Cincunri Sakia: London Playbook: Suspicious in Mauritius — Cox appalls

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Good Thursday morning.

LOBBY MOVE: Insider (the website formerly known as Business Insider) has hired Cat Neilan from the Telegraph to be its new U.K. politics editor. Neilan has been the Telegraph’s Politics Live editor for the past couple of years. She starts the new gig in January.

DRIVING THE DAY

SUSPICIOUS IN MAURITIUS: Moonlighting MP Geoffrey Cox launched a defiant rearguard action amid his second job scandal yesterday, but the part-time politician’s defense has turned to farce this morning as it emerges he prepared his unrepentant statement some 6,000 miles away from Westminster in Mauritius. Today’s newspapers have new angle after new angle on the Cox saga, from another tax haven gig he landed in the Cayman Islands, to the highly damaging revelation that he has been renting out his taxpayer-funded London flat while coining it in the Caribbean. Boris Johnson yesterday refused to criticize Cox by name though made clear his displeasure at the former attorney general’s failure to put his constituents first. The news this morning paints a picture of a man who has spent years pushing the benefits afforded to members of parliament to the limit in order to maximize his own personal income.

Gimme More: Cox missed at least two sitting parliamentary days this week because he was on the Indian Ocean holiday island of Mauritius. The Mirror’s Pippa Crerar reports he was on a “short business trip” and is a partner at an international law firm, Thomas More International, based in the country. Crerar says he was paired with opposition MPs allowing him to miss four Commons votes. In other words, he has had the week off from his job as an MP — other than publishing a statement on his website on Wednesday morning in which he claimed he always makes sure he considers his constituents to be of “primary importance.”

Cox appalls: The Guardian’s political team led by Rowena Mason has looked back at Cox’s register of interests down the years since he entered parliament in 2005, and found he has earned at least £6 million working a second job as a lawyer in that time. They’ve also found Cox missed 12 parliamentary votes over four days while he was carrying out work on behalf of the British Virgin Islands in recent weeks. The Mail’s Jason Groves and Martin Beckford have done a similar tally and counted him declaring 10,700 hours of legal work since 2009. That’s over three full years worth of work on his second job, while he was supposed to be representing constituents in West Devon. In some years, Cox worked his second job for 30 hours a week on average.

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Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire sticks the boot in: “What on earth must Geoffrey Cox’s constituents think? He is meant to be representing them but instead habitually misses days and days of parliamentary time putting his business interests first. The Prime Minister must make Geoffrey Cox choose between putting his constituents first or his own interests.” A government source briefs the papers that they expect Cox to return to Westminster next week. Playbook for one can’t wait until the camera crews catch up with him.

MP for rent: The story that will really enrage opposition politicians and voters today is the Mirror‘s front page by Nick Sommerlad and Pippa Crerar. They reveal Cox owns a plush flat in a mansion block in Battersea — subsidized by taxpayer-funded expenses down the years — that he rents out for £4,000 a month, while claiming £1,900 a month on expenses to rent another home for himself in the capital. Readers may remember that this wheeze carried out by some MPs was exposed a few years ago in the so-called rent swapping scandal. It is not against the rules for MPs to use expenses to rent a place to live while they rent out their own properties and pocket the profits, but former standards committee Chairman Alistair Graham blasts the practice in the Mirror: “If they have got a flat in London they should be happy enough to use that rather than go through this device to gain somewhere else and build up extra income.”

Kicker: Remember those two months earlier this year Cox spent in the British Virgin Islands so he could make a load of dosh? He still charged the taxpayer £3,800 for the rent on his vacated home in London. Graham is critical of that as well: “If MPs are out of the country and in the case of Mr Cox earning vast sums of money then to be at the same time claiming money from the public purse to safeguard their flat is totally wrong.”

It isn’t just BVI … Cox has also been working for legal firms based in another tax haven: the Cayman Islands. The Guardian’s Aubrey Allegretti reports he made £40,000 from work in the Caymans in 2018, then just months later he spoke in the Commons against attempts to impose stricter regulations on British overseas territories by making them create a public register of company owners.

Quote of the day: Insider’s Henry Dyer has an absolutely classic Cox quote from his work on the BVI inquiry: “Let me be quite candid. There are real drawbacks to open registers. It becomes a political tool for every — many, many frivolous complaints are made. It is a profound invasion into a legislator’s private life because what happens is, as you can imagine, stories get written, minor infractions are written up to be morally shameful or even impute dishonesty. I accept the need for registers — of course I do; every legislator must — but there are perfectly understandable reticence to invite that kind of onslaught that that can sometimes mean.” Why on earth might such a “distinguished” figure, as he modestly described himself in yesterday’s statement, be so wary of public registers shining a light on legislators’ interests? We can only speculate.

