Dear John,

I’m going to need my word limit for the tidal wave of political news that hit the UK this week so let’s skip the preamble and get right into it.

Rishuffling deck chairs

This week started in dramatic fashion when Rishi Sunak began the long awaited reshuffle of his top team on Monday morning. After her desperately desired riot between protests failed to materialise over Remembrance Weekend, Home Secretary Suella Braverman found herself out on her ear and replaced by James Cleverly who previously led the Foreign Office.

In a quite unhinged break up resignation letter to the Prime Minister lasting an interminable 3 pages, Braverman railed against the Prime Minister's weakness and duplicity - you know what they say about stopped clocks.

In finding his new Foreign Sec, Sunak canned his pitch to be a clean break after 13 years of failure by hiring someone who was in charge for six of them. 

Ironically, the new Foreign Secretary is the man perhaps most responsible for one of the UK’s greatest foreign policy disasters. Yes, David [choke] Cameron has somehow shaken off the sleaze and tumbled out of the dustbin of history for what we must hope is his final farewell tour. Maybe the newly ennobled Lord Cameron of Grensill’s extensive experience courting the Chinese Communist Party since leaving Number 10, means he’s not too rusty on the foreign policy front.

Unluckily for Sunak, the appointment of not-so-fresh faces has paid few short term dividends, with Labour increasing their poll lead to a remarkable 46% to the Tories’ 19%.

(I haven't seen Cameron happier since his beloved West Ham won the final test of the football world series 40-Love)

Supremely good news

On Wednesday the UK Supreme Court ruled against the Government’s odious Rwanda plan which would have seen people who are fleeing war, famine and persecution deported to a country with a record of human rights abuses without having their claim for asylum heard and with no possibility of returning to the UK once it has been.

The Supreme Court unanimously found that refugees sent to Rwanda would be at risk of the ambiguously pronounced practice of refoulement (being returned to countries from which they have fled) and that this would be in breach of numerous pieces of international and UK domestic law. 

The ruling was widely reported as a humiliation for Sunak who has staked quite a bit politically on seeing a plane take off for Kigali before the next election. It’s the latest chapter in an issue made worse by government policy to close safe and official routes for asylum seekers and to keep them in hotels, barges and barracks rather than process their claims allowing them to live, work, pay tax and rebuild their lives in the UK. 

Bafflingly, the PM followed this decision by the UK SUPREME COURT by decrying the interference of “foreign courts”. In the same speech he doubled down on the unlawful plan and outlined emergency legislation that will, according to reports, declare that black is white, up is down and that Rwanda is a safe destination for refugees despite all evidence to the contrary. The mad idea seems a bit less mad when put alongside suggestions from Sunak’s party colleagues to suspend international law altogether.

So far, the Government has wasted £140m on the unlawful scheme.

Brexit Corner

Trading up

In a speech in London this week, Shadow Business and Trade Secretary Johnathan Reynolds made a speech outlining Labour’s plans for trade should they win the next election. He called for:

• A deeper, more substantive, and more focused trade policy covering data, recognition of qualifications, and regulatory alignment.
• A much higher level of scrutiny with a proper role for Parliament in how Trade Deals are ratified.
• Giving the Board of Trade a proper purpose as an independent advisory agency, accountable to the Secretary of State, advising on the impacts of regulation on trade with an explicit duty to report against how each region and nation is performing.

If that sounds familiar, it's because they closely reflect some of the key recommendations made in May by the UK Trade and Business Commission (UKTBC), which is organised by Best for Britain. Now that’s what I call impact!

Toad in the Hole

While the idea of Farage munching on a marsupial’s fundament should be something we can all enjoy, giving a massive media platform to this proven liar with a track record for stoking division and intolerance did not work out well in the past.

That’s why we launched a new campaign on Monday encouraging as many people as possible to pledge not to watch the show in protest and to write to Ant & Dec to register displeasure at the appointment. Through our easy to use online tool, almost 5,000 people have already written directly to the duo prompting a response from ITV. If you haven’t already, sign up today!

And that’s your lot. Have a wonderful weekend. Next week you’ll be hearing from my good friend and colleague Ben Stead-Lewis.

Toodle pip. 

Niall McGourty
Director of Communications
Best for Britain

P.S Don’t forget to sign-up for alerts for the launch of our tactical voting campaign, Get Voting.