Happy Lib Dem day

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Donald Trump said he needed more security in the wake of the second assassination attempt against him. The Republican presidential candidate said in an X live chat that he had asked Joe Biden for “more people in my detail” and the president was “very nice today” when they spoke on the phone.
But but but … that didn’t stop Trump from blaming the assassination attempt on “rhetoric” from Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Trump’s running mate JD Vance also blamed Democrats for attempts on the ex-president’s life.
Secret Service fail? Suspect Ryan Wesley Routh allegedly waited at Trump’s golf club for 12 hours with a rifle, according to court documents, with my Stateside colleagues reporting the incident has reignited longstanding concerns that Trump’s golfing habit makes him vulnerable. The latest close call is “a failure, 100 percent” of the Secret Service, security expert Carrie Bachner tells Betsy Woodruff Swan. “The U.S. is facing the most complex, dynamic, and dangerous threat environment I’ve experienced,” John Cohen, a former senior Homeland Security intelligence and counterterrorism official, tells POLITICO in this big read.
Good Tuesday morning. This is Stefan Boscia.
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TIME TO SHINE: Parliament is in recess, the papers are obsessing over Huw Edwards and London is busy enjoying its final stretch of warm weather for 2024. All of which means we’re going to take a deep breath and drive the day with … the Liberal Democrats. Yes, really. Sure we could have brought you Frockgate (there’s a bit of that later) or something on Labour’s new general secretary — but who doesn’t love an Ed Davey conference speech?
Clear your schedule: Davey will close the Lib Dem conference with a 2.20 p.m. speech playing all his greatest election hits, most notably demanding to fix the NHS and social care and shouting about sewage, Playbook’s Dan Bloom writes in from Brighton. Davey will tell his vast cabal of 71 fellow MPs to be “local champions,” adding: “Be true to that mandate and repay that trust.”
As sunny as the weather: Elsewhere Davey will promise to “offer people hope on health” to “cut through the government’s doom and gloom.” The Lib Dem leader will accuse the Labour government of “pessimism and defeatism” and promise to offer “ambition for our country.” More via Sky News’ Alix Cuthbertson. 
Original gloomsters: That’s despite the fact the Libs have, in fact, delivered truckloads of gloom — today’s press release highlights Commons Library stats which say 5.35 million children haven’t seen an NHS dentist in the last year.
It’s their ‘nam: But of course the biggest source of gloom for the party is and always will be Brexit. The Indy’s Archie Mitchell watched a Lib Dem councillor, Antonia Harrison, tell a fringe event in Brighton that she has “a diagnosis of PTSD over Brexit.” The Havant councillor would not elaborate any further. “I have not been in Sudan fighting in a war, but [Brexit] has had a profound impact on me,” she said.
Clear yellow water: We’ve already had rows over the two-child benefit limit and winter fuel payments, but EU policy is where the difference with the Labour government gets most profound, several Lib Dem MPs reckon — especially with new pay-to-enter border rules and the post-Brexit trade deal review likely to make headlines over the next couple of years. Says one MP: “When ETIAS comes in and people have to pay to go there, they’re are going to say ‘hang on a minute, this is because of Brexit and this affects me.’” Davey tells the FT’s Anna Gross that Keir Starmer “needs to be much bolder on things like the single market — ruling that out is a mistake.”
BLUE SLAM GROUP: There is no doubt that the Libs’ biggest target is still the Tories, despite Davey telling ITV News it’s not “either-or” between them or Labour. Twenty of the 27 seats where the party is in second place are blue, and Lib Dem strategists are insistent that more could yet fall in 2029 — especially if the Tories pick a right-wing leader like Robert Jenrick or Kemi Badenoch. Davey has spent the past few days publicly stating he wants to knock the Conservatives into third place in the next election and will devote much of his speech to hammering the Tory leadership candidates, who he says are “scraping the bottom of the barrel.”
Not everyone agrees: One Lib Dem MP tells Playbook the stellar result was a bit of a fluke — “a particular set of circumstances that weren’t in control. It wasn’t thanks to us that the Tories collapsed.” And a More in Common poll for the i says 43 percent of Lib Dem voters would have voted differently if another party could have won in their seat.
Not just a farmers’ party: Indeed, the Times’ Aubrey Allegretti has picked up some internal disquiet about Davey’s Tory-focused strategy (in an article not yet online). One MP warns against “the next five years just being about the third-biggest party slinging mud at the second-biggest.” And Lib Dem Councillor Carl Cashman tells Allegretti that focusing on winning over Tory voters was a “strategy for the short term, not the long term.” “We’ve got to be cautious of being the party of rural farmers and the home counties,” he said.
