UK Political Editor for Bloomberg awickham8@bloomberg.net

London, England
Delighted to become new @BloombergUK political editor, following the legendary @kitty_donaldson As always please get in touch with any stories / tips / if you fancy lunch — even if you’re not free for six weeks…
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Elon Musk has called for far-right agitator Tommy Robinson to be released from prison, suggested the US should exert economic pressure on the UK to get him out, said Jess Phillips should be jailed and said there should be fresh elections to oust Labour bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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BREAKING: Boris Johnson says the NHS will be "overwhelmed" and Britain will become like Italy unless people immediately follow social distancing orders His starkest warning to the nation yet about what is coming PM says people must not visit their mothers on mother's day
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BBC inexplicably cut away from Hancock press conference for the weather. Would politely suggest that when none of us can go outside the health secretary's update is slightly more important FFS
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Hearing from a source with knowledge that one of the big six English clubs is now seriously considering pulling out of the Super League They are accusing Liverpool and Manchester United — the 2 clubs leading the breakaway — of lying to them and “f***ing up” Major split in ESL
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NEW: The German Health Ministry has DENIED the Handelsblatt report claiming the AstraZeneca vaccine had only 8% efficacy for over-65s They say there has been confusion and 8% actually refers to the number of people in the study between 56 and 69 years old Oh my word...
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Sunak says as a Southampton fan he wants to get back to winning ways by beating Man United this weekend. Southampton are playing Leicester on Saturday.
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Huge story… leaked memo shows Biden promised Boris Johnson and G7 leaders in June that the US would maintain enough of a security presence in Afghanistan that they would keep Kabul safe — then failed to keep that commitment
NEW: Biden assured key allies in June that US security enablers would remain in place in Afghanistan as NATO troops withdrew, so much so that U.K. thought it could maintain its Kabul embassy bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Tory MP: “I’m afraid Keir Starmer asked the killer question. Is there a single phrase of the withdrawal agreement different from what was agreed in November? The answer is no.”
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ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry” nitter.app/BrexitFails/status/145…
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Ahead of new PM statement — total fury across govt tonight at people flouting social distancing orders — in particular men and younger men — images of London parks packed with people over the weekend have shocked Whitehall — they believed people would behave more responsibly
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NEW: A furious Keir Starmer says the overcrowding crisis in prisons is worse than he previously thought and it’s become his main domestic priority He blasted the “terrible” state of public services left by Sunak “Some of what we’ve found is shocking” bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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A senior government source wishes Bercow well “Bercow thinks he’ll walk away as a hero, when most people in the country don’t know who he is and those that do think he’s a nauseating wanker. The man has been central to stopping Brexit - the nation won’t thank him.”
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What a story - firm had profits of just £317,000 pre-pandemic, now up 21,700% to £69 million after getting a £149 million PPE contract from the govt. £108 million of the equipment was useless.
EXCLUSIVE: A businessman made £70m in profit on contract for PPE that was 70% unused — and celebrated his birthday last week by eating “briefcase of cash” cake on private yacht Philip Johnson has paid himself £13m dividend as family lives life of luxury thetimes.co.uk/article/dde89…
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NEW: The UK only realised "in the last few days" that attempts to "mitigate" the coronavirus pandemic would not work, and that it needed to shift to a strategy to "suppress", according to a report by a team of experts who have been advising the government buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/cor…
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Jeremy Hunt video says that when he set out as an entrepreneur it was a “daily grind just to stay alive, just to pay the bills” That’s Jeremy Hunt, son of Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt and Lady Hunt, Charterhouse, PPE at Oxford, worth £14 million, richest member of the cabinet...
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Boris Johnson attended mass at a Ukrainian church in London this evening
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3% of Brits agree with Trump that Ukraine started the war with Russia 77% say Russia started it. Via YouGov Not much space left in British politics for anyone backing Trump now
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Latest interaction with the broken British state Elderly relative gets @HMRCgovuk letter threatening £10-a-day fine for a late tax return for a deceased relative (of course no tax is due) Try to call HMRC, no one available (of course) so it says use online chat Online chat says nobody is around to speak (of course), so use AI chatbot Chatbot says call (of course) No way of emailing or contacting them Meanwhile the fine apparently goes up How many elderly people do they hound who don’t have younger relatives to sort things out for them? Dread to think. When do you ever hear a politician talk about anything like this?
