More on Len v Lewis

Lewis Goodall

Hmm. So where are we now with the Len McCluskey-Lewis Goodall business? 

Well, it looks from what both of them are saying (see the post below) that they both got through to Barry Gardiner in Abu Dhabi last night. Len says Barry Gardiner dismissed the story as fake news while Lewis says Barry only dismissed the part about Len McMluskey encouraging him to stand. Lewis now says, however, that Barry is still making his mind up whether to stand and will decide in the next 24 hours - which isn't what Lewis was tweeting earlier last night:

EXC: I can confirm there is to be a seventh entrant into the Labour leadership contest. 

It’s Barry Gardiner.

Tune into #Newsnight at 2230 for more.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 8, 2020

In fairness to both of them, Barry Gardiner is often as clear as Dead Sea mud during TV interviews, so it's perhaps no wonder that his intentions aren't crystal clear now!

It may have been having bigger stories - the Harry and Meghan news and the Trump/Soulemaini story - on the same edition that saw last night's Newsnight shunt poor Lewis to the very end of the programme, or it may be that they lost confidence in his 'exclusive'. He got a little over a minute to do his Barry Gardiner bit, including all the caveats he had to add given Len and Barry's comments.  

It would certainly add to the gaiety of the nation though if Barry Gardiner were to stand for the Labour leadership. I laughed at this tweet from polling expert and politics professor Philip Cowley overnight: 

Woke up. Checked the news, half-asleep. Misread things and thought I'd read that Barry Gardiner was running for Deputy Leader. Thought OK, sure, whatever. 30 mins later: WAIT A GODDAMN COTTON-PICKING MINUTE! It's a bit like the time I dozed through the news bulletins about John Major's affair with Edwina Currie. Several hours later at work, I told someone that I'd had the weirdest f*cking dream...