How corrupt are we? The prime minister yesterday suffered the indignity of having to insist on the world stage that Britain is not a corrupt country, and my POLITICO colleagues Esther Webber and Emilio Casalicchio explore exactly how dodgy our politics system is in a piece out this morning. “If you talk to corruption specialists, some would say, yes, it’s already acting corruptly, and some would say it’s not quite,” says Robert Barrington, a professor in corruption at the University of Sussex. “My personal view is it’s teetering on the edge.” “Under the current government there has been a noticeable shift to how things like the ministerial code is followed,” says Steve Goodrich of Transparency International. “Where rules aren’t followed and there is no consequence, the absence of accountability can breed particularly egregious behavior that could easily slip into out-and-out corrupt practices that you might expect from less-established democracies.”

Polluting politics: There are several new stories involving other MPs in the papers today to help readers make their minds up on where Britain lies on the sleaze scale. City A.M.’s Stefan Boscia has a very decent story on how Tory backbencher Mark Pawsey is making £30,000-a-year as chairman of a packaging lobby group, and has spoken in parliament on multiple occasions in favor of watering down environmental laws to benefit plastic producers. Pawsey — the paid chairman of the Foodservice Packaging Association — argued in a debate on the Environment Bill earlier this year that packaging recycling costs should not fall on producers because: “It is not the packaging manufacturer that is the polluter — people are.” Mmhmm.

Greenpeace says: “It’s deeply concerning that Mark Pawsey is taking a second salary from the plastic packaging industry, while also lobbying in parliament to water down legislation that would help tackle the plastic pollution crisis. The big question here is whose interests is Mark Pawsey serving when he stands up to speak about plastic in the Commons? Is it his constituents, or is it the plastic packaging industry that pays his second salary?”

Yet another: In the Times, George Grylls, Billy Kenber and George Greenwood report former Tory Defense Minister Philip Dunne has been paid £51,000 by aerospace company Reaction Engines last year, while consistently asking questions in parliament demanding more defense spending.

Cronyvirus: Kenber also has another COVID contracts story, revealing former Cabinet Minister Alun Cairns took a second job at diagnostics firm BBI Group weeks before it was part of a consortium that secured a £75 million government contract for lateral flow tests. Expect calls for Cairns’ communications with the government and the company to be released.

In total: Analysis from Labour released this morning finds 50 Conservative MPs have earned more than £1.7 million in consultancy fees since the beginning of 2021 alone. LabourList has the details.

Seems legit: Readers will remember how the government wanted to appoint former Daily Mail Editor Paul Dacre to be the new chair of the media regulator Ofcom, only to have to rerun the process after it found Dacre was deemed “not appointable” to the position. Who will sit on the new interview panel? Former Tory aide Michael Simmonds — the husband of Schools Minister Nick Gibb and the brother-in-law of BBC board member and former No. 10 comms chief Robbie Gibb. The Guardian’s Jim Waterson has the story. The FT reported this week that the panel’s external interviewer will be lobbyist Michael Prescott, also a friend of the Gibbs.

Game over: Former MPs who become lobbyists could lose their parliamentary passes, Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle told Sky’s Sam Coates yesterday. The Spectator’s James Heale has found that remarkably one-in-five ex-MPs who have a parliamentary pass are now engaged in consultancy, advisory or lobbying work.

Look over there: Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is doing his best to turn attention onto opposition politicians, complaining to the leaders of the Labour Party and the SNP after three MPs were accused of “drinking heavily” on a flight back from an official visit to Gibraltar. Labour’s Charlotte Nichols and SNP MPs David Linden and Drew Hendry have been named by the Telegraph’s Tony Diver, Harry Yorke and Lucy Fisher as those overdoing it on a visit this week. They report: “It is claimed that when the flight landed, Ms Nichols required a wheelchair to get from the baggage reclaim to a military minibus, while Mr Linden and Mr Hendry were ‘lairy’ and ‘rude’ when their Covid passes did not work at the airport gates.” The three MPs insisted they were not drunk on the plane, but did not deny that they had been drinking.