But overall: This conference has felt very much like the victory lap the party intended, probably helped by the gorgeous sunshine in which delegates basked for most of the four days. Questions like whether to sit “left” of Labour despite the blue wall base … how to keep voters’ support when you’re busy fighting the opposition rather than the government … and, whisper it, even the risk of Lib Dem splits (there are now enough MPs for such luxuries) … all of that can wait for another year.
POSTSCRIPT: If you ask senior Lib Dems who deserves credit for the party’s stunning election result, they tend to name one person — campaign director Dave McCobb, according to “Landslide: The Inside Story of the 2024 Election,” the forthcoming book by POLITICO’s Tim Ross and the i paper’s Rachel Wearmouth. They write that as the party cruised to victory in the 2023 Somerton and Frome by-election, McCobb realized that the Tories might not recover in the polls before the general election. So he doubled the size of his core target seat list to around 65. In the end, the party did even better, winning 72.
Target practice: McCobb drove his candidates hard. If they fell short of exacting goals for recruiting volunteers, knocking on doors, delivering leaflets and raising money, they’d be dropped from his target seat list. If others did well, they would be added to the top tier. 
Davey’s final plunge: Davey was nervous and so was his press team about his final stunt of the campaign — a bungee jump. His staff were particularly worried about their leader being shown vomiting on live TV as he dangled at the end of a rope. The night before, they told him to skip breakfast.
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TO THE POLITBURO, COMRADE: Labour’s 39-person NEC will choose the party’s new general secretary today, after a grueling interview process for just one (!) candidate. Yes, Labour has a one-person shortlist for the appointment (as first reported by Pat Maguire) and today is all just a formality. The next Labour general secretary will be Hollie Ridley, who will be interviewed by the entire NEC this afternoon. A confirmatory vote will then take place, which Playbook imagines will look a little like this. 
Who? Ridley is Labour’s executive director of nations and regions, and played a senior role in the party’s election campaign. She is also a close ally of senior No. 10 aide and Labour election guru Morgan McSweeney (surprise, surprise). One NEC member said Ridley “combines understanding of election campaigning and the nuts and bolts of internal politics.” They added: “She’s a strong working class woman that deserves to be promoted.”
NOT ON THE CASE: What Starmer will be much more concerned about today is the growing animosity between his top team and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case. The Guardian’s Jessica Elgot hears Case, expected to leave in the coming months, is being blamed by Labour aides for not getting a grip on a series of damaging leaks. There is particular concern around the Frockgate leak to the Sunday Times and the source of briefings to the press about tensions between McSweeney and No. 10 chief of staff Sue Gray.
Not me, guv: A Cabinet Office spokesperson said Case was not involved in any leaks of negative briefings to the press. “We take the unauthorised disclosure of information very seriously and take appropriate action where necessary,” they said.
Sartorial Starmer: The Frockgate saga is still rumbling on today, with the Telegraph splashing on Starmer’s insistence that he will still take donations from Labour campaign finance chief Waheed Alli. The defiant PM defended his use of donor money to buy himself and his wife new clothes, telling journalists that “all MPs get gifts.” The PM said his failure to declare on time that Alli paid for clothes worth around £5,000 for Vic Starmer was a simple mistake, which was eventually rectified. The Mail’s Harriet Line was the first to report that Starmer will not face a parliamentary standards investigation for the breach. 
Copping heat: This is just the latest story which has centered on Alli’s influence on Starmer’s No. 10, after the Sunday Times also revealed he was given a security pass to Downing Street after the election and was seen in several meetings. The “passes for glasses” row was used by Tory opponents of cronyism, despite Alli giving up his security pass soon after the election. CCHQ says the current saga “beggars belief.”
Money for nothing: One Starmerite MP told Playbook that Alli “has a lot of money and is … just trying to help and be generous.” “It would only be dodgy if he wanted something back and he really doesn’t — he’s already a peer,” they said. A Cabinet minister told the Guardian’s Kiran Stacey that the long-time Tony Blair ally has “never sought to change party policy and that “he is not really a policy person.”
Chef’s kiss: In a beautiful bit of timing, Vic Starmer was out at a fashion show on Monday just 24 hours after the story about her donor-provided clothes came out. But it just got better from there. Vic and the PM were then spotted on Monday evening at a No. 10 drinks reception with the great and the good of British fashion for London Fashion Week. This included Naomi Campbell and Paul Smith.
