Privileges publication day — Boris sanctions — Summer party season – POLITICO

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LOBBY NEWS: Former Times political editor Francis Elliott is returning to journalism as editor of the House magazine. With more than 20 years of reporting experience — including 13 years at the paper of record — Elliott is one of the most well-respected journalists in the Lobby, and has worked for the last three years as director of advocacy for charity Engage Britain. He’ll be helming parliament’s in-house magazine from September.

Good Thursday morning. This is Eleni Courea. Rosa Prince will round off the week tomorrow.

DRIVING THE DAY

THEY FOUND A WORKING PRINTER: It’s finally happening. The Commons privileges committee’s report on Boris Johnson — the product of 14 months of evidence-gathering, hearings and deliberations on whether the former PM is in contempt of parliament — is due to be published today.

Lots of ink spilled: The report is expected at 9 a.m. and will reportedly run to 30,000 words. Harriet Harman could turn it into a master’s thesis after retirement.

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What it will say: We know by now that it makes brutal reading for Johnson — the FT’s Lucy Fisher has the great line that his decision to reveal part of its conclusions when he resigned on Friday will itself be deemed a contempt. But the crux of it is a rejection of Johnson’s central claim that senior officials assured him COVID guidance had not been broken — the Times has more.

Exam conditions: Harried political journalists should have 90 minutes to go through the document before business questions in the Commons at 10.30 a.m., where Penny Mordaunt will set out what is happening in parliament next week. Government whips have penciled in Monday for the debate and vote on the recommendations.

In response: The Times reports that Johnson will issue a statement this morning decrying the report as a “travesty of justice” and its findings a “disgrace.” An ally of BoJo told the paper “they are creating a martyr” and “there is a narrative for a comeback that wasn’t really there before.”

Cancel your plans: Monday will be a day of high drama where Conservative MPs vote on whether to censure Johnson — the former prime minister who won them an 80-seat majority — in his absence. It’s been a long three-and-a-half years.

Worth noting: Labour does not plan to amend the motion, Playbook hears, though it depends on its final wording. ITV’s Robert Peston reported Wednesday that the government would put forward a standard motion endorsing the report’s findings rather than a mealy-mouthed version where it merely “notes” them.

The question is: What sanction will they recommend against Johnson now he’s no longer an MP? More on that below.

In an eleventh-hour twist: Johnson has aimed his fire at the committee’s most senior Tory member, Bernard Jenkin, after Guido Fawkes reported that Jenkin attended a drinks event for his wife Anne’s birthday while COVID restrictions were in force. Jenkin told Guido he “did not attend any drinks parties during lockdown.” The story makes the front pages of the Mail and the Telegraph — and has been seized on by Johnson allies including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Zac Goldsmith.

Has everyone had enough? One Westminster wag remarked to Playbook of this latest row: “It just feels so last season.”

More from cloud Boris land: Guto Harri has an op-ed in the Mail where he leaps to his former boss’ defense by publishing more of his highly confidential messages. During the mass ministerial resignation last July, Harri writes that Johnson told MPs who were urging him to resign with dignity that “dignity is a grossly overrated commodity and that I prefer to fight to the end” — a sentiment which goes some way to explaining the events of the past few weeks.

Meanwhile in the real world: Ministers are under pressure to act on mortgages as lenders withdraw more deals (HSBC has announced new rates for the second time in a week). The crisis splashes the FT. ONS inflation stats for May are due on Wednesday and the Bank of England will take a decision on interest rates the next day.

Speaking of which: A couple of theatergoers saw Chancellor Jeremy Hunt at the Spitting Image musical’s opening night in the West End on Wednesday. One of Playbook’s moles spotted him “squeaming” while a puppet Huw Edwards said: “The chancellor said the economy is totally fucked. Totally, totally fucked.”

MORE FROM PLANET BORIS

JUST WHAT HE NEEDED: The Times’ Ben Ellery reports that Johnson could face another fixed penalty notice after he was snapped in Richmond-upon-Thames on Tuesday driving without a seat belt. An onlooker tells Ellery that “Boris looked very casual, which was surprising given all the turmoil around him at the moment. He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world.”

