“I’ve always thought we were better off trying to work it from within. That basically became untenable. I just felt there was no choice, I just felt it would be irresponsible of me, knowing what I do about the EU … I thought it would be just lazy of me not to stand up and be counted.” What he says next could come straight from the mouth of Jeremy Corbyn. The EU is “just a massive stitch-up. It is the elites and the great corporate class meeting together, cooking things up in a way that I think is antidemocratic.”
– Interview, Sunday Times (£)
Comment:
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: If the Chancellor really wants to “get stuck in”, why won’t he face the ex-Mayor in the TV debates?
“Tory MPs say high command is already preparing for defeat and has encouraged a “save Dave” operation in the Commons. Several say they were approached by the MP Robert Syms and urged to sign a letter saying that Cameron should be allowed to remain as prime minister for several months if he loses the referendum, rather than be ousted in a coup. One MP said of Syms: “He is licensed to tap people on the shoulder and ask if they want to sign a letter — it is quite a desperate ‘save Dave’ operation.”” – Sunday Times (£)
Comment:
“John Major was wrong about Boris Johnson and has forgotten how cross he was with me when I put Boris on the candidate list to become an MP. Boris was plainly a Eurosceptic and was busy riling our high command by writing disobliging articles from Brussels. Nor is it in the interest of the “remain” campaign to demonise Boris. It is best to play the ball and not the man. Were I still chief whip, my friend Amber Rudd would be summoned to my office for an interview without coffee.” – Sunday Times (£)
Leave:
Editorials:
>Today:
“David Cameron was facing mounting pressure over his controversial overseas aid programme last night after a senior Tory MP branded it ‘public relations above real generosity’. Former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis urged the Prime Minister to scrap the fixed target for how much Britain spends a year on international aid. Mr Davis said the UK should return to a policy of providing financial help if and when it is needed, adding: ‘You can’t calculate generosity.’ – Mail on Sunday
Comment:
“The Conservative Party faces a £2million bill for clearing up the Tatler Tory scandal, it emerged last night. And elections for posts in the party’s youth wing are set to be banned to stop a repeat of the vicious infighting that led to the death of young activist Elliott Johnson. The disclosures came as senior Conservatives said the internal inquiry into Mr Johnson’s suicide is nearly complete.” – Mail on Sunday
“Umunna believes Labour has lost touch with many areas of society: voters in the old industrial heartlands, black and minority ethnic communities, “where we are shedding support at an alarming rate”, and the aspirational lower middle class. “These three groups have left our coalition, and this is just the start of it. The challenge for us is not to go, in a clinical way, ‘Oh, what appeals to these three groups?’ and we’ll just say it. You need an overarching story, an idea of where Britain can go.” – The Observer
“The belated discovery that our party leadership is so out of touch has sparked a new, frantic drive to convert them back to the European Union cause – with even Jeremy Corbyn set to be ordered back on to the airwaves to argue for something we all know he doesn’t really believe in. So how did the great and good in my party get so detached from what ordinary working people – especially in our Northern heartlands – feel about Brussels? The answer is immigration.” – Mail on Sunday
>Yesterday:
“Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said Sir Philip Green should lose his knighthood if he won’t face MPs over BHS collapse. The Labour MP, who is renowned for his staunch socialist stance, unleashed a scathing attack on the ‘ugly face of British capitalism’ as he called for the billionaire tycoon to be punished.” – Mail on Sunday
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News in Brief: