Another easy slam dunk victory to Penny…
The New Year’s Honours list is out and has the usual handful of gongs for politicians; well-deserved awards handed out to people for basically just doing their jobs. The list in full:
Knighthoods:
- Mark Sedwell – for his career in public service spanning domestic and international policy across seven Prime Ministers.
- Alok Sharma MP – for his contribution to combatting climate change through his leadership at COP26 and driving the UK to agree a historic agreement from individual countries that will have a major impact in addressing climate change in the future.
- Richard Graham MP – For services to Trade and Investment in South-East Asia.
- Tom Scholar – Former Treasury Permanent Secretary, for public service
- John Benger – Clerk to the House of Commons, for services to Parliament
- Chris Bryant MP – For political and public service
- Julian Lewis MP – For political and public service
- Matthew Rycroft – Home Office permanent secretary, for services to British Diplomacy, Development and Domestic Policy.
Damehoods:
- Norma Redfearn CBE – Mayor of North Tyneside Council, for political and public service
CBEs:
- Fergus Cochrane – Clerk to the Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament, for services to the Scottish Parliament
- Elinor Mitchell – Director of Economy, Scottish Government. For Political service during Covid-19
- Samuel Pollock OBE – For public service in Northern Ireland
- Frank Roy – Labour MP for Motherwell and Wishaw from 1997-2015, for political and public service
- Andrew Stephenson MP – For political and public service
- Fiona Tudor – Former Clerk of Committees in the House of Lords, for services to Parliament
OBEs:
- Helen Belcher – LibDem councillor and trustee of Trans Media Watch, for services to the Transgender community
- Peter Kellner – Founder of YouGov, for Charitable Services
- Andrew Colborne-Baber – Senior Volunteer for the Conservative Party and CCHQ Chairman of the Governance & Risk Committee, for Political service
- Jennet Davis MBE – Former senior advisor to the COP26 Cabinet Office unit, for political service
- James Gilbert – Former deputy director to the Scottish Government, for services to housing
- Helen Grant MP – For political and public service
- Richard Horton – Editor in Chief of The Lancet, for services to health and medical journalism
- Gotz Mohindra – Senior volunteer at the Conservative Party and Vice President of the National Convention, for political science
- Elinor Wakefield – Former deputy COP26 envoy at the COP26 unit in the Cabinet Office, for political service
MBEs:
- Catherine Belton – Journalist at the Washington Post
- Louise Davies – Former director of Christians on the Left, for political and charitable services
- Joanna Dodd – Former Clerk of Divisions, Elections and Supply in the House of Lords, for services to Parliament
- Margaret Joachim – Chair of the LibDems’ English Candidates Committee, for service to women in politics
- Susan Murphy – Mayor of St Helens Council, for public and political service
- Dewi Owens – For political and public service in North Wales
- Sheila Ritchie – For political service in Scotland
- Aurfron Roberts – Member of Rhondda council, for public and political service
Chris Bryant is giving a speech at the University of Westminster this evening on “truth, honesty and integrity.” In full, the ‘Civility in Politics 2022’ winner will talk on:
- The importance of truth, honesty and integrity in public office and in news reporting
- The role of algorithms in filtering news & their distorting effect on the truth
- How news providers stir up hatred and drive divisive agendas to generate clicks and the advertising revenue which follows
- Why it is essential that news publishers are bound by robust standards on accuracy – the integrity of our democracy relies on it
Chris Bryant should pause the pontificating until he spends some time on introspection…
Since Bryant won the civility in politics award – the irony of which Guido detailed here – he’s not stopped putting his foot in it.
A month after winning it he was forced to apologise for false claims he’d made in Parliament, the outcome of an unprecedented legal challenge that saw his parliamentary privilege come unstuck. Not just a minor false allegation – accusing Christopher Chandler of money laundering and being a Russian spy…
As Chris lectures students on how “news providers stir up hatred and drive divisive agendas”, he may want to think about his description of Liz Truss’s new batch of ministers:
“It feels like pretty much anyone with a brain, a conscience and a work ethic has been purged from government either by Johnson or Truss. It’s an empty vessel of a government – loud, noisy but dangerously vacuous.”
When he turns to “the importance of truth, honesty and integrity in public office”, he will surely mention his recent smearing of Tory MPs by falsely claiming – on the floor of the House – he had witnessed bullying in the voting lobbies the night of the fracking vote. He is yet to correct the record…
On the topic of calling on news publishers to be “bound by robust standards on accuracy”, he may choose to mention how even the BBC managed to show him up when he accused them of failing to mention Kate Andrews “is part of the [IEA]” when she appeared on Question Time last month. Of course she isn’t, and he didn’t back down when this inaccurate bullying of a female columnist was called out…
Anyone wanting to watch the speech can reserve a spot here. Guido, for one, will be giving it a miss…
Chris Bryant, incumbent winner of the civility in politics award, is currently hectoring Kate Andrews, one of the country’s most prominent female economic voices. Taking to Twitter, Chris Bryant complained that the BBC hadn’t accompanied her Question Time appearance with a mention that she “is part of the Institute for Economic Affairs, which is notoriously secretive about their funding.”
Why doesn’t @bbcquestiontime mention that Kate Andrews is part of the Institute of Economic Affairs, which is notoriously secretive about their funding?
— Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) November 17, 2022
Two quick points, Chris:
- She isn’t “part of the Institute for Economic Affairs” – Kate left the IEA almost three years ago.
- The BBC did mention it, in their graphic announcing the night’s lineup.
The one-man standards arbiter strikes again…
UPDATE: Bryant doubles down
Further to Guido’s report this morning, three Tory MPs asked point of orders in the chamber this afternoon, all directed at the fake claims made by Chris Bryant on the night of the 19th October.
Former whip Mark Jenkinson, who was interviewed about the supposed fracas, accused Labour MPs of haranguing Tory MPs off the back of Bryant’s rule-breaking photo posted to Twitter.
Brendan Clarke-Smith asked for clarification on such photography rules; and Chris Clarkson asked whether the Deputy Speaker would call for Bryant to return to the chamber to correct the record – as Guido suggest he should, to avoid charges of hypocrisy.
Bryant was apparently too busy to turn up. Guido’s sure we’ll hear from him at some point. He is not a man to suffer in silence…
Chris Bryant is the chair of the Commons Committee on Standards. It is his job to uphold standards in the House and oversee investigations into other members for breaking rules. While confronting Boris at the Liaison Committee in 2021, Bryant slammed the then-PM for failing to correct the record:
“When a minister lies, they should correct the record, I presume you agree… It seems that you very rarely correct the record. Why is that?”
On the evening of Wednesday 19 October, Chris Bryant stood up in the Commons and told MPs the following as a matter of fact:
“As you know, Members are expected to be able to vote without fear or favour and the behaviour code, which is agreed by the whole House, says that there shall never be bullying or harassment of Members. I saw Members being physically manhandled into another Lobby and being bullied.”
On the BBC later that night he ramped up this rhetoric, saying what he saw was “clear bullying”.
Today’s report by the Speaker, summarising the testimony of those involved and with a good vantage point, rejects this claim entirely.
Lindsay Hoyle says, “While there was some physical contact between Members, there is no evidence from our investigation that this was any more than a gesture of comfort”.
Will the ever-virtuous Bryant follow his own advice and correct the record forthwith?
