Latest news with #ChrisPhilp
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Mrs Rayner's tone was markedly less fiery. A tigress tamed. A curry taken down from vindaloo to korma: QUENTIN LETTS on Prime Minister's Questions
With Sir Keir Starmer still not back from foreign jaunts – for so unexciting a man to have such wanderlust is psychologically intriguing – it fell to Angela Rayner to do the honours at PMQs. On Tuesday she had chaired Cabinet. Now she was at the despatch box using those hallowed words normally reserved for prime ministers: 'This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues; I shall have further such meetings later today.' It is rare to hear a deputy use the revered formula. Usually they will simply say: 'I have been asked to respond.' Has Ms Rayner started to fancy her chances of replacing stodgy Starmer? Beside her sat Rachel Reeves, once talked of as her rival. On her other side: Yvette Cooper, another whose share price has fallen. Ms Rayner's aide, Mark Ferguson, sat behind her with a folder of prompt notes fatter than a Harry Potter hardback. Team Rayner had prepared in depth for this test flight. But sometimes you so over-prepare that you lose spontaneity. 'If they ask you about the rape-gangs inquiry, aim for statesmanship,' her advisers possibly said. Sure enough, the Tories ' front man, Chris Philp, focused on that inquiry and on immigration. Mr Philp can be a staccato performer but he did all right. He was trim, clear, nicely regretful when talking about Sir Keir's mishandling of the grooming gangs scandal. Not that the usual, blurty Philp was entirely absent. His shirt collars were askew and he did a lot of that frowning that lends him the look of a man trying to suppress dreadful burps. A Leander rowing club course marshal had possibly been mugged in Henley to provide Ms Rayner with her blue blazer and white trousers. Compared to the usual Rayner fashion disasters, jolly smart. She twice thanked Mr Philp for his 'tone' on the rape scandal. What she probably meant was 'your boss Badenoch has been annoyingly outspoken on this issue and it is costing us votes'. Ms Rayner's own tone was markedly less fiery than of old. A tigress tamed. A curry taken down a few pegs from vindaloo to korma. Here was a reduced-sodium, semi-skimmed, low-cal Rayner, keen to look composed. Her voice sounded as if it had fluff on the stylus. The original Rayner – Rayner Classic, as marketing executives might say – leapt up to the table, whacked the box, yabber-dabbered and laughed a lot. Ange Mark II was eager to portray dignity and open-mindedness. She leaned nonchalantly on the despatch box. She stood at a sideways angle instead of her former full-chested stance. She praised a Tory MP for some pub-charity effort in his constituency. And it all felt... flat. Engineers had not succeeded in removing all the old characteristics. Prescottian linguistic glitches were still evident. She spoke of 'Italia' instead of Italy, complained that the past government had 'spivved money up the wall' and claimed on some spending matter that 'we've given the biggest amount of increase'. Such things are minor. What may matter is any loss of verve, any sense that she has been made less authentic to suit her ambitions. As PMQs ended there was a pause as the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, ran to the despatch box. The thudding as of rhino hooves. Clerks' papers fluttered and some water glasses nearby rippled. Ms Alexander, a likeably straightforward sort, announced the latest diminution of the c.£100billion HS2 railway. What a shameful episode for our political class, for past ministers, yes, but also mandarins, consultants, commentators, think-tankers, economists, forecasters and grubby lobbyists. Big Heidi had an attack of the Rayners when she tried talking about Wales and spoke, twice, about 'Relsh Wailways'. Of greater interest was a question from Clive Efford (Lab, Eltham) who hoped that civil servants who signed HS2 contracts would be asked why they approved spending sometimes before job specifications were set.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Ange's rant on Tory asylum hotels is lost in translation
