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By ELENI COUREA
PRESENTED BY
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Good Friday morning. This is Eleni Courea. Annabelle Dickson will be here to kick off next week.
DRIVING THE DAY
HUNTING FOR CASH: Jeremy Hunt will deliver a major speech on the economy at Bloomberg HQ this morning, setting the scene for the budget on March 15.
Tune in: The chancellor’s speech begins at 9.20 a.m. and will be broadcast live.
What he’ll say: “Confidence in the future starts with honesty about the present,” Hunt will declare in what sounds like a Yogi tea affirmation. “We should not shy away from the biggest challenge we face, which is our poor productivity. Our plan for long term prosperity tackles that challenge head on.”
What he’ll mean: The speech is, at least in part, a response to Tory MPs who argue the problem with Liz Truss’ government was not its ideas but their execution, and are now piling pressure on Hunt to slash taxes in March. An official tells Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham that Hunt will say the best tax cut available is a cut in inflation.
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Nay to the naysayers: Hunt will attack the “declinist” narrative about the British economy — in other words tell Labour it’s “time to stop talking Britain down,” according to the Mail splash — and argue that Brexit can drive growth. (“The U.K. formally left the EU three years ago,” the Guardian story notes witheringly.)
Didn’t get the memo: “Mr Hunt, can we please start talking Britain up,” the Express pleads on page 1. IDS tells Sam Lister: “The government must make it very clear that we believe in lowering the tax, lowering costs, giving people greater choice. That always seems to me to be a positive message to send — rather than saying simply you can’t do tax cuts, that’s a negative.” Hard to argue with that.
Telling truths: Hunt has told friends he wants to model himself on Margaret Thatcher’s chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, according to the Mail’s Jason Groves. “Labour’s last chancellor Denis Healey was endlessly saying that everything was great … and in the end people stopped believing him,” an unspecified source tells him. “Geoffrey Howe came in and told the truth. It wasn’t always popular but it meant when he was able to say that things had turned a corner, people believed him.”
More deets: The chancellor will call for a new focus on the “four Es” — enterprise, employment, education and “everywhere,” which is code for leveling up (well, it’s better than “enhancing communities”), the Mail also reports.
It’s not just the Tory right: Over the past three months Tory MPs have become increasingly frustrated with ministers’ approach to the economy, including their handling of strikes (with pay settlements now expected after months of stand-offs) and relations with business (which seems more interested in talking to Labour these days). The challenge for ministers is to reset that narrative and assuage MPs’ concerns in the run-up to the budget and beyond.
LOOKING AHEAD: Over the weekend, Sunak and his Cabinet will be mulling over the contents of a presentation given at Chequers by Tory election guru Isaac Levido. The FT’s George Parker and Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe report that Levido told ministers that sticking to a core Tory message was vital. A person briefed by Levido in recent days tells the FT: “Isaac has told us we have to buckle in for 2023 and that people shouldn’t expect the polls to budge for quite a long time. But it’s vital we don’t get distracted.”
Green shoots: Intriguingly Steve Swinford reported on the Times live blog Thursday that internal Tory polling suggests the party has regained its lead on economic competence.
SLEAZED OFF
HE’S STILL IN POST: Having been savaged by both Popbitch and HMRC boss Jim Harra on the same day, Nadhim Zahawi will be reading the papers through his fingers this morning.
And with good reason: The Times’ Billy Kenber, George Greenwood and George Grylls have a painstakingly reported deep-dive into his business interests. They write that Zahawi earned at least £1.3 million from interests in Kurdistan by cultivating close links with the powerful Barzani family, and dig further into his work for oil companies including Gulf Keystone.
One thing that stood out: The trio reveal that a Twitter account operating since 2017 under Zahawi’s father’s name has been defending him for months, branding his online critics “political whores” and sending pictures of snakes to journalists commenting on his affairs. The account changed its name in July, around the time Zahawi’s taxes first made headlines, and it’s not clear whether it is Zahawi’s father who runs it.
