David Davis looked rather worse-for-wear during his Sky News interview this morning. Davis had the honour of being invited to Penny Mordaunt’s glitzy Westminster Party last night, a relaunch of her book well-timed to coincide with her second place success in yesterday’s leadership vote-off. Guido hears Davis had a steaming time at Penny’s party, so perhaps today’s look isn’t wholly unrelated. Penny’s party was ‘Best of British’ themed, though thankfully I Vow To Thee wasn’t blasted on repeat. Among the VIP guestlist included a Joanna Lumley impersonator, Peter Rabbit, Paddington and strongmen acrobats. There were amusing scenes as a man ran around snatching people’s drinks as they posed for photos, thanks to a ‘no alcohol with the children’s characters’ policy…
How it started (last night) / how it’s going (this morning) pic.twitter.com/ALCtkm9vzc
— Kitty Donaldson (@kitty_donaldson) July 14, 2022
Down the road, another party was being held – almost as much of a Penny love-in as her own SW1 bash. A source reveals Remainer-in-Chief Amber Rudd held a dinner party last night, among those in attendance were Karen Bradley, Stephen Hammond and a raft of other remainers. Word reaches Guido that those present were, surprisingly, singing Penny’s praises. Rather than Rishi, the coterie of Brexit-bashers want Penny in the final two against Liz Truss, as they believe she’s the best hope of beating Liz and therefore avoiding continued rows with the EU over Northern Ireland. Given – as Steve Baker said the other day – she refused to resign from May’s Cabinet over BRINO, they also reckon she may be more amenable to their pro-EU demands. Hardly the endorsement she’d want…
Professional attention seeker and amateur sex therapist Flora Gill has forced her way back onto politics Twitter’s timeline this afternoon, after misguidedly believing “porn for children” was something worth pitching. A classic Thursday afternoon thought for the daughter of a former Home Secretary…
Following criticism, Gill doubled down and specified her definition of “children” as “14/15/16 year olds”. A clarification that puts all ethical doubts in the mind at bay…
Digging herself into an even deeper hole she began joking about potential Dragons Den pitches.
The target audience of CBeebies being 0–6-year-olds…
Following backlash, Gill came to relative senses and deleted the tweet, writing “absolutely not getting swept up into another Twitter cesspool so deleted tweet before it picks up steam!” The slowest u-turn since the Titanic…
Oxford’s ‘UNWomen’ society no-platformed Amber Rudd last night, cancelling her invitation to speak at the last minute. This abrupt turnaround came as the ‘non-partisan‘ society caved to complaints from a mob of far-left students.
“Following a majority vote in committee, tonight’s event with speaker Amber Rudd has been cancelled. We are deeply sorry for all and any hurt caused to our members and other wom*n and non-binary people in Oxford over this event.”
Complaints that followed the initial publication of the event prompted the society to open a consultation where students could submit feedback over the decision to invite the former independent Member of Parliament who quit the Government over Brexit last year.
“The concerns we see happening now around this event are absolutely ones which we as a committee feel ourselves. We invited Ms Rudd on the understanding that this would be an honest and frank conversation about how her policies have impacted wom*n of all races, religions, classes et cetera.
We will not run away from mentioning any of Ms Rudd’s past comments or policies, and we ask you to attend this event to help us campaign for a truly frank feminism which is not afraid of taking such opportunities to discuss these issues with high profile figures.”
While the society initially felt like the event would offer a good chance to debate and even criticise one of the most high profile female politicians in the country, respondents clearly disagreed. The centrist politician was just too much for some Oxford students to take…
Rudd is, of course, on police files as the perpetrator of a “non-crime hate incident”, after an Oxford University Professor Joshua Silver reported the then-Home Secretary’s 2016 Conservative Party Conference speech to the West Midlands Police. Not that any due process was needed to add the incident to official statistics…
UPDATE: Oxford University condemns the UNWomen society for no-platforming Rudd
We strongly disapprove of the decision by the UNWomen Oxford UK Society to disinvite Amber Rudd after she had been asked to speak.
Oxford is committed to freedom of speech & opposes no-platforming. We will be taking steps to ensure that this situation doesn’t happen in future.
— Oxford University (@UniofOxford) March 6, 2020
Responding to a Tweet by her daughter Flora wondering how many pregnancy tests the average woman has taken, the former-Home Secretary replied:
“Please be careful. Believe me nothing ruins your life more than an unplanned pregnancy.”
Amber Rudd and her daughter Flora have come out as the latest members of the (totally neutral and objective in her rulings) Supreme Court judge Baroness Hale fan club; rocking t-shirts featuring a replica of Hale’s infamous spider broach on the House of Commons terrace. In the eyes of the Tory Party whips, Amber has always been pro-rogue…
Capping a bad week for the Rudds, Amber Rudd has told the Evening Standard she will quit the House of Commons next week as a Tory MP after making peace with Boris Johnson. “I’m not finished with politics, I’m just not standing at this election” she had quit the Tories in solidarity with the 21 Conservatives who were sacked from the whip for voting to prevent a no-deal Brexit in September. This was after she swore loyalty to Boris and promised to accept keeping “No Deal” on the table. She has really made some terrible judgement calls lately.. turns out she did end up leaving the party without Boris after all…
She told Joe Murphy “I spoke to the Prime Minister and had a good meeting with him a few days ago, I’m really confident of my position. I will be leaving the House of Commons on perfectly good terms with the Prime Minister and I want him to succeed. Ms Rudd will meet Chief Whip Mark Spencer today and formally ask for the whip back. I’m happy to leave the House of Commons as a Conservative MP”. A Tory source however says “Amber Rudd is one of key people who stopped Brexit happening on October 31. She will not get the whip back.” They wish her well…
UPDATE: Chief Whip is unforgiving:
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
Chief whip Mark Spencer tells Amber Rudd she WONT be getting the Tory whip back.
Tells her he doesn’t trust her not to turn on Boris Johnson again.
‘Receipt of the whip is an honour, not a right and it cannot be discarded or returned at will.’ pic.twitter.com/B2oKXTIfcF
— Jack Doyle (@jackwdoyle) October 30, 2019
