We have now reached more than 1000 subscribers to the newsletter, so thanks to each and every one of you for signing up and showing your support.
Keir Starmer seems to have cemented his spot in the newsletter these days so there's more on his chat this week, plus someone who we thought had ditched the Tories may one day return *cue spooky music*.
‘It’s un-British to not back my immigration plan’
That was the message from Keir Starmer this week, as the Labour leader once again made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Starmer insisted that anyone who does not agree with his immigration proposals is “un-British”, as he laid out plans in The Sun – yes, that Labour-friendly publication – to stop small boat crossings and send those who arrive illegally back to the EU.
He said that, if he becomes UK prime minister, he will seek an EU-wide returns agreement for asylum seekers who come to the UK and treat those who smuggle people across the channel in small boats “on par” with terrorists.
It came in the same week he refused to say whether he would commit to the pension triple lock if he got the keys to Number 10.
Although the Tories have said they are committed to the policy for now - though there has been no such promise beyond the next General Election - there is growing uncertainty as to whether they can continue to afford it and officials are considering tweaks to save cash by changing the way the link to average earnings works.
It really means whether you look to the Tories or Labour, people have no solid answers on what’s going to happen to their pension, hence why Stephen Flynn put to Rishi Sunak that they were two sides of the same coin during Prime Minister’s Questions this week.
But it’s all okay for Sir Keir because he got praise from the one and only Tony Blair this week for “rescuing” the party, something Mhairi Black claims he’s been seeking from day one of his leadership.
I’m not a Tory, but maybe I’m a Scottish Tory …
Former Tory minister Rory Stewart – who quit the party four years ago – has hinted that he may consider joining Holyrood in the future, arguing that Scottish Conservatism “has more in common with the way I view the world”.
He branded the idea of becoming an MSP “very attractive” ahead of the publication of his new memoir, which is now on sale.
He served as international development secretary under Theresa May and took part in the 2019 leadership contest, but resigned from his ministerial post following his defeat as he felt he could not serve under Boris Johnson.
On joining Holyrood he said: “I think for somebody like me who is about the liberal centre, and obviously it would be a liberal Unionist centre in Scotland, I can see a real point to that, yes. And maybe that is something to think about in the long run."
He also shared his thoughts on a Scottish independence referendum, insisting that David Cameron was “lucky” to win and, had it been held two years later, he may have lost.
However, he didn’t seem to entertain that now was the right time for another one, citing Labour gaining “a bit more momentum”.
AOB
- Speaking of Stewart, his memoir Politics On The Edge includes a bemusing passage about a meeting with former Tory aide Steve Hilton – who was David Cameron’s director of strategy for two years. Apparently, he once stared at a map on the floor in Number 10 and exclaimed: “F*** me, look how big Scotland is. That is just f****** mad, man”. He also suggested he’d like to “blow up the Foreign Office” and get rid of all its ambassadors.
- Ex-chancellor George Osborne flat out denied that he had “cut people to the quick” during his tenure in a Good Morning Britain interview, insisting the gap between rich and poor did not get bigger on his watch. The ex-Tory MP was asked if he ever looked back on various austerity measures that he brought in, such as a two-year pay freeze for public sector workers and if he felt he had left people high and dry, but he simply said “no” and used the 2008 financial crash to justify his actions.
