Former Prime Minister Sir John Major @bbcr4today: "I have been a Conservative all my life. And if I am concerned at how the government is behaving, I suspect lots of other people are as well." bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
Sir John Major: "Much of what they are doing is very un Conservative in its behaviour. There is a general whiff of 'we are the masters now' about their behaviour."
Sir John Major on how the government handled the Paterson affair: "shameful, wrong, and unworthy of this or indeed any government. It also had the effect of trashing the reputation of parliament."
Sir John Major:
"This government has done a number of things that have concerned me deeply: they have broken the law, the illegal prorogation of parliament. They have broken treaties, I have in mind the Northern Ireland Protocol. They have broken their word on many occasions."
"...the one that i find most odious is the cut in overseas aid which was a statutory requirement to make and was cut long before parliament gave permission for it."
Sir John Major: "Whenever they run up against difficulties with anybody, whether it is the Supreme Court, the Electoral Commission, the BBC, they react not with an understanding, not with trying to placate what has gone wrong, but actually in rather a hostile fashion."
If Owen Paterson got a peerage, Sir John Major says "I think it would be rather extraordinary if that happens."
Sir John Major describes the government as "perhaps politically corrupt" -- such as briefing parts of the press well in advance of any public announcement or parliament.
Triggering Article 16 re the Northern Ireland Protocol would be "colossally stupid," Sir John Major says. "It would be absurd."
"Who negotiated the retched Protocol? Lord Frost and the Prime Minister. They negotiated it. They signed it. Now they wish to break it."
"At the moment we are negotiating over the Protocol with all the subtlety of a brick."
Let's be clear: Sir John Major has long been a critic of Boris Johnson. But it still packs a punch when a former Conservative Prime Minister delivers that kind of critique of the current one.
A response from the govt to Sir John Major's interview (via @ionewells):
“As the Prime Minister has said, paid lobbying and paid advocacy by ministers and MPs is absolutely wrong. All elected officials must abide by the rules of conduct, as the public have a right to expect."
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Former MP and former BBC reporter Martin Bell tells @BBCBreakfast he doesn't think any party will be able to "overturn" the majority in what was Owen Paterson's North Shropshire seat in the by-election to come…
The former MP stood as an anti-sleaze candidate in Tatton in Cheshire to unseat Neil Hamilton in 1997, as opposition parties stood aside (via @ionewells)
He said opposition parties in the North Shropshire by-election "might look back at the end and think maybe we should have tried something else."
He added that sleaze was an issue that "really cuts through to people in a way that others don't."
Justice Minister Victoria Atkins says the government wants to target the perpetrators of "so-called banter" against young women and girls in the street #cpc2021bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
Ms Atkins told the Conservative conference that she wanted to eradicate "disgusting" behaviour and attitudes within 10 years.
She said: "Targeting perpetrators, some of the banter, the so-called banter that our young women and girls have to put up with in the street is disgusting and we want to target that sort of behaviour..."
NEW; THREAD: The Labour Party has been handed what it claims to be a business card for the financier Lex Greensill -- when he worked in government under David Cameron.
Mr Greensill is described on the card as a "senior adviser" in the Prime Minister's Office -- and it includes a Downing Street email address and what appears to be a direct line landline telephone number.
Labour say it was handed to a figure in industry in the summer of 2012 by Mr Greensill, shortly after he was appointed as an unpaid "Supply Chain Finance Advisor."
It is Day 2 of Tie Minister. This morning’s beaten finalist on the left, taking on a new entry on the right. I’ll wear the winner @BBCBreakfast in the morn. In a major democratic advance, proper voting options tonight...in the tweet below. Polls close at 4am, when I get dressed
Professor Martin Green, Chief Executive of Care England, tells the Health Select Committee that despite what others have said "there were cases of people....who were symptomatic discharged into care homes."
Professor Green: "We should have been focusing on care homes from the start of this pandemic. The focus was on the NHS. Support was withdrawn." There was "destruction of our supply chains on PPE. We didn’t see everyone who needed a hospital intervention going to hospital."
James Bullion, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services in England: "We still don’t have an effective supply chain, although things have improved since March."