BEST FOR BRITAIN'S 



WEEKEND WIRE



Dear John,



You might have seen a lot of us this week between our latest MRP poll and the run-up to Trade Unlocked, Best for Britain press mentions hit triple figures! Have a read and parse it all out, if your heads aren’t spinning as fast as ours. 



A farewell to harm



Breaking news yesterday evening was the semi-surprise departure of two prominent former Tory ministers. First was Johnson devotee Nadine 'Mad Nad' Dorries who hours after claiming <[link removed]> the last thing she wanted to do was cause a by-election, promptly caused a by-election by resigning her Mid-Bedfordshire seat. For all the harm she did, Nad certainly gave us some laughs during her time as Culture Secretary (nope still not used to saying that). Watch our highlight reel of her greatest hits here <[link removed]>.



Sayonara Cincinnatus



Following hot on the heels of his acolyte was Boris Johnson who, after hearing the Privileges Committee was recommending the 10 day suspension which would leave him vulnerable to a by-election, decided to bravely run away from his Uxbridge and South Ruislip electorate, resigning his post with immediate effect. As an elected representative, Boris Johnson caused immeasurable pain and damage in this country and all in the pursuit of self advancement, so let's not waste any more time on him.



Runners and riders



The concurrent resignations are almost certain to deliver concurrent by-elections in the Mid-Bedfordshire and Uxbridge & South Ruislip probably some time in late July. If only some internationalist campaign had done a huge seat level poll  <[link removed]> recently to give us an idea of how they might go...



With Government approval ratings still in the toilet, Sunak's prospects of retaining either seat seem bleak. The Tories face an almost certain pasting by Labour in Uxbridge and a stern challenge from the Lib Dems in Mid-Bedfordshire who need to overturn a 20,000+ vote majority. Good thing they have form <[link removed]> in that department.



The Lib Dems have a strong local party in the constituency which partially overlaps with the former fiefdom of the previous Lib Dem Mayor of Bedford Dave Hodgson who narrowly lost out in May. The rest of the constituency is made up of wards with more Lib Dem councilors than other opposition parties.



10 days to Trade Unlocked <[link removed]>



In case you live under a rock and missed B4B’s hundreds of pieces of nationwide media coverage across print and broadcast this Wednesday, we’ll distil them down to three for you: The public want the Tories out, but Labour haven’t fully convinced them, and Rishi Sunak has the advantage…of not being Liz Truss.



At a press conference on Wednesday morning, we unveiled the results <[link removed]> of our Westminster voting intention MRP polling. If a general election were held tomorrow, Labour could landslide to as many as 470 seats to the Tories’ 123. However, with ‘don’t know’ currently polling third a number of different scenarios could erode their majority or even result in a hung parliament, with Labour on just 316.



Accompanying the release of our MRP polling, elections whiz Prof John Curtice provided analysis of the continued effects of Brexit on UK elections, while More in Common director Luke Tryl shared insights from focus groups across the country. Campaigner Carol Vorderman gave a talk <[link removed]> on the need for tactical voting to oust the Tories.







The full breakdown of the polling is available on our website <[link removed]>. Best for Britain’s tactical voting guide can be found here <[link removed]>.



Trade Unlocked countdown



The countdown to Trade Unlocked 2023 is soon to be in the single digits, and our team is abuzz with the final preparations before we head to the Birmingham NEC on 20th June.



This week, we announced one of our breakout stage hosts, Telegraph Europe Editor James Crisp, and we also rolled out our first breakout forums. For SMEs, we rolled out this video guide to #TU23 for small businesses:



<[link removed]>



Be sure you’re following Trade Unlocked on Twitter <[link removed]> and LinkedIn <[link removed]> to see our final updates ahead of the conference and stay posted on updates on the day if you won’t be attending. 



No need to ask the 48%



With the seventh anniversary of the Brexit referendum fast approaching, the BBC are on the hunt for voices from across the political spectrum to reflect on the effects of the seismic shift it caused in our society. They’ll be talking to hard Leavers, shire Tories who voted Leave for financial deregulation, fishermen who voted Leave because they got cut off by a Volkswagen on their way to the polls, and even to people who voted Leave but lied on their exit polls and said they voted Remain.



