London Playbook PM: Postcard from Stornoway

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By EMILIO CASALICCHIO

PRESENTED BY

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Good afternoon from Stornoway, where Playbook PM is rounding off the summer tour. Thanks to those who have stuck with it — in particular through the stupider and more self-indulgent bits.

— Labour time on the Playbook PM tour of Scotland, including small planes, prehistoric stones and lots of tweed.

— SCOOP: Rishi Sunak had to ditch a train ride up north when it got held up.

— SCOOP: China is expected at the upcoming U.K. AI summit.

— Boris Johnson said the killing of Yevgeny Prigozhin proves there can be no deal with Russia on Ukraine.

— Another Conservative MP went public with gripes about MIA Nadine Dorries.

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AT LEAST HE’S NOT A WARLORD: “Is that to write a note to mum and dad in case something happens?” Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray deadpans as I pull out a notebook and pen. We’re sitting on the back row of a 37-seat propeller plane about to take off for the Western Isles and the pilot has just warned the ride could be a little rough. I laugh nervously.

We have liftoff: The plane lurches forward and darts down the tarmac. Soon we’re sailing through the clouds with the suburbs of Edinburgh and the bridges over the Forth far below. A drone from the back of the aircraft drills into the brain. A drinks service approaches as we pass over Loch Ness. “It would be good for your Playbook if we spot Nessie,” Murray smiles.

Service as it should be: The coffee is instant but free and comes with a Tunnocks caramel wafer as standard. Scotland delivers again! The sea is flat as we approach Stornoway, the effective capital of the Outer Hebrides on the islands of Lewis and Harris. Scattered one-road towns and a wash of purple heather stream into view as the plane banks hard toward the runway strip. Rain clouds hang on the distant hills.

Touchdown: We land with a thud and find Torcuil Crichton waiting in the arrivals room. The veteran Westminster and broadcast journalist is the Labour candidate for the Outer Hebridies — or Na h-Eileanan an Iar in the official Gaelic. Crichton grew up in Lewis on the Point peninsula — one of the less remote parts of the island but still pretty cut off compared with most mainland standards.

Normal life: “It doesn’t feel like that when you’re a kid,” Crichton says. “It’s the same as anywhere else. We saw the moon landings and we played Starsky and Hutch and cowboys and Indians. We read the Beano and the Dandy same as anyone else.” He hesitates. “Although we didn’t have color TV until 1976. And we only had one channel.” Crichton fires up his red mini and we drive out to meet some local salmon smokers for lunch.

Setting the scene: Finding the right superlatives to describe how wild and beautiful these islands are is a near-impossible task. Barren wilderness and rugged mountains are pockmarked with lakes in a duel between land and water. Crichton points out an area on the moors where his family used to take its sheep in the summer — walking the flock along a few miles of disused rail track that were laid as part of a plan to industrialize the area but which never came to pass.

Lost in space: The clouds hang low and fierce and splatter without warning. Scattered houses and one-track roads feel lost in the wilds that seem to stretch forever. It’s the kind of place that triggers most right-minded people into deep introspection — racking their brains about whether and how to forfeit the entire game and move there as soon as possible.

Global mindset: “It’s a fragile culture with a strong identity,” Crichton explains. But he insists it’s not as isolated as it looks. “People think because you’re on the edge, you’re not part of things. But actually being on the edge means you’re looking in all the time. You’re looking at the center, and you can see what’s going on and you can see it directly affects you.”

Weaving a narrative: Few businesses illustrate that wide perspective more than Harris Tweed Hebrides. It’s a small collection of warehouses on the western shore of the island that supplies 70 percent of the global market in authentic Harris Tweed. The material is protected via a 1993 law that stipulates it must be made with British wool and hand-weaved on the islands to be granted official status. The core market is the U.K. but the high-end fabric goes to Europe, Japan, China and beyond.

Spool of success: “For the size of the industry it’s amazing the reach it has,” says Margaret Ann MacLeod, sales director at Harris Tweed Hebrides, wearing a chic pink Harris Tweed jacket herself.

Spinning a yarn: She jerks open the door to the factory and the smell of wool hits us like a damp fist. The whirring of vintage milling machines wails through a set of warehouses filled with contraptions that suck, blow, clean and grapple the wool into reams of thread. We walk over multicolored shreds of the stuff spilling out of giant sacks and tanks. Three red bails are collapsed and bleeding their guts across the floor. Corridors of moving grabbers and belts and wheels mix different colors into blended threads while warehouse workers tug scraps of broken fabric from the teeth of machines.

End of the line: The threads are coiled onto giant spools to be shipped out to 130-odd weavers toiling at looms in their homes. The weavers send it back in 50-meter patterned sheets. After a little more processing those sheets head off the island at around £1,000 a pop to be fashioned into clothes and accessories — or furniture like the hip collection in the Harris Tweed Hebrides office. The mill is coming up with new blends and patterns to meet demand all the time.

