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| Monday July 17 2017 |
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By Matt Chorley
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Good morning,
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In a shock development last night, a job vacancy was filled by someone other than George Osborne.
Jodie Whittaker was named as the new star of Doctor Who.
It came after Philip Hammond told the cabinet that being a time lord is so easy that "even a woman" could do it.
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Must reads
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- Twenty years after the US first commissioned designs for a “joint strike fighter” to be used across its military services, the F-35 Lightning II is way over budget, unreliable, full of software glitches and potentially unsafe.
- President Erdogan of Turkey has vowed to behead “terrorists” as he used the anniversary of last year’s attempted coup to rail against his domestic opponents and the European Union.
- Katie Perrior in Saturday's Times Magazine takes us inside her insane year in No 10 working as Theresa May's director of communications, including her clashes with Fiona Hill over sweary texts, Trousergate and the moment she was asked: “Where are the f***ing hydrangeas?”
- Also well worth a read is Tim Shipman's account in The Sunday Times of Boris Johnson and David Davis squaring up to each other “like a pair of rutting stags".
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‘In Phil we trust’
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Philip Hammond's reputation has been, as my grandad would say, up and down like dog's hind leg.
Safe pair of hands, facing the sack, second most powerful Philip in the land, fiscal hawk, Remoaner-in-chief, and now after the weekend's papers, tin-eared cabinet raconteur.
The chancellor committed two known offences at cabinet last week: claiming that driving a train is so easy that "even a woman can do it" (The Sun); and suggesting that public sector workers are "over-paid" after pensions are taken into account (The Sunday Times).
Hammond was already booked onto The Andrew Marr Show yesterday, which gave him chance to come back fighting. He didn't disappoint, telling his colleagues to be a bit more "focused on the job at hand".
Liam Fox, the international development secretary, also told the Sunday Politics: "I absolutely deplore leaks from the cabinet." Apparently with a straight face.
I suspect these pleas for calm will fall on deaf ears. There are at least three battles being played out around the cabinet table:
1) Brexit: Hammond has repeatedly said he wants to prioritise jobs and the economy over cutting immigration to an arbitrary target, to the delight of Remainers and fury of Brexiteers. Neither side commands a decent majority in the cabinet, the Tory party or parliament. A cabinet source tells the Telegraph that Hammond is trying to "f*** up" Brexit and treating pro-Leave ministers like "pirates who have taken him prisoner".
2) Austerity: Hammond wants to keep a grip on the public purse strings; several ministers want him to loosen them and lift the public-sector pay cap. Some want to go even further, arguing we have had enough pain in public services. One cabinet minister told me: “We need to hold the deficit where it is for a while, put austerity on ice, until we understand how the economy looks after Brexit.” The Institute for Fiscal Studies says this would free up £33 billion in planned spending cuts and tax rises. Unsurprisingly, the Treasury is unconvinced.
3) Leadership: It is impossible to assess any row, off-the-record briefing or leak without considering it through the prism of the battle to replace Theresa May. The thing to remember is that the cabinet is split, between those who know their best chance is to strike early - Boris Johnson, David Davis, and perhaps Hammond himself - and those who do not want these three in charge, and think waiting for a couple of years allows for a generational shift from what one minister described to me as the "hard Brexit, hard austerity chest-beating gorillas".
The leaking of cabinet in such detail - and to such brutal effect - would normally bring retribution from No 10. The plotters and briefers clearly believe that May is too weak to act. They ought to be careful.
The Financial Times reports that the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers has given the PM its backing, including sacking those responsible. "She can enforce cabinet discipline however she thinks is appropriate,” says one top Tory.
It is also extraordinary to have had such vicious briefing against the chancellor of the exchequer. However, his supporters at the top of government say last week's meeting was "perfectly amiable". One cabinet minister tells me: "Philip's remarks were just seen as Philip being Philip, all quite light-hearted."
Hammond expressed himself "clumsily", according to one person who was there, but feels the way his words were quoted out of context was unfair. "Time for people to stop playing stupid games - whether by Brexiteers or free-spending departmental ministers," they added.
