Paul Waugh Profile picture
Feb 5 9 tweets 5 min read
After another extraordinary week in politics, sit back and read @theipaper Weekend.
Stuffed with exclusive intel, long reads + analysis from our politics team @HugoGye @singharj @RichardVaughan1 @janemerrick23 and @ChaplainChloe
Superb value for just £1.20
Here’s a taste..🧵
Asked on a scale of one to ten how much Munira Mirza resignation mattered, one Cabinet minister tells us: “eight”
inews.co.uk/news/politics/…
One MP reveals how Johnson trying to woo rebels. “He has had them all in for chats, including all the pork-pie plotters,” “He has been offering the older guard Tory peerages, knighthoods, anything to keep them onside.”
One MP says only a few party members locally stand by the PM. “But people in business and everything..it’s getting a bit embarrassing I think.”
“We were promised at the ‘22 there would be no more party revelations and any more would be very minor...We’ll see if that’s true.”
One Tory insider says new No10 policy chief (and ex Sky executive) Andrew Griffith “knows nothing about Whitehall policy making. It’s a fallacy to think corporate experience equips you for the civil service”.
Here’s @HugoGye and @singharj on the bunker mentality in No.10
One backbencher said: “The Chief Whip has literally turned off his phone, it’s proper End of Days stuff.”

inews.co.uk/news/politics/…
Includes how @RishiSunak is making contact with MPs.
One 2019-er said: “He’s quite overtly going up to colleagues randomly and saying, ‘How are you today?’, that sort of thing. It’s not subtle and people are saying he’s not briefed at all about the people he is speaking to.”
And @HugoGye spots the ‘snippy’ comment Sunak made in a Sun article about Partygate.
Plus my @theipaper Weekend column on why the hidden story of this week has been that NHS staff jabs U-turn - and how it shows Johnson’s chaos extends way beyond No.10.

Expect more from govt next week on the NHS, but will it be too late?

inews.co.uk/opinion/sajid-…

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More from @paulwaugh

Feb 3
.@BorisJohnson's Savile smear confirmed the moral vacuum at the heart of his 'partygate' premiership.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox

inews.co.uk/opinion/boris-…
As everyone seems to be quitting No.10 tonight, will the last person left switch out the lights?
Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics also includes how a Tory MP claimed 'social media' in her town raised the Savile smear. "Go on, look online."

Plus, how Jacob Rees-Mogg misused the 'Crichel Down principle' of ministerial responsibility. (One for the anoraks)
Read 4 tweets
Feb 3
.@BorisJohnson sounds determined to stay as PM for full 2nd term if re-elected. Tells @MrHarryCole “I am getting on with the job + I will do so for as long as I have the privilege + honour to serve in this position...I am focused on the next election."

thesun.co.uk/news/17525872/…
But while the Levelling Up white paper covers the next 8 years, rebel Tory MPs may not give him the next 8 weeks.
Sir Gary Streeter (@garystreeterSWD) became the 1st of "Knight of the long knives" yesterday.
Latest #WaughOnPolitics:

inews.co.uk/opinion/boris-…
Johnson’s defiance on Partygate ("I won't accept criticism from the Labour party or *anywhere else*" he tells @MrHarryCole) + his desire to go on and on, prompts a mix of despair and anger among Tory critics.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 2
Nearly three years ago, when @jeremycorbyn raised bus services in #PMQs, Tory MPs yelled "Taxi!"
Today, @michaelgove is announcing plans to put buses at the heart of 'levelling up'.
Yet bus users in many areas in the north are facing even worse services/higher costs now.
One of the reasons for services being cut back is a big shortage of drivers. Add in years of budget cuts, deregulation, and you get pensioners waiting for upto an hour in the cold for buses that don't arrive.
And then having to, yes, order a taxi to do their weekly shop.
Without hard cash for public transport, Levelling Up will be another broken promise on a 'Boris Bus'.

inews.co.uk/opinion/levell…
Read 5 tweets
Feb 1
For some time, Starmer has decided to ignore this false claim, clearly believing that responding in any way would give the smear the publicity on which far right extremists thrive
But when the Prime Minister says it in the House of Commons, it's left the sewer and is in full view
I suspect Starmer and his team still have no intention of even giving this any further oxygen by rebutting it directly.
It's the classic difficulty in any case involving extremists.
But while extremists won't listen to reason, the wider public have heard this claim probably for the first time.
So there may be a case for making a statement simply setting out how baseless the smear is.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 31
Extraordinary low blow at @Keir_Starmer from @BorisJohnson, giving Parliamentary credence to the false online smear about Starmer not prosecuting Jimmy Savile. It's just not true. And surely the PM knows it?
Theresa May asks a zinger of a question. The PM simply bats it away, trying to use the Gray report as a holding answer.
This and more here in my take on an extraordinary day
inews.co.uk/opinion/boris-…
Read 4 tweets
Jan 31
As a consummate Whitehall operator, Sue Gray's report shows a skilful civil servant can damn @BorisJohnson - even without having to directly criticise him.

My snap analysis:
inews.co.uk/opinion/sue-gr…
"The worry was that instead of the “full Gray” we would get the dull Gray..." But even the neutered version makes life difficult for the PM.
NB the word 'party' is mentioned just once in the entire 'partygate' report.
"You must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity and is
not otherwise permitted"

Will the PM to use that to pick the lock of the chains wrapped around him?
Read 9 tweets

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