Decision time for Simon Jupp but not Neil Parish as, for some reason, he is no longer an MP – Owl

The chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs has confirmed a vote of confidence in Boris Johnson will be held by Conservative MPs from 18:00 to 20:00 BST.

Sir Graham Brady told reporters that the vote was triggered after at least 54 Conservative MPs asked for it.

No 10 says Mr Johnson “welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs”, and that tonight’s vote is “a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on”.

According to reports in the Independent: James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, said the Tories could also face defeat in Devon, with focus groups suggesting that even Leave voters are now ready to help the Liberal Democrats overturn a 24,000 majority in a by-election triggered by MP Neil Parish’s resignation after he admitted watching pornography in the Commons.

“Partygate has changed everything, and that trust has now completely gone in Boris Johnson,” said Mr Johnson. “Also that feeling that he is strong and can get things done has gone. I think these by-elections, and the polls, and the local election results show that Boris Johnson is no longer the asset he once was.”

Also critics have been circulating a briefing paper among Tory MPs over the bank holiday weekend, warning that 160 or more of them could lose their seats in a “landslide” defeat if he leads them into the next election.

Read it on twitter

Pollution warnings have been issued for two Devon beaches by an environmental charity. According to the Surfers’ Against Sewage water quality map, sewers have been emptied into the water at Salcombe North Sands and in Seaton.

Anita Merritt www.devonlive.com 

Over the course of the long bank holiday weekend, visitors have been flocking to Devon’s coastlines and river banks during the four-day break. However, the change in weather has not seen so many venture into the water yesterday and today with yellow thunderstorm warnings having been issued by the Met Office.

Surfers’ Against Sewage puts warnings in place on beaches where a sewer has been ‘discharged’ within 48 hours, often due to heavy rainfall causing an overflow of the combined sewage and run-off system. The Cornwall-based charity’s campaign against water pollution has led to the creation of the warning system which advises when swimmers and surfers should stay out of the water to avoid getting sick or ingesting sewage.

These are the alerts where the sewage is coming from today (Sunday, June 5), according to Surfer’s Against Sewage:

Salcombe North Sands

There is a sewer flow discharging into the stream directly on the beach (Collaton Stream) and another that discharges into the Salcombe Estuary offshore of the beach.

The beach warnings in Devon (Image: Surfers’ Against Sewage)

Seaton (Devon)

The Seaton Sewage Treatment Works discharges disinfected sewage into the River Axe Estuary two and a half kilometres from the bathing water.

Over the jubilee weekend, Surfers Against Sewage has relaunched its Safer Seas & Rivers Service as new data shows the public are scared to swim outside for fear of dirty waters. The public health information, provided as real-time alerts straight to the user’s phone, helps beachgoers make an informed decision on how, when and where to use the UK’s beautiful beaches and rivers to avoid any potentially harmful pollution coming from sewer overflows and farming run-off.

The charity claims water companies discharged raw sewage into UK waters over 370,000 times in 2021 alone. It says it demonstrates how important real-time pollution alerts are in helping the public dodge poor water quality and have the cleanest and safest experience possible.

The Safer Seas & Rivers Service app – already a trusted source of water quality information for its 88,000 subscribers – enables users to see where untreated sewage has been discharged in real-time. The platform allows the public to check water quality at over 400 bathing locations across England, Scotland, and Wales, submit reports of illness suffered after time spent in the water, and take direct action by contacting their MP and the CEO of their local water company to demand an urgent end to sewage pollution.

In the last 2 years, 640 reports of illness have been submitted through the app, ranging from ear and eye infections to gastrointestinal and diarrhoea.

The Bible reading chosen for Boris Johnson to read at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in St Paul’s Cathedral was from Philippians 4. 4-9 . This included the following sentiments:

“…whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

From a correspondent:

The combined roles of Chief Executive Officer, Head of paid services (Human Resources in corporate speak)with that of electoral “Returning Officer”, places a lot of power in one pair of hands. 

Let us review some recent history of leadership in EDDC.

The EDDC Chief Executive has been hauled in front of a Commons Committee in 2014; corporate management severely admonished by an Information Tribunal Judge in 2015; and auditors, in 2016, found weaknesses in accounting for S106 payments. All this raises questions about the oversight and accountability of senior management at EDDC. 

In 2014 Mark Williams was called to the Commons Committee to explain how 6,000 (typo corrected Owl) voters came to be missing from the electoral roll. 

Judge Kennedy, in his Decision Notice of May 2015  on the Information Tribunal concerning EDDC’s refusal to release five documents related to the Knowle move, concluded that EDDC had: “displayed discourtesy and unhelpfulness” throughout. 

