Putin pandemonium — Staffing the NHS  — More from the money men – POLITICO

Good Sunday afternoon. This is Annabelle Dickson, back in the Crunch hot seat.

THINGS TO KNOW

RUSSIA WATCH: Kremlin watchers and world leaders are today reading the runes of an extraordinary 24 hours for Vladimir Putin after he averted what looked like an attempted coup by Russian mercenaries.

Quick catch-up: For those not glued to breaking news channels and live blogs yesterday, Russia’s Wagner mercenary group started advancing towards Moscow raising the real prospect of a Russian civil war. That appeared to have been averted last night after the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin backed down and said he wanted to avoid a devastating civil conflict. Wagner this morning has been withdrawing troops from Russia’s southern Voronezh region which was under its control, POLITICO’s Stuart Lau and Gabriel Gavin report.

Lukashenko’s moment: Shortly before Prigozhin’s own announcement last night, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko issued a statement claiming he had held talks with the outspoken oligarch throughout the day and that “as a result, they came to agreements on the inadmissibility of unleashing a bloody massacre on the territory of Russia.” POLITICO’s Gabriel Gavin has more. Security sources tell the Mail on Sunday they think Prigozhin was paid “a very large sum of money” to go away.

Bad day at the office: Almost everyone agrees it was a pretty bad day for Putin, who went on national television to condemn Prigozhin’s betrayal and treachery, but eventually ended up dropping all the charges against him.

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Diplomatic dilemma: The U.K. government is trying its best to stay out of the whole thing, although in a sign of just how nervous world leaders were, Downing Street did convene Cobra — the government’s Civil Contingencies Committee — yesterday.

‘Internal matter’: On the Sunday media round, Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen told Sky the aborted coup attempt was “fundamentally an internal matter” for Russia. He acknowledged it was a “very unstable situation in Russia” but insisted “this isn’t a matter that we would be intervening in.” He echoed Rishi Sunak’s call yesterday on the BBC for civilian lives to be considered. (Labour’s Lisa Nandy was supportive of this approach on her media round.) 

All bad lads: Marina Litvinenko, wife of the late Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko, who was on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg panel, pointed out: “Prigozhin is not a hero, and he’s a criminal and he committed a lot of bad things in Ukraine, and you can’t trust this person.” She later warned that if the West wanted to save Russia from collapse: “You need to take Putin out from this place.” 

What next? The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg explained that for Prigozhin, the aim of the rebellion was to get rid of the Russian defense minister and the chief of the general staff who he had been fighting a war of words with for months. All eyes on whether they will keep their jobs. If they go, it would be a “major victory” for Prigozhin, he says.

Primer: My top POLITICO colleagues had a prescient special report diving “Inside the stunning growth of Russia’s Wagner Group” in February, which is worth your time if you want to get up to speed on who was behind the mutiny attempt. 

STAFFING PLAN: Back at home, Sunak has been out talking about his long-delayed NHS staffing plan, without actually publishing any of the details to be scrutinized. He admitted doctors and nurses are “run ragged” in an op-ed for the Sunday Times. 

Cash boost: The Sunday Times reckons the government will announce a doubling of medical school places for doctors, with additional funding agreed with the Treasury to pay for it, although the prime minister wouldn’t confirm this when asked by the BBC. “The plan would also train tens of thousands of new nurses and midwives, more trainee GPs and dentists, and push for greater use of apprenticeships in nurse and doctor training, with those enrolled on the courses working in the health service and learning on the job,” the paper says.

Training places: Sunak did tell the BBC the government was going to “do things differently.” He claimed the plan would represent the “largest expansion in training and workforce in the NHS’s history,” and would draw on the latest innovations and techniques. No. 10 said it would be “coming later this week.” All eyes on whether the document actually lives up to the billing it has been given by the PM. 

MONEY MEN: A new row is brewing over public sector pay rises amid reports the government could overrule pay review body recommendations on public sector pay. Saturday’s Times had the potentially explosive revelation that ministers could block public sector pay rises of 6 percent over fears it would fuel inflation. The Observer has plenty of outraged union reaction.  

Worth remembering: Ministers have been leaning very heavily on pay review recommendations when justifying their decisions over public sector pay disputes over the last few months. 

Holding the line: In his BBC interview, Sunak didn’t have many warm words for public sector workers. “When it comes to public sector pay. I’m going to do what I think is affordable. What I think is responsible. Now that may not always be popular in the short term, but it’s the right thing for the country,” he said. 

