The Londoner: Theresa May’s escape to Portcullis House

The outgoing PM tours potential offices/ Who's calling Corbyn "daddy"?/ Keira Knightley joins Extinction Rebellion
Grand designs: Theresa May
Getty Images
4 July 2019

Theresa May was touring Portcullis House yesterday with a gaggle of advisers looking for a new office on the Parliamentary Estate for when she leaves Downing Street and gives up the Prime Minister’s offices in the Commons.

Her head-turning appearance with her entourage came after a quick tour on the upper floors of the building to check out a new base.

“It’s a case of musical chairs,” one MP explained, as with a new prime minister due, his new Cabinet members will leave their current offices in the Parliamentary Estate.

“I expect that as a former PM, she’ll get a very comfortable chair,” they told The Londoner.

But the question of where the office will be is key.

“The corner offices in Portcullis House are spectacular,” one backbencher said, explaining that they have “fantastic picture windows that look out across Westminster Bridge, Big Ben, the river” and are “especially popular when it’s fireworks night”. Boris Johnson and David Davis are notable occupiers of these coveted rooms.

Others take a rather different position on Portcullis House’s merits.

“If I were the Prime Minister I wouldn’t bother looking for a new office in Portcullis House,” another Tory backbencher said.

“I’d be looking in the Old Palace, there’s some fantastic offices in there. She should do what David Cameron did and get a lovely spot in the Old Palace.”

Theresa May might want to avoid Portcullis House for security reasons too, as one MP pointed out “the walls are paper thin.”

Which office a politician gets is “a prestige thing”, according to a Tory source. “I’ve got a view of the wall, been there for seven and a half years. That shows you where my career’s going, doesn’t it?” one confessed. “I don’t think she’ll be having my office.”

The Londoner spoke to Mike Freer, the Conservative who organises offices in the Commons for Tory MPs, but he wouldn’t be drawn. “Whips’ rules,” he said, “mean I can’t talk to the media.”

Corbyn wins some unconditional love

Shappi Khorsandi
WireImage

Comedian Shappi Khorsandi addressed the all-party parliamentary group on single parents yesterday and told them about her early struggles with her daughter. “Because there was no father in her life and she heard men being called daddy she thought daddy meant man. It was so awkward,” she said.

When Khorsandi was invited to speak at a rally in Parliament Square, Jeremy Corbyn was also there.

“My toddler pointed at him and said, ‘Daddy!’ Some things are very tricky to explain.”

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Keira Knightley is the latest celebrity to join the swelling ranks of Extinction Rebellion, voicing a video for the activist movement titled Climate Change and Why We Should Panic. Knightley urges us to “choose a different path”, adding: “We’re living through a crucial moment in the history of our planet — yet we seem to charge ahead towards a catastrophic future.”

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Critics rounded on Emily Maitlis after she was snapped on a train with her dog curled up on the seat but what was keeping her preoccupied? Partition Voices, a book by Kavita Puri. At the launch party at Daunt’s last night, Maitlis told The Londoner: “It’s history that hasn’t been told before... I felt indebted to her for opening my eyes to it.”

DJ Pixie spins the Latin beats as models get down to Colombian vibe

Pixie Geldof (Dave Benett/Getty Images )
Dave Benett/Getty Images

Pixie Geldof DJed a South American-inspired bash last night, as jewellery brand Missoma threw a summer party at the Residence of the Embassy of Colombia.

Geldof was joined by fellow models Leomie Anderson, Candice Blackburn, Gala Gordon, Cheyenne Maya-Carty and New Zealander Jessica Clarke.

Geldof, who besides modelling is also a singer and activist for conservation group Project O, has spoken about throwing herself into music since the death of her sister Peaches in 2014.

Of her band, Violet, she says: “What it did was give me something to focus on. It was the best thing for me.

“Not the music itself so much but the doing something, something that wasn’t sitting in my house staring in the corners.”

Meanwhile, Missoma founder Marisa Hordern told guests that she had fallen in love with Colombia, the inspiration for her new collection. “I can’t wait to go back,” she enthused.

SW1A

The Statutory Instruments, the parliamentary string quartet, played their first concert on Tuesday but what’s next? Bambos Charalambous MP, who describes himself as the “gofer not the manager” but concedes that he did indeed help out with some of the organisation, said the four players were “brilliant” and so sets his sights high: “Next the pyramid stage at Glastonbury — or the O2.”​

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Jeremy Hunt shared a snap on his Instagram feed of himself on a private jet to a hustings in Belfast on Tuesday. Boris Johnson and team were also on the aircraft but, luckily, Hunt noted Johnson was “out of sight in the back of the plane”, with “four armed police officers between us just in case”.

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Politicians and hacks held a boozy picnic in St James’s Park last night. Liz Truss was celebrating Boris Johnson’s sin tax announcement, parroting her usual “freedom fighters” line. Health Secretary Matt Hancock left very early.

Rupert praises safe haven for children

"Vital thing": Rupert Everett
Gisela Schober/Getty Images

RUPERT Everett says he has revelled in the “amazing experience” of playing a pornographer in a new TV drama on the adult-film industry. The actor, 60, who has been an campaigner for sex workers’ rights, is starring in a new Channel 4 series.

Speaking yesterday at an event for Coram’s Fields, a charity that works with young people involved in violent crime, he said: “Coram’s Fields provides an opportunity for kids from all around London to come here. It is a great safe haven for kids. It is a vital thing.”

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