CEO, Soho Comms. Ex Treasury head of comms and DExEU chief of staff. Former pol ed, now occasional columnist. Views my own. https://nitter.cf/t.co/B9es8CzCK9
Westminster
Joined July 2009
- Tweets33.7K
- Following8.8K
- Followers44.2K
- Likes29.1K
Well said @Ed_Miliband
NEW: UK Foreign Secretary @Ed_Miliband has told Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov that he and his government are responsible for killing innocent civilians, condemning Thursday’s attack on Dnipro railway station
Speaking directly to Lavrov at a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in the US today, Miliband said:
"Let me say this directly to the Russian Foreign Minister: we all know who the aggressor in this war is. Let's talk about what happened at Dnipro railway yesterday. Only yesterday your drones attacked and killed 15 people. And there are countless examples like this of you killing innocent civilians throughout this war. We all know you are the aggressor. We all know you started this war four and a half years ago with the full scale invasion of Ukraine. "
"And Putin thought then he would win this war easily. But you are are not winning this war. Thanks to the courage of the Ukrainian people and the solidarity of countries round this table, you are not winning. If you had the courage to tell the truth and to do what is right you would tell Putin that he is not winning this war and will not win."
James Chapman retweeted
Healey's Budget is the most popular in our tracker since 2022.
33% of those who heard about it feel positive and 28% negative.
It's the first fiscal event we've polled where more positive than negative.
James Chapman retweeted
Exclusive🚨: Labour has increased its lead over Reform to *9 points* in latest @BMGResearch poll for @theipaper.
Labour on 31% - highest party has been on with pollster since August 2024 (all fieldwork post-Budget).
Link to full story in tweet below👇
James Chapman retweeted
🚨 Wow. There is a little bullet point buried at the bottom of paragraph 4.131 in the 166-page budget document that suggests the UK could next year embark upon potentially its most consequential cybersecurity policy change since GDPR.
🧵
James Chapman retweeted
Very unusually for Budget day, I think PMQs was the more significant event
PM not resiling from his recent comments on Europe. Striking how confident he is attacking the Tories on their Brexit deal, linking it with uncontrolled immigration. He's serious about this.
James Chapman retweeted
My view won’t come as a surprise to my constituents.
I feel as strongly about UK membership of the EU in 2026 as I did in 2016 when I resigned from the Shadow Cabinet to vote against the triggering of Article 50 because there was no plan.
James Chapman retweeted
EXC: Inside Andy Burnham’s strategy to reverse Brexit
💫 “He thinks the right thing to do is go back to the European Union. Whether that’s doable or not is another question. But I think the prevailing wind is with us so let’s see how far we can push the envelope,” an ally said
💫Burnham sees it as both an economic boon and a vote winner
💫Burnham’s overtures to the EU have been described by European diplomats variously as “a love letter,” “courageous,” a “bunch of flowers” and “divorcees getting back together”.
💫There is a sense of rewarding good behaviour from previously recalcitrant, sulky Brits. “We are now very keen to make the summit a success,” one European diplomat said of the Nov 20 meeting.
💫 Concerns grow over EU plans to delay a decision on tuition fees beyond the summit: "they could zing us afterwards"
💫Post-summit Burnham speech planned to set out next steps on Europe, designed to dovetail with the 10-year-plan
💫Former Cabinet minister warns Burnham EU will only take the UK seriously about re-joining after a referendum, not if measures are only in Labour's manifesto
💫 Concerns the EU could apply a rejoining levy on the UK as payment for messing them about
💫Cabinet dismay at re-opening debate
💫BUT @robfordmancs says there is danger in being overly frightened of a debate on rejoining.
💫“Brexit is like a pufferfish in a David Attenborough nature documentary. It puffs itself up to appear more frightening than it is. The Leave-supporting media the inflation mechanism: any mention of it and they freak out and shout betrayal. But Labour MPs and Cabinet ministers who take the pufferfish seriously are in danger of giving it more credibility than it deserves,” he said.
Read the full piece here:
inews.co.uk/news/politics/bu…
This makes Brexiteers wonderfully cross, but Burnham is spot on. It’s specifically cited by people on the ground. As one 19-year-old man from Sudan in Calais said: “Because of Brexit I believe that once I reach the UK I will be safe at last. No Dublin, no fingerprints any more.”
