The latest update to the register of members’ interests is out, meaning Guido has spent the morning trawling through the fresh additions so you don’t have to. Two more MPs have come slaloming in behind the five Guido previously named for taking all-expenses paid skiing trips in the Swiss Alps. Ben Everitt received flights, accommodation, a dinner, ski instructor and ski pass whilst Sara Britcliffe just took a dinner, the skiing lessons and pass. The costs added up to a cool £3,500 between them.
Of course, Ben and Sara weren’t the only MPs to do well for themselves:
- Dan Carden, Conor McGinn and Mark Jenkinson all received hospitality tickets for Liverpool vs Chelsea.
- Daisy Cooper received a surprisingly dear £517 from the BBC for travel… to Derby.
- David Lammy has exposed the superficial motivations of Labour’s Qatar World Cup boycott, as he was more than happy to take an all-expenses paid trip to the UAE – where same-sex relations are punishable by imprisonment – worth £8,900.
- Penny Mordaunt, Robbie Moore and John Lamont were treated to catered tickets to Twickenham for the Six Nations – priced at £1,000 each.
- Rishi received £4,000 from James R Campbell for his constituency. Every little helps.
Though, the award for biggest fleece must surely go to Bob Seely as he took home £1,500 for appearing on TalkTV’s First Edition. That must work out to around £1 per viewer…
Speaking to Paul Goodman on ConservativeHome’s Moggcast podcast, Jacob denies the rumour, first reported in the Sunday Times, that he was the one who encouraged Boris to accuse Sir Keir of failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile. Now Rees-Mogg accuses a Tory colleague of being responsible:
“What was going on at the time was a very noisy chamber and people were shouting things out, I think it came from behind us”.
Guido’s had a quick look to see who was behind the front bench and therefore who Rees-Mogg could be pointing the finger at:
Immediately behind the two we saw Alex Burghart, Shailesh Vara, Suzanne Webb, Conor Burns, Andrew Griffith, Sarah Dines and Sara Britcliffe. We have tried enhancing the video audio, with no success…
Christian Wakeford’s defection to the Labour Party yesterday surprised just about everyone, including his closest former colleagues. Multiple sources have confirmed to Guido that on Tuesday evening, Wakeford attended a cheery 4-hour dinner with Tory MPs Andrew Stephenson, Chris Clarkson, Sara Britcliffe, and Robbie Moore at Stephenson’s house – and didn’t tell them a word about his plans for the next day.
Despite secretly meeting with Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, Wakeford kept shtum for the entire evening with his then-colleagues, blindsiding them as he joined the Labour benches at PMQs. In fact, Wakeford’s office manager only reached out to Downing Street 15 minutes before Boris stood up in the Chamber…
As expected, Wakeford’s now ex-colleagues are furious, with one reportedly calling him “a c*nt” after hearing the news. Although the best reaction still goes to Lee Anderson…
The Owen Paterson farce has created a major rift in the Tory Party, between the marginal 2019ers, and the old boys with their second jobs. Following Chris Chopes’s objection to last night’s motion, the 2019 intake group lit up with fury. The Guardian’s Aubrey Allegretti reported messages including:
- “He’s an embarrassment to us all.”
- “Very annoying. Just keeps issue rolling on. And handing Labour a freebie.”
- “The guy is a dinosaur who should’ve considered retiring a long time ago.”
PPS Paul Holmes called him a “selfish twat”, a comment that fellow PPS Sara Britcliffe agreed with, replying “This”.
Still, Guido hears Sara can’t be too upset about Owen Paterson. Since the 2019 election, one question that’s frustrated Tory whips is how to deal with the WhatsApp chat limit of 256 members, given their 360 Tory MPs. Initially they tried cajoling their rank and file over to the Signal messaging app, which has no chat size limits, to no avail.
Now the Tory MP WhatsApp chat operates a one-in-one-out policy. Naturally Paterson was unceremoniously booted out last week and Guido hears Britcliffe nabbed the vacant chat spot. Whether her constituents see this small upside to the lobbying scandal remains to be seen…
Tory MP Sara Britcliffe took to the Commons floor a few minutes ago to call Keir Starmer out on his PMQs untruth that all Manchester council leaders – including the Tory leader of Bolton council – backed his call for a circuit breaker lockdown. Guido now understands the furious leader of Bolton council, David Greenhalgh, is to write to Starmer, as he claims it’s not the first time the leader of the opposition has made a factually inaccurate statement about his position before. Guido will keep readers up to date on further fallout from ‘forensic’ Starmer’s PMQs flop…
