As much as Labour’s spin doctors wanted to dismiss the story yesterday’s local election campaign launch was overshadowed by Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner’s failure to satisfactorily explain herself. This morning’s newspapers are (finally) all over the issue Guido has been drumming on about for weeks;
- “How Angela Rayner could go from Labour’s trump card to their millstone“ opines the Telegraph.
- “Pressure builds on Angela Rayner over council house claims” – Times
- “Rayner denies wrongdoing over council house sale amid police review“ – Guardian
- “Angela Rayner refuses to publish tax records as police probe house sale“ – FT
- “Why won’t Rayner come clean on tax?” – Daily Mail
- “UK cannot install Angela Rayner as Deputy PM with unanswered tax-dodging allegations hanging over her” – Sun
- “Rayner on the ropes: Labour’s deputy leader flounders over housing row” – Mail
- “Angela Rayner insists she did nothing wrong over house sale“ – BBC
- “Angela Rayner will not publish ‘personal tax advice’ over council house sale“ – Sky News
The truth will out and this will not go away until she answers the questions which she obfuscates over. Why do the neighbours say she is lying about where she really lived? Wasn’t her brother really renting the house she pretends she lived at and where she kept herself on the electoral roll? Why doesn’t she publish the recent tax advice? As much as Labour keep trying to make out this is a non-story, it clearly isn’t. The press is only seeking the same kind of transparency she demanded of others…
Good Morning Britain is supposed to be impartial, though when the presenters start stating Labour’s line as fact it does make you wonder. Susanna Reid got feisty with Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride this morning when he said “Labour have absolutely no plan” to reduce immigration. Reid fought back, repeatedly saying “that’s absolutely not true…the audience needs to be aware [ministers will say this] and it’s not true”, saying their plan is to “smash the gangs” and providing no more detail. As Stride pointed out, Labour has rhetoric, which isn’t the same as a plan…
A good start for Ed this morning. He only went and kicked fellow presenter Susanna Reid in the head. What do they say about an eye for an eye?
Viewers may have missed their Monday morning dose of Andrew Pierce on Good Morning Britain today, though fear not, as he still co-hosted his Britain’s Newsroom show on GB News this morning. Pierce’s non-appearance in his usual ITV slot is apparently because he is “taking a two week break” and coincidentally follows Guido’s report that the Daily Mail has appointed a KC to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against the journalist. ITV has reason to be cautious in this situation. Perhaps Pierce really is taking a two week break…
Speaking on GMB this morning, Diane Abbott took a principled stance against Keir Starmer’s chicanery. The former Shadow Home Secretary questioned Starmer’s decision to block Jeremy Corbyn from standing at the next election:
“Keir Starmer put a motion in front of the NEC to bar Jeremy as a candidate, but that motion said nothing about antisemitism. It said that because Jeremy had lost the 2019 election he couldn’t run. Well, really, if you stop people being MPs because they lose elections, why is Ed Miliband still an MP?”
She also claimed that if Corbyn decides to stand as an independent in Islington “he will win”.
Diane’s comments on Ed Miliband come in the context of Labour’s legalistic justification for blocking Corbyn put forward at the NEC – based on his electoral performance and not antisemitism. Starmer’s motion states that the party’s “standing with the electorate in the country, and its electoral prospects in seats it is required to win in order to secure a parliamentary majority and/or win the next general election, are both significantly diminished should Mr Corbyn be endorsed”.
As Ann Black points out for Labour List, “the motion was fundamentally dishonest, because the reasons given for blocking Corbyn’s candidacy were not the real reasons”. It’s one rule for Comrade Corbyn and another for Red Ed…
Ed Balls attempted a bulldozing interview strategy on Good Morning Britain this morning, only to be left with egg on his face – clearly, he’s been taking lessons from predecessor Piers. The former Shadow Chancellor took Security Minister Tom Tugendhat to task for apparent hypocrisy over increased defence spending – or rather the lack of it. Using backbench Tom’s own words against him, Balls asked minister Tom:
“Are you naive? Have you been captured by Treasury orthodoxy? Or are you another politician who spoke out from the backbenches, and now you’ve got your feet behind the desk in the Foreign Office, you’ve forgotten what you used to stand for?”
It’s a fair question. Unfortunately for Ed, his execution was left lacking, and Tom was well-prepped to hit back:
“First of all, I’m not in the Foreign Office, I’m in the Home Office. Secondly, you can speak for yourself but not for me. Third, if you read the articles [Balls interrupts] it actually talks about defence and intelligence in the articles [Balls interrupts] Ed I’m delighted for you to interview yourself if you like, or you can listen to my answer…”
Tugendhat was smiling through gritted teeth as he returned fire. Guido leaves it to co-conspirators to decide who won this round…