Button it: Crichton — looking professorial in glasses and a Harris Tweed jacket himself with his salt and pepper curls and beard — realizes he’s lost one of his buttons in the warehouse. Someone will find it — out of the 70-odd people working at the plant. Harris Tweed Hebrides is the biggest private sector employer on the island. There are hopes to expand it and reduce the lead time for new patterns down from around 11 weeks — or 16 when there’s a rush of orders. But it’s hard to find enough skilled staff, while investment is needed for new machines and buildings.

As such … the Labour hope is to help businesses like Harris Tweed Hebrides if it wins the general election in 2024 and then the Scottish Parliament election in 2026. The dream is that the two administrations can work together — rather than in opposition as the current SNP and Conservative governments do. The hope is that a more joined-up approach will be an improvement for businesses and communities across Scotland.

The thing is: Labour needs to win seats like the Western Isles if it hopes to form a government in Westminster. At the moment the SNP is still leading in the polls — but that lead has been slipping. So much so that a recent poll for Survation suggested Labour could take about half the current SNP seats.

But but but: Convincing SNP supporters to back Labour for the Scottish government — even those who might vote for Labour to take Westminster — could be a challenge. “Winning this seat isn’t the summit,” Crichton explains. “Winning this seat is like the base camp for Everest.” The hope is that a nation-wide Labour administration from 2024 will prove to Scottish voters that a Labour administration in Holyrood is worth voting for after 2026.

Promising stuff: Crichton feels the campaign is on track. Frustrations around unreliable ferry services, gender recognition reforms and new protections for marine areas affecting fisheries have triggered anger about the SNP administration. When Scottish former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon resigned amid a scandal over SNP finances, people on the islands suddenly felt the freedom to criticize the party in the open, he claims. “You had this kind of re-establishment of people’s own identities, rather than being all Scotland against England.”

The challenge now: He reckons SNP voters are becoming open to at least hearing what Labour has to offer. His line on independence itself — which still has considerable support even while the SNP lead falls — is that it should be put aside for the moment. “We’ve argued about everything in the context of independence and it’s got us nowhere except into a downward spiral,” he says. “It’s not even on offer.”

Bigger fish to grill: Murray, the Shadow Scotland Secretary and the only current Labour MP in Scotland, argues the desire for independence might still be there but has become “deprioritized” because “people have much more important things to think about.”

Stone setting: We drive to the Callanish Stones along a ribbon of road that undulates across the heather-brushed hills. It’s a collection of standing stones from the neolithic era that hosted rituals in the Bronze Age. Now the stones attract tourists — including hordes who turn up on cruise ships stopping off between Glasgow and the Shetland Islands.

Message to the gods: The Callanish Stones Trust wants to revamp its tourist center to accommodate the growing busloads and make something back for the heritage site and residents. It’s secured a few million from various pots but needs a couple more before it can commit to the work. Again, the disagreements between Scotland and Westminster are seen as a blocker. “It’s an exciting place to be for the island, but only if the capital investment is there to build the infrastructure to cope with it,” says Donald MacKinnon, who is helping the trust with its bid.

Kodak moment: Crichton and Murray wander up the hill to the stones for a photo. “Here are two ancient monuments … and some stones,” Crichton jokes. A dark cloud above threatens to rain.

SCOOP 1: Rishi Sunak was delayed during his trip north Thursday evening when his train was held up by what No. 10 is describing as an “incident on the line.” Playbook’s mole on the train reported that he gave up and got off after about an hour. According to another passenger, whose flatmate then tweeted about it, the incident was some kind of police operation. Shoulda taken the chopper, Rishi.

SCOOP 2: China is likely to be present at November’s AI summit in the U.K. “in some capacity” — despite big reservations in Washington, Brussels and Tokyo (not to mention the Tory backbenches) over inviting Beijing to the gathering. Read the story here by POLITICO tech colleagues Vincent Manancourt, Tom Bristow and Laurie Clark.

PLAYING A BIT OF WAGNER: Boris Johnson tackles the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in his latest efforts in the Mail — a piece the paper is using as a weekend essay rather than BoJo’s usual column slot. He argues the killing of the warlord proves it would be “completely and utterly fatuous to put any kind of trust in a deal with Putin” when it comes to the Ukraine war.

Indeed: Johnson says of the apparent agreement between Putin and Prigozhin after the Wagner boss threatened to march on Moscow: “Prigozhin thought he had guarantees. Prigozhin thought he had sorted it out. Look at that deal now.” Read Johnson’s full piece here.

