The Londoner: Green: Boris is just a backbench MP

Damian Green dismisses Boris as "just" a backbencher / Is George Galloway rejoining Labour? / Simon Pegg is a fan of Fortnite / Mamma Mia boys take over Somerset House / 
Damian Green:
AFP/Getty Images
10 August 2018

Damian Green, former First Secretary of State and de facto deputy leader, has rejected suggestions that the Conservative Party is Islamophobic in the same way that Labour has been accused of being anti-Semitic, following comments made by Boris Johnson about Muslim women who wear the burka.

Green said the “difference” rested on “the very simple reason that immediately the Prime Minister and the party chairman have said Boris should apologise”. Green, in an interview with the Evening Standard to be published on Monday, also appeared to dismiss the importance of Johnson describing him as just “a backbench MP”.

He said that Johnson had thought he was being “flippant and funny” but “out there [he] can cause genuine offence. What to you is a joke, might to other people be a very offensive remark.”

Pressed on whether he agreed that if someone in Labour had said something similar they would have been suspended from the party, he replied that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had not been swift to reprimand those within his party in the same way. He continued: “There is no comparison with Labour’s problems with anti-Semitism, precisely because that absolutely goes to the heart of the leader of the party and his closest associates, which is that they question of the legitimacy of the existence of Israel. And that very easily tips over into anti-Semitism.”

He said that Labour’s stance “gives permission” to people “on places like Twitter who are genuinely anti-Semitic” to express “racism or religious bigotry”. But he added: “I don’t think there’s a hint of that in [Johnson’s case], it’s just a bad use of language. The lesson we should all draw from it is, ‘Be careful with words.’”

Green admited, however, that he had no idea if Theresa May’s intervention would have an effect. “That’s for Boris to decide. Only Boris can say what Boris’s game is.”

Asked if Boris meant the niqab as well as the burka, Green said that when it comes to Johnson, “I can’t interpret the inner meanings.”

Is Galloway back?

Could George Galloway be rejoining the Labour Party? The veteran Left-winger, expelled from the party in 2003 in part for inciting Arabs to fight British troops, is quietly supporting plans to bring him back into the fold. Earlier this week Galloway denied to us that he was seeking re-entry, but shortly afterwards began retweeting messages with the hashtag #BringBackGalloway. One read: “Following the recent Twitter storm successes, let’s do it again this Friday at 7pm. #BringBack Galloway.” The former MP did not reply to our requests for comment this morning.

---

Luke Evans has collected a pay cheque to narrate a 20-minute audio-guide on, no joke, how to drink a beer. The Welsh actor has been enlisted by Stella Artois for the project, in which he offers such wisdom as “sit upright but not uptight” and “focus on your breathing and turn your attention inwards”.

---

Alan Garner, author of The Owl Service, missed more than half of his primary school years. “I had dramatic illnesses,” he told the BBC’s Samira Ahmed on Front Row. “Diptheria, pneumonia with pleurisy, meningitis with whooping cough and measles.” He added: “It was fairly strenuous. I was declared dead three times.”

Mamma Mia boys: Hugh Skinner, Jeremy Irvine and Josh Dylan (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Somerset House)
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Somerset House

Hugh Skinner, Jeremy Irvine and Josh Dylan have become inseparable since starring in Abba musical sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. The trio, who play the young versions of characters played by Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgård — were at a Film4 Summer Screen premiere of The Wife at Somerset House last night. Skinner admits that while most of the cast were professional dancers, he was terrible: “They choreographed it to our individual abilities,” he says “which is why other people are backflipping over tables and doing cartwheels, while I play baguettes or ride trolleys.”

Charlotte Wiggins was also at the event. The model once starred in an advert for Tesco, which dubbed over her voice because it was “too northern”. She was joined by the star of Misfits Robert Sheehan, model Bee Beardsworth and artist Phoebe Collings-James.

SW1A

The Jewish Chronicle reports that the Labour Party has been divided by the anti-Semitism row, with General Secretary Jennie Formby and staffer Laura Murray (below) on one side and Karie Murphy and Seumas Milne, leader Jeremy Corbyn’s close advisers, on the other. Last week we reported that Andrew Murray, Laura’s father and chief of staff to Unite boss Len McCluskey, was “highly concerned” with the IHRA row. Interesting postscript: Murphy is the close friend of McCluskey. McCluskey is the boss of Andrew Murray. And Formby is the ex of McCluskey and the mother of his son. What larks.

---

Ken Livingstone: (Photo by Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images)
Getty Images

Former Mayor Ken Livingstone has spoken out on Boris Johnson. “He isn’t really a politician,” he said on LBC​ today. “He just wants to be a famous celebrity. Frankly, I think the Tory Party should dump him.” Will it take them as long as it took the Labour Party to take action on Ken?

Quote of the day

‘I can’t wait to be your very giggly wife’

Ellie Goulding aims high on news of her engagement to rower Caspar​ Jopling

Fortnite solves Pegg’s mission impossible

Actor Simon Pegg, star of Mission: Impossible — Fallout, stands up for the controversial video game Fortnite. While Pegg was filming in LA, he used it to connect with his daughter at home: “Thank goodness for FaceTime, Minecraft and Fortnite,” he told Scroobius Pip’s podcast, “because it meant that we could meet up in the digital world.

I borrowed a PlayStation when I first got there and then me and Tilly met in Minecraft. There was her little avatar and we built a house together and we hung out and talked. She’s so good at it — I was terrible.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in