This Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy

[Alcibiades]

I have to say, this caught me out. I clearly haven’t been keeping close enough tabs on Tory internal drama, but I never really had Jenrick down as notably right-wing or as an immigration hardliner. Some sort of galaxy-brained careerist ploy in anticipation of a hard right candidate winning the leadership after the general election?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Some sort of galaxy-brained careerist ploy in anticipation of a hard right candidate winning the leadership after the general election?

Probably. He is young for a politician and is exceedingly ambitious.

[Blair]

I might be wrong but the coalition and Blair years had v few resignations over policy matters among senior ministers but it’s just been so chaotic since 2019.

I have to say, this caught me out. I clearly haven’t been keeping close enough tabs on Tory internal drama, but I never really had Jenrick down as notably right-wing or as an immigration hardliner. Some sort of galaxy-brained careerist ploy in anticipation of a hard right candidate winning the leadership after the general election?

It was reported he was put in the position to be a no.2 to Braverman and ensure Sunak had an ally to watch over her; but it’s been reported for months that he’s been one of those pushing a lot of the harder policy options.

He isn’t the first minister to have this happen in the Home Office (the wisdom being the Home Office makes you v right wing on law and order and the FCO turns you into a liberal) but still seeing as there’s a chance they will be on what 150 seats after the next election he might be planning ahead.

[TheTide]

Sunak to hold a press conference at 11. He has the same knack as May for doing these, and they are invariably worse than useless.

[EastAnglianLefty]

I might be wrong but the coalition and Blair years had v few resignations over policy matters among senior ministers but it’s just been so chaotic since 2019.

I have to say, this caught me out. I clearly haven’t been keeping close enough tabs on Tory internal drama, but I never really had Jenrick down as notably right-wing or as an immigration hardliner. Some sort of galaxy-brained careerist ploy in anticipation of a hard right candidate winning the leadership after the general election?

It was reported he was put in the position to be a no.2 to Braverman and ensure Sunak had an ally to watch over her; but it’s been reported for months that he’s been one of those pushing a lot of the harder policy options.

He isn’t the first minister to have this happen in the Home Office (the wisdom being the Home Office makes you v right wing on law and order and the FCO turns you into a liberal) but still seeing as there’s a chance they will be on what 150 seats after the next election he might be planning ahead.

Though if they are on 150 seats, he may not be one of them.

[Torrain]

Very tetchy press conference. Sunak was squaky, defensive and sounded genuinely unnerved at some points. He kept demanding Labour back the bill, which just looked like a pathetic attempt to distract from the latest backbench civil war.

The bill explicitly won’t be made into a confidence matter. Which means the Lobby are now talking about it being at real risk of being defeated.

TheTide was spot-on, this was like May at her worst. 

[Cassius]

I might be wrong but the coalition and Blair years had v few resignations over policy matters among senior ministers but it’s just been so chaotic since 2019.

I have to say, this caught me out. I clearly haven’t been keeping close enough tabs on Tory internal drama, but I never really had Jenrick down as notably right-wing or as an immigration hardliner. Some sort of galaxy-brained careerist ploy in anticipation of a hard right candidate winning the leadership after the general election?

It was reported he was put in the position to be a no.2 to Braverman and ensure Sunak had an ally to watch over her; but it’s been reported for months that he’s been one of those pushing a lot of the harder policy options.

He isn’t the first minister to have this happen in the Home Office (the wisdom being the Home Office makes you v right wing on law and order and the FCO turns you into a liberal) but still seeing as there’s a chance they will be on what 150 seats after the next election he might be planning ahead.

Though if they are on 150 seats, he may not be one of them.

Given that 150 seats would actually be one the better outcomes for the Conservatives at the moment, you’d have to fancy his chances of holding on in Newark with that result (Labour have been competitive in the constituency in the not-too-ancient past, but its been a dead zone for the party in the last decade).

Anyway, Sunak has done some job creation and split the MoS for Immigration role in twain - Illegal Immigration (going to Michael Tomlinson) and Legal Immigration and “Delivery” (going to Eurosceptic hardliner and the Frick to Peter Bone’s Frack Tom Pursglove).

