Latest news with #charmoffensive
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Reform's bacon and egg offensive to woo business
Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice is conducting a 'bacon and eggs' charm offensive to woo British businesses ahead of the next election. Tice told The Mail on Sunday that he and other senior party figures, including leader Nigel Farage, had been meeting 'dozens and dozens and dozens' of bosses for breakfast meetings. He said they included chief executives, finance chiefs, chairmen and top lobbyists at FTSE 100 and FTSE 250-listed firms, as well as those at private and foreign-owned companies. It echoes the 'smoked salmon and scrambled eggs' charm offensive by Labour ahead of the last General Election. Tice, pictured with Farage, said the 'penny dropped' for many firms about Reform's potential to form the next government after its landslide success in May's local elections and taking a 14-point lead in the latest national opinion poll. And he dismissed concerns raised by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) about whether Reform's sums added up, dismissing the respected economic think-tank as 'the institute for feeble studies'. Tice said: 'Lots of companies recognise we are a serious contender to be the next government, whenever the election is. They are taking it seriously, so want to meet me and understand where we're coming from on a variety of big issues. 'Whether you want to call it the bacon and eggs offensive or whatever, a series of breakfasts and other meetings are going on, and it is going well, and we're doing quite a lot of it.' A well-placed City source who alerted The Mail on Sunday to the meetings suggested there was some scepticism among business leaders about Reform's plans. Firms contacted by this newspaper were tight-lipped over whether they had met Tice. One FTSE 100 director, who asked not to be named, said he had 'not seen him' as part of the drive, but had once bumped into the politician and 'couldn't find anything we could agree on'. However, Tice said the reaction had been positive, particularly relating to plans to scrap the net zero carbon climate goal. 'We understand the language of business,' he said. 'I was chief executive of a billion-pound multinational listed company. Nigel's a businessman. We understand what it takes to save the British economy. 'We are talking about our dead seriousness about scrapping net zero and that is greeted with almost universal joy on a private basis. Privately, they all admit it's bonkers, it's costing them a fortune, it's making them uncompetitive.' Tice said Reform had told oil and gas companies to prepare applications for drilling licences in the North Sea 'so they can be checked and pre-approved before an election and rubber-stamped within a matter of days' if Reform were to win. He added: 'We're not mucking about. We're very clear that things like net zero, ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) – it's all for the birds. It all goes and we will be pretty aggressive on that and anyone who tries to get in our way.' The IFS's analysis of Reform's tax-cutting plans found that raising an individual's annual tax threshold from £12,570 to £20,000 and other measures could cost up to £80 billion a year, and that the party's strategy involved large, unspecified cuts to public services. And Simon French, chief economist at investment bank Panmure Liberum, has warned that Britain could face an 'immediate and violent' sterling crisis if Farage wins power. But Tice dismissed these, calling the IFS estimate a 'back-of-the-fag-packet guess' saying: 'We expect the enemy to do that.' Asked whether business leaders were convinced by Reform's plans, Tice said: 'They get it.' He added that he and Farage were 'probably two of the most successful financial, economic, businesslike MPs they've ever met'.
Daily Mail
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
PETER VAN ONSELEN: How Xi buttered up Anthony Albanese with a VERY rare personal gesture to Jodie Haydon - and it left the PM beaming
Anthony Albanese has just wrapped up a six-day diplomatic tour of China. It may go down as one of the most carefully orchestrated charm offensives Beijing has ever launched at an Australian leader. It had everything: soft power symbolism, panda photo ops, nostalgic Aussie rock ballads and even a surprise starring role for the Prime Minister's fiancée, Jodie Haydon. Forget shouting into megaphones. This was diplomacy by lunch invitation and curated playlists, and it seems to have worked. Albanese looked less like a wary Western leader managing a complex bilateral relationship and more like a man thoroughly enjoying all the flattery. At the centre of the spectacle was his meeting (and a private lunch, no less) with President Xi Jinping. Not only did Xi extend the diplomatic red carpet, he also invited Jodie to join the lunch soirée, a gesture rarely offered to visiting leaders' partners. For Albanese, it was a clear signal of Beijing's intent to present a warmer, more open face of Chinese diplomacy. 'It was a sign of respect to Australia', he proudly said. But it was more than a simple diplomatic nod. The presence of Haydon, seated beside Xi and Albo in the opulent Great Hall, was China's way of saying 'we're not just wooing your government'. With Albo expected to marry later this year, this was Beijing's version of 'meet the parents'. Xi wasn't just trying to charm a PM, he was buttering up the presumptive First Lady too. And then came the soundtrack. During a gala dinner with Chinese and Australian business leaders, a band played a setlist straight out of Albanese's youth: Paul Kelly's To Her Door, Midnight Oil's Power and the Passion, even a rendition of Powderfinger. This wasn't random, it was meticulously chosen to speak to Albo's political identity: the working-class music fan from inner Sydney who likes to DJ. Maybe China will be on their honeymoon list? 'They did it very well', Albo beamed. 