Iceland boss and failed Tory candidate Richard Walker was quizzed in a frosty interview on Good Morning Britain today over his defection to the Labour party and Guido’s report on his letter to Rishi Sunak. Susanna Reid summed it up well: “Is this not perhaps sour grapes? The reason I ask you this is because the Guido Fawkes Website published a letter from you to the Prime minster, in their words, begging for you to be put on the Conservative candidate list”. Walker’s frigid reply:
“It is mysterious and it was a personal letter, it was private and confidential and it was hand delivered to the Prime Minister. I never received so much as an acknowledgment but I suppose at least I now know it reached its intended recipient.”
At least he’s not taken it personally…
Sir Chris Bryant has written a book about sleaze, corruption, and dishonesty in politics, and has spent the morning promoting it on television. He appeared on Good Morning Britain today to insist politicians “really have to do better“, and lamented the ‘normalisation’ of “lying to Parliament”. He’s particularly upset about MPs refusing to correct the record for misleading the Commons…
Maybe the book will explain why, after over a year, he still hasn’t corrected the record for his claim about Nigel Farage. In March 2022, Bryant stood up in the Commons and declared it an outrage that Farage had supposedly taken “£548,573 from Russia Today in 2018 alone […] from the Russian state“, and that he should be sanctioned by the government:
Under the protection of parliamentary privilege, he got away with making a claim which was completely untrue. The £548,573 figure was the total sum for all of Farage’s media appearances up to 2018, including the lucrative fees for his LBC show. Farage didn’t appear on Russia Today at all in 2018, and says he has had two appearance fees in total worth “well under £5,000”. Not quite half-a-million…
For some reason, Bryant hasn’t mentioned this claim anywhere else since, and is pretending it never happened. Perhaps because, without parliamentary privilege, he knows he’d find a lawyer’s letter in his post by tomorrow. Falsely claiming someone has taken over £500,000 from the Russian state would be costly in the courts…
Bryant was one of the most egregious of the expense-fiddling MPs, making a £649,500 profit out of rent-swapping at the taxpayer’s expense. For years he rented out his Bloomsbury flat for £3,000-a-month whilst charging his rent on another London property to expenses. When Guido challenged him about this years ago, asking why he didn’t live in the Bloomsbury flat or sell it, he claimed somewhat dishonestly that the flat was “in negative equity”. Which would have made it the only flat in London to have gone down in price…
Jolyon wasn’t even in court this morning and somehow still found a way to lose. The bludgeoning barrister spent the morning on Good Morning Britain (GMB), where he defended his new-found opposition to the cab rank legal principle he himself described as essential for a fair trial. As his segment ended, and after saying potential deaths as a result of ambulances being delayed by eco-protesters would constitute “inevitable” disruption, GMB displayed its poll – asking viewers to side with either Jolyon or his sparring partner. No prizes for guessing who lost…
Jolyon didn’t just lose – he excelled himself with his losing margin. Just 27% of viewers sided with him, compared to 73% opposed to his plans to stop prosecuting eco warriors. Jolyon sought to save face following his crushing defeat, claiming “those arguing for change are always out on a limb”. As Richard Madeley responded, “sometimes they’re wrong”.
As British supermarkets have been hit with vegetable shortages, ITV’s Good Morning Britain assembled a panel to get to the bottom of it in the only way they know how. By inviting on a remainiac Liberal Democrat activist, hiding her campaigning background, and nodding along as she blamed the unseasonable frosts in Morocco on… Brexit.
Liz Webster was introduced simply as “a farmer and chair of Save British Food”, before she launched a tirade concluding that the “underlying problem” was Brexit. Ignoring the fact that her argument was a complete fabrication – even the BBC agrees Brexit is “unlikely to be a factor” – the real issue is that voters weren’t given sufficient context to judge the credibility of the expert activist.
In addition to tweeting about the “criminal greed” of “evil” tories, and repeating how much she hates Brexit, Liz is a die hard Lib Dem. She’s spoken at their conference and it’s hard to find an elected position Liz hasn’t stood for – and lost. She’s been a Lib Dem candidate for parliament, police and crime commissioner and President of the party. As always, Liz is entitled to her platform. However, considering how much time she spends on the campaign trail, and the strength of her views, it’s clearly something GMB should have informed the viewers about…
For the seventh consecutive day, Starmer is battling the headlines over Beergate. This morning the Sun reports Starmer and Labour aides spent £200 on takeaway food on the night the infamous photo was taken – enough curry to feed 30 people for what Labour still insists was just a quick meal during important campaign work. That line is becoming increasingly untenable, as Starmer’s appearance just now on Good Morning Britain attests…
Speaking to Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley, Starmer trotted out the boilerplate excuses Labour have been using for a week, much of which was irrelevant waffle about how many camera pieces he recorded that day. Not once did he deny reports it turned into a £200, 30-person feast:
“…I [was] on the road with my team… across the country, going to areas where we needed to campaign. During the day we were out doing visits… in the evening, we were preparing, we were doing all the things a team has to do… we were there working, we were doing pieces to camera.”
He recorded some video messages on a laptop – doesn’t require 30 people, beer and curry late on a Friday night to do that. When Susanna Reid asked why any of this was actually relevant, Starmer claimed:
“We were on the road, at the end of the day, we were in the office preparing. Now, that evening, from memory, we were doing an online event for members… at some point, this was in the evening, everyone is hungry. A takeaway was ordered… in Durham all restaurants and pubs were closed.”
Of course, that last part is untrue: hospitality reopened for outdoor service on April 12, and the Durham event took place on April 30. Still, at least Starmer confirmed the police haven’t been in touch yet, something he couldn’t say yesterday for some reason. If Starmer’s finding all this scrutiny unnecessary, Guido would just remind him he called for Rishi to resign last month for singing ‘happy birthday’. Or was that just pointless mudslinging?
The rumour mill over at the mini-Shard is whirring regarding which top stars might be poached to front Murdoch’s upcoming TalkTV venture, launching in early 2022. After already nabbing Piers Morgan in September, Guido hears Adam Boulton could be on the cusp of making a return to the Murdoch fold. Announcing his departure from Sky News a week ago, Boulton told The Times, “I mean, to give up daily broadcasting is a wrench. Maybe there’ll be other broadcasting things.” His departure would also time well with the TalkTV launch; he’s expected to leave Sky at the end of 2021.
In more light-hearted hiring news, Guido hears Ed Balls has also been spotted having conversations at the News UK headquarters, and is also strongly rumoured to be joining the venture. Especially awkward for GMB – they lost Piers to TalkTV and have only just taken Balls on as a new presenter…