Specific criticism included: “Correspondence on behalf of the Council, rather than ensuring the Tribunal was assisted in its function, was at times discourteous and unhelpful including the statement that we had the most legible copies possible. A statement, which was clearly inaccurate…” 

(During the Tribunal hearing the then deputy Chief Executive, Richard Cohen, also made the extraordinary admission that he had not given an original version of a document to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee but an “amended” one.)

A freedom of information (FOI) request in 2016 concerning S106 arrangements and payments between 2014 and 2016 (as Cranbrook development was underway), revealed EDDC held no information on whether there had been any breach of obligation on the part of developers or how much money was owed, possibly going back much earlier. 

In a subsequent formal complaint to the newly appointed external auditors, KPMG found, after sampling cases over just one year, rather than any forensic analysis over many, that there had been a quarter of a million pounds understatement in the past year’s accounts. KPMG concluded: “Given the weaknesses identified in the Council’s controls, it is possible that understatements of a similar scale or even larger could be apparent at any point in time.”

Then there are examples of how thin-skinned and dismissive Mark Williams can be in dealing with members of the public. However irritating members of the public may be, it is surely inexcusable for a senior public servant to behave in such a way. Using this tone, the Chief Executive does not come across as  impartial. Many of us have had similar experiences when trying to make a complaint. 

Where are the checks and balances on this power?

A job description was revealed through a 2014 FOI request. Compared to other local authorities it is a bit thin. The key point is that nowhere does it specify who the CEO is personally accountable to.  A recent online search for a more up to date job description proved fruitless. 

These historic events are disturbing, demonstrating an executive making significant mistakes and seemingly impervious to criticism. It is in this context that the Tories lost control in 2019 and “New Guard” took over in 2020.

Where does the buck stop? How do you hold the CEO to account?

Boris Johnson faces the task of persuading Conservative MPs he can still lead his party into the next general election, despite being booed by the crowd outside the Queen’s platinum jubilee service.

Adam Forrest www.independent.co.uk 

In a new humiliation for the prime minister, desperately trying to stave off a no-confidence vote, he was met with a loud chorus of boos, jeers and whistles as he walked up the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral with his wife Carrie on Friday.

BBC presenter Jane Hill noted that there was a “substantial amount” of booing as Mr Johnson entered the cathedral. The PM was also heckled as he left the service – with one person heard shouting “f*** off Boris”.

A Labour source told The Independent: “The boos for the prime minister will have been a rude awakening to those Tory MPs who have been in denial about the public’s anger at the industrial-scale law-breaking they’ve seen in No 10.”

It comes as Downing Street is said to be preparing for a “charm offensive” of wavering rebel MPs in the hope they can be won over and a leadership vote avoided.

Around 30 backbenchers have publicly called for the prime minister to resign, and committed rebels believe they are close to reaching the threshold of 54 no-confidence letters needed for a leadership ballot.

No 10 officials have drawn up a list of 64 Tory MPs they believe can still be won over, including senior figures such as Theresa May, Tom Tugendhat and Julian Smith, according to The Telegraph.

Meanwhile, rebel Tories MPs shared fears about the timing of a push to remove Mr Johnson, with some expressing doubts that next week is the right moment for a vote of no-confidence to be triggered.

One Tory MP keen to see Mr Johnson replaced has urged colleagues to withdraw their no-confidence letters to prevent a vote happening “by accident” at the start of next week, according to The Guardian.

Rebels have previously told The Independent that they fear a confidence vote could be triggered too soon “accidentally” – allowing Mr Johnson a good chance of staying in power for another 12 months.

Tory rules mean that a majority of the party’s MPs – 180 – would have to vote against Mr Johnson in order to spark a contest to find his replacement. If the PM survives, he is protected from another vote for a year.

Anxious anti-Johnson backbenchers are said to fear that potential leadership candidates have not had enough time to mobilise and encourage wavering MPs to look beyond Mr Johnson.

Some believe the period after two by-elections on 23 June would present the best chance of defeating the PM in a confidence vote.

Andrew Bridgen – the Tory MP who recently resubmitted his letter after withdrawing it at the outbreak of the Ukraine war – reportedly predicted in a Tory WhatsApp group that No 10 would be told on Monday that 54 letters had already gone in to 1992 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady.

Tory MP Mark Francois, who has not called for Mr Johnson to go, suggested the PM still had work to do to convince many of his wavering backbenchers that things will change after Partygate.

“We will come back on Monday and colleagues will ask, ‘Who is going to take responsibility for this?’” he told Times Radio on Friday. “Having spoken to colleagues in the past few days, the mood is, they want to know, ‘Who is going to carry the can?’”

It comes as the head of the Grassroots Conservatives activist group called on Mr Johnson to resign over the Partygate scandal, saying the PM would “put off voters” at the next general election.

