Animal spirits: Labour want to unleash them – but what do they actually mean?

‘We’re all sick of Britain being in the slow lane … we want to see a revival of those animal spirits so that we can grow the economy and bring investment here,” said Rachel Reeves on her return from Davos last week. Plainly a memo has gone round: in a radio interview this morning, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds claimed Labour’s willingness to take bold decisions “unleashes the animal spirit, the sense of something exciting happening”. When Reeves set out her plan for growth this afternoon, she reprised many of her Davos themes. She’s on a strange crusade against newts and bats, holding wildlife concerns responsible for Britain’s anti-growth mindset; she thinks bringing down net migration and fearlessly growing the economy are compatible and equal priorities; she’s putting a hell of a lot of faith in extra airport runways. But at least this time she wasn’t saying we should be more like Trump

Peter Mandelson calls past remarks about Trump ‘ill-judged and wrong’

Peter Mandelson has said his past remarks that Donald Trump was “a danger to the world” were “ill-judged and wrong” before his expected confirmation as ambassador to the US.Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday morning, Lord Mandelson said Trump had won “fresh respect” with his “dynamism and energy”.Mandelson’s volte-face came amid reports he had received his diplomatic “agrément” – or agreement in principle – from the US to serve as the UK’s ambassador to Washington, despite concerns in Trump’s team about his links to China and the client list of his consultancy, Global Counsel.Foreign Office officials said that, barring any unexpected obstacles, Mandelson would be formally confirmed in his role next month.Mandelson, a former Labour minister who now sits in the House of Lords, has also been critical of Trump in the past, describing him as a “bully” and “reckless and a danger to the world”

Rise of Chris Philp tests the limits of the Peter principle

If Chris Philp didn’t exist, would it be possible to create him? Is such a feat of imagination even possible? Consider the complexities – the absurdity, the halfwittedness. The unfailing ability to jump on the wrong bandwagon. And yet … To have succeeded to the limits of the Peter principle. To be the embodiment of the Dunning-Kruger effect. The apotheosis of mediocrity

Ex-Tory Brexit minister Lord Frost rejects party’s claims over Europe-wide customs scheme – as it happened

Last week, when Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice president, floated the prospect of the UK joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM), a Europe-wide customs scheme, Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, denounced this idea as a “betrayal” that would “shackle us to the EU”.But this means that the Conservative leadership is now taking an even more hardline approach than some of the most prominent Brexiters in the party.In an interview in the Times today, Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister who negotiated the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, said that joining PEM would not threaten any of Britain’s Brexit freedoms. He said, when he was in government, he considered the case for joining. He explained:We didn’t see it as raising any issue of principle, but we equally didn’t consider it to be particularly in UK interests

First of seven Labour MPs suspended for voting against party to have whip restored

The first of the seven Labour MPs who were suspended for voting against the two-child benefit cap are set to have the whip restored within days if they agree to avoid further rebellions in future, the Guardian understands.However, several of the MPs, including John McDonnell, who was shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, are not expected to have the whip restored at the same time as whips believe they have continued to be “troublemakers”.Keir Starmer suspended the seven leftwingers in July after they supported an amendment to the flagship king’s speech to scrap the two-child benefit cap, with Downing Street furious that they had voted against the platform they were elected to deliver.McDonnell, along with Rebecca Long-Bailey – who stood against Starmer for the leadership in 2020 – Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Zarah Sultana, all lost the party whip for six months, after which their suspensions were due to be reviewed.Labour’s chief whip, Alan Campbell, has been spending the last few days holding one-to-one discussions with the MPs, who have been sitting as independents in the Commons

Yvette Cooper to reject call to broaden extremism definition

Yvette Cooper will reject internal Home Office advice to potentially widen the definition of extremism to include violent misogyny and conspiracy theorists, the Guardian understands.A report commissioned in the wake of violent riots after the Southport murders last year suggests authorities should adopt a “behaviour-based and ideologically agnostic approach” to combating extremism rather than “ideologies of concern”.But the home secretary is understood to believe the Home Office should continue its focus on Islamist and far-right violence, which currently make up the vast majority of terror cases.The report, leaked to the right-leaning thinktank Policy Exchange, says the government’s approach to extremism should no longer be based on “specific ideologies of concern but on behaviours and activity”.It comes amid deepening scrutiny of the government’s approach to extremism