Harrogate district MPs silent on emergency statement

The three Conservative MPs whose constituencies include the Harrogate district have declined to comment on today’s emergency statement.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reversed almost all of Prime Minister Liz Truss’s tax cuts, which were announced in the government’s mini-budget three weeks ago.

Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, welcomed last month’s growth plan, saying on his Community News website:

“There are a huge number of measures, many focused on our productivity and investment which are the platforms for future growth. So, plenty to be positive about here in Harrogate and Knaresborough.”

Today we asked Mr Jones, along with Julian Smith, who represents Skipton and Ripon, and Nigel Adams, who represents Selby and Ainsty, to comment on today’s announcement by Mr Hunt.

We also asked them whether the Prime Minister should resign, after three Conservative MPs called for her to do so.

Neither Mr Jones nor Mr Smith had replied by the time of publication.

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Mr Smith was critical of the tax cutting agenda in last month’s mini-budget. He said at the time:

“In a statement with many positive enterprise measures this huge tax cut for the very rich at a time of national crisis and real fear and anxiety amongst low income workers and citizens is wrong.”

Maire Crosse, Mr Adams’ senior parliamentary assistant, did reply but only to say:

“Nigel is away today and not contactable. Therefore, he will not be providing a comment.”

MPs warned energy bills are pushing Harrogate district businesses to ‘tipping point’

Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce has warned the area’s MPs that many businesses will soon reach a “tipping point” and have to close as soaring energy bills hit the high street.

Chamber chief executive David Simister said in letters to Conservative MPs Andrew Jones, Julian Smith and Nigel Adams that he had “grave” concerns for the outlook of high streets with the worst of the energy crisis yet to come ahead of the looming recession.

Mr Simister urged the MPs to put pressure on the government to “act now” and provide support for firms “before it is too late”.

He said:

“Whilst the focus seems very much to be on the cost of living crisis for homeowners, there is little being said about industry and commerce, and what, if any support, will be given to prevent businesses being forced to shut.

“Very soon, the 12-month, 50% business rates discounts is to end.

“This again is going to heap more financial woes on those who pay this tax to central government.

“Coupled with the rising costs of raw materials, fuel, the living wage, and National Insurance, many businesses will soon reach a tipping point, and unfortunately for some the only option will be to shut.”

Unlike households, small businesses’ bills are not covered by the energy price cap, which is set to go up in October when annual bills will average £3,554.

The Labour Party has proposed freezing the cap at the current level of £1,971 a year for households until April when it is hoped prices may start to ease.

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The party argues this would ease pressure on households and potentially give a boost to businesses as shoppers would have more money to spend.

However, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – the two Conservative candidates competing to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister – have both rejected the plan.

The massive bill increases are already being felt by Harrogate district businesses and with further rises on the horizon, Mr Simister said many will simply not be able to cope with the double impact of shoppers cutting back spending.

He added these impacts were being felt even harder off the back of the covid pandemic which brought “two years of extreme difficulties for businesses”.

He said in his letter to MPs:

“For some, I fear the looming energy crisis, which is yet to bite, will be one storm too many to weather,”

“I urge you as our constituency MP to put pressure on your government colleagues to act now, not in two or three weeks’ time, to bring certainty, and hopefully some comfort, to business owners, including myself, who are incredibly worried.”

The three MPs have been contacted for comment.

Strayside Sunday: Thank God he’s gone. Now who’s for the top job?

Strayside Sunday is our political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party.

So, he’s gone. To coin a phrase “thems the breaks.” What a remarkable week it’s been in our national life. The man who delivered an 80-seat majority for the Conservative Party less than three years ago, the man who “got Brexit done” and the man who led the country (many, including me, say successfully) through the pandemic and vaccination rollout was dragged, kicking and screaming, from Downing Street. In my piece following the recent vote of confidence which Boris Johnson won I concluded that we were probably stuck with him for another year. I could not have been more wrong. A woeful Number 10 mishandling of the ‘Pincher by name, Pincher by nature’ affair brought the Prime Minister low – in brief, more lies and dissembling from the boss and his team about what was known of the sex pest’s historic misdemeanours before he was appointed Deputy Chief Whip.

In the end the Prime Minister lost the regard and trust of a staggering number of his ministers (over 50 of whom resigned within 48 hours) and he had to go. I’m glad. Boris Johnson was doing lasting damage to government, infusing it with his own Walter Mitty-like lack of integrity, lack of grip and inattention to detail. In the end he was indeed unfit for office. His colleagues knew it and finally grew the pair required to commit regicide. Fitting for the man-child who, as a boy, proclaimed he wanted to become World King.

