Inside Politics: Dominic Raab goes to Washington to explain Brexit bill

If you’ve been reading extracts from gossipy memoir Diary of an MP’s Wife, you’ll know David Cameron drowned his Brexit sorrows with “endless bottles of wine”. David, I know the feeling. I’m sure plenty of people in Westminster have been knocking back the vino just to get through Boris Johnson’s wild adventures in tearing up treaties. As Dominic Raab heads to the US to explain the new Brexit bill, jitters have broken out in Whitehall. Government departments are so worried about the risk of breaking international law, junior civil servants must now inform their managers about any work they’re doing on Brexit. It’s enough to drive you to drink.

Inside the bubble

Our political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today:

A busy day for Boris Johnson and parliamentary sketchwriters. After facing Angela Rayner at PMQs (Keir Starmer is still self-isolating), the PM will be grilled by the liaison committee on coronavirus, Brexit negotiations and the government’s foreign and defence review. Elsewhere on the committee corridor, education secretary Gavin Williamson will face the music over the exams fiasco, while Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis will be quizzed about his statement that the government is prepared to break international law.

Daily briefing

MR RAAB GOES TO WASHINGTON: Our foreign secretary has flown to the US capital in a bid to reassure leading politicians about the big plan to renege on parts of the Brexit divorce deal. Dominic Raab will meet his counterpart Mike Pompeo and Speaker Nancy Pelosi – who has shared her strong disapproval and concern the Good Friday agreement could be in jeopardy. Back in Whitehall, everyone is on edge. Junior civil servants working on Brexit policy have been told to inform their managers if they have any doubts about whether it might break the law. The email advice, according to BBC Newsnight, reads: “Raise it with your line manager.” A spooked Boris Johnson has reportedly told Conservative MPs he is willing to “look” at a version of Bob Neill’s amendment to the Internal Market Bill – and amendment which requires the government to get approval from parliament before parts of the bill come into force. Do backbench Tories really believe he will keep his word?

RATION BOOKINGS: Concern about the state of the coronavirus testing system grows by the day. The government is set to publish a plan to “prioritise” tests amid widespread shortages. NHS staff and patients, and people care homes, are expected to be top of the list. The teaching unions claimed it would put the country back into “lockdown by default” because children and workers would be at the back of the queue under test rationing. In the Commons, health secretary Matt Hancock was forced to admit it would still be a “matter of weeks’ before problems were resolved. Health committee boss Jeremy Hunt took absolutely no pleasure in reminding Hancock that he’d claimed last week it would take “two weeks” to get it sorted. It comes as a Covid testing centre in Ebbsfleet in Kent has been shut down to make way for another Brexit lorry park. Priorities!

ALL THE MINGLE LADIES: Mums doing the school run this morning should be careful not to stand around chatting at the gates. It’s not altogether clear what kind of blether is banned under the rule of six. Priti Patel said two families of four stopping to talk in the street was “absolutely mingling”. In possibly the strangest semantic argument of 2020, the home secretary told the BBC: “Mingling is people coming together – that is my definition of mingling.” Patel also revealed herself to be something of a stoolie, a squealer, a snitcher – a fink. She said she would “clearly” report her neighbours if she saw more than six gathered together. Police Federation boss John Apter said officers were still “trying to interpret” the new rules. “Maybe we should have guidance, because we haven’t had any yet.”

TREASURY TINKERMAN: Rishi Sunak has dropped a pretty heavy hint he is considering new measures scheme to support jobs as the countdown to the end of the furlough scheme continues. The chancellor said looking for new ways to protect workers was “number one priority”, adding: “I’m always looking for interesting, creative, innovative and effective new ways to support jobs and employment.” Wednesday marks 45 days until the end of furlough on 31 October – the point at which employers must give notice of planned redundancy. The Unite union has urged the government to say it will extend its furlough scheme or come up with a targeted alternative to prevent the “redundancy floodgates” opening in the UK. Boss Len McCluskey has written to the PM demanding he “puts a floor under struggling employers”.

TRAINING WHEELS: Ben Bradley, the Tory MP for Mansfield, has refused to attend unconscious bias training for parliamentarians. He mocked the idea as “nonsense” on the ConservativeHome website, complaining that our major institutions were now dominated by a fearful “groupthink”. Excerpts book by Conservative MP Sir Hugo Swire’s wife Lady Swire – Diary of an MP’s Wife: Inside and Outside Power – have some Tories worried about what terribly un-PC things they may have said in her orbit. The Swires were good chums with the Camerons for a while, and the author claims David consoled himself over the Brexit referendum with a “lethal” negroni cocktail, wine, whisky and a “fat” Cuban cigar. Another extract claimed that during a coastal walk Cameron asked Lady Swire to walk behind him, because “that scent you are wearing … makes me want to grab you and push you into the bushes and give you one”. Dear, dear – perhaps David needs some kind of training.

PLAY UP AND PLAY THE GAME: Did Donald Trump “downplay” the coronavirus in those crucial early months? No way, no how – quite the opposite, the president claimed. He told a town hall meeting in Philadelphia: “I didn’t downplay it ... In many ways, I up-played it, in terms of action.” Trump also claimed his travel bans saved thousands of lives, and said the virus would politely go away of its own accord because people would “develop herd mentality” (likely referring to the “herd immunity” concept). Meanwhile, his former national security guy John Bolton is being formally investigated over the possibility he disclosed classified info in his memoir. The US Department of Justice has started a criminal case over the publication of The Room Where It Happened – issuing subpoenas to Bolton and his publishing company.

On the record

“This is what populism can do to a country, which was global leader of international law and trade.”

Manfred Webe – head of European People’s Party grouping in Brussels – on the PM’s plan to override the withdrawal agreement.

From the Twitterati

“Would Priti Patel snitch on her neighbours if they broke international law?”

Marina Hyde wonders what it would take for Patel to grass up the PM…

“Lovely day to mingle and murder some grouses.”

…while Gary Lineker reminds us the it’s okay to mingle while shooting on the moors.

Essential reading

Tom Peck, The Independent: Don’t worry, Hancock will sort everything in ‘matter of weeks’

Andrew Feinberg, The Independent: Trump likes to punish blue states, according to insiders

Alice Thomson, The Times: Priti Patel will never turn us into a nation of snitchers

Peter Kellner, Prospect: If MPs don’t protect the UK’s international reputation, will the Lords?

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