Yes, this week, BBC Question Time announced that their 22nd June episode, a day before the seventh anniversary of the Brexit referendum, will feature <[link removed]> an audience entirely composed of people who voted Leave. The special episode in Clacton-on-Sea, roughly seven-tenths of which supported Brexit in 2016, will surely be followed up with a panel drawn from the 69% of the population which now thinks Brexit was the right decision. Right? Guys?



As of Friday, the BBC has not returned the writer’s query about whether it was okay to only pay 52% of the licence fee.



Rishi in DC



The Prime Minister took a trip <[link removed]> to the US capital this week with AI on his (still human…for now) mind, and a whole lot of words in the new joint “Atlantic Declaration” he and President Joe Biden unveiled at the White House on Thursday. 



With the prospects of a UK-US trade deal firmly stomped upon by Sunak and his boots, the Prime Minister did make some progress on attracting a new global AI summit to the UK. 



The new “Atlantic Declaration <[link removed]>”, on the other hand, is big on “propelling our economies into the future so we can protect our people” and small on actual details of how it will achieve this lofty goal. It’s like an IOU 1 Trade Deal, or, if you’re Sunak, IBEGU4 1 Trade Deal.



It wasn’t all business–the PM did manage to squeeze in a trip to a Washington Nationals baseball game, where he touted his love for cricket and then chickened out <[link removed]> of throwing a ceremonial first pitch for fear it could go awry.



Just Stop Oil woke zealots splash orange paint on the sky



Sunak’s trip to DC went ahead despite having to take place mostly indoors, because a plume of smoke <[link removed]> from a wildfire raging in Canada has blanketed the US east coast in an orange haze reminiscent of the Martian landscape we’ll need to escape to if things keep going the way they’re going.



The fires in Quebec, which have been increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change, caused New York City to have the worst air quality of any city in the world earlier this week. Washington was walloped with highly hazardous ratings as the plume moved south.







As the eerie, dangerous conditions made spending the day outside equivalent to smoking 6 cigarettes, Fox News decided <[link removed]> that it’s tyranny to caution residents against breathing in wildfire smoke and spent hours dismissing the health risks to their viewers. Expect GB News to follow hot on their big brother’s heels this summer when they claim that the same experts who say swimming in sewage is unhealthy took the covid vaccine. 



Experts said <[link removed]> conditions would improve over the weekend.



Florida Man indicted again



This may be the most American-heavy Weekend Wire we’ve had yet, but it’s for good reason: Donald Trump has now been indicted <[link removed]> on federal charges related to the illegal retention of classified materials after voters booted him out of office in 2021.



The sensational charges came after Trump refused to return <[link removed]> classified documents he’d kept in his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach following his exit from the presidency, leading to a federal indictment in Miami. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a permanent disqualification from running for public office.



We’re not exactly qualified to give legal advice, but we think Trump could kill two birds with one stone and just declare Mar-a-Lago a sovereign microstate–he could claim diplomatic immunity and he’d get to be a president again. 



Ukrainian dam ruptures amid counteroffensive



This week, as Ukrainian forces began a major counteroffensive against Vladimir Putin’s invading forces, a major dam in the south of the country was blown up in an alleged sabotage.



The breach of the Kakhova Dam <[link removed]> on the critical River Dnipro was blamed on Russia by the Ukrainian government, while the occupying Russian government has variously said it was the Ukrainians and that it was a lack of maintenance and high water levels. The Institute for the Study of War said the most likely explanation was a Russian sabotage to hinder the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Thousands of people in the path of floodwaters were evacuated.



Elsewhere, the Ukrainians recaptured territory <[link removed]> in the city of Bakhmut amid reports <[link removed]> of serious friction between the regular Russian military and mercenary paramilitary forces.



Just for fun, we’re imagining what role Donald Trump would audition for in the prison production of Grease. It’s a shame there’s no Orange Ladies... Bye for now! 



Best wishes,



Tommy Gillespie

Press Officer, Best for Britain







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Best For Britain - United Kingdom

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