Meanwhile: Tory calls for Zahawi to step aside (at the very least temporarily) are piling up. Tory Chairman Jake Berry told BBC Question Time last night that “the government needs to find a mechanism for ministers and MPs who are under investigation in this way to step aside to clear their name and then to come back into government if that is appropriate.”
Spooky story: On a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan while he was vaccines minister, Zahawi triggered a security alert by using his government laptop to log onto his work email, Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham and Alberto Nardelli report in this intriguing piece. The trip took place between November 2020 to September 2021. A spokesman for Zahawi tells them he traveled there for “a short holiday when it was legal to do so.”
As for that probe: The Times splash says Zahawi, whose allies insist he did not break any rules, has asked HMRC to give Sunak’s ethics chief Laurie Magnus full access to his tax records so he can carry out his investigation. In the same story, Steve Swinford and Henry Zeffman report that Zahawi and Magnus met on Wednesday and discussed the Tory chair’s legal threats to those looking into his tax affairs. The ministerial code says ministers should consult the attorney general if they are considering legal action, especially for defamation (though worth noting Zahawi didn’t sue anyone in the end.)
Who knew what? That’s the question that will determine how much damage Sunak will be dealt by this whole affair. The PM has been adamant he didn’t know Zahawi had paid a penalty to HMRC until last week. On Thursday, the Guardian’s Anna Isaac and Pippa Crerar reported that while he was chancellor in June, Sunak was told that Zahawi was under investigation by HMRC. They also wrote that No. 10 was informed of the HMRC penalty prior to Zahawi’s appointment as Tory chair. A government spokesperson categorically denied both claims to the paper.
More questions: The Guardian also piles pressure on Zahawi to explain the source of £30 million in unsecured loans made to his wife’s property company between 2017 and 2021.
In other news: ITV’s Anushka Asthana reports Zahawi took down an “unconscious bias” training course for Tory candidates after a meeting with the Common Sense Conservative group who attacked it as “divisive nonsense.”
LATEST PAYMENTS AND DONATIONS: Boris Johnson has received an advance of over half a million pounds from Harper Collins for his memoirs, his register of interests reveals, and almost half a million for a couple of speeches. The Times’ Geri Scott has a write-up. Meanwhile DeSmog has dug up a £12,000 donation made by wood-burning giant Drax to the Labour Party.
Above all: Munching animal genitalia live on TV clearly paid off for Matt Hancock, who seems to have donated just £10,000 of his £320,000 ‘I’m a Celebrity’ fee to charity. His spokesman said that “as well as raising the profile of his dyslexia campaign in front of 11 million viewers, Matt’s donated £10,000 to St Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk and the British Dyslexia Association.” The Mirror says questions about whether he planned to give further sums went unanswered last night.
TODAY IN WESTMINSTER
PARLIAMENT: Not sitting.
LABOUR LAND: Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner are visiting a hospital and ambulance station in West Essex today. Expect a pool clip at around 11 a.m. They will be interviewed live on LBC by James O’Brien at around 11.15 a.m.
In the next few moments: Jewish News is publishing a video of Starmer meeting Holocaust survivor Eva Clarke to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
NO HS2 FOR EUS: Big HS2 story today from the Sun’s Harry Cole, who reveals the Euston terminus could be delayed or scrapped altogether as developers try to grapple with the impact of soaring inflation. A two-to-five-year delay to the entire project is on the cards, he writes, with many subcontractors warning they can’t fulfill their contracts without going bust because of the rising costs of materials. The bill for Phase 1 is now likely to hit £60 billion, according to the story. In its leader the Sun calls for the entire thing to be called off.
SHOW YOU’RE WORKING: Ministers are looking at raising or scrapping the cap on the number of hours foreign students are allowed to work, the Times’ Chris Smyth and Matt Dathan report. The idea is to allow overseas students to fill job vacancies in hospitality and retail. Unclear whether Suella Braverman (who wants to reduce the number of international students) will approve, however.