FUELING DEBATE: Labour frontbencher Ed Miliband said the Conservatives have “learnt no lessons” from the energy inflation crisis and are still letting oil and gas giants profit via an investment loophole in their windfall tax, after Ofgem dropped the maximum average bill amount from £2,074 to £1,923. The Lib Dems said government “inaction means far too many families and pensioners will be struggling to heat their homes again this winter.”

But but but: In a TV clip, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted it was vital to “target our support to the most vulnerable in society and that is what we are doing.” He said despite the £400 support for all homes no longer being available, the national living wage is up, pensions are getting an extra sum and people on Universal Credit are getting £900 in cost-of-living support.

MORE IN THE RISHI CLIP: The PM said the Lucy Letby probe should be judge-led and failed to respond to the letter claiming migrants who were housed (albeit not for long) on the Bibby Stockholm barge considered suicide.

MAD AT NAD: John Penrose has become the latest Conservative MP to throw rocks at AWOL colleague Nadine Dorries. He told Times Radio: “She needs to make clear to her constituents what she’s doing, and do it fast.” Clip here.

COVID IN COURT: Families of COVID victims who died towards the start of the pandemic are suing the government, hospitals and carehomes over the loss of their relatives. The Guardian has more.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO TALK ABOUT: The Department for Health relaunched a £10 million fund for charities to work alongside the NHS in tackling mental health crises.

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FROM RUSSIA: The Kremlin rejected claims it ordered a kill on Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, calling the allegations a “a complete lie.” The Beeb has more. U.S. and European officials have told our colleagues across the pond that Prigozhin’s death will strengthen Putin in the short term, but harm him in the long term. Read the full write-up here.

IN ITALY: Milan has recorded its hottest day since 1763. Reuters has a full report.

IN SPAIN: Luis Rubiales, the president of Spain’s football federation, has refused to resign after kissing a World Cup winner on the lips, allegedly without her consent. Our colleagues Ali Walker and Aitor Hernandez-Morales have the full write up.

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LEADING THE NEWS BULLETINS: Channel 5 News (5 p.m.) leads on former President Donald Trump’s arrest, followed by news of the energy price cap and the sentencing of Alexander McKellar … Channel 4 News (7 p.m.) also leads on the arrest of Trump, as does BBC News at 6.

Drive with Cathy Newman (Times Radio, 5 p.m.): crossbench peer Lord Peter Ricketts … Chair of the Criminal Bar Association Kirsty Brimelow KC.

Tom Swarbrick at Drive (LBC, 5 p.m.): Former Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in London Lewis Lukens.

Lee Anderson’s Real World (GB News, 7 p.m.): Conservative MP James Sunderland … Momentum co-founder James Schneider … historian David Starkey.

Sky News: Pollster John Zogby … Emily Seymour, energy editor for Which?

REVIEWING THE PAPERS TONIGHT: Sky News (10.30 p.m. and 11.30 p.m.): The Daily Mirror’s Susie Boniface and The Scottish Sun’s Rachel Watson.

OFF THE RAILS: Train staff are on strike tomorrow in the long-running dispute about wages and conditions. Details from the RMT here.

TAKE A LOAD OFF: It’s the final weekend of recess before the Sunday shows start back up. Make the most of it.

EDINBURGH POLITICAL FRINGE ON SATURDAY: Chris O’Neill and Harun Musho’d chair a political breakfast … Political columnist Steve Richards presents his Rock’n’Roll Politics show … comedian Rosie Holt offers some “politainment,” former Labour advisor James Matthewson gives an insight into spin tactics … and Don Biswas looks at politics through a dyspraxic and autistic lens.

EDINBURGH POLITICAL FRINGE ON SUNDAY: A political breakfast will open your Sunday … and Rosie Holt’s and Don Biswas’ shows continue.

The Camilla Tominey Show (GB News, 9.30 a.m. on Sunday): Former Downing Street aide Giles Kenningham … Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer … Defense committee chair Tobias Ellwood … Reform Party London mayoral candidate Howard Cox … U.S. lawyer Lanny Davis … Former PM of Russia Mikhail Kasyanov.

Weekend Times Radio drive (Times Radio, 4 p.m. on Sunday): Scottish politics special with MSPs Craig Hoy … Emma Roddick … Daniel Johnson … and HuffPost UK’s Kevin Schofield.

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: This Substack setting out research from Britain Remade’s Sam Dumitriu and Ben Hopkinson about how British infrastructure is so insanely expensive.

ON THIS DAY IN POLITICS: On 25 August, 1940, Britain launched its first bombing attacks on Germany as part of World War 2.

HAVE GREAT WEEKENDS: I’ll be travelling back before (I can’t believe I’m writing this) going to a covers band festival in Milton Keynes.

THANKS TO: My editor Matt Honeycombe-Foster, reporter Bethany Dawson and the POLITICO production team for making it look nice.

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