The Londoner: Miller marks out new battleground

Gina Miller has signalled her next fight following Brexit: blocking constitutional changes by the new Government. “A revolution is coming... the courts, litigants and media outlets, alike, could all be early casualties of the Executive seeking to assert itself,” warns Miller in a long post-election statement posted on her Remain United tactical voting website. Miller, an investment manager who has twice launched successful but controversial legal challenges against Brexit, says that “government advisers are urging on major machinery of government changes across Whitehall”.

Constitutional reform was a significant, if ill-defined, plank of the Conservative manifesto, which stated: “After Brexit we also need to look at the broader aspects of our constitution: the relationship between the Government, Parliament and the courts”. Miller also gave her verdict on the election, saying that Brexiteers had more successfully collaborated than Remainers. “The election result was primarily attributable to tactical voting by significant numbers of voters in key swing seats,” she said. She says Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson should share blame for the result.

“Deep-seated fears about the patriotism, economic security, national safety and competency of a Corbyn-led government, and a dislike of both Jo Swinson and her election campaign, were twin headwinds that were too strong for any campaigning organisation to be able to overcome,” she added. Fifty two per cent of voters chose second referendum or Remain-supporting parties, but Boris Johnson gained a majority of 80. Miller’s Remain United has been up for criticism following the election, as her tactical-voting site backed the Lib Dems in Kensington, where the Labour Party lost to the Conservatives by only 150 votes.

Miller vowed to fight on as a public figure. “I, for one, will not stop using the campaigning voice I have developed over the last 30 years,” she said. “I will continue to speak out against injustice, inequality and the abuse of power, whenever I see it.” Asked exactly what she might do next, Miller declined to comment.

Kiwis fact checked

Boris Johnson’s digital gurus Ben Guerin and Sean Topham, whose Antipodean digital and creative agency TG was behind the Love Actually parody, have broken cover to discuss their successful election campaign. The twenty-somethings told the Sydney Morning Herald that the Love Actually idea was conceived in November, before Tooting MP Rosena Allin-Khan released her version. The Labour MP later accused Johnson of copying her. The pair also defended the decision to change the Conservative Twitter handle to “FactcheckUK”. “Twitter is a storm in a teacup,” Topham said.

Geldof's Christmas present for ​Dominic Cummings

An early Christmas present for Dominic Cummings, who we hear was buttonholed by Bob Geldof at Rupert Murdoch’s annual party and given a lecture on the perils of Brexit. In 2016, the Band Aid founder sailed down the Thames to make the case for Remain. Good of him to spread a smile of joy for Dom.

--

A revamp for The London Review of Books, which is celebrating its 40th birthday by putting its entire archive of 17,500 articles online for free until mid-January as part of a digital revamp. Co-founder and editor Mary-Kay Wilmers said: “Generally, I don’t like reading pieces online but even I would consider doing so on our new website.” A glowing endorsement.

Stellar turnout as Tramp turns 50

Partygoers Jo Wood, Vic Reeves and Nancy Sorrell celebrated Tramp’s 50th anniversary Christmas Party last night. There were no sweaty princes at the club but Tom Jones, club founder Johnny Gold and TV chef Ainsley Harriott were there. DIY SOS star Nick Knowles also attended with girlfriend Emily Hallinan. Meanwhile, Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri cuddled up to Jack Guinness as she hosted a House of Voltaire pop-up shop in Mayfair to raise money for not-for-profit gallery Studio Voltaire. Thirty years after Texas’s debut LP Southside, the Clapham art studio has moved north of the river. Elsewhere, champion boxer Anthony Joshua showed off his belts at the JD Sports Christmas do in Banbury. Yesterday, the heavyweight fighter said that he would take a day off training to have Christmas dinner this year. “I think I deserve it,” he said.

SW1A

Labour’s Angela Rayner has been haunted by “the wurst question” of the election campaign — “Would you nationalise sausages?” — asked by journalist Emma Barnett during a TV debate. “You can imagine the amount of blokes on Twitter who said, ‘You can nationalise my sausage,’ which is a bit gross, I’ll be honest,” Rayner tells Matt Chorley. Rayner, tipped to run as party deputy with her flatmate Rebecca Long-Bailey as leader, is now keen to clarify that she “won’t be nationalising any sausage”.

--

Tory MP Caroline Nokes is practising seaonal goodwill, arguing that MPs should have more cross-party friends. To kick things off, she chatted with Labour’s David Lammy while queueing to swear an oath in the Commons yesterday. “I have friends on the Labour side that I will really miss,” she told The Londoner. “Obviously, I’m glad the PM has secured his majority,” before carefully adding: “You’d better say that...”

Sue Perkins' smacker of a directorial debut

Comedian Sue Perkins will make her directorial debut with a new comedy about a fabled kiss between Joan Rivers and Barbra Streisand. When Barbra Kissed Joan, which Perkins also wrote, concerns a disputed kiss between the two stars during the 1959 run of the play Driftwood. Rivers, who was 26, claimed the 16-year-old Streisand was “a fabulous kisser” but Maurice Tei Dunn, the original playwright, dismissed the kiss as fiction: “Barbra and Joan never had a single exchange together.” Jury’s out.