James Chapman retweeted
• Right to live, work, study, retire in 30+ countries
• Friction-free artist touring
• 40 million pieces of paperwork per annum ditched
• Mutual recognition of qualifications
• Reliable multi-annual regional funding
• A say on the rules our exporters already follow
James Chapman retweeted
⏰ For six years since Britain left the Single Market, I’ve been waiting for a Prime Minister prepared to explain why we may have to go back in.
Because of food security, energy security, investment, supply chains and national resilience.
You cannot build a serious food-security strategy while putting permanent barriers between Britain and its largest neighbouring food market.
You cannot talk about sovereignty while becoming more dependent on fragile global supply chains for food, fuel and fertiliser.
And you cannot repair Brexit properly while refusing even to discuss the obligations that come with deeper European integration.
At last we have a Prime Minister @andyburnham prepared to start giving the country some of the hard truths 👏
This conversation is long overdue.
James Chapman retweeted
Some are claiming that freedom of movement with the EU would mean hundreds of millions of Europeans wanting to come to Britain.
They didn’t do that before 2016.
The scale of the claim is absurd.
And more importantly, free movement never meant anyone could simply move here indefinitely without meeting any conditions.
After three months, people who weren’t working, studying or genuinely seeking work could lose their right to reside if they also lacked sufficient resources and health insurance.
David Cameron’s government chose not to enforce those rules.
Blaming free movement for that choice doesn’t make the scare stories true.
James Chapman retweeted
So true.
Here's an extraordinary comparison.
Economists estimated that Brexit was costing the Treasury at least £40 billion a year in lost tax revenue.
And how much did Rishi Sunak announce in tax increases in March 2022?
£46 billion.
Think about that. Britain lost £40 billion in annual tax revenue through Brexit, while the then Chancellor announced tax rises worth £46 billion.
That's almost the same amount.
We were promised Brexit would make Britain richer and free up money for public services.
Instead, we made ourselves poorer — and taxpayers were left facing the bill.
This was a direct result of leaving the single market.
The EU fee was about £12.6bn a year, whereas the estimated Brexit loss of output is now roughly £170bn–£230bn a year, with an associated loss of tax revenue of roughly £65bn–£85bn a year. That makes the fee equivalent to only about 5–7% of the estimated annual GDP loss. #BrexSHIT
James Chapman retweeted
The EU fee was about £12.6bn a year, whereas the estimated Brexit loss of output is now roughly £170bn–£230bn a year, with an associated loss of tax revenue of roughly £65bn–£85bn a year. That makes the fee equivalent to only about 5–7% of the estimated annual GDP loss. #BrexSHIT
James Chapman retweeted
I expect Reform’s poll collapse will now accelerate. Their entire strategy has been based on claiming they represented the only viable alternative to Labour. And it’s now imploded.
We have Tory-Reform crossover. Average of 6 polls from different companies, fieldwork 16-23 Oct
Lab 28.8%
Con 22.2%
Rfm 21.7%
Green 9.5%
Lib Dem 9.2%
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinio…
James Chapman retweeted
Free movement making the headlines again, and for once ! it's treated here (👏@thetimes) as a 𝒕𝒘𝒐-𝒘𝒂𝒚 street, giving a mention to the millions of us British citizens who over decades were able to live, study, work and retire freely all over our own continent rather than the usual "they're all coming here" angle
Maybe because Burnham's own father was part of the "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" generation who went to Germany looking for work in the 80s
And for the "they're all coming here brigade" (they'll pop up in my feed 🤡) 2 things ...
Remind me how many millions of French and Spanish people have retired to sunny Clacton ?
Immigration was around 300K a year when the UK was in the EU. Your Brexit replaced mainly single young Europeans with people from much further away bringing their families, reaching 1M
Free movement has enriched so many British citizens' lives. Brexit slammed that door shut in our, and our children's faces
James Chapman retweeted
NEW headline voting intention from Ipsos
📊Labour on 32% with a lead of +8 – the largest Labour lead Ipsos have recorded this parliament
📊Conservatives take second place the first time since June 2025
📊Reform UK down 3 points and Greens down 5