SOMETHING TO CARE ABOUT: What sanctions could Johnson — who after all is no longer an MP — face after being found in contempt of parliament? Playbook will rattle through the options and non-options — read my colleague Andrew McDonald’s piece for more.

Suspension: The privileges committee had been preparing to recommend that Johnson be suspended from parliament for 20 days. Now he’s no longer an MP, it’s a moot point — but according to the Times and the Telegraph, the report will still state its recommended suspension.

Stripped of a parliamentary pass: Johnson would ordinarily be entitled to a former MP’s pass giving him access to the estate, but the committee could recommend against this.

Banned from returning to the Commons: There’ve been suggestions the government’s motion next week could be amended to preemptively block Johnson from being re-elected an MP — but this wouldn’t have any force given the convention that no parliament can bind its successors.

Banned from the Lords: Johnson could be blocked by the House of Lords appointments commission from getting a peerage in future on account of being guilty of contempt. “It would be an important factor to be taken into consideration,” a former member of the commission told the FT this week.

Blocked from the CCHQ candidates list: This wouldn’t be a parliamentary sanction, but the Conservatives could theoretically decide to stop Johnson from standing to be a Tory MP again.

General censure: In practice, the most the Commons may be able to do is admonish Johnson in harsh terms.

CRUCIALLY: No concrete sanction — whether a 20-day suspension or a decision to strip Johnson of his parliamentary pass — would hold were he to be elected an MP again. In that scenario, “the slate is wiped clean and he is treated as a totally new person,” Institute for Government Director Hannah White told Andrew.

BY-ELECTION STATIONS

28 DAYS LATER: It’s an inopportune time for Rishi Sunak to be facing two by-election tests, but No. 10 wants to get it over with as soon as possible. The Conservative Party is waiting to hear from returning officers by the end of the week to set the date for polls in Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Selby and Ainsty.

Fighting talk: Sunak went into the Commons members’ tea room to rally his troops on Wednesday afternoon after PMQs. Playbook’s mole said he talked up Tory chances in Selby (majority 20,137). He told colleagues they could hold the seat (which kind of suggests he thinks Uxbridge and South Ruislip is a lost cause).

Setting expectations: A senior Tory official told the FT: “We are going to lose all three, there’s no question about that.”

Keeping up relations: The PM is hosting drinks for his Cabinet on Thursday evening … and Playbook hears there is a No. 10 summer reception for Scottish Tory MPs, Welsh parliament members and mayors on Friday.

The one that got away: We’ll have to wait quite a while longer for a by-election in Mid Bedfordshire — Nadine Dorries set out in a Twitter thread last night that she was going to hang around and carry out her own private inquiry into why she was denied a peerage. Multiple papers report that Dorries might not force a by-election until after the summer so as to cause maximum damage. A friend of hers told the FT’s George Parker: “She wouldn’t mind ruining Rishi’s holiday,” to which an ally of Sunak retorted: “Rishi hasn’t taken a holiday for three and a half years. That won’t bother him.” Searing stuff.

Not hanging around: Deputy Lib Dem leader Daisy Cooper is heading to Mid-Bedfordshire today, talking about GP appointments. Cooper said last night that “local people deserve better than a vacant MP who isn’t even bothering to turn up to work.” Dorries hasn’t spoken in the Commons for months.

Labour stations: Steve Reed has been made Labour’s political lead for the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election … Peter Kyle in Mid Bedfordshire … and Judith Cummings in Selby.

IT’S A GOOD WEEK … for Westminster to be casting its collective mind back on Sunak and Johnson’s troubled relationship. The Spectator cover piece this week is on the plot against Rishi … mirroring a Boris cover from 2017. Katy Balls writes that Johnson’s anger over Dorries’ peerage being blocked “really does seem to be the casus belli” of this whole fallout and that “Johnson has an almost Sicilian approach to protecting what few political allies he has.”

Six-month flashback: Balls has new detail from Sunak’s meeting with Johnson after Liz Truss resigned in October, in which they tried to thrash out who would take over as PM. “As they walked out of the room to meet their aides, Johnson joked that Sunak had agreed to be his chancellor (again),” she writes. “Sunak then patted his former boss on the back telling him: see you at the debates.” (There were no debates, of course — Johnson pulled out of the contest the following day.)

