An action-packed week in Westminster as the Government bets on gambling reform and Kemi crumbles under the pressure at PMQs.
Read all about it in this week's Who's Top Who's Not!
Top: Heidi Alexander MP
Heidi Alexander is going full steam ahead, having just announced dates for nationalising the first rail services, following the passing of the Rail Public Ownership Bill last month. Alexander has only been Secretary of State for Transport for a matter of days, so being able to announce that major steps are being taken on the road (rail?) to nationalisation is a huge win for her.
Labour has received criticism for not being clear about its plans for delivering on promises, but rail is one of the few areas where such a criticism would be un-fare. With dates provisionally nailed down for rail operators like c2c, southwestern and Greater Anglia by Autumn 2025 – most southern rail operators could be nationalised within a year of Labour coming into power.
However, in true train spirit, there could be a delay. The problem with confidently announcing huge changes by a certain date, is the opposition will have that marked in the calendars, ready to clobber Labour with if they do not meet the deadline they’ve set for themselves. Have they just made a rod for their own back, or will it be smooth rail-ing from here on out?
Middle-ranking: Keir Starmer MP
Starmer wowed voters on Thursday morning when he unveiled his “plan for change” with the government’s aims over the next five years that focus on: raising living standards, rebuilding Britain, ending hospital backlogs, increasing police numbers, giving children the best start in life and securing home grown energy. Sound familiar, mission fans?
Whilst commendable that Starmer wants to reinforce the core goals of a Labour government through tangible measurements, the milestones add few additional details, so they beg more questions than answers. For example, why is controlling migration not a milestone? Migration has repeatedly been noted as one of Labour’s top priorities, so why the shift?
It may not have been the intention of the Labour government for the milestones to replace the missions, with the missions appearing to be a framing of what the government generally wants to prioritise, whilst the milestones are the measurements of whether the government has achieved those ambitions. However, ultimately, it doesn’t matter – if the Labour government does not make the public feel better, it will be of very little comfort to voters that “75% of five-year-olds in England are ready to learn when they start school”.
It's still early days for the Labour government, but until they can bring about material change in the lives of voters and make them feel good about a Labour government, no amount of missions, milestones or metrics will save them from this one question: can Starmer’s government actually deliver?
Not: Yvette Cooper MP
The elephant in the room for any government is migration, and the impossible challenge it represents. Labour would use every opportunity they had whilst in opposition to criticise the then Conservative government’s migration figures. Now that Labour is in the hot seat, the pressure is on.
Not helpful, then, for Home Secretary Yvette Cooper that an unusually high number of migrants have been able to cross the channel. Despite Labour having also delivered increased deportations since being in power, as long as voters feel that migration is out of control, the pressure to curb small boats will continue.
Short of doing a Hadrian and building a wall around the UK, any measures Cooper does initiate won’t take effect for months – long after the credibility of Ministers blaming the Conservatives has worn off. It’s an impossible challenge and one that successive governments have failed to adequately meet. However, as it’s such an important issue to voters, Cooper must find a way to be seen to be tackling it – and fast.