Chris Gutowski

European forces to form naval alliance to combat Russian threat. But in the meantime please forgive us if our ships are a little late - just being welded back together. telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/2…

Trump: I discussed Ukraine ceasefire on ‘very good’ call with Putin. It would be very interesting to know how many times Starmer has spoken to Putin. He wants us to get involved, wants to help Ukraine fight Russia but what has he ever done to secure peace? telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…

@toadmeister Starmer Arson Case Kicks Off Today- Whodunnit?! youtu.be/hvnCpAC6KOg

Three Ukrainians are in court today charged with an arson attack on Sir Keir Starmer's home, and the absence of terror charges suggests the attack was of a personal nature. But the media are oddly silent. dailysceptic.org/2026/04/28/mai…

𝐊𝐄𝐌𝐈 𝐁𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐂𝐇 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐖𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐎𝐃𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐃𝐄. An LBC caller asked Badenoch how a Muslim could trust the Conservative Party after Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy criticized mass Ramadan public prayer in Trafalgar Square as “an act of domination.” Badenoch did not duck. Her opening: 𝘔𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘮. 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 50% 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘮. 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘮 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘮. Then the line: 𝘐𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘐𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘮. Then the closer: 𝘐𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘤, 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵. British law over religious law. British culture over religious deference. The right to criticize ANY religion — Christianity, Islam, all of them — is a non-negotiable feature of a free society, not a privilege the majority granted to the minority. This is the Western mainstream conservative position. Badenoch — daughter of Nigerian immigrants, raised Christian, lived among Muslims her whole childhood — said it on national radio without hedging, without apologizing, and without softening it for the audience. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐲. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝘝𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 @𝘓𝘉𝘊.

@afneil @grieve51166 Add to that the Ukraine male model trial started this week (without coverage from mainstream media). No reporting restrictions; it seems the fearless reporting and commentating were used to no longer exists.

UK 10-year gilts (government borrowing) went over the totemic 5% yield today.

The Olive Branch. The Hostage. The Calculation. On the most damaging day of his premiership, Keir Starmer found time for one more act of self-preservation. While 335 Labour MPs were voting to protect him from an independent ethics inquiry, he was privately offering Angela Rayner a return to Cabinet. The timing tells you everything about his priorities. The offer has nothing to do with strengthening the government. The Telegraph's own reporting makes the calculation explicit. A Cabinet post would effectively bar Rayner from challenging Starmer for several months without appearing cynical to her supporters. He is not offering her a job because she is the best person for any ministerial role. He is offering her a job to neutralise her as a leadership threat. The olive branch is a pair of handcuffs. Rayner resigned in September 2025 after the Prime Minister's independent ethics adviser found she had not met the highest possible standards of proper conduct following a stamp duty scandal involving an underpayment of £40,000 on an £800,000 flat in Hove. The property arrangement involved NHS compensation money held in trust for her disabled son. HMRC is still investigating her tax affairs. Starmer's offer of a Cabinet return is reportedly contingent on that investigation being closed in her favour. A government that has spent weeks insisting on proper process in the Mandelson affair is preparing to return to Cabinet a minister whose comeback depends on a tax investigation concluding favourably. The consistency is striking. The wider leadership picture is no more reassuring. Wes Streeting is among those being discussed as a potential successor. Streeting, as Health Secretary, gave instructions in October 2024 to press ahead with transferring half a million GP records to Biobank despite objections from GPs and privacy campaigners, at precisely the moment Chinese access to that data was under active security service scrutiny. The Biobank breach this week, the 198th known exposure of that data since last summer, occurred on his watch and against warnings he chose to override. His connection to Mandelson runs deeper than ministerial proximity. Streeting was among the figures in the network around Mandelson that shaped the culture in which the Washington appointment was conceived. Replacing one compromised figure with another is not renewal. And the Burnham and Rayner pact being discussed adds a further dimension. A Blair-Brown style arrangement in which Rayner supports Burnham's leadership bid in exchange for eventually succeeding him is the politics of the machine room, not the national interest. The question of what Britain needs from its next Prime Minister, clarity on China, accountability for the decisions documented in the Mandelson affair, a genuine reckoning with the network of relationships that placed a failed vetting candidate in Washington with Strap Three clearance - is not being asked by any of the figures positioning themselves for the succession. Starmer survived Tuesday. He whipped his MPs to vote against an independent inquiry into his own conduct. He secured Rayner's vote by dangling a Cabinet job. He watched his own ambassador's candid assessment of his political mortality leak to the Financial Times on the same evening. Sir Christian Turner described him as touch and go. Fifteen of his own MPs defied the whip. More than fifty abstained. The offer to Rayner is not a sign of strength. A Prime Minister confident in his position does not need to buy his former deputy's loyalty. He earns it. What Starmer is doing is managing his survival one transaction at a time, placing party before country at every juncture, and hoping the arithmetic holds long enough for the story to move on.

