You’ve got to say, it’s a great title: Her Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States. The current occupant, Sir Kim Darroch, is due to step down next January but the length of his tenure is under question after the Mail on Sunday’s leak of his private diplomatic telegrams about the Trump regime.
Donald Trump’s remarks to reporters last night actually confirmed Darroch’s take that the President was diplomatically inept. Rising to the bait, he declared: “The ambassador has not served the UK well, I can tell you that. We are not big fans of that man. I can say things about him, but I won’t bother.”
It’s worth pointing out that these telegrams are often based not on specific intelligence but on a broad brush analysis by the diplomat in question, informed by local meetings, gossip and contacts. The most interesting bits were not the ‘knife fights’ in the White House but the suggestion that Trump had not told the truth about the cancelled missile strike on Iran, as well as references to “active collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence.
Yet it’s not the content, which reads like so much assertion and guesswork, but the fact that these memos were leaked (to pro-Brexit journalist Isabel Oakeshott) that is of course the real point of interest. The chatter in Whitehall for some months has been that current cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill (seen as the enemy by some Brexiteers) had had his eye on the Washington job. Could this be a cunning plan by a Boris Johnson supporter to kill two birds with one stone and instead get a fresh face installed?
International trade secretary Liam Fox told Today that the leak was clearly “malicious”, as well as ”unprofessional, unethical and unpatriotic”. Fox said that when he meets Ivanka Trump in coming days in Washington, “I will be apologising for the fact that either our civil service or elements of our political class have not lived up to the expectations that either we have or the United States has about their behaviour.” The smart money is on the ‘political class’, either a special adviser or minister, being responsible.
Foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat tweeted the leak amounted to ‘treason’ and should be investigated by the police. But unlike the Sedwill leak inquiry into Huawei, it may be more difficult for the probe into this latest breach of confidentiality to find a culprit. Nigel Farage, who Trump would surely prefer as Our Man In Washington, humblebragged this morning that he was not ‘the right man’ for the job.
Of course, in a strange way the leak may make it more likely that Darroch will remain in post to next January, as a prime minister Johnson would be accused of being complicit if he announced an early new replacement. He has a Telegraph hustings tonight, let’s see if he gives a guarantee that Darroch should remain in post until his planned departure date. Jeremy Hunt is sure to face a Commons session on it all, either through an Oral Statement or an urgent question.
Labour is facing a huge week of its own, with a multiple pile-up of political events: union general secretaries meeting to discuss a second Brexit referendum (today), a PLP meeting and the MP reselection deadline (both tonight), the NEC disputes committee decision on Chris Williamson (tomorrow) and the Panorama programme on anti-Semitism (Wednesday).
The Sunday Times yesterday reported the latest state of internal division. Diane Abbott reportedly complained to friends about unelected officials Karie Murphy and Seumas Milne and how they are ’keeping him [Corbyn] captive” on issues like Brexit. Party staff have kicked back too at chief of staff Murphy’s management style. Last week Murphy asked for a month of leave to care for her dying mother but given that she passed away on Friday, it’s unclear when she will return.
Amid the turmoil, perhaps the most important message to MPs came from PLP chairman John Cryer, who gave a rare interview to Radio 4’s Westminster Hour last night. “Across the party, whether you’re elected or not elected, you’ve got to have a tolerance for people with different views,” Cryer said. With Murphy seen as intolerant of any internal dissent, MPs will see that as a plea to Corbyn to use his personal brand of consensus-building to finally sort out Brexit.
Cryer is himself a leftwing Eurosceptic, just like Corbyn. He privately loathes the way some People’s Vote MPs talk about Leave voters as racist or ignorant. But Cryer now says: “I’d rather see us go for a second referendum rather than just heading out of the exit on the basis of no deal. I think we’re moving onto a territory where we’re going to end up supporting a second referendum as a point of policy and principle.”
Meanwhile, this post from Simon Fanshawe is being shared by Labour MPs. The writer, comedian and gay rights campaigner has quit the party after 40 years of membership. His reasons will be familiar to others who’ve done the same.
There’s precious little legislation left in this zombie parliament under a lame duck PM, but the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill starts its second reading in the Commons today and it’s being used for a range of amendments on everything from stopping no-deal to same sex marriage.
Dominic Grieve has a plan to use the bill to tack on an amendment forcing the Commons to meet before any no-deal exit. It’s in effect a device to stop parliament from being prorogued. Grieve told Radio 5 Live yesterday just why he was doing it, and in the process had a huge swipe at Boris Johnson: “He has a long track record of being untrustworthy in many of his dealings with other people.” That sounded like a hint at the Tory leadership favourite’s private life as well as his public policy positions.
It’s up to Speaker Bercow to select amendments and he may (as with last week) find this Grieve ruse a bit too off the point. However, given his past commitment to gay rights and reproductive rights, Bercow may well find time for the respective amendments from Conor McGinn on same sex marriage and from Diana Johnson on a review of Northern Ireland’s abortion laws.
Check out the latest Spiderwall craze in China
It didn’t get much attention but the decision last week by Plaid Cymru and the Greens not to stand in the Brecon by-election could well have secured the victory of the Lib Dems on August 1. Former Plaid leader Dafydd Wigley has blogged on how his party first helped the Lib Dems win the 1985 Brecon by-election in return for a non-aggression pact in other parts of Wales. He hints it could be “particularly relevant if there is an autumn election”.
Vince Cable has written a piece for Politico too this morning, where he states “the alliance we and our partners formed for the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election should become a blueprint not just for politicians, but for voters too.” With the Lib Dems promised a ‘flood of cash’ from donors if they can pull off a Remain alliance, it’s one of life’s ironies that a party that until recently was hammered for its coalition with the Tories is once more making capital out of its ability to work with other parties.
If there is a snap election this autumn, there is a real danger that Boris Johnson could cost the Tories a swath of Scottish Westminster seats. Worse still in the eyes of Conservative unionists, he could offer a huge boost to the independence movement. Our Rachel Wearmouth spent the past few days north of the border talking to party insiders, MSPs and voters about the Boris Effect. Read her piece HERE.
COMMONS PEOPLE
This week’s Commons People podcast is out. ConservativeHome’s Paul Goodman and the Spectator’s Katy Balls join us to chat through Hunt’s foxhunting gaffe (and why it shows a prospective PM has to think nimbly about a whole range of issues), Johnson’s leadership style and Corbyn’s spat with the civil service. Click HERE to listen on Audioboom and below on iTunes.
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