The Commons Weekly: Monday 23rd February – Wednesday 4th March
Monday 23rd February
Special education: In trying to set out the Government’s proposed changes to SEND policy Bridget Phillipson (Houghton & Sunderland South, Labour) Secretary of State for Education, outlined how a “new” £4bn will be spent on Individual Support Plans over the rest of this Parliament. SEND certainly needs radical reform, but these changes seem unlikely to either constrain spending, or deliver better outcomes.
Mandelson appointment: Darren Groans (Bristol North West, Labour) the PM’s “fixer” (moot point) came to the despatch box to confirm that papers on Lord Mandelson’s appointment as Ambassador should be published in early March, just as news of the profligate peer’s unexpected arrest at his Regents Park townhouse appeared, making Darren’s worthiness rather ironic.
Josh Simons must go: Darren also announced that Josh Simons (Makerfield, Labour) Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office and previous gauleiter of Labour Together had been referred to the PM’s Ethics Advisor over what Alex Burghart (Brentwood & Ongar) Shadow CoDL feelingly described as the junior Cabinet Office minister’s “deliberate attempt to smear and intimidate journalists.”
John McDonell (Hayes & Harlington, Labour) suggested that asking the Cabinet Office to investigate a Cabinet Office minister “does not pass the smell test” while his old mucker, Jeremy “Jezza” Corbyn (Islington, Your Party) suggested that the scope of the enquiry should extend back to the systemic attacks on the foresighted, talented and betrayed Labour leadership of 2015-’20. Who could he have meant? Esther McVey (Tatton, Conservative) was one of a number of MPs who pointed out that “marking your own homework” was not a great look and asked when Simons would be sacked in her characteristically bald manner.
Tuesday 24th February
Boor previously known as Prince: the LibDems used the currently fashionable Humble Address mechanism to demand the publication of papers related to appointment of the former Prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as Special Envoy for Trade. (Do we hyphenate? Crucial question.)
That most fleeting of Parliamentary interventions, an apology, was made as he introduced the Humble Address by Sir Ed Davey (Kingston & Surbiton, LibDem) to Epstein’s victims for his 2011 Ministerial comment to the House that then-Prince Andrew had been performing well as Special Envoy, In the midst of a series of drive-by comments from various Members and their constituents’ reported experiences of the then-Prince’s stupidity and boorishnes, Sir Ed’s apology and call for action seemed heartfelt. Hansard transcript.
Children’s Social Media Use: a weak commitment to launch a “consultation” in to children’s social media use “shortly” and to act on the results of that consultation “by the Summer” succeeded in annoying just about everyone. TWOP is not convinced that any action needs to be taken at all, but it is frustratingly slow for the inadequate parents who are so worried about it but incapable of taking action within their own families (which really does make one wonder.)
Wednesday 25th February
BVI: Sir Lindsay Hoyle (Speaker) confirmed that he had been responsible for telling the Met that Mandelson was a flight risk.
Quite how flitting off to the BVI would have helped Mandelson’s case, or shielded him from potential arrest is so far from being clear that it makes one wonder about Sir Lindsay’s grip on reality, although it does confirm how enraged he and more traditional “Old Labour” is about Mandelson’s behaviour. It also served to confirm Sir Lindsay’s packed recess vacation schedule.
PMQs
Student Loans: The Tories have clearly identified Student Loans as the next issue they can force a U-Turn/Climbdown from HMG on – even though it was in 2012 that the Conservatives themselves introduced the “RPI-plus” interest loans that are the immediate cause of pointed anger.
Of course, the whole student loan system is crazily illogical; tuition should be free, as it is repaid by graduates’ tax payments from their future enhanced income.
Kemi Badenoch (North-West Essex, Conservative) LOTO, led with “I believe that student loans have become a debt trap. It is time for all of us to do something about it.“
Much heat, but not much light was cast by her apparently out of nowhere suggestion that Labour were being called the “Paedo Defenders’ Party”
Epstein Airports: Sir Ed Davey returned to questions suggested by infuriated ex-PM Gordon Brown about whether Jeffrey Epstein used British airports and potentially even RAF bases to traffic women and girls from Eastern Europe.
Confusion about the Chagos Islands transfer deal being paused was caused by The Hon Hamish Falconer MP (Lincoln, Lab), Son of Charlie, Westminster School, St John’s College Cambridge, Yale University, Parliamentary Under-Secrtary FCDO, saying in response to a question from Dr Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath, LibDem) that “This is going through Parliament in the normal way. We are pausing for discussions with the United States, and those discussions continue.”
Confusion about the Chagos Islands transfer deal being paused was caused by The Hon Hamish Falconer MP (Lincoln, Lab), Son of Charlie, Westminster School, St John’s College Cambridge, Yale University, Parliamentary Under-Secrtary FCDO, in response to a question from Dr Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath, LibDem) said that “This is going through Parliament in the normal way. We are pausing for discussions with the United States, and those discussions continue.”
Foreign Office sources who “clarified” outside the Chamber later in the day that “There is no pause. We have never set a deadline. Timings will be announced in the usual way” seem nor to have read the Hansard transcript as Ben Quinn noted: The Guardian, 24th February 2026 “Moves to pave way for Chagos handover paused, minister tells MPs” Anyone for a glass of ditchwater?
