As grandstanding Remoaner and DCMS select committee chair Damian Collins fires off another grandiose letter to Dom Cummings threatening to send the men in tights round, the Vote Leave chief responds:
If you had wanted my evidence you would have cooperated over dates. You actually wanted to issue threats, watch me give in, then get higher audiences for your grandstanding. I’m calling your bluff. Your threats are as empty as those from May/Hammond/DD to the EU. Say what you like, I will not come to your committee regardless of how many letters you send or whether you send characters in fancy dress to hand me papers.
As Guido has written previously, the House’s power to punish non-MPs for contempt is untested in the modern age, it would probably fall foul of human rights legislation. In theory Cummings could be summonsed to the bar of the House to be reprimanded or imprisoned. The House of Commons last used its power to fine in 1666…
Cummings also has a warning for the Brexit-hating DCMS committee and other ultra-Remainer MPs:
I’m told many of your committee support the Adonis/Mandelson/Campbell/Grieve/Goldman Sachs/FT/CBI campaign for a rematch against the country. Do you know what Vote Leave 2 would feel like for the MPs who vote for that (and donors who fund it)? It would feel like having Lawrence Taylor chasing you and smashing you into the ground over and over and over again. Vote Leave 2 would not involve me — nobody will make that mistake again — but I know what it would feel like for every MP who votes for a rematch against the public.
One of the mistakes Brexiters made was letting Vote Leave stop campaigning…
Yesterday Guido told you how Damian Collins was spending an estimated £30,000 of taxpayer cash flying his Culture, Media and Sport select committee members on a jolly to New York and Washington to probe “fake news”. It seemed a total extravagance from one of the more grandstanding select committee chairmen. Buzzfeed have now followed up our story with the news that the CMS committee actually turned down an offer from US tech companies to fly their American executives over to London so they could face the committee in parliament. A move which would have saved UK taxpayers all that money. Clearly the temptation of a freebie holiday to the US was too much for members to resist. What a waste of money from Collins’ committee, which has spent the last year talking nonsense to get silly Russia / Brexit headlines in Remain papers…
The following 10 Tory MPs are elected to serve on the Brexit select committee:
P Bone, C Chope, S Crabb, J Djanogly, R Graham, A Jenkyns, J Lefroy, C Mackinlay, Rees-Mogg, J Whittingdale
Soubry loses again…
Select committee chairmen are supposed to serve a five year term following their election at the beginning of a parliament. Not Crispin Blunt, who had his time as Foreign Affairs committee chair cut short by the snap election. Blunt was booted out in July after just two years – colleagues were unimpressed with his multiple gaffes and almost Corbynista foreign policy tendencies. As if that were not humiliating enough, the supremely entitled Crispin then put his name forward for a place on the committee, attempting to hang around like a bad smell. Yesterday he lost that election too. Has he got the picture yet?
TREASURY (4 places)
Charlie Elphicke
Stephen Hammond
Alister Jack
Kit Malthouse
DEFENCE (3 places)
Leo Docherty
Mark Francois
Johnny Mercer
FOREIGN AFFAIRS (4 places)
Nusrat Ghani
Andrew Rosindell
Royston Smith
Nadhim Zahawi
COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT (5 places)
Bob Blackman
Kevin Hollinrake
Andrew Lewer
Mark Prisk
Mary Robinson
DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT (4 places)
Simon Hart
Julian Knight
Rebecca Pow
Giles Watling
EDUCATION (4 places)
Lucy Allan
Michelle Donelan
Trudy Harrison
William Wragg
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS (3 places)
Dr Caroline Johnson
Sheryll Murray
Julian Sturdy
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (5 places)
James Duddridge
Nigel Evans
Jeremy Lefroy
Paul Scully
Henry Smith
INTERNATIONAL TRADE (4 places)
Julia Dockerill
Nigel Evans
Marcus Fysh
Ranil Jayawardena
PUBLIC ADMINSTRATION AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS (4 places)
Marcus Fysh
Cheryl Gillan
David Jones
David Morris
TRANSPORT (4 places)
Steve Double
Huw Merriman
Iain Stewart
Martin Vickers
Graham Brady says there is “uncertainty” over the Tory allocation on the crucial Brexit select committee, so he cannot yet announce the result…
Tomorrow MPs vote in the select committee chairmanship elections, always one of the more entertaining events of a new parliament. Eyes are on the Foreign Affairs and Defence select committees, where there is a feeling among many MPs that the incumbent chairs are too old, too stale, too outdated in their views and too out of touch with modern day politics.
65-year-old Julian Lewis, the current Defence committee chair, is old-fashioned both in his personal style and working methods. He doesn’t believe in email, is brusque with colleagues and at one meeting his behaviour over the agenda caused such consternation that staff were asked to leave the room. He is the Speaker’s closest friend and shares some of Bercow’s personality traits. His blinding hatred of David Cameron was petty. He will be 70 at the next election.
Crispin Blunt, the Foreign Affairs committee incumbent, aroused concerns when he demanded private investigators be brought in to find out who exposed his determination to water down criticism of the Saudis – an odd look in Britain in 2017 – and then had his report on Libya embarrassingly debunked. Blunt has been dubbed the “Corbynista candidate” by some Labour moderates who note his views align with Jezza on Israel and western foreign policy.
As the Tories lick their election wounds and discuss how to appeal to modern voters, tomorrow’s select committee elections provide a chance to see how serious they are…
