ANDREW PIERCE: Labour’s dirty tricks insult the work of Jo Cox
After one of the ugliest by-elections of recent times, social media is still awash with stories of racist abuse and misinformation in Batley and Spen.
The dirty tricks included a Labour leaflet with a photograph of Boris Johnson shaking hands with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next to a slogan warning voters not to risk a ‘Tory MP who is not on your side’.
It was clear dog-whistle politics, playing up to the perceived hostility of the constituency’s large Muslim population to Hindu-dominated India and the leaflet was rightly condemned by Labour Friends Of India.
So what would Lance Price, a senior aide to Tony Blair in 10 Downing Street and friend of the winning candidate Kim Leadbeater, have made of the ugly smear?
The dirty tricks included a Labour leaflet with a photograph of Boris Johnson shaking hands with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next to a slogan warning voters not to risk a ‘Tory MP who is not on your side’
Kim Leadbeater of the Labour Party sticks up her thumb as she reacts to the media after winning the Batley and Spen by-election
Leadbeater is the sister of Jo Cox, the Batley MP who was murdered by a Right-wing fanatic in 2016 and Price was once communications director of the Jo Cox Foundation, which was set up to ‘bring together people and organisations to build the fairer, kinder, more tolerant world the late MP Jo Cox believed in’.
The Modi smear doesn’t quite fit in with that admirable philosophy. Nor does it square with Price’s past association with the Indian leader.
In 2015 he was given unfettered access to Modi in the course of writing a book called The Modi Effect: Inside Narendra Modi’s Campaign To Transform India, which was widely regarded as a gushing work of hagiography.
Quite how he’d be received in New Delhi these days is anyone’s guess.
Unkindest cut for Saj
Sajid Javid made an expensive decision to return to the Cabinet. He not only had to surrender a £150,000-a-year post with merchant bank J.P. Morgan but another £150,000 role, plus £45,000 in share options, with C3.ai software
New Health Secretary Sajid Javid made an expensive decision to return to the Cabinet.
He not only had to surrender a £150,000-a-year post with merchant bank J.P. Morgan but another £150,000 role, plus £45,000 in share options, with C3.ai software.
All this in addition to his £82,000 MP’s salary. In the Cabinet he’ll be paid a comparatively meagre £149,000.
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty isn’t the only victim of selfie-seekers.
Former Tory health minister Edwina Currie says: ‘I was stopped once by a gaggle of girls in Manchester city centre.
Grabbed, selfied — then I heard one ask another: ‘I know she’s famous . . . but who is she?’ ‘
Sir Keir Starmer made a cringeworthy attempt to piggyback on England’s Euros win saying: ‘Labour’s coming home.’
Was the speech crafted by new comms director Matthew Doyle? ‘Labour’s coming home’ was first used by Tony Blair, who Doyle worked for over many years.
Leaders of the LGBT community were last week entertained by Boris Johnson at a Downing Street reception.
The guests included Pedro Pina, a vice president of Google, who said he was ‘privileged’ to be invited.
Afterwards he praised Boris as ‘courageous and committed to fighting for LGBT rights’.
He’s changed his tune. In January he mocked Boris on social media as a ‘clown’ and his allies in No 10 as ‘cronies’ after the U-turn on free school meals in the summer holidays.
Who’s just perfect for Hancock
Sky will broadcast a five-part drama series about the Government’s handling of the pandemic called This Sceptred Isle. Matt Hancock (left) will be played by Andrew Buchan (right), a star of the TV series Broadchurch
Will Hancock’s fall from grace make the small screen?
Next year Sky will broadcast a five-part drama series about the Government’s handling of the pandemic called This Sceptred Isle. Hancock, 42, will be played by Andrew Buchan, also 42, a star of the TV series Broadchurch.
If the producers include his affair with Gina Coladangelo, 42, maybe Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker, 39, who played Buchan’s wife in Broadchurch, would fit the bill.
Two peers overheard in the Lords discussing the resignation of Hancock: ‘Behind the rise of a successful man is his woman. Behind his fall is usually another woman.’ Indeed.
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