Kathryn Stone has finally bowed out as Parliament’s sleaze commissioner, replaced this week by top lawyer Daniel Greenberg. No time for a curtain call though; before she left, Stone handed out one last judgement. Labour’s shadow arts minister Barbara Keeley has been rapped on the knuckles for failing to declare 11 interests within the 28-day deadline…
According to Stone’s probe, which Greenberg published last night, Keeley missed the deadline for three sets of theatre tickets over the summer: first at the Society of London Theatre, and twice at the Royal Opera House. Clearly singing from the same hymn sheet as Sir Keir, who forgot to register football tickets last year…
Keeley was also late to declare eight survey payments, which have now also been updated. In her swansong statement, Stone said:
“I have considered our correspondence, the published rules and guidance, and the advice from the Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests. I consider that by failing 20 to register the eleven financial interests that were the subject of my investigation, within the 28-days required by the House, you breached paragraph 14 of the Code of Conduct for Members.”
Ultimately Stone let Keeley off on the grounds that “there was no deliberate attempt to mislead.” The show must go on…
Shadow Health Minister Rosena Allin-Khan had to delete the tweet in the early hours of yesterday morning after sharing a fabricated rumour that vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi secretly received vaccines for himself and his family in Wandsworth this weekend. Zahawi had not received the vaccine. At the same time, the handful of Labour MPs who shared the fake news also deleted their tweets. Barbara Keeley, Karl Turner, and former Leigh MP Jo Platt had joined in the unsubstantiated pile on…
Sharing any information about a patient is bad enough. That Allin-Khan, a registered doctor who works at the Wandsworth hospital in her story, amplified this untrue rumour, makes it even worse. The General Medical Council does not tend to look favourably upon doctors who go around sharing rumours they hear about their own hospital’s supposed patients…
Dr Allin-Khan then tweeted and subsequently deleted a half hearted apology. No doubt LOTO was not impressed with its tone…
“I’ve deleted my previous tweet to Nadhim Zahawi as I understand that people were seeing it as a pile on, which was absolutely not my intention, and for that I apologise. I await a prompt response to the email I sent him about the matter which I hope is answered in good time.”
Eventually a real apology came about at 1:08 AM yesterday morning:
.Thank you for apologising, the accusation was not true. It is sad you chose to act like this, we all need to work together to beat this awful disease.
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) January 3, 2021
Strangely, the gaggle of Labour MPs who were so keen to jump on the made up rumour about Nadhim Zahawi have been totally silent about an MP who did jump the queue. Birmingham Labour MP (and Shadow Procurement Minister) Khalid Mahmood procured himself a Coronavirus vaccine at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital early last week, despite being only 59 years old, and not being eligible for a vaccine until the spring. Mahmood boasted to his constituents that:
“It’s not very well known, but at the end of the day any vaccine unused because people have not turned up for their appointments is made available at the QE vaccination hub – we can’t afford to waste any vaccine doses. I joined a queue at about 3pm and got a vaccine.”
Those who run the hospital, however have condemned the action, saying the end of day doses for the public, especially without an appointment, and the queue Mahmood joined was for NHS staff who were encouraged to take unused spots at the end of the day. A local source tells Guido that a doctor tipped Mahmood off about the queue, after which the Labour MP headed to the hospital and “just hung around waiting for it.” No doubt Dr Rosena and her colleagues had simply not heard about this news…
Labour’s shadow mental health minister Barbara Keeley claimed she was “confused about” her “Jeremys” when she appeared to contradict Jez’s stated position on free movement this morning. During a bumpy media round, 5 Live‘s Nicky Campbell asked Keeley:
Campbell: “Jeremy Corbyn has been explicit in saying that freedom of movement must end. That puts us up the creek without a paddle doesn’t it?”
Keeley: “Well it makes the situation worse.”Campbell: “So why has he said it must end, freedom of movement?”
Keeley: “It’s a strange thing… it’s a strange thing that he said that.”
When Campbell pointed out that she was at odds with Corbyn’s public position, Keeley rowed back and claimed she had in fact been talking about Jeremy Hunt, saying: “You’ve confused me about Jeremys“. Lucky they had the same name, eh…
An hour earlier, Keeley did a Diane on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, claiming that a 1% increase in public sector pay would cost £460 billion. The IFS says increasing public sector pay by 1% would cost between £1.5 and 2 billion. To be fair, she was only out by £458 billion…
Before Corbyn appointed Keeley to the shadow cabinet, she said of him:“the current state of the party means we will not be able to mount an effective front bench opposition.” Quite…
“We believe that we can tackle the deficit by halting the tax cuts to corporations,” says Labour’s new Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. So Guido is not sure what he is going to make of his party supporting the Tories’ corporation tax cut in the Finance Bill debate last night. In a curious exchange between Treasury minister David Gauke and his shadow Barbara Keeley, Labour strangely backed the move:
Barbara Keeley: “Labour is in favour of support for businesses, which is what we need to discuss as we consider the clause. We want to help British businesses to invest in the UK and to enable long-term investment. We will support the corporation tax measures…”
David Gauke: “I begin by welcoming the support of the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South for the reduction in corporation tax… I certainly give way to the hon. Lady, who can confirm her party’s and, indeed, the shadow Chancellor’s support for this measure.”
Barbara Keeley: “I do not think it would be my place to confirm the shadow Chancellor’s support for the measure…”
David Gauke: “I note that the hon. Lady said that although she is able to make a statement about party policy as the Labour party Front Bencher in this Committee, neither the leader of her party nor the shadow Chancellor are in a position to do so. If that is the way the Labour party operates, that is one for that party, curious though it might be to the rest of us.”
The question of “Rate of corporation tax for financial years 2017-2020” – i.e. to be cut to 18% – was then put and agreed to.
Pleased that Labour supported the cut in corporation tax to 18% in today's Finance Bill debate. Anyone told the Shadow Chancellor?
— David Gauke (@DavidGauke) September 17, 2015
Wonder what McDonnell makes of that!
