Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #WaughOnPolitics

@paulwaugh

.@RishiSunak has shown more statesmanship on Northern Ireland than @BorisJohnson ever did.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox

inews.co.uk/opinion/rishi-…

The Good Friday Agreement anniversary was marked in style this week - but next week there's a more telling anniversary for @BorisJohnson.

It will be 25 years since he was catapulted to national attention by 'Have I Got News For You'.
Go figure.

inews.co.uk/opinion/rishi-…

Speaking of which, @campbellclaret recalled this week that most journalists were hoping the peace talks went well back in 1998...apart from 'the guy with the blond hair from the Daily Telegraph'.

Read 4 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

As @BorisJohnson prepares for his grilling, @PaulGoodmanCH tells @BBCr4today Tory member opinion suggests "maybe his time has gone".

His latest @ConHome poll features in the latest #WaughOnPolitics
inews.co.uk/opinion/boris-…

That polling may reflect the mood among Tory MPs, and the wider public.

Support for Johnson seems to be deep but narrow.

Johnson's defence dossier showed a marked amount of focus, hard work and attention to detail.

Some Tory MPs just wish he'd showed those qualities in Government.

Read 7 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Will Rishi Sunak dare to throw cold water on Jacob Rees-Mogg's Brexit bonfire of worker rights?

The latest #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox

inews.co.uk/opinion/rishi-…

The Govt's own independent Regulatory Policy Committee found the impact assessment of the Bill was "not fit for purpose", especially the impact on small
and micro businesses.
gov.uk/government/pub…

Chatter among MPs tonight is that Govt is so worried about the backlash from animal welfare, nature and other campaign groups that it may exempt environmental laws from the 'bonfire'.

Read 4 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Speaker Hoyle is so furious with @michaelgove for not providing advance copies of his full Cumbria coal statement that he's suspended the Commons.

I'm told Speaker gave Gove "a bollocking" behind the Chair. Gove insisted it wasn’t a ministerial code breach but source says clerks told him in no uncertain terms that it is. Gove had prepped a short 2 min speech (for an Urgent Q) + ad libbed to turn it into a statement

Gove has been ordered to get a transcript of his ad-libbed statement photocopied so all MPs can read it properly. Hence the delay.

All stems from Govt switching Urgent Q at last min to statement. Under min code, advance copy shd be given to Spkr + Oppstn (ie @lisanandy)

Read 7 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Mark Carney tells @BBCr4today that Brexit is a key reason for interest rates having to go up.
Says 2016 vote devalued sterling, hit growth and productivity + adds he was right in his warnings.

Also defends decision not to use purchasing parity measure, saying market measure much more important.
Says he and @jdportes disagree.

Meanwhile, yesterday's interest rate rise (the biggest since 1989) revives Qs about the Bank of England itself.

Should it take more account of growth and jobs, not just inflation?
A review of its remit is long overdue.

inews.co.uk/opinion/liz-tr…

Read 5 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

On whether Liz Truss can turn the ship around and save her premiership, @Simon4NDorset tells @BBCr4today "there's about 12 hours to do it".

Funnily enough the naval analogy is in the latest.
The mutiny has started and the captain hasn't long left.
#WaughOnPolitics

inews.co.uk/opinion/pmqs-p…

One MP close to the action last night ridiculed Jacob Rees-Mogg's late attempt to tell rebel MPs fracking was no longer a confidence motion.
"It's like he was getting fucked and then shouting he wanted his virginity back. As a good Catholic, he should know that's not possible."

Read 12 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

As Shapps steps up, Liz Truss is more than ever a prisoner of her Cabinet - not the leader of it.

After an extraordinary day, tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox

inews.co.uk/opinion/pmqs-p…

'The real problem is that Truss has fracked her party as much as she’s fracked the country.'

inews.co.uk/opinion/pmqs-p…

Tory MP Charles Walker: "I think it is a shambles and a disgrace.…All those people that put Liz Truss in No.10, I hope it was worth it for the ministerial red box...I’ve had enough of talentless people putting their tick in the right box.”

