You always know when Boris Johnson is relaxing into a campaign when he repeats his gag-lines. Last night he was unafraid to trot out a tortured joke ridiculing claims of a shortage of Mars Bars in a no-deal Brexit. “Where there’s a will, there’s a whey,” he said. The audience in the hustings in Bournemouth loved it, even more than Tory peers at the Lords hustings just a day earlier.
The Tory leadership front runner certainly had a smile on his face yesterday as he glad-handed local party members and became the perfect subject for the pack of photographers following his every move: Johnson in front of a union-jacked ship hanger (recreating a photo-op once done by Margaret Thatcher), Johnson steering a ferry, Johnson posing on a boat’s innards. It’s like his ice-cream licking 2016 Vote Leave tour of the nation all over again.
I’ve done an in-depth piece on Johnson HERE, focusing on how he’s tackling the twin task he now faces: winning the final stage of the Tory leadership, while also preparing his Downing Street team. Those are difficult horses to ride at the same time, not least as he is allergic to offering jobs to anyone because of fears that it smacks of ‘measuring the curtains’ for No.10. But both he and Jeremy Hunt have meetings next week with Sir Mark Sedwill to talk about how the civil service and smooth their ‘transition’ into government.
Some insiders concede the move from ‘Phase 1’ of the campaign (winning over MPs) to ‘Phase 2’ (winning over members) was mishandled, even aside from the Carrie Symonds story. Now, however Johnson is enjoying being on the stump. And the strategy in many ways is similar, getting him face-time with as many of the selectorate as possible, rather than appearing on the media (though he has done much more).
‘Phase 3’ is another task entirely, and is largely being managed by a group of trusted advisers led by Sir Edward Lister, his former key lieutenant from his Mayor of London days. Lister is being lined up to become Johnson’s chief of staff in No.10, or at least do the job to get through the crucial first 100 days before handing over to a younger face. A clutch of MPs with direct experience of how Downing Street and the Cabinet Office works (Matt Hancock, Grant Shapps and Oliver Dowden among them) are sorting the transition with Lister.
Yet as one long-standing ally tells me, the key thing about Johnson’s decision to draw on the expertise of his City Hall staff is not merely to surround himself with people he trusts. It’s all about his model of leadership through delegation, with tough demands on those expected to deliver. “He will absorb the facts, set the tone and direction and expect you to get on with it,” they say. “And God, you will know if you are not doing it.”
Of course, the other man who is meant to have his sights on No.10 is Jeremy Corbyn. But he has a huge problem of his own right now with widespread anger at the decision to lift the suspension of Labour MP Chris Williamson. The backlash against the move snowballed rapidly yesterday, with a letter from 121 MPs and peers condemning it, a letter from party staff saying they would feel unsafe if Williamson was allowed back, and Tom Watson demanding the whip be withdrawn.
Last night, there was an even more extraordinary development. Keith Vaz - whose vote on the three-member panel judging Williamson proved pivotal - wrote to party general secretary Jennie Formby to call for the panel to be reconstituted and its rulings reconsidered, PoliticsHome reported. Vaz, who is said to have raised in the meeting the new tight deadline for reselecting MPs, suggests a legal challenge could be mounted unless a review takes place.
Will that appeal to legal recourse be enough to make Jeremy Corbyn step into a process he yesterday insisted was independent? After all it’s perfectly possible that his long-standing friend Williamson will launch his own legal action if the decision is rescinded and he’s referred to the NCC disciplinary body.
What has infuriated many in the leader’s office is the hapless way the panel had to be delayed and its membership changed. The panel had to be delayed until Wednesday, but Momentum founder Jon Lansman had to be in Cornwall for a family engagement and was replaced by Vaz. Lansman last night tweeted Williamson ‘has to go!’ Some Left figures on the NEC are so furious with Webbe that they are considering a motion of no confidence in her, as well as a plan to remove her as chair of disputes.
But that’s all for another day. Right now, Corbyn has a huge decision to make: try and sit out the backlash or tear up his own stance that he never interferes with disciplinary cases. As with his decision to delay an announcement on a second referendum, there are ominous signs that the Left is beginning to feel very uneasy about the way things are being handled. And don’t forget, these are just decisions about internal party affairs that are causing him huge problems. But they are small fry compared to the massive judgement calls of being prime minister.
Theresa May has a bilateral meeting with Vladimir Putin out in Japan during the G20 summit and she’s told the travelling press pack that she will raise the Salisbury poisoning case and demand to bring the suspected murderers to justice.
For his part, Putin has given an interview to the FT in which he sounds callously dismissive of the whole thing. “The average person listens and says ‘who are these Skripals?’ Treason is the gravest crime possible and traitors must be punished. I am not saying that the Salisbury incident is the way to do it … but traitors must be punished.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Putin claims that Western liberalism has become ‘obsolete’, praises the rise of nationalist populism across Europe, attacks multiculturalism and diversity. It’s one way to try to get the world’s attention, and perhaps a mark of Putin’s desperate not to be written out of the global story. The main event at the G20 will be Trump and Chinese president Xi sitting down to talk about their on-off trade war.
Watch the excruciating moment when Lib Dem leadership contender Ed Davey recalled how he was once tapped up by MI6: “I never became Double-O-Davey”. It sounded less James Bond and more a joke about his Irish roots. One audience member looked like she nearly barfed.
The Times’ new recruit Steve Swinford has hit the ground running this week and today he reveals that Boris Johnson is preparing an emergency budget for a no-deal Brexit, including aggressive tax cuts, an overhaul of stamp duty and an assault on regulation. But there’s a sub-plot going on in Treasury matters too. Sajid Javid, Matt Hancock and Liz Truss all have their eye on the job of Chancellor. The Times says Javid was offered the post over the weekend, but the others are proving their loyalty with attacks on Hunt on issues such as the NHS and Brexit.
Last night, Johnson again refused to rule out prorogueing parliament to get no-deal through. And the Daily Mail splashes on documentary footage of him calling the French ‘turds’ over Brexit. None of which will necessarily lose him votes with the rank and file membership.
The big news over the pond last night was the second Democratic Presidential contender debate. Kamala Harris (one of the few to emerge with credit from the Kavanaugh hearings) laid into front-runner Joe Biden for his support for segregationist politicians - and for his opposition to the ‘busing’ of black children into white areas. Watch the electrifying moment when Harris reveals that she was one of those children.
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