Ed Costelloe told The Telegraph that Mr Johnson had not been “wholly honest” about the law-breaking gatherings in Downing Street. “If he had any sense he would resign before he was pushed.”

From a correspondent;

Surely the job of a Chief Executive requires him or her to be neutral and supportive of whatever shade of council exists, and particularly to assist a new majority group with few experienced councillors to find its feet – in the best interest of the district.

It appears that Mr Williams was unable to make this adjustment or to consider any change in his former allegiances. One must therefore ask why this was and why he stood back and allowed the situation with his officer to first of all be hidden from the new council and then to do nothing helpful as the situation was allowed to deteriorate under his watch. Remember, this is a CEO who has a legal qualification (albeit many years ago). He must have had to use his legal knowledge on many similar issues in the past – though we never seem to have heard of them.

As for his time “wasted” do remember that, some years ago, he was able to run two councils (East Devon and South Somerset) on a 50/50 basis with no obvious time management problems. Though South Somerset did cancel the arrangement early without saying why.

In any other kind of organisation this person would almost certainly have been relieved of his post. Alas, as we have seen with other political situations very recently, the Chief Executive reports to – the Chief Executive and the Chief Executive decides whether or not he should be punished. Not very transparent …..

[Likely leaker, in advance of the scrutiny committee meeting, is either a councillor, possibly on the committee, or a senior officer – take your pick! – Owl]  

More than half the people who have gone wild swimming or tried water sports in British seas and rivers have fallen ill, a survey has found.

Ben Webster www.thetimes.co.uk 

The report commissioned by the charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) found that a fear of being exposed to contaminated water deterred 52 per cent of people from entering the water. Awareness of the threat has grown rapidly in the past year.

Of the 22 per cent that have tried wild swimming, surfing or other water sports, 55 per cent have fallen ill.

In the past two years, SAS has received more than 640 reports of illness, including ear and eye infections and diarrhoea, from people who have been in the sea or rivers.

The reports were submitted by the charity’s Safer Seas & Rivers Service, an app that delivers water quality alerts based on information from water companies about sewage discharges and Environment Agency forecasts of agricultural pollution.

Storm overflows operated by water companies resulted in 372,533 sewage spills last year in England and Wales, down from 403,171 in 2020. Water companies are allowed to release sewage in exceptional circumstances, such as after heavy rain, but last year 675 overflows spilt sewage 100 times or more.

More than half (55 per cent) of the 2,000 people surveyed said funding for improvements to sewage infrastructure to reduce pollution should come from water companies’ profits.

Susan Moate, 38, who swims in the River Ouse near her home in Lewes, East Sussex, said she became ill in 2020 with severe ear infections that her doctor attributed to swimming in the river.

“Since then I have avoided putting my head underwater when I swim, but I don’t want to give up altogether,” she said. “It’s such a shame so little is being done to combat sewage pollution.”

Matthew Harle, 29, an aeronautical engineer from Bristol, said he went surfing at Sandymouth Bay, Cornwall, in January and was violently sick that night. He believed the source of the infection was agricultural pollution.

The Environment Agency rates the bay as having “excellent” water quality. However, SAS said there was a loophole in the water regulations.

Hugo Tagholm, the chief executive of SAS, said: “The public are fearful about swimming due to the amount of raw sewage being discharged and believe the water industry must cut this crap.”

Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit plan to bring back imperial measurements is “complete and utter nonsense”, according to Asda chair Stuart Rose.

Adam Forrest www.independent.co.uk 

In a scathing attack, the Conservative peer said the push to boost the use of pounds, ounces and other outmoded weights and measures would only “add cost” and confusion to businesses.

“I’ve never heard such nonsense in my life,” Lord Rose told Times Radio on Thursday, branding it a “backwards” step aimed at pleasing nostalgic voters.

“I mean, we have got serious problems in the world and we’re now saying let’s go backwards. Does anybody in this country below the age of about 40 know how many ounces there are in a pound?” the Asda chief asked.

Lord Rose said the government was pushing ahead with the plan “just to actually please a small minority of people who hark for the past. It’s complete and utter nonsense and it will add cost to those people who have to put it into place.”

The former boss of Marks & Spencer added: “I am shocked. It’s one thing having a crown on your pint glass, which is a bit of fun and a bit of nostalgia. It’s quite another having a whole dual system of weights and measures.”

The government is set to consult industry on how to reintroduce imperial units in Britain after quitting the EU, with ministers expected to officially announce the move today to coincide with the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

The idea has already faced criticism from the Tory backbenches, with Rutland and Melton MP Alicia Kearns branding it “a nonsense”. Labour has accused Mr Johnson of trying to “weaponise nostalgia”.

Last week, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis claimed voters and businesses would be “pleased” that the government was set to open the door to greater use of imperial units.

