“Theresa May could be hauled before MPs to explain what she knew about allegations of racism and bullying levelled at the former head of the troubled inquiry into historic child sex abuse claims. Tim Loughton, acting chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, yesterday said MPs would consider summoning the Prime Minister if they failed to get answers from officials over the abrupt departure of Dame Justice Lowell Goddard as the inquiry’s third chairman.” – Daily Mail
More May:
“The chancellor has angered Eurosceptic ministers by calling for a delay on migration curbs that would lead to a hard Brexit and dismay business. Philip Hammond suggested that members of the Brexit cabinet committee should continue examining options after Amber Rudd, the home secretary, put forward plans for a visa-entry scheme for skilled migrants. Her plan would close the door to low-skilled migrants from the EU. Mr Hammond made the intervention at a meeting last Wednesday of the Brexit cabinet sub-committee.” – The Times (£)
More Cabinet:
Comment:
Editorial:
>Today: ToryDiary: That difficult imponderable debatable early general election
>Yesterday: Chris Bryce in Comment: Hammond has a chance to reset policy towards the smallest businesses
“Boris Johnson has said his attempt to write an article making the case for staying in the EU had made it ‘blindingly obvious’ he should back Brexit… It was never published. Instead, Mr Johnson released an alternative version in which he broke with Mr Cameron and made the case for Brexit. Yesterday he said he had written the pro-EU article as an exercise to test out his decision. He added: ‘Everybody was trying to make up their minds about whether or not to leave the European Union and it is perfectly true that back in February I was wrestling with it, like I think a lot of people in this country, and I wrote a long piece which came down overwhelmingly in favour of leaving.” – Daily Mail
More Brexit:
The Union:
More Johnson:
Comment:
“I can well remember having conversations with Boris just days before he came out for Leave, having myself already declared. During our conversations I could see how he was rehearsing both arguments, testing my view that the best outcome for the UK was to leave. Yet when he finally told me he was joining Vote Leave, his reasoning was clear and unequivocal. I am certain the pro-EU article was just part of his hair-rumpling rumination.” – The Times (£)
>Today: Nadhim Zahawi’s column: The claim that Brexit-set Britain will be a racist country is contemptible. And I’m living proof that it isn’t true.
>Yesterday:
“Multi-millionaire Tory MP Zac Goldsmith will resign his Commons seat in protest if Theresa May gives the green light to Heathrow expansion. And he said she risks losing MPs and councils if she backs a new runway at the airport as voters show their anger at the ballot box. The Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith, whose constituency is under the flightpath, said expanding the west London hub would prove to be a “political millstone” for the Prime Minister and urged her to reconsider.” – The Sun
“Theresa May’s obsession with grammar schools will harm education and wider society, Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of Ofsted, has claimed. The chief inspector of schools, who retires in December, said the policy would lower standards for the majority of children and was socially divisive. Instead the prime minister should order an expansion of vocational and technical education to address skills shortages that would worsen after Brexit, he said.” – The Times (£)
“Shami Chakrabarti was under fire from MPs last night after refusing to say whether she was offered a peerage by Jeremy Corbyn before producing a ‘whitewash’ report on Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis. The powerful cross-party Commons home affairs committee condemned Labour’s shadow attorney-general for refusing to come clean about the issue, which it said had ‘completely undermined’ her report into anti-Semitism in the party. In a withering verdict, MPs said Lady Chakrabarti’s decision to accept a peerage and a job from Mr Corbyn ‘have thrown into question her claims that her inquiry was truly independent’. ” – Daily Mail
More Labour:
Comment:
Editorial:
>Yesterday: Video: WATCH: Gisela Stuart recounts having witnessed anti-semitism in the Labour Party