The keen-eyed amongst you will have spotted Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty, among those in Downing Street, supporting Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he gave his “resignation” speech from the government lectern. Mr Adams has been a staunch supporter of BoJo throughout his tenure, serving latterly as a Cabinet Office Minister. At one point Mr Adams reached across to the PM’s wife Carrie, offering his hand in sympathy. Having already announced his intention to stand down at the next election, Adams will thus be spared the verdict of the electorate on the wisdom of his choice in political friends. That verdict is likely to be damning indeed.

Ripon MP Julian Smith (sitting on a majority better weighed than counted) was, on the other hand, in no way supportive of the Johnsons. In an interview on the Today programme on Wednesday Mr Smith said the Prime Minister had suffered a “catastrophic loss of confidence” among Tory MPs, that his behaviour was Trumpian and, by refusing to step down, that he was causing a “constitutional crisis.” Smith, a former Northern Ireland Secretary, will no doubt be hopeful of renewed ministerial preferment under the next leader, whoever that may be…

Since the Brexit referendum British politics has seen one of the most turbulent periods in modern political life. Boris Johnson is now the third leader despatched by the Tory party in six years. Notwithstanding the poison in the chalice, at time of writing there seem to be no shortage of contenders-manque willing to vie for the crown.

It is often said that those who wield the dagger don’t inherit. If that’s true then neither Sajid Javid nor Rishi Sunak will win the leadership, even though arguably they both acted with principle in leading this week’s tidal waves of resignations from the Johnson government. Both are serious minded and would represent a significant upgrade on their predecessor. Other contenders have less to recommend them. Liz Truss is mad as a March Hare and thinks herself a latter-day Mrs Thatcher. Nadhim Zahawi still looks like a decent bet, although his contortions this week in accepting the position of Chancellor from Johnson one day, going on the media rounds to support the PM the next morning, before telling him to resign the following evening made Houdini look like a cheap carnival act.

The googly eyed Brexiteer Steve Baker was one of the first to declare (please God no; I don’t want government as yet another sinister “research group”), along with Attorney-General Suella Braverman (who’s that??). Grant Shapps has declared his intention, although he might well be too tarred by the Johnson brush for comfort – no one has been on the airwaves more in the past year defending the increasingly indefensible.  Jeremy Hunt, who came second last time around will no doubt be in the running. Another serious person who should warrant serious consideration. Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat round out the field. Both are eminently presentable, full of personality and would represent a generational fresh start that might well benefit the Conservatives come the next election. I want Rishi Sunak.

One man who will most certainly not be standing for the leadership is Harrogate’s own Andrew Jones MP. Having finally and belatedly come out against Boris Johnson he popped up again this week to support a Harrogate Borough Council bid for levelling up cash to fund the proposed redevelopment of the town’s white elephant Convention Centre. The council is understood to have bid for £20m from the government’s (no longer Boris Johnson’s) Levelling Up Fund. This would certainly take a useful bite out of the reported redevelopment budget of a staggering £47m, the costs for which will otherwise fall squarely on local taxpayers. Whether the project would, as Mr Jones says, “help provide a platform for Yorkshire and the Humber businesses domestically and for export, help to drive inward investment and support extensive employment opportunities” is open to conjecture. That Harrogate and surrounds is the type of place for which levelling up is designed, is not. This is a relatively wealthy place, so one admires Mr Jones’ chutzpah in making a public claim on a fund designed to address national inequalities.  With the Tories trailing in the polls and the Liberal Democrats resurgent locally it might not be a coincidence that our local MP has found his campaigning voice. Like his Conservative colleagues in government, better late than never.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

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Strayside Sunday: Gove, Adams and Dorries ..the big reshuffle

Strayside Sunday is our monthly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

The wonderfully dotty Nadine Dorries is now Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, appointed in Boris Johnson’s surprisingly brutal ‘night of the long knives’ reshuffle.  When I first saw the news I had to check the calendar, sure that this must be an elaborate April fool’s – Ms. Dorries’ contribution to the arts hitherto limited to the publication of a series of novels which, although receiving horrible notices (“the worst novel I’ve read in ten years”), have sold in bulk to an undiscerning public; it transpires that Misery on the Mersey has wide popular appeal.