But the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the umbrella body representing the big supermarkets, has warned that the move could be “distracting” and costly at a time when food chiefs were trying to tackle inflationary pressures during the cost of living crisis.

Ministers have argued that it would give the likes of greengrocers and pub landlords greater choice over running their businesses, as well as bringing “national culture” back into shops.

Mr Lewis said that, while the policy was “light-hearted”, there were many people who “want to go back” to using pounds and ounces, and measures such as yards and miles.

The EU weights and measures directive came into force in 2000, with traders legally required to use metric units for sale by weight or the measure of fresh produce.

It remains legal to price goods in pounds and ounces, but they have to be displayed alongside the price in grams and kilograms.

The consultation, which is being coordinated by the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), could change those stipulations, allowing traders to choose how they price fresh items.

The Independent understands that there will not be a move away from metric units, but the consultation will look at where it makes sense to incorporate or switch to imperial measurements such as feet and yards, and pints and gallons.

A Tory minister struggled to convert imperial measurements during an interview on Sky News earlier this week, despite Downing Street claiming the system is “universally understood”.

Arts minister Stephen Parkinson gave incorrect answers when Kay Burley asked him to convert ounces and grams into pounds.

The Conservative candidate for this month’s Tiverton and Honiton by-election has refused to say whether she would like the support of disgraced former MP Neil Parish.

Joe Ives, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk (Extract)

In an interview last week Mr Parish, who resigned in April after he admitted to watching pornography in the House of Commons, said he would be “very happy” to campaign for the Conservative candidate Helen Hurford if she wanted his help.

But Ms Hurford won’t say whether she would like his support.

Mr Parish has said he is willing to take as visible a role in the campaign as Ms Hurford and the Conservative party wish.

Right now, that appears to be nothing.

Voters on the streets of Honiton – part of the Tiverton and Honiton by-election – have told the Mirror how they are preparing to ditch the Tories.

The Tiverton and Honiton by-election is one of two crunch polls on June 23 that could decide Boris Johnson’s future – and if these voters are anything to go by, he should be very worried indeed.

Follow this link for details.

Update: Politico London Newsletter’s take on the Mirror interviews:

HONITON HORROR SHOW: The Mirror’s Ben Glaze has a strong piece from Honiton, the Lib Dem-facing by-election the Tories are staring down later this month. Glaze found that voters are deserting the Conservatives. Betting shop manager Julie Garland said: “I voted Tory before but I’m not voting Tory on June 23. I will read up on the others to see what they have got to offer.” And nursery assistant Naomi Bowman added: “Me and my mum have always voted Conservative but the way he has been lately we have changed our opinions — mainly because of the parties. And I was completely disgusted about Neil Parish watching pornography — it was outrageous. I think I will vote Lib Dem.”

Will the Conservatives lose the Tiverton and Honiton by-election?

Who will win the Tiverton and Honiton by-election? The seat, in Devon, is held by the Conservatives and its towns have voted Tory in every general election since the 1880s. It is now, however, being talked up as a probable gain for the Liberal Democrats — evidence that against a backdrop of partygate revelations and the cost-of-living crisis, no seat is safe for the Conservatives. Whether or not those predictions will be proved correct on 23 June is yet to be seen, but let’s talk about likelihoods for a moment.

Ben Walker sotn.newstatesman.com 

North Shropshire — held by Owen Paterson, the former Tory cabinet minister, until he resigned after a lobbying scandal — went Lib Dem on a significant swing in December 2021. I didn’t predict that: the seat voted Leave, has above average levels of deprivation and didn’t have much in the shape of a Lib Dem presence before the by-election. The timing proved excellent for an insurgent campaign, however, especially as the contest came just as partygate was beginning to grab the headlines. It was, in a way, the perfect storm. It showed that the Lib Dems, once confined to graduate-heavy Remainia in 2019, could win in leafy, Leave-voting, semi-deprived constituencies perceived to be left behind by the incumbent Conservatives — seats a world away from, say, Richmond Park in west London. My analysis was blown to bits.

As I say, North Shropshire didn’t have much in the shape of a Lib Dem ground campaign before the by-election, and that makes me somewhat sceptical that the party will be able to hold it come the next general. But Tiverton and Honiton does. In fact, while North Shropshire has had few close-run races over the decades, Tiverton and Honiton has had plenty. In 2021 local elections nearly 80 per cent of the wards in North Shropshire voted Conservative. In Tiverton and Honiton, in 2019, more than half the seats up voted Liberal Democrat or independent.

A proclivity to vote for alternative candidates, be they local independents or opposition parties, appears more evident in Tiverton and Honiton than it does in North Shropshire. This should favour the Lib Dems in this by-election, doubly so given the national mood music is more intense and despairing of No 10’s present occupant than it was in December 2021.

