Baby, It’s Cold Inside: Keir Starmer leaves Downing Street for his final PMQs before Christmas, at which Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch challenged him on the effect of winter fuel payment cuts on pensioners © Karl Black / Alamy Stock Photo
Devolution Revolution incoming… Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced a major local government shake-up with the release of the English Devolution White Paper on Monday. The 118-page document proposes the creation of a series of strategic authorities across England, and a mayor for every region, with greater powers over housing, transport and support for local businesses. This “devolution by default” approach aims to drive development in areas where progress has stalled. As local government is reformed, questions around next year’s local elections are already circulating… some elections may have to be postponed if their positions are effectively made redundant. Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage – ever focused on the next elections – was quick out the blocks to criticise the plans as a government tactic “to silence you.”
The Government ruled out compensation for WASPI women this week in what is being perceived as another U-turn since the election. Although Labour didn’t promise compensation for women who received delayed notice their state pension age was increasing almost 20 years ago, high profile campaigns by top Labour politicians including Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves certainly gave the appearance they would. “Betrayal” and “Hypocrisy” were two of the more publishable words used to describe the Government’s actions by campaigners and MPs (including on the Labour benches…) this week, with Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch using the opportunity to highlight the Government’s cuts to winter fuel payments, through which “pensioners will suffer and may even die” this winter.
14 former politicians have been elevated to the House of Lords in an announcement in no way delayed to the Friday before Christmas in order to avoid questions and scrutiny. The 38 strong list of new peers – 30 of whom will sit on the Labour benches – includes: Therese Coffey (Deputy PM under Liz Truss), Thangam Debbonaire (one of four Labour MPs to lose their seats at the last election), Carwyn Jones (former First Minister of Wales), Sue Gray (Keir Starmer’s former Chief of Staff), five former trade union leaders, and four former Labour staffers.
With this the last Roundup of 2024, and a well-earned break around the corner, we thought we’d take a look back at the eventful year in politics with this 2024 wrapped quiz (answers provided at the bottom of this email)
1. How many times since the election has the term “black hole” been mentioned by MPs in the Commons Chamber?
2. Reform UK saw exponential growth this year, but as of the start of December, how many members does it have?
3. How many Acts of Parliament were given Royal Assent this year?
4. Four by-elections took place this year before the General Election, in Wellingborough, Kingswood, Rochdale and Blackpool South. But who were the 4 new MPs and who did they replace?
5. How many MPs have appeared at the Despatch Box during PMQs?
6. The UK joined the CPTPP this year after the Conservative Government pushed through a deal, but what does CPTPP stand for?
7. How many First Ministers of the devolved nations have there been this year, and can you name them all?
8. Lib Dem leader Ed Davey was papped doing several stunts during the General Election campaign. Can you name the top 3 stunts to hit the headlines?
9. In total, what is the estimated costs of the scrapped Rwanda Plan, and how many migrants were relocated under the scheme?
10. How many MPs lost the whip or had it suspended this year?
11. Following the General Election, which MP was voted in with the smallest majority, and which the largest?
12. How many countries have had national level elections this year?
13. The Commons got a new Baby of the House in MP for North West Cambridgeshire Sam Carling. How many years younger is he than Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh?
14. How much money in tax rises did the Chancellor announce in the Autumn Budget?
15. Former MP Steve Baker went viral this year in a clip answering a question from Victoria Derbyshire, asking what he will do if he is no longer an MP, but what was his answer?
16. In how many constituencies did Onward’s Seb Payne run to be the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate?