GAMBLING SHAKE-UP: The Sun’s Natasha Clark and Jack Elsom report that ministers are planning a slew of tougher gambling regulations including a mandatory levy on firms and stronger age verification measures. Campaigners have long been calling for both measures. The Sun also reports that Premier League teams are expected to voluntarily phase out betting adverts from footballers’ T-shirts.
HOW TO LEVEL UP: Onward’s Seb Payne has written a Times column arguing that the unglamorous challenge of tackling antisocial behavior is the quickest way to achieve leveling up.
DATA COCK-UP: Tens of thousands of EU citizens received benefits payments they weren’t entitled to, because of a Home Office data error, PolHome’s Adam Payne reports in an eye-popping scoop. The payments were made to people whose applications for settled status had been refused, and officials are now trying to recover the funds.
SUNAK SNOOKERED: My POLITICO colleague Stefan Boscia looks at Rishi Sunak’s uphill battle to fight off backbench rebellions over any potential deal on the Northern Ireland protocol. A former member of Liz Truss’ Cabinet tells him there is a “very significant chance” of a two-headed revolt from Johnson and Truss allies.
And then there’s the ERG: Of course the toughest crowd will be MPs in the European Research Group, who are resolutely against allowing any role for European judges in the deal. One high-profile ERG MP told Stefan that “a lot of Tory MPs will not stomach any deal which allows Brussels to continue to set the laws and regulations for Northern Ireland” — effectively meaning they won’t support anything short of ripping up the protocol.
WINDRUSH LET-DOWN: The Guardian splashes on the backlash to Home Secretary Suella Braverman scrapping a number of commitments made by the government in the wake of the Windrush scandal.
LES AMIS: Europe Minister Leo Docherty is meeting his French counterpart Laurence Boone for a working breakfast on Friday close to the former U.K. home of Charles de Gaulle in London, as preparations gear for the U.K.-France Summit on March 10.
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS: Like Jeremy Hunt, Grant Shapps is at Bloomberg HQ today and will be talking about helping businesses to start up and scale up, and make the most of life after Brexit.
WONK WATCH: The Institute for Government says the NHS is likely to see a smaller real-terms rise in spending than was forecast in 2021. A paper blames inflation and “probable” pay rises in the next two years. It adds Rishi Sunak’s promise to cut waiting times was “ambiguous” enough that “he will be able to point to almost any improvement, anywhere in the service, at any point between now and the election, as a promise kept.”
READING THE TEA LEAVES: Labour gained a Rotherham Council seat overnight from the local Rotherham Democratic Party, in one of these by-elections SW1 loves to (over-)analyze. Youth worker Carole Foster won 745 votes in Keppel ward. Andrew Teale, editor of the Local Elections Archive Project, tells Playbook the Conservative vote share took a sharp dive. While direct comparisons are tricky, the party went from 917 votes in 2021 … to 119 now.
LIGHT A CANDLE: At 4 p.m., iconic U.K. landmarks will light up purple as part of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s Light the Darkness national moment. Events are taking place across the U.K. The trust is asking the public to (safely) put a candle in their windows to remember the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, and the millions of other people killed by the Nazis and in more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.
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MEDIA ROUND
Ministerial morning round: Nope.
Today program: Institute for Government Director Hannah White (7.10 a.m.) … Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram (7.50 a.m.).
Sky News: Shadow Public Health Minister Andrew Gwynne (8.05 a.m.) … Crossbench peer Jim O’Neill (8.30 a.m.) … Actor and Holocaust Memorial Day Trust supporter Joanna Lumley, with Holocaust survivor Dr Martin Stern (8.45 a.m.).
ITV Good Morning Britain: Former Digital Minister Ed Vaizey (6.15 a.m.) … Actor Dame Maureen Lipman with Joanna Lumley and Martin Stern (8.20 a.m) … Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.K. Vadym Prystaiko (8.30 a.m.).
Nick Ferrari at Breakfast (LBC): Former Justice Secretary Lord Charlie Falconer (7.05 a.m.) … Citizens Advice Policy Director Matthew Upton (7.25 a.m.) … U.K. Holocaust Memorial Foundation trustee Lloyd Dorfman (7.40 a.m.) … Fair Fuel UK founder Howard Cox (8.35 a.m.).