A source tells The Sun they know who to blame: "It's Michael Gove behind all of this." Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, told the Today programme he did not recognise all this talk of in-fighting, insisting: "We are not a group of clones."
The quieter members of the cabinet look to the chancellor to prevent what they see as a catastrophic Brexit process being hijacked by Davis, Johnson and Fox.
As another senior minister said last night: "In Phil we trust."
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| Quote of the day |
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"The sharks are always circling."
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Tony Blair tells Sky News he sympathises with Theresa May's plight
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Today's cartoon from The Times by Seamus Jennings
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Billions spent on flawed jets
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Britain is paying hundreds of millions of pounds in hidden costs for a next-generation warplane that will be unable to function properly because of defence cuts, an investigation by The Times has revealed.
Vibrating missiles, a tail that overheats, poor reliability and the absence of special protection against engine icing are among hundreds of problems, including dozens of “service critical” deficiencies, plaguing the F-35 Lightning II programme.
No wonder it is known in defence circles as the "little turd".
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Getting down to business
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David Davis takes time out from plotting his leadership campaign to plot the path of Brexit today, heading to Brussels for the second round of negotiations. The Brexit secretary will call for both sides to "get down to business" and says his priority this time round is "protecting the rights of all our citizens".
He will shake hands with Michel Barnier at 9.15am but then nothing will actually happen until after lunch, Politico reports.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour's shadow business secretary, seems to have spent the weekend eating Tory press releases, telling the Sunday Politics "we want to have our cake and eat it", The Guardian reports.
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Brexit is child's play
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Prince George and Princess Charlotte are to join a "Brexit diplomacy" tour of Poland and Germany with their parents. Given the mess everyone else is making of Brexit, maybe a three and two-year-old can sort it out.
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Going, going, gong
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Jez Butterworth, the playwright whose works include the acclaimed Jerusalem and The Ferryman, turned down an OBE over David Cameron’s decision to call the a "f***ing referendum" on the EU, he has revealed.
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Read the full story
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Storm in a teacake
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Tunnock’s has added the Union Jack to its teacake packaging to try to break Japan but the decision to play down its Caledonian roots is almost certain to irritate Scottish nationalists.
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Read the full story
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In need of momentum
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Conservatives are calling for their own version of Momentum to take on the resurgent left. Writing for Red Box, Robert Halfon, the MP for Harlow and a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, said the Tories faced “potential annihilation” in the next general election unless they “radically change our party and build a younger right-of-centre support base”.
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Read the full story
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Picture of the day
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(Neil Henderson)
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The one thing we have been missing is the representation of politics in vegetables ... until now. Lambeth Country Show saw some top-notch efforts, including this one: Theresa Maize: Straw and stable or Wheat and wobbly? The BBC's Neil Henderson (aka @Hendopolis) has got more here.
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Promises, promises
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A quick game of spot the difference:
Jeremy Corbyn, NME, June 2: “I don’t see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during the £9,000 period should be burdened excessively compared to those that went before or those that come after. I will deal with it.”
John McDonnell, The Andrew Marr Show, July 16: "We’re going to try to. We’re going to try to. It’s a real ambition of ours. I don’t want to promise something we can’t deliver ... It wasn’t a promise."
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Blair: Corbyn could win
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Getting Tony Blair to admit he is wrong is no mean feat, so Jeremy Corbyn should be patting himself on the back this morning after the former PM conceded that Labour could win an election on a hard-left platform.
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Read the full story
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Absolute boy goes stateside
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Jeremy Corbyn is inspiring the American left who also view the Labour leader as the "absolute boy", HuffPost reports.
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Neil bows out
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"From me, it's thank you and goodbye."
And with that Andrew Neil signed off from the BBC's Sunday Politics yesterday. And he won't be returning. Arguably the best interviewer the BBC has wants his Sundays back. He is negotiating a new contract, and Corporation insiders insist he will still have a prominent role in political coverage, though he is also expected to reduce the number of days he does on the Daily Politics.
But who will be regenerated as the next host? Nick Robinson? Jo Coburn? Emma Barnett?
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Macron: I won Trump over on climate
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President Macron believes that he may have persuaded President Trump to reverse his decision to pull the United States out of the UN Paris agreement on curbing climate change.