Tiverton and Honiton’s voters have form for opting for alternatives, and may just be as willing to vote Lib Dem in a by-election as, say, Richmond Park or South Cambridgeshire. The trouble for the Tories at present is not confined to Blue Wall or Red Wall: it’s everywhere, wall or not.

The interesting question in this case is why Mark Williams took so long to make contact with the new administration when the changing of the guard took place in 2020. One might have expected him to be eager to discover what the new priorities might be.

Council Chief Executives and council staff are paid by the public but operate in a rather different way to civil servants. Both are responsible for advising and implementing the policies of elected leaders. The difference is that the civil service is overseen centrally by the civil service commission including recruitment and promotions. 

Local government has no such equivalent overarching organisation. Councils are independent. In most cases a council’s Chief Executive is also Head of Paid Services, which means the Chief Executive directly employs the staff working for that authority. – Owl

Joe Ives, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

A report about the spat between council leader Paul Arnott, above and East Devon’s CEO Mark Williams has been hushed up.

And it’s cost tens of thousands of pounds.

A bust-up between the leader of East Devon District Council (EDDC) and its chief executive has cost local taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds, caused a senior officer to take time off with a stress-related illness, and damaged the council and its reputation.

Tensions between Cllr Paul Arnott, the independent leader of EDDC and chief executive Mark Williams were so bad that, according to a leaked report, “council taxpayers and stakeholders, had they been aware of the council’s difficulties, may well have had concerns about its leadership and operation.”

The unpublished report, commissioned by EDDC and carried out by the East of England Local Government Association, is thought to have cost the council up to £22,000. 

Though the precise cost of the episode has not been revealed, it is believed to have been “substantial”, dragging in top lawyers and draining hours of council staff time across a year.

But East Devon’s leadership have since tried to shield the report from public view, even keeping discussions about it behind doors closed to the press and public.

The inciting incident, unknown at the time, began in January 2020 when, following a review, chief executive Mark Williams proposed to axe a senior officer position at EDDC. The officer consented but no formal agreement was made.

Two months later, when a group of councillors going by the name of the Democratic Alliance Group, which is made up of independent, Lib Dem and Green councillors, came to power, that decision wasn’t raised by Mr Williams.

Even that initial meeting between new leader Cllr Arnott and Mr Williams – usually the critical relationship for the functioning of an effective council – didn’t take place for several days after the Democratic Alliance took control in March 2020.

Issues arose almost immediately. The new administration, led by Cllr Arnott, declined the support of the Local Government Association (LGA) which is usually taken up when an authority has a change of political control.

For its part, the Democratic Alliance said it received little in the way of formal help with the handover.

The report says: “All in all, this meant that a new and relatively inexperienced administration took over the council with very little understanding of officer roles, the functioning of the council and with no internal or external support or advice being available.”

It says the situation was a “perfect storm” where there was “no shared understanding of their respective roles, no respect for each other, no common purpose or common ground from which to build productive relationships”, causing an employment dispute about a senior officers role to be dragged out for several months and costing the council tens of thousands of pounds.

Mr Williams didn’t make councillors formally aware of his proposal to make the senior officer role redundant for five months.

When he did, Cllr Arnott then sought advice from South West Councils, an association of council leaders in the region.

But Mr Arnott found  the advice he was given to be unconvincing and asked for another opinion from external lawyers.

Law firm Clarke Willmott found that the redundancy would be legal and suggested EDDC reach a settlement with the officer in question.

Cllr Arnott rejected that advice too.

He wanted the council to implement a more thorough senior management review before committing to the redundancy.

This, according to the leaked report, “essentially left the chief executive in the unprecedented position” where a senior officer had agreed to be made redundant but the politicians in control of the council refused to allow it.

“The question became not whether he “could” make the role redundant but whether he “should.”  

In any event the chief executive felt unable to act,” says the report.

It documents how suspicions over each side’s motives incapacitated decision-making.

A meeting in November 2020 between Cllr Arnott and Mr Williams to review their “working relationship” fixed very little.

Having rejected the guidance he had received from two external sources, Cllr Arnott said he wanted additional outside advice, this time from an occupational health professional. He wanted to ensure the council had fulfilled its obligations to the officer after they went off sick.

The officer, who had been aware of the situation for much of the year, was ill with work-related stress. The officer argued this was “a direct result of the failure to implement redundancy” and thought the help of occupational health would be pointless as it would simply confirm this.

The officer alleged that Cllr Arnott was preventing Mr Williams from implementing the redundancy in revenge for comments they had made about another councillor earlier in the year.

It is not clear what these comments were.

The officer also alleged that Cllr Arnott’s argument, that he wanted a full ‘senior management review’ was “a sham” to stop the council making a redundancy payment.

Mr Williams, for his part, saw Mr Arnott’s idea of a management review as a tactic to frustrate him.