Never mind a snap election … Balls writes that a Cabinet “reshuffle could take place as early as July – with a focus on promoting women as part of a refreshed pre-election look.”

Also in the Spectator: Boris’ sister Rachel Johnson recounts the moment she learned that he had resigned as an MP last week. “I was sitting on the dock of a bay in the Adriatic, one G&T down (plus a couple of glasses of the cooling local white), halfway through the ‘signature menu’ of the Michelin-starred Alfred Keller restaurant, when that dopamine urge made me flip over my phone,” she writes.

Poll position: The i splashes on Stonehaven polling suggesting Labour has a 15-point lead over the Tories among mortgage holders. Stonehaven’s Mark McInnes tells the paper that no party has won an election in the last 50 years without winning this group.

More bad news: YouGov polling for ITV’s Peston found that 68 percent of 2019 Tory voters thought the party was as or more divided under Sunak than it was before … and that 51 percent thought Sunak was not in control of it.

TODAY IN WESTMINSTER

TECH SUMMIT: POLITICO is hosting a Global Tech Day in London today with guests including Deputy Bank of England Governor Jon Cunliffe … U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai … Republican Senator Ted Cruz … Ukrainian Deputy Digital Transformation Minister Oleksandr Bornyakov … Microsoft’s Julie Brill … and top POLITICO bosses Matt Kaminski, Goli Sheikholeslami and Jamil Anderlini, who have flown in from Washington and Brussels.

The baroness shaping American tech laws: My colleagues Mark Scott and Rebecca Kern have a piece on how Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer and children’s rights advocate, became arguably the most effective driver of U.S. data privacy and social media rules.

COVID UPDATE: After a two-year freedom of information battle with DHSC, OpenDemocracy has got hold of the department’s secret COVID “lessons learnt” review, after the Information Commissioner ruled in the site’s favor. The document reveals ministers knew in September 2020 that freeing up hospital beds in the early stages of the pandemic had been “to the detriment” of care homes.

Relatedly: The i has a string of COVID-related scoops. Paul Waugh reports the Cabinet Office’s protracted legalistic system for redacting submissions to the inquiry could be costing millions … and Jane Merrick reports the U.K. Health Security Agency is investigating a potential link between COVID deaths and heatwaves.

Coming up in the inquiry: Today’s hearing kicks off at 10 a.m. David Cameron and George Osborne will be quizzed next week in a box-office hearing on the effects of austerity on preparedness, the Mirror’s Lizzy Buchan reports.

SPY SCANDAL: Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has called on ministers to clarify whether they’re investigating the Ukrainian businessman who is suspected of being a Russian spy by the FBI. More from the i’s Richard Holmes, who broke the original story.

PRICE CAP AXED: Sunak has definitely ditched the idea — mooted over the last month — for a France-style price cap on basic goods after backlash from supermarkets, Cabinet ministers and Tory MPs, the Telegraph’s Dominic Penna reports.

INTEGRITY WATCH: Two former U.K. government anti-corruption champions have written to Sunak, urging him to get on with appointing someone to the post, which has been vacant for over a year. My colleague John Johnston has the story.

FULL OF HOT AIR: The U.K. would undermine its international reputation as a climate leader if it goes ahead with a major new oil and gas field at Rosebank, John Gummer, the outgoing chair of the U.K. Climate Change Committee, told my colleague Charlie Cooper. A decision on Rosebank is due within weeks.

SUMMER DERAILED: Train drivers’ union Aslef voted to continue their long-running industrial action over pay, extending its strikes mandate by six months. The FT has a write-up.

BATTLE FOR LONDON: Tory London mayoral candidate Daniel Korski been endorsed by Brexiteers Michael Gove, Steve Baker, Simon Clarke and Matthew Elliott as well as Penny Mordaunt, Playbook hears. The first hustings are on Friday, with ballots going out on the same day.

SW1 EVENTS: The Mile End Institute holds its conference on governing in hard times from 8.45 a.m. to 6 p.m. with speakers including Shadow International Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, Shadow Business and Consumers Minister Seema Malhotra and Commons standards committee Chair Chris Bryant … The Institute for Government discusses how WhatsApp is changing government with speakers including Tory MP Matt Warman and the Times’ Henry Zeffman from 12.30 p.m. … Chatham House hosts a discussion on the era of “reglobalization” from 6 p.m. … and the Henry Jackson Society discusses press freedom in Belarus with speakers including Tory MP Bob Seely and Labour peer Helena Kennedy from 6 p.m.