Not a laughing matter: Some Labour MPs found the whole thing a bit less amusing. One told the Mail that the saga “sticks in your throat when people are really, really struggling.” One Labour MP told Playbook: “Hopefully no more revelations or late declarations will come out.” Veteran Labour MP Barry Gardiner refused to defend the PM in an LBC interview (clip here).
WHAT LABOUR WANTS TO TALK ABOUT: David Lammy and Ed Miliband will give their first major set-piece speeches since entering government today, about Britain’s global climate leadership. The pair will double down on the government’s aim to decarbonize the U.K.’s energy grid by 2030.
Speech 1: Lammy will reveal his plans to create “special representatives for climate change and nature,” who will try to increase engagement with foreign governments on net-zero. Lammy will be on his feet from 11.45 a.m.
What to expect: The foreign secretary will say “action on the climate and nature crisis will be central to all the Foreign Office does” under him. “The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat,” he is expected to say. “But it is more fundamental. It is systemic. Pervasive. And accelerating towards us.” The Telegraph’s Ben Riley-Smith goes in on Lammy calling climate change a more fundamental threat to Britain than terrorism.
In practice: International Development Minister Anneliese Dodds will be in Indonesia today to speak to speak about climate change action. She will also sign agreements to cooperate on development and critical minerals.
Lammybook: Also worth bookmarking a new Substack Lammy launched on Monday, called Progressive Realism. The first edition gives some insight (mostly tea-related) into his Ukraine trip with Antony Blinken.
Speech 2: Miliband’s speech will take place at around 10.15 a.m. and is expected to provide a staunch defense of the government’s early flurry of announcements on green energy. He will say that “every wind turbine we put up, every solar panel we install, every piece of grid we construct protects families from future energy shocks.”
PARLIAMENT: Feet up for conference season.
SHOW US YOUR WORKINGS: The full impact assessment of the government’s plan to charge private schools VAT will be published alongside the budget, the i’s Jane Merrick reports. The details will likely show if schools will have to hike fees, and whether some institutions will have to close their doors for good.
STARMER SPEECH: Starmer said he would fight against the “resurgence of antisemitism” in the U.K. and across the world at the Holocaust Educational Trust’s appeal dinner last night. Citing the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and incidences of antisemitism in London, Starmer said “we will not be silent, we will not look the other way.”
THIN ICE: Junior doctors represented by the BMA voted to accept the government’s pay deal, but the union has stressed it’s not all over. Speaking on Sky News, Junior Doctor Committee Co-Chair Vivek Trivedi said “this could mark a change between doctors and the government … But that must be held true, and if it doesn’t then the government will find doctors back in dispute.”
NEW MATES: POLITICO’s Andrew McDonald and Hannah Roberts have a piece out charting the left-wing backlash to Starmer’s attempts to emulate the immigration policies of Italian PM Giorgia Meloni. Unsurprisingly, No. 10 is unfazed by the criticism. “This is a government of pragmatism,” one government official told them.
SLIPPERS-AS-UNIFORM IS IN: Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds described the pushback to flexible working from some Tories as “bizarre,” arguing in an interview with the Times’ Steven Swinford and Chris Smyth that allowing people to work from home boosts productivity.
Nothing to see here: Reynolds also denied there was any tension between him and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over details of Labour’s upcoming workers’ rights reforms, saying the two are “working very closely together.”
IN THE GULF STREAM: Trade Minister Douglas Alexander is in Oman today, after also visiting Saudi Arabia with Reynolds on Monday. The pair are in the region to try to inject energy into slow-moving trade talks with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — a six-country trading bloc in the Middle East. Alexander will meet with senior Omani officials and ministers today.
Can’t keep everyone happy: The minister told POLITICO’s senior trade reporter Graham Lanktree that the Labour government is “fully committed to delivering trade talks on a modern and ambitious deal.” This commitment is already causing trouble with the unions, considering the poor workers’ rights records of GCC members like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The TUC is now demanding that unions have a greater role in trade negotiations under Labour, according to Graham.
ON THE NAUGHTY STEP: Labour MPs who abstained on the winter fuel payment vote without permission have been stripped of potential privileges and warned about future conduct, the Guardian’s Peter Walker writes today. He also reveals that Jon Trickett, the one Labour MP to vote against the government, will not lose the whip.
