Andy Burnham has been advised at high-level access talks to revive the Chagos surrender. Such a move would likely enrage large parts of the US administration at the behest of a few unaccountable officials in Britain…
Keeping Starmer’s Chagos policy will also blow Burnham’s balance sheet. Guido already established that Burnham’s spending commitments so far total something like 250 billion pounds – much of that formally uncosted. You can add another £47 billion to that then – the estimate of the cost of the Chagos deal alone…
The Diego Garcia Bill was not reintroduced at the last King’s Speech after a massive parliamentary campaign to halt Starmer’s giveaway. Co-conspirators helped remove one Labour Prime Minister over Chagos, it’s time to do it all over again…
Guido is running a petition against the deal. Add your name below and receive regular updates on the campaign. It was killed once, it can be killed again…
A tragedy for the outgoing PM as another year passes with no new Keirs. The final insult…
New baby name figures for 2025 have been released by the Office for National Statistics today:
No change to the Nigels, the Andys are down too…
Convicted fraudster Louise Haigh has claimed that Andy Burnham wouldn’t fall out with Ed Miliband if he were Chancellor because they are good friends. Were it so easy…
Haigh – who was previously convicted of fraud by false representation in 2014 and is now Burnham’s right-hand woman – told Nick Robinson that there was not enough time to break up the Treasury. Instead, there would have to be a No10 Economic Unit accessed by the PM and Chancellor. Asked how Burnham would avoid the old rivalry between No10 and No11 if the latter was occupied by headstrong Ed Miliband, Haigh said:
“If that were the case, they’re very good friends, so that would be fine. They wouldn’t be falling out.”
That is optimistic. Haigh said the same was the case of Shabana Mahmood…
Asked if she would take the role, she said: “I am absolutely happy to say on record that I am not going to be the Chancellor.” When Robinson mentioned her taking the role of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, she remained quiet…
Burnham is still deciding Cabinet posts and has indicated appointments will be made on his ascension to Downing Street. At 7 p.m. tonight the number of nominations from MPs for Burnham will become known – a fait accompli…
Reform have complained after they allegedly found a journalist from the Guardian eavesdropping on a private meeting at the Local Government Association conference from behind a curtain. Were his shoes sticking out from the bottom…
The party says Guardian senior political correspondent Peter Walker was told that a Reform personnel meeting on local government efficiency was private and he would have to leave the room. Sources present say he then hid behind a curtain within earshot of the meeting…
He was allegedly found there. In a complaint to the Local Government Association, the party wrote:
“I am writing on behalf of the Reform UK Group to insist that the Guardian journalist found recording our closed political group session has his media pass revoked and is not permitted to attend the remainder of conference.
The meeting was overtly communicated as a private and confidential closed political group session, including in the conference programme, at the outset of the session, and through clear Reform UK branding at the session space.
Despite this, the journalist positioned himself behind the curtain at the back of the session and was found recording and taking notes during the private discussion.”
Reform says the LGA’s director of communications has provided them with verbal assurances that Walker’s media pass will be revoked. Separately Richard Tice has accused the National Crime Agency of leaking bank records of senior Reform personnel including him and Farage to the Guardian…
The party has had an active LGA conference – as Suella Braverman suggested removing activism on Gaza and Trans issues from schools, she was heckled by numerous attendees who then staged a walkout while she continued speaking. Reform’s opponents are flinging the kitchen sink…
The government has defended its new £30 million contract for a private company to charter boats and crew and pick up people trying to cross the Channel. Costs up by twelve times since 2022…
After Martin Daubney blasted the gargantuan contract on GB News, the Home Office said:
“We are modernising our fleet to intercept more crossings and save lives at sea, all while delivering better value for the taxpayer.
This is one part of our strategy to bear down on small boat crossings, with over 45,000 crossing attempts stopped and almost 70,000 people here illegally removed since the election.”
How does paying tens of millions to pick up migrants in the Channel and take them to Britain “bear down on small boat crossings”?
The Met has paid Graham Linehan £25,000 in compensation after arresting him for posts that were gender-critical. They said there were “shortcomings in the investigation, the arrest and the imposition of bail conditions”. He got a letter:
“Whilst there can be no doubt that all officers acted in good faith throughout and were seeking to do their best in the circumstances, the investigation identified shortcomings in both the investigation, arrest and imposition of bail conditions. We apologise to you for those shortcomings and for the distress and inconvenience which he suffered as a result.”
Linehan got an apology in May. Now he gets another and the cash. Taxpayer-funded payouts are a common occurrence for police forces aggressively overstepping the mark…
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”