Labour house rag the New Statesman drops a long cover piece on Kemi Badenoch this morning after the Tory leader’s first reshuffle. It is an utterly brutal and uncompromising read…
Badenoch’s trouble with communications is a focus, with suggestions Niall Ferguson is helping her with speechwriting and her often-cited 2017 maiden speech was written by her former boss Fraser Nelson. The Statesman’s Will Lloyd also interviewed Badenoch’s former performance coach Graham Davies who claims she is a poor PMQs performer because she “doesn’t do the process, doesn’t do the practice and doesn’t like it.” When your own coach is saying it…
Staggeringly, the NS claims to have found Kemi’s old notebook from the period in which her strident comments about Sunak’s failures at the first post-election Shadow Cabinet found themselves on the pages of the Times. Notes said to be in her handwriting replicate the words leaked to the paper and include ‘affirmations’ such as:
- “Breathe, breathe, breathe.”
- “Pause, Pause, Pause.”
- “You are a serious person who does big things.”
- “Pivot to attacking Labour when uncomfortable.”
- “Remember you are the standard bearer of the right.”
- “Don’t let people think you are easily wound up.”
The piece also notes that CCHQ has been gutted by staff redundancies with issues highlighted by Guido some time ago: only two press staff (actually inaccurate as there are now three), and Pads asked to work for free for shadow ministers. Badenoch herself is said to have “a habit of vanishing into her AirPods and iPad” and is “difficult to reach before 11 am.” Meanwhile donations to the Tory operation are being used to pay off debts from the election. Her team deny all the claims made in the piece – and the magazine is, after all, Labour’s chief organ. Things can only get better post-reshuffle…
The Labour house rag is now recommending Starmer and Reeves give up on their potemkin “no tax rises for working people” promise by hiking income tax. Fixed it for you…
The New Statesman editor’s role is a plum prize for ambitious, savvy, and of course, “progressive and liberal” hacks. After 16 years at the helm, Jason Cowley announced he’ll step down this month, remaining with the paper as a columnist and essayist. As promised, Guido gives you a list of the runners and riders:
- Lewis Goodall – Ex-BBC leftie firebrand and now News Agents mainstay. A familiar face, nervous whispers at New Statesman HQ peg Lewis as a frontrunner…
- Stephen Bush – FT associate editor and columnist. He was political editor of the New Statesman from 2018 to 2022. Could he make a return to his old stomping ground?
- Tom McTague – Political editor at UnHerd and former Chief UK Correspondent at Politico Europe. Well respected in the Westminster bubble, he’d be keen to make sure the paper kept the government’s feet to the fire…
- Helen Lewis – Once the New Statesman’s deputy editor, now at The Atlantic. The most experienced candidate—and the only woman in the mix…
- James Heale – This might seem a bit of a right-field idea, bear with Guido. Yes, he’s currently The Spectator’s political correspondent and diary editor, Heale is known to be angling for a political editor position. Equipped with a strong news sense and an eye for a scoop, he’d be making an ideological jump into the unknown. The New Statesman has made surprising picks before…
Notably, none of these runners and riders is currently in-house, and all under the age of 42. A youthful lineup for injecting some energy into the New Statesman’s 111-year-old veins…
Jason Cowley is stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of the New Statesman next month, having served 16 years in the top job. He will continue to write for the magazine as a columnist and essayist. He said this afternoon:
“I’ve loved editing the New Statesman for so long, it’s been hard work but also great fun. Most rewarding has been helping to develop and nurture a new generation of talented political and cultural writers, bringing them on to the team and giving them an opportunity to write and broadcast and it is fantastic to see them flourish and go on to have big careers in the media.
“As well as having significant writers on the team, the New Statesman should be nurturing new writers and encouraging new talent. I think that’s the thing the Statesman does best and should continue to do.
“I’ve also been proud of the New Statesman having sceptical politics, trying to keep an open mind and championing what I would call a kind of independent liberalism whilst also growing the brand and making it the multi-platform digital title that it is today. I’m also delighted that I will continue to have a relationship with the magazine and write for it.
“I’d like to thank all my colleagues for their dedication, support and hard work and I expect the title to go from strength to strength.”
His successor has not yet been announced. Expect Guido’s runners and riders soon…
Sadiq Khan has taken the opportunity to deviate from Labour’s position on the US election in a fawning interview for The New Statesman. While Lammy and Starmer have been “studiously neutral” on November’s election Khan has no qualms about his support: “I’ve been so impressed with Tim Walz. It just shows the judgement that Kamala Harris has in relation to her choice for vice-president. Compare and contrast that with the choice made by the other guy, in JD Vance.” No matter – Trump knows what the Labour frontbench thinks of him…
Lammy’s defence is that “you’re going to struggle to find any politician who has not had things to say about Donald Trump in his first term” and that Trump has the “thickest of skins.” Khan is happy to destroy that line as well:
“The last time we had a Trump presidency, as a matter of public record, there was a massive increase in hate crime towards me… I worry about what a second Trump presidency would mean for me and my family, but I’m not going to allow these people to cower me.”
The “matter of public record” is analysis produced by Khan’s own office, now used to claim that Trump was in some way responsible for the targeting of a mayor in another country. The FCDO will be gritting its teeth at this latest breathless bluster…
Khan also claims politicians need to be “braver on immigration” as its problems stem from unfunded public services, and that the UK should have a “conversation” about re-joining the EU in the “medium to long term“. Khan is always ahead of the curve on Labour’s intentions…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”