MAKEOVER ON OXFORD STREET: London Mayor Sadiq Khan plans to turn shopping epicenter Oxford Street into a “traffic-free pedestrianized avenue,” saying regeneration is needed to offset competition from online retailers, out-of-town shopping centers, and those ubiquitous “candy shops.”
But but but … critics aren’t convinced. Shadow Transport Minister Greg Smith told Playbook’s Bethany Dawson the plans are “yet another move by the mayor of London to drive people out of London.” He added: “He may as well put up a sign saying ‘don’t come here, your money isn’t welcome in our shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants.’”
PREP WITH THE PROS: POLITICO Financial Services Pros Fiona Maxwell and Hannah Brenton, as well as our ace deputy U.K. editor Rosa Prince, will be hosting a debrief session to help you navigate conference season at 11 a.m. You can sign up to join online here. 
HEALTH CHECK: The IPPR’s cross-party Commission on Health and Prosperity — chaired by former Health Minister Ara Darzi and former Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies — says we’re on course for sickness-induced economic inactivity to reach 4.3 million by the end of this parliament.
SW1 EVENTS: ConservativeHome is hosting its summer party from 6.30 p.m. (invites only) … ITV’s Anushka Asthana is launching her new book “Taken as Red” with a conversation with the Guardian’s Pippa Crerar at 7 p.m. (invites only).
START AS YOU MEAN TO GO ON: Ahead of the first plenary session of the new Senedd term, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth will say “Labour’s time is up.” Not the cheeriest start. 
MONEY TALKS: The EU is set to give Ukraine up to €40 billion in new loans by the end of the year, according to the Financial Times. The move would act as an expansion on a current aid program and would need majority support from member countries — rather than unanimity, thereby stopping concerns that Hungary could prevent the bloc’s aid. 
KURSK MUST-READ: Kyiv launched its Kursk incursion despite objections from some of Ukraine’s top army commanders, reports POLITICO’s Jamie Dettmer in this exclusive.
WHAT JOB HAVE EU GOT: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to announce her new top team today. Curtain-raiser here, and you can follow the twists and turns with POLITICO’s handy live blog.
VOTING PHONE AROUND: Germany is making a final push to allies to vote down new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, according to the South China Morning post. The vote will take place on Sept. 25, and will be a crucial moment in Chinese-EU trading relations. 
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Border Security and Asylum Minister Angela Eagle broadcast round: Times Radio (7.05 a.m.) … Sky News (7.15 a.m.) … LBC (7.50 a.m.) … GMB (8.30 a.m.). 
Today program: Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors’ committee (7.10 a.m.) … Sally Mapstone, vice chancellor of the University of St Andrews (7.15 a.m.) … former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Alan Johnson, now the chancellor of Hull uni (8.10 a.m.).
Also on Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: Junior Doctors Committee Co-Chair Robert Laurenson (8.20 a.m.) …  IPPR Commission on Health and Prosperity Head Chris Thomas (9.20 a.m.).
Also on Good Morning Britain: Non-affiliated peer Ros Altmann (7.15 a.m.). 
Also on Times Radio Breakfast: Liberal Democrats Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper (7.50 a.m.) …  Former Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command Centre Head Jim Gamble (7.15 a.m.). 
Also on Sky News Breakfast: TUC Head of Economics and Employment Rights Nicola Smith (7.45 a.m.) … Former Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies (8.30 a.m.).
Also on LBC News: Daisy Cooper (7.20 a.m.). Politics Live (BBC Two 12.15 p.m.): Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson … GB News’ Chris Hope … FT’s Miranda Green … Spectator’s Katy Balls.
POLITICO UK: Starmer channels Meloni.
Daily Express: ‘Reputation in tatters’ over child abuse images.
Daily Mail: Disgraced, reviled… but not a day in jail.
Daily Mirror: Appalling. 
Daily Star: They’re not eating the dawgs. 
Financial Times: Brussels plans to provide Kyiv with €40 bn loan package. 
i: Huw Edwards avoids jail over images of child abuse.
Metro: Lucky Huw!
The Daily Telegraph: Starmer defiant over peer’s freebies.
The Guardian: Suspect charged after apparent assassination attempt on Trump.
The Independent: Final shame of BBC star as child abuse messages revealed. 
The Sun: Sickening. 
The Times: Working at home boosts productivity, says Labour.
WESTMINSTER WEATHER: Rejoice! The sun is out and it is warm-ish. We’ll take what we can get. High 22C, low 14C.
