Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak(Daniel Leal/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Chancellor Rishi Sunak gave an intriguing speech on “new ideas” to senior Tories last night at the Policy Exchange summer party in Westminster. Sunak said leaders must “push ourselves harder”, adding: “I want to see more because the public deserve more.” He said: “Anything truly transformative always begins in the same place: the imagination.” He did not mention the Prime Minister.
Sunak, who was tipped as a future PM before scandals over his wealth and US citizenship, joked that the party was so exclusive that “in years gone by, not even my green card would have given me access”. He also made jibes about Jeremy Hunt’s repeated leadership pushes, and his Cabinet colleague Liz Truss.
Elsewhere, Sajid Javid chatted to Matt Hancock, and No 10 Deputy Chief of Staff Simone Finn talked to Theresa May’s former Spad Fiona Hill and Michael Gove.
Amelia’s on a chicken run
Presenter Amelia Dimoldenberg, who makes interview show Chicken Shop Dates in London eateries, is thrilled that her Labour councillor dad Paul helped win Westminster Council local elections. The Smirnoff ambassador tells us she might petition for more chicken shops in central London because “there’s only about three”. Friends in high places.
V&A exhibition prompts different style reactions
Writer Bernardine Evaristo told us she wishes London had more African fashion designers at the opening of a V&A Africa Fashion exhibition last night. The Booker Prize winner also said she gets nervous before fashionable nights out. “I just really wish I had a stylist,” she said. We suggest she doesn’t take notes from designer Philip Sallon, who jumped in the museum’s pond during the event — twice.
Starmer between a rock and a hard place
KEIR Starmer is under fire from all sides after saying yesterday he is scrapping earlier Labour manifestos and “starting from scratch”. Left-wing Momentum supporters have slammed the move as “reheated Blairism” and not what he promised party members to get elected in 2020, while ex-PM Tony Blair himself today says politics has a “vacuum of ideas”. Love’s Labour’s Lost continues.
Bond night
Another drink, Moneypenny? Bond actress Naomie Harris and producer Barbara Broccoli attended the BFI Chair’s Dinner at Claridge’s last night, where Broccoli was awarded a Fellowship. Meanwhile, fellow 007 star Lashana Lynch was with Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne at the Into Film Awards in Leicester Square. Elsewhere, presenter Vick Hope attended the launch of PATTERN Beauty hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross in Shoreditch, while actor Michael Dapaah and rappers AJ Tracey and Kojey Radical partied in the Evian suite at Wimbledon.
