💵💵💵

NEW: Matt Hancock could see his £400k I'm a Celeb earnings "wiped out" if civil servants sue for breach of GDPR law.

Meanwhile, FDA union wants Government to "pursue" Hancock to recover the 100,000 WhatsApp messages.

Story on @mrjamesob just now...

🧵 According to Ryan Dunleavy, head honcho for GDPR breaches at Harcus Parker solicitors, Mr Hancock should have sought consent of the individuals who replied to his messages before he passed them to Isabel Oakeshott.

The NDA, in Mr Dunleavy's view, makes no difference.

Lord Mann, HMG's independent adviser on anti-Semitism, has told @LBC Sir Keir Starmer will have to throw Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi off Labour's NEC unless she can evidence claims "right-wingers" were allowed to stay in the party despite denying the Holocaust. In a Palestine Deep Dive podcast from last week (h/t @JewishNewsUK / @lmharpin got there first), Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi made the following claim:

Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan tells @LBC that they don't have the final numbers yet but the Government believes around 250,000 people queued to watch Queen Elizabeth II lying-in-state in Westminster Hall. Is Emmanuel Macron a friend or foe this morning?

Michelle Donelan says the comments by Liz Truss during the leadership contest that the "jury's out" should not be "over-egged".

The two leaders have had many "warm conversations" already this week, she adds.

Levelling-up Secretary Simon Clarke tells @LBC "Putin has been weaponising energy" to "make the current situation unbearable".

Mr Clarke says he hopes today's package of financial support will be a "lasting solution" to the crisis. He says gas prices could remain high for the next "year or two ahead".

Rejecting the idea of another windfall tax, Mr Clarke adds the PM's "key principle" is that "we cannot tax our way to the investment we need to see in energy self-sufficiency in the North Sea".

Health Secretary Therese Coffey tells @LBC she is "very conscious that we need to make improvements and we need to make them quickly" to the health service. Asked about possible strike action in the NHS, Therese Coffey says she hopes that doctors and nurses "will continue to put their patients first".

She says she doesn't yet have the numbers to hand about the pay package being offered to junior doctors.

Exclusive: NUS President Shaima Dalali has been suspended from her job following an investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism.

Her suspension follows a QC-led inquiry into what sources describe as “very serious” allegations. Understand it’s the first time in the 100-year history of the NUS that a President has been suspended.

Ms Dalali’s suspension follows the conclusion of the first part of an inquiry conducted by Rebecca Tuck QC, which looked into allegations against her specifically.

Liz Truss says she has “always been a fan of Boris Johnson”.

Inheritance tax?

Liz Truss says there should be a “complete review” of the tax system and that would include inheritance tax.

“I would look at it again but I would need to look at it in the round.” Liz Truss says it is a “false economy” to raise taxes.

She says that if taxes keep going up, people won’t want to go out to work and businesses won’t want to invest.

Rishi Sunak scathing about Tory policy of cutting Corporation Tax to record low rates.

He says “it hasn’t worked” because it has not resulted in business investment. Ferrari: “have you ever used illegal drugs?”

Rishi Sunak: “No.”

Academics at leading British universities who push the Kremlin's propaganda are "effectively helping the Russian war effort", @daverich1 from @CST_UK tells @LBC, as we reveal professors at Edinburgh and Leeds have been promoting Putin's lines-to-take on social media.

Thread. First up Tim Hayward, prof of environmental political theory at Edinburgh.

This morning he retweeted a Russian rep to the UN, describing the attack on Mariupol's maternity hospital as "fake news".

He also criticised the West for not considering "Russia's legitimate interests".

Sources at City Hall tell me Cressida Dick didn’t have to resign.

She could’ve attended last night’s meeting with the Mayor and detailed plans to turn the Met around.

Thread on the complete breakdown of the relationship between Mr Khan and Cressida Dick over last nine days. Following the publication of the IOPC report detailing the vile WhatsApp messages sent by officers at Charing Cross police station, Mr Khan and CD had a meeting.

Mayor set two tests:

1). Root out racism, misogyny and homophobia.

2). Restore trust and confidence of Londoners.

Exc: Liz Truss held a belated 50th birthday dinner party for Therese Coffey, at her grace-and-favour residence Chevening on January 29th.

