Two months ago Simon Enright, one-time press adviser to the King and Queen, was being tipped to become “Sir Keir Starmer’s king of spin in 10 Downing Street“. According to The Sun’s Harry Cole, Sue Gray was “keen to bring in Simon Enright”, which seemed plausible given he had been providing training and advice to the shadow cabinet.
That didn’t play out, Simon Enright last week left spin-shop Freuds to become the new director of communications for Grant Shapps at the Ministry of Defence. Which means Sue Gray is still looking for a new “king of spin” for Number 10…
She could of course choose a queen, Beth Rigby’s online analysis in what is the unregulated-by-Ofcom “Sky Analysis” (formerly “Sky Views”) section of the channel’s website already reads like she is writing press releases for the Labour Party:
Perhaps the Parliamentary Lobby’s only openly known Labour Party member, Paul Waugh, might get the job assuming he doesn’t want instead to have a second go at becoming the MP for Rochdale.
Could Tom Baldwin reprise the role he did for Miliband? His hagiography of Keir shows his closeness to the principal. They say everyone has a third act in them…
Paul Waugh writes in the i he’s quitting his old job…
“I always knew running for Parliamentary selection would be a gamble and there was a real sense of jeopardy in failing. I had agonised about leaving behind my cherished role as this newspaper’s chief political commentator, but felt I had to stop being a spectator and get on the pitch of public life. I won’t be going back to that job – it’s so important to uphold i’s reputation for trusted, non-partisan political reporting.”
The Rochdale Constituency Labour Party have chosen the leader of Lancashire County Council Labour group to fight the Rochdale by-election sparked by the death of sitting MP Sir Tony Lloyd. Councillor Azhar Ali had been named on a shortlist of three to succeed Sir Tony who died on January 17 aged 73, alongside Rochdale-born Paul Waugh, chief political commentator for the i newspaper, and Wigan councillor Nazia Rehman. Waugh was hotly tipped by LOTO aides for the seat and was perceived as the preferred candidate of Starmer…
The risk for Waugh was that if he didn’t win, his renewed membership of the Labour Party would leave him open to the charge of “client journalist” if he returns to his day job at the i. His presenting job on Radio 4’s “The Week in Westminster” is surely now untenable. No doubt there will be speculation in the coming days that he could instead of returning to journalism instead go on to take an election year party position spinning for Starmer with the hope of perhaps a future government communications role. He did say yesterday that “For me, it’s time to stop being a spectator and start being a player…”
Now the other parties have to select their candidates as Labour is expected to call the writ for the safe seat soon soon. The banter outcome would be for Sebastian Payne to finally get selected as a candidate…
No surprises over in Rochdale as the i newspaper journalist Paul Waugh finds himself on nominations shortlist. The Constituency Labour Party will vote on Saturday at a slimmed-down event with 10 minutes for each speaker and pre-vetted questions. Labour HQ still insists it has nothing to do with the selection…
Meanwhile Waugh has broken his silence :
“During my 26-year career in political journalism, people from all sides of politics know I’m a straight dealer. But I can’t stand by to see the Tories ruin the NHS, having already trashed the economy and Britain’s global reputation. For me, it’s time to stop being a spectator and start being a player“.
According to Labour rules any candidate has to have been a party member for at least a year prior to selection. Guido wonders what local Labour members might make of Waugh’s declaration that Starmer’s Labour has “dumb” targets and that Sunak is “turning out to be a very competent Prime Minister“. If he gets the selection it’ll be a guaranteed entry for the veteran hack in Labour’s 111th safest seat…
Labour sources are adamant that Paul Waugh will be on the shortlist for the plum safe seat of Rochdale. Following the death of Tony Lloyd the seat has become available, the i newspaper journalist, who was born and bred in Rochdale, is according to Michael Crick in the running and is said to have the backing of Starmer. Waugh is a lifelong Rochdale Football Club supporter who grew up in the shadow of the ground, the veteran Lobby hack has never hidden his Labour sympathies. Rather unsportingly he is not commenting to journalists or tweeting about the selection.
According to the latest forecast from Polling Report, Labour will romp home in the seat:
Nominations close tonight and the nominations shortlist will be revealed tomorrow and the Constituency Labour Party will apparently vote on Saturday. Labour are expected to move the writ soon after. Good luck Paul…
Frustrated Lobby hacks have been sharing horror stories of their dealings with the press operations of the Shadow Cabinet. It’s a tough gig being a Labour spinner at the moment – Keir Starmer seems to be on an eight hour time lapse and Diane Abbott’s migraines must prevent her from signing off press releases. The most amusing gripe is Paul Waugh’s complaint about an unnamed Shadow Cabinet minister, who he this week gave an idea for a question to the Commons Library, only to see them place the answer with a rival publication.
“Friday arrives. I ring aide. No answer. I text. Radio silence. An hour and 15 mins later I get an email saying sorry they missed my call. The email then says: “When we got the library figures back this afternoon there were some quite shocking figures…” But then I read the next sentence. “On this basis, we thought it best to go with [a rival media organisation] on the story, who wanted it as an exclusive.” My response was unprintable. Safe to say it involved the F-word. I’ve worked in Commons for 19 yrs (which is more than 10 yrs longer than this Shad Cab minister and a lot longer than the aide). And never have I been so appalled at such a duplicitous, discourteous and plain counter-productive media tactic.”
Who could this duplicitous Shadow Cabinet minister be? If you Google “cuts“, “Commons library figures” and “Labour” there is only one news story from the last week: this Guardian report about benefits cuts. It contains a quote from the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Debbie Abrahams. She has been in the Commons for six years, which fits the clues in Waugh’s timeline. Lobby hacks beware: never go to Debbie Abrahams with a story, she’ll sell you down the river…
