European Tour: President Of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for a meeting with Keir Starmer in Downing Street. © Justin Ng / Alamy Stock Photo
James Cleverly seemingly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when he was eliminated ahead of the final vote in the Conservative Party leadership contest. The result was announced to gasps among Tory MPs, who just the day before had watched him race into the lead by picking up 18 votes as Tom Tugendhat was eliminated. His vote mysteriously collapsed the next day when he received just 37 votes to Badenoch’s 42 and Jenrick’s 41, leading to accusations of behind-the-scenes shenanigans by Machiavellian Tory MPs. The result leaves Badenoch and Jenrick vying for the leadership while occupying the same ideological place, with the centrist Tory Reform Group already refusing to endorse either of them. The decision now lies with the Conservative Party membership (who, it must be said, were unlikely to elect Cleverly had he made the final two), with the result revealed on 2nd November
The Prime Minister showed Sue Gray the door following weeks of media storms over donations and salaries at the top of Government. She tendered her resignation as Downing Street Chief of Staff on Saturday and was appointed the PM’s Envoy to the Nations and Regions (don’t make it too obvious you wanted rid of her, Keir). Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s newest incarnation of Malcolm Tucker, was unsurprisingly named her replacement and he quickly set about naming his deputies and holding meetings with special advisors. His appointment was soon followed by rumours that a Cabinet reshuffle could be imminent…watch this space.
99 days – of Labour being in Government, as tomorrow marks the symbolic 100-day milestone.
£776,160 – how much MPs have been paid for work outside Parliament since the General Election.
At least 30% – the new threshold that the 1922 Committee Chair Bob Blackman said would be required for Tory MPs to trigger a confidence vote in their leader. The current threshold sits at 15%.
3 months – how long Sue Gray lasted as the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff.
140,561 – hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2024, a 5% decrease from the previous year. Religious hate crimes, however, increased by 25% from 2023.
2 – the number of votes James Cleverly lost between Tuesday and Wednesday’s Conservative leadership votes, knocking him from first to out of the contest in 24 hours.
Up to 745,000 – the number of illegal migrants in the UK, according to a new study led by experts from the University of Oxford. This comes as the Home Office disclosed that 973 migrants in 17 small boats crossed the English Channel last Saturday, the highest daily number this year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Keir Starmer in Downing Street on Thursday as part of a whirlwind trip through Europe that included stops in Italy, France and Germany to lobby for more support in the war against Russia in a bid to secure the supply of long-range Storm Shadow missiles. Starmer also met with new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, during which he 'set out the UK’s steadfast contribution to Allied forces’.
The Government published the Employment Rights Bill, which the Department for Business and Trade has stated will 'upgrade workers’ rights across the UK, tackle poor working conditions and benefit businesses and workers alike'. The Bill will bring forward 28 individual employment reforms, aimed to end 'exploitative' zero hours contracts and fire and rehire practices; remove the existing two-year qualifying period for protections from unfair dismissal; repeal the Minimum Service Levels (Strikes) Act; establish day one rights for paternity, parental and bereavement leave; strengthen protections against dismissal for pregnant women and new mothers; remove the lower earnings limit for statutory sick pay; make flexible working the default 'where practical'; and require large employers to create action plans on addressing gender pay gaps and support employees through the menopause.
Rachel Reeves is reportedly planning to change how Government debt is measured in order to take into account the benefits of investment in infrastructure, according to a leaked report of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting in The Guardian. The move – which the Chancellor reportedly informed the OBR about on Wednesday – could allow the Treasury to borrow a further £50bn for additional investment; however there are concerns it could force up already increasing government borrowing costs even higher.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones delivered a pre-Budget speech, in which he outlined the Government’s plans to 'break the cycle' of underinvestment and instability in the UK's infrastructure systems. He used his speech to announce a new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), which the Treasury has briefed will ‘look to fix the foundations of our infrastructure system, by bringing infrastructure strategy and delivery together addressing the systemic delivery challenges that have stunted growth for decades’.
Former Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson was appointed Minister for Investment ahead of the inaugural International Investment Summit. Having stepped down from the multi-billion pound company she co-founded just a month ago, she has been appointed to the House of Lords in order to join the Government. In her new role she will be responsible for the revamped Office for Investment – tasked with promoting the UK to investors and businesses around the world and attracting more investment into the UK.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum delivered a rare public speech at the Security Service’s counter-terrorism operations centre to warn that the UK was now facing the most "complex and interconnected" threat it has ever seen, and reported that Russia was seeking to generate "mayhem on British and European streets". He announced that 20 Iranian-backed plots had been foiled since 2022, and 43 late-stage attack plots on the UK have been foiled since 2017. He also reported that that MI5's counter-terrorism work still mostly involved Islamic extremism, followed by "extreme right-wing terrorism".
The UK signed a new online safety agreement with the US, launching a children’s online safety working group. The group will work to promote better transparency from platforms, and consider researchers’ access to privacy-preserving data on social media and help better understand the impacts and risks of the digital world on young people, including from technologies such as generative AI. Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle signed the agreement with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo at the G7 Industry and Tech Ministerial in Rome.
Foreign Sec David Lammy visited Bahrain and Jordan to strengthen de-escalation efforts in the Middle East. He reiterated the UK’s concern over the risk of ‘escalation and miscalculation in the region' and demanded 'Iran and its proxies stop their attacks which are causing chaos and destruction'. In Bahrain he met with UK Armed Forces personnel who are stationed in the Gulf with a tour of HMS Lancaster, and in Jordan met Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi where he expressed the UK’s support for the country’s role in delivering much needed humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.
MPs returned to Parliament this week after an exhausting Conference season. The Government showcased its manifesto commitments as the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill had its second reading in the Lords on Monday while the Renters’ Rights Bill had its second reading in the Commons on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Conservatives played it safe with their precious opposition day debate time, choosing to focus on the introduction of VAT on independent schools and on farming and food security.
Threats from climate change have been ‘consistently and significantly undermined and now pose major security risks’, is the headline from the IPPR’s recent report. The report argues that previous governments have failed to view the climate as a national security risk, with action required as threats escalate at an alarming rate. The report also suggests that there are ‘worrying similarities’ to the situation prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, but cautions that climate threats pose greater security challenges than the virus. It recommends that the Government undertakes a rapid national security risk assessment of climate change and implements climate change as part of the Strategic Defence Review.
It's time to dust off those dancing shoes Ang, as Rayner was voted the most likely British Politician to win Strictly Come Dancing, with 11% of those polled by Ipsos believing she’d be best on the dancefloor (seemingly no surprise after her Ibiza antics), narrowly beating former PM Boris Johnson and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham (both on 10%). Of the 15 politicians to choose from, including names like Ed Davey, Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and Matt Hancock, the public have the least faith in Jacob Rees-Mogg’s two left feet, with just 3% thinking that he could lift the glitterball trophy.
Labour’s freebie row continued this week as another Swifty emerged – Yvette Cooper. The Home Secretary attended one of Taylor Swift’s London concerts for free back in August after allegedly pressuring Scotland Yard to give the singer a VIP police escort. The now-ousted Tory leadership candidate and Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly wrote to Cooper on Wednesday, arguing that the role of the Special Envoy Group is to provide professional mobile protection for royalty and Government Ministers and should not be used as “traffic assistants for pop stars”.