Read 9 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Jeremy Hunt is the now the Govt's ventriloquist and Liz Truss is his dummy.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox.

inews.co.uk/opinion/liz-tr…

Truss does what looks like a hostage video with @ChrisMasonBBC.
That moment when she pauses after being asked whether she will lead the Tories into the next election...

No10 will be delighted to lead the news with this Truss interview...when the real story of today is her total silence in the Commons.

Read 8 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Therese Coffey's 'Plan for Patients' fails to heal the gaping wound of NHS staff shortages.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox

inews.co.uk/opinion/theres…

Includes this little-noticed but big NHS announcement from yesterday: 'Continuity of Carer', a national plan to allow women to see the same midwifery team throughout their pregnancy, has been paused.
Why? Because of a lack of safe staffing levels.

Why is CoC a good thing? The NHS: "It is a model of care provision that that is evidence-based. It can improve the outcomes for most women and babies and especially women of Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity and those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods".

Read 4 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Former Treasury minister and economist Jim O'Neill can't hide his contempt + ridicule of @trussliz regional pay idea. Tells @BBCr4today it stems from tax cuts plan: "one crazy idea results in another one".

The latest #WaughOnPolitics:
inews.co.uk/opinion/liz-tr…

"Laughable really...Given that the guy that she's still quite happy to align herself with, his signature policy was supposed to be levelling up, the optics of that...dear, dear, dear.. I shouldn't laugh because it's so important."

.@montie: "I don't think it was Liz Truss’s finest hour" and says it lays bare her policy making processes "aren't as they should be".
But adds she moved quickly to kill the idea + says her 34% YouGov/Times lead looks "unassailable".

Read 5 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Rishi Sunak's plan to charge NHS patients £10 for missed appointments feels even more desperate than his tax cuts.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox

inews.co.uk/opinion/rishi-…

Today @theresecoffey told @LBC: "This idea has been rolling around for a long time and I think there’s a reason why it hasn’t been brought into place in the past: I’m not sure many doctors would want to do that, quite candidly.”

The irony is that @trussliz once co-authored a 2009 think tank report 'Back To Black' that called for *everyone* to be charged to see a GP.

I was passed a copy of that report earlier this year. Now she's on course to be PM, well worth a read:

inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

Read 4 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

After @trussliz is reminded by @hilarybennmp that she voted Remain, she replies:
The reason I'm proposing this bill "is because I'm a patriot and I'm a democrat".

NI Cttee chairman
@Simon4NDorset points our that sounded like those who oppose her are not patriots

Theresa May is up for this. Clearly trying to catch the Dep Speaker's eye.
Feels like she might put down a marker and warn @trussliz she may oppose this NIreland Protocol Bill

What's going to irritate May is that both @BrandonLewis and @trussliz have left the chamber.

Read 12 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Fake threats to ditch the ECHR risk leaving @BorisJohnson and @pritipatel looking both impotent and incompetent.

The downside of a tactic that's more bluff than tough.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox

inews.co.uk/opinion/ditch-…

Meanwhile, the independent adviser on sleaze -
Lord Geidt - has QUIT

Partygate is back folks

gov.uk/government/new…

🚨If even an Establishment, bend-over-backwards-to-avoid-conflict figure like Geidt has had enough of the PM, something is seriously up.
💥That's not one but TWO sleazebusters who have now had enough of @BorisJohnson (Alex Allan quit over PM not taking his advice on Priti Patel).

Read 8 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Breaking: 148 Tory MPs voted that they have no confidence in @BorisJohnson
211 voted that they do.

Very damaging result for the PM, worse than Theresa May

.@nadhimzahawi tells @SkyNews the PM won 'handsomely'. I'm not making this up.

Read 8 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Lee Anderson is wrong about foodbanks - but it's @RishiSunak and @BorisJohnson who have the power to tackle hunger in the UK.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox
inews.co.uk/opinion/tory-m…

In 2014, @Feeding_Britain had 70 recommendations on how to tackle hunger, backed by the brilliant @BootstrapCook.

But it took the pandemic for the govt to agree 2 key asks: raise Universal Credit and halt benefit sanctions.

Food bank queues fell as a result.