Grateful to Times columnist Giles Coren for putting to the sword a local council pipsqueak for trying to put out of business a restaurant in the middle of nowhere where owner Ruth Hanson does all the kitchen prep herself, the washing up, the bookings, the till, payroll and then cooks it. The restaurant is called Hansom in Bedale, North Yorkshire. To give you an idea of its remoteness it’s 7 miles from Northallerton and 31 miles from York. So, on occasions, her husband Mark, who had a job of his own, gives up his evenings to chauffeur some guests to and from their homes. Coren points out when he reviewed the place last year ( he gave it a glowing recommendation) he had to hitchhike from Northallerton station. No Bedale train, no metro, no Uber hanging around at the corner. Enter Chris Doyle, licensing enforcement officer for N Yorkshire council, who has written to Ruth saying in his view Mark was operating a taxi service and that would require a raft of expensive and time consuming licences. Ruth responded that Mark was her husband, he was unpaid and there was no separate charge for the journey. Doyle said he didn’t care as there was deemed to be a commercial benefit and warned without a licence the council may take legal action. Coren has a great last paragraph; “ Yeah, you sue her, you absolute local heroes. “ You teach Ruth and Mark a lesson for being great at their jobs, for treasuring their customers, for trying to create a little joy and make ends meet in a collapsing world.” PS Thought you’d like to see what a Ruth menus looks like. This is called the Sunday Sharing Feast. Starters. Smoked Leek and Pickled Croque Monsieur Whitby Crab Crumpet Pickled cucumber, Garden herbs. Heritage beetroot, whipped goat’s Curd, Wild Garlic emulsion. Main Course Wensleydale chicken, Apricot and sage Wellington. Honey and mustard mash, buttered spring , cider sauce. Dessert Yorkshire rhubarb and ginger trifle. Cost; £55. With publicity thanks to Coren’s column and this tweet I suspect the queue will be out the door and Mark can have his evenings off again.