We’re going to see a lot more of … The FT’s Jim Pickard and Seb Payne have a timely profile of Standards Committee Chairman Chris Bryant, “the Labour former priest trying to clean up parliament.” Bryant tells them: “I hate the idea that people are getting the impression that all MPs are on the take or have their snouts in the trough. It was really irresponsible of the government to do what it did last week; there are a lot of Tory MPs who are in despair.”

Whinge-o-meter: As we enter Day 12 of the sleaze row, Tory MPs’ concerns about the state of the government and Downing Street are only getting louder. The Mirror’s Rachel Wearmouth, Dan Bloom and Pippa Crerar quote one MP: “It feels like a bit of a Black Wednesday moment. Very toxic. There is real fury, more deeply felt than when [former aide Dominic] Cummings went to Barnard Castle.” The Times‘ Henry Zeffman say there is renewed anger at Chief Whip Mark Spencer after Cox revealed he had given him permission to vote in parliament by proxy. An ally of Spencer accuses No. 10 of using him as a “human shield.” One Conservative tells POLITICO’s Emilio Casalicchio and Esther Webber this “should be a real cause of concern … I can’t recall a moment quite like this since he became leader.” A former No. 10 aide tells them: “I think this is the worst it’s been and they should be worried — it’s the perfect storm of the old guard with no promotion prospects worried about losing second jobs, and new guard worried that their best years may be spent in the wilderness if this continues.”

The pundits agree: In the Times, Iain Martin writes: “Anxious Tories can smell decay in the air. Having been misled by No 10, backbenchers are ‘self-whipping’ as concern spreads about being hitched to a toxic brand.” And Tom Newton Dunn’s Evening Standard column argues: “Johnson’s premiership is at a crossroads. The populist outsider has become the elitist insider, and stopped listening to wise counsel. It’s now down to Tory MPs to save the PM from himself.”

He lobbies, I advise: It’s not all happy days for Labour leader Keir Starmer, though. Starmer is facing increasing scrutiny of his own outside work while he’s been an MP — his register of interests entry shows he’s earned more than £25,000 for legal work this parliament, mostly for confidential clients. Starmer has been unable to explain why he held talks with registered consultants Mishcon de Reya about a potential role in 2017. Nor why he took more than £9,000 to advise the low tax government of Gibraltar. It’s nowhere near the Cox end of the scale, though it’s less than ideal given Labour’s main attack lines at the moment are about MPs taking outside consultancy jobs and working for tax havens. The Times‘ Eleni Courea has more and says Starmer is facing “uncomfortable questions about his own income.”

**COP26 Rundown: What has the climate summit achieved? Join our 4 expert reporters in Glasgow for a live discussion, broadcasted on Twitter on Friday 6pm C.E.T.**

TODAY AT COP

Last night in Glasgow: Boris Johnson last night urged world leaders to pick up the phone and order their negotiators to do more on climate finance as the COP26 summit in Glasgow enters its last 48 hours. There was some surprise positive news yesterday as China and the U.S. agreed to boost climate cooperation over the next decade. POLITICO has more on that.

Today’s government announcement: Ministers are launching a new “Urban Climate Action” program to support the cities and regions in developing countries most impacted by climate change to accelerate their transition to net zero, backed with £27.5 million of new U.K. government funding.

Off duty: Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband was back at COP to trash Johnson’s negotiating skills, calling his decision to leave Glasgow on Wednesday night “a dereliction of duty.” He told Esther Webber the PM and his team lacked a “strategic approach” needed to draw out more detailed commitments from big emitters — not just over the course of the summit but over the past two years. He contrasted this with the approach of (surprise surprise) Gordon Brown at Copenhagen, who understood that “the presence of a prime minister does make a difference.” Labour has a tough hand on this because they can’t be seen just to dismiss the whole endeavor, but the prime minister’s travel plans do seem to have handed them a convenient line of attack.

MORE COP NEWS: The U.K. wont be joining a New Zealand-led green trade pact that would commit it to ending billions in subsidies for the fossil fuel sector, POLITICO’s Graham Lanktree reports. Government ministers and officials say the U.K. won’t join the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS) because it wants to keep subsidies and tariffs on environmentally friendly green goods and services the deal would eliminate. The thinking is those tariffs could be used as bargaining chips in future trade negotiations, while one former trade minister said subsidies for the U.K.’s fossil fuel industry were “definitely a consideration” in the U.K.’s decision not to sign up to ACCTS.

