The fallout from Boris's honours list continues to dominate this week's Who's Top Who's Not. Meanwhile, the political pressure piles on for the Chancellor, as interest rates and inflation show no sign of declining...
Flying high: Nadine Dorries
Queen of the Westminster Jungle, Nadine Dorries, is living her best life this week as she continues to have her cake and eat it, whilst also considering multiple career options.
Despite publicly committing to resigning her parliamentary seat, Dorries is sitting firm and is yet to formally take the plunge which means she continues as an MP. Despite her admirable commitment to parliamentary democracy, Nadine didn’t take the logical step of actually bothering to turn up to House of Commons this week to vote to protect her political soulmate, Boris Johnson.
The good people of Mid-Bedfordshire may be curious as to how their MP is representing their interests but they can find out for themselves by tuning into her programme on Talk TV (other Tory MP talk shows are also available).
Whilst Dorries takes forward the number one issue on the local doorstep – personally investigating why she was turned down for a peerage - WTWN hopes that Nadine continues to keep herself busy.
Middle ranking: Charlotte Owen
Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list casts a long shadow on WTWN this week as Charlotte Owen’s nomination for the Lords attracts scrutiny.
There is a viable argument to be made that the House of Lords would benefit from an injection of youth with experience of how the levers of power in government currently work. But questions have been raised about Ms Owen’s suitability, considering she was only a special adviser to Prime Minster Johnson for approximately a year.
The House of Lords operates at its best as a scrutinizing and revising chamber, carefully checking the power of the House of Commons which is why experience is such a valuable commodity in the upper chamber. But age is no guarantee of wisdom and Ms Owen’s suitability for a peerage should be judged on its own merits, rather than be clouded by any prejudice against her personally.
Sinking: Jeremy Hunt
The Chancellor faced a tough week as a continued rise in interest rates and the stubborn refusal of inflation to drop, piled on the political pressure.
Millions of households are feeling the effect; either directly (homeowners looking to remortgage, first-time-buyers) or indirectly (renters in properties owned by buy-to-let landlords, those coming to the end of their current mortgage deal and nervously tightening their belts in advance).
It is a perfect storm of economic pain and, when combined with the larger cost-of-living crisis, is sure to dominate the political debate in the foreseeable future.
The political implications for the Chancellor and the PM are not good. Millions of people are inevitably going to feel poorer by the time of the next general election and those are not the conditions under which one would expect the electorate to reward a 14-year government with another term in office.
With Labour riding high in the polls, UK debt still enormous, millions facing tough economic times and restless backbench Tories calling for tax cuts, Hunt and Sunak have no easy choices. They may have inherited a tough economic hand following the Truss-Kwasi mini-budget, but the voters will be in no mood to sympathize next year unless they feel the economy is genuinely turning a corner and their personal household finances improve.