Thursday 26th February
Gibraltar: Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South & Penarth, Labour) Minister of State, F&CDO, announced the agreement of a treaty with Spain and the EU to allow for the removal of border controls between Gibraltar and Spain and indeed the Schengen Area.
The mechanism settled upon after years of bad-tempered negotiation will involve placing Spanish border controls on Gibraltar’s territory. It took a surprisingly long time to come back to a solution that has existed at St Pancras for Channel Tunnel travel since 2003 under the Le Touquet Treaty. Just saying.
Hobbies: a brief mention of the National Youth Strategy came rom Lisa Nandy (Wigan, Labour) Secretary of State, DCMS in response to a question from Ian Sollom (St Neots & Mid-Cambridgeshire, LibDem) asking whether HMG would consider the LibDems trophy policy idea of “Hobby Hubs.” It IS a worthy idea but our guess is that it will not make huge headlines.
Monday 2nd March
IRAN: MPs debated the US-Israeli air bombardment of Iran and the Prime Minister confirmed that he had initially decided that the UK should not make bases available for the Americans’ initial air strikes. By the time MPs debated this on Monday the PM had already reversed himself and given permission for the Americans to use RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia to launch bombing missions for “defensive strikes.” (PJOB Diego Garcia just added for amusement.)
This could lead to a lawyerly and pointless “When is a strike not a strike?” discussion. Sir Keir’s inevitable climbdown seemed to annoy just about everybody. It must come as no consolation to Sir Keir that the initial decision to refuse permission for American strikes to use British bases was pushed by the ever-petulant Ed Milliband (Doncaster North, Labour) Zero Secretary, and the eternally clueless Rachel Reeves (Leeds West & Pudsey, Labour) “Chancellor.” Stand up man!
The Prime Minister had an unusually strong punch line in “This government does not believe in regime change from the skies” but Kemi Badenoch took the PM to task for grounding an urgent moral question in legal proceduralism. The PM’s “Any UK actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable thought-through plan” sounds reasonable, but it fails to call out the evil that the Iranian regime represented.
Dr Ben Spencer (Runnymede & Weybridge, Conservative) pithily suggested that there is significant danger “when leaders hide behind legal advice to avoid taking responsibility for their decisions.” Dr Spencer marked himself out as “one to watch.” Others could do well by emulating his pointed brevity.
Tuesday 3rd March
Spring Non-Statement: “Is that it?” Sir Mel Stride (Central Devon, Conservative) Shadow Chancellor, summed up not only the Conservative view of the Chancellor’s Spring Statement.
While Ms Reeves set out her extraordinary success in getting inflation “down” TWOP amused itself by checking that the CPI measure of inflation was 2.8%pa In June 2024 when Ms Reeves took over as Chancellor and that she had almost single-handedly managed to drive it “down” to 3.2%pa in January 2026, the latest month reported by ONS. This is both a tragic re-definition of “success” and an indication of the Chancellor’s remaining mathematical bafflement.
However, the real elephant in the room was the soaring prices of Oil and LPG in the context of the Iranian closure of the Straits of Hormuz. Let’s not even get in to Natural Gas prices post Qatar halting production yesterday… One reflects that even arithmetically-allergic Chancellors might deduce that there are significant inflationary pressures on the horizon. A sensible Chancellor might have even ad libbed a useful bit of pitch-rolling for the inevitable moment when inflation shoots up again later this year. But then, “sensible”, discuss.
PMQs – Wednesday 4th March
IRAN: PMQs were understandably dominated by the Iranian “war.” Kemi started with a good one: “the US has taken offensive action to destroy missile launch sites to defend British territory. Why will the Prime Minister not allow the RAF to do the same?” PM: “This is an extremely serious situation” …but one that he apparently hopes to avoid answering questions about by adopting the faux-serious manner usually reserved for informing the House of some catastrophe involving loss of life in a civilian disaster such as a train crash. Sad but nothing to do with anything the Government could do something about. Starmer’s avoidance was more obvious than his seriousness effective.
the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will appear on station
BEFORE ANY UK WARSHIP HAS LEFT PORT. “Ooooopsie.”
“When our bases are attacked, they call the lawyers” was LOTO’s best line. She was correct to point out, however, that the PM no longer pretends to answer questions, but prefers to read out a pre-prepared “statement from the Bunker.” Of course this has been various PM’s default approach to PMs for many years, but Sir Keir does not have the rhetorical ability to make his responses appear to be even partially spontaneous. Arranging for evacuation flights for holidaymakers marooned in Dubai was not the critical question that the Prime Minister should have been focused on at this time. It was also not what he was asked.
Sir Keir’s attempt to do the “serious face, pained look, I’m the voice of the country” rings hollow. HMS Dragon, the sole warship (Type 45 destroyer if you are asking) identified to be sent to defend British interests in Cyprus will not leave Portsmouth until next week. The PM’s long-list of “pre-deployments” seems to have omitted anything that might be militarily useful in theatre. Oooopsie. The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will reach the Eastern Med before a single British warship leaves UK waters. Has there ever been a more poignant national disgrace?
If you think PMQs are a useful cockpit for demonstrating the Prime Minister’s competence, sincerity and assiduity, Sir Keir’s performance on 4th March did much to convince Labour’s backbenchers that they really ought to find a replacement sooner rather than later.
Report card: “B- trying hard, but does little to demonstrate that he will rise to any challenge.”
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Alex
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