David Lammy used undiplomatic language after predecessor David Cameron publicly revealed the Foreign Office under his tutelage had developed potential sanctions against two particularly extremist members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government: finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. My snout whispered the current Foreign Secretary accused the previous Conservative incumbent of scoring cheap political points. Foreign Office policy is to keep targets secret to prevent prey avoiding measures. Lord Dave may live to regret trying to embarrass Lammy. Cameron missed out on Nato, and securing a global role he covets, perhaps at the UN, would require David nice-till-crossed Lammy’s seal of approval.
Rishi Sunak’s last official act as Tory leader will be responding to Rachel Reeves’ tax-raising Budget – but Conservative whips increasingly expect his final move to be bidding goodbye to the Commons, taking former deputy PM Oliver Dowden with him. Both deny even contemplating early retirement, but jumpy whips are on by-election watch. Both seats survived the 4 July massacre, so Tory optimists ponder how a couple of holds could boost Sunak’s replacement, whether it’s Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick.
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