At one point Cllr Arnott attempted to solve the issue with the help of an LGA advisor and a trade union representative for the officer.

But the agreement they reached was effectively useless because neither the council leader nor the LGA advisor have the power to make such decisions.

The report describes Cllr Arnott’s own attempts to solve the redundancy issue as “inappropriate.”

In the end, further legal advice was sought from a barrister – who usually cost several hundred pounds an hour.

It was decided the only way to settle the dispute was through a full council meeting. This took place on 9 February 2021, something the report says should be avoided in future.

The report says the disagreement between the chief executive and EDDC’s leaders became “increasingly entrenched” in the build-up to this meeting, at which the full council agreed to make the senior officer’s position redundant.

The council commissioned the independent report In April 2021, but it remains unpublished. Leaked documents show that to pay for it EDDC set aside a budget of £18,150 pounds, excluding VAT.

No precise figures are known for the cost of the barrister, the officer’s redundancy payment, or the amount of paid time of council employees given over to this matter.

But as a rough calculation for just one of the people involved show how costly the episode has been.

In 2020/21, Mr Williams was paid £121,414, with a further £20,762 towards his pension. If he had spent a month on this matter since it emerged in January 2020, that’s nearly £12,000 in his time alone, plus other costs such as national insurance.

Commenting on the resources wasted as a result of the feud, the report says: “At a time where the council is required to either generate additional income or make significant savings this expense is unhelpful at best and if matters had been resolved by internal means could have been avoided.”

It explains how the saga had its origins in mistrust between the current administration [of independents, Lib Dems and Greens] and senior council officers, with some councillors believing “some officers were withholding information at best or “in cahoots with” the pre-2019 administrations which had been run by Conservatives in one form or another since the dawn of local government.

The report continues: “At no point were these assumptions about officers put to them to allow them to respond or even to explain their roles regarding the political agenda of the previous administration; essentially that they had to carry out the instructions of their political masters.

“It cannot be stated strongly enough the damage that has been done to the council, its reputation, its officers and members and its ability to reach its potential by the events which led up to the full council meeting on 9 February 2021.”

It says that the mistrust of the Conservatives and a combative environment between different political factions in East Devon “all come together to create a perfect climate of mistrust and acrimony.”

“It is regrettable that the powerful force for good which can be created by members and officers working productively together has been lost to the community.”

Amongst other recommendations, the report says the chief executive Mark Williams and council leader Cllr Paul Arnott “need to work together and model the behaviours expected of senior leaders”

“The two individuals and their colleagues should make every effort to make the relationships work for the benefit of the council.”

A spokesperson for the council wouldn’t comment on the issue because the report will be discussed by the scrutiny committee next week and they think doing so would be “inappropriate.”

They continued: “The decision to commission a report into this was taken at full council with the full support of all political groups. It was not a decision taken by the current administration.”

“Rebel Conservatives trying to orchestrate enough names to oust the prime minister say many MPs, particularly newer ones, are concerned about the privacy of the process.”

Owl wonders whether one of these might be Simon Jupp, though on his voting record he doesn’t appear to be independent minded. For example he voted, last October, to reject the Lords amendment that would have placed legal duties on the companies to reduce discharges until the government U-turned. He also voted, a few weeks ago, against a windfall tax on power generation companies until the government U-turned.

On the other hand Owl can’t find effusive support for Boris on his website or twitter account.

The time is fast approaching when silence becomes acquiescence to: sleaze; lies; cronyism and incompetence. Electoral Calculus predicts Simon only has a 33% chance of winning the new “Devon East” constituency (front runner is on 42%) – Owl 

Tory MPs hold back from move against Boris Johnson over fear of reprisals

Rowena Mason www.theguardian.com 

Tory MPs including a junior minister are holding back from submitting letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson over fears their names will leak and they will face reprisals from the whips.

Rebel Conservatives trying to orchestrate enough names to oust the prime minister say many MPs, particularly newer ones, are concerned about the privacy of the process.

They worry that the Tory whips will be spying outside the office of Sir Graham Brady, the 1922 Committee chair who gathers the letters, and do not trust emails not to be accidentally shared or viewed by staff who have access to the accounts.

Some senior Tories who are publicly opposed to Johnson have taken on the role of conduits carrying letters to Brady. One said they had offered to take letters to Brady’s parliamentary office on behalf of colleagues concerned about leaks, as there was a pervasive feeling of mistrust in the process among new MPs who had not been through the vote of no confidence in Theresa May.

They said MPs had not been prepared to email their letters because of concerns about others having access to their inboxes or computers, and they said they had repeatedly reassured colleagues that no letters had leaked from the challenge against May.

Another Conservative backbencher said the newer MPs in particular were worried about being targeted by the whips if they went public with having submitted letters, and if the coup attempt was ultimately unsuccessful.

