Politicos on Brand – POLITICO

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

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THINGS TO KNOW

POLITICOS ON BRAND: Today’s news agenda is totally dominated by the Sunday Times’ harrowing four-year investigation into allegations of rape, sexual assault and abuse by comedian-turned-YouTube guru Russell Brand. Accusations he strongly denies. 

Questions to answer: Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, touring the TV studios for the government, told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg there were questions for the entertainment industry to answer. There are “real challenges where you have these very, very acute differentials in power” in the entertainment industry, politics and the commercial world, he said, warning that particular care had to be taken in listening to the voices of the “relatively powerless.” 

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Monitoring closely: Caroline Dinenage, chair of the culture, media and sport committee, released a statement on Saturday night saying her committee will be “keen to understand the response of the police” and will be “closely monitoring the responses of the media” and looking at the questions the case “yet again, raises about the culture in the industry as a whole.” The Met Police said they have not received any reports, but have urged potential victims to come forward.

IN KEIR’S WORLD: Back in the world of politics, it is the Labour Party which has been making the most news today after leader Keir Starmer was talking small boats and foreign policy from Montreal, where he has been pressing the flesh with fellow social democrats at the Global Progress Action summit. 

China warning: Speaking to Anne McElvoy for POLITICO’s new global podcast Power Play, Starmer warned that the U.K. needs to “wean itself off China” when it comes to trade and technology. Starmer also promised to restore Britain’s reputation on the world stage. “I feel very strongly that since Brexit, there’s been a sense that we’ve not just exited the EU, that we’ve somehow turned our back on the world,” he said. The Labour leader rubbed shoulders with Tony Blair, Justin Trudeau, Jacinda Ardern and Sanna Marin among others this weekend. 

Paging Obama: Starmer also intriguingly tells Anne that the former U.S. president he is most in contact with is Barack Obama, whom he speaks to “frequently.” POLITICO has a write-up of the interview here, and you can listen to the full podcast on Thursday.

Brexit means Brexit: Starmer meanwhile used a Sky News interview this morning to insist it was “complete nonsense” a Labour government would join the EU migrant quota system, after shadow ministers set hares running last week with talk of returns deals with the EU. “We are not an EU member and that wasn’t what I was talking about,” he told Trevor Phillips of the migrant quota system. 

Would there be limits? Pushed on whether returns deals would include quotas, Pat McFadden, now shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (longhand for a Cabinet big-hitter) told the BBC’s Laura K: “I don’t think it’s going to be an allocation of numbers. We’re talking about individual cases where a child may have strong family links here. It’s not ‘we will take this many, you take that many.’ That’s not the kind of negotiation that we want to have,” he said.

We still wanna talk: But Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who is in Montreal with Starmer, used an Observer interview to herald the need for new EU links post-Brexit. “We have got to get back to structured dialogue. What it means [without it] is that we are not in the room,” he told the paper. 

No Brexit re-run: Challenged on the impression such conciliatory talk might give Brexit voters, McFadden told the BBC: “We’re not going to re-run the Brexit argument. We left the EU. The task for the country is to make the best future that we can outside the EU, but that doesn’t mean everything stays as it is.” 

No big cheques: McFadden, until recently one of Labour’s key spending gatekeepers, was also circumspect about various spending commitments during his BBC grilling. Amid weekend reports of further scaling back of the HS2 high-speed rail project, McFadden said that while Labour wants “to see the railway being built,” it would want to see the latest costs before writing its manifesto. Asked on Sky about a potential HS2 wobble, Cleverly said the PM was absolutely committed to leveling up, and HS2 was part of that, but he insisted the “sequencing” had to be right. 

Social care service: McFadden was also wary when questioned about the prospect of a publicly funded national care service, pivoting to talk about the social care system operating to “good standards.” Questioned about Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s ambitions, he added: “I don’t think he is going to go around and nationalize every care home.”

Triple lock: McFadden was similarly guarded on the triple lock on pensions — a policy which ensures the state pension increases each April in line with the highest of inflation, wages or 2.5 percent. “All of these big ticket items are going to depend on the state of the economy at the time,” McFadden told the BBC. 

Now read this: Tim Shipman has an anecdote-laden piece in the Sunday Times looking at the transformation of the Labour Party under Starmer which is an entertaining Sunday afternoon read. 

CATCH A SPY: China is still very much in the news after last week’s revelation a parliamentary researcher had been arrested over allegations he was spying for China, a claim he strongly denies. 

No comment: Despite the BBC Laura Kuenssberg’s best efforts to get clarity on whether Cleverly raised the issue of the alleged parliament spy during his recent visit to China, and when he first knew about it, Cleverly repeatedly insisted: “We do not comment on intelligence or security related issues.” 

