“David Cameron was handed £200,000 by his mother because she felt his £300,000 inheritance from his father was not large enough, Downing Street revealed last night, as the full extent of the prime minister’s wealth was laid bare. In a historic move that will transform British politics, the prime minister released a summary of his tax returns for the past six years, establishing a precedent that will force every future party leader to come clean about their private finances” – Sunday Times (£)
>Yesterday:
“Britain has given more than £400m in aid money to 18 countries regarded as tax havens, including Panama — which even received cash from the UK taxpayer to fund a study into the impact of climate change on turtles. The central American country at the heart of the world’s biggest data leak — the so-called Panama papers — has been handed at least £6.3m in UK aid over a five-year period” – Sunday Times (£)
>Yesterday:
“Boris Johnson will be handed a major cabinet post by the prime minister in a ‘reconciliation reshuffle’ after the European Union referendum… The reshuffle — expected to be more radical than Cameron’s previous shake-ups — will also see Michael Gove given greater responsibilities. The option of him becoming deputy prime minister is under consideration in No 10” – Sunday Times (£)
“Rebel Tory MP Sir Bill Cash last night threatened to bring the Government ‘grinding to a halt’ in protest at David Cameron’s £9 million pro-Brussels mailshot. And anti-EU MPs plan to boycott a Tory ‘away day’ hosted by the Prime Minister this week… Sir Bill will tomorrow lead an attempt by Eurosceptic Tory MPs to sabotage the Budget by forcing a Commons vote on the Finance Bill” – Mail on Sunday
“The one great hope is that a British exit might provide the EU with the necessary shock therapy to recognise that it must change or face the potential breakup of the entire political architecture. The fundamental reform that Britain has wanted, but which has been completely rejected, will still be required to prevent Europe and its citizens from facing continued decline and increasing irrelevance in global economic and political affairs” – Liam Fox, Sunday Times (£)
>Today:
“The Conservative cabinet minister in charge of trying to save jobs in the steel industry is considering plans to cut up to 4,000 employees in his own department and its agencies, and slash costs even more deeply than George Osborne’s austerity requires, according to official leaked documents. Sajid Javid, the business secretary and former banker, ordered a review of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) from management consultants McKinsey” – Observer
“I liked George in a way I never liked David. Their private personalities are in direct contrast to their public ones. On a political stage, David is more commanding; not only clever, but sometimes deceptively charming, while George can seem as stiff as a martinet. In private, however, George is a gossip par excellence, amusing even… To understand the Chancellor, you must understand what it is to be partly Hungarian” – Petronella Wyatt, Mail on Sunday
“The secret father of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, did not go to church and was described yesterday by his stepson as a man who was ‘brought alive like an old dog by beautiful girls with good brains’. Welby, 60, confirmed this weekend that a DNA test had shown he was the illegitimate son of Sir Anthony Montague Browne, Winston Churchill’s private secretary” – Sunday Times (£)
“The emerging strain of anti-semitism in Labour has virtually nothing to do with ethnic or religious background, however, and has been roundly condemned by Labour’s Muslim MPs… Its chief proponents are the largely white, middle-class leftwingers who secured Corbyn’s election as party leader and are now entering into positions of influence” – Adam Boulton, Sunday Times (£)
“Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for London mayor, was yesterday criticised by two senior cabinet ministers over his views on extremism as it emerged that he had once suggested that sharia justice should be incorporated into British courts… Michael Gove, the justice secretary, said: “There can be absolutely no place for sharia law in our justice system’” – Sunday Times (£)
“I cannot imagine Ted Cruz as president of the United States. Despite his emphatic defeat of Donald Trump in the Wisconsin primary. Despite the ever-louder chorus of voices saying he is the only man who can deny Trump the Republican nomination” – Niall Ferguson, Sunday Times (£)