Times Radio: Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s head of research Rachel Century (6.50 a.m.) … RSPB’s Jeff Knott (7.50 a.m.) … Massimo D’Angelo, lawyer representing the former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili (8.35 a.m.) … David Heymann, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and former chair of Public Health England (8.40 a.m.) … Former Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Chair Dr Tony Sewell (11.40 a.m.).
Reviewing the papers tonight: TalkTV (10.20 p.m.): Labour selections geek and former pol ed Michael Crick, and Sun political editor Harry Cole.
TODAY’S FRONT PAGES
(Click on the publication’s name to see its front page):
Daily Express: Mr Hunt, can we please start talking Britain up.
Daily Mail: Hunt: Time to stop talking Britain down.
Daily Mirror: Rod: We are failing — legend savages Tories.
Daily Star: We’re all doomed! Ungrateful robots to turn on humans & kill us all.
Financial Times: Rolls-Royce’s new chief sees group as ‘burning platform’ that depletes value.
HuffPost UK: Charity gets fraction of [Matt Hancock’s] jungle fee.
i News: Zahawi hands over tax returns — as Tories urge him to go now.
Independent: Now tax chief damns Zahawi: We don’t fine innocent people.
Metro: Under-10s lured into web of evil — 1,000% surge in kids tricked by abusers, investigation finds.
POLITICO UK: Rishi Sunak walks Brexit tightrope to keep key Tories on side.
PoliticsHome: Benefits Wrongly Paid To Thousands Of EU Citizens Due To Home Office Error.
The Daily Telegraph: Sturgeon trans law in disarray after rapist climbdown.
The Guardian: ‘A slap in the face’: anger at U-turn over Windrush.
The Sun: Freddie slams brakes on telly career — Top Gear exclusive.
The Times: PM’s foreign student plan to shore up economy.
THANK POD IT’S FRIDAY
Chopper’s Politics: Christopher Hope interviews a mystery ‘special guest’… He wouldn’t tell Playbook who it is.
Encompass Europe: The Guardian’s Marina Hyde discusses her new book — and how she bashes out her acid-penned columns.
EU Confidential: The POLITICO team reflect on a pivotal week for Western support for Ukraine, with Germany bowing to pressure and sending tanks to Kyiv. The special guest is Mairead McGuinness, the EU’s financial services commissioner.
Hacks & Flacks: Former No. 10 spinner Giles Kenningham and hack Michael Booker discuss what happens when the news goes wrong, from Caroline Flack to Jo Yates’ murder.
How Did We Get Here? 5 News pol ed Andy Bell talks to former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn about fixing the NHS and his advice for Keir Starmer.
Newscast: Chris Mason and Adam Fleming speak to Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy and former Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster.
Oh God, What Now?: Heidi Alexander and other guests discuss sleaze and voter ID laws as she stages a bid to return as a Labour MP.
Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women: Johnson talks to former Cabinet Minister Amber Rudd.
Red Box: Patrick Maguire asks if the art of Commons oratory is dead, with sketchwriter Quentin Letts, speechwriter Jessica Cunniffe and historian Nigel Jones.
Rock & Roll Politics: Steve Richards interviews ex-May adviser Nick Timothy on Conservatives and a modern state.
The News Agents: Lewis Goodall speaks to Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The Northern Agenda: Leveling-Up Secretary Michael Gove’s only interview at this week’s Convention of the North, in the back of a cab in Manchester.
The Rundown by PoliticsHome: Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Jenny Chapman and ex-government lawyer Jonathan Jones discuss the Retained EU Law Bill.
UKICE (I Tell): Law professor Philippe Sands and prof Catherine Barnard discuss the law around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Rebranded from Brexit and Beyond).
Whitehall Sources: Calum Macdonald, ex-Tory SpAd Kirsty Buchanan and former Corbyn adviser Frankie Leach ask what political capital Rishi Sunak has left — and talk about away days building London landmarks out of marshmallows and spaghetti.
