Whitehall Watch

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Decided to have a read of @RachelReevesMP’s plagiarised book on a quiet Sunday afternoon On the second page she spells @AngelaRayner’s name wrongly Quite revealing about her attention to detail … Did she actually read the text before publishing it? 🤷‍♂️

Whitehall moves

I have no intrinsic problem with appointing a former spad to a senior official role. But this is a very big job for a politico and creates a new precedent for future Governments Jonathan Powell is obviously knowledgeable on foreign policy despite, it is worth recalling, having been Chief of Staff in a Number 10 which committed one of the biggest security mistakes of recent decades - the Iraq War Powell has also played a huge role in the Chagos debacle, where the negotiations were bizarrely (and arguably improperly) rushed to suit the timing of Mauritius elections - neglecting the much more significant US elections which have just happened…. But I note that when Boris Johnson proposed appointing an ex SpAd as his NSA, a collection of great & good ex mandarins and “impartial” think tankers - from the CER, IFG, RUSI and so on - criticised the set up and the individual They argued - variously - that the appointment politicised the role, that it would be difficult to have officials report to a political figure, that it risked the status of the intelligence services and so on Let’s see if they make the same criticisms today…. It does feel like it’s one rule for Labour and one for everyone else. And this will underscore again that the self appointed guardians of our constitution sometimes seem incapable of genuine objectivity or impartiality #OneRuleForThem 🧵 gov.uk/government/new…

🚨New TheWhitehallProject - link in bio 🚨 @RachelReevesMP told Parliament her budget would grow economy by 1.4% in long term In fact @OBR_UK say she will be 95 by the time that growth comes 🙄 And the budget had almost nothing for housing or Levelling Up - what a mess

New - @RachelReevesMP has declared over £12,000 from lobbyist FGS at Labour conference As a reminder she (bizarrely) had a partner at FGS (on leave) working for her at Conference - in addition to HM Treasury’s NINE SpAds members.parliament.uk/member/4031/re… 1/

As Bloomberg’s @PronouncedAlva revealed this partner is working for Shein 2/

20/20 And the choices of how the extra capital obtained by borrowing is to be spent are pretty surprising Cuts to transport capital Little for housing Huge increases for Green stuff Will write more on TheWhitehallProject shortly (sign up at link in bio)

19/ Overall, a quick look under bonnet at this budget shows that the promises of a major transformation in capital expenditure is not exactly delivered Certainly not in long-term This Budget is borrowing to splurge on salaries & day-to-day spend

18/ There is no new capital for, for example, the Local Authority Housing Fund, no new money behind the Cambridge plan, no money behind @AngelaRayner's New Towns Taskforce Contrast this with £3.9 billion for @Ed_Miliband's Carbon Capture & Storage next year

17/ Turning to housing more generally, Affordable Homes Programme has a £500 million boost Fine But small fry - that's just 5000 more homes The programme was allocated £11.5 billion over 2021-26 but is basically spent So the top up is a cut to the previous spend rate 😮

16/ What's especially odd is that Government is championing redevelopment of central York, Liverpool & Leeds from a housing point of view I sat in meeting after meeting in @mhclg where we were told that these specific cultural projects were key to unlocking wider housing there

15/ The projects which @RachelReevesMP is minded to cancel includes a National Poetry centre & British Library North in Leeds, the National Railway Museum in York, National Museums Liverpool and the V&A Museum in Dundee Really?

14/ Here is my discussion before the election with @darrenpjones where he refused to rule out clawing back some Levelling Up money

13/ The Budget also revealed that HM Treasury is 'minded' 👇 to cancel some Levelling Up cultural projects Again, this is pretty baffling to me What is @AngelaRayner doing? You would have thought she would have been fighting to protect money going to communities

12/ This is truly an example of the utter perversity of the way HM Treasury calculates value And a reminder of the need for real Green Book reform But also that the Chancellor continues to be run by her officials....why didnt she look at this and say no way -dont be ridiculous

11/ I find it just mind blowing that a Chancellor who claims to be committed to increasing capital spend & improving infrastructure has cancelled an upgrade to the main road between NE England & Scotland which has been under discussion since the 1990s

10/ The Green Book sets out whether projects are value for money or not - according to the all important Benefit Cost Ratio As I set out on TheWhitehallProject (see link in bio) 👇it leads to some very perverse evaluations

9/ Some of the details of this are set out in the Red Book where @RachelReevesMP has cancelled transport schemes Reeves claims this is because they are not value for money, but the reality is that this will be because of the way the Treasury's 'Green Book' works....

8/ Here's the breakdown by department for next year What jumps out is that @RachelReevesMP is actually cutting transport capital in real terms!

7/ Government has also set out departmental capital spend for 25-26 The biggest cash slug is going to @energygovuk for @Ed_Miliband's Green schemes So despite talk of school repairs, @RachelReevesMP is spending 3x more on carbon capture than she increased education capital