A few thoughts after a mad dash to #COP28 with the PM that involved 14 hours of flying & 12 hours in Dubai...

- A lot of the focus of Rishi Sunak's bilateral meetings was Gaza, not climate.
- PM's language on plight of civilians in Gaza seems to be hardening a bit.

1/ On the Israel Hamas war...

- In the press conference the PM spoke of exploring options for the UK to help get aid into Gaza by sea.
- Called the truce breakdown "deeply disappointing" & said he wanted another humanitarian pause.

2/

🚨 New details on the Bibby timeline this evening...

- Dorset Council says it told the contractors running the vessel about the Legionella result on Monday, the day that migrants were moved onto the barge.

- The Council says it told a Home Office official verbally on Tuesday. - Despite that, more people were moved onto the barge on Thursday & it was only evacuated on Friday.

- The Home Office has said the first it found out about the test result was on Wednesday evening.

- Dorset Council is now suggesting someone in the dept knew earlier.

The details in the full report into Nadhim Zahawi are pretty jaw-dropping...

- The first interaction Zahawi had with HMRC was in April 2021 with a meeting in June 2021.

1/ This matters because 10 July 2022 (15 months on!), Zahawi told @KayBurley that reports he was being investigated were "smears" & he wasn't aware of any investigation.

- Zahawi says he didn't realise this was an investigation & thought he was just answering queries.

2/

Steve Reed not confirming whether a future Labour govt would reverse Tory cuts to corporation tax, despite Starmer promising it when he ran for leader.

Reed says "when Keir was running for leader, that was before the Conservatives crashed the economy... things have changed". A lot of this is hypothetical as we don't know if the Tories will go into the next election having cut Corp Tax.

But on the day Starmer is out talking about how Labour has changed from 2019, it looks like another example of policy perhaps 'evolving' since 2020 leaders race too.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says "we need lower taxes" before adding "but sound money must comes first". Hunt outlines an "ambition to have most competitive tax regime of any major country" and says that will mean "restraint on spending".

Tory Chairman Jake Berry says the party he & the Chancellor were at after the mini-budget was normal get-together with donors & "Britain's leading entrepreneurs". Asked if there were hedge fund managers there, he says he knows of at least one #ridge Jake Berry says he's "not sure any of [the people at the party] made money from the crash in the pound". He adds this event was part of the "normal drumbeat of treasurer events" & the people there should be "lauded" for donating to political parties #ridge

Waiting for a bus that’s delayed by a motorway closure that I’m taking because of a rail strike while simultaneously whatsapping a mortgage broker to get a fixed rate deal as soon as possible feels very of our times. Even more pleasurable that this is my journey to Tory conference.

Happy Saturday!

- Kwasi Kwarteng says in the Tele he will set out a credible plan to get debt falling in the medium term on Nov 23.
- Levelling Up Sec hints to the Times that austerity is on the cards saying the "extremely large state" needs to align with a lower tax economy. Simon Clarke interview in the Times arguably the most important intervention this morning...

He says it's a "fool’s paradise" to get less productive and yet still "enjoy a very large welfare state". He says the two are not compatible.

thetimes.co.uk/article/simon-…

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald says the Northern Ireland Protocol "is going nowhere... and the British govt cannot use Ireland as a pawn, we won't be the collateral damage in the Brexit negotiations". She says she'll "make that clear" to Boris Johnson when he visits. Mary Lou McDonald says the British govt is "sabre rattling" over the Northern Ireland protocol and "engaging in a game of brinkmanship" and adds "the people of this island deserve better than that". She says Boris Johnson "cannot play dangerous games with Ireland".

Jacob Rees-Mogg has four officials/advisers with him for his morning interviews about axing a fifth of the civil service. He says that is because he covers a "wide area of public policy" and adds two are special advisers & two are from the Cabinet Office. For context, when we have the Foreign Sec or Defence Sec in they usually just have one or two advisers.

This morning...

Fresh revelations in the Telegraph that No10 staff held two leaving parties for staff in April last year on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral. This allegedly involved one person going to the local Co-op on the Strand and filling a suitcase full of wine. Case for the defence...

Boris Johnson wasn't there on this occasion, he was at Chequers. No10 is not denying the report though, saying that on the night in question departing comms chief James Slack gave a farewell speech.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries on Sky News now... Nadine Dorries says she doesn't accept that the PM is in the wrong because we need to wait for the findings of the Sue Gray report. But she says staff had been working "18 hours a day together" & that No10 is a workplace with a garden running outside.

NEW - PM's wife Carrie Johnson announces that she is pregnant again MORE - Carrie Johnson also revealed in an Instagram post that she had a miscarriage at the beginning of this year which left her "heartbroken".

Environment Sec George Eustice says there is "nothing wrong" with ministers like Matt Hancock having financial interests in companies as long as they have no role in procuring for the govt from those companies #ridge Pressed on whether the rules around lobbying & conflicts of interest are tight enough, George Eustice says there "may come a time when it's right to consider tweaks to policy". But adds the rules as they stand are pretty good #ridge

THREAD

So David Brierwood became a Crown Representative in Oct 2014, which sat within the Crown Commercial Service, which Bill Crothers created. As first reported by the Guardian, Brierwood then took a post at Greensill Capital in Dec 2014, two months after his appointment as a Crown Representative.

ACOBA Chair Lord Pickles calls for tighter rules & more transparency for contractors & consultants working with govt, such as Lex Greenhill. He's also dismayed at the lack of proper process in former civil servant Bill Crothers taking a job at Greensill while still on Whitehall. Lord Pickles says people like Lex Greensill who work with govt should be made to sign a "memorandum of understanding" governing the restrictions that would be placed on them when their public work has ended.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirms the dates in the roadmap will be the "earliest" the easing measures can happen on saying that the govt has to be "cautious" #ridge Sunak says that the early signs on the vaccine and cases are good though and should give people "confidence and optimism" #ridge

Asked about accusations of political influence on the Scottish Crown Office over the Salmond inquiry, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told Sky "no government, no matter however strong they might think they are, should think they have a right to trample over that independence". Asked about Ruth Davidson's comments that there are serious question over the independence of institutions in Scotland, Robert Buckland said the Scottish Tory leader always makes "powerful and important points... she asks some real questions".

EXCL with @AgnesChambre ...

Senior Tory Desmond Swayne said covid figures were being "manipulated" & told a leading antivaxxer in an online interview that face masks represented "social control" & there were "hidden agendas" at work behind the scenes.

news.sky.com/story/covid-19… In November, Sir Desmond Swayne spoke to Save Our Rights UK - a group that advanced false claims about covid vaccines & organises anti-lockdown protests.

Two wks ago he spoke to Del Bigtree - the CEO of an antivax group who produced a film about disgraced medic Andrew Wakefield.

Prof Adam Finn from the Joint Committee on Vaccination says there are already thousands of people who have avoided needing to go to hospital with covid because they have had the jab #ridge Prof Finn on the 12 week wait for vaccinations says if your house is on fire and you have two fire extinguishers, you use them both and then rely on there being another one ready for the next fire. Says these are "not normal times" #ridge

Health Sec Matt Hancock says the data shows more people are following the rules than in the November lockdown. He doesn't say that compliance is as high as last spring though saying that's "harder to measure".

Govt scientists believe compliance now is lower than in March #ridge Matt Hancock says the "rules are not there as boundaries to be pushed, they are the limit" and that "every flexibility can be fatal". He says he supports the police in doing their job and they are "right to take the rules very seriously" #ridge