London Playbook: Roaming Rishi — Taxing problems — Food glorious food

 

London Playbook: Roaming Rishi — Taxing problems — Food glorious food

BY ROSA PRINCE

MAY 16, 2023 8:10 AM CET

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/roaming-rishi-taxing-problems-food-glorious-food/

 

London Playbook

By ROSA PRINCE

 

Good Tuesday morning. This is Rosa Prince — I’m making a rare Wednesday appearance in your inbox tomorrow too.

 

DRIVING THE DAY

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Rishi Sunak pays a flying visit to Iceland later today, where he will deliver a speech at the Council of Europe summit and hold bilaterals with fellow world leaders. It’s only the fourth gathering of the 46-member organization since it was established in the wake of World War II to protect democracy, human rights and the rule of law. His visit is something of a warm-up for the G7 in Japan, where the PM heads Wednesday.

 

What Rishi wants to talk about: In a word, migration. Since Brexit brought a close to regular meetings between British prime ministers and EU leaders, non-EU, pan-European gathering such as the Council of Europe and the European Political Community (which meets in Moldova at the start of next month) have provided an invaluable opportunity for the U.K. to make the case for greater cooperation in tackling migration.

 

Stop the boats: Adopting the language of the Council, Sunak will argue that preventing illegal migration aids human rights, because doing so stamps out criminal gangs who exploit the most vulnerable and undermine fair asylum frameworks. He will say: “It is very clear that our current international system is not working, and our communities and the world’s most vulnerable people are paying the price.”

 

Rule 39: While in Reykjavik, the PM is due to have a bilateral with European Court of Human Rights President Síofra O’Leary in which he will argue for reform of Rule 39 — that’s the regulation European judges have used to stop deportations to Rwanda, undermining the government’s flagship immigration scheme. He is expected to make the case for reform as a means of stopping Britain’s withdrawal from the court’s jurisdiction, something some on his backbenches are pushing for. The Times has more.

 

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RUSSIA ACTION: Sunak is also expected to join other members of the group to challenge Russia over its war on Ukraine. The Council expelled Russia as a member the day after the Ukraine invasion began, and now the PM will sign the U.K. up to a Register of Damages which will record and document evidence of damage, loss and injury caused by Russian aggression. Fresh from his surprise visit to Sunak at Chequers on Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will appear at the summit by videolink.

 

More on that: Zelenskyy’s European tour to drum up military support was perfectly timed to tee up world leaders to discuss his country’s plight at both the summit and the G7, which kicks off in Hiroshima on Friday. My colleagues Cristina Gallardo and Clea Caulcutt say his diplomatic blitz of European capitals was designed to make the case for fighter jets to be sent to Kyiv. And, they write, his mission seemed to pay off.

 

Next stop Tokyo: After Reykjavik, Sunak heads back to London to pick up the traveling press pack (unusually he is not bringing journalists with him to Iceland) before heading to Tokyo Wednesday, where he will announce a new U.K.-Japan collaboration program in defense and technology and host a reception for business leaders. And yes, that means new Deputy PM Oliver Dowden has his first PMQs clash with Angela Rayner on Wednesday.

 

TORY MALAISE

40P PAIN: It’s perhaps no bad thing the PM is leaving the country; because today’s Times splash is certain to make his MPs very unhappy indeed. The paper reports on IFS number crunching which suggests millions of middle earners, including “teachers, nurses and electricians,” will be dragged into paying the 40p rate of tax as a result of the continuing freeze on thresholds. The IFS finds that nearly 11 percent more employees will be paying the 40p rate by 2027, a figure likely to further fuel Tory backbench calls for tax cuts which surfaced following the party’s poor local election results.

 

Simon says: Indeed, former Housing Secretary Simon Clarke, who is fast becoming an increasingly influential figure on the right, tells the Times: “We need to cut spending and taxes to ease the pressure on family finances.”

 

NAT CON DAY 2: The IFS figures ain’t gonna go down well at the Emmanuel Center, where right-wingers will gather for day two of the festival of free love that is the National Conservative Conference. First up at 9 a.m. is Suella Braverman’s pal John Hayes followed by Tory peer Dan Hannan, both of whom would be expected to add their voices to the clarion call for lower taxes.

 

Hayes harrumphs: Following chatter in recent days about a Cabinet split over the impact of immigration on the economy (with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said to have clashed with Braverman over student visas and levels of legal migration), Hayes told TalkTV last night: “You can’t grow your population at the size of several cities without breaking up the U.K.’s economy and society.”

