Inside Politics: Boris Johnson faces trade war with Trump

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Should we humanise the bad guys? Fans of The Hunger Games are arguing about the ethics of a planned prequel book detailing the rise to power of the evil President Snow – the blonde-haired, would-be world king whose “only real currency was charm”. Remind you of anyone? If anyone wants to do an origin story on Boris Johnson’s recent rise to power, they could do worse than pinpoint the moment he realised Donald Trump was onto something with his no holds barred populism. But the PM is now facing a fight-to-the-death trade war with the US president. As the Labour Party’s tributes remain locked in their own gladiatorial contest, Lisa Nandy’s campaign is catching fire. She’s been winning sponsors left, right and centre, and landing blows on Piers Morgan – ITV’s very own Caesar Flickerman. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing.

Inside the bubble

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick on what to look out for in SW1 today:

Boris Johnson is to meet Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard to discuss efforts to secure the release of the British-Iranian mother imprisoned in Tehran. Johnson, remember, has been criticised for wrongly claiming that she was training journalists at the time of her arrest, back when he was foreign secretary – so it should be an interesting encounter. Elsewhere, the business secretary Andrea Leadsom will be setting out the government’s new parental bereavement leave and pay entitlement.

Daily briefing

BITTERSWEET CACOPHONY: Donald Trump really, really likes Boris Johnson. He thinks the “wonderful” prime minister has “a lot of guts”. But he’ll crush him all the same. The Trump administration is threatening to launch a trade war if Johnson pushes through a digital services tax on the US tech giants. Trump’s trade secretary Steve Mnuchin sat next to chancellor Sajid Javid at a Davos speaking event and warned that the Americans could “arbitrarily” stick taxes on British cars. The most awkward moment came when Mnuchin turned to Javid and said he was “disappointed” at the idea the UK could negotiate a trade deal with the EU before the US. “I thought we’d go first.” A joke? It didn’t sound like a joke. Even the OECD wants a multilateral agreement on the tech tax, claiming there would be “cacophony and mess” if countries went their own way. Remember, the Americans will also be livid if Johnson allows Chinese tech giant Huawei to build “non-core” parts of Britain’s 5G network. Watch your back, Boris.

HANDY NANDY: Is Lisa Nandy-mania under way? Or are we just at the delirious stage of the Labour leadership contest? The Wigan MP had a very, very good 24 hours, joining Keir Starmer on the ballot after winning Chinese for Labour’s endorsement, getting Jess Phillips’ backing, and smacking down Piers Morgan live on GMB over his failure to understand the racist treatment of Meghan Markle: “With all due respect, how on earth would you know?” She even endeared herself to the membership by getting into a fight with Tony Blair, attacking New Labour’s “economic conservatism” (stung, Blair released a video defending himself). Emily Thornberry didn’t fare so well on The Andrew Neil Show – forced to repeatedly deny “sneering” at Brexit voters. She got very cross when Neil asked her why she backed the comprehensive system – but sent her own son to a partially selective school. “As a mother I will never apologise for doing the best for my kids.” Rebecca Long-Bailey, meanwhile, told Laura Kuenssberg Jeremy Corbyn’s policies were great, but the “messaging” went a bit wrong.

SUN ALSO RISES: The prime minister, a keen jogger, can hear the epic Chariots of Fire theme music in his head. “At times it felt like we would never cross the Brexit finish line, but we’ve done it,” said Johnson after the Commons rejected all the Lords’ amendments to his Brexit bill – paving the way for the legislation to receive royal assent and ratification in Brussels next week. Lord Dubs – who came to Britain after fleeing the Nazis as a child – said the bill’s failure to uphold protections for refugee children was “bitterly disappointing”, while Green MP Caroline Lucas called it “a Tory compassion by-pass”. Will the Tories be bothered by a trifling little thing like their conscience? Not a bit of it. They’re too busy planning their celebrations for next Friday. Brexiteering legend Mark Francois revealed his beautiful plans for the night of 31 January. “I’m not going to bed. I’m going to stay up and watch the sun rise on a free country.” Make sure you don’t get stuck up on a roof, Mark.

OH, VIENNA: John Bercow’s retirement plan to be comfortably ensconced in ermine over in the Lords appears to be under threat. The former speaker’s most senior official has filed a formal complaint about alleged bullying. Lord Lisvane, the Commons’ chief clerk for the early part of Bercow’s time in the hot seat, is said to have passed a “dossier” of claims on to the parliamentary commissioner for standards. Bercow responded: “The timing of this intervention is curious.” Elsewhere, some curiously-timed news about Corbyn’s aide Karie Murphy, whose possible pick for a peerage has been pissing off plenty of people in the party. Labour insiders have claimed she took a brief city break to Vienna during the final stretch of the general election campaign. One told The Huffington Post: “Frankly, by that stage, nothing surprised me. That was the icing on the cake.”

ONUS ON THE BONUS: Nobody dares say a bad word about Greggs: the saintly, vegan-promoting, cheap grub superstars of the high street. Corbyn raised a question in the Commons about why some of the wonderful bakery chain’s salt-of-earth staff were being denied much of the £300 bonus promised to them. The Labour leader suggested the Tories were to blame, not the company. Greggs’ workers still on universal credit will only able to keep £75 of it – because of the Tory system’s “taper rate”. Corbyn said that if Johnson could explain why that should be, he would “buy him a vegan roll from Greggs myself”. The PM laughed off the idea, said Greggs was a great British success story, and claimed only one person “has complained about the bonus system”.

On the record

“I’m not shy. I mean, I have spent last four years, you know, locked in a room developing many of the policies ... but I don’t think you could ever describe me as shy.”

Rebecca Long-Bailey denies shyness.

From the Twitterati

“Corbyn tells #PMQs “the Labour Party will never abandon the poor”. Though you might say that failing to win elections and not appearing that bothered about it isn’t exactly doing right by the poor either.”

The Spectator’s Isabel Hardman sticks the boot in...

“I’m sitting in PMQs and I can’t even summon up the energy to say how rubbish Jeremy Corbyn is. What’s the point. Why not just scrap the whole thing till April.”

...while Corbyn-hating Telegraph columnist Dan Hodges can’t even be bothered anymore.

Essential reading

John Rentoul, The Independent: Will Dominic Cummings be able to replace the BBC with a British version of Fox News?

Tom Peck, The Independent: Lisa Nandy skewered Piers Morgan with seven short words

Ailbhe Rea, New Statesman: Jess Phillips’s exit is a lesson in the limits of ‘straight-talking’ politics

Gail Collins, the New York Times: Trump versus George Washington

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