Inside Politics: Boris Johnson sets out HS2 dream and bridge-building fantasy

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Haters gonna hate. Especially when you’re No 1. Error-prone England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford is puzzled by the “pelters” received when you’re chosen to represent your country. “Everyone hates you for some reason,” he said. “It hurts.” Boris Johnson will know the feeling all too well. The top boy at No 10 is facing pelters over his plan for a bridge connecting Scotland and Northern Ireland. More dogs’ abuse will come from the backbench terraces today when the PM announces his decision to give HS2 the go ahead in the Commons. Johnson wants to convince the nation he’s a safe pair of hands on the big infrastructure projects – and won’t drop the ball on boring old bus routes either. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

Inside the bubble

Our chief political commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for today:

Boris Johnson intends to chair a meeting this morning – presumably because on Thursday he is going to be announcing a ministerial reshuffle. Speculation that Michael Gove might get a big new job to deal with climate change has been intensified by news that he will open the Green Alliance conference today. The heavily-trailed decision to go ahead with HS2, with some cosmetic alterations, is set to be announced today. And the latest quarterly economic growth figures will be published this morning.

Daily briefing

TAKE IT TO THE BRIDGE: Boris Johnson believes great leaders get big things built. The yellow hard hat-loving PM is hoping HS2 can be his Parthenon, his Colosseum, his Great Wall of China – and will finally, formally give the whole high-speed rail project the green light today (although the second phase in the north will be subject to a review). He will also be announcing £5bn of funding for 4,000 “zero-emission buses”, new buses routes and 250 miles of new cycle paths. Not everyone is convinced Johnson actually understands infrastructure. He was ridiculed after No 10 said officials have begun “proper” scoping work on a bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland. Lord Adonis called it “ludicrous”, Nigel Farage said it was “crazy”, while Labour MP Wes Streeting tweeted: “We’ve been here before with … vanity projects like the Cable Car, Garden Bridge, and Boris Island Airport. The man never learns.” Dear me. The pharaohs never had to put with Twitter snark when the pyramids got built.

HUMPTY NUMPTY: If Labour really wants to take a long, hard look at itself, it could do worse than grab a Costa and study Tory pollster Lord Ashcroft’s new report, entitled: “Labour’s turn to smell the coffee.” The study of 10,000 voters found “Jeremy Corbyn was not an appealing leader” as the chief reason for the terrible election result. And the focus group master found a deluge of disparaging comments from floating voters who had the hump with the left-winger. “Labour had a proper numpty in charge,” said one. “He went from bad to worse, he got dafter and dafter,” said another. Monday saw the fall-out from allegations of hacking and “data-scraping” against members of Keir Starmer’s team. Jenny Chapman, chair of his campaign, insisted “it simply didn’t happen” and called for Labour Party officials to withdraw their complaint to the Information Commissioner. Others were less polite. One unnamed Labour MP told Politico: “These people are gangsters and they’re actively trying to favour one candidate over all others.” No prizes for guessing who that candidate is.

PULP FRICTION: Remembered when Johnson promised no border checks after Brexit? You didn’t believe him, did you? Michael Gove has exposed the idea of frictionless trade as fiction. The senior minister told businesses to prepare for “inevitable” border checks when the transition period ends at the end of 2020. “You have to accept we will need some friction,” he told delighted delegates at an event called Preparing Our Border for the Future Relationship. Nicola Sturgeon is very keen on an intimate relationship between Scotland and the EU in future. But SNP chiefs seemed to have come on a bit too hot and heavy with the “Scotland loves Europe” message projected onto the side of the EU Commission building on 31 January. A commission spokesman said the matter of an unsanctioned light show had been “taken up” with the Belgian police. The commission later clarified that the police had not actually been notified after all. Phew!

I, ME, ERMINE: Great news. Those poor, cash-strapped peers of ours have mercifully been given a pay rise. After the 3.1 per cent hike, members of the Lords will get a tax-free payment of £323 every day they sign in for a natter and a nap on the benches of the upper house. It means a peer who turns up all year round could pocket almost £50,000 in allowances. The public spending haters at the Taxpayers’ Alliance said it should only have gone up in line with inflation at 1.3 per cent, and not “a penny more”. Chief executive John O’Connell said: “This increase looks like a plum deal for the peers but a rum deal for the taxpayer.” Nice, John – I see what you did there. Meanwhile, the system that allowed John Bercow to dodge earlier examination of alleged bullying will be overhauled by the Commons authorities.

PRITI SHAMELESS STUFF: Campaigners protesting outside Downing Street last night against the deportation of dozens of people to Jamaica had reason to rejoice. Word came through the Court of Appeal ruled that more than 50 men had been due to be flown to Kingston had not been granted adequate access to legal advice – because they had been denied access to working sim cards. Bella Sankey, director of the Detention Action charity, said she was “delighted” by the decision and said the 11th-hour reprieve applied “to at least 56 people”. Earlier on Monday, there were cries of “shame!” in the Commons when home secretary Priti Patel walked out of the chamber during an impassioned speech by Labour MP David Lammy on the planned deportation flight and the Windrush scandal. Lammy said: “When will black lives matter once again?”

On the record

“At its best, the Labour Party has been a great force for decency, speaking up for people throughout the country and ensuring nobody is forgotten.”

Tory pollster Michael Ashcroft reveals himself to be Labour’s secret admirer.

From the Twitterati

“From the Government that is obsessed with “British values”. The government doesn’t allow people they’re trying to deport access to proper legal advice, while they also claim migrants are a threat to “British values” like “rule of law”.”

Author Maya Goodfelllow points out the hypocrisy over the now-halted deportations...

“I’ll believe that #Jamaica50 is about “criminality” when self-confessed coked-up members of the front bench are jailed, detained, and deported to a country they have no memory of.”

...while Labour MP Nadia Whittome points out hypocrisy of a different kind.

Essential reading

Sean O’Grady, The Independent: Sinn Fein’s election is important – but Boris Johnson is likely to be the architect of Irish unity

Rebecca Long-Bailey, The Independent: The government’s relentless betrayal of Windrush descendants proves it – we need a completely new immigration system

Zoe Williams, The Guardian: Thanks to Boris Johnson, political nepotism is making a comeback

Paul Krugman, The New York Times: How Trump got trickled down

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