Purse strings: Asked directly about the reports in his Sky interview, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Glen told Sky: “As a matter of principle, pay review bodies are a very significant part of resolving the pay issues but obviously we have also got to take account of the effect on inflation.” The process hadn’t been finished, he insisted.

What would Labour do? On Sky, Nandy stuck to Labour’s fiscal caution and admitted that if Labour was in government it “wouldn’t be bound” by the recommendations of the pay review bodies. 

‘Hold your nerve’: Sunak also prompted howls from the opposition after suggesting homeowners should “hold their nerve” amid the mortgage and inflation crisis. “I want people to be reassured that we’ve got to hold our nerve, stick to the plan and we will get through this,” he told the BBC in the interview recorded on Saturday.

Hard-hats at the ready II: Jacob Rees-Mogg is raging in the Telegraph over the potential return of the £170-a-year green levy on energy bills in the coming days. He has accused the PM of “slyly” shifting costs back to consumers. The paper says the two-year suspension of green levies, announced last autumn, is to end as of the beginning of July, after just nine months. 

Treasury line: A Government spokesman told the Tele the energy price guarantee would “no longer be in effect from July 2023 as Ofgem’s price cap will be set below the EPG’s discount level, meaning customers will pay energy rates in full, including for green levies.”

‘Going for woke’: There were more grumblings about Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey from Tory MPs over the weekend. The Mail has a page lead on claims the BoE has been “going for woke” rather than concentrating on the day job. On GB News, ex-Tory Chairman Jake Berry told Camilla Tominey that Bailey was “pursuing what I call blobonomics.” Berry said he wants the government to get Bailey in to spell out his plan, and if he doesn’t it may be time to look for someone with a “better plan.” 

Big it up for the Bank: Sunak and Glen both voiced support for Bailey this morning. Sunak told the BBC the Bank of England was “doing the right thing,” and had his “total support.” Glen told Times Radio the government and BoE were “working in lockstep” to get inflation down. Nandy also offered her support for the central bank’s independence. 

About blobonomics: Opinion polling carried out by the More in Common think tank and published by HuffPost shows that British people believe staff in Whitehall are more hardworking, trustworthy and competent than their politician bosses.

‘I do have principles’: The BBC’s Kuenssberg had another go at getting an answer out of Sunak about why he didn’t rock up to put his support for the privileges committee verdict on Boris Johnson’s statements to parliament into the parliamentary records last week. He said he had been busy fulfilling a commitment and pointed out he had resigned from the Johnson government. “There was nothing weak about resigning from government when I disagreed with the approach. That’s principle,” he said.

QUICK-FIRE CATCH-UP

IN MEMORIAM: Terribly sad news in Labour circles, and beyond. Margaret McDonagh, Labour’s first female general secretary, has died after being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2021. Most of the papers chronicle her role in the party’s 1997 election landslide. Ex-PM Tony Blair described her as an “unstoppable force of nature.” The Observer has more.  

RESHUFFLE WATCH: The Sun on Sunday’s Kate Ferguson and Harry Cole reckon former Labour leader Ed Miliband could be robbed of his powers to decide Labour energy policy in a planned reshuffle next month following the mega U-turn on the party’s £28 billion green projects plan.  

WOMEN WORRIES: Nandy told the BBC she was bothered that all of the candidates for the upcoming by-elections are white men after concerns were voiced in Friday’s London Playbook. “Diversity in politics matters,” she said.

‘MYSTERY MOZ’: The Mail on Sunday has spoken to London mayoral candidate Mozammel Hossain, who does have an amazing backstory. But as Glen Owen observes, “modern political careers are starting to resemble Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch.” Hossain tells him: “Even the Martians know that Sadiq Khan’s father was a bus driver … but my dad didn’t even see a bus in our village.”

Second chances: Buried in the piece is his decision to keep on two of his campaign team featured in a video of a lockdown-busting party. Hossain tells the Mail he decided to accept their apologies. “I’ve spoken to them and they are full of remorse. I like to give people second chances,” he said.

WHOOPSY: Shaun Bailey, the failed Tory London mayoral candidate, has admitted through his lawyers to the Sunday Mirror that his claim to have left the building of the infamous CCHQ Christmas shindig was “unintentionally inaccurate.” His initial claim that he “toodled off” to appear on the BBC’s Newsnight program before the party was in full swing was challenged by the meticulous Mikey Smith after looking at the wristwatches of partygoers. Reminder: Bailey was given a peerage by Boris Johnson. 

