The Cabinet Office has spent £1.58 million of taxpayer cash advertising Labour’s Digital ID consultation.
Labour spent a total of £1,578,482 on paid advertising and promotional activity to promote its public consultation on Digital ID, according to documents uncovered by Guido’s FOI Unit. The main consultation is for over-18s despite Labour lowering the voting age to 16-year-olds…
Social media was the single biggest line of spending at £422,616, routed across Meta, Reddit and TikTok. Digital display advertising came second at £367,351 on Google, The Trade Desk and verification firm DoubleVerify…
Out of home posters cost £247,263 and radio advertising came to £245,309, spread across a wide roster of broadcasters including Bauer, GB News and Global Media Group.
The full breakdown by channel: Social £422,616, Digital Display £367,351, Out of Home £247,263, Radio £245,309, Digital Audio £167,360, Video £128,229, Search £354. All of the spending was routed through the Government Communication Service’s central campaigns budget. All for a hated policy – will Josh Simons push it through under Burnham?
Reeves has announced Professor Jonathan Haskel is her nominated candidate for the Chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility:
“Professor Haskel is a Professor of Economics at Imperial College London. His research focuses on productivity and growth, and he has held senior roles across academia, public policy and independent oversight.
He served as an External Member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee from 2018 to 2024, a non-Executive Director of the UK Statistics Authority from 2016 to 2022, and an External Member of the Reporting Panel of the Competition and Markets Authority from 2001 to 2009.
The Treasury Committee approves all appointments to the Budget Responsibility Committee, including the Chair. Professor Haskel will appear before the committee for a pre-appointment hearing in due course and it is anticipated he can could take up his post in good time to oversee the OBR produce its forecast alongside the Budget later this year.
In the interim, Budget Responsibility Committee members Professor David Miles and Tom Josephs will continue to lead the OBR. “
Again – just before a (likely) new Chancellor…
Haskel has long argued against Brexit. In 2019 he said 70% of any post-referendum fall in UK business investment was caused by Brexit, and later in 2023 made a big fuss of his calculation that Brexit has dealt the UK economy a “productivity penalty” of £29 billion. Not a surprise appointment…
The No10 spokesman confirmed this afternoon that Starmer has agreed with Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo to allow access talks with ‘prospective candidates’ before nominations even open on 9th July:
“As per Cabinet talks, the Prime Minister wants smooth transition and is seeking to it make as easy as possible. So the Prime Minister has agreed with the Cabinet Secretary that access talks can take place with prospective candidates as soon as possible, and before nominations closed.”
He later confirmed this meant transition talks could begin before nominations had officially even opened, which produces a bizarre constitutional question over ‘what is a prospective candidate?’. Can Catherine West announce she’s standing just to waste the Cabinet Office’s time? Number 10 said it was a question for the Cabinet Office. As always…
Reeves in the Commons:
“I am confident that the new defence investment plan will be published before the Nato Ankara summit. It will involve more money spent more effectively and will meet the scale of challenges facing our country.”
That means just before Burnham’s entry to Downing Street. Team Andy is furious…
One Burnham MP outrider said:
“It has to be up to Andy Burnham. Keir can’t make a major decision, and what’s going to happen with the Treasury when Rachel is under pressure to keep her job?”
Salting the earth…
Starmer’s ‘Chief Secretary’ Darren Jones is threatening a run at the leadership if certain conditions are not met by Team Burnham. ‘Our generation’s Rehman Chishti’ as described by Labourites…
Some pro-Starmer MPs are briefing about a Jones run and his briefer is attempting to toe the line between “Darren will run” and “he will do it if he has to.” So far Darren’s people say that he is waiting to see if the economic credentials of Burnham’s rapidly-assembling government are to his satisfaction…
81 names are needed to trigger a contest. A Labour source suggests “I have more fingers than Darren has names.”
Andy Burnham for his part has still not chosen a Chancellor between an apparent selection of Ed Miliband, Wes Streeting, and Shabana Mahmood. Which tells you something about how decisive he is…
Starmer is also pushing ahead on the Defence Investment Plan with Dan Jarvis ahead of the NATO summit on 7 July – the last major international event he is scheduled to attend. Burnham’s team are complaining that it should be delayed until he can approve it. Circus…
Here is what Guido posted on the morning of 23rd June 2016:
The rest is history. Happy Brexit Day!
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”
