Lobby Raves Over New National Security Adviser Who Reduced National Security
Hacks are pouring praise on Starmer for hiring former Blair Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell as the new National Security Adviser after shunning Sunak’s pick Gwyn Jenkins:
FT: “The return of the 68-year-old Powell to the heart of government will considerably beef up Starmer’s Downing Street operation, which had been criticised for being underpowered since Labour’s July 4 election win.”
Sky News: “On paper, he is more than qualified for the job of national security adviser. An experienced government operator intimately involved in crafting the Good Friday Agreement and at the heart of many complex discussions over foreign policy during the New Labour years.”
The Guardian: “The appointment of Powell shows the prime minister installing an experienced former diplomat and loyalist to the job.“
Meanwhile Twitter commentators are gushing about the ‘beefing’ being done in Number 10. Guido strangely doesn’t notice much of the same hysteria around the installation of a former SpAd as NSA as when David Frost was appointed just a few years back. The Lobby is as the Lobby does…
Powell is entering Downing Street after finishing up his job as chief negotiator for the Chagos surrender deal, which handed over a vital military asset and sovereign British territory to a China-aligned state. He went on the airwaves afterwards to calm nerves to say: “These are very tiny islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean where no one actually goes.” Co-conspirators will remember Powell also negotiated the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese – we know how that went. Quite some beef just walked into Downing Street…