[CumbrianLefty]

The pre-2010 Newark was more winnable for Labour, the present version is a mega landslide only job.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Electoral Calculus notionals (which yes, are undoubtedly rubbish, but nevertheless) currently predict the Conservatives to be on 120 seats, with Newark having a 4% Labour majority. It's certainly not a seat that ought to be at all vulnerable, but we shouldn't be in a situation where there's a serious chance of the Conservative not winning a dozen seats north of The Wash.

[TheTide]

This has ruffled a lot of feathers within the Tory parliamentary party.

https://twitter.com/Conservatives/status/1732781753448726918?s=20

[Pericles]

The Jenrick resignation really gives me the same vibes as Raab's resignation against May's deal. It's amazing how no matter what this party just keeps reverting to the same instability.

[Torrain]

https://twitter.com/benrileysmith/status/1732846256085418418

[Blair]

A sign of their incompetency is that this is the third piece of legislation they’ve had to pass to try and fix the migration crisis; but it always gets reported in the same breathless way.

Even if a flight does land in Rwanda will it stop the 60K crossings and use of asylum accommodation?

They might have wanted to use this time to maybe fix the public realm?

[CumbrianLefty]

The latter doesn't get them sycophantic coverage in their client press, though.

[WD]

https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1733417742001156162?s=20

[YL]

"Allies of Liz Truss"?  Who are these people?

[MaxQue]

Won't Clarke be out of a seat come next election? I don't see Cleveland being a Conservative hold.

[WD]

Won't Clarke be out of a seat come next election? I don't see Cleveland being a Conservative hold.

Not an “almost certain” gain per se, but very hard to see his seat not being a Labour gain next year, yes

[JimJamUK]

Won't Clarke be out of a seat come next election? I don't see Cleveland being a Conservative hold.

Not an “almost certain” gain per se, but very hard to see his seat not being a Labour gain next year, yes

On UNS it’s the sort of seat Labour are gaining as they win a majority, and I suspect the Tories will be doing a lot worse than UNS in places like MS&EC given current polling and the fact it perfectly matched the national Conservative lead in 2017.

[Torrain]

ERG looking increasingly bearish on the Rwanda bill:
https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1733608987138908349
From what we’ve heard, both One Nation and the ERG are being advised against supporting the bill.

Going to be very unserious if they spend Monday talking about how the bill is unserious, and then vote for it anyway on Tuesday. So I presume that’s what’ll happen.

[CumbrianLefty]

Simon Clarke??!!??!!

That's even more "hilarious" than Man United losing 3-0 at home to Bournemouth today.

[Cassius]

If Richard Kiel is the best they’ve got then it really is the end.

[Torrain]

Clarke has less than two months cabinet experience under his belt. His first big newspaper interview was dominated by his claim that people who believed in a welfare state were living in a “fools paradise”. He makes the Lettuce look like Churchill in comparison.

There’s only like half a dozen MPs who get labelled ‘Trussites’ these days - her 2019 supporters are all ‘New Conservatives’ now. So this story presumably comes from Truss, Clarke, or Ranil Jayawardena (co-chair of the Conservative Growth Group with Clarke)? Either that, or Chloe Smith’s had a funny turn.

[CumbrianLefty]

If you (correctly) think Simon Clarke as PM is deranged, it still has nothing on the concoction of some right wingers breathlessly written up in the Mail today - Priti Patel is installed as "caretaker PM" and wins an election (despite her ratings when HS being even worse than Braverman's) in order to make way for the "dream ticket" of a restored BoJo with - and this is the real "chef's kiss" moment - Farage as his deputy (leaving aside the fact neither are currently MPs, and Nigel isn't in the Tory party)

"Fever dream" really doesn't do justice to this sort of stuff.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

If you (correctly) think Simon Clarke as PM is deranged, it still has nothing on the concoction of some right wingers breathlessly written up in the Mail today - Priti Patel is installed as "caretaker PM" and wins an election (despite her ratings when HS being even worse than Braverman's) in order to make way for the "dream ticket" of a restored BoJo with - and this is the real "chef's kiss" moment - Farage as his deputy (leaving aside the fact neither are currently MPs, and Nigel isn't in the Tory party)

"Fever dream" really doesn't do justice to this sort of stuff.

"Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius."
Benjamin Disraeli