A WEAK IN POLITICS
THE worthlessness of Theresa May’s desperate and panicky Brexit promises is clear from what is being admitted in private, not said in public.
Gullible Labour MPs wanting to buy Mrs May’s unicorns should think again before voting for the Prime Minister’s bad faith deal.
Downing Street’s confected assurances on workers’, consumer and environmental rights won’t be worth the paper that they’re written on.
Brexit Minister Chris Heaton-Harris inadvertently gave the game away during a gathering behind closed doors with 30 business, trade union and civic society leaders at the respected Institute for Public Policy Research.
Intended to be a no-notes frank discussion off the record, my snout heard Heaton-Harris cutting the ground from under the feet of opposition MPs toying with selling their votes to May for a few bob.
Hardline Tory Brexit no-deal ideologues in fanatic Jacob Rees-Mogg’s European Research Group don’t object noisily to May’s proposed
MY witness saw Scottish Tory “grope” MP Ross Thomson unsteady on his feet in a Commons bar before police arrived. Was he drunk on power? TAKING incompetence to new lows, bungling Chris “Failing” Grayling’s survival illustrates Theresa May’s fatal weakness.
Scuttling Seaborne Freight’s £13.8million Brexit ferry contract should see our worst-ever Transport Secretary sacked. Gruesome Grayling is a public car crash, derailing trains and grounding planes, yet he remains in the Cabinet.
Cronyism is a factor when he ran May’s 2016 leadership concessions to Labour, because once Britain is out of Europe, any commitments on jobs and other areas can be broken, explained Heaton-Harris.
“The ERG are relaxed about it because it’s domestic, so they know they will be able to change it later – and even if it’s in the agreement, there won’t be any supervision or enforcement,” the Brexit Minister told the meeting. And he’s absolutely right.
Membership of the European Union prevents the Conservatives abolishing campaign. So, too, May’s terror of creating fresh enemies after nine Cabinet sackings and resignations in 16 months. But his survival is mainly due to backing us quitting Europe nearly three years ago, so May is unable to afford another Brextremist rubbishing her bad deal. The inept Minister couldn’t run a bath, never mind transport, but trying to stay afloat leaves May as weak as water. employment and social protections, such as guaranteed paid holidays hated by right-wing Tories plotting Brexit. The likes of Liam Fox, Jacob Rees-Mogg and UKIP partnerin-crime Nigel Farage dream of transforming our country into a rich man’s Treasure Island playground for the world’s elite. Slashing taxes on the wealthy, while simultaneously eroding the rights of the many and running down already-stretched public services, would be their plans for Brexit Britain. Shrewd Margaret Beckett, Labour’s wily former acting leader and Cabinet Minister, stated the obvious that May’s pledges are meaningless when she won’t be around for much longer. How valueless they are is underlined by Heaton-Harris candidly conceding that a large chunk, perhaps a majority, of Tory MPs don’t intend to keep them once we leave the EU. May’s letter to Corbyn mocking the Labour leader’s hostility to a potentially Brexit-saving second referendum is a PM laughing at her compromised opponent. THE jailing of vile anti-Semitic
» trolls who horribly abuse Jewish Luciana Berger is why the Liverpool Labour MP is entitled to unqualified sympathy and solidarity. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell is right – she could end speculation about quitting the party.
Equally the party, locally and nationally, should recognise why a frightened young mother feels unsupported. TOMORROW night I am MC-ing in London’s
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Conway Hall a celebration of Harry Leslie Smith, with Jeremy Corbyn topping the speakers hailing a rebel with a noble cause. The death, aged 95, of Tory austerity’s trenchant critic was sad but the legacy of a great, great man is to inspire beyond the grave.