Elsewhere in COP today: It’s cities, regions and built environment day, so expect to see plenty more of the likes of Nicola Sturgeon and Andy Burnham. London Mayor Sadiq Khan will give a speech arguing cities are “doers” while national governments have become “delayers” in the climate crisis. The main action will come when COP President Alok Sharma, UNFCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres lead a special closing event outlining a five-year plan for cities, regions, businesses and investors to accelerate their action on climate change — Sturgeon is also expected to speak (3.30 p.m.).

TODAY IN WESTMINSTER

PARLIAMENT: In recess until November 15.

BREXIT LATEST: Britain’s Brexit Minister David Frost yesterday warned Brussels against “massive and disproportionate retaliation” if the U.K. decides to unilaterally suspend post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland. Though by all accounts it seems unlikely that the U.K. will trigger Article 16 today. POLITICO’s Cristina Gallardo has more.

Still: EU countries are calling for a “firm” response if the U.K. does trigger Article 16, warning that other trade partners would look closely at how Brussels reacts, reports POLITICO’s Hans von der Burchard.

999 EMERGENCY: Average ambulance waiting times for people suffering hearts attacks and strokes are twice as long as they should be, U.K. paramedics say. The story leads the BBC News website this morning.

FISHY FURLOUGH SCAM: The Times splashes on new fraud fears it has uncovered concerning hundreds of companies which were set up after furlough was established that then went on to claim up to £26.6 million in taxpayer cash — which does all sound very fishy. The paper says many of the claims were made by “off-the-shelf” companies established cheaply with opaque corporate structures. In a separate and also particularly curious set of coincidences, 7,000 companies registered to just five addresses in London claimed up to £473 million between them in furlough cash. HMRC estimates suggest more than £6 billion has been lost in error and fraud over the pandemic.

MoD IN THE DOCK: The family of Agnes Wanjiru — the Kenyan woman allegedly murdered by a British soldier at the center of some great Sunday Times reporting last month — are planning to sue the MoD for answers over her death. Lawyers have been asked to challenge the ministry over what Wanjiru’s family say is a failure to investigate her alleged murder. The Guardian’s Rachel Hall has the story.

When it rains it pours: The MoD also faces the prospect of hundreds of workers at the Porton Down military lab going on strike, following a year-long pay battle with the government. More than a thousand union members are being balloted for a walkout, due to a “derisory” offer of a 2 percent pay rise in June 2020. More from the Mirror’s Dan Bloom.

YESTERDAY’S UK COVID STATS: 39,329 new cases, ⬆️ 6,212 on Tuesday. In the last seven days there have been 237,064 positive cases, ⬇️ 40,773 on the previous week … 214 reported deaths within 28 days of a positive test, ⬇️ 48 on Tuesday. In the last seven days 1,157 deaths have been reported, ⬆️ 16 on the previous week. As of the latest data 8,859 COVID patients are in hospital.

VAX STATS: A total 50,336,130 people or 87.5 percent of the population aged 12+ have received a first dose, ⬆️ 39,836 … A total 45,894,237 people or 79.8 percent of the population aged 12+ have received a second dose, ⬆️ 21,199 … A total 10,920,416 people or 19 percent of the population aged 12+ have received a booster/third dose, ⬆️ 340,294.

MEANWHILE, IN GERMANY: An aggressive fourth COVID wave due to low vaccination rates is threatening to fill German ICUs and cancel Christmas markets for the second year running. The BBC has a report from an intensive care ward in Saxony, where the situation looks increasingly dire. Saxony has Germany’s lowest vaccination rate with just 57 percent double jabbed. Elsewhere, the Guardian’s Kate Connolly reports scheduled Christmas markets are being canceled in some regions, after widespread hope they could go ahead this year after missing the last. Many of Germany’s most famous markets are due to open in a week’s time.

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MEDIA ROUND

Small Business Minister Paul Scully broadcast round: Sky News (7.05 a.m.) … Times Radio (7.20 a.m.) … Good Morning Scotland (7.35 a.m.) … LBC (7.50 a.m.) … ITV GMB (8.30 a.m.).

Today program: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe and health committee Chairman Jeremy Hunt (7.30 a.m.) … Barts Life Sciences chief Mark Caulfield (7.50 a.m.) … Crossbench peer Jonathan Evans (8.10 a.m.) … Pakistan National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf (8.30 a.m.).

BBC Breakfast: Former Deputy PM John Prescott (8.20 a.m.) … Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe (8.30 a.m.).

Also on Good Morning Britain (ITV): Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe (6.50 a.m.).