The Man Advising Starmer on National Security. Has He Been Vetted? Peter Mandelson failed his developed vetting. That failure, and the override that followed, has consumed British politics for weeks. One question has received almost no attention in comparison. Has Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister's National Security Adviser, passed his? Powell is not a civil servant. He is a political appointee, the first ever to hold the National Security Adviser role. As a special adviser he cannot formally direct MI5, MI6 or GCHQ. The constitutional ambiguity of his position has been noted but never resolved. What has not been established publicly is whether he has undergone the same developed vetting process that Mandelson failed, and whose failure triggered the most serious national security scandal of the modern era. @GuidoFawkes, which has a track record of breaking stories the mainstream press subsequently confirms, has published what it describes as Powell's full China dossier and the contents are extraordinary. Before his government appointment Powell met Lt. General Chen Xiaogong, the former head of PLA intelligence, on multiple occasions. He met Cui Tiankai, the former Vice Foreign Minister, repeatedly. He met Shen Xin, Secretary General of the CPAFFC, described by the US Congress as the public face of China's United Front Work Department, Beijing's primary foreign influence operation. These meetings took place through Inter Mediate, the private charity Powell founded and continues to run alongside his government role. Thirteen days after being appointed as the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for the Chagos negotiations in September 2024, Powell was in Beijing chairing a strategic security dialogue with Chinese experts, some with direct PLA connections. Since becoming National Security Adviser in December 2024 he has met Wang Yi, the Politburo member and director of China's Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, four times. July 2025. November 2025. January 2026. March 2026. Every parliamentary question about Powell's interests, his vetting arrangements and what was discussed in those meetings has been blocked. The government's responses use language identical to that deployed to block questions about Mandelson. Established mechanisms are in place. The government does not comment on individual cases. Such meetings are sensitive in nature. Luke de Pulford of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China told Guido that Powell's links to Beijing have a Mandelson-like odour and that if he oversaw the decision to collapse the China espionage trial to avoid upsetting Beijing, his position as National Security Adviser is not tenable. That observation connects two threads that have run through this series separately but belong together. The China spy trial collapsed because the government refused to describe China as a national security threat in court. Powell, as National Security Adviser, would have been central to that decision. The same man who maintained extensive relationships with PLA-connected Chinese officials through his private charity was advising the Prime Minister on whether to name China as a threat in a national security prosecution. The prosecution died. Beijing was not named. Powell remains in post. One further question has not been answered. Has British taxpayer money funded Inter Mediate's China engagement? The government has refused to say. If Powell's private charity received government funding while maintaining deep relationships with Chinese officials of the kind Guido has documented, the conflict of interest exceeds anything yet established in the Mandelson affair. Mandelson failed developed vetting and was appointed anyway. Powell's vetting arrangements have never been disclosed. The government blocks every question. The pattern points toward China. The question is whether the man now responsible for Britain's national security has been assessed against the standard that disqualified his predecessor.

@schweizermel @CrispinShow Human rights lawyers should start to consider the rights of the native populations.

German police out of control. 2,5 years of lawlessness by police force on demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine have led to a violent out of control police force

Trial of alleged Ukrainian arsonists at Old Bailey. Trial is set to last three to four weeks. No reporting restrictions but surprisingly few reporters! 👉Follow this account for updates.

At the Old Bailey covering the peculiar case of Starmer's Ukrainian models. Thus far it's just sorting interpreters and preparing the juries. Nothing substantive to report. A round up of the day will be published on @vpopulimedia

Interesting Starmer now saying it’s a political stunt thereby admitting that using the same tactic against Johnson was also a stunt - Starmer pleads with MPs to save him telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/…

@MatthewStadlen @johnmcdonnellMP Hopefully MPs will vote to find out exactly what there is to cover up. I’m sure Starmer will also want the opportunity to exonerate himself - he’s nothing to hide - has he?

@johnmcdonnellMP What’s to cover up? He’s being accused of misleading Parliament on stuff that is ALREADY public knowledge. So people can make their own minds up.

Tory vote on referring Keir Starmer to the Privilege’s Committee is a political stunt but to blow it out of the water Keir Starmer should show confidence & refer himself, demonstrating there is nothing to hide. Whipping a vote against will produce smears we’re backing a cover up.

Jonathan is at the Old Bailey following the Ukranian rent boys case if anyone wants updates give him a follow.

@MatthewStadlen @johnmcdonnellMP Why the need to use the whip?

@noahgiordanno @ThomasWillett9 Your Mother was a woman, your Father a man.

@chrisgutowski @ThomasWillett9 Man is a gender; even animals have chromosomes, but that defines something biological like male and female, not socially.

It’s a freaking fun run. My god. TERFs really need to get a life instead of spending every waking minute thinking of how they can make trans peoples lives worse.

@ZackPolanski @MarinaPurkiss Why would he - you’re not even an MP!

And of course Farage misrepresents what Hannah is saying. "An afternoon pint" is different to drinking on a work day and then going to vote on decisions for millions of people. I'd explain this to him but he's been running away from a debate with me for months and months!

Israel is no longer a European villa in the desert telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/2…

@petebatt4 @KirstiMiller30 But Ruby is a girl.

@chrisgutowski @KirstiMiller30 Ruby?

I find it astonishing that I evolved into a champion endurance athlete considering both my parents chain smoked indoors and inside vehicles on lengthy trips to sports competitions without adequate ventilation.