🚨 Another record-breaking @OpiniumResearch poll for the @ObserverUK 🚨

Liz Truss’s personal approval rating of -47 is the worst ever recorded for a PM by the company.

A worse rating than Johnson during partygate & May in the weeks before her resignation.

There's more... 🧵 Truss's approval figures are almost as bad among Leave voters as Remain voters.

Among Leavers, 61% disapprove of the job she is doing, while 19% approve. Among Remainers, 74% disapprove, while 12% approve.

But... Kwasi Kwarteng's approval ratings are worse - at -51 overall.

Some more highlights from an astonishing @OpiniumResearch poll for @ObserverUK - Tory supporters, look away now:

The PM’s net approval rating has fallen from -9 to -37 in a week.

It’s a worse net rating than the -28 that Johnson registered in the final poll before his removal. Starmer has a 17-point lead when voters are asked who they see as the best prime minister.

Only 32% of 2019 Conservatives think that Truss would be the best prime minister, with 18% preferring Starmer.

NEW: A Tory donor has been given a senior position within the honours system.

John Booth, who has given the party more than £200k, has been made chair of the committee overseeing arts and media honours. He also has a place on the overall honours committee. 1/4 Also now on the arts & media honours committee this month was Samir Shah, a former BBC executive who co-authored the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report which which concluded Britain wasn’t “institutionally racist”. He has also criticised “woke warriors”.

2/4

🚨 NEW: The Brexit battle in parliament is coming back in a big way.

Despite claims, several sources tell me the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill *will* contain "notwithstanding" clauses, effectively overriding the existing deal.

Cue legal row and return of Tory Brexit wars. 1/7 I'm told when the Bill is published on Monday, it will contain clauses that have "horrified" some in government.

According to my info, it will say that the UK law giving supremacy to the EU Withdrawal Agreement will not apply for certain things.

EU will hate... 2/7

🚨 NEW: The government has been accused of ignoring senior official’s plan to prepare Britain for the emergence of vaccine-resistant covid variants.

Clive Dix, ex-chair of the vaccine taskforce, submitted a plan when he left in April. Prodded No10 in May. Heard nothing.

🧵 1/6 Dix said he wrote “a very specific proposal on what we should put in place right now for the emergence of any new virus that escaped the vaccine”. It was submitted to the taskforce, then No10 alerted.

Dix: "I haven't seen a sign" of action on it.

2/6

NEW: Thousands of emails to the foreign office from MPs and charities detailing urgent cases of Afghans trying to evacuate over the last week have not even been read, including cases flagged by the government’s own ministers, the @ObserverUK has been told. 🧵 We have seen evidence that an official email address used to collate potential Afghan cases from MPs and others regularly contained 5,000 unread emails throughout the last week.

NEW: a big intervention tonight from all four independent public health bodies representing more than 130 public health directors in the UK.

In a letter to the Observer ahead of Monday’s reopening, they warn the PM against “letting Covid rip.” Letter signed by Jeanelle de Gruchy, president of Association of Directors of Public Health, Christina Marriott, head of Royal Society for Public Health, Prof Maggie Rae, president of UK Faculty of Public Health, Julie Barratt, Pres of Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

THREAD: For all the No Deal talk, there's another concern haunting industry - the 'deal' isn’t much good for them.

The issue - No Deal threat is masking a debate about "the deal", which will be a “deadweight” on trade, says ex-Brexit dept chief.

Story: theguardian.com/politics/2020/… We’ve long known the issues with a “thin” deal - customs/security decs/regulatory checks/rules of origin/hits services.

Problem - industry figures won’t speak out, because of the No Deal threat. As one senior industry figure told me: “We have to fight the first war.”

THREAD on my alarming week looking at tracing.

In public, local leaders continue to push for a bigger role.

