Category Archives: richard holden

Exclusive: How One Labour Minister Is ‘Smashing’ Tory Attempts To Revive The Culture Wars

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A Labour minister is waging a one-woman battle against Tory MPs’ obsession with culture war issues.

Diana Johnson has slapped down queries on gender neutral toilets, flags, decolonisation of artworks and diversity advisers.

HuffPost UK revealed last week how former Conservative chairman Richard Holden called for the removal of gender neutral toilets his own government installed.

Johnson told him: “The current number and location of gender neutral toilets in the Home Office’s Marsham office was established under the previous government in October 2017, at a cost of £36,963.20, and has remained unchanged since that time.”

It has now emerged that Johnson has also batted away several questions from Nick Timothy, the Tory MP for West Suffolk, on a similar theme.

In a written question Last October, he asked the home secretary “whether she plans to decolonise the artwork and heritage assets in her department; and what guidance she issues to her department’s arm’s length bodies on decolonisation.”

Replying for the government, Johnson told him: “Our immediate priorities remain the protection of national security, the restoration of neighbourhood policing, tackling the smuggling gangs responsible for small boat crossings and clearing up the chaos left by the previous government.”

In December, Timothy asked if the Home Office “will take steps to remove diversity and inclusion advisers and champion positions”.

Johnson told him those posts “were established under the previous government” and the reasons for having them “remain relevant today”.

Earlier this month, Timothy wanted to know which flags the home secretary planned to fly outside the Home Office “other than the Union flag in the next 12 months and on which days each flag will be flown”.

Johnson replied: “Current Home Office ministers have not been consulted on this issue since coming to office, but prompted by [Timothy’s] question, we have advised that there should be no change from the arrangements in place under the previous government, whatever they may have been.”

A Labour source said: “The Tories keep serving them up, and Diana Johnson keeps smashing them away. But there’s a serious point here. The only people in Westminster who care about any of this culture war stuff are the Tories.

“They’re the ones constantly obsessing about flags, toilets and artworks, while ministers in this government could not care less.

“Speak to any minister right now, and all they’re focused on is how they’re going to deliver their mission targets, what they can do to support growth, and where the money’s coming from.

“The idea they’ve got the time or headspace to think about what flags should be flying outside their department is a joke, and it’s no wonder the Tories left things in such a mess if that’s how they were spending every day.”

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Exclusive: Richard Holden Slapped Down After Calling For Removal Of Gender-Neutral Toilets The Tories Installed

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A former Tory chairman has been left embarrassed after calling for the removal of gender-neutral toilets his own government installed.

Richard Holden made the request in a written question to home secretary Yvette Cooper.

He asked “if she will make it her policy to remove the gender-neutral toilets in her department in Marsham Street”.

Replying on behalf of her boss, Home Office minister Diana Johnson said: “The current number and location of gender neutral toilets in the Home Office’s Marsham office was established under the previous government in October 2017, at a cost of £36,963.20, and has remained unchanged since that time.

“There are no plans to spend further public money on the reconfiguration of the Home Office’s toilets.”

Holden’s slapdown emerged just a day after another Home Office minister, Angela Eagle, delivered a withering response in the House of Commons to another Tory MP’s question.

Sarah Bool, the MP for South Northamptonshire, asked: “Does the Secretary of State believe it is fair that undocumented illegal migrants get priority access to the NHS over British taxpayers?”

Eagle, who is the immigration minister, replied: “Mr Speaker, they don’t.”

The MP’s question followed reports earlier this month that undocumented migrants were receiving preferential treatment when it comes to hospital treatment.

But an NHS spokesman told the Daily Express: “The NHS is legally required to provide healthcare services to asylum seekers and migrants which are free at the point of use, with local integrated care boards (ICBs) responsible for commissioning these services based on need while ensuring all local residents can still access care.

“ICBs also have a legal duty to address inequalities in access to NHS services, which can include rolling out dedicated services to communities experiencing the worst health inequities, while also supporting all those who need care.”

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Tory Chair Reveals His ‘Frustration’ With Party Colleagues Over Conservative In-Fighting

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Tory Party chair Richard Holden has made clear his his frustration with his warring Conservative colleagues in a revealing TV interview.

In a moment when the ITV camera crew were filming cutaway shots, Holden was asked how he felt about the other Tory MPs who have called for PM Rishi Sunak to step down or who have called for the party to change direction.

The party chairman said this was “always frustrating”.

“People are always going to have different opinions,” he said. “Usually, it’s best for those opinions to be expressed with other colleagues in the most constructive manner possible, and I’m not sure all colleagues have always done that.”

ITV News’ political correspondent Tom Sheldrick then interrupted Holden to remind him, “your microphone’s on for this”.

Holden went on: “All colleagues want the same outcomes,” referring to migration and economic policies.

“The truth is there will always be slight disagreements about how to get there. It’s always important for all colleagues to remember what unites us, which are those fundamental things.”

Watch the exchange here:

Elsewhere in the interview, Holden – MP for North West Durham – furiously defended his loyalty to the North East region.

But he refused to say why he is not standing in any of the four local constituencies his current seat will be split into after the boundary review.

Sheldrick said: “It’s about you trying to find a safer seat, isn’t it, somewhere else in the country for yourself, rather than being loyal to the North East?”

Holden then energetically jabbed a map of the region and said: “No, I am bloody loyal to the North East, Tom.

“I care about this constituency. I fought for them every day since 2019.

“They’ve never had constituency MP who works harder. I’m up there still, even doing this [party chair] job, every week, working seven days a week, for the people of North West Durham, and I’m going to continue right to the day of the next general election.”

More than 50 Conservative MPs have already announced that they will not be standing at the next general election in a mass exodus.

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Nick Ferrari Slaps Down Minister For Citing Covid-19 Vaccine As A Brexit ‘Achievement’

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Nick Ferrari slapped down a minister today after he cited the Covid-19 vaccine as a Brexit “achievement”.

Transport minister Richard Holden was asked to name the three “best achievements” of Brexit on the third anniversary of the UK’s departure from the European Union.

But when he named the Covid vaccine roll-out as his first example, veteran presenter Ferrari told him that was “not true”.

Holden told LBC: “Well, I’d say from the start the biggest impact we’ve seen over the last couple of years is probably Britain’s ability to fulfil its own vaccine programme…”

Ferrari interrupted: “Well, you will be aware of course the independent website Full Fact say that’s not true. And even the boss of our own MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) Dr June Raine has also said that’s not true. So can we strike that one out?”

Holden conceded that he was “absolutely right” and the country could have done it “within the EU”.

But he added: “I think the pressure, if we’d been in the EU to be part of an EU scheme, would have been quite unbelievable.”

For his second example he cited the UK’s procurement rules and for his third he outlined Solvency II reforms that have enabled Britain’s financial services sector to “remain head and shoulders above the rest of Europe”.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has forecast that the UK economy will perform worse than every other major country in 2023 – including Russia.

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