Macron would have got the US president to shake on it, but he might never have let go.
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Read the full story
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Better off out
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Ian Blackford, the SNP’s new Westminster leader, has put economics firmly at the centre of the debate over Scottish independence, arguing that the Yes camp will only win when Scots believe they will be better off away from the UK.
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Read the full story
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Labour of love
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Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, has revealed that she is in a relationship with an SNP politician: Jenny Gilruth, the MSP for Mid Fife & Glenrothes.
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Read the full story
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Middletons are 'like the Kardashians'
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Emma Dent Coad, the new Labour MP for Kensington, used a speech to the anti-monarchy group Republic to compare the Middletons to the Kardashians, and revealed that she turned down the chance to meet the Queen, the Daily Mail reports.
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Read the full story
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| TMS |
| From the diary |
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By Patrick Kidd
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Eat your heart out
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Ted Heath was not a man who cared about the comforts of others. Chris Patten was a speechwriter for him and tells in his new memoirs of a writing session on the subject of compassion at his flat. Heath kept him waiting for an hour before appearing in a kimono. They worked for an hour then a housekeeper brought lobster and Chablis, which the PM tucked into. Eventually Heath looked down his napkin at Patten. “Have you eaten already?” he asked. Patten hadn’t. “You must be jolly hungry then,” he remarked. And returned to the trough.
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Read more from the TMS diary
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What the papers say
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The Times
"The F-35 joint strike fighter was supposed to be the answer to all the West’s air defence needs for the early decades of the 21st century. It is turning into an object lesson in the pitfalls of procurement." Read the full article
The Daily Telegraph
"Discipline is hard to maintain when Downing Street’s authority is diminished, but for the good of the country it must be. At such a critical moment in the country’s history we need a functioning Cabinet, not a warring one." Read the full article
The Sun
"Clearly, this is no time for a circular firing squad of Tory leadership hopefuls leaving the door open for Corbyn. And to make a success of Brexit we need grown-up politicians prepared to put aside personal ambition and unite in that vital common purpose." Read the full article
Daily Mirror
"Pitching public and private sector workers against each other is, thankfully, a busted political strategy when the election found people are fed up with Tory austerity. Pay up, Hammond, or face the consequences." Read the full article
The Guardian
"Today’s Conservatism does not want to level relationships between poor and rich, to provide policies that allow workers to set bosses’ pay or tenants to hold their landlords to account or empower consumers over corporates." Read the full article
Daily Express
"So the truth is out: despite all that glad-handing between our Prime Minister and President Emmanuel Macron of France, behind the scenes the French government is plotting to sabotage the British economy. A leaked memo reveals that they will try to "actively disrupt and destroy" the City of London."
Daily Mail
"When ministers scrap like rats in a sack, the only winners are the EU and Jeremy Corbyn, who already enjoys an eight-point lead in the polls. Their behaviour is self-indulgent and undermines both their party and Prime Minister at a time when they should be rallying behind her - and behind Brexit."
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Agenda
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Today
- David Davis, the Brexit secretary, meets Michel Barnier, the European Commission’s Brexit negotiator, for the second round of formal Brexit negotiations in Brussels.
- A soft Brexit would lead to continued high levels of immigration, according to the Migration Watch UK think tank.
- The prime minister should make Britain the home of human rights, according to a report by the Bright Blue think tank.
- 6.00pm Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary and Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, attend a Fabian Women’s network fundraising dinner in London.
House of Commons
- 2.30pm Communities and local government questions
- Emergency debate on the scheduling of parliamentary business
- Motion on the use of the chamber by the United Kingdom youth parliament (Andrea Leadsom)
- Debate on the abuse and intimidation of candidates and the public during the general election campaign (Theresa May)
- Adjournment debate on acid attacks (Stephen Timms)
House of Lords
- 2.30pm Oral questions on local authority action plans for children in need; lifting the fox hunting ban; issues raised by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and child and adolescent mental health.
- Debate on a report from the European Union committee: Brexit: UK-EU movement of people (Baroness Prashar)
- Debate on a report from the Economic Affairs Committee: The Price of Power: Reforming the Electricity Market (Lord Hollick)
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@MattChorley