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Exclusive: Senior politicians on the UK right have privately contacted Donald Trump’s allies urging them not to endorse far-right activist Tommy Robinson The view in both the Tory party and Reform is that Elon Musk has gone too far by backing Robinson bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Two remarkable lines in today’s papers from @Steven_Swinford @benrileysmith — UK military left in the dark by the US about timings and pace of their withdrawal… UK official confirms this is the case — Biden ignored Boris Johnson’s attempts to speak on the phone for 36+ hours
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Exclusive: Keir Starmer is for the first time facing criticism from within his cabinet over the Chagos deal *One person says they don’t understand why the UK is sending so much money to Mauritius when the Treasury is asking departments to make brutal spending cuts at home *Another says Starmer should cancel the deal *They both blame the situation on legal advice from Richard Hermer, the attorney general *But a source insists the UK isn’t doubling the payment to Mauritius and it won’t be £18b, saying it would always have been index-linked bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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NEW: Have spoken to multiple special advisers who say they and their cabinet ministers will refuse to work with Andrew Sabisky — they won’t attend meetings where he is present or respond to his emails — they will tell Boris Johnson to overrule Dominic Cummings and sack Sabisky
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Trump lands in UK and says as he comes off the plane: "Immigration is killing Europe" “You better get your act together” "And another thing - stop the windmills, killing the beauty of your country"
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Where they stand ahead of the vote Telegraph: no deal The Sun: no deal Spectator: no deal Daily Mail: May’s deal Mail on Sunday: May’s deal Times: May’s deal FT: May’s deal Express: May’s deal Guido: May’s deal Mirror: election Guardian: second ref Indy: second ref
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NEW: Boris Johnson has today backed a Singapore-style tax free port at Bristol… six weeks after receiving a £25,000 payment from the owners of Bristol port Cash-for-policy questions for the Tory leadership frontrunner: buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/bor…
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Oof... internal moves underway at ITN to pressure bosses into reinstating Alastair Stewart — Staff signing petition — Senior ITN source: “Anna Mallett and her wingman Chris Shaw must come out and explain why they have hung him out for a public shaming. It is a total disgrace.“
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Barry Gardiner latest — accepted huge sums of money from a Chinese spy over several years — gave a job to the spy’s son, who was in post until MI5 intervened today — spoke in favour of Chinese state interests on multiple occasions — last spoke to the agent *this week*
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Govt figures scathing over Sturgeon preempting UK Cobra announcement — then announcing Scottish-only measures that she admits are not based on science Source: "She is a total disgrace. This is a nationalist politician playing populist politics with a global crisis"
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Channel 4 are planning to put up a lectern with Boris Johnson's name on it in large letters and keep it in shot throughout Sunday night's debate if he doesn't show "It will be very obvious to viewers all the way through the 90 minutes" – source
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Uh oh - @RhonddaBryant tells @SamCoatesSky that he has photos on his phone of Tory whips manhandling MPs to force them to vote with the govt
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Jeremy Hunt on Brexit June 2016: Backs 2nd ref Nov 2018: Says 2nd ref “profoundly undemocratic” Jun 2016: Says UK must stay in single market Jan 2019: Says UK voted to leave SM Apr 2019: ‘I would choose no deal over no Brexit’ May 2019: No deal would be “political suicide”
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Look at twitter right now. Everything people are saying is true. So incredibly proud of the BuzzFeed UK team, which punched so far above its weight and did some really amazing journalism. Snap them up - they’re brilliant, you won’t regret it.
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The Tories accepted £146,750 of donations in November and December from Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of one of Putin’s former ministers, eight months after the Skripal poisonings. She donated another £100,000 to the party in March.
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NEW: Keir Starmer calls Zelenskyy and tells him Trump is wrong “The Prime Minister expressed his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during WWII.”
