Watch Ross Kempsell and Ben Judah clash over Labour’s Chagos deal by clicking the video above. And remember to subscribe to Guido on YouTube to never miss a show…
The Guido Fawkes Show airs LIVE on Wednesdays at 5pm on YouTube…
Guido has done additional digging on Darren Jones’ short-lived “command centre” – the Cabinet Office room from which he monitored situations with staff. Jones told the Times about how great it was…
Apart from proposing to spend vast amounts on raising the ceiling, there were other costs associated with branding up the room:
- The supply and installation of two phone booths and the removal of existing furniture cost £12,175.59.
- The Cabinet Office spent £7,529.80 on design services in relation to this room provided by the Government Property Agency.
In an interview with the New Statesman today Darren Jones said he was offered the same deal as everyone else – betray Starmer for a job – but Burnham owed too many jobs for him to have secured a good one. The command centre ship went on without its captain…
And I’m Mickey Mouse…
Chiltern Railways became the tenth operator nationalised and swallowed up by government-run Great British Railways last weekend. Rail Minister Lord Hendy marked the moment at Marylebone with the same script ministers have wheeled out nine times already: this one will save money and will deliver a better service. A familiar tune… So how are the new nationalised operators actually doing? The proportion of South Western Railway (SWR) trains arriving on time fell to a seven-year low following nationalisation, and state-run TransPennine Express remains among the least punctual services in the country. Thameslink have new seats under public ownership, replacing the famously unloved “ironing boards” (the Government’s own term), with an almost identical seat…Former Transport Secretary Lord Harper called nationalisation by its true name – a handout to Labour’s favourite donors – the rail unions. The unions now have a single national employer to bargain with, much easier…
Not that it helps passengers: nationalised Chiltern is already facing imminent strike action from leading rail union the RMT. Be quicker to walk…
The Home Office’s tracker says 781 small boat migrants arrived yesterday. A record for this year…
They came in ten boats. That takes the seven-day rolling total to 1,085…
21 migrants arrived on a boat which evaded Border Force yesterday. It’s falling apart in the Channel…
Reform chairman Lee Anderson has written to Electoral Commission (EC) CEO Vijay Rangarajan over the watchdog’s review of campaign spending limits, accusing Rangarajan of prejudging the outcome and threatening to take legal action. A judicial review on the cards…
The letter follows Rangarajan’s Sunday Times interview last week, in which he said:
“Trust in elections depends on people believing that the rules are fair and transparent, and how much parties and campaigners can spend is a significant part of that picture. Funding is essential to democratic participation and political debate, but the framework must give voters confidence that our elections are being contested on a level playing field.”
It ran a week after Reform banked the £72 million from Harborne and Delo, and Anderson notes the same comments were then copied verbatim into an official Commission statement two days later. Anderson says:
The suggestion that the current framework of funding is contrary to voters confidence in the integrity of elections (conveyed by the use of “but” as a conjunction) poses serious questions as to the impartiality of The Electoral Commission’s review.
The EC’s review was prompted by an August letter from Louise Haigh and Angela Rayner telling the Commission that spending limits “are too high, and ought to be reduced“. It’s war…
Read Anderson’s full letter below:
Continue reading “EXC: Reform Threatens Electoral Commission With Legal Action Over Funding Row”
Asked by Lobby hacks about his past comments on Trump (“any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now”) Burnham was blithe:
“Politicians say things throughout their career, but now the important thing is to focus on the moment you are in.”
Were it so easy…