No shrinking violet, La Dorries; among the positions of policy for which the MP is (in)famous are; proposing amendments to a Health and Care bill that would have blocked Marie Stopes International from providing abortion counselling services; abstinence advocacy for girls in sex education; opposing the same-sex marriage bill and proposing a ban on the Burkha.  A “snowflake” she is not.  Her independent streak reached its peak when she defied the whip to travel down under and take a hefty fee to participate in that celebrity jungle show with Ant and/or Dec.

Jonny Oxford-Cambridge at the BBC will be quivering in his boots at the prospect of negotiating the license fee renewal with a new Culture Secretary whose sensibilities are distinctly Channel 5. And perhaps that, along with belated patronage – Dorries passionately supported BoJo on both his abortive and successful leadership attempts – is the point.  Reason perhaps, but not reason enough, to put a cultural philistine and avowed social conservative in charge of a liberal sector in mortal danger, post-lockdown.

Dorries and newly minted Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove have previous.  Being a diehard, the lady was seriously unimpressed when Gove pulled the rug on BoJo’s first leadership bid.  Sitting in the front row of the press conference at which Boris announced he was pulling out of the contest she wept.  That said I suspect she will be foursquare behind Gove as he attempts to make sense of the not-in-my-backyard Rubik’s Cube that is planning reform.  Dorries earned the ire of her Mid-Beds constituents when she supported and advocated the creation of a new 700 chalet Centre Parcs greenfield development, against their and the local council’s vehement wishes and, indeed, any sense of good taste.  It seems she has the same devil-may-care attitude to development as our own Harrogate Borough Council.

As locals know, Beckwithshaw is a lovely local village, population 400.  It is now the latest of our communities to be faced with the prospect of large-scale development on its doorstep –  Taylor Wimpey and Redrow Homes are hoping to build 780 houses and a primary school on the ‘Windmill Farm’ site north of Harlow Carr, off Otley Road.  If given the go-ahead it would be the latest in a hotch-potch of concrete and brick building that is fundamentally changing the character of Harrogate Borough.  We need homes, but we don’t need yet more bland and utilitarian sprawl, or yet more traffic to further fur-up our clogged arterial roads.  Harrogate Borough (Conservative) Council’s Local Plan is in grave danger of leading to the permanent paving over our green and pleasant lands with, as ever with this mob, no discernible cogent thought, let alone vision.  Whatever Gove does at DLUHC, let’s hope he gets a grip.  He has a reputation as an able departmental minister, so we live in hope.

Our own Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty, also prospered from the reshuffle; he now attends cabinet as Minister without Portfolio – perhaps for services to the gambling industry? (See Strayside Sunday, August 21) It can’t have been for diplomacy, it was just two weeks ago that he was filmed in the street in Westminster telling Steve (Mr. “Stop Brexit”) Bray to go forth and multiply.  I admit to a sneaking sympathy for Mr. Adams in this one instance only.  Steve Bray is the loutish, shouty, blue top hat wearing, EU flag waving protester whose unprepossessing visage forced its way into the background of almost every television interview conducted with politicians during the interminable Brexit process.  As my daughter would say, people getting “all up in your grill” is never a pleasant experience.  Peaceful political protest is a democratic essential but invading anyone’s personal space and haranguing them is intimidation and beyond the pale.  Should Mr. Adam’s have told this man to “f—k off”? Clearly not.  But I suspect most people that saw the episode unfold on YouTube or Twitter thought they might have dispensed with such pleasantries and dispensed a bunch of fives.

I’ve long been of the dysphoric view that we get the politicians we deserve.  If Harrogate Borough Council, Nigel Adams and Nadine Dorries are anything to go by, we are indeed unworthy.  Notwithstanding they provide a large bullseye for these monthly meanderings, I fervently wish for a different and better state-of-affairs.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

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Local MP accepted £6,000 worth of free Euro 2020 tickets

Nigel Adams MP accepted £6,000 worth of free hospitality tickets to England’s Euro 2020 games, according to the latest MPs register of financial interests.

Mr Adams, who represents Selby and Ainsty, which includes some rural parts of the Harrogate district such as Spofforth and Follifoot, received tickets to three games at Wembley Stadium.

He received a total of £6,038 worth of tickets from three separate companies, including two gambling and betting firms.

He watched England’s semi-final victory over Denmark, which was valued at £3,457 and paid for by Entain, a gambling company based in London whose brands include Coral, Ladbrokes, PartyPoker, and Sportingbet..

