MPs are finally getting their parliamentary offices set up. Nigel has just found his…
Guido hears that Deputy PM Rayner has done a bit of window shopping herself. After deciding that Oliver Dowden’s well-sized office in the lower ministerial corridor wasn’t quite grand enough for her, she’s found a new home. The Attorney General’s office…
The AG’s parliamentary office is a very well-endowed one just off Central Lobby – positioned between the Commons and Lords thanks to the position’s proximate work with both Houses of Parliament. As far as Guido is aware this is the first time it will be inhabited by someone other than the Attorney General for over 100 years…
A bemused Labour figure tells Guido it’s “very on brand for Ange” to seek out a swankier office and boot out Richard Hermer. She should have enough space for those DJ decks now…
Grandmother Angela Rayner (44) has been spotted showing off her moves in Ibiza this week. Rayner was filmed on Wednesday dancing at the Hi Ibiza club. Up on the DJ booth in front of a crowd of adoring fans no doubt…
Pretty good dancer for a granny… pic.twitter.com/Iu3hZqmGlO
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) August 30, 2024
It’s a hefty £84 for entry to the joint, and a five pack of beer will set you back by about £80. What will anti-booze tsar Sue Gray make of the Cabinet Member’s return to the raving scene?
Angela Rayner’s crack team of Trident hating, Brexit bashing Corbynista SpAds will continue guiding her through the rough and tumble of Westminster life in MHCLG. Here are some of their more interesting views…
Alex Jones remains Rayner’s Senior Adviser. He was Head of Communications at GMB from 2015 to 2021. During his stint the GMB was found to be “institutionally sexist” in an independent report. The 17-member strong ‘Taskforce for Positive Change‘ formed by the senior team failed abjectly and GMB members went on strike this year over the scandal. Jones served as Head of External Affairs at the cranky socialist New Economics Foundation which came up with inspired suggestions such as: “it is always possible to find additional public resources for public services, even without growth: raise taxes, close tax loopholes, cut spending on nuclear warheads.” New minister Miatta Fahnbulleh headed up the NEF and is also advising Rayner…
Before GMB, Jones was Press and Public Affairs Manager at the National Union of Students when it organised the window-smashing “Tory scum” riots in London. Must have caught Rayner’s eye…
The team’s union links are deep. Former Head of Operations for Unite, Nick Parrott, is Rayner’s Chief of Staff. His wife Lisa Johnson was formerly the Director of External Relations at GMB.
Kate Robson continues as Rayner’s Political Adviser, a role she’s held since February 2022. Robson has shared posts supporting Corbyn, bashing meat eaters, fighting Brexit, and one calling for the UK to “go straight to the heart of capitalism and overthrow it.” How goes the revolution Kate…
Isabel Bull completes the team as Political and Policy Manager. One of Bull’s stronger political convictions is for unilateral nuclear disarmament. Bull lambasted the renewal of Trident, stating: “I think this was not just resolutely awful, but also an unequivocally naïve decision.” No doubt she bonded with her anti-nuclear boss…
SpAds often temper their minister’s more barmy ideas – it looks like there’s no risk of that here…
The GLA has this morning released the latest housing figures which show that last quarter only 71 affordable homes were completed. Precisely 2.3% of the 3,000 Khan would have to build to meet his targets…
In the “starts” section, which counts projects that have just begun, Khan tops up his overall figures with ‘open market’ completions which he has nothing to do with, as well as completions from his previous programme. Scraping the barrel…
Rayner has had no qualms rebuking Khan over London’s abysmal housebuilding (while slashing London’s targets) – these latest figures will no doubt add fuel to the fire. Tory assembly member Lord Bailey has written to Rayner asking her to put the Mayor’s Office and GLA in special measures such that they can receive “tailored” (and mandatory) support in actually building some houses. Ouch…
Read Bailey’s letter below:
Continue reading “Sadiq Khan Achieves Just 2% of Affordable Housebuilding Target”
The Ministry of Housing’s three-year stint as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was put to an end by Rayner last month. She declared there’d be “no more gimmicks and slogans” before reverting to the previous name. A Freedom of Information request dispatched from Guido now reveals scrapping levelling up cost a grand total of £8,690, split between branding, signage, and legal seals. Goodnight, sweet prince…
Having been denied a planned-for Deputy Prime Minister’s Office Rayner’s only power base is now MHCLG, inside which sits a conciliatory “Deputy Prime Minister’s Policy and Strategy Unit“. Thanks to the fact it’s a relatively new department with little physical infrastructure the cost won’t reach the dizzying heights of the Foreign Office’s £160,000 rebrand…
Some manifesto pledges Labour made are just not going to happen. Miliband’s pledge to totally decarbonise electricity supply by 2030 is away with the fairies. Expect that to be revised by reality soon.
The other ambitious pre-election pledge was the pledge to build 1.5 million homes by the next election. 300,000-a-year, or 25,000-a-month. Today the Housing Secretary Angela Rayner told MPs the Government planned to oversee building of 370,000 homes every year, up 70,000 from the figure Labour promised in the General Election. The target for new homes is now 1.85 million homes within five years – more than 30,000-a-month. Last quarter there were 22,310 housing starts nationally. To meet their target they will have to quadruple the pace of building. It is doable if the government has the will to drive it whatever the cost in terms of votes…
Was this increase triggered by the taunts of Kemi Badenoch? Kemi wickedly identified that it won’t be easy:
🔥 @KemiBadenoch gives Angela Rayner and Labour a reality check. pic.twitter.com/VtNlZugK4k
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) July 19, 2024
In the UK, a house or a flat is counted as started on the date work begins on the laying of the foundation. The figures are released quarterly, economists expect some 50,000 starts this quarter. Rayner will need to accelerate that dramatically, press releases are easy to send, laying bricks is much harder. Guido wishes them well, we’ll be tracking how they are doing on making that target every quarter…
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.”
