Downing Street has denied having received a written report from Blue Labour’s Lord Glasman warning against Mandelson’s appointment. Back in September as the Mandelson scandal was kicking off, Politics Home reported:
“It is understood that after visiting the US and meeting people around Trump who raised concerns about Mandelson’s appointment, Glasman sent a memo to No 10 warning about the appointment
…’The brutal truth is that the vast majority of people I met… consider our Labour government to be a front organisation for paedophiles and Pakistani rape gangs.'”
Glasman additionally told Sky News in February:
“They asked me to send a report and I sent a report… I did say when I got back, I would think again about this publicly…. Then I did get a discreet suggestion to basically shut up about that, and I did.”
Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty last month asked the Cabinet Office:
“On what date did his Department receive a written report from Lord Glassman regarding the nature of the relationship between Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein.”
The reply yesterday, from Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas Symonds:
“There is no record of receipt of Lord Glasman’s report in the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Some wires are crossed here…
Labour’s Lord Glasman spoke to the New Statesman about Richard Hermer:
“He’s got to go. He is the absolute archetype of an arrogant, progressive fool who thinks that law is a replacement for politics… They talk about the rule of law but what they want is a rule of lawyers.”
Lord Glasman, the only Labour figure to be invited to Trump’s inauguration, was asked by Politics Home how Downing Street felt about his attendance:
“I’m obviously trying to communicate with them as best I can. I’m not expecting them to do cartwheels when the Prime Minister wasn’t invited, the Foreign Secretary wasn’t. It’s a difficult moment for them, and I’m just doing my best to represent Labour and the government in the way that I can… They want an alliance with the UK, à la Churchill or Thatcher… They are looking for the government to be their partner, but they don’t see any indication that they are.”
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.”