In private, hot anger over the national tracing system. An “intergalactic catastrophe... the very worst system I've ever seen in my life”

STORY: theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/o… Upshot: some v senior public health officials think Serco call centres aren’t needed *at all*. New issues cropping up:

- Clusters of students recorded at home address, actually 100s of miles away in halls
- Families contacted a mad no. of times (I heard a case of c.100 calls!)

Quick THREAD: How should the Labour left respond in the age of Starmer?

A difference of opinion is already pretty clear...

Story here, some key points below... theguardian.com/politics/2020/… First - there’s those who think far from all being lost, huge gains have been made (Starmer pledges) and he’s basically a straight dealer, so cooperate and preserve. The left is far better off than it was in the 80s.

Andrew Fisher, former policy chief, is the best exponent:

NEW: There is “no doubt” Unite’s executive will order a review of Labour funding after the party’s decision to hand payouts to ex-staffers, says general secretary Len McCluskey.

A news-heavy interview with McCluskey in this weekend’s @ObserverUK.

More highlights to follow: 1/6 Unite has given Labour millions in the last 2 years alone. The party is facing further legal action... who will pick up the tab?

His remarks will fuel the party row over the payments. Labour had ordered the payments as part of an attempt to move on from the antisemitism row. 2/6

Are we going to get imports of chlorinated chicken & hormone-treated beef?

Another twist in this tale. The @ObserverUK has a leaked No10 memo setting out the conditions for US trade talks.

It says UK is to have “no specific policy” on animal welfare in the talks.

Thread. The letter, from No 10 to DIT sent before the start of talks last month, states that the mandate for the US negotiations was “being updated to reflect” the fact that the UK was to have no policy position on animal welfare.

🚨 If you're the government, look away now 🚨

What follows are some grim polling figures from the latest @OpiniumResearch poll for @ObserverUK on voting intention, public confidence, best PM.

A Thread. CON lead down from 26 points in early April to 3 points this week. That's a 23-point fall in 8 weeks.

CON 43 (- on last week)
LAB 40 (+1)
LD 6 (-)
SNP 5 (-)
GRN 3 (-)

Opinium polled 2,002 people online, June 4-5

🚨 NEW: A new plan tonight to offer Boris Johnson the pre-Christmas election he craves. 🚨

The Lib Dems have drawn up a bill that would allow Johnson to secure a December election with a simple majority of MPs. Crucially, the SNP will back it.

THREAD. 1/6 Their plan: a bill that amends the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, fixing an election for Monday December 9.

It also states that the plan is cancelled should the EU only offer a short Brexit extension, to safeguard against no deal.

2/6

NEW: Michael Gove has said he “deeply regrets” taking cocaine 20 years ago. So what was his take on drug laws then?

He wrote about drug laws in The Times, 20 years ago...

His view? He rejected the “London’s liberal consensus” that drug laws should be liberalised.

THREAD: In December 1999, he wrote a piece about pressure to loosen drug laws headlined “When it's right to be a hypocrite”.

It said that cocaine should not be glamourised and laws should not be liberalised.

He attacked Channel 4 for glamourising the drug:

NEW: Mega poll of 25,000 people by @YouGov for the @peoplesvote_uk campaign:

Voting intention:

CON 40%
LAB 34
LD 10
UKIP 4
Green 4

Poll conducted among 25,537 people online, 21 Dec-4 Jan. Same poll...

Please imagine that a Brexit deal passes with the support of most Conservative MPs and most Labour MPs. How would you vote at the next election?

CON 42
LAB 26
Lib Dem 17
SNP/Plaid 5
Other 10

*** Senior Tories drawing up a plan to let MPs vote for their favoured Brexit outcome ***

A thread (sorry) about one plan being cooked up by influential MPs desperate to avoid a “No Deal” Brexit should May’s deal be voted down.

Their answer - a Brexit Options Vote. There's been an “air of unreality”, says one Tory, because so much has focused on what May can get past her cabinet, rather than what would get through parliament.

If The Deal is voted down, how is a No Deal avoided given there’s no time left?

That’s the essay question here.