Presented by Blackstone. By EMILIO CASALICCHIO SUBMITTED BY
Send tips here Sign up for free Listen to the Playbook and view it in your browser Good morning Wednesday. This is Emilio Casalicchio on the Playbook train for this morning and Thursday. Eleni Kourea will return on Friday morning.
DRIVING THE DAY
SECOND BETTER EACH OTHER: It is the battle of the deputies this afternoon as Dominic Raab and Angela Rainer face the questions of the prime minister. The second in command holds the fortress as Boris Johnson juggles a domestic dispute over defense spending at the NATO summit in Madrid. The prime minister landed in Spain last night with a demand like that of Donald Trump from his colleagues to contribute more to the alliance – but the controversy among top cabinet ministers over cash over the armed forces threatens to overshadow his big one. NATO. Lost in defense figures: There are a lot of numbers on defense spending circulating in the newspapers this morning. The Playbook will try to clarify what is what – and please do not contact me about US spelling. Defending headache # 1: Speaking to reporters with his tiny plane en route to Madrid, Johnson resisted calls for large increases in military spending to ensure Britain continued to meet its NATO commitments. The prime minister has faced backstage pressure from Defense Secretary Ben Wallace (or someone he plays) to raise cash for the armed forces or risk losing NATO’s goal of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense as a result. inflation (more on that by POLITICO’s Cristina Gallardo). Sun’s Harry Cole says it will take at least επιπλέον 4 billion extra, according to some defense observers, to avoid losing the target by 2025. “But costs should not be judged by quantum, but by production,” Johnson told the hacks during the flight on a line reported to the Times. He sidestepped questions about whether he would support a 2.5% target, as some have asked. ** A message from Blackstone: We identify areas that we believe will lead the UK forward, from life sciences and last-mile curation, to world-class film and television studios. By providing the investment and know-how that companies need in these areas, we are helping to promote the UK, now and in the future. Learn more: Defensive Headache # 2: Johnson and NATO officials seem to disagree over the percentage of GDP the UK is spending on its armed forces at the moment. The alliance said Britain was going to spend 2.1 per cent of its GDP on defense in 2022. But Johnson insisted the real figure was 2.3 per cent when the 3 1.3bn sent for support for Ukraine. When the hacks on the plane pointed out the difference, Johnson insisted: “We are right.” Defensive Headache # 3: Amid concerns that inflation is hitting the UK defense spending target, things will get worse before they get better. Also in flight, Johnson and his team made it clear that the final part of the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto “promises to continue to exceed NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense and increase the budget by at least “0.5 percent above inflation every year of the new parliament” was dead now that inflation is heading to double digits. This is how the delicious fudge is made: Johnson insisted that the 0.5 percent inflation target would be met, but would be measured in the long run instead of on an annual basis. “We have been running far ahead of this goal for some time,” he said. “We are confident we will win this year. “You do not see inflation as a single data point, you look at it during the parliamentary term and we are confident that we will succeed.” The Guardian has these lines. Blame COVID, innit: “The manifesto was written before 400 400 billion was spent to trap people for their own safety because of the global pandemic,” said a government source in all the hacks on the plane, claiming that since then there has been “a reality check” in things offered at different ages “. Let’s see how it all goes with… Ben Wallace, who is on the morning show right now. Even so. Johnson will tell NATO members how to manage their own defense cash during the summit, even though his house is not tidy enough. A Downing Street press release released last night said the prime minister would argue that the 2 percent target (which members agreed to meet by 2024) should be kept to a minimum and that he would push for talks on a new one. target from 2024 onwards in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In his own words: Johnson will say at the summit that “over the next 10 years the threats around us will increase. We need allies – all allies – to dig deep to restore deterrence and secure defense for the next decade. “The 2 percent has always been meant to be a floor, not a ceiling, and the allies must continue to step up in this time of