HARRY COLE: Queen's 'loyal servant' is hit by new scandal

HARRY COLE: Queen’s ‘loyal servant’ is hit by a new scandal – former Prime Minister of the St Kitts and Nevis is the latest in David Cameron’s motley list of recipients of gongs

David Cameron’s motley list of recipients of gongs, lordships and baubles still haunts his premiership. Few are more controversial than the Right Honorable Dr Denzil Douglas, the former Prime Minister of the tiny Caribbean paradise of St Kitts and Nevis. 

He was appointed by Mr Cameron to the Queen’s elite Privy Council in 2011 for his ‘loyal service’ to the Queen. 

Mail on Sunday readers will know Dr Douglas tried to leave the UK last year with wads of cash stuffed in his jacket and luggage. 

The National Crime Agency is investigating the case, but Dr Douglas continues to use his hallowed Rt Hon title while denying any wrongdoing. 

Meanwhile, his chances of a political comeback as opposition leader have been hampered after he was booted out of his seat in the St Kitts and Nevis parliament in another scandal. 

The former Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Denzil Douglas, arrives for a lunch during the Commonwealth Heads of Government’s meeting in Port of Spain, in 2009

The Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court – the highest arbitrator in the region – ruled that the good doctor breached his country’s constitution by mysteriously accepting a no-questions-asked diplomatic passport from neighbouring Dominica. 

Which all sounds very right and honourable for a former Prime Minister, doesn’t it?

Lucrative times for the ex-leaders’ club, with both Theresa May and Ed Miliband cashing in. Alongside tasty after-dinner speech earnings, Mrs May has declared £25,200 worth of freebie access to Heathrow’s ultra-plush VIP Windsor Suite in just a month. And almost as baffling as to why anyone would pay to hear Mrs May tell jokes, publisher Random House has handed Mr Miliband a £38,950 advance for a book. Never the smartest maths brain, Red Ed told the Commons sleaze watchdog it was ‘impossible to calculate’ how long it will take him to write the tedious tome. 

Fears of a Notre Damestyle inferno hitting Parliament are not abated by data I’ve seen showing 22 fires in the past three years. As MPs debate yet more delays to the restoration of the creaking Palace of Westminster, incidents include burnt food at John Bercow’s house and ‘unauthorised smoking’. 

Global tech giants Amazon and Microsoft are working with the NHS by using big data to help fight coronavirus. In reporting their help, the BBC added that London-based Faculty AI had joined them. What glorious publicity for a comparatively unheard-of company. So what is Faculty AI? Its website lists Dr Marc Warner as ‘CEO and Co-Founder’. And, by coincidence, Marc’s brother Ben, above, was sitting alongside Boris Johnson at the Cabinet table during a key Covid-19 meeting last week. Ben is currently serving as a No10 adviser.

Britain’s Labour MP Chris Bryant leaving the Houses of Parliament after a debate in 2019

Labour’s Chris Bryant put a pledge to ban clapping in the Commons as a keystone of his tilt at the Speakership last year. But what a difference a pandemic makes. The Rhondda MP not only joined, but led, a round of applause for A&E staff. He got away with it as it was deemed an ‘exceptional situation’. 

 There is a new pecking order in Downing Street as special advisers and spinners get to grips with endless video-conferencing now that the PM is laid up and colleagues are dropping like flies. Those at the top of the food chain get their faces beamed into the room while lesser mortals have to settle for a name on the big screen and no microphone. And as more sickly aides work from home, sartorial standards are slipping. ‘Everyone’s dressing like Cummings,’ says one, referring to No10’s notorious scruff-pot.

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