HOUSE OF COMMONS: Sits from 9.30 a.m. with culture, media and sport questions before oral questions to Church, Commons and public accounts commissioners and Commons leader Penny Mordaunt’s business statement … and then the main business is two backbench debates on Pride Month and government policies on migration. Tory MP Peter Gibson has the adjournment debate on treatment of neuroblastoma.

WESTMINSTER HALL: Debates from 1.30 p.m. on the Scottish affairs committee’s report on public broadcasting in Scotland (led by SNP MP Pete Wishart) … and VAT on audiobooks (led by Tory MP Mike Penning).

On committee corridor: DESNZ Permanent Secretary Jeremy Pocklington is before the public accounts committee discussing support for innovation to help deliver net zero (10 a.m.) … and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is before the Lords’ education for 11 to 16-year-olds committee discussing that subject (11.30 a.m.).

HOUSE OF LORDS: Sits from 11 a.m. with oral questions on delivering greater transparency over the commissions paid to freeholders and managing agents by insurance companies, reviewing the Ministry of Defense’s strategy in relation to Ukraine and the recent application of section 58 of the Offenses Against the Person Act 1861 … and then the main business is a debate on the current performance of the NHS and innovation in the health service, a short debate on support for freelancers in arts and the creative industries and a debate on the state of local government in England.

ANGLO-PORTUGUESE ALLIANCE: Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is in London today to mark the 650th anniversary of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance — the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world. He is due to meet the king in Buckingham Palace, carry out a military inspection and attend a thanksgiving service at the Queen’s Chapel.

**POLITICO Pro Energy & Climate UK provides fresh policy news on Westminster’s pathway to net-zero. With newsletters, alerts and round-the-clock policy coverage, you’ll stay ahead of the curve of the next climate policy decision. Get started here.**

BEYOND THE M25

BARCLAY IN MANCHESTER: Health Secretary Steve Barclay addresses the second day of the NHS Confederation conference in Manchester at 2.10 p.m. — his speech comes as junior doctors continue their 72-hour strike, lasting until 7 a.m. on Saturday.

BACK STURGEON OR ELSE: Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf told his MSPs to quit the SNP if they refuse to give their full support to Nicola Sturgeon after her arrest. In a private meeting of MSPs, he said anyone who fails to publicly back his decision allowing Sturgeon to retain the whip was damaging the cause of independence. The Times’ Kieran Andrews has the scoop.

WALLACE IN BRUSSELS: Defense Secretary and (unofficially) aspiring NATO boss Ben Wallace will meet Ukraine’s Defense Contact Group in Brussels at 11 a.m.

UKRAINE UPDATE: The Biden administration is working with allies to provide Ukraine with security guarantees, which falls short of Kyiv’s desire for those guarantees to come from NATO. The U.S., U.K., France and Germany would formalize their military and economic support for Ukraine even after the fighting with Russia ends. My U.S. POLITICO colleagues have more.

Perfect timing: POLITICO Europe has just published a special report on defense across the Continent, with stories on the European effort on joint defense projects, the U.S. desire for Europe to buy American weapons, and how Europe relies on America for security.

INSIDE NORTH KOREA: The BBC has an extraordinary and harrowing investigation on conditions inside North Korea today. With help from Daily NK, BBC reporters interviewed North Koreans who said food was so scarce their neighbors had starved to death. There are reports of people killing themselves at home or disappearing into the mountains to die because they can no longer make a living. North Korean citizens said the country’s decision to seal its borders in 2020 has cut off vital supplies, creating the worst conditions they have seen since the 1990s.

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MEDIA ROUND

Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury James Murray broadcast round: Times Radio (7.30 a.m.) … Sky News (8.05 a.m.) … LBC News (8.30 a.m.) … GB News (9.10 a.m.).

Also on Sky News Breakfast: Defense committee Chair Tobias Ellwood (7.05 a.m.) … Tory MP Robert Buckland (8.20 a.m.) … Former Tory MP Dominic Grieve (9.20 a.m.) … Labour MP Chris Bryant (9.30 a.m.) … Tory peer Michael Heseltine (9.45 a.m.).