crisis.” TODAY IN NATO: Leaders will arrive at approximately 8.15 a.m. Spanish time, Cristina Gallardo, who is on the ground at the NATO summit, sends messages. There will be an official photo at 10.25 before the start of the meetings. POLITICO live blog starts soon here. On the BoJo agenda: Johnson is in talks with the leaders of Australia, Turkey and the Netherlands. It then has a tripartite meeting with the leaders of Sweden and Finland, after the Turks withdrew their veto on the two nations joining NATO. It’s a great moment, and one Johnson will enjoy after pushing Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the past two weeks to drop his opposition. The prime minister tweeted about the news last night and will appear in a TV clip sometime in the morning. POLITICO’s Lili Bayer and Cristina Gallardo have the details. IT ALSO HAPPENS TO NATO: Foreign Minister Liz Trass also attends a panel event with the prime ministers of Belgium, Australia and Spain. See it here from 9 a.m. Spain time. LONELY PLANET: With the Prime Minister now on the final leg of his major diplomatic tour, my colleague Esther Webber has traced Johnson’s quest for love on the world stage as things unfold at home. What’s in the Box: Esther finds remnants of his international acclaim – apparently manages to make Rwanda’s infamously stern President smile and joke with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holnes about who the most like him is their evening jackets. But there was not much of a world-wide British bathtub to be expected during his visit to Rwanda, which was overshadowed by the Clarence House dispute and two defeats in the midterm elections. I do not regret: On both fronts, the Prime Minister appeared unrepentant. A Downing Street adviser contrasts the weight of the pressure on Johnson with the weight of the prince and his aides, noting that the prime minister had limited time devoting himself to “the humor of men in tights”. MORE SUMMARY SUMMARY: Elsewhere, my POLITICO colleagues Karl Mathiesen and David Herszenhorn have given a condemning view of the G7 summit that Johnson has just left. “As they concluded their talks, the world’s most powerful leaders seemed to be struggling on the sidelines and failing on all fronts – unable to stop the Russian war or stop prices from spiraling out of control, unable to stop the ice from melting. “Zugspitze or even to end the blockade of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain that is vital to the nutrition of the developing world,” the couple wrote. Best of luck next time, huh?
BEYOND THE GOOD AND THE BAD
CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGES: The Privileges Committee is expected to appoint Harriet Harman as its chair and begin its investigation into whether Boris Johnson lied to the House of Commons as the Downing Street Journalists team lied to reporters about lockdown No. 10, according to Chris Hope in the Telegraph. In the Times, Henry Zeffman and George Grylls note that the committee will meet to work on the investigation, including whether the sessions will be public. Yes please! Speaking of public hearings on ethics… cartoonists give top civil servant Simon Case both barrels in the newspapers this morning after his rather gloomy appearance on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. Sending a case package: In the Guardian, John Crace was surprised by Case admitting that he spends up to 30 percent of his time on whether the prime minister and others have broken the rules: “Imagine. “Almost a third of your work is spent to make sure that you and those around you behave vaguely with dignity and abide by the law.” Receiving the price: “Two years ago, Case exuded a smooth modernism,” Quentin Lets wrote in the Times. “Lipless glasses remain fashionable and beards are no less design but now they are less Zen, more frayed and sometimes obviously theatrical. “His grief over the violation of COVID rules was wonderfully false.” Here to serve the public (and test some limits): Rob Hutton told Critic that the Johnson case “worked for the royal family at the time the prime minister lied to the queen.” He dropped the mandarin line that Johnson believes has “the mandate to test the set limits.” COMING ETHICAL SIGHTS: The bloodbath of the prime minister being roasted by the liaison committee will begin at 3 p.m. next Wednesday and will include integrity (drum) in politics as one of its topics, according to new details released by the committee. We must also look forward to the outcome of an inquiry into whether a minister was fired for her apparent “Muslimness”, which Insider’s Henry Dyer notes is imminent. IS TORY PRESIDENT CONTINUE TO WORK? I DIDN’T CARE: The embarrassed former Health Minister Matt Hancock happens to have written a piece in the Mail about what the Tories must do to win the next …