More questions: Ben Elliot, another of Johnson’s honors nominees, is also in the spotlight in the Observer today. The controversy is his role in helping to arrange a Tory fundraiser at the V&A Museum while he was both a trustee of the museum and the party’s chair. The Observer says it attempted to contact Elliot and Quintessentially, but neither responded. 

LABOUR LAND: Shadow Housing Secretary Lisa Nandy is out and about today touting Labour’s plans to get houses built. She tells the Telegraph Labour would use development corporations to develop green-belt land, while also siting homes alongside new railways and partnering with pension funds to create extra social housing.

Ooops: Challenged by the BBC’s Laura K on her own comments to her local paper a few years ago that it is wrong to consider greenbelt land for development, Nandy claimed it was a “selective quote from a letter that I wrote about a development in my constituency.” The letter “made clear that I support the house building program that my council has pioneered,” she said.

LEE UNLEASHED: The Sunday Times has a good profile of Tory Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson today, and says Sunak’s “secret weapon” — his equivalent of John Prescott — is a “hit with genteel Conservative Party associations in southern England, which regularly invite him as a speaker.”

SUELLA VS ZUCK: Home Secretary Suella Braverman is in New Zealand for the Five Eyes security conference tomorrow, and ahead of the trip has told the Mail on Sunday that she will be writing to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with strong words about putting kids at risk by “rolling out end-to-end encryption” on Facebook Messenger and Instagram.

MEDIA ROUND

Ayesha Hazarika on Times Radio (4 p.m. to 7 p.m.): Conservative MP Pauline Latham … Labour MP Karin Smyth … SNP MP Hannah Bardell … ConHome’s Harry Phibbs.  

Gloria Meets on GB News (6 p.m.): Labour regional mayor Tracy Brabin … Former Cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe … former Northern Ireland Secretary Shailesh Vara.

Westminster Hour (BBC Radio 4, 10 p.m.): Shadow Home Office Minister Sarah Jones … Conservative MP Bob Seely … Finance analyst Louise Cooper … Tortoise’s Cat Neilan.

WEEK AHEAD

MONDAY

LABOUR: Labour leader Keir Starmer due to speak at U.K.-India week, 1.30 p.m. onwards.

COVID-19: Chief Executive of the U.K. Health Security Agency Jenny Harries at COVID-19 inquiry, from 2 p.m.

COMMONS: Sits from 2.30 p.m. with defense questions followed by financial services and national security bill ping pong.

DEFENSE: Ben Wallace to address the RUSI Land Warfare conference, 5.10 p.m.

LORDS: Retained EU law bill ping pong. 

TUESDAY

COMMONS: Sits from 11.30 a.m. with justice questions followed by a debate in the name of the opposition. 

COVID-19: Ex-Health Secretary Hancock to give evidence to the COVID-19 inquiry, 10 a.m.

LABOUR: New Statesman to interview Keir Starmer, 9 a.m.

ECONOMY: Supermarket bosses to give evidence to the business and trade committee on inflation, 10.10 a.m.

WEDNESDAY

COMMONS: Sits from 11.30 a.m. with Scottish questions followed by PMQs, potentially more ping pong with the Lords and the second reading of the Holocaust Memorial Bill.

LORDS: Illegal Migration Bill report stage.

CLIMATE: Committee on Climate Change due to publish its 2023 emissions progress report.

ECONOMY: Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey at the ECB central banking forum, 2.30 p.m.

THURSDAY

COVID-19: Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the COVID-19 inquiry, 10 a.m.

COMMONS: Sits from 9.30 a.m. with business and trade questions followed by the business statement and debates on fishing and artificial intelligence. 

LONDON: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan at state of London debate, 7.30 p.m.

DEFENSE: Ben Wallace to address the Chatham House London Conference, 2.15 p.m.

LEVELING-UP: Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to speak at the Northern Powerhouse conference, 11.15 a.m.

FRIDAY

COVID-19: High Court to hold hearing into U.K. government attempts to block its own inquiry from accessing Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages.

SATURDAY

ENERGY: Energy price cap changes take effect.

Thanks: To Jones Hayden for giving Crunch some Sunday zing.

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