“It’s not been easy at times…”
At DPMQs LibDem Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper asked Lammy:
“Will the DPM join us in urging the Chancellor to delay the honorable member for Clacton’s resignation until the investigation is complete? So the good people of Clacton have all the facts before they cast their votes. And failing that, will he support our Clacton clause so that even once the honourable member ceases to be an MP, the investigations can continue?”
Lammy did not say a by-election would be delayed:
“He’s got serious questions to answer and he can’t run away from them. Labour isn’t going to be part of this circus. I hear it’s the people versus the establishment. The city trader Putin-admiring professional politician whose pals with crypto billionaires versus Count Binface. There have been there have been unqualified joke candidates in the past. Let’s see what the people of Clacton decide.”
The parliamentary commissioner for standards may not come back for over a year. Another LibDem fail on the way…
Zia Yusuf has claimed that the boycott of a Clacton by-election by Labour, Tories, Greens, and LibDems is only because they know they would lose to Farage. He told BBC Breakfast:
“The legitimacy of those elections is not determined by which parties coordinate together to not stand candidates. It is very much down to the people of Clacton to make a determination. And I’m confident that they will return Nigel Farage to the House of Commons.
Why have Labour and the Tories decided not to stand? And the second question would be if they thought for a moment they had a chance of unseating the man who has been a thorn in their side for decades, the man whose political party has led 350 national opinion polls in a row. If they had a chance, if they thought they had a chance of unseating Nigel Farage, they would field a candidate. And this is what’s so extraordinary about this endless witch hunt.”
As it currently stands Nigel Farage will be versus ironic candidate Count Binface. Reform wants the writ moved today. Will Reeves grant the by-election in good time by appointing Farage out of the Commons?
Reform has accused the National Crime Agency of illegally leaking its MPs’ bank statements to the media. Tice has written to NCA director general Graeme Biggar to demand an urgent investigation…
Both Tice and Nigel Farage were the subject of leaks. Tice has written after the Guardian obtained details of a loan his company received from George Cottrell. Individual donation transactions were flagged to the NCA under its Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) scheme, as about 3,000 do per day. They didn’t warrant further investigation…
Tice claims the Guardian had details from multiple accounts that only he and the NCA could have known, leading him to believe the NCA leaked the material for political reasons. Would be a serious breach from “Britain’s FBI” if true…
Farage says:
“Several media organisations have been hounding my daughter. When I approached the boss of Sky News and complained, they denied any contact — and so did their news report. Sky News are liars. I demand an apology from them and a promise not to repeat it.”
Sky News’ defence is that the daughter didn’t answer the door…
Popcorn out…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.