 

GOVE GRILLING: This afternoon it’s Michael Gove’s turn to walk blinking into the spotlight. Unlike his fellow Brexity big beasts, who have delivered speeches effectively setting out their leadership credentials, the leveling up secretary is going for the soft option of a fireside chat. But given his interrogator is the Telegraph’s Madeleine Grant, the chat may not be so soft. He’s up at 2 p.m.

 

Dear Keir: Meanwhile, Gove is so up in arms at the suggestion Labour would allow resident EU citizens to vote in U.K. elections he has written to the opposition leader demanding “Why do you think it’s right to downgrade the ultimate privilege of British citizenship — the right to vote in a general election?” The Mail’s Martin Beckford has got a copy of the letter, which the paper splashes on.

 

DAY 1 RECAP: Back with the Nat Cons, Suella Braverman’s electric, protest-interrupted speech on day one of the conference continues to reverberate. The Guardian splashes on calls from (unnamed) Tory MPs for the home secretary to pipe down and support the PM, while the Express has a more favorable write-up on its front page.

 

Not buying it: PolHome’s Adam Payne picks up some spicy industry reaction, including the NFU’s Tom Bradshaw, who said Braverman’s call for Brits to be trained to become fruit pickers showed “she doesn’t have an understanding at all of the industry she is talking about,” and meat industry chief Nick Allen, who said it would take “decades” for the butchery sector to stop being reliant on foreign workers.

 

Fun with the critics: It all added up to plenty of fodder for the sketch-writers. The Critic’s Rob Hutton was confused by the conference’s desire for more babies and fewer immigrants; in the Times, Quentin Letts waspishly observed: “you’d have thought the fashion-conscious Cameroons never existed.” And John Crace in the Guardian wrote: “There were two brief interruptions for Extinction Rebellion protests which Braverman declared to be auditions for the shadow cabinet. Never a truer word and all that. This wasn’t so much a speech as a leadership bid for a party in opposition.”

 

CHILDCARE WARS: Children’s Minister Claire Coutinho hit back at Jacob Rees-Mogg’s claim in his day one NatCon speech that extending free childcare was “fundamentally anti-Conservative.” She told HuffPost’s Sophia Sleigh the plans set out in the budget in March will make it easier to have a family.

 

Gerrymandering: Rees-Mogg’s suggestion that the government’s controversial voter ID laws were deliberate “gerrymandering” is widely picked up. Here’s Sky’s take. London Mayor Sadiq Khan told the Mirror Labour should ditch the policy if it forms the next government.

 

DRESSING DOWN: U.S. fashionista Derek Guy seems to have randomly stumbled across a video of GB News’ Darren Grimes outside the Nat Con conference and instead of backing away slowly, produced a Twitter thread critiquing his outfit. Go for a jacket with a roomier chest and extended shoulder next time, is the advice for Dazza.

 

VIEW FROM THE OTHER PLACE: Tory peer and former Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan told TalkTV the whole Nat Con jamboree was a  “slap in the face” for Conservative councillors who lost their seats on May 4, adding: “I really wonder which universe they’re living in!”

 

FARAGE: BREXIT HAS FAILED. No, really. That’s Nigel’s view. Confronted with a load of grim economic stats on Newsnight, the architect of Brexit said: “Brexit has failed.”

 

MORE BAD NEWS HERE: Potentially. The latest ONS labor market figures pop up here round about now.

 

POLL ALERT: Here’s something to give Sunak a little cheer: new polling by More in Common puts the Conservatives up 1 on 31 percent, with Labour down 2 on 42 percent. Apparently confirming that local election Lib Dem surge, Ed Davy’s party is up 3 points on 13 percent. More in Common’s Luke Tryl said: “After a tricky few weeks this poll will bring some relief to the Conservatives. But we remain very clearly in Labour landslide territory.” Deltapoll has similar findings. Keep an eye on POLITICO’s Poll of Polls for the aggregate view.

 

 

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

PARTY ON: Rishi Sunak was on his most charming form as he schmoozed MPs at Monday night’s Downing Street Rose Garden party in honor of the king’s coronation. Playbook’s mole reckons about two-thirds of the parliamentary party showed up to munch on giant pork pies and down pints of Welsh beer. For a couple of hours, at least, the grumbling which has set in since the rubbish local election results seemed to have been paused.

 

Charm offensive: After a few cracks at what he described as Keir Starmer’s lack of policies, Sunak told his crew: “What we have to do is deliver, deliver, deliver. That’s what the public expect of us, and that is what we have to achieve. We have got to up the pace, and we will.” There was also the obligatory Penny Mordaunt sword joke, with the PM joking he would junk his Peloton in favor of her workout regime. He concluded: “Now, my commitment to delivery is such that I have had crates of food and drink delivered. So, let’s all raise a glass and say God save the king!”