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New: The Lobby has staged a walkout in protest at No10 attempting to remove journalists from left-of-centre publications from a Downing Street briefing
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Very very good news from Public Health England: the vaccine works on the Delta/Indian variant Pfizer 96% effective against hospitalisation after 2 doses AstraZeneca 92% effective against hospitalisation after 2 doses This is a lot better than experts had previously feared
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Confirmed: No10 has decided Philip Hammond, David Gauke, Dominic Grieve and co will have the Conservative whip withdrawn if they do not vote with the government on Tuesday
NEW: A Tory MP has told BuzzFeed News their whip informed them tonight that any MP who does not vote with the government this week will immediately have the whip withdrawn and be deselected The MP thinks this includes anyone who abstains on the anti no-deal legislation
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Epic trolling: Boris Johnson announces 60 million Novavax vaccines to be made at Barnard Castle plant of GSK
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Rishi Sunak and David Cameron are attempting to feed sheep at a farm in North Devon. The sheep have run away.
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NEW: UK Govt condemns @ChelseaFC statement in extremely strong terms
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Both Labour sources and some Tories are saying this is the most jaw-dropping moment of the week: the claim that Sunak misled a grieving mother about introducing legislation in her son’s name. ‘Psychotic’ says a Labour source. ‘Staggering’ says a Tory…
🔴 Manchester bombing victim’s mother feels ‘misled’ by Rishi Sunak Figen Murray, the mother of Martyn Hett, says PM promised on Wednesday to introduce a new law in her son’s name to Parliament before recess telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05…
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I’m afraid No10 also called a line I wrote two weeks ago that Cummings initially didn’t see coronavirus as a top priority “bollocks”. It was not bollocks - it is true. And the characterisation in @ShippersUnbound piece today has been backed up by many over the last 10 days.
No 10 pushing back very hard on those Dominic Cummings comments in the Sunday Times, which are apparently "absolute bollocks"
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** NEW: It was Suella Braverman who made the decision to stop booking hotels for Manston migrants, according to six current and former senior govt sources ** ** This led to unlawful detentions and was a ministerial code breach, two senior sources said ** bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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New: Labour to vote against policing bill on Tuesday
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Err. Here is the opening line of the BBC documentary on Hitler on TV tonight. Punchy to say the least...
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That is pretty damning for Swinson
Replying to @adam_heilbron
Jo Swinson, 2008
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Proper alarm in govt now at lack of economic measures to accompany PM announcement affecting businesses In France Macron has just unveiled economic package and vowed "no company of any size will be allowed to go bankrupt"
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Told Labour have long-term adverts targeting every Tory MP who voted to stitch up scrutiny of their behaviour ready to go live
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Alastair Campbell has just claimed the Brexit Party "lost" in Wales because it got below 50%... the Brexit Party came 1st in Wales by an absolute mile, dear oh dear hope Labour rebels aren't basing their strategy on Bad Al
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Possibly the boldest election advert in history just released by CCHQ
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Gove makes the point that the PM does not always attend Cobra meetings, and that the point of Cobra is the relevant people attend and then report back to him. To be fair that is true
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Johnson confirms he is rejecting Neil interview Senior Con source: “The public are fed up with interviews that are all about the interviewer and endless interruptions. The format is tired and broken and needs to change if it is to start engaging and informing the public again.”
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New defence secretary John Healey is in Odesa for Ukraine’s Navy Day
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NEW: @BloombergUK Saturday read *Sunak in crisis* — CCHQ now fears Reform poll crossover + Canada ‘93 wipeout — PM ‘despondent’ — Cabinet ministers say snap election was catastrophic error — they question his judgement, competence — strategy in tatters bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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EXC: SAGE has told Boris Johnson he has to keep schools closed in January and order a stricter national lockdown than November’s to prevent the virus spiralling out of control politico.eu/article/coronavi…
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This morning's new Brexit Party candidates: environmentalist, Afghan vet, charity director, entrepreneur, nurse This morning's new Change UK candidates: Boris Johnson's sister, two former Tory MPs, that BBC guy and QC who tweet a lot...
