Inside Politics: Labour leadership candidates scrabble for support

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Wow. And you thought a few days with the family at Christmas was difficult. What a showdown the royals have ahead of them, as the Queen, Charles, William and Harry sit down today to discuss the big split – with Meghan set to join them via conference call (let’s hope she gets the PIN number right; those things can be tricky). Boris Johnson has a bit of family drama to contend with, as Tory ministers air their grievances about the cabinet reshuffle and Whitehall shake-up which lie ahead. And Labour MPs, struggling to keep their in-fighting as polite as possible, have some highly awkward calls of their own to make. Leadership candidates are desperately trying to find the allies they need before today’s nomination deadline. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for in SW1 today:

Boris Johnson is due in Belfast on Monday to meet members of the power-sharing executive, following the restoration of devolved Northern Ireland institutions after three long years. His Brexit bill moves to the House of Lords, where it will face a tougher time than it did in the Commons. And contenders to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader will learn by 2.30pm today whether they have enough backing from fellow MPs to stay in the contest. While Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips have gathered the 22 signatures needed, Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis are still scrambling for names.

Daily briefing

DONKEY WORK: Let’s start with the really big news. Rebecca Long-Bailey has confirmed her surname is hyphenated, but she’s “not bothered” whether people actually hyphenate it or not. She may have a laissez-faire attitude to punctuation, but the Labour leadership hopeful is more exacting on constitutional reform: she wants to scrap the House of Lords. Her rival Jess Phillips wants a national childcare service offering Scandinavian-style care. Keir Starmer, meanwhile, simply wants Labour people stop “trashing” Jeremy Corbyn and the Blair-Brown governments. The frontrunner revealed over the weekend that his parents rescue old donkeys. Emily Thornberry, still only on 10 nominations, has vowed not to be put out to pasture. Claiming she comes from a long line of “tough old birds”, Thornberry said she would “get across the line”. With more than 50 MPs yet to nominate, it’s still possible for Clive Lewis to get over the line too. But with only four endorsements, he has a lot of work to do before 2.30pm.

KING COBRA: Tony Blair famously introduced “sofa government” of informal chats with cabinet members. It looks like Dominic Cummings wants most of the cabinet to disappear down the back of a sofa. The PM’s slack-trousered revolutionary is thought to be keen on doing away with cabinet committees and using “Cobra-style” teams of senior figures to push through the government’s agenda. It comes ahead of the so-called “Valentine’s Day massacre” reshuffle in February, with Johnson and Cummings thought be considering the merger of some departments. One minister told The Times the potential changes were “not so much throwing the baby out with the bath water” as “blowing the baby up and jumping on its grave”. The election triumph clearly hasn’t stopped Tory politicians coming up with weird and violent mangled metaphors. Michael Gove, incidentally, is said to set for a role as “de facto” deputy prime minister as part of Cummings’ management revolution.

ALL GONE PETE BONG: Backbench Tories have bongs on the brain. A group of 60 Conservative MPs have written an open letter demanding the government gets Big Ben chiming to mark our exit from the EU on 31 January. They seem to believe the clock has magically therapeutic powers, despite the fact half the country hates Brexit. “Allowing Big Ben to chime could help to provide some catharsis,” their letter states. According to The Telegraph, it would cost £120,000. In other pointless expenditures, the government has confirmed a so-called “Festival of Brexit” will go ahead in 2022 at the cost of £120m. Organiser Martin Green has promised it will bring “a bit of joy and hope and happiness” to our otherwise miserable lives. Nigel Farage said 12,000 people have applied for tickets for his 31 January shindig in Parliament Square. He should be able to afford a few balloons. The MEP is expected to have his £150,000 severance package from the European parliament confirmed today.

IRON THRONE: While a large chunk of the press obsesses over whether the royals are headed for a hard or soft Megxit, the business of Brexit proceeds in the Lords this week. Lord Pannick – the peer who led the case against the government during prorogation – has warned the withdrawal agreement bill gives ministers the power to decide which British courts are no longer bound by previous European Court of Justice rulings. He thinks it’s wrong for them to control a “fundamental aspect of our legal system”. Meanwhile the Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney thinks it’s wrong for Johnson to promise a trade deal by the end of 2020, saying it’s “probably going to take longer than a year”. But one cabinet minister said there was no chance of any extension. “There is iron in Boris’s soul.” Well, good to know there’s something in there.

WE GET IT, GRETA: If Johnson was hoping the inevitability of Brexit would end public opposition to it, he was wrong. Just over half the country still think it’s a dreadful idea. A BMG survey for The Independent show voters split by the painfully ironic margin of 52-48 per cent in favour of Remain. Our latest BMG poll shows the nation far less divided when it comes to climate change. The survey found 70 per cent supported the target of net-zero emissions by 2030, with only 7 per cent opposing it. Johnson’s government is committed to a 2050 net-zero emissions target, but backing for much swifter action is high across all age ranges, social groups and parts of the country – countering the idea of a generational and urban / rural split on the climate emergency. A warning for some complacent Conservatives: not all old people in the Tory shires hate Greta Thunberg, you know.

On the record

“The assumptions ... that we were always going to be part of a US coalition on everything is really just not where we are going to be.”

Defence secretary Ben Wallace suggests Britain must learn how to stand alone.

From the Twitterati

“So the Festival of Brexit will cost the British taxpayer over 40 TIMES more than Harry and Meghan do a year. But instead of attracting overseas visitors, it will put them off and make everything a bit more s***.”

Author Matt Haig thinks tourism will take a turn for the worse because of the 2022 festival...

“There is zero chance the Festival of Brexit isn’t ending like the Wicker Man.”

...while comedy writer James Felton thinks we could all turn pagan.

Essential reading

John Rentoul, The Independent: Is Keir Starmer a ruthless opportunist or Ed Miliband Mark II?

Ed Davey, The Independent: This is Boris Johnson’s biggest policy test yet – and succeeding means standing up to Trump

Helen Lewis, The Atlantic: The dangers of the Twitter primary

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times: Gone with the Windsors

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