The View from Westminster
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Thursday, December 14, 2023 |
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Wishing you a centrist Christmas |
I was at the Tony Blair institute's Christmas party last night. The Master said he was glad to see everyone – literally, because he had new contact lenses. He said he had finally been embarrassed into getting them after warmly greeting someone he knew at an airport, and finding himself engaged in conversation with a random South African tourist, who recognised him. The former prime minister said he had been talking to "eight or nine" Labour junior frontbenchers that morning, and had been impressed by their "high quality", he said.
The event was packed with centrists, including at least two Conservative MPs – Tobias Ellwood, whose Bournemouth East seat is a Labour target; and Greg Clark, the former business secretary – along with Professor Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's former chief scientific adviser. |
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Which is the only south-east Asian country that wasn't colonised by Europeans? |
Answer at the bottom of today's email |
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| 'We don't agree with that', says prime minister |
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| Conservative MP faces 35-day Commons ban for gambling scandal |
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| The leader of the House mocked the Scottish National Party with a version of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' |
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Articles driving the biggest conversations |
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What else do you need to know today? |
● Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, was asked awkward questions about Brexit at the Lords European Affairs committee, including whether the trade deal should be renegotiated: he said it was better to "make the most of what we've got," and: "I don't think trying to reopen it and change the nature of it is what we should be doing" ● The plan for a trial in Redcar of hydrogen generated by electricity as a possible green alternative to natural gas for home heating has been cancelled; this is a big setback for hopes of that technology ● Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, trumpeted a 60,000 reduction in NHS waiting lists in October's figures, the backlog of treatments falling from 7.77m to 7.71m |
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| ● I wrote about Rishi Sunak's sinking popularity – he is now about as unpopular as Boris Johnson was at the end, but that doesn't mean the Tories were wrong to get Johnson out ● Anna McShane for Labour List says Keir Starmer will fail if he isn't bold enough ● Louise Boyle on who cheered and who jeered, behind the scenes at Cop28 |
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A look back at the week in Westminster |
The big event of the week was Tuesday's vote on the Rwanda bill. After Robert Jenrick's damaging resignation as immigration minister last week, the government recovered some ground, managing the vote, and the expectations of the vote, skilfully. The vote on the principle of the bill was carried with a government majority of 44, which should be enough to get the bill through all its Commons stages. My big problem with it is that I don't see how the Rwanda policy, even if it comes into operation, would act as a serious deterrent to people crossing the Channel in small boats. Not that I have a plausible alternative. |
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"Politics is a completely different game from campaigning and Mr Farage has never done it. He doesn't want to do it and he wouldn't be very good at it." Philip Collins |
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