Power Leisure Bookmakers, whose brands include Paddy Power and Betfair, paid for Mr Adams to attend the round of 16 game against Germany. The value of the donation was £1,961, according to the register of interest.

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The Conservative Minister for Asia posted a video from the game on his Twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/nadams/status/1412883736463560710?s=20

Heineken UK, whose Tadcaster brewery is in Mr Adams’ constituency, invited the MP to attend the final between England and Italy — a gift worth £620.

The Stray Ferret approached Mr Adams for comment on the hospitality tickets but did not receive a response.

Gambling Act review

MPs have come under scrutiny for accepting tickets from gambling companies to attend games at this year’s tournament.

Seven Conservative MPs and two members of Labour leader Keir Starmer’s front bench accepted hospitality tickets to games involving England.

Former Conservative minister Esther McVey and Labour’s shadow skills minister, Toby Perkins, were among those who took tickets.

It comes as the government is currently undertaking a review of the Gambling Act to consider stricter rules on advertising.

MPs watch: third jobs, dining on the Stray and vaccination passports

Every month the Stray Ferret tries to find out what our local MPs have been up to in their constituencies and in the House of Commons.

In April, normality began to return to the district as retail, leisure and outdoor hospitality reopened. On April 9, Prince Philip died and the three district Conservative MPs paid tributes to him.

We asked Harrogate & Knaresborough’s Andrew Jones, Skipton and Ripon’s Julian Smith, and Selby and Ainsty’s Nigel Adams if they would like to highlight anything in particular that they have been doing this month, but we did not receive a response from any of them.

Here is what we know after analysing their online presence.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

Andrew Jones, Conservative Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

In Harrogate and Knaresborough, here is what we found on Mr Jones:

 

Julian Smith, Conservative MP for Ripon and Skipton.

Julian Smith, Conservative MP for Ripon and Skipton.

 

In Ripon, here is what we found on Mr Smith:

 

Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty which includes rural Harrogate.

In rural south Harrogate, here is what we found on Mr Adams:

Harrogate district MPs vote as Brexit bill clears Commons

Two Harrogate district MPs voted in favour of the government’s Internal Market Bill yesterday, helping to take it to the next legislative stage.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP, and Nigel Adams, Selby and Ainsty MP, voted in line with the government but Julian Smith, Skipton and Ripon MP, abstained.

The legislation paves the way for the UK to override parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. MPs voted it through at the third reading last night by 340 to 256.

The Bill sparked controversy after Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, said it would break international law in a “specific and limited way”.

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The Stray Ferret contacted Mr Jones, Mr Adams and Mr Smith asking why they voted the way they did. None had replied by the time of publication.

The Bill will now undergo further scrutiny in the House of Lords.

What is the Internal Market Bill?

After the UK left the EU on January 31 it signed the Withdrawal Agreement.

The agreement included a Northern Ireland Protocol, which was designed to prevent a hard border returning to the island of Ireland.

The Internal Market Bill attempts to override parts of the agreement. It would allow the UK to modify or reinterpret state aid rules if the two sides do not strike a future trade deal.

Strayside Sunday: Covid testing should be devolved to local authorities

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

Life, it has been said, is just the correct apportionment of blame.

It certainly seems that way in politics and the media coverage of it. I’m as guilty as the rest, often writing negative opinion in this column and raging against the machine in conversation. Time for some perspective I feel.

Last Sunday I wrote about the dilemma faced by former Northern Ireland Secretary and Ripon MP Julian Smith in whether or not to support a new trade bill that would break international law and ignore the Northern Ireland protocol he signed when in office. When the moment of truth came Mr. Smith found enough moral fibre and courage to abstain, thereby preserving his principle, avoiding conflict with his own party leadership, safe in the knowledge that his vote would not put too much of a dent in the government’s whopping majority in parliament. He made a mature political decision to do the right thing both by the people of Northern Ireland and by the party he represents. For this he is to be applauded.

Contrast this with the position of Harrogate’s Andrew Jones MP. A remainer, Mr. Jones waved through the bill, voting with my old boss Iain Duncan Smith, Jacob Reese-Mogg, Steve Baker and the rest of the European Reform Group ultras, for a law that breaks previous agreements with the European Union and breaks international law.

