Gemmill

More uh-oh

But aye they absolutely should have killed this one way or the other by now. They clearly wanted her out but I think they might be stuck with her now cos of some Billy big bollocks who couldn't resist briefing to the times.

Well Starmer is saying the decision will be made next week, but today Rayner has done multiple interviews saying of course she should be able to stand if she wants to. Not clear whether she's preparing the pitch for them to announce she's standing, or if she's picking a fight with Starmer.

It sounds like they had been working for a while to do this set piece where they gave her back the whip and she would announce her retirement, get a load of positive tributes and then go to the Lords. But the day she was given the whip back, some dickhead briefs the times to say "she's got the whip back but we're barring her from standing". From which point, all bets are off. Abbott is full of hell and says she's standing and Starmer seems paralysed and unable to say one way or another if she's standing. And the press that has previously treated Abbott like shit is now treating her like Mother Theresa and how could Labour do this to her.

Aye, he's done. Anyone can join the Labour Party, doesn't mean they're a parliamentary candidate.

Aye that's true as well. If you stay and fight your seat, you get extra cash. This is just a bloke sticking the boot in to the Tories which I fully welcome. Labour could do with a narrative change atm.

He's standing down. I don't think this is an attempt to become a candidate for Labour.

I'm not having that like. Trump represents the end of democracy in America if he gets re-elected. He nearly managed it last time, and this time he'll ensure that he dismantles any and all checks and balances so that he can finish the job. He's already corrupted the judiciary and the entire GOP, that part is done going in this time. You might not like Biden's policies, but he doesn't have designs on being a dictator.

Another defection.

Bloke tells him his mam died during the pandemic and he can't fucking help but mention that he was the Chancellor who gave everyone furlough.

Interesting that Labour are saying little to nowt about the Truss / Lotus Eaters thing. I don't think they want to bounce Sunak into taking any action against her cos she's more valuable to them as a millstone round his neck. I cannot remotely fathom how she's set to retain her seat though. Some parts of this country are fully backwards.

Good man Craig.

Never forget.

Looks like Starmer is cleaning house.

Or maybe not actually. Is this bloke a wrong'un? Seems to be some suggestions on twitter that this is long overdue and is internal Labour machinations getting rid of a problem candidate. So I might be getting my conspiracy theory on a bit prematurely.

Obvs no one knows the full story but wouldn't be remotely surprised if this was a Tory stitch-up because they know it's getting away from them.

Ed Davey still enjoying his gap year.

8% of under 50s. On a par with Reform. Gonna take something magical for this lot to have a future as a party.

Who does he think he is man? This all probably appeals to some of the more arrogant amongst the team's following (so about 80% of them), but it's doing him zero favours with the actual people he needs to negotiate with.

Mint news mate, pleased you got something sorted quickly, and it sounds like a winner too.

Aye, that's the weird thing. That Sunderland fans lay out their travelling outfit the night before a holiday and it's ALWAYS one of their shitty strips. And then they arrive and make a point of exploring the hotel and walking round the pool area in them, so everyone can mark their cards that the bamps have landed.

Aye, it was during the period when they were being hypersensitive and trying to show that Starmer was zero tolerance, and they completely overreacted. Mind, you can guarantee that if he hadn't immediately acted, it would have been used as a stick to beat him with by both Tories and the press. Which kind of underlines that she should probably have put a bit more thought into what she was doing and considered possible consequences. Or she knew and she was just seeing if she could test boundaries - that's what I mean about whether she's actually more of an arse pain than we realise.

New FT model to play with.