4.75% - UK interest rate after the Bank of England voted to keep borrowing costs unchanged
£11.2bn - Government borrowing in November 2024, the lowest November borrowing for three years
£69bn - Funding provided to councils under the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement
3.5% - Rise in council tax bills to pay for an increase in funding for police forces next year
5.2% - Annual growth in employees’ average earnings between August and October 2024
6% - Fall in the price of a turkey this Christmas, with Brussels sprouts down by 12%
17 - Days until Parliament returns from Christmas recess
Defence Sec John Healey visited Kyiv on Wednesday to announce a new £225m package of military support to underpin a new plan for Ukraine’s defence. During his pre-Christmas visit he met with his Ukrainian counterpart in Kyiv to set out the five priority areas for UK defence support: an increase to Ukraine’s military capability, enhancing the training offered to Ukraine, strengthening defence industrial cooperation, increasing cooperation with allies to support Ukraine, and increasing pressure on Russia.
Peter Mandelson has been appointed UK Ambassador to the USA, the first political appointment in the role for almost half a century. Lord Mandelson – the former MP and New Labour power-broker – has been widely tipped for the role, as someone with the experience and clout to act as the UK’s chief go-between with the incoming Trump administration. It’s been rumoured the current Ambassador, Dame Karen Pierce, may take over as Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office next year.
Water bills are due to rise by £31 per year on average for the next five years after the regulator Ofwat approved a £104bn upgrade to the UK’s water and sewage infrastructure, to accelerate the delivery of cleaner rivers and seas and secure long-term drinking water supplies for customers.
Baroness Margaret Hodge has been appointed to lead a review of Arts Council England. The former chair of the high profile Public Accounts Committee will examine the use of the organisation’s £428m annual budget, with close attention expected to be paid to its distribution of funding outside London.
Business Sec Jonathan Reynolds held the first meeting of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, which includes business leaders from companies such as Octopus Energy, Microsoft, Rolls-Royce and McKinsey, as well as from trade unions, academia, and the former Conservative Business Secretary Greg Clark. He also confirmed the Government's response to the consultation on the new Industrial Strategy will be published alongside the Spending Review in 2025.
The Police budget will increase by almost £1bn next year under new plans announced this week – a 3.5% real-terms increase, which the Home Office has said will cover the costs of the police officer pay awards and fund the recruitment and redeployment of more neighbourhood police and PSCOs.
Parents homeschooling their children will need to register with their local council, as part of new measures to be introduced under the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill published this week. Designed to stop children falling through the cracks, parents will also no longer have an automatic right to educate their children at home if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or is under a child protection plan.
British diplomats have met with representatives from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham in Syria, the Government confirmed this week. After the dramatic and sudden overthrow of the Assad regime less than two weeks ago, senior officials from the Foreign Office travelled to Damascus for discussions. HTS is still a proscribed terrorist group in the UK; however the International Development Minister stated this week that this “will not inhibit the pursuit of our foreign policy objectives in Syria”.
With a staggering 38 written ministerial statements published this week, it’s safe to say the Government pushed the definition of ‘day’ in the traditional ‘take-out-the-trash day’, to the absolute limit, with updates on driving test numbers, homelessness, military housing, another potential Post Office IT debacle, payments following the Infected Blood scandal, and news the now downgraded Spring Statement will take place on 26th March next year – in line with Rachel Reeves pledge at the Budget to deliver only “one major fiscal event a year”.
In the House of Commons Chamber, MPs wrapped up the pre-Christmas business with the second reading of the Water (Special Measures) Bill, a lengthy debate on the National Insurance Contributions Bill, and the usual raise-every-issue-you-can-in-four-minutes pre-adjournment debate, in which 20 backbenchers managed to squeeze in thanks to Tom, Dick and Harry for their support whilst asking half the frontbench to visit their constituencies in 2025.
The Lords continued their consideration of the Football Governance Bill and Great British Energy Bill – both at the committee stage, but managed to squeeze in just the two debates on the rural economy and China, due to the need to debate nine statements and two urgent questions repeated from the Commons.
With just five days until Christmas, YouGov released a new poll surveying what people like the most about Christmas. The top answers came in as spending time with loved ones, nothing, and time off work, with food only just sliding into fourth spot (shocking). Meanwhile, respondents’ least favourite things about Christmas were it being too commercialised, the expense and the pressure of choosing/buying presents.
