In a typically punchy speech last week, Nigel Farage demanded an end to the culture of working from home, made popular after Covid.
Attacking hybrid working, now adopted by 28 per cent of the British workforce, he told a rally in Birmingham: ‘Employees are more productive beings with other fellow human beings.’
On that very same day, Reform advertised a position for a ‘vetting officer’ on a salary of £32,000 to £40,000.
There was, though, a puzzling twist: ‘The role is hybrid,’ said the official questionnaire.
‘How many days a week would you be prepared to work at our London HQ, from 1 to 5 days or none?’
Shouldn’t Reform practise what Farage preaches?
Nigel Farage demanded an end to the culture of working from home, but now Reform is advertising a hybrid role for a ‘vetting officer’
Fresh from a mauling at the hands of Opposition leaders at Prime Minister’s Questions this week, Sir Keir Starmer attended a Windsor Castle reception.
He pointedly gave a very informal greeting to King Charles and Queen Camilla, complete with arm pats – technically a breaching of etiquette rules.
Quite a contrast with his earlier demeanour in the Commons, where Starmer practically screamed at LibDem leader Sir Ed Davey, who dared to criticise his ‘catastrophic’ lack of judgment over Peter Mandelson.
In the wake of the Peter Mandelson scandal, schools minister Georgia Gould tweeted her support for PM Keir Starmer.
Tellingly, Gould is herself close with the disgraced Mandelson through her late father, Philip Gould, a New Labour architect.
It was on a family trip with the Goulds that Mandelson shaved off his wispy moustache – after a casting vote by Georgia.
Downing Street has lost its fifth director of communications in 18 months and yet one Labour press officer remains.
Sophie Nazemi has been in the job since 2017. She is wed to Jeremy Corbyn’s former henchman, James Schneider, and also worked for Angela Rayner.
Nazemi was last week standing in for the departed Tim Allan despite being, in the general view of political reporters, about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
Dame Antonia Romeo, touted to become the first female Cabinet Secretary, was seen in the Garrick, the private members’ club and bastion of networking where a couple was recently found romping in the billiard room. ‘She’s an admirer of our salmon and cucumber tie and would make an energetic member,’ says one purple-snouted Garrick man.
In his speech to Labour MPs the Prime Minister declared: ‘I have never lost a fight.’ Isn’t that because every time there’s a confrontation with his own side, he U-turns and beats a hasty retreat?
Doyle’s dubious company (Part Two)
Matthew Doyle, the PM’s ex-communications chief, was suspended as a peer last week over his support for a paedophile (before said paedophile was convicted, it should be said).
Mr Doyle has form for dubious associations. His partner, Philip Normal, resigned as a Labour councillor in Lambeth, south London, in 2022 after offensive tweets came to light. Tweets included, ‘Why do some Muslim women walk like penguins?’ in 2011. The same year he criticised ‘a big black man’ for taking up room on a bus.
After the tweets resurfaced, Mr Normal said he ‘apologised to everyone who has seen them’.
After the resignation of Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald on Thursday, the Tory Shadow Education Secretary, Laura Trott, asked: ‘Can the last person in No 10 turn out the lights?’