Tag: UK Labour Party
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Papers & Processes. The week began with the next episode of the already boring Mandelson affair. After the drama of the Humble Address, the release of the files related to his errant Lordship’s appointment proved simultaneously more mundane and yet more revealing than expected. Meanwhile, the Iran war/ “special military operation” dominates the international agenda,…
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After last week’s ‘umble addressing and PM-skewering it was perhaps inevitable that the Chamber would be a little less frenetic as it ran down to the Half Term Recess on Thursday 12th February. Although the bulk of the political comedy continued outside the Chamber, there were some opportunities for further PM-baiting and Labour squirming. Jesse…
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What a consequential week it was! Winding down to the weekend (who works Fridays after all?) and with the PM kow-towing having bi-lats with President Xi in Peking Bejing, Pat McFadden made a statement to the House on Thursday 29th January setting out the government’s totally unsurprising decision not to pay the WASPI women compensation…
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The Commons Weekly… is going to be a new concise political briefing that breaks down the most important developments in the House of Commons each week. We hope that it will provide readers with an accessible overview of parliamentary debates, party tensions, leadership dynamics and key policy discussions. Each edition highlights the stories shaping Westminster,…
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REEVES CLINGS ON SHAKILY, Lammy shatters ancient constitutional protections casually, Badenoch shows signs of life superficially – the political climate feels very fragile. Rachel Reeves remains in post, although with less authority than Downing Street would like to project. The aftershocks from the Office for Budget Responsibility leak continue, alongside accusations that she oversold the…
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THE POLITICAL KNIVES ARE BEING SHARPENED OFFSTAGE. There are significant leaderrship jitters on both sides of the aisle and although action is not widely expected until after the local elections in May, clever conspiracists strike before their intentions become clear. Labour’s polling trajectory continues downward: YouGov now places Labour as low as 17% in its…
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COMPETENCE ANYONE? Last week’s dominant headache was the collapse of the high-profile Chinese espionage case. Pressure landed on the CPS to explain itself; intelligence figures publicly signalled frustration and the story is now being treated less as legal process and more as a test of governmental competence. For a prime minister who built much of…
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U-TURN IF YOU WANT TO… It turns out that watching slow-motion car crashes is not so much fun. Following the reinstatement of pensioners’ winter fuel payment just a month ago, “justified” by HMG’s sudden discovery that the economic catastrophe that they thought they had inherited from the Conservatives had miraculously cured itself, comes the inevitably…
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POST-BREXIT “RESET” On 19th May Keir Starmer hosted Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa (he’s the EU Council President) for a “Reset Summit” at Lancaster House in London. Negotiations were reported to have gone down to the wire, but they announced a post-Brexit agreement encompassing defence and security cooperation, fisheries, agrifood barriers, carbon border…
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REFORM RISES, RIVALS FALL – If you thought UK politics was just Labour vs. the Tories forever think again. Reform UK, led by the ever-controversial Nigel Farage, pulled off a political upset this week that’s got everyone talking. In the local elections, they bagged a massive 677 council seats and took control of 10 councils. But…