The Prime Minister continues to face low approval ratings as the year draws to a close, according to Ipsos polling, with only 27% of Brits satisfied with Starmer’s performance and 61% dissatisfied – resulting in a net satisfaction score of -34. This doesn’t compare well with previous PM’s at similar points in their first terms, such as Boris Johnson at -20, Gordon Brown at -23 and Margaret Thatcher at -3. However, Starmer’s loss has not exactly been not to Badenoch’s gain, with 47% of people saying they don’t know the new Conservative leader enough to give her rating, and only 19% of people satisfied compared to 34% dissatisfied.
Revamping asylum policy was the topic of the Institute for Government’s latest report, which argued that ‘the Government must exert its authority over the whole asylum system and avoid short-sighted measures aimed at conjuring an illusion of control.’ The report calls on the Government to ‘break away’ from the current reactive policy, and look to set a new approach grounded in an annual Migration Plan which would lay out asylum and migration aims and how they would be met.
In our final You’ve Got to Laugh of 2024, we’ve taken a look back at some of the oddest, funniest and most bizarre moments from the year…
That time an MP mistakenly sent his knighthood nomination to his colleagues… It’s safe to say former Science Minister George Freeman MP didn’t have the best week. First he complained in a blog post that he was forced to quit as a Government Minister because he couldn’t afford his £2,000 per month mortgage on a £118,000 ministerial salary, and then accidentally sent a letter nominating him for a knighthood to a WhatsApp group of over 100 Tory MPs… not ideal.
That time an MP shared his WiFi password with the world… Parliament2015! That’s William Wragg MP’s parliamentary Wi-Fi password… well, we assume/hope his staff have changed it by now… h/t to PoliticsJoe’s Political Correspondent Ava Evans for spotting the security breach in a photoshoot to accompany an article in The Observer.
That time a Tory social media officer got carried away on 14th February… Valentine’s Day was on Wednesday, and the official Conservative X account got in on the action, sharing a series of rather embarrassing/gross/vomit inducing posts on the topic of the ‘Starmer Sutra’. The Conservatives labelled it as a quick guide on ‘how to hold multiple positions at the same time’, with an image of the Labour leader breakdancing/doing an upside down splits/in the shape of a U (to highlight the number of U-Turns).
That time new Voter ID rules came back to bite… Boris Johnson was turned away from the polling station yesterday after he forgot to bring photo ID, a new rule which was introduced by… you guessed it, Boris Johnson! Don’t worry though, he did return to vote with ID later and luckily for everyone wondering, his spokesperson confirmed that he did indeed vote Conservative.
That time Therese Coffey appeared not to know her geography… We can probably all agree Therese Coffey does know Kigali is the capital of Rwanda, after a clip of her contribution to the Rwanda Bill debate in Parliament appeared to suggest the opposite, went viral.
That time Rishi Sunak delivered a full speech in the rain… Unsurprisingly the PM was the butt of most jokes this week, with his bizarre decision to deliver the announcement whilst getting progressively sopping wet… leading to some great memes. Hats off to the TUC for their getting out the blocks quickly.
That time Labour’s tax plans went too far for one voter… don’t worry if you’re struggling to keep up with all the policy pledges being churned out, you’re not alone. This scoop from the Guardian explains the story of Labour candidate Karl Turner, who when out campaigning to defend his seat, was told by a voter in Hull that he couldn’t possibly vote for the Labour Party as he heard from the TV that Labour plan to tax condoms… only for Turner’s Parliamentary Assistant to work out the misunderstanding and explain that the policy was, in fact… to tax non-doms.
That time the Policing Minister’s bag was stolen… in a hotel full of Police… In an absolutely textbook case of "you couldn't make this up", Policing Minister Diana Johnson was busy telling a room full of police about an "epidemic of antisocial behaviour, theft, and shoplifting" when someone decided to give her speech a live demo — by stealing her bag.
