday. They think around 72 hours will be enough for him to surrender…
On Friday, Guido noted the inevitable civil war that would ensue if a Labour MP brought back the assisted suicide Bill. Just a few days later that civil war is now raging after Rochester & Strood MP, Lauren Edwards, announced her politically clueless plan to bring back Kim Leadbeater’s failed Bill…
Labour MPs are in meltdown over the plan. Adam Jogee was first out of the blocks, describing the move as “deeply divisive”, “insane” and as “bad bad news”. Ashley Dalton, who has spoken about her own terminal illness, said: “Very sad to see my colleague Lauren Edwards MP bringing the deeply flawed and unsafe Assisted Dying Bill back as a PMB”. Emma Lewell summed up the views of many: “Absolutely dismayed that the Assisted Dying Bill is being re-introduced. Not a single one of our major medical or professional bodies support it. A deeply flawed and dangerous bill that poses a real risk to the most vulnerable in our society”. Dozens more joined in this morning, summing up the massive issue this will cause inside the PLP…
Labour bigwigs also oppose the move, including ‘Deputy PM’ David Lammy, former ‘Deputy PM’ Angela Rayner, new No10 adviser and former PM Gordon Brown, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, leadership contender Wes Streeting, Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds, Chief Secretary to the PM Darren Jones, and Scottish Leader Anas Sarwar. Likely incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham supports the concept but is said to have told friends he does not want to see a Bill brought back; his in-tray is difficult enough as it is. Pollster Andrew Hawkins (founder of ComRes and Whitestone Insight) pointed out that reviving the Bill would be “electorally catastrophic” for Labour MPs…
Meanwhile, Guido understands that eating disorder, domestic abuse and disability rights charities campaigned outside Lauren Edwards’ constituency office last weekend. Elon Musk previously drew attention to language she had used in old tweets, having posted: “I want these f*cking Estonian retards out of my flat”. Edwards does not have to formally present her Bill until Wednesday lunchtime. That gives the PLP 48 hours to change her mind. Just like those flat-dwelling Estonians, Labour MPs want her Bill thrown out…
Morgan McSweeney told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee: “Jonathan Powell got appointed too before the necessary [vetting] work”. Westminster has moved on since the release of the damning Mandelson files, Guido has not…
Leaked emails show that Jonathan Powell was working in Syria from at least 2012 onwards – including negotiating with terror groups. As part of that work, Powell established back-channel contact with Hayat Tahrir Al Sham via Inter Mediate, the negotiation and diplomacy consultancy he co-founded after leaving government. Powell markets this as ‘talking to terrorists’, the title of his book on conflict resolution…
Did Powell meet the leader of HTS Ahmeda al-Shara/Jolani in 2021 – a time when he was a wanted terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head from the US government? Powell’s Inter Mediate company certainly worked with HTS and al-Shara from 2023 onwards, rebranding them ‘from terrorists into politicians’. The work included organising two meetings between HTS and former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford…
Today, after HTS’s violent seizure of power, Inter Mediate reportedly operate an office in the Presidential Palace of Ahmed Al-Shara. Powell’s links to Syria appear to involve Wafic Said, who has helped Powell establish contacts in the region. Labour is giving it large on a crackdown on groups such as Palestine Action – what about the record of its own security bigwig?
The Mail and other outlets have reported that Powell used his former company Inter-Mediate and his role in government to ‘significantly influence’ the UK’s relationship with Syria. Friends of Powell like Wafic Said have managed to secure massive $300 million deals with the Syrian government. Did Powell’s rushed vetting cover his work on these issues? What declarations did Powell make before the meetings he has held with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who Inter Mediate continued to advise once Powell returned to Number 10? Labour is up to its neck…
The Speaker has granted Kemi Badenoch an Urgent Question to drag defence ministers to the Commons to discuss the Defence Investment Plan:
“To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the impact of the time taken to publish the Defence Investment Plan on the ability of the armed forces to defend the UK.”
No sign of Jarvis there. A diary clash?
Downing Street says Jarvis won’t get any more money than Healey was offered. Farce…
UPDATE: Defence minister Luke Pollard says he is only still in post because John Healey asked him not to resign.
“It’s no secret that I worked in lockstep with the former Defence Secretary. He is a friend and mentor.
I was his deputy and I am still standing here because he asked me to stay, and because we need continuity in this complex and difficult operational environment.”
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.”