Such is the misery of living in Labour's Britain that many upper-income voters are fleeing abroad – including Keir Starmer. He couldn't join PMQs this week because an envelope was being opened in Canada. In keeping with our immigration system, one missing PM was replaced by several foreigners – a parliamentary delegation from Tajikistan – who followed a translation via headphones. They appeared confused – and no wonder! Standing in for our roving PM was Angela Rayner, adopting the elbow-on-the-table stance of a barmaid ejecting a drunk, and lisping with fury. 'Quite fwankly, Mr Speaker,' she likes to say, 'it'sss the Toriesss wot should apologiiise!' Labour MPs love it. The delegation looked bewildered. 'I believe she is angry,' said the translator, 'and she says the opposition are doing a bad job of running the country'. It must confuse visitors further that Ange still refers to Yvette Cooper as 'the shadow home secretary'. Rayner was sparring with Chris Philp – the real home secretary – who said he'd met victims of the grooming scandal and wanted to relay their concerns about the proposed national inquiry. Ange accused him of playing party politics (a good chance for her to play party politics) and things descended fast into a Rovers Return ding-dong about illegal immigration. Chris said Ange had 'some brass neck'. Ange calculated the cost of Tory asylum hotels at '£1 million a day, spived up the wall'. Chris cried, 'Goodness me, she's got a cheek' – grabbed his coat and flounced out the pub. The Tajiks waited patiently for a translation of 'spived', no doubt in vain. I imagined Frank Muir on Call My Bluff explaining, 'It's a portmanteau of spiv and spaff, and can mean waste or...' – and then I came to. Sarah Champion was speaking. Labour's admirable crusader against child abuse accidentally called the Speaker a 'deputy speaker', apologised and explained that there were 'too many deputies in the place today' ('ha, ha!') and she had lost track due to the 'point-scoring that's going on… on ALL sides' ('mumble, mumble'). The Government reacted as if slapped in the face. Ange was visibly stung. But it was a point well made. Grooming is a thing of evil; Westminster ought to be able to discuss it soberly. Yet MPs cannot resist turning it into an election broadcast. Otherwise, PMQs was the usual hot air: you didn't miss much, Sir Keir. MPs reminded us it was Grenfell week, Windrush week and refugees week. Edward Leigh, though anti-Tehran, asked if Britain could do more to stop settlements on the West Bank. Daisy Cooper of the Lib Dems – unusually, not dressed for the gym – urged the Government not to 'blindly follow' the US into war with Iran. This is unlikely as Iran is just out of the reach of our combined military force of five soldiers and a pedalo, while what remains of the RAF will be escorting the PM to a philatelist convention in Manila. He's got to be careful. With his domestic agenda crumbling and his MPs rebelling, the PM is exposed to the threat of a soft-Left rebellion. He might return to No 10 in a year's time to find Ange has moved in and changed the locks.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Philpster exhausts his repertoire with return to Rwanda at PMQs
Thoughts and prayers with Alex Burghart. Not so long ago, the shadow chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster was allowed out by Kemi Badenoch to stand in for her at prime minister's questions when Keir Starmer was otherwise engaged. Though this may be a memory Alex wishes to forget. It wasn't his finest hour. Angela Rayner ran rings around him without even breaking sweat. So, on Wednesday, Alex found himself sidelined. Not wanted on voyage. From time to time, he would check his phone for messages. Just in case he had missed something. Willing his phone to ping with a late call-up. Nothing. He just had to suck it up. Take his place on the opposition frontbench and cheer on some other poor sucker. Maybe it was for the best. Some men are born failures. Some achieve failure. Some have failure thrust upon them. Alex is unique. A combination of all three. Instead it was Chris Philp who got the job. Given the nod by Kemi shortly after breakfast and with next to no time to prepare. The last man standing who can be trusted to be loyal. Or more or less competent. In his own way. At least some of his neural pathways function as they should. The Philpster is Team Kemi through and through. Up until Team Kemi is no longer a thing. Much as he was with Team Truss. Then he will be his own man. Left to ponder that no one will ever be Team Philp. Chris even looks and sounds a bit like Kemi. Just not as good. Imagine. But this was his moment. His time. It might never happen again. He could be a hero. Just for one day. Also having an unexpectedly good day was Keir. Of all the days to miss PMQs, this was a good one. A nice snooze on the flight back from Canada. No tricky questions on why the G7 turned into the G6. No having to cover for a US president who seemed to imagine he was the star of his own first-person-shooter computer game. No having to look his own MPs in the eye as his government published its new welfare bill. Over to