Reflecting on Olly Robbins dismissal we should pause to note it was a summary firing. That’s usually reserved to gross misconduct. But as Pat McFadden made clear today this was a disagreement with the PM about process. At most the PM might suspend him pending advice from Cabinet Secretary.
The PM’s beef with Olly Robbins is not that he came to the wrong judgment in substance on clearing Mandelson’s appointment but rather that the process did not include ministers. Robbins believes the correct process should not involve ministers. That’s a difference of view not a sacking offences
Starmer’s
Premiership is over even as he stays on as PM. This is not because of the issues of process and vetting of Mandelson. It is because Mandelson was a candidate at all. He should not have been appointed even if he passed vetting for the obvious reason that we all knew of his background.
So we know that Olly Robbins believes he was not permitted to disclose vetting outcomes to the PM. But did he disclose and discuss it with anyone at all? If so, who? What process did Robbins follow to come to his decision and are there records of what advice he took and from whom.
It would seem crazy for Labour to ditch Starmer a matter of weeks before elections and more likely to happen after. But the Mandelson saga will try the patience of Labour figures like Anus Sarwar who has already called for Starmer to go. He may do so again this week.
If it’s unlikely that Olly Robbins unilaterally decided to reject the vetting recommendation for Mandelson and if no minister took that decision then which senior figure is left in the frame? Wouldn’t that have been the PM’s chief of staff and ally of Mandelson?
Want to understand the collapse of Labour in Wales?
And the Senedd elections more broadly?
Take 6 or 7 minutes to watch this report.
(#the implosion of the electorally most successful party in the democratic world.)
www.channel4.com/news/wales-e...
Doesn’t changing the rules on over-ruling a vetting decision indicate that keeping the rules in place would mislead the public as to whether someone was a suitable person for a role?
If so, then merely stating that the rules were followed in Mandelson’s appointment is misleading.
The US campaigning for Orbán’s re-election went well.
Roll on the mid-terms.
"Deeply researched and beautifully written, Law for the Land tells the improbable story of how an ancient Roman doctrine reshaped protection of America’s most threatened natural treasures."
Law for the Land by Erin Ryan
🗺️ 🗃️ #BookSky #LawSky #Environment 📗 #California
https://cup.org/4l774ck
Insight and analysis that gets under the bonnet of British politics and how it is shaped by the economy. One of the many essential FT podcasts that fuel me each week.
Brexit doesn’t just raise issues for the UK’s trade policy. As Europe faces a security challenge some might think that the U.K. can play a leadership role. But successive U.K. PM’s failed to lead while the U.K. was an EU member. Can Starmer really lead from the outside?
Nigel Farage has a dilemma. He probably likes having someone like Matthew Goodwin saying the things he says that echo British National Party tropes. But his recruitment of failed Tories is also an attempts to make his party look safe and credible. I don’t think he can have it both ways.
‘I can’t charge $1’
Has #SCOTUS turned against #POTUS?
My analysis of Friday’s #tariff judgment and its implications for the President, importers and the Court itself.
open.substack.com/pub/kaarmstr...
NEW on Substack
Has #SCOTUS turned on Trump in today’s #tariffs ruling?
My analysis here:👇
open.substack.com/pub/kaarmstr...
Back on Substack!
Reflections on Starmer, Sarwar and why devolution changes U.K. politics.
open.substack.com/pub/kaarmstr...
🎙️ Hot off the Press — Highlighting LGBT+ History
Host and Cambridge author Jen Manion talks to fellow authors Caroline Gonda and Simon Goldhill about queer history and the power of the archive.
🎧 Listen to the full episode 🔗 https://cup.org/4rt2yYd
#LGBTHistory
While there may multiple political stories about Monday’s drama over Starmer’s leadership that doesn’t take away from the central story that U.K. Labour has priced in Anas Sarwar’s defeat in May’s Scottish elections. And Sarwar is pissed off.
open.substack.com/pub/kaarmstr...
There may well be a Streeting story tied up with yesterday’s unheeded call by Anas Sarwar for a change in leadership but the main story is about devolution and Sarwar’s frustration that Scottish Labour will likely come 3rd in Mays elections. What the PLP at Westminster wants misses the point.
Two governments took The News Agents to secret court for two years via a constitutionally unprecedented superinjunction to stop you from hearing this story.
The MoD is responsible for a data leak that put up to 100,000 Afghans at risk of death.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdc6...
Justice for Some by Kent Roach
A thoroughly comparative study on the history, law, politics, and latest knowledge about miscarriages of justice and wrongful convictions and the differences between them.
📚 https://cup.org/45Jilcw
#humanrights
How should Starmer respond to Sarwar?
By getting to grips with polycentric politics.
New on Substack.
open.substack.com/pub/kaarmstr...
Things may not have worked out as Sarwar may have wanted but the more that the parliamantary party closes its ears to the legitimate concerns of the Scottish Labour leader the more it is evident that the party is content to see electoral defeat for Scottish Labour as simply collateral damage.
Maybe Keir Starmer should watch the Take That documentary. Gary Barlow finally “joined” the band when he shared power with the rest of the band. Maybe it’s time Keir joined the Labour Party.
If the effect of Anas Sarwar’s call for a change of leadership is that the UK Cabinet closes ranks it sends a strong signal that Scotland isn’t relevant to the leadership. That’s a big problem for Sarwar as he tries to run an election campaign in Scotland. It plays into SNP hands.