More forthcoming: Others have been keener to chat China, and the Mail on Sunday says the U.K. government plans to replace Chinese teachers in British classrooms with recruits from Taiwan. 

And more: The Mail also hears King Charles was briefed on the researcher’s arrest. The Sunday Telegraph says the alleged spy met a Cabinet Office minister to discuss the China-related Procurement Bill, while the Sun on Sunday hears he was at a summit with top European politicians in the weeks before his arrest. 

From the government: Defense Secretary Grant Shapps tells the papers today there will be new laws to put former British military personnel in prison if they are caught training foreign militaries. The Sunday Mirror, among others, has a write-up.

Food for thought: Amid the frenzy of China spying stories, the Times’ Matthew Parris had a column worth reading on Saturday on the “shades of grey and moments of uncertainty” when it comes to espionage.

QUICK-FIRE CATCH-UP

HELPING LIBYA: There are more devastating dispatches from flood-hit Libya, including from the BBC today. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told the BBC’s Laura K that the lack of “high functioning government” to liaise with in eastern Libya made it really hard to get international support onto the ground, but insisted: “We’re not being fatalistic about this. We will continue to do whatever we can to help,” he said.

What about the cash: On cuts to the aid budget, Cleverly admitted there would be an impact: “You can never reduce budgets without any consequences at all.”

SAVING BRUM: Birmingham city council could be forced to sell its stake in Birmingham airport, with government-appointed commissioners due to take over the running of the operations of the local authority on Tuesday, the Sunday Times reports.

RISHI YOU ARE WRONG: The Sunday Telegraph has a trail of ex-PM Liz Truss’ planned broadside against her successor Rishi Sunak at the Institute for Government tomorrow. She will reportedly claim he has spent £35 billion more than she would have.

IN POLITICAL BOOKSHOPS: There are also lots of fun nuggets from Telegraph pol ed Ben Riley-Smith’s new book The Right to Rule around this weekend. He hears a flat 20 percent income tax was considered for the Truss mini-budget. Also fascinating for reshuffle fans is the first public picture of the famous No. 10 reshuffle board — and what it looked like the night before Boris Johnson resigned.

BEYOND UK SHORES: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been checking out Russian nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles … Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is not happy with a report from the European Parliament … European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is heading to the Italian island of Lampedusa today to talk about migrant arrivals.

MEDIA ROUND

Ayesha Hazarika on Times Radio (4 p.m. to 7 p.m.):  Conservative MP James Daly … Labour’s Clive Efford … the SNP’s Kirsty Blackman .. the Express’ Christian Calgie.

Westminster Hour (BBC Radio 4, 10 p.m.): Conservative MP Danny Kruger … Labour MP Dan Jarvis … the FT’s Miranda Green … the Speccie’s Katy Balls.

WEEK AHEAD

MONDAY

EX-PM: Former PM Liz Truss to give economic speech at the Institute for Government, 10 a.m.

DIPLOMACY: G7 foreign ministers to meet in New York.

LONDON: London Mayor Sadiq Khan among speakers at Concordia Summit in New York.

COMMONS: Sits from 2.30 p.m. with home office questions followed by a debate on the U.K. automotive industry and U.K. exports.

TUESDAY

IN THE COURTS: Four-day hearing at the Court of Session begins between the Scottish government and U.K. government over its decision to block Holyrood’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill. 

COMMONS: Sits from 11.30 a.m. with energy questions followed by general debates before MPs rises for party conferences.

TRADE: Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch up in front of the business and trade select committee, 2.15 p.m.

STRIKES: NHS consultants due to walk out. 

LORDS: Online Safety Bill back in the House of Lords.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: U.N. General Assembly’s General Debate opens in New York with speeches from U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. U.K. PM Rishi Sunak is not attending. 

ECONOMY: OECD Interim Economic Outlook to be published. 

EDUCATION: Department for Education boss Susan Acland-Hood to give evidence on crumbly concrete in schools, 10 a.m.

LABOUR: Labour leader Keir Starmer expected to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

DEFENSE: Ramstein defense ministers due to meet to discuss Ukraine. 

WEDNESDAY

STRIKES: Junior doctors and consultants to simultaneously walk out in pay dispute with the government.

ECONOMY: Inflation figures to be published by the Office for National Statistics, 7 a.m.

ROYAL: King Charles and Queen Camilla begin rescheduled three-day state visit to France.

THURSDAY

STRIKES: NHS junior doctors due to walk out. 

ECONOMY: Bank of England to discuss latest interest rate decision. 

FRIDAY

ECONOMY: U.K. retail sales figures to be published. 

SATURDAY

DIPLOMACY: Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden to speak at UNGA. 

ANNIVERSARY: One year on from Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini-budget.”

CONFERENCE: Co-operative Party Annual Conference 

SUNDAY

CONFERENCE: Liberal Democrats Autumn Conference opens.

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

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