Angie. Philp stuck to what he knew. Grooming gangs and immigrants. Which all felt rather familiar. As if we all knew what everyone was going to say before they said it. After all, Kemi had had her say in answer to Yvette Cooper's Commons statement on Monday. The next day she and the Philpster had held their own press conference to fill in any gaps. And now? Now, it was third time lucky. So far, they had consistently struck the wrong note. Maybe this was the chance they needed. And it wasn't as if Chris was capable of coming up with any other questions. This was all about the survivors, said Philp. Which was a decent place to start, given that he and Kemi had previously made it all about them. A bit of a stretch given that neither had shown much interest in the scandal when they had been in government. Rayner thanked him for his tone and assured the house that the inquiry would be comprehensive and would put the victims first. After that, it was all rather downhill. Maybe it was nerves, but the Philpster got increasingly shouty and squeaky. His voice racing through the octaves. Starmer should apologise for calling people 'far right' and 'racist' for having demanded an inquiry. Ange corrected him. Keir had only been calling out those who had previously shown no interest in grooming gangs and, besides, he had also done more to secure convictions as director of public prosecutions than the Tory government had managed in 14 years. It was just weird to think that Philp and Kemi were now positioning themselves as the champions of the survivors, but we were where we were. Chris moved on to his next pet subject. Illegal immigrants. One or two of the people who had arrived on small boats were implicated in child sexual exploitation. Therefore, it followed that every illegal immigrant was probably a paedophile. And should be killed. Or something. And another thing … The Philpster was racing through his desperately limited repertoire and was already struggling. Rwanda. If only Labour hadn't closed down the Rwanda scheme, then already more than a million immigrants – although why stop at those arriving by small boat? Why not go for those with visas too? – would have been safely rehoused in Rwanda to fight in the war with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 'The deputy prime minister has a brass neck,' he declared. For … for stating the obvious. That Rwanda was always going to fail. Rishi Sunak would never have called a general election last July if he had believed in the scheme. But to his dying breath, Chris will insist otherwise. He just needed a few more days, a week, even. Then he coulda been a contender. We ended where we always end on these occasions. Nowhere very much. Philp may have disappointed the Tory benches who had been hoping for a miracle, but Rayner hadn't exactly shone. It was as though she didn't believe the lines she had been given to read out. Was starting to wonder if neither the Tories nor Labour had all the answers. A revelation that comes to all sentient politicians in the end. You could chalk it up as a win for Ange. Largely because she's the more engaging. She connects to people. They believe her. Well, not all. Labour's Sarah Champion managed to throw a dampener on proceedings, saying she had had enough of point scoring from all sides of the house over the grooming gangs. The victims had even been failed by the criminal injuries compensation scheme. Time for everyone to up their game.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Tories demand Rayner apologise for Starmer's ‘far-right bandwagon' grooming gangs remark
Chris Philp demanded that apologise for Sir Keir Starmer 's 'far-right bandwagon' remark on grooming gangs during a fiery Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday (18 June). Facing off at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday (18 June), the shadow home secretary told the deputy prime minister that 'standing up for rape victims is not far right' and asked for an apology for the remarks made by the prime minister in January. In January, Sir Keir accused Kemi Badenoch of jumping on a bandwagon in her calls for a new inquiry into grooming gangs. The PM has now confirmed that he will order a new public inquiry into grooming gangs despite previously dismissing calls from opponents.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Rayner brands Philp ‘Johnny Come Lately' as he presses her on immigration
