More than six months after his demotion appointment as ‘DPM’ in the last reshuffle, David Lammy has finally been given a full list of responsibilities tied to his potemkin title. His profile on the gov.uk site was updated today…
The full list is available on the gov.uk site, for those with time to kill. Previously, the list was empty. Among the highlights:
“The Deputy Prime Minister:
- represents the Prime Minister and HM Government at leader-level internationally when the Prime Minister is unable to attend, promoting and protecting British interests overseas
- maintains and strengthens relationships with Vice Presidents, Deputy Prime Ministers and deputy leaders of key international partners, including the United States; advancing UK strategic priorities in international engagement, including: jobs and growth, security and the rule of law, climate ambition and the transition to net zero, tackling irregular migration.
- champions the rule of law globally, working with the Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Attorney General
- The Deputy Prime Minister is supported by an Office of Deputy Prime Minister which coordinates work across departments and supports on the delivery of the Deputy Prime Minister’s priorities.”
As Guido has already reported, the physical space used for the ‘DPM office’ has been repurposed into Darren Jones’s pointless ‘command unit’. It turns out being Deputy Prime Minister mostly amounts to bombing at the despatch box, and cosplaying as Foreign Secretary with a few overseas jollies. The latest transparency data reveals Lammy billed the taxpayer for his wife to tag along to the Vatican. It also shows he had just ten publicly registered meetings across three months in his actual brief as Justice Secretary. Less than one per week…
It isn’t. In other news Lammy is soon to be part of geopolitics club at his local school for some extra learning…
David Lammy was unable to elucidate the government’s position on Donald Trump’s recent comments on Iran during an interview with the Today Programme. The Deputy PM repeatedly said it is for the US and Israel to set out their war aims. Here they are…
He said:
“Clearly regime change from the air I don’t think has been succeeded anywhere in the world… it is for the US and Israel to set out their war aims… we believe that diplomacy was taking its course… if you believe in democracy… of course we believe it is for the Iranian people to determine who leads their country.”
Lammy is saying he had better knowledge of the state of negotiations than the Americans there. Action from the air is even harder when you block your closest ally from using its main staging bases in the region…
On BBC Breakfast he added that the UK could mount defensive strikes aimed at Iranian missile sites. Which should have been the position from the start…
David Lammy offered up a half-hearted apology for Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US Ambassador:
“As Foreign Secretary at the time of course I was subject to collective responsibility and I am sorry that that decision was made.”
Lammy has previously briefed the newspapers that he was actually against Mandelson’s appointment. Not quite taking responsibility here…
After spirited campaigning by pro-justice figures Labour has U-turned on its plans to scrap a courts archive which is crucial to journalists. Lammy’s MoJ took issue with software used by Courtsdesk on some small occasion and tried to scrap the whole thing…
Courtsdesk is a golden goose for court and crime reporters because it has access to records that are otherwise unavailable to journalists. Labour was trying to have the five-year archive deleted forever…
The MoJ has paused its deletion order. The Tories are claiming victory, and said:
“Under pressure from campaigners, journalists, survivors and the Conservatives, Lammy is no longer hitting the delete button on court records. Courtsdesk has provided a vital service, and it is right that this vital database should be preserved. If we are going to stop the rape gangs and expose other patterns of criminal behaviour, we need comprehensive and accurate data.”
Sunlight is the best disinfectant…
Ponderous ex-David Lammy SpAd Ben Judah has alleged that civil servants are always leaking and are a problem in and of themselves. Always entertaining when special advisers are unmuzzled…
Judah left Lammy’s team very recently in a SpAd shake-up over at the MoJ. He responded to former Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell holding the Prime Minister accountable for the recent briefing war:
“I am sure Lord O’Donnell speaks from personal conviction about another time, but my experience, across two very different departments in government, was that large numbers of civil servants themselves are constantly leaking and gratuitously briefing.
It’s not even political — it has become a way of life. Let’s be clear. It’s not an “us” versus “them” issue between civil servants and politicals. There is a toxic briefing culture on both sides in Whitehall.
The Permanent Secretaries and the politicians need to work together to stamp out this behaviour that comes from a sense of untraceability and impunity. That means leak inquiries with teeth as standard and yes, people getting fired.”
Labour people are inching towards the conclusion that political appointments are needed to shore up the system. Judah gets half-way then goes for the ‘let’s do more leak inquiries’ option which always fails by nature…
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.”