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NEW: Waheed Alli profile @BloombergUK *he’s still attending No10 meetings despite having pass removed *close relationship with Sue Gray makes him ever-present figure *he’s donated more than £575,000 to Labour politicians in 4 years *intimate donor dinners at his Mayfair home *lavish late night pool parties with Cabinet ministers at his Kent mansion *he’s the donor to go to when Labour politicians need a suit, loan or birthday party paid for *£14,000 for ‘events’ for Bridget Phillipson shortly before her 40th bday With @PronouncedAlva @JamieNimmo63 >> bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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20 Tory MPs voted for Cooper amendment Allen Bebb Benyon Boles Clarke Djanogly Fallon Freeman Greening Grieve Gyimah Lee Letwin Morgan Neill Sandbach Soames Soubry Vaizey Wollaston
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Told Boris Johnson is furious that details of the imminent lockdown were leaked from yesterday’s meeting to Sky/Times/Mail, and has ordered a leak inquiry. No10 insist they didn’t brief it and that whoever is responsible has damaged trust in the middle of a public health crisis👀
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NEW: A Tory MP has told BuzzFeed News their whip informed them tonight that any MP who does not vote with the government this week will immediately have the whip withdrawn and be deselected The MP thinks this includes anyone who abstains on the anti no-deal legislation
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McDonnell speech — 4 day working week (32 hours) within a decade — end in-work poverty in first term — end opt-out from European Working Time Directive — Real Living Wage of £10+ per hour — rollout collective bargaining — end Universal Credit rollout — cap rents — 1m new homes
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NEW: Boris Johnson's senior aides have ordered Tory MPs to call the EU 'crazy' if it rejects their new Brexit proposals Internal memo sent tonight reveals how the govt plans to blame Brussels for 'ending negotiations' if talks break down Read it here: buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/eu-…
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Over three days of talks the government offered no changes to the political declaration, essentially asking Labour to support the same deal that has been rejected three times. Almost as if the whole thing was yet another charade by No10 to wind the clock down to a final vote.
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West Yorkshire police chief "disappointed" to see his officers used as backdrop for PM's speech — it was the police's understanding they would only be used to promote recruitment — "we had no prior knowledge" PM speech "would be broadened to other issues until it was delivered"
Statement from West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable John Robins on yesterday's Ministerial visit.
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Wow. Albert Uderzo, 87 year old creator of Asterix cartoons, comes out of retirement to pay tribute to Paris victims:
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Corbyn — election after extension — new publicly owned drugs manufacturer — end Trade Union Act — no one has to work after 75 — free prescriptions — free personal care — tax rise for top 5% — Crossrail for North — restore bus services — massive investment in green energy/ tech
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New study shows AstraZeneca and Pfizer have similar instances of blood clots, and that blood clots are far far more likely in covid patients that people who’ve had the AZ jab. U.K. officials react with genuine fury at EU leaders who trashed AZ politi.co/3svJcDk
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Senior Tory source declares war on the BBC on Brexit night “Only the BBC could have a special programme on Brexit where the studio is emblazoned with EU colours, they refuse to run the PM’s address, get to Brexit 15 mins in then go to Farage, Widdecombe and a load of Remainers”
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Wonder how Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt feel about No10 making them do a broadcast round praising the "legally significant changes" to the deal (before they'd seen the legal advice), only for the AG to then dump on it
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Rolling list of Conservative MPs who’ve announced that they’re standing down at the next election: 1. Chloe Smith 2. William Wragg 3. Gary Streeter 4. Nigel Adams 5. Charles Walker 6. Crispin Blunt 7. Adam Afriyie 8. Dehenna Davison
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Every motion loses No deal loses 160-400 Common Market 2.0 loses 188-283 Efta/EEA loses 65-377 Customs union loses 264-272 Labour alt plan loses 237-307 Revoke A50 loses 184-293 2nd referendum loses 268-295 Managed no deal loses 139-422
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10 Tory rebels who voted with Corbyn to stop no-deal Brexit Guto Bebb Ken Clarke Jonathan Djanogly Justine Greening Dominic Grieve Sam Gyimah Philip Lee Oliver Letwin Antoinette Sandbach Caroline Spelman
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BREAKING: 21 year old Dylan Earl has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for assisting Russia’s intelligence services over the warehouse fire Jake Reeves gets 12 years Huge sentences under the new National Security Act — a warning to anyone considering being a Russian proxy
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NEW: Boris Johnson's government pushes back strongly against the Sunday Times story with a rebuttal from a senior Whitehall source They say the claim Johnson "skipped 5 Cobra meetings" is "fundamentally mendacious" and deliberately misunderstands how Cobra works
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💥 Boris Johnson set to hire Chloe Westley from the Taxpayers' Alliance as his digital adviser in No10. Former Vote Leave campaigner and pro-Brexit talking head who you will know from your TV screens