YOUR WEEKEND IN POLITICS
LABOUR LAND: Keir Starmer gives a 10.10 a.m. keynote speech on Saturday at his party’s London conference near Tower Bridge. The event also hears from Shadow Leveling-Up Secretary Lisa Nandy (1.30 p.m.) and Mayor Sadiq Khan (5 p.m.), with expert panels and a gala reception with speeches from Khan and crowd favorite Emily Thornberry.
Mandy land: New Labour architect Peter Mandelson will speak twice on the “Business Plus” agenda — with Shadow Business Minister Seema Malhotra on “the future of growth” (10.40 a.m.) and with Shadow DCMS Secretary Lucy Powell on “digital infrastructure” (2.30 p.m.).
Land of riches: Early bird tickets for business delegates cost £299 a head, weeks after a sold-out business conference in Canary Wharf raised a six-figure sum. A Labour official tells Playbook’s Dan Bloom: “I can’t believe how the donors are pouring in.”
SUNDAY SHOWS: No guest news yet for the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg (BBC One, 9 a.m.). Sky’s Sophy Ridge (Sky News 8.30 a.m.), or Kate McCann and Adam Boulton on Times Radio (10 a.m.). Camilla Tominey will be talking to ex-Cabinet minister, and new GB News host, Jacob Rees-Mogg (GB News 9.30 a.m.).
LONDON CALLING
WESTMINSTER WEATHER: Icy snap over — highs of 7C, sunny spells and a gentle breeze.
GET YOUR QUESTIONS IN … It seems Angela Rayner is going on Channel 4’s comedy show The Last Leg tonight.
GOOD TIMES: The Times team were the champions of last night’s Press Gallery quiz, just pipping the Telegraph to the post despite (or because of?) the quizmaster’s introduction of “discretionary half-points” at a late stage in the proceedings. “Matt Chorley was hosting so who knows if it was fair,” a critical friend mused to Playbook. Congratulations to Patrick Maguire, Henry Zeffman, Matt Dathan, Geri Scott and Seb Mann — ignore the haters.
Not quite winning here: The Lib Dems want it noted that they were the only political party to turn up for last night’s quiz — Sam Fisk, Ami Wyllie, Will Cowie, Sarah Dobson and Christian Moon finished in “the top half” of the league table and claim to be mocking up a bar chart boasting about their result.
LOBBY JOB: NationalWorld.com is hiring a politics editor who needs experience in a regional or national news team, ideally (but not necessarily) in Westminster.
NEW GIG CONFIRMED: Jacob Rees-Mogg is going to host his own show on GB News.
BIRTHDAYS: Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross … Erewash MP Maggie Throup … Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson … Former Health Secretary Alan Milburn … Tory peer Julia Cumberlege … Tory peer Patricia Rawlings … Tortoise Editor Matthew D’Ancona … Climate columnist George Monbiot … retired former Tory peer Nigel Vinson … Former U.K. Ambassador to Iraq and Libya Frank Baker … Former U.K. Ambassador to China Christopher Hum.
Celebrating on Saturday: U.K. Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons … Commons Health Committee Chairman Steve Brine … Workington MP Mark Jenkinson … Labour peer Bill Jordan … Former London Minister Nick Raynsford … Former First Parliamentary Counsel Stephen Laws … Lib Dem aide Henry McMorrow … Keir Starmer’s Private Secretary Jill Cuthbertson … and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
And on Sunday: South Dorset MP Richard Drax … Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney … Deputy leader of the House of Lords Frederick Curzon, also known as Earl Howe … Met Police Deputy Commissioner Lynne Owens … Former Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson … Former Trade Minister Richard Needham … Phoenix Group Director of Public Affairs Tim Fassam … Duke of Westminster Hugh Grosvenor … Author and former BBC journo Kim Ghattas.
PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editor Zoya Sheftalovich, reporters Dan Bloom and Andrew McDonald and producer Grace Stranger.
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