Inside Politics: MI5 gets dragged into Priti Patel’s Home Office row

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Monday 24 February 2020 09:16 GMT

Former Brexit Secretary David Davis: Dominic Cummings is a “Here today, gone tomorrow” special adviser

Close working relationships can sour so easily. Mel C has revealed how she was almost booted out of the Spice Girls after telling Victoria Beckham to “f*** off” in an offstage clash. Dominic Cummings will be hoping 2 can become 1 again after reported clashes with Boris Johnson over hirings and firings while the PM was offstage in Kent last week. Johnson will no doubt want to put a bit of zigazig ah back into their relationship at the beginning of a big week – there’s the row at the Home Office to sort out, and a trade deal mandate to finalise before talks with the EU turn spicy. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing.

Inside the bubble

Our political correspondent Lizzy Buchan on what to look out for at Westminster today:

MPs return to parliament after recess – and many will want to collar Boris Johnson, who hasn’t been seen in public for nine days despite major floods across the country. Over in Labour land, the final stage of the leadership contest begins with members now able to cast their votes. Campaigners for Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy will be hitting the phones to drum up support, as many voters are expected to decide in the first few days of the six-week ballot.

Daily briefing

REVENGE OF THE BLOB: Priti Patel is convinced the blob – Whitehall’s hideous, nameless, bureaucracy – is out to get her. But she’s determined to strike back. The home secretary is demanding a formal Cabinet Office inquiry into “hostile briefings” from within her department following anonymous claims intelligence chiefs at MI5 don’t trust her and have limited the intelligence she sees. “Priti is absolutely livid,” an ally told The Times. “The blob is trying to kill her.” A security source publicly denied info is being withheld, and Patel and the Home Office’s permanent secretary Sir Philip Putnam issued a joint statement calling for an end to the “malicious gossip”. But the malicious gossip appears endless – from both directions. Sources briefing against Sir Philip over the weekend alleged he was so negative about ministers’ ideas he was given the nickname “Dr No”. Apparently his favourite tactic for quashing a plan is to claim there’s a “70 per cent chance” of losing in court.

S*** LISTS AND SKIMPY BRIEFS: It’s fair to assume Patel has Dominic Cummings’ support after it emerged No 10 is keen to oust several of Whitehall’s permanent secretaries. An official told The Sunday Telegraph a few of them “are on the s*** list”, with Sir Tom Scholar, the Treasury’s chief civil servant, thought to be at the top of the sweary scrap of paper. Ex-Brexit secretary David Davis said Downing Street should not be making “hit lists” (thanks for being so polite, Dave) and said Cummings was only an adviser who would be “here today, gone tomorrow”. Is it possible to imagine Cummings’ departure in the not-too-distant future? The PM was said to be “absolutely furious” when adviser Andrew Sabisky’s love of eugenics came to light – demanding the “weirdo” be sacked. But the two most powerful men in the country appear to have an understanding. According to The Sunday Times, aides have been told to cut the number of briefing memos in Johnson’s red box and keep them to two sides of A4. One said: “If they’re overly long or overly complex, Dom sends them back with savage comments.”

A HARD DAY’S FIGHT: Will officials get the government’s trade deal stance onto two sheets of A4? The PM is expected to sign off on a mandate for negotiations with the EU on Tuesday, before the document is published on Thursday. Emmanuel Macron sounds a bit down about it all. “I am not sure that an agreement will be reached between now and the end of the year,” the French president said at a meeting with fishermen in Paris at the weekend. He predicted things will become “more tense because [the British] are very hard”. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has come up with its own set of demands – urging the PM to insist on simplified paperwork for customs checks. CBI boss Dame Carolyn Fairbairn said “keep trade easy and minimise red tape”. Environment secretary George Eustice is keen on avoiding too many red lines if we’re going to forge a trade deal with the US. He said there was “room for a sensible discussion” about allowing chicken washed in lactic acid into the UK.

IN WHICH THEY SERVE: So who helped pay for all those lovely, black-and-white Keir Starmer posters sent out to Labour members last week? Rebecca Long-Bailey’s allies are calling on Team Starmer to publish a full list of donors. Party chairman Ian Lavery said candidates “should be comfortable disclosing the source of campaign donations”. The candidates themselves are trying to keep it friendly, as the party faithful finally gets the chance to actually vote for Corbyn’s successor. At Sunday’s hustings in Durham, Starmer, Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy all pledged to offer each other jobs in the shadow cabinet. All three pledged to serve, whoever wins. Nandy has caused a stir with a piece for The Independent in which she claimed the party has treated its own voters as “irrational or racist” about immigration. Diane Abbott, meanwhile, has said she will withdraw from the shadow cabinet at the end of the contest – but vowed to fight anyone shifting the party to the right on immigration from the backbenches.

BOY FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY: It looks like the new chancellor Rishi Sunak is only too happy to turn on the government spending taps, with reports suggesting he may “relax” fiscal rules to raise another £26bn at next month’s giveaway budget. There’s also speculation Sunak will drop plans to cut pensions tax relief for higher earners after Tory MPs made their loathing for the idea clear. The Yorkshire MP’s budget is set to be full of northern stuff for northern people – and some Treasury posts will be moved to an “economic decision-making campus” in the sacred region. No 10, remember, is also keen on the idea of scrapping the House of Lords and replacing it with a new chamber in the north. The Lords has a blitz of negative publicity to deal with after it emerged peers received tax-free payments worth more than the average British worker’s salary. According to The Sunday Times, their annual expenses and daily attendance allowance claims shot up to £23m – an increase of 29 per cent on the previous year. The Electoral Reform Society called the upper house one big “rolling expenses scandal”.

On the record

“We need to train our focus on Boris Johnson and attack him, not each other.”

Keir Starmer pitches himself as the “unity” candidate in the Labour leadership contest.

From the Twitterati

“Display years of anti-Brexit bias? Call the Prime Minister a liar? It seems the chickens have come home to roost for @Channel4.”

Former Brexit Party MEP Martin Daubney is delighted by reports the PM wants to privatise Channel 4…

“Boris Johnson has gone to war with: Mandarins; Special advisers; Julian Smith, Sajid Javid; The BBC, Channel 4; Westminster journalists. How is that going to end well?”

…but The Independent’s John Rentoul questions whether the PM wants to add Channel 4 to his list of enemies.