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Paul Waugh

Jun 15 • 8 tweets • 4 min read

@BorisJohnson

Fake threats to ditch the ECHR risk leaving @BorisJohnson and @pritipatel looking both impotent and incompetent.

The downside of a tactic that's more bluff than tough.

Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox

inews.co.uk/opinion/ditch-…

Meanwhile, the independent adviser on sleaze -
Lord Geidt - has QUIT

Partygate is back folks

gov.uk/government/new…

@BorisJohnson

🚨If even an Establishment, bend-over-backwards-to-avoid-conflict figure like Geidt has had enough of the PM, something is seriously up.
💥That's not one but TWO sleazebusters who have now had enough of @BorisJohnson (Alex Allan quit over PM not taking his advice on Priti Patel).

@johnmcdonnellMP

.@johnmcdonnellMP really pressed Geidt yesterday on whether he'd threatened to resign.
After this ridiculously convoluted answer (below), Geidt finally admitted: “We have mentioned before in evidence that it is always on the agenda as an available remedy to a particular problem.”

Interesting question now is whether any minister will see this as the final straw and quit too.

@BorisJohnson

Right Royal trouble for @BorisJohnson?
💥Geidt (priv sec to The Queen 2007-2017) quits
💥Prince Charles says Rwanda plan "appalling"
💥4am drunken No10 party on day of Philip funeral (did PM ever apologise personally to Her Maj?)

Simon Case (priv sec to William 2018-2020) next?

@BBCNewsnight

Wow. Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Turnbull tells @BBCNewsnight that @BorisJohnson "is not worthy of the office" of Prime Minister.

It's highly, highly unusual for a former Cabinet Secretary to say such a thing. Possibly sending a signal to MPs that civil service has had enough.
But some civil servants may fear such outspoken remarks (even by someone who has retired) imperils their cherished impartiality.

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Paul Waugh

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Jun 16

Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis reveals to MPs the letters between Geidt and the PM will be made public soon.

Truly extraordinary that MPs are discussing the fact of the letters but still don't have their contents to know what exactly they are discussing

If Ellis knows the content of the letters, surely he should tell MPs what they are?
Makes a farce of Parliament. Unless MPs filibuster now, until the letters are published [any minute?] how can MPs seriously scrutinise them?

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Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Jun 15

@HarrietHarman

Some Tory MPs are clearly worried about @HarrietHarman chairing the Privileges Cttee probe into whether @BorisJohnson knowingly misled Parliament over Partygate.

They're suggesting she should step aside because of previous tweets.

BUT there's a flaw in their case...🧵

https://twitter.com/christopherhope/status/1537052078614491136

Critics cite 3 Harman tweets. But none of them prejudge whether the PM *knowingly* misled the Commons

On her 1st tweet, she says admitting guilt = misleading Parliament

But fact that the PM said "I would like to correct the record" is clear admission he *unwittingly* misled MPs

As for her 2nd tweet, it's just a statement of the facts. Both men broke Covid laws that were drafted to save lives.

Read 4 tweets

Paul Waugh

@paulwaugh

Jun 9

@BorisJohnson

Only @BorisJohnson can try to shoehorn a long riff about Ukraine into a speech advertised as being about the UK housing crisis.

@BethRigby

Johnson: "if wages continually chase the increase in prices...then we risk a wage price spiral"
Big contrast with his remarks at last Tory conf, when he talked of high wage Britain and told @BethRigby fears of inflation were 'unfounded'.

Johnson says tax rises of his govt are "an aberration" caused largely by "the fiscal meteorite of covid".
Another eg of a misleading claim cos one of his biggest tax hikes - the *permanent* health + social care levy - is about fixing social care. That has nothing to do with Covid

Read 6 tweets