A third MP said some of those who have gone public with their opposition to Johnson already felt as though their lives in parliament were being made difficult by the whips.

At least one minister has been wavering over putting in a letter over fears his name could come out and he would have to resign if the challenge is unsuccessful.

Almost 20 Tory MPs have now publicly stated that they have submitted letters, and 45 in total have publicly questioned Johnson’s leadership.

If the threshold of 54 MPs submitting a letter is reached, then Brady will inform No 10 and a confidence vote will be held by secret ballot on Johnson’s future as leader.

The number of 2019 MPs who have called for the prime minister’s resignation has been growing. Simon Fell, the MP for Barrow, became the latest to publicly question Johnson’s position, saying an apology over Partygate was “insufficient”.

Fell, who was part of the “pork pie plot” of MPs who met to discuss their loss of faith in Johnson earlier in the year, stopped short of saying he had written a letter of no confidence in the PM.

“I’m left feeling angry and disappointed. It beggars belief that when the government was doing so much to help people during the pandemic, a rotten core with an unacceptable culture carried on regardless of the restrictions placed on the rest of us,” he wrote in a letter to constituents.

“To many of us, these findings are a slap in the face. The culture that Ms Gray’s report details is unforgivable and I certainly will not be defending it. There were no exceptions in the rules for the activities that took place, and there is no excuse whatsoever for them.

“As Ms Gray details, a corrosive culture and a failure in leadership allowed this to happen and apologising after the fact is insufficient … Trust matters. And standards in public life go to the heart of maintaining it – once trust is lost, the whole house of cards is at risk of collapse.”

Others from the 2019 cohort who have called for Johnson to go include Aaron Bell, Alicia Kearns, Elliot Colburn and Anthony Mangnall.

Martin Shaw, Chair of the East Devon Alliance: “When it comes to the by-election, it’s horses for courses. We need to make sure this corrupt government does not win here again.”

seatonmatters.org

It’s now pretty clear that however disgraceful Boris Johnson’s behaviour, Conservative MPs will not remove him. The most telling new revelations are about the Downing Street cleaner who was not allowed to visit her mother in hospital because of lockdown rules, but had to clean up the mess left by Johnson’s rule-breaking parties; and about the security guard being mocked by the PM’s staff for doing his job and pointing out that rules should be observed.

There was a time when any minister, let alone a prime minister, would have resigned for presiding over such outrageous behaviour. There was a time when Conservatives claimed to represent standards in public life, and when MPs would have forced a disgraced prime minister out. 

Our chance to make a difference

These times are gone, alas, and in most parts of the country people are pulling their hair out because there seems to be nothing they can do about this travesty of a government, so preoccupied with its own survival that for months it ignored the terrible cost of living crisis which is plunging families and pensioners into poverty.

But here in many parts of East Devon – Seaton, Axminster, Honiton and the villages around – we can do something. In three weeks time, we can vote in a by-election to send a message to Boris Johnson and the country that enough is enough.

This is an election which people who don’t always bother voting should make sure they turn out for. It’s an election to make sure you’re on the electoral register (if not, register to vote now), and to apply for a postal vote for if you’ll be away on 23 June. 

Tactical voting

It’s an election, too, where we need to vote tactically for the candidate best placed to defeat the Conservative, since on the morning after a Tory victory here, Johnson will conclude that the electorate will put up with anything – literally anything – that he throws at us.

When I first mooted tactical voting two weeks ago, I didn’t say who to vote for, but Sean Day Lewis from Colyton (writing in this paper) assumed I meant the Liberal Democrats rather than Labour. I think that’s telling – the sense that the Lib Dems are the people who can win is already out there even among people who’d like it to be Labour. Exeter’s Labour MP, Ben Bradshaw, has also given a heavy hint: it’s the Lib Dems who can win this by-election, not his own party.

Indeed the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has drawn the same conclusion. Labour’s national party are not putting resources into this by-election because they know they can’t win. Starmer has an informal pact with the Lib Dems because they know that working together, they can help put the British people out of the misery that the Tories have created. 

Horses for courses

We should welcome this outbreak of common sense among the parties. It’s the same approach we already have in local politics, where my own East Devon Alliance of Independents has teamed up with the Lib Dems and Greens to give EDDC its first non-Conservative administration in 50 years.

I empathise with Labour’s Liz Pole and the Greens’ Gill Westcott, both good candidates who in other circumstances might well gain my vote as their parties have in the past. As an Independent, I’ve worked with Lib Dem, Labour and Green members on the County Council, and I know that there is much more that unites us all, and separates us all from Johnson’s Conservatives, than divides us.