'Those gestures matter', he added. Beijing understood that the personal is political and hit every note. One could almost hear the Stratocaster guitar strings being pulled. The whole trip had an undercurrent of Labor nostalgia, too. Albanese's visit to the Great Wall was a not-so-subtle nod to his political hero Gough Whitlam, who made history there in 1973 when he re-established relations with China. For Albo, this trip was a symbolic full circle moment: the current Labor leader retracing Whitlam's footsteps, casting himself as a statesman with vision, even if the present-day geopolitical environment is arguably considerably more fraught. But for all the pageantry, the PM still has to justify the trip back home, particularly to those more interested in cost of living pressures than Communist Party pleasantries. When asked what the trip meant for average Australians, Albo said: 'From Beijing to Bankstown, what we need is to engage in our national interest…to be focused on cost-of-living, on jobs, on living standards. And that depends on our trade'. China is Australia's largest trading partner. Alongside the formal talks, Albo also visited the Sichuan International Tennis Centre, no coincidence for a PM with a long standing love of the sport. Then came a stop at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, China's crown jewel of soft diplomacy. There, he admired the pandas. 'They're beautiful animals', he said as cameras clicked. The entire visit was a textbook case of soft power in action: China using symbolism, sentiment and star pandas to reframe the bilateral relationship. From the music to the animals to the guest list at lunch, every gesture had the purpose of reminding Australia of the benefits of good behaviour as the Middle Kingdom's rise continues. Still, beneath the smiling photo ops, deeper questions remain. What concessions might Australia now feel pressure to make in return for this reset? And how will this trip age if tensions inevitably flare again, over Taiwan, the South China Sea or human rights? For nowm Albo returns home with a diplomatic win, alongside a panda selfie or two for the family album.
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
King Charles and Prince Harry aides 'peace summit' part of 'charm offensive by the Sussexes to turn around their negative public image'
A meeting between King Charles and Prince Harry 's senior aides came amid a charm offensive by the Sussexes to turn around their negative public image, the Mail understands. Harry and Meghan's new chief of communications, Meredith Maines, met with Tobyn Andreae, the King's communications secretary, at the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) a three-minute walk from Clarence House, the monarch's London residence on Wednesday. Also present was Liam Maguire, who runs the Sussexes' PR team in the UK. Images of the rendezvous raised hopes of a reconciliation between Harry, 40, and his father, 76. The extraordinary summit came after Ms Maines, who is head of Harry's household in Montecito, California, flew to the UK earlier in the week for a series of meetings alongside Mr Maguire, their new 'UK and Europe communications manager'. These included British business and charitable partners, as well as a host of London-based press and television journalists. Their itinerary suggests that the couple - Harry in particular - are launching a new charm offensive on the UK in a bid to turn around their negative public image. The Mail understands it was subsequently suggested that a meeting with Buckingham Palace's director of communications, Mr Andreae, might be possible while Ms Maines was in the UK. This is not as surprising as it might initially seem. The extraordinary summit came after Ms Maines, who is head of Harry's household in Montecito, California, flew to the UK earlier in the week for a series of meetings alongside Mr Maguire, their new 'UK and Europe communications manager (pictured) Even after the Sussexes' acrimonious departure from the Royal family, tentative 'lines of communication' were kept open between the palace press office and the duke and duchess' PR team on occasional matters of importance. However in recent years these have all but dwindled out in the wake of Harry's repeated and increasingly vitriolic attacks on his family, as well as the institution of the monarchy. His latest, with the BBC, in which he blamed his recent decisive defeat in the British courts over his ongoing security in the UK on an 'establishment stitch-up' and insensitively raised the issue of how long his father has to live, went down extremely badly in royal circles. While understandably wary, it is understood that the palace believed a tentative meeting was sensible in the circumstances - if only to re-open those channels once again with yet another new Sussex PR team, following another series of enforced departures both in California and the UK. There was 'considerable surprise' and a 'weary resignation' amongst senior courtiers to see details and pictures of Wednesday's meeting, which was such a closely-guarded secret, published in the media at the weekend. Senior officials on all sides have repeatedly declined to say whether Prince William's team at Kensington Palace were aware that the meeting was going ahead, even if they were not represented. One source stressed to the Mail that the relationship between father and son was 'inevitably different' to that of the siblings. It has also been noted that while angry and not wishing at present to make any sort of personal overtures to his brother, William has on a number of occasions over the years made magnanimous gestures of kindness towards him, despite huge provocation, including inviting Harry and Meghan to meet mourners and collect flowers at Windsor Castle following the death of Queen Elizabeth. A source said the summit was only the 'first step towards reconciliation between Harry and his father, but at least it is a step in the right direction' Harry is next due back in the UK in September for the annual WellChild events, raising the prospect of meeting his father for the first time in 18 months. The 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham is another opportunity for a public reconciliation. The Duke is said to have sent email invitations to Buckingham Palace in the hope that it will give the King sufficient time to fit the event into his busy schedule. While the meeting was significant, it is understood it was largely to 'open a channel of communication' after Harry said in a BBC interview his father would not speak to him, and to discuss how to avoid media clashes and conflicts around calendar dates. Harry and Meghan are said to be frustrated after the meeting was caught on camera in pictures published by the Mail on Sunday. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex denied leaking details of the rendezvous.