Two days later she tested positive for Covid, and had to cancel her trip to Ukraine.

Tory source: "So arrogant, so tone-deaf, so stupid." A number of special advisers and former special advisers also attended, giving them the opportunity to do some leadership plotting away from London.

No rules broken but the party happened just two days before Sue Gray published her redacted report into Downing Street parties.

New: leaked email shows Boris Johnson supports the continued use of real black bear fur for hats worn by the Coldstream Guards.

Animal charity Peta, who named his wife Carrie as their "person of the year", tells @LBC the bears "shouldn't be slaughtered for ornamental hats". Each of the famous hats worn by soldiers on ceremonial duties outside places like Buckingham Palace requires the pelt of one bear.

In 2020, the Ministry of Defence spent £145,000 on the pelts from Canada. That's enough for 110 hats at a cost of £1,315 each.

Deputy Labour leader @AngelaRayner has written to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone to ask whether the PM has broken the rules by failing to declare the value of his holiday in Spain last month in the MPs’ register of financial interests. The Prime Minister did declare the holiday in his ministerial register of interests yesterday, insisting that he received the holiday free of charge.

The villa itself rents for a reported £25k-a-week. But the holiday wasn’t mentioned in that entry.

Keir Starmer first main topic: the petrol crisis: "Level up? You can't even fill up!" Puts down a marker on the end of the Corbyn era:

"To the voters who thought we were unpatriotic, irresponsible or looked down on them, I say these words, 'We will never under my leadership go into an election with a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government'."

New: On Sunday, Keir Starmer said he had "closed the door" on anti-Semitism in Labour.

But LBC has discovered one member who shared vile content on Facebook was until yesterday at the Brighton conference, despite an official complaint being made nearly two months ago. Labour sources say that Tony Mcdonough has now been suspended from the party and has had his conference pass revoked.

But on August 2, a complaint was made to the party. Nothing appears to have been done and Mr Mcdonough was allowed to attend conference.

I have just been been forcibly removed from the JVL fringe event at the Labour Party. It is an official event in the Labour Party guide. I was assaulted by Tony Greenstein, who was in the event, and was expelled from the Labour Party for anti-semitism. This is the moment he grabbed my phone.

Keir Starmer tells @LBC people in Hartlepool are worried about “jobs, jobs, jobs”.

He says the fight for the seat was “always going to be tough” after 2019.

*Jeremy Corbyn won the seat twice in 2017 and 2019. Nick Ferrari puts the Survation poll to Sir Keir that the Tories have a 17 point lead in Hartlepool.

But he admits that “nobody is particularly interested in the details” of wallpaper-gate.

Keir Starmer goes first with “bodies pile high” comment at the end of October.

PM on the record, in the Commons, says he didn’t make the comment.

Starmer says it would be a breach of the ministerial code if PM is wrong and knowingly misled Commons in his reply. High stakes. Starmer then accuses PM of “nipping out of meetings” during start of the pandemic to sort the redecoration of his flat.

Moves on to flat. Asks whether Lord Brownlow donated £58k for flat refurb.

PM doesn’t answer the question.

Priti Patel tells @LBC "everyone knows her view" on prison sentences, when asked about ten-year terms for people who lie on their passenger locator forms. Caller Jeremy wants to know why Boris Johnson didn't listen to her view to close the borders at the start of the first wave last year.

PP says decision based on Sage advice.

"We all have active debate. We all air our views, we have taken a collective decision."

New: City Hall quango London & Partners has held talks with company linked to oppression of Uygurs.

iFlytek provides voice recognition technology to police in China’s Xinxiang province. It’s on a list of companies banned by US.

MIT and Rutgers uni severed ties.

But not L&P. Detailed with a quarterly report published last April, L&P revealed it had a "new significant project" with iFlytek.

But in 2017, Human Rights Watch found the company had been working with Chinese police to develop technology intended to identify targeted voices in phone calls.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock on healthcare reforms says "now exactly the right time" to help NHS staff help patients "with less bureaucracy".

"Some of the rules set in legislation need to change and I'm glad the reception to these proposals has been so positive," he says. Ferrari: Yes, but when will nurses get their pay rise?

Matt Hancock: "I've got to wait for the independent pay review body."