SPOTTED … At the Holocaust Education Trust annual appeal dinner in Westminster where Keir Starmer delivered a keynote address in his first major event with the Jewish community as prime minister: Chancellor Rachel Reeves … Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson … Home Secretary Yvette Cooper … Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden … Science Secretary Peter Kyle … Health Secretary Wes Streeting … Shadow Health Secretary Victoria Atkins … Solicitor General Sarah Sackman … Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell … Security Minister Dan Jarvis … Labour MPs David Pinto-Duschinsky and James Frith … Conservative MP Mark Pritchard … Labour peers John Spellar, Jon Mendelsohn, Ruth Anderson, Michael Levy and Wajid Khan … Conservative peers Dido Harding, Eric Pickles, Graham Brady, Howard Leigh and Stuart Marks … Non-affiliated peer Ian Austin … Crossbench peer John Woodcock … No. 10’s Sue Gray, Jill Cuthbertson, Matthew Doyle and Vidhya Alakeson … Holocaust Education Trust Chairman Craig Leviton and Chief Executive Karen Pollock … Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis … Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg … Former Chancellor Sajid Javid … Former Labour MPs Luciana Berger and Michael Dugher … Ministry of Justice Permanent Secretary Antonia Romeo … DEFRA Permanent Secretary Tamara Finkelstein … Labour HQ’s Marianna McFadden and Vanessa Bowcock … Former BBC Director Danny Cohen .. Former No. 10 SpAds Jamie Njoku-Goodwin and Jason Stein … Broadcasters Ben Kentish, Emma Barnett, Nick Robinson and Ed Balls.
Also spotted … strutting their stuff in 10 Downing Street to recognize the impact of the British Fashion Industry: Prime Minister Keir Starmer … Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner … Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy … Science Secretary Peter Kyle … Creative Industries Minister Chris Bryant … Mayor of London Sadiq Khan … SpAds Harjeet Sahota, Richard Howarth and Isabel Bull … DCMS Permanent Secretary Susannah Storey and Director General Ruth Hannant … models Naomi Campbell and David Gandy … broadcaster June Sarpong … Designers Paul Smith, Simone Rocha, David Koma, Christopher Kane, Erdem Moralıoğlu, Christopher Bailey, Zandra Rhodes, Stephen Jones, Foday Dumbuya, Julien Macdonald, Roksanda Ilinčić, Steven Daley, Eudon Choi, Charlie Casely-Hayford, Nicholas Daley, Emma Chopova, Laura Lowena and Ozwald Boateng … Chanel CEO Leena Nair … Selfridges CEO Andrew Keith … Primark CEO Paul Merchant.
LAST NIGHT IN BRIGHTON: You can smell the sweat wafting out the double doors of the Empress Room in Brighton’s Grand Hotel. Inside is the vaguely weird sight of a party with 72 MPs, three committee chairs and hundreds of parliamentary staff belting sweary parody songs about Liberal history out of tune into a squeaking microphone. Regretfully … it’s Lib Dem Glee Club again.
All the hits were there: Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain singing “Lettuce be” about Liz Truss … Michael Gove’s replacement Al Pinkerton singing “England never wants Tory rule again” … Yeovil MP Adam Dance bellowing party anthem “The Land.” Clips here, here and here. But frontbenchers, this year, pretty much all stayed in the safety of the hotel bar. Not a sniff of Leader Ed Davey. Truly, a sign of the party’s newfound sense of power.
GET A SCOOP AT STRANGERS: The soft serve ice cream bar is being offered in Strangers’ Bar every Tuesday and Thursday until Oct. 3 from 12.45 p.m. until 2.45 p.m. Puts a whole new meaning on the idea of the “whips’ office.” 
JOB NEWS: Labour staffer Oscar Harman has been promoted to head of Environment Secretary Steve Reed’s parliamentary office.
FOR YOUR HIT OF DRAMA: Check out former Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg‘s new — and first — Substack post on historical figures. This week he looks at why Alfred the Great was … great. Rollercoaster reading!
WRITING PLAYBOOK PM: Andrew McDonald.
WRITING PLAYBOOK WEDNESDAY MORNING: Sam Blewett.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood … Reading West and Mid Berkshire MP Olivia Bailey … Former Woking MP Jonathan Lord … Retired Crossbench peer Alec Broers … Crossbench peer Indarjit Singh … Crossbench peer David Craig … Indian PM Narendra Modi.
PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editors Zoya Sheftalovich and Jack Blanchard, diary reporter Bethany Dawson and producer Catherine Bouris.
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