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Damian Collins, DCMS Select Committee chair, has been called a “snake in the grass” by the Ukip and Brexit donor Arron Banks in an extraordinary letter to Collins’ own constituents.
The letter, printed on Leave.EU paper, also encouraged voters in Collins’ Folkestone and Hythe constituency to join the Conservative party and put pressure on his position as an MP. “I am in no doubt that the people of Folkestone and Hythe will see through this arrogant attempt by Arron Banks to tell them what they should think and do,” Collins told us this morning.
Banks is open about where his vitriolic letter comes from. In June he was called to give evidence to Collins’ committee, which was investigating links between Brexit campaigners and Russia. “I spent three-and-a-half hours defending my reputation while some very low-grade MPs took pot shots at me,” Banks says in the letter. He doesn’t mention that he stormed out of the meeting.
“Arron Banks does not like to be held to account, particularly on the issue of his contacts with Russia. Parliament, and my committee, are there to hold the wealthy and powerful to account and he is not going to stop me doing my job,” Collins said, adding the letter “demonstrates that the work of my select committee has got him rattled”.
The letter is part of Banks’ subversion strategy, in which he hopes to fill the Conservative Party with like-minded hard-Right types through the use of his personal fortune (estimated at between £100 million and £250 million) and his Leave.EU database.
But, so far, hopes of turning Tory constituents against their MPs have foundered. Nicky Morgan said earlier this month “actually there are lots of Conservatives who have said this is something that they would absolutely abhor.”
Collins tells us: “I have received overwhelming support from my constituents since the letter was sent.”
Tuned in for radio
Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson was a “touch apprehensive” last week ahead of his debut as a radio host for LBC but he had nothing to worry about.
“I ended up loving every minute of it,” he says. “The hour flew by and I was disappointed to hand over the mic to the far more experienced broadcaster Iain Dale.”
Watson impressed listeners and is already embracing a classic radio tradition: baiting the BBC.
“LBC have turned the classic radio phone-in into a modern-day technological art form,” he says.
“No wonder the BBC are worried about ratings.”
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Gerard Batten, Ukip’s leader, has taken time out from courting Tommy Robinson and the far-Right to lambast a “Guardian headline” about Greggs rebranding towards “a gender-neutral business model following criticism that their name sounds too male”. Unknown to Batten, the Twitter account he was quoting was a fake. “A cheese roll is a cheese roll,” he raged.
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What would the late war correspondent Marie Colvin have made of #MeToo? “For Marie and I, [it was] yes, guys touch you, grope you — that’s life,” her friend and biographer Lindsey Hilsum tells the High Low podcast. “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life traumatised because some bloke touched my tit.”
Watch your chips... Nigella's about
If Nigella Lawson ignores you in a restaurant, it’s because she’s too busy looking at the food. “All I do when I go to a restaurant is look at the tables to see what I want to eat,” she says. “I don’t look at the people. Do you know in Terminator when he looks and everything is being scanned? That’s what I do.”
Sometimes she can’t wait to order. “I did once eat a chip off someone else’s table, without actually being aware of it,” she says. “You see a plate of chips, your hand just goes in and takes one.”
All perfect 10s — culinary stars spice up anniversary dos
It was a big foodie evening in London last night. Actor Lisa Faulkner was joined by Amanda Holden, Nicola Stephenson and Angela Griffin at the J Sheekey Atlantic Bar, as she hosted a supper club. The event is part of a series of guest-chef sessions to celebrate the seafood bar’s 10th anniversary. EastEnders star Faulkner, who won Celebrity MasterChef, was also joined by one of that programme’s judges, John Torode. The pair began a relationship after her victory. Also marking a decade was JKS, the restaurant group that includes Gymkhana in its portfolio, and boasts six Michelin stars. The empire started with Trishna, the Indian restaurant in Marylebone, so it was a fitting location for a celebratory dinner. Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, beauty blogger Vicky Lee and fashion snapper Erica Bergsmeds were among the guests.
SW1A
Ken Clarke upset a largely pro-Brexit audience at a Spectator debate at the Emmanuel Centre earlier this week. “The basics of your economic performance is you’ve got to be innovative,” the Father of the House said. “You’ve got to be up with the modern economy, you’ve got to know your markets, you’ve got to be enterprising, and the British are not very good at that.”
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Joan Ryan, Labour MP for Enfield and Momentum target, posted a clip of herself speaking about cuts yesterday, declaring that “Enfield deserves so much better”. It was an open goal for agitators: “Enfield indeed deserves better,” snarled one, “that’s why we’re backing mandatory reselection.”
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After a staffer tweeted a snap of “so many Staffordshire MPs” at a “Celebrate Staffs Event”, Michael Fabricant, MP for Lichfield, who was also there, huffed: “I would retweet this, but you didn’t show a photo of ME!”
Quote of the Day
"There's only five months" Yvette Cooper despairs at the lack of Brexit preparation on Border security.