BREXITEERS OF THE WEEK: Farage ally who said it took ‘democratic principle’ to turn down peerage set to join Lords
Claire Fox with Nigel Farage and former Brexit Party MEPs ahead of the last European elections. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) - Credit: Getty Images
It's not just Claire Fox's views on the IRA that makes her a questionable choice for the House of Lords, as STEVE ANGLESEY explains.
CLAIRE FOX
May 2015: Contrarian pundit Fox praises Lib Dems Vince Cable, Danny Alexander, David Laws and Simon Hughes as they turn down peerages because they do not believe in an unelected second chamber. She calls it a 'rediscovery of democratic principles'.
July 2020: Fox rediscovers her democratic principles by accepting a peerage in Boris Johnson's dissolution honours list despite having consistently called for the House of Lords to be abolished. She writes: 'I stand by that… I'll argue that in the House of Lords while it exists'. She goes on brag about 'having more democrats in the unelected House of Lords', apparently forgetting that she got there by patronage rather than the ballot box.
No word yet on what Claire's principles say about keeping her £300-a-day allowance, but perhaps she'll claim she's aiming to bankrupt the Lords from within…
You may also want to watch:
THE BAD BOYS
Most Read
- 1 PMQs: Commons speaker reprimands Boris Johnson over Greensill response
- 2 MEPs again refuse to ratify Brexit deal amid concerns No 10 is flouting conditions
- 3 Tory anger as Labour to hold vote on establishing committee to investigate cronyism
- 4 A lesson from the last of Mainwaring's men
- 5 Tory government 'doesn't think it has to be abide by rules', says former civil servant
- 6 Tory MPs vote down proposal for parliamentary inquiry into Greensill scandal
- 7 David Cameron 'only sorry he got caught', MPs told
- 8 The stench of scandal seeping out from Britain
- 9 How the vaccines have shifted opinions over Brexit
- 10 Nick Clegg says EU 'let itself and millions of Europeans' down over Covid vaccine programme
With six weeks until election day in New Zealand, Brexit backers Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore's campaign to unseat prime minister and Covid-19 hero Jacinda Ardern goes from strength to strength. Their favoured candidate Winston Peters is now trailing her by just 51% or 59%, depending on which of the latest polls you believe, and is set to lose his own seat in parliament as well.
Though Banks and Wigmore are targeting at least 12% on September 19, Peters' NZ First party is currently stuck on 2% and needs to get to 5% if he is to return as an MP. Wigmore recently tweeted: 'I wouldn't believe the polls', while Peters, unfortunately, told the Guardian, 'I'm not going nowhere but up in this campaign' – with that 'not' suggesting he might plunge even further towards obscurity.
IAIN DUNCAN SMITH
The EU 'want our money and they want to stop us being a competitor,'
moaned IDS on Twitter. 'The Withdrawal Agreement (WA) we signed last year sadly helps them… buried in the fine print, unnoticed by many, is the fact we remain hooked into the EU's loan book.' He frets this might leave Britain liable for £160 billion of unpaid debts.
Presumably the many who did not notice this fine print include Iain Duncan Smith himself. Not only did he vote for the WA and write a Telegraph column praising it ('The deal is oven-ready… let's get Brexit done and take Britain forward'), he even voted in favour of compressing scrutiny of it into just three days, meaning that nasty surprises 'buried in the fine print' were overlooked!
TIM MARTIN
The Wetherspoons CEO's relationship with accuracy continues to be as cloudy as a pint of Owd Fuddleduck's Unicorn Piddle. Posters in his pubs boast of them offering 'Sunak's Specials', calling the chancellor a 'legend' for 'instigating tax equality between supermarkets and pubs'.
One small problem, though – the posters feature the logos of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Society for Independent Brewers (SIBA), despite both organisations declaring its claims are untrue. They said in a joint statement: 'We'd hope consumers do not mistakenly believe CAMRA or SIBA have endorsed this marketing approach, which we believe is unhelpful for the pub industry as a whole and masks the truth that this VAT reduction will not directly result in cheaper beer prices.' Another triumph for the tremendously tousled Tim!
Become a Supporter
The New European is proud of its journalism and we hope you are proud of it too. We believe our voice is important - both in representing the pro-EU perspective and also to help rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.
