Good Friday morning. This is Emilio Casalicchio.
SPOTTED CHANGES LIVES: Playbook has long maintained its “spotted” sections — listing politicos seen at swank parties or outside their natural habitats — are a form of public interest journalism and not gossip-peddling to satiate the name-checking narcissism of the Westminster elite.
Now there’s proof, after Labour MP Conor McGinn was sanctioned by Commons watchdogs as a result of our hard-hitting reportage. “Following a reference to Mr McGinn’s attendance at the BRIT Awards in an online POLITICO article, ‘Spotted at the BRITs‘ … I undertook a review of the member’s entry in the register of members’ financial interests,” the Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone said in a new report (h/t Business Insider’s Henry Dyer).
Um, um-um-um-um: The watchdog found McGinn failed to flag his gifted BRITs ticket within the deadline for doing so and ordered him to (look away if squeamish) highlight the entry in bold in his register. “It was an administrative error, and the commissioner has been clear that I had already acknowledged and corrected my technical mistake before she had even contacted me,” McGinn told Playbook last night. “It seems that as well as bringing us all the news that matters, Playbook now also has a public service role in reminding MPs that when you appear in ‘spotted’ it should prompt you to get your declaration to the registrar … on time.” Damn right.
More to come: The BRITs list prompted the commissioner
to check up on all MPs who were there, including five ministers, a number of whom remain under investigation. She even spotted names Playbook hadn’t, with Conservative MP Nickie Aiken facing the same sanction as McGinn.
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Oh, and … SPOTTED: At the Darjeeling Express restaurant in Covent special database Garden last night for London Mayor Sadiq Khan‘s surprise 50th birthday bash: Labour power duo Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls chuckling at speeches from Ed Miliband, ex-Labour spinner Paddy Hennessy and senior Khan adviser Nadeem Javaid. The secret party — delayed by a year due to the pandemic — was masterminded by City Hall Director of Operations Ali Picton and Khan’s family.
EATING BOJO FOR BREAKFAST: Labour leader
Keir Starmer will this morning seek to capitalize on also worth knowing the rift between Boris Johnson and businesses, while painting himself as the sensible leader Britain needs as it teeters on the hongkongdata brink of crisis. The Labour leader is on BBC Breakfast at 7.10 a.m. to discuss the list of woes facing the nation, before heading up to a Kellogg’s breakfast cereal plant in Manchester to address the impact on firms. In comments released overnight, Starmer recalled the PM’s 2018 “f*ck business” moment and blasted him for attacking bosses over their staffing troubles. “The prime minister is actively putting into practice his infamous dismissal of business made three years ago,” Starmer said.
