Ellie Reeves has ‘updated’ the Commons on rule changes Labour is pursuing in the ongoing freebiegate scandal. Reeves blames the Tories for an anodyne discrepancy between ministerial declarations and MP declarations…
Reeves says the government will close Tories’ “freebie loophole” with a new version of the register of ministers’ gifts and hospitality – to function on a “broadly equivalent” basis to the MP register. The ministerial register is only different in that the value of gifts is not declared and it is published every quarter as opposed to every fortnight. Altering that system does nothing to address Labour’s rank hypocrisy over months of freebies revelations…
Seeing as the Tories managed to get an Urgent Question in Shadow Paymaster General John Glen asked Reeves for a few clarifications, including:
- Will ministers be banned from taking tickets to the Oasis 25 tour?
- What role did Downing Street play in the VIP escort further to the free tickets for Taylor Swift from Universal Music?
- Have all the political staff in the PM’s parliamentary office correctly declared their financial interests and hospitality?
- Why do ministers refuse in PQs to say when the new ministerial transparency platform will go live?
- Will the PM recuse himself from the Football Governance Bill after taking a donation in kind of £100,000 a year from Arsenal Football Club?
- Where is Labour’s new ethics and integrity commission?
- What discussions did Sue Gray have with Lord Alli on ministerial appointments and public appointments?
- Will ministers place in the library all the documents relating to Lord Alli’s operational integrity?
Reeves launched on the Tories in response and said she’d “take no lectures” as Labour backbenchers are rolled out to list historic Tory freebie-taking. Pressed on Swiftgate, Reeves stuck to the line that the top-level security motorcade was an “operational matter” for the police, despite the fact that the Attorney General, Mayor of London, Sue Gray, and the Home Secretary all personally got involved in lobbying the Met. Labour’s lines on the latest freebiegate scandal are going as well as all the last ones…
Labour Party Chairman Ellie Reeves was questioned by Kay Burley on Waheed Alli’s Downing Street pass. Reeves’ scattered defence lines contradicted themselves:
- He only had a pass for a few weeks.
- He’s a well-respected peer.
- He wasn’t involved in policy decisions.
- It’s “not unusual for a political figure to have a pass.“ It is if they’re a donor without a job…
- He worked on the election campaign.
- “I can’t comment on individuals.“
- There are no rules preventing donors “having a role.” What role did he have?
Reeves refused to say who authorised the pass. Meanwhile Shadow DSIT Secretary Andrew Griffith is calling for an investigation by Laurie Magnus, No 10’s Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests, into the cronyism scandal. Maybe the Propriety Group’s Jess Sargeant should look into it?
A Welsh co-conspirator has been in touch following Guido’s series on the upcoming class-action wave set to sweep into British businesses under Labour. Welsh Labour First Minister, Vaughan Gething, and Jo Stevens, the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, both spent significant portions of their working career at the same claimant law firm: Thompsons Solicitors. You can guarantee if the two most senior Tory politicians had worked in the same class action firm, The Guardian would be filing a story about a web of intrigue by now…
Thompsons, a self-described “campaigning” law firm – who never act on behalf of employers or insurers – have donated more than £200,000 to Labour and its candidates since 2001. They also claim to have “invented the class action” lawsuit, pioneering it as a form of “fast and aggressive legal action.” The firm also counts hard-left MPs Richard Burgon and Andy McDonald amongst its former employees, alongside Labour’s Deputy Campaign Co-ordinator and sister of the Shadow Chancellor, Ellie Reeves. Well connected…
Thompsons might be the latest class action firm connected to Labour, but they’re certainly not the first – as Guido has revealed with its reporting on Pogust Goodhead. With British business under threat in Starmer’s lawfare Britain, it’s no wonder lobbying firms are scrambling to hire as many Labour researchers as possible. More bad news for Tory SpAds…
The Labour moderates, formerly known as Blairites, are crying into their mocha lattes this morning that Eddie Izzard not only lost out (as usual) on getting a place on the NEC, he also cost them up to three seats and any chance of a majority.
The two charts above show the clean sweep of the top six places by the the hard-left (reds). If Izzard’s votes were redistributed to the moderates (pinkos), which is mathematically possible if not probable, they would have won three more seats and regained control of the NEC. “It was Izzard wot lost it for the moderates. Had that ego-maniac not run, we’d have had 71,000 more votes up for grabs that could have gone to moderates. He’s basically given an NEC seat to the Corbynistas. When it comes to politics, Eddie is a very good comedian” laments a Blairite die-hard. By Guido’s calculations if just over half of Izzard’s votes had gone to moderates, Ellie Reeves, Bex Bailey and Johanna Baxter would be holding the line against the Corbynistas on the NEC…
The Owen Smith-supporting Labour First faction emailed supporters optimistically that
Contrary to some of the online and media reaction, this does not give full control of the NEC to Corbyn. There is a net change of just one seat as the PLP section saw a seat go from left to right. When the new NEC takes office after Annual Conference, the solid vote for the Hard Left will be 16 if they all turn up, with 17 others. Thus NEC meetings will continue to be finely balanced and hinge on the personal decisions of the more independent-minded members like Ann Black, and the stance taken by the GMB and Unison. We will win some votes and lose others just like we did in the pre-leadership election meeting.
Though they go on to say pointedly
If we can avoid a split moderate vote in future contests (Eddie Izzard ran as an independent when we would have been happy to support him if he had asked us) that will help!
It woz Izzard wot lost it…