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Remember Tory MPs piling into Labour for not adopting the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism and trying to come up with their own definition instead? Well now the government is doing exactly the same on Islamophobia
EXCLUSIVE: Theresa May is to reject the British Muslims APPG definition of Islamophobia on free speech grounds buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/the…
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Change UK have changed their name again... their twitter handle was @TheIndGroup until an hour ago when it inexplicably became @ForChange_Now... which is somehow even more confusing and less catchy, and also means they've lost their blue tick 👏
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Exclusive by @LucyGJWhite *Kemi Badenoch is running her leadership campaign from the house of a wealthy donor *she hasn’t yet declared the donation-in-kind to parliamentary authorities *it comes despite Tory criticism of Starmer using Waheed Alli’s flat for the same purpose *Neil Record is a currency trader, anti-net zero campaigner and former Institute of Economic Affairs chair *Record tells Bloomberg that Badenoch’s team asked CCHQ for advice and were told they didn’t need to declare the use of the property *but CCHQ says that advice applied to an internal log not the parliamentary register… *Badenoch spox says she hasn’t done anything wrong bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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NEW: Reform’s tax and spend plans would crash the pound and send mortgage costs soaring, according to a former Bank of England policy maker who predicted the disastrous fallout from Liz Truss’ mini-budget By @PhilAldrick >> bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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The Handelsblatt guy has obvs had a mare but it doesn't take away from the fact that German government officials have been briefing against the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine amid EU rollout problems... pretty shocking for UK-EU relations... imagine if the shoe were on the other foot
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BREAKING: Boris Johnson has ordered a full UK-wide lockdown “From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction — you must stay at home.”
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Jonathan Van Tam rocket for the EU: "Vaccines don't save lives if they're in fridges, they only save lives if they're in arms"
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NEW: The UK will send more Storm Shadow long-range missiles to Ukraine as part of its single biggest military aid package to the country since Russia’s invasion Britain is also sending more than 1,600 strike and air defense missiles £500m of new spending
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NEW: UK govt sources tell Olaf Scholz to stop talking about British activity in Ukraine and send Germany’s Taurus missiles there now — Germany should “stop making excuses” and give Ukraine long-range missiles, says a UK govt source bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Slipped out under the cover of a busy news week... another massive effective tax rise for young people already screwed by broken university system and scandalous interest rates... on top of NI rise to subsidise social care...
No 10 plans to lower salary level at which graduates start repaying loans on.ft.com/3kIewgz
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Look forward to No10 “expressing full confidence” in Cressida Dick and the Met on Monday morning, rather than requiring her resignation tonight
Women being snatched by police at the vigil for Sarah Everard. Shameful, shameful scenes.
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EXCLUSIVE: — Internal Treasury analysis advised Rishi Sunak that tax cuts would have only a “low impact” on boosting economic growth — Leaked documents show the Treasury suggested increasing immigration and planning reform would do more bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Those names in full The Independent Group Change UK Change UK - The Independent Group ForChange_Now The Independent Group for Change It's not even been four months
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Donald Tusk, 11:41am: "I strongly believe a common solution is possible and I will do everything in my power to find it" Donald Tusk, 11:42am: "I've been wondering what that special place in hell looks like for those who promoted Brexit"
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Judgement handed down in Court of Appeal Lord Chief Justice has ruled BeLeave *was* a permitted participant and entitled to the donations made to it - contrary to Electoral Commission view - and so its return was correct (From this stemmed allegations against Darren Grimes)
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Farage the only UK party leader not to make clear he disagrees with Trump today
NEW: Keir Starmer calls Zelenskyy and tells him Trump is wrong “The Prime Minister expressed his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during WWII.”
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Tory source on May bus tour: "It was a bus of failure. Every-fucking-where we went we lost."
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Suspect Musk endorsing Robinson is as tricky for Farage as it is for anyone else. Farage has long distanced himself from Robinson seeing him as way too extreme. Now Musk has gone somewhere Farage never wanted to. Note no tweets from Farage today on this. Uncomfortable…
Elon Musk has called for far-right agitator Tommy Robinson to be released from prison, suggested the US should exert economic pressure on the UK to get him out, said Jess Phillips should be jailed and said there should be fresh elections to oust Labour bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Keir Starmer asked if football is coming home in his bilat with Joe Biden “It looks like it” “It’s because of the prime minister,” the president replied
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