When it comes to the by-election, it’s horses for courses. We need to make sure this corrupt government does not win here again. Personally, I would feel sick if Richard Foord, the Liberal Democrat candidate, lost by a few votes on June 23 while I’d given my vote to a Labour or Green candidate who had no hope of winning.

Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Foord

The insight lies in the questions rather than Bluster’s answers – Owl

(PS Boris if you are trying to win over “Waitrose Woman”, you are in for a disappointment there are no Waitrose stores in the Tiverton and Honiton consituency)

AS reported in the Guardian: Johnson came under fire from a slew of angry commentators in a Mumsnet interview, whose first question was: “Why should we believe anything you say when it’s been proven you’re a habitual liar?”

During the exchange, Johnson said he was “very, very surprised and taken aback” to be fined by the Metropolitan police for his surprise birthday party, which he called a “miserable event”.

Asked about the pressure he was under from MPs, Johnson said: “I’m not going to deny the whole thing hasn’t been a totally miserable experience for people in government.”

He said he was not considering resigning. “I just cannot see how actually it would be responsible right now, given everything that is going on, simply to abandon … the project on which I embarked to level up.

“I am still here because we have got huge pressures economically and we’ve got the biggest war in Europe for 80 years, and we have got a massive agenda to deliver.”

The company is the Jekyll and Hyde of the ten regional monopolies privatised in 1989. While it is regularly praised by the industry regulator Ofwat for its financial discipline, its environmental record has been branded the worst in the country by the Environment Agency, which has said South West Water “drags down the whole sector’s reputation”. The agency has called its performance “consistently unacceptable”.

Robert Lea www.thetimes.co.uk 

The inflation crisis will blow a £60 million hole in the operating costs of the South West Water group this year, putting further pressure on already falling profits.

Revenues at Pennon increased last year as second-homers and others flocked to the southwest to escape the pandemic in cities. But its underlying profits tumbled more than 8 per cent, hit by rising energy costs and the impact of rising inflation on index-linked borrowing.

The company’s finance director, Paul Boote, said there would be more trouble to come, with the likely increases in gas and electricity prices sending its energy costs up by £30-£40 million. The cost of servicing its inflation-linked debt will rise by another £30 million. Boote said those rising costs would be partly offset by a full year of income from its newly acquired neighbour, Bristol Water.

Pennon is the FTSE 250 parent company of the water supplier for Devon and Cornwall and parts of Somerset and Dorset. South West Water has the most expensive average water bills in the country at £522 this year, which it blames on having to look after a third of the UK’s bathing waters but with just 3 per cent of the country’s population, meaning it spends a disproportionate amount of money on its sewage treatment works, mains supply and sewerage pipes.

The company is the Jekyll and Hyde of the ten regional monopolies privatised in 1989. While it is regularly praised by the industry regulator Ofwat for its financial discipline, its environmental record has been branded the worst in the country by the Environment Agency, which has said South West Water “drags down the whole sector’s reputation”. The agency has called its performance “consistently unacceptable”.

In Pennon’s financial results for the year to the end of March, underlying revenues increased by 6.7 per cent, and including Bristol Water rose from £644 million to £792 million. “The Covid-19 pandemic led to a substantial population increase in the southwest with continued higher levels of household demand,” it said.

Excluding the impact of the acquisition of Bristol Water, Pennon admitted its underlying profit before tax fell to £143.5 million compared with £157 million in the previous year. It blamed “cost pressures from macro-economic conditions and higher costs” including energy, labour and chemicals and “increased interest charges on index-linked debt driven by the high inflationary environment”.

Pennon’s net interest costs of £77.9 million last year were £20.2 million higher due to the impact of inflation on index-linked debt. Susan Davy, the group’s chief executive, described it as “another year of resilient performance”.

Despite falling profits, the company is increasing its dividend by 8.2 per cent to 38.53p. Shares in the group have been dribbling down since last summer, off about 25 per cent during that time, and slipped further yesterday, down 2.7 per cent, or 28p, at £10.01.

Or perhaps not if he is confident that he can take you for granted.

The Independent reports that Boris Johnson rang potential rebels on the Conservative backbenches in a desperate bid to shore up his position ahead of a vote of no confidence in his leadership that many Tory MPs now expect to be called when parliament returns next week.

Standby on Mumsnet

Meanwhile the electoral battleground turns to “Waitrose Woman”.

According to the Independent “Waitrose Woman” is reported to be the voter demographic Downing Street reckons is crucial if the prime minister is to reverse plummeting ratings and defy rebellious Tory MPs in the wake of both Partygate and the cost of living crisis.

Like “Mondeo man” and “Worcester woman” before, she is, of course, a fictionalised construct based on stereotypes – the product of market researchers and focus groups.

But does “Waitrose woman” actually back Johnson at all?

According to Politico London Newsletter:

Johnson is holding a Q&A session with Mumsnet — his answers will be put online around noon.