Starmer voyages across the pond, Sadiq Khan promises to breathe life back into London and a by-election might be on the cards...
Read all about it in this week's Who's Top Who's Not.
Top – Sir Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer decided to play the game of diplomacy this week by flashing the one thing guaranteed to make President Donald Trump sit up and take notice –more money for defence. Specifically, a rise in military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, three years earlier than planned.
By pledging a boost to spending, Starmer not only scored brownie points across the pond, securing a firm (if not bone crushing) Trumpian handshake but also flexed his leadership credentials back home, proving that he could be a strong leader on the world stage.
But this win comes at a cost. Whilst the defence budget gets a boost, international aid takes a hit. The Labour manifesto promised to raise international development not cut it. Therefore, this announcement will no doubt leave backbenchers and charities feeling bitter, potentially storing up political trouble for the future.
Middle – Sadiq Khan
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced ambitious plans to add more than £100bn to the capital’s economy within the next 10 years. Khan unveiled the London Growth Plan and pledged hundreds of millions of pounds in funding to increase London’s productivity, hoping to bring it back to pre-2008 levels.
This is all well and good, but the proof is in the pudding as it would mean reversing the historic trend of a slowdown of growth rates over the last 15 years. There is also a risk that more money won’t necessarily solve the systemic issues Londoners report facing such as feeling unsafe, especially following reports that there will be staff cuts to the Metropolitan Police.
Following this announcement, Mayor of Greater Manchester and King in the North Andy Burnham argued that it is time for the focus to be taken away from the ‘golden triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge, claiming that the next general election will be won or lost in the north (new Labour and Lib Dem MPs in the southern shires may dispute this).
Bottom – Mike Amesbury
Mike Amesbury, former Labour MP for Runcorn and Helby, takes the bottom spot this week for obvious reasons.
On Monday he was given a 10-week prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to drunkenly punching a man on the street. However, it turns out that after appealing the sentence he will avoid prison altogether and instead faces 200 hours of unpaid work, anger management and an alcohol monitoring programme. Amesbury may have had a lucky escape (not literally), but it is not over yet.
Amesbury’s sentencing will likely trigger a recall process and then a by-election which would be Starmer’s first since becoming PM. To make matters worse, Reform were the runners up in Runcorn and Helby at the last general election, taking 18.1% of the vote. With Farage’s growing popularity in the polls and somewhat bold approach towards attacking the opposition (see Legal Eagle Jonny Reynolds), WTWN thinks that Labour will be apprehensive about their chances of success in any future by-election, and for good reason.