After the £20 Universal Credit uplift was withdrawn last October, food banks saw a sharp rise in demand.

Read 8 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

.@RishiSunak's warning of a Tory windfall tax suggests he's listening to the public on the cost of living crisis.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics

inews.co.uk/opinion/dont-c…

“Few Chancellors make it to PM. And he just looks too awkward to be a leader,” one former minister said. “But Rishi could be remembered as the guy who kept the country going in the pandemic and then got us back in the black, with an income tax cut on top. Not a bad legacy.”

Another backbencher said Sunak had a chance at political redemption if he “stops all the naff Instagram stuff”.

Read 5 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Brexit is fuelling the cost of living crisis, but some Tory MPs think Rishi Sunak risks making it worse.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox
inews.co.uk/opinion/commen…

Includes this clash in the Lords today. City minister @JohnGlenUK told Lord Hannay: “The point is we have left the EU. I just wonder whether you are quite reconciled to that.” Hannay said that suggestion was "improper".

.@tnewtondunn challenges @BorisJohnson on why he's only now getting ministers to find more ways to tackle the cost of living.
PM says he'll look at parent-child ratios. But things like breakfast clubs have greater impact on school age kids.

inews.co.uk/opinion/commen…

Read 4 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

This latest @UKLabour leaflet is getting traction on the doorstep, according to Labour MPs (some low tax Tory MPs admit that too, tho they are v irritated by it)

It features in tonight's #WaughOnPolitics.

Tax attacks do work in elections, which is why @BorisJohnson ought to be worried.

And 'prices, what prices?' may be the 2020s equivalent of the 'crisis, what crisis?' of the 1970s.

inews.co.uk/opinion/tory-t…

Update: The website FullFact says that the Labour leaflet is based on unreliable assumptions and fails to include benefits changes.
Which is a handy reminder of something that many people forget...

fullfact.org/economy/labour…

Read 4 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

"It's not the crime, it's the cover up" has become such a hackneyed assessment of scandals since Watergate.

But on Partygate, it really IS the crimes, not the cover up, that matter more to many voters.

The latest #WaughOnPolitics:

inews.co.uk/opinion/voters…

Yes, voters do care about truth in politics. But on Partygate I suspect they're not interested in the minutiae of what @BorisJohnson said and when.

The most important fact is that he broke the laws he wrote and which he demanded others follow. Everything else is a detail.

That's why the Privileges Committee probe matters. Even if it finds he inadvertently misled Parliament, it keeps the focus on the law-breaking. And when multiple fines are confirmed, no amount of apologies/excuses will bury them.

Read 6 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

The row over @BorisJohnson's remarks about Ukraine and Brexit lays bare just how keen he is to win back lost Leave voters.

'No regrets' one No.10 source tells me.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox
inews.co.uk/opinion/compar…

Here's why the PM wants to go back to talking about Brexit:
📉the Tory Leave vote has DROPPED by 21% since 2019
📈Labour's Leave vote has gone UP by 10%.

(Figures via @UKandEU and Prof John Curtice)

Also, 'Remain' and 'Leave' identities are still amazingly strong nearly SIX years on.
Among referendum voters, the figures are even more stark: 69% held a Brexit identity at the end of 2021.

People identify more strongly as 'Remain'/'Leave' than they do as Lab/Tory voters

Read 6 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Will @RishiSunak prove next week the Tories are in touch with the cost of living crisis?

Poss options:

🚗fuel duty cut of 5p
🧑‍🏭NI threshold increase to avoid tax hike for many
💷higher benefits/pensions

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox

inews.co.uk/opinion/tory-m…

Includes this intel. Sunak privately told colleagues recently: “The public won’t blame us for the petrol rises, but they will blame us for the tax rises.”

But it feels like No.10 hv persuaded him since to cut fuel duty [as well as tweak NI thresholds].

inews.co.uk/opinion/tory-m…

One Tory MP: “He was bragging in the [Commons] tea room about his new home in California...Even some of us MPs are having to cut our cloth because of these massive energy bills, but he sometimes just sounds like an out of touch millionaire.”

inews.co.uk/opinion/tory-m…

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Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #WaughOnPolitics

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