Also on Kay Burley at Breakfast (Sky News): Health committee Chairman Jeremy Hunt (7.20 a.m.) … Shadow Housing Secretary Lucy Powell (8.05 a.m.).

Also on Times Radio breakfast: Carbon Trust Chair Julia King (8 a.m.) … New Zealand’s Climate Minister James Shaw (8.20 a.m.) … Shadow Housing Secretary Lucy Powell (8.30 a.m.) … Israeli Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely (8.45 a.m.).

Also on Nick Ferrari at Breakfast (LBC): Former No. 10 spinner Jonathan Haslam (7.10 a.m.) … Jewish Chronicle Deputy Editor Jake Wallis Simons (7.20 a.m.) … West Midlands Mayor Andy Street (7.40 a.m.) … Head of Armed Forces Engagement Alexander Owen (8.50 a.m.).

Julia Hartley-Brewer breakfast show: INHouse comms CEO Jo Tanner (7.05 a.m.) … Former head of the U.K. Joint Forces Command Richard Barrons (7.20 a.m.) … Tory MP Chris Green (8.05 a.m.) … Israeli Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely (8.20 a.m.) … Shadow Housing Secretary Lucy Powell (8.50 a.m.) … Former committee on standards in public life Chairman Alistair Graham (9.06 a.m.) … National Care Forum CEO Vic Rayner (9.20 a.m.).

Also on Good Morning Scotland (BBC Radio Scotland): The IfG’s Tim Durrant (6.55 a.m.) … Glasgow Councillor Anna Richardson (7.05 a.m.) … Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe (8.05 a.m.) … London Mayor Sadiq Khan (8.35 a.m.).

Spectator TV (YouTube 6 p.m.): Former No. 10 Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell … Former U.K. Permanent Representative to the EU Ivan Rogers … Former Trump defense adviser Elbridge Colby.

Question Time (From Hartlepool BBC One 10.35 p.m.): Business Minister Lee Rowley … Shadow Housing Secretary Lucy Powell … Energy U.K. CEO Emma Pinchbeck … Former No. 10 spinner Alastair Campbell … Times Radio’s Tom Newton Dunn.

Times Radio papers review (10.30 p.m.): ICC U.K. Secretary General Chris Southworth and former Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb.

TODAY’S FRONT PAGES

(Click on the publication’s name to see its front page.)

Daily Express: Explosive new evidence — Meghan says sorry.

Daily Mail: £5.5m MP with no shame — Revealed: How Geoffrey Cox lined his pockets.

Daily Mirror: Exposed — Tory MP’s homes greed.

Daily Star: Two pints of mojito and a packet of crisps, please.

Financial Times: U.S. consumer prices increase at fastest pace in three decades.

HuffPost UK: Johnson — ‘Our politics is not corrupt.’

i: Chief whip in peril over MP moonlighting in Caribbean.

Metro: A bit of a COP out — PM left wriggling at summit.

POLITICO UK: How corrupt is Britain?

The Daily Telegraph: Meghan admits she ‘misled’ court.

The Guardian: MP Cox has made at least £6m from his second job.

The Independent: Take the lead to salvage climate pact, PM urged.

The Sun: Little miss forgetful — Meg emails reveal she tried to influence shock royal biography.

The Times: Fraud fears over firms’ furlough millions.

TODAY’S NEWS MAGS

The New European: Betrayed by Britain — Grubby reality behind the U.K. government’s tormenting of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family.

The New Statesman: Behind the masks — Why Boris Johnson is immune to all scandal.

The Spectator: Court of chaos — Fraser Nelson on a party in turmoil.

LONDON CALLING

WESTMINSTER WEATHER: ☁️☁️☁️ Another dull but dry day, with highs of 14C.

POLLSTER MOVES: Ipsos MORI’s Ben Page is leaving his CEO role after 12 years to join the worldwide Ipsos office as global CEO. He’ll be replaced by the current public affairs managing director, Kelly Beaver — here’s the tweet.

BIRTHDAYS: Former Magistrates’ Association Chairman John Bache … Writer and broadcaster Cristina Odone … POLITICO’s Matthew Kaminski, Elisabeth Binard and Cristina Gonzalez.

PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editor Zoya Sheftalovich, reporter Andrew McDonald producer Grace Stranger.

Cincunri Sakia

Kamis, 11 November 2021

London Playbook: Suspicious in Mauritius — Cox appalls — Whinge-o-meter - POLITICO.eu