You can always rely on the inimitable Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire of The Sunday Times and The Times to deliver the goods. Their new book ‘Get In: The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer‘ is serialised in The Sunday Times today and has (possibly inadvertently) absolutely cooked Keir Starmer’s goose over his compliance with Covid restrictions. The well-sourced book recounts:
“The actress and communications skills coach Leonie Mellinger was integral to Starmer’s rise to power but her place in his inner circle is revealed for the first time today. She has spoken publicly about helping a notoriously reticent politician discover his voice — and counselling him as he considered resigning in 2021… Those who worked with Starmer on that leadership campaign say his triumph would not have been possible without Mellinger, who helped him navigate the transition from courtroom to Commons chamber, television studio and debating stage. He considered her role so essential that Mellinger even qualified for “key worker” status during the pandemic. She visited Labour headquarters in a mask on Christmas Eve in 2020, advising Starmer as he considered his response to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.”
There are at least a few problems with this. On ‘Christmas Eve in 2020’ (24 December) the UK was in the tiered system of regional Covid lockdowns. At that time, Labour HQ was located at Southside, Victoria Street, central London. London had been placed in Tier 4 on Sunday 20 December, the highest tier with the most severe restrictions, broadly equivalent to the national lockdowns…
In Tier 4 the government imposed restrictions including: ‘everyone must work from home unless they are unable to do so’ and ‘no household mixing, aside from support bubbles and two people meeting in public outdoor spaces.’ This was stricter than ‘necessary for work purposes’ exceptions that existed at other points – London was under a blanket work at home order unless working from home was impossible. These were restrictions made in law – not guidance. How can Starmer’s in-person meeting with his voice coach at Labour HQ possibly have been allowed under those restrictions?
Even if you concede Starmer’s voice coach could not have worked from home, this would be inconsistent with an account of a previous training session recounted in the book: Pogrund and Maguire describe how Mellinger joined a voice training session by phone call in April 2020. So they had previously worked remotely…
Another issue is the suggestion Starmer “considered her role so essential that Mellinger even qualified for “key worker” status during the pandemic.” The government published lists of critical workers at various points in the pandemic – the point was those people could still send their children to school despite school closures, to enable them to continue working. Being a ‘key worker’ was not an exemption from anything else…
The key workers mentioned relevant to politics were: “Local and national government: This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of: the COVID-19 response; essential public services, such as the payment of benefits including in government agencies and arms length bodies“. Starmer’s voice coach can hardly have been considered essential for the effective delivery of the Covid-19 response…
In any case, Starmer had no power whatsoever to designate someone a critical worker anyway. This revelation, which took place during a much stricter period of restrictions than Starmer’s infamous Beergate episode, and is described in print in black and white, poses serious questions for Starmer. Mr Rules is in trouble…
This week 618,375 visitors visited 705,345 times viewing 782,809 pages. The most read and shared stories in order of popularity were:
You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…
Co-conspirators may remember some of the things Labour figures have had to say about ministerial jet use in the not-so-distant past:
Reeves even made a big thing of pledging to crack down on ministers flying private. She might want to have a word with her Downing Street neighbour…
In his first three months in office Starmer took nine flights at a total duration of 62 hours and 32 minutes. He went on to take many more as co-conspirators will know…
The total cost of that travel as totted up by the Civil Service is a huge £697,198. That means that the UK taxpayer has forked out £186 for every minute that Starmer spent in the air from July to September. Per hour that’s £11,160. The PM is only beaten by his Foreign Secretary on private jet spending over that period. Labour will argue you have to fly if you’re in office – something they didn’t afford the Tories when they were in opposition…
It has been over two months since we were in the High Court for the trial of preliminary issues to determine meaning and to establish what it is exactly that a full trial will be arguing about. (See the previous Court Report here.)
It seems like a good moment to give co-conspirators an update after so many of you have been so generous – raising £94,799 towards the battle to defend the case brought against Guido by Dale Vince. Total costs to date have now exceeded £80,000.
We are still waiting for Mr Justice Pepperall to make his rulings. There is no fixed deadline by which the Judge’s ruling has to be made.
Dale Vince’s lawyers meantime have written to complain that we stated in the fundraising video that Dale “wants to block access to this site”, claiming this isn’t true, as he only wanted to block access to the bits of the site about him. This type of petty nitpicking is typical of Dale.
Dale’s lawyers also complained about us drawing a comparison of his methods to how the Chinese Communist Party operates internet censorship. If Dale Vince doesn’t want to be compared to bad actors who try to censor the internet with firewalls he should perhaps not adopt their methods.
I want to again thank the 2,900 conspirators for your support. Together we can Just Stop Dale!
Lib Dem MP Charlie Maynard has been making waves, leading the charge to flush Thames Water into Special Administration, insisting it’s the only way to drain the financial swamp left by years of mismanagement. Thames Water has been in court today, facing green-lobby-backed legal action from environmental campaigners…
Well-heeled Maynard just so happens to own a hefty stake—over 15%—in BDA Partners, an investment banking firm that specialises in water sector mergers and acquisitions. BDA proudly touts its role in helping investors siphon off UK water assets, including the UK-based Doosan Enpure to a German company, SKion Water. If Thames Water is forced into SAR, as Maynard demands, it would be fascinating to see which firms find themselves positioned to help a buyer snap it up on the cheap…
While Maynard has declared his shares in BDA in his register of interests, and there’s no suggestion of wrongdoing on his part, he’s yet to mention it directly when he’s feverishly agitating over Thames Water’s future. Murky waters…
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.”