 

Ah, the food: The Kitson’s pork pies (with a choice of classic pork, pork and apple, pork and black pudding), from Sunak’s Richmond constituency, got star billing, along with coronation quiche followed by cupcakes and mini doughnuts. The ale was from Montgomeryshire. One guest told Playbook: “I overheard multiple MPs commenting on how good the spread was and how it was the best they had seen in Downing Street.” Another guest reported that Sunak’s dog Nova was “running around snaffling bits of pork pie.” (Sorry, Playbook is a cat person.)

 

More food: Food remains on the menu at No. 10. today, as Sunak hosts a Farm to Fork Summit. Jeremy Clarkson is among the farmers, food suppliers and retailers billed to attend, as the PM sets out more support for farmers.

 

No chlorinated chicken here: The Telegraph reports that Sunak has written to farmers promising to put them first in future trade deals, a pledge they interpret as a dig at his predecessor Liz Truss. He writes: “There will be no chlorine-washed chicken and no hormone-treated beef on the U.K. market. Not now, not ever.”

 

Farming in crisis: The summit comes as a report by NatWest with WWF-UK and the NFU calls on the government to increase support for farmers as they suffer a “perfect storm” of record cost rises, post-pandemic supply chain disruption, fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the effects of climate change.

 

MAYORAL RACE HOTS UP

CANDIDATE KLAXON: Daniel Korski, tech hedgie and former adviser to David Cameron, today throws his hat into the ring in the race to become the Conservative candidate to take on Sadiq Khan in the London mayoral election. Korski, who helped Tom Tugendhat’s leadership campaign last summer, previously ran afoul of the Daily Mail after lobbying then-Mayor Boris Johnson on behalf of Uber. He now runs PUBLIC, a firm which helps connect tech startups with government.

 

All to play for: In a field as packed as the start of the Grand National, although hopefully not as deadly, Korski will attract buzz in business and tech circles. He’s already picked up some high-profile backers, including the chairs of the defense committee, Tobias Ellwood, and foreign affairs committee, Alicia Kearns. Kearns told Playbook: “Daniel would bring the bold, pragmatic and creative thinking our capital city deserves.” Korski sets out his vision in an op-ed for the Telegraph.

 

Recap: Nominations for the contest close on May 24, before a shortlisting committee holds a series of interviews to whittle the candidates down to two or three. Hustings take place from June 12 to July 3, with voting beginning the following day and running until the 18th. The successful candidate is announced on July 19.

 

Still in the running toward becoming: Former Boris Johnson adviser seems to be the front-runner, while London Minister Paul Scully, expected to launch his own bid on Thursday, is also in with a good shot. The race could yet blow wide open if popular Tory lefties Justine Greening or Rory Stewart enter the fray. Other declared candidates so far are London Assembly members Andrew Boff and Nick Rogers.

 

SORRY, SADIQ: After Khan made a speech Monday repeating his call to be granted powers to introduce a rent freeze, the FT hears Keir Starmer has no intention of running with this particular, shall we say, somewhat Corbyn-y hare.

 

LABOUR LAND

WE READ SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO: My colleague Dan Bloom has been trawling through a full copy of Labour’s 86-page draft National Policy Forum document. While LabourList — which got the scoop last Thursday — has already expertly summed it up, there are a few more observations …

 

On the fence: Vague wording on electoral reform — which Lib Dems could push for if Labour fell short of a majority — leaves the door conspicuously open. Rather than opposing reform, the draft says there are “flaws” in the status quo but “no consensus for a new system,” so any change “must be carefully thought-through.”

 

Off the fence: Compare that to “Labour will not support a new referendum on Scottish independence” — which would be the main demand of the SNP.

 

Off script: “Votes at 16” is set out explicitly (and called “urgent”) in the NPF document, but two other recent big stories — votes for EU citizens and the “right to switch off” for workers — are not. The right to switch off was actually in Angela Rayner’s New Deal for Working People, which the NPF document now hails as the “cornerstone of our legislative programme.” And giving EU citizens the vote was in … err … Starmer’s now-infamous “10 pledges” in 2020. 

 

But but but … The NPF paper has not yet been approved — that will happen at either a July away-day in Nottingham or the October party conference in Liverpool. Even then, many of the policies might not end up in the manifesto.

 

Wes ses: Interviewed by Labour List, Wes Streeting says the NPF policy program shows “no-one can say we don’t have any policy or ideas,” but he warns that Labour is “not going to be able to do everything we want in the first term,” and the party should “under-promise and over-deliver.”