Further to Guido’s reporting earlier today on Louise Haigh, it is only fair to mention that she is not the only sitting government minister who voted against renewing Britain’s nuclear defences in 2016. All while Burnham reheats a previous announcement to prove how serious he is about this…
Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy, Ian Murray and Vicky Foxcroft (both junior DCMS ministers) also voted against Trident’s renewal. That’s three Cabinet ministers who are in favour of nuclear disarmament. Certainly both Haigh and Rayner still hold considerable influence over the Cabinet and the wider PLP. Before the 2024 election, Rayner admitted she “hadn’t changed her mind“, and then gave some waffle designed to stop the ming vase breaking:
“I haven’t changed my mind. The vote that we had some years ago mentioned nothing about multilateral disarmament and what I feel is really important for the long term is that globally we should be looking at disarmament of nuclear weapons, but that has to be done in combination with other countries.”
When they tell you what they really think, believe them…
A bruised Ian Murray has told Holyrood magazine he received “no explanation” for his sacking as Scotland Secretary earlier this year, claiming Number 10 unceremoniously dumped him despite doing “a half-decent job”. Guido hears the chip on his shoulder can be observed from space. Apparently his wife is “f****** furious”:
“For me, the hardest part was the complete lack of any sort of recognition for doing a half-decent job. That’s the hardest bit. The second hardest bit is having no explanation of why I was sacked, and as we sit here today, I still don’t have that, despite me asking on a number of occasions. The third bit is that I didn’t think I deserved the public humiliation of it all. I genuinely don’t know why it happened and that feels like an unfair gap… It’s fair to say that [my wife] Miriam was absolutely f****** furious.”
He goes on to add that his wife felt he was “massively under-appreciated” in the Cabinet (what else is she going to say?), and it took him five hours to accept the offer of his current job as a culture minister. Yes, he is still in government…
Kemi Badenoch at the 1922-ConHome bash last night:
“I did praise [Burnham] for his stamina, it was amazing. All I had to do was sit back and lie there. I didn’t have to do anything at all…”