There may well be good reasons for this (although preserving his odour with the Conservative Chief Whip is not one them), but, as ever, Harrogate’s MP is reticent, some might say invisible, when it comes to explaining the reasons behind his actions to the people he purports to represent. Try as they might, I understand the journalistic staff of The Stray Ferret can’t extract comment or explanation from Mr. Jones, nor his office. At worst this pattern of behaviour is undemocratic, at best it is disrespectful, regardless it is cowardly.

But governing is always difficult; it is the consideration of competing claims and countervailing arguments. Done well and, in normal times, government should arrive at negotiated settlements, grounded in their own cogent and transparent philosophy, or “political bottom” as I call it, with enough marrow to satisfy the appetites of all interested parties, voters prime amongst them.

But as we teeter on the brink of another national lockdown; likely a 2-week “circuit break,” it does begin to feel as though the government’s response to Covid is out of control, lurching from one entirely reactive policy to the next. ‘Whack-a-mole;’ knocking local outbreaks on the head, was tried and failed, bubbling was given a go and hasn’t worked, and the ‘Rule of Six’ has lasted less than two weeks. The Government is at sea, but, let’s remember, by definition there is no playbook for handling this pandemic, unprecedented in its scale and effect. This is as true in Harrogate and North Yorkshire as it is nationally.

Our “world class” Test and Trace programme is a disaster. The national testing system is the latest in a long line of national ‘top-down’ IT programmes that are not fit for purpose. Stories of people finding it difficult to book a test online are myriad, delays are common and tests have been offered that require 200-mile or more round trips. Quietly, significant rates of false positives and false negatives confuse the picture. Consequently, as Covid rates rise again, local authority leaders are holding back testing capacity to ensure tests are available for their own key workers. Cases go unchecked, frustration mounts and decisions are made in fear.

I would imagine that this fear (of a rise in Covid infection rates) is at least in part behind Harrogate council’s decision to give a week’s notice that it will not extend permission for outdoor drinking and dining to continue on Stray land outside the The Blues Bar. Hot on the heels of the mess made of the Stray by the World Cycling Championships the council worries publicly that, as Autumn sets in, slippery conditions underfoot will endanger the local public and leave it with a turf repair bill. Sod it, I say. The more than 3000 people who have signed a petition against the council’s plan seem to agree.

I understand that government has to find a way to act in our best interest while reassuring us that all will be well. But fobbing us off with jobsworth “elf and safety” justifications for actions taken to protect us from the coming second wave will not wash.

Local authority leaders are also exasperated with Westminster’s efforts to recruit a national workforce of Trace Agents. Beyond the fact that few of these people possess the established local, third sector and civil society networks which enable effective communication with local people, they also lack detailed knowledge of the key societal variables driving both Covid behavioural compliance and outbreaks; such as the nature of local housing stock, family living patterns, travel habits, culture and language. This is, in fact, what local authorities are in business to do. We need to let them get on with it.

Tracing efforts were initially outsourced to national private providers such as Serco (offering a one size fits all approach) when, instead, local authorities would much rather use their own staff, equipped both with specialist epidemiological training (asking the right questions in the right order) and a detailed understanding of their own patch. This is how it works round here and all that. Our MP’s, Messrs Adams, Jones and Smith, ought to be advocating loudly and publicly for this approach, rather than following blindly the party line that all is well in Test and Trace land. They must know that this is beyond politics; it’s a matter of life and death.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

 

 

 

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Harrogate district MPs claim almost £17,000 in expenses

The three MPs whose constituencies include the Harrogate district received almost £17,000 in expenses between them in the latest round of claims, which were published today.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority reveals details of MPs’ expenses every two months.

For the latest period, which covers March to the end of May, Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith claimed £4,649.21, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones claimed £4,718.82 and Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams claimed £7,497.56.

The largest sums for all three were to pay the Conservative Policy Research Unit, which is a pooled research facility for Conservative MPs. Each MP claimed in excess of £3,000 for this.

Jones’s details include four mileage claims for £96.75 each, which relate to 215-mile trips to and from London.

One claim is dated March 23, the day the country went into lockdown. Another is on March 26 – the date Parliament shut down. MPs were still expected to attend the House of Commons until then.

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Strayside Sunday: Pay MPs more and ban outside interests

Andrew Jones MP enters devolution debate

Smith’s smallest claim is 77p for an item of stationery. He also claimed £575 office costs for rent. His entry on the IPSA register does not include any claims for travel.

Adams’ claims include £12 for having his constituency office window cleaned on May 11 and £493 for gas and electricity. He also submitted receipts for £3,550 accommodation costs for rent.