Also on GB News Breakfast: Former Lib Dem Minister Norman Baker (9.20 a.m.).

Also on Times Radio Breakfast: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair (8 a.m.).

Today program: Former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard (7.10 a.m.) … Sushil Wadhwani, a former Bank of England policy maker (7.50 a.m.).

Good Morning Britain: Tory peer Ed Vaizey (6.20 a.m.) … Former FBI Director James Comey (6.40 a.m.) … Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg (8.30 a.m.).

Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: Author Anthony Seldon (7.07 a.m.) … Labour Councillor at Nottingham City Council Sajid Mohammed (7.20 a.m.) … Former Downing Street Director of Communications Guto Harri (9.07 a.m.).

TalkTV Breakfast: Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle (7.45 a.m.) … Crossbench peer Norman Warner (8.20 a.m.) … Tobias Ellwood (8.30 a.m.) … Former Boris Johnson SpAd Alex Crowley (9.05 a.m.) … Tory MP Tim Loughton (9.20 a.m.).

Politics Live (BBC Two 12.15 p.m.): Tory peer Stewart Jackson … SNP MP Richard Thomson … The Good Law Project’s Ellie Mae O’Hagan … Political commentator Jo Tanner.

TODAY’S FRONT PAGES

POLITICO UK: MPs can brand Boris Johnson a liar. Can they go further?

Daily Express: Families united in grief.

Daily Mail: Two fathers lost in grief.

Daily Mirror: United in love.

Daily Star: We’ve turned into cyborgs.

Financial Times: Sunak feels heat as rapid mortgage increases add to cost of living crisis.

i: Tories losing support from home owners — as Hunt backs new rate hike.

Metro: United in love.

The Daily Telegraph: Johnson accuses MP on partygate committee of hypocrisy.

The Guardian: Scientists create synthetic human embryos in stem cell breakthrough.

The Independent: Boris’ desperate last ditch ruse to derail Partygate verdict.

The Times: ‘Look after each other — and love everyone.’

TODAY’S NEWS MAGS

POLITICO Europe: Europe’s strategic impotence.

Prospect: The future of conservatism — David Aaronovitch on how the right lost its grip on reality.

The New Statesman: Over and out — Andrew Marr on why the fall of Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon shows democracy is working.

The Spectator: Get Rishi — Katy Balls on the plot against the Prime Minister.

LONDON CALLING

WESTMINSTER WEATHER: Another sunny day with 27C highs. Perfect weather to kick off summer party season in the Westminster social calendar.

SPOTTED: Laughing along with “Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical” at the Phoenix Theater were … Chancellor Jeremy Hunt … ministers Stephen Parkinson and Richard Holden … shadow ministers Alex Davies-Jones, Barbara Keeley and Stephen Kinnock … MPs Tim Loughton, Charlotte Nichols, Chris Bryant, Damian Collins, Colum Eastwood, Layla Moran, Kevin Brennan, Tobias Ellwood, Robert Buckland and Steve McCabe … Tory peer Virginia Bottomley … Former Tory MP Charlotte Leslie … Former Labour, Change U.K. and Lib Dem MP Luciana Berger … Former Lib Dem Leader Jo Swinson … The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope and son Barnaby … The News Quiz’s Andy Zaltzman … GB News’ Gloria De Piero … TalkTV’s Kieron Mirchandani-Cooper … Former Downing Street Directors of Comms Alastair Campbell and Craig Oliver … Comms adviser Laura-Emily Dunn … Actresses Alison Steadman and Kathryn Drysdale … Comedian Jenny Eclair … and cricketer David Buckland.

