Inside Politics | Boris Johnson set to break Tory hearts ahead of Valentine's Day

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Thursday 13 February 2020 09:20 GMT

Brexit briefing: How long until the end of the transition period?

Cue bright yellow titles, plinking harpsichord music and Bill Murray’s bemused face. The trailer for Wes Anderson’s new movie The French Dispatch has all the director’s familiar tropes: eccentric behaviour, stilted conversations and immaculately choreographed scenes. Today brings all the familiar tropes of a cabinet reshuffle: eccentric behaviour, stilted conversations and immaculately choreographed scenes. Boris Johnson, the Conservative party’s errant father figure (another Anderson trope) will decide the fate of a huge cast of Tory oddballs today – and face questions about his luxury winter holiday in the Caribbean. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing.

Inside the bubble

Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn on what to look out for today:

Nervy ministers will be waiting by their mobiles this morning, as the PM kicks off his first major reshuffle at 8am. Those being sacked will be told over the phone and saved the misfortune of having to stroll past broadcasters’ cameras outside No 10. From around 10am those remaining in post, being promoted, or being given a cabinet job will be invited for a chat with Johnson. Meanwhile, Labour leadership contenders – almost halfway through the gruelling contest – will take part in a live debate on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme.

Daily briefing

DO THE WHITEHALL SHUFFLE: The Tories love northerners now – northerners are brilliant. But is it northernness enough to save defence secretary Ben Wallace? One of the big hitters facing the chop today, he made a slightly desperate plea: “I’m a veteran, I’m a northern MP, I was actually in the army. So I think all those hopefully qualify me.” Speculation suggests several women in cabinet – Andrea Leadsom (business), Theresa Villiers (environment) and Esther McVey (housing) are on their way out. Keen to avoid a sexism row, No 10 has briefed that the PM is keen to “blood” a new generation of female Tory talent. Junior ministers tipped for promotion to cabinet include Victoria Atkins, Lucy Frazer and Anne-Marie Trevelyan – with the latter expected to become international development secretary. If the newbies think they’re about to get a lot of face time with the boss, think again. Some ministers have complained that Johnson is so tightly controlled by Dominic Cummings they’re unable to see him. One told The Telegraph: “He is like Aung San Suu Kyi, he has been taken over by the military junta.”

HOLIDAYS FROM HELL: After the exhausting awkwardness involved in destroying a few careers today, Boris Johnson will probably want a holiday. But there is renewed scrutiny over his last one. The PM declared in the register of members’ interests that Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross covered the £15,000 cost of the break in Mustique with girlfriend Carrie Symonds as a “gift”. But a spokesman for Ross said he had only arranged for their stay at a villa – a property he doesn’t own. “David Ross did not pay any monies whatsoever for this.” Controversial journeys to the Caribbean came up at PMQs on Wednesday when Jeremy Corbyn challenged Johnson over the Jamaica deportation flight – and the PM’s previous admission to have taken cocaine when he was 19. “If there was a young white boy with blonde hair, who later dabbled in class A drugs … would he deport that boy? Or is it one rule for young black boys from the Caribbean, and another for white boys from the US?” Ooof! Johnson, often amused at jibes about his rakish behaviour, was definitely not amused. “The honourable gentleman demeans himself,” he replied.

SEE EMILY PLAY: Feisty rows over racism and identity politics dominated last night’s Labour leadership debate on BBC Newsnight. Emily Thornberry sparked a bit of Punch and Judy stuff after accusing Rebecca Long-Bailey of failing to speak up over antisemitism. “I don’t think Rebecca did, but Keir [Starmer] and I did.” Long-Bailey responded: “I did, I think you’ll find.” But Thornberry added: “Sorry, I don’t remember.” Long-Bailey also defended signing a pledge to kick out anyone meeting the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights group’s definition of “transphobic” views, saying she was “a firm believer in self-identification”. Thornberry suggested she had not signed the 12-point pledge because she didn’t think those who disagreed with the group’s definitions necessarily had hateful views. Sir Keir Starmer attempted to play peacemaker: “Treating this as a political football with camps taking lumps out of each other does everybody a disservice.”

MY CHERRY AMOUR: British officials are accusing their European counterparts of “cherry-picking” before talks begin in earnest. They claim the EU is trying to impose conditions far beyond the standard of a normal free trade agreement – after the European parliament backed an uber-tough negotiating mandate on Wednesday. MEPs insisted they want “dynamic alignment” - adoption of EU rules as they are introduced - on everything from claimed change to food labelling. Oh well. The really important Brexit development is the revelation that Donald Trump has one of our 50p commemorative coins. According to Welsh Brexit Party AM Mark Reckless, Nigel Farage handed over the historic piece of silver to the great man during a recent trip to Washington.

NO MEAN CITY: Nicola Sturgeon is not happy. Scotland’s first minister accused Johnson of “playing politics with the biggest issue of our time” after a UK government source suggested the COP26 climate change conference could be moved from Glasgow to London. A spokesman said the ExCel centre was only being lined up as part of “contingency planning”. Sturgeon said the idea was “just silly”. The PM didn’t help matters when he referred to the SNP as “these people” in the Commons. Scottish nationalist MP Kirsten Oswald asked why the daily allowance for peers was set to rise to £323 when someone on universal credit gets far less. Johnson said he “hates agreeing with these people” but added: “I do find it odd that the House of Lords has chosen to do that, but it is a decision for them.”

On the record

“He woke me up with a coffee … He was the perfect guest, a perfect gentleman.”

Lorraine Tabone – the first to host mayoral candidate Rory Stewart for a sleepover – was left enamoured.

From the Twitterati

“Nandy said early on Lab shouldn’t promise things it can’t deliver “like abolishing tuition fees”. Then when Katie Razzall asked candidates to put their hand up if they back abolishing tuition fees, she put her hand up.”

Huff Post’s Paul Waugh points out a jarring moment in the Newsnight debate...

“Nauseating to hear a candidate for Labour leadership say we were going “to nationalise everything” or that we didn't spell out how to pay for scrapping tuition fees when it was fully costed in 2017 and 2019.”

...while Corbyn policy guru Andrew Fisher finds Nandy’s concerns sickening.