ANDREW PIERCE: Why Labour jet jibes had been only a load of sizzling air

At Labour’s ­conference last October, Rachel Reeves, now the Chancellor, pledged her party would ‘wage a war against fraud, waste and inefficiency’, including a ‘crackdown on Tory ministers’ ‘private jet habit’ ‘ if it won a general election.

Labour was particularly aggrieved by Liz Truss‘s use of a private jet to visit Australia for trade talks in 2022. 

Angela Rayner, now Deputy Prime ­Minister, led the attack, saying: ‘[Flying privately] shows the public exactly quite how little respect this Conservative ­government has for taxpayers’ money. 

‘This government is ­brazen in its disregard for upholding decency.’

So how can Labour square that position with the fact that last week their Foreign Secretary David Lammy flew to India for a two-day trip on the Government’s Airbus A321? 

It’s exactly the same private jet that Liz Truss used to fly Down Under and the fuel costs alone for the trip have been put at £110,000.

He chartered a jet on a trip to Israel a week earlier. The week before that, he flew in the Airbus 321 to Germany, Poland and Sweden. 

Now they’re confronted by the trappings of power, Labour have performed a remarkable U-turn — at 30,000 ft.

Welby lurches even further to the Left

The Archbishop of Canterbury has lurched even further to the Left. 

In the House of Lords, Justin Welby complained about the capitalist behaviour of Thames Water. 

Utility companies, he argued, should be ‘low risk and low reward’. 

This from a prelate who heads up a Church that is an enthusiastic player of the stock markets. 

In 2022 the Church Commissioners’ investment fund was valued at £10.3billion. 

A real milestone birthday for Truss

On Friday Liz Truss, who lost her seat in the election carnage, turned 49 – the same number of days she lasted as Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister. 

Another Nepo blow

Labour MP Rupa Huq asked the Cabinet Office last week: how are we going to get rid of the nepotism that cost the ­country £58.5 billion in 2020?

Tellingly, the question wasn’t answered by front benchers Ellie Reeves (MP for Lewisham West and East Dulwich), whose big sister Rachel Reeves is Chancellor, nor Georgia Gould (Queen’s Park and Maida Vale) — whose late father Lord Gould was one of the architects of New Labour.

Rather, it fell to Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden to answer, whose wife Marianna is a senior official in party HQ.

So old he’s new

With so many newbie MPs, reporters are struggling to identify them during PMQs. 

Last Wednesday, the MP for Preston was called by the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle. 

‘What’s his name?’ scribes frantically asked. 

It was, in fact, Sir Mark Hendrick, Labour MP and such a nonentity that he still isn’t recognised after almost 25 years in the chamber! 

Olympic washout compared to election downpour

The rain-sodden Olympics opening ceremony prompted comparisons with our election being called in a downpour.

‘If it gets any wetter Rishi Sunak’ll jump on the British boat and make a speech,’ tweeted Rory Bremner. 

From politics to the stage? 

To the 251 Tory MPs who lost their job at the General Election, Gyles Brandreth has some career advice. 

‘After I lost my seat in 1997 I did ‘100 musicals in 100 minutes’ and took it to the Edinburgh Festival. I was safe in Scotland. No one had heard of the Conservatives.’

A curtsey would be fab 

Recipient of both an OBE and a damehood, Joanna Lumley was asked last week if people ever curtsey to her. 

‘Not as often as I like!’ she replied.