Lobby hacks are this week still asking Starmer’s spokesman about Sue Gray’s fake envoy job. Surprise surprise, no updates…

When Gray resigned back at the start of the month the PM said “he was ‘delighted’ she would stay by his side in her new role.’” Let’s see how that’s going…

Guido hears from Downing Street that Sue is hilariously “still deciding if she is doing the envoy job.” In the meantime she has no desk, no contract, and no internal IT. So much for sitting by Keir’s side…

Downing Street continued to refuse to supply any details on Sue Gray’s fake envoy job a full week after they promised it would all be public “shortly.” Guido revealed last week that a row over pay and severance was responsible for the roadblock…

Gray’s role as “PM’s Envoy to the Nations and Regions” now looks like it’s up for the chop before it even exists. A Downing Street source tells Guido she’s now “very unlikely” to do the role, “not least as no one can work out what it is.” John Swinney’s refusal ever to talk to Sue Gray is seen internally as an indicator of how stupid the position would be if No 10 pressed ahead with it…

Meanwhile whispers from government have Gray backing down in her fight for a bumper severance pay package, so that it doesn’t need to be publicly approved from above. Just that speedy peerage on the way then…

Lobby journalists are rightfully confused about Sue Gray’s new completely made-up role as the PM’s “Envoy for the Nations and Regions.” Hilariously Downing Street is still today not commenting on whether she will attend the Council of Nations and Regions meeting in Scotland tomorrow. If she doesn’t go to those then what actually is her job?

Guido hears it’s bedlam inside No 10 over this as Sue is in reality spending her time battling for a huge severance package and salary for her new role. The Cabinet Office is said to be resisting as approval for her demands needs to come from the top – Gray is not entitled to the level of severance she is demanding. No wonder the government refused to tell Guido what severance she’d be paid, say what salary she’ll be on, or indeed what her role actually is – they have no idea…

A Downing Street source tells Guido: “They just need to end it, send her to the Lords and move on. We’re all sick of her continuing to dominate things – she has been sacked. So why are we all indulging her?” Hell hath no fury like a Sue scorned…

UPDATE: Gray will not attend the inaugural meeting of the Council of Nations and Regions tomorrow. So much for her “vital role” in strengthening our relations with the regions and nations that Starmer was supposedly so “delighted” by…

UPDATE II: Presuming Gray was on a regular SpAd contract with 4 months probation, she would not be entitled to severance pay. It would need to be publicly approved from the top…

The McIavelli’s popped into work early – probably to finish setting up his new desk. They’re calling him the new Dom…

Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin says that the PM has removed the picture of Margaret Thatcher from the… Margaret Thatcher room. Who’s going to go up in her place – Arthur Scargill?

Gordon Brown put the painting of Mrs Thatcher up in 2007 and it has been there ever since. Either Guido was hallucinating or he remembers Keir lavishing praise on the Iron Lady a mere ten months ago, weathering a storm of criticism from his socialist colleagues:

“Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism.“

Looks like he’s flopped on that too. Guido has added it to his rolling list of Labour U-turns…

Maybe he’s embarrassed that he is a man and his party is the only major one to never have elected a woman as its leader. 16,555 days behind the Tories and counting…

Left-wing think tank the IPPR is today pushing for tax hikes on wealth to address “regional wealth inequality.” Because capital gains are realised in London and the South East apparently that means opportunity” is “not accessible across the UK”…

The chief recommendation of the IPPR to “regionally rebalance the UK” is a gargantuan tax hike:

“Taxing all income equally: In the long-term we propose a unified tax schedule for all income types, including capital gains and dividends, to align with income from work by the end of this parliament. In the short-term, we propose the equalisation of capital gains tax with income tax implemented at the first fiscal event of this parliament.”

The IPPR is dressing up old ideas to roll the pitch for Reeves’ October budget. This exact policy was proposed in a 2018 report from the think tank which was co-written by one Carys Roberts. Roberts, former IPPR executive director, is now ensconced in Downing Street’s policy unit, working alongside fellow ex-director Rachel Statham. The capitalism-sceptic think tank is said to be “doing the most serious and influential policy work around the Labour party.” That work can accelerate now its personnel are at the heart of policy making in government…

The same 2018 report called for the replacement of inheritance tax with a whole-life gift tax, which is effectively a gargantuan enlargement of confiscation of family inheritance. As Guido revealed plugged-in tax lawyers are in active preparation for its imposition….

Reeves yesterday stoutly refused to rule out changes to capital gains or inheritance tax. This “Iron Chancellor” hogwash ain’t gonna last…