The Mail on Sunday got hold of some messages Gwynne put in a private Whatsapp group. One of them was a suggested response to a 72-year-old constituent asking about bin collections:
“Dear resident, F*** your bins. I’m re-elected and without your vote. Screw you. PS: Hopefully you’ll have croaked it by the all-outs.'”
In another message he responded to someone’s name, which ended with ‘berg’: “He sounds too militaristic and too Jewish. Is he in Mossad?” Gwynne also spoke in liberal terms about Diane Abbott and Angela Rayner…
A government spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister is determined to uphold high standards of conduct in public office and lead a government in the service of working people. He will not hesitate to take action against any minister who fails to meet these standards, as he has in this case.” Gwynne says“I deeply regret my badly misjudged comments and apologise for any offense I’ve caused. I’ve served the Labour Party all my life and it was a huge honour to be appointed a minister by Keir Starmer. I entirely understand the decisions the PM and the party have taken and, while very sad to have been suspended, will support them in any way I can.” He’s had his membership suspended too…
The government’s plan to ban disposable vapes by next summer has already been trashed by free-market wonks and industry insiders. Even the government’s own impact assessment admits the ban will lead “29% of current [vapers] will either revert/re-lapse to smoking tobacco”. Now it turns out no one from the Department of Health and Social Care has met with vaping industry representatives…
Despite Labour passing the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and vapes being NHS-prescribed to help smokers quit, the DHSC’s 3,540 staffers – including Secretary of State Wes Streeting – have yet to meet with industry insiders. So much for Labour’s lofty promises to to consult “with all interested parties before any future vaping regulations are introduced”. Up in smoke…
Labour has had to insist that it is “proud” to have the Union flag on their branding after many of their MPs complained that it may “alienate ethnic minority voters“. It looks like Shadow Social Care Minister Andrew Gwynne might have chosen his side…
Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council and Labour councillor in Longsight, Luthfur Rahman launched his re-election campaign this week and chose to drop the Union flag for some more famously Mancunian branding – the Palestinian flag. Gwynne and other Labour MPs like Azfal Khan showed up to pledge their support. Not all Labour candidates object to flag waving…
Speaking to Sky News off the back of Rachel Reeves’ Air Passenger Duty hike, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:
“Labour is dependent on those Red Wall seats, and yet every move she makes poisons economic growth and damages the UK’s recovery… it’s the Chancellor who stumbles from policy misstep to policy misstep… I think her policy decisions are incredibly stupid.”