Also spotted: At the Institute for Government’s summer party were MPs Damian Green, William Wragg, Meg Hillier, Harriet Harman, Christian Wakeford and Matt Warman … Peers Brenda Hale, Frances D’Souza and James Bethell … SpAd Beatrice Timpson … Labour PADs Jamie Williams, Emma Barnes and Daniel Harris … Political editors Andy Bell, Adam Payne, Pippa Crerar, Adam Bienkov, Kitty Donaldson, Hugo Gye, Harry Cole and Cat Neilan … Hacks Alexander Brown, Chris Smyth, Zoë Crowther, Mark D’Arcy, Michael Crick, Lucy Fisher, Marie Le Conte, Anna Isaac, Sam Coates, Ione Wells, Chris McKeon, Zoë Grünewald, Peter Foster, Rob Merrick, Rowena Mason, Kiran Stacey, Aubrey Allegretti, James Landale, Charlotte Ivers, Henry Dyer, Chloe Chaplain and Richard Vaughan … Tory London Mayoral candidate Daniel Korski …

And breathe: … Executive Director of Government Communications Alex Aiken … Director of the Northern Ireland Protocol Taskforce Mark Davies … Lords spinner Andrew Woodcock … Commons official Duma Langton … Former Tory MP David Gauke … Former Lib Dem MP Tom Brake … Former SpAds Giles Winn and Raoul Ruparel … Former Downing Street Europe Adviser Olly Robbins … Former Home Office Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Philip Rutnam … The Constitution Unit’s Thomas Fieldhouse and Meg Russell … U.K. in a Changing Europe’s Anand Menon … The Tony Blair Institute’s Rachel Yeomans … Onward’s Seb Payne … KCL academic Lawrence Freedman … and the IfG’s Catherine Haddon, Jess Sargeant, Hannah White, Sam Macrory and Alex Thomas.

Also spotted: At the Netflix & Grill summer celebration at Soho House in London were Foreign Secretary James Cleverly … Tory MPs Damian Collins, John Lamont and Giles Watling … Labour MPs Abena Oppong-Assare and Chris Elmore … Peers Michael Dobbs, Neil Mendoza, John Mann and Tina Stowell … SpAds Cass Horowitz, Nerissa Chesterfield, Rupert Yorke, Hudson Roe, Jock McMillan, Jean-Andre Prager, Steph Schwarz, Dylan Sharpe, Lucy Noakes, Aiden Corley, Laura Wright and Sam Hamilton … Labour PADs Henna Shah, Tom Lillywhite, Spencer Thompson, Heather Iqbal, Matt Pound and Matt Faulding …

And breathe: … Editor of Channel 4 News Esme Wren … BBC Culture Editor Katie Razall … Deputy Head of Culture at the BBC Leisha Santorelli … Media Editor at the Daily Mail Paul Revoir … Head of Culture at the Independent Patrick Smith … Deputy Culture Editor at the Sunday Times Francesca Angelini … Arts & Entertainment Correspondent at the Sunday Times Liam Kelly … Media Business Correspondent at The Guardian Mark Sweney … International TV Editor at Deadline Max Goldbart … Screen Skills CEO Seetha Kumar … CEO of the BFI Ben Roberts … CEO of Screen Alliance Neil Hatton … Netflix Execs Anne Mensah, Benjamin King and Jessica Thrift … and Headland’s Toby Pellew and Bea Allen.

NEW GIG: Gareth Lewis (who celebrates his birthday today) has been promoted to broadcast manager for the Lib Dems … and data analyst Julian Gallie joins J.L. Partners as a research associate.

NOAH’S CULTURE FIX: Hide away with these political tomes released today — “This is Europe: The Way We Live Now” by Ben Judah is published by Picador … “France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain” by Julian Jackson is released by Allen Lane … and “Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities” by Rakib Ehsan is published by Forum.

Elsewhere: Justice Secretary Alex Chalk on Radio 4’s Law in Action is repeated at 8 p.m. … and Scandalous: Phone Hacking on Trial is on BBC Two at 9 p.m.

NOW READ: In the New Statesman, Will Lloyd speaks to Boris Johnson’s new neighbors in rural Oxfordshire and learns that Daniel Craig turned down the opportunity to buy the property the Johnsons have moved into.

BIRTHDAYS: Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping turns 70 … Wokingham MP John Redwood … Labour economic adviser Gareth Mantle … Former First Minister of Scotland Henry McLeish … Former Leigh MP Jo Platt turns 50 … Former Eastbourne MP Stephen Lloyd … Non-affiliated peer James Lupton … Lib Dem peer David Alliance … Labour peer Larry Whitty turns 80 … Former No. 10 SpAd Kirsty Buchanan … Broadcast manager for the Lib Dems Gareth Lewis.

PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editor Emma Anderson, reporter Noah Keate and producer Dato Parulava.