That time Kemi Badenoch aired her working class credentials… With six weeks still to go in the Tory leadership election, Kemi Badenoch was back in action, revealing the moment she discovered she had become working class… when she started working in McDonalds…
That time the party conferences gave us all the material we needed… the collision of the anachronistic party conference with the social media age was always going to produce some interesting results. This year saw TikTok sponsor music events at both conferences, with predictably ridiculous results. Last week, it featured former Attorney General Emily Thornberry deliver a DJ set featuring pop star Charli XCX’s ‘365’, a song which explicitly describes taking cocaine. This week, attendees at Conservative conference were treated to a performance by none other than Peter Andre himself, during which he reportedly ‘gyrated’ (the Evening Standard’s words, not ours) alongside former Cabinet Minister Therese Coffey.
That time the public were asked for help to fix the NHS… Bad news for Wetherspoons fans: Health Secretary Wes Streeting has nixed the idea of installing the pub chain in every hospital ‘to reduce the rates of mental illness’, joking that the idea was vetoed by the Chancellor during Budget talks. Streeting recently launched a call for new ideas to improve the NHS, and some responses went way beyond thinking outside the box. One genius idea suggested putting Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who currently knows a thing or two about injuries, in charge of the health service, while another called for Downing Street’s own Larry the Cat, to replace Streeting.
1. How many times since the election has the term “black hole” been mentioned by MPs in the Commons Chamber? - 361
2. Reform UK saw exponential growth this year, but as of the start of December, how many members does it have? - 105,000
3. How many Acts of Parliament were given Royal Assent this year? - 25
4. Four by-elections took place this year before the General Election, in Wellingborough, Kingswood, Rochdale and Blackpool South. But who were the 4 new MPs and who did they replace? - Gen Kitchen, Damien Egan, George Galloway (remember him), and Chris Webb, replacing Peter Bone, Chris Skidmore, Tony Lloyd and Scott Benton
5. How many MPs have appeared at the Despatch Box during PMQs? - 6 (Kemi Badenoch, Alex Burghart, Oliver Dowden, Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak)
6. The UK joined the CPTPP this year after the Conservative Government pushed through a deal, but what does CPTPP stand for? - Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership
7. How many First Ministers of the devolved nations have there been this year, and can you name them all? - 6: Mark Drakeford, Vaughan Gething, Eluned Morgan, John Swinny, Humza Yousef, Michelle O’Neill
8. Lib Dem leader Ed Davey was papped doing several stunts during the General Election campaign. Can you name the top 3 stunts to hit the headlines? - Paddle boarding in Lake Windemere, sliding down a slip’n’slide and bungee jumping in Eastbourne.
9. In total, what is the estimated costs of the scrapped Rwanda Plan, and how many migrants were relocated under the scheme? - £700m and 4. That’s £175m per person
10. How many MPs lost the whip or had it suspended this year? - 13 (for the geeks that’s: Kate Osamor, Lee Anderson, Jeffrey Donaldson, Mark Menzies, Lucy Allan, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgeon, Ian Burne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey, John McDonnell, Zarah Sultana, and Mike Amesbury)
11. Following the General Election, which MP was voted in with the smallest majority, and which the largest? - Hendon’s David Pinto-Duschinsky (on 15) and Bootle’s Peter Dowd (on 21,983)
12. How many countries have had national level elections this year? - 66 (plus the EU election)
13. The Commons got a new Baby of the House in MP for North West Cambridgeshire Sam Carling. How many years younger is he than Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh? - 52
14. How much money in tax rises did the Chancellor announce in the Autumn Budget? - £40bn
15. Former MP Steve Baker went viral this year in a clip answering a question from Victoria Derbyshire, asking what he will do if he is no longer an MP, but what was his answer? - “skydiving, motorcycling, fast catamaran sailing”
16. In how many constituencies did Onward’s Seb Payne run to be the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate? - 5
