James Cleverly takes a shock exit, Keir Starmer is trying to feel less Grey, and did you know, Parliament has an MP with a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt!?
Read all about it in this week’s Who’s Top Who’s Not!
Top: Will Stone MP
To all those who were disappointed that the Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg cage fight never happened, we’ve got the next best thing. Will Stone, Labour MP for Swindon North will take on a pro MMA fighter in a globally renowned ‘grappling’ competition next month.
Before becoming a politician, Stone spent 17 years as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) athlete and ran his own training gym, 10th Planet, in Swindon. He then became a rifleman in the British Army when he was 20 but carried on with the sport and took part in world championship competitions.
He has since handed over ownership of the gym to focus on being an MP, but Stone wants to use his position to get more people into BJJ. The MP will be donating his fee for the competition to a mental health charity in Swindon. WTWN always wanted to see an MP try and get out of an armbar – good luck!
Middle: Keir Starmer MP and Sue Gray
It has been a rough few weeks for the Prime Minister and his most powerful (and highest paid) Chief of Staff, Sue Gray. Freebie-gate, internal squabbling, and the winter fuel payment cut have created a bad look for a Prime Minister basing his campaign on “change”. To the public, it has looked like more of the same.
Sir Keir Starmer’s approval rating, which was at a high of +11 after the election, has plummeted to -33, according to a More in Common poll. And worse of all, a YouGov poll released on Monday found six in 10 people (59%) now describe the Labour government as “sleazy”.
Starmer is hoping to push the reset button after the resignation of Gray, whom many blamed for some of the missteps. Gray was meant to be the epitome of ethics, who drew up the structures of the No 10 operation and vetted appointments. Gray was also keen to keep a tight grip on special advisers – not a group you want to antagonise if you want smooth operations in government and to avoid negative briefings.
For Starmer, the appointment of Morgan McSweeney, the new Chief of Staff, has been viewed as the needed rescue remedy to get over the headache of Starmer’s first 100 days. Morgan is viewed as a much more political person and credited with Labour’s landslide victory. But for Starmer, this means there are no more excuses and with more bad news likely in the Budget, he needs to get his house in order. And quick.
Bottom: James Cleverly MP
For a supposed side-show event, the Tory leadership contest has certainly been an entertaining one. Wednesday’s shock result saw James Cleverly, the frontrunner the day before, eliminated from the leadership contest.
After a strong performance at the Conservative Party Conference, it was assumed that Cleverly’s place was guaranteed. Representing the centre of the party, he was starting to win over members and had a good chance of winning the whole thing. The two main theories are that Team Cleverly attempted vote lending to have an easier opponent in the final two and it backfired. The other is that vote lending took place on Tuesday by Jenrick supporters, temporarily and artificially boosting Cleverly.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats will be pleased with this result as both Cleverly and Tugendhat were the most popular contenders amongst the public. Now, the next Tory leader will either be Jenrick who some deem inauthentic, or Badenoch who is gaff-prone and threatens to reduce statutory maternity pay. We now potentially face a contest over who can be the most right-wing and if so, the Tories could be looking at a long spell in the wilderness.