Angela Rayner has branded shadow home secretary Chris Philp 'Johnny Come Lately', after he accused the Government of prioritising immigrants over young people when it comes to housing. In a back and forth in the Commons, Mr Philp claimed landlords are being offered 'above market deals' to secure properties for 'illegal immigrants'. As she deputised for Sir Keir Starmer who was attending the G7 summit, Ms Rayner accused the Tories of having 'spiffed' a million pounds 'up the wall because they were so incompetent'. Speaking at Deputy Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Philp said the Government's 'laughable plan to smash the gangs lies in tatters', adding: 'Will she now, at last, accept we need a removals deterrent, so every single illegal immigrant arriving on these shores is immediately removed?' In her response, Ms Rayner said: 'They lost control of our borders. We're getting control of our borders. He needs to apologise.' The shadow minister, who was standing in for Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch, said Ms Rayner had a 'brass neck' to claim she has immigration under control 'when the numbers crossing the Channel this year are the highest in history'. He added: 'The Home Office's suppliers are now actively offering above market deals to landlords to get hold of their properties to be used for illegal immigrants. In the meantime, hard-pressed young people here are unable to rent or buy. So why is this Government prioritising housing for illegal immigrants above housing for our young people?' The Deputy Prime Minister replied: 'Under their watch, immigration increased fourfold until it reached almost a million in a single year. They also created the backlog – 400 hotels, which we've reduced to just over 200 hotels in the first 12 months of us being in Government. 'One million pounds a day 'spiffed' up the wall because they were so incompetent. We're building the homes that they failed to deliver over 14 years of consecutive failure by their government. They should apologise while we get on with the job of rebuilding Britain.' Mr Philp then said: 'Goodness me, she's got a cheek,' before adding: 'We need to scrap the Human Rights Act for immigration matters, so this sovereign Parliament decides on the law our courts apply, but her party voted against that. So I have a simple question: why did the Government side with foreign criminals and not the British public?' In her response, Ms Rayner said 4,500 foreign national offenders have been deported since Labour came into power, adding: 'I take no lectures from the Johnny Come Lately, who couldn't do anything when he was in office.' Elsewhere in the session, Mr Philp pressed Ms Rayner on the inquiry into grooming gangs and child sexual abuse urging her to apologise on behalf of the Prime Minister for saying campaigners were 'jumping on a far-right bandwagon'. He said he had met victims alongside Tory leader Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday, adding: 'They told us how authorities deliberately covered up the systematic rape of young girls and some boys by gangs of predominately Pakistani heritage men. 'They covered it up because they cared more about so-called community relations than about protecting vulnerable girls. That is disgusting.' Ms Rayner replied: 'It's absolutely right that we look at what's happened over the last couple of decades. The countless reports that we've had, and we look to implement that. He's absolutely right to also talk about the confidence people must have in that independent inquiry and the Home Secretary spoke about that earlier this week in regards to Baroness Casey's report. 'So we will take that forward at speed, it will be independent, it will have statutory powers and we will implement the Jay report.' Mr Philp then said: 'It's vital that scandals like this are never again covered up because of the racial background of perpetrators, and Baroness Casey's report said people who downplay the ethnic dimension are letting victims down.' He added: 'I do have to raise the language the Prime Minister used in January when he, I'm afraid to say, smeared campaigners as jumping on a 'far-right bandwagon', simply for calling for the very inquiry he has now been forced to set up. Standing up for rape victims is not far-right. 'So will the Deputy Prime Minister apologise for what the Prime Minister said?' Ms Rayner replied: 'The Prime Minister did not just raise issues, but acted on them. He brought the first prosecutions against grooming gangs, called for action to address ethnicity issues in 2012, and (Mr Philp) will know that the data that the previous government collected was inaccurate and not complete, and Casey recognised this, and it's one of the recommendations we will be taking forward. 'The Prime Minister made those comments specifically about Tory ministers who sat for years in the government and did absolutely nothing about this scandal.'
