An unlikely alliance has formed in Westminster, Keir Starmer schmoozed businesses at his investment summit and Louise Haigh found herself in Starmer's bad books.
Read all about it in this week's Who's Top Who's Not.
Top: Gavin Williamson MP
Sir Gavin Williamson, an unlikely frontrunner for this week’s WTWN, has emerged from the shadows to recruit an even more unlikely accomplice, Jeremy Corbyn, to take down the bishops of the realm - a dynamic duo that was surely on no-one’s bingo card.
Referring to his ‘socialist roots’, Williamson waged war on the Church of England to attempt to amend Labour’s Hereditary Peers Bill to remove the right of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Lords Spiritual from to sit in the Upper House in pursuit of ‘a fairer and more reflective chamber’.
Supported by the National Secular Society, the amendment Williamson has tabled to the reform Bill is backed by a cohort of Tory MPs, including Andrew Murrison who joined the debate claiming that the bishops should instead ‘focus on the cure of souls’, as well as Jezza himself, of course.
Although the former Secretary of State’s amendment has little chance of passing, he’s put Starmer and his MPs in a tight spot. Voting the amendment down would be embarrassing as the amendment aligns with many Labour MP’s personal beliefs and the amendment is arguably in line with the values of what the legislation seeks to achieve. But for now, Labour had no plans to extend the Bill beyond the removal of hereditary peers as a first step towards reforming the House of Lords.
Middle: Keir Starmer MP
Keir Starmer’s first 100 days in power have by no means been smooth sailing, but Starmer’s International Investment Summit has generally been perceived as a success, securing £63 billion and nearly 38,000 jobs for the UK. 200 leading executives attended the swanky event, hailed as a ‘reset moment’ for Starmer who declared ‘Britain is back and open for business’.
Starmer’s speech promised stability after the chop and change culture of recent years under the Tories and he vowed to ‘rip up bureaucracy that blocks investment’ and prioritise the PM’s first mission- economic growth.
Questions emerged about how Labour’s growth plan can stack up against the new rights for workers which will be introduced via the Employment Rights Bill. These were quelled by Starmer who insisted that providing greater security and higher wages to workers ‘is a better growth model for this country’.
Though the mood was optimistic, budget speculation dominated many conversations and much of national media throughout the week. Business executives will watch the budget with eagle eyes to see if these promises become a reality. Still, it’s not every Monday you tuck into a three Michelin-starred meal, alongside the King, in St Pauls Cathedral, with a front row seat to Sir Elton John.
Bottom: Louise Haigh MP
Louise Haigh has made her way into Keir Starmer’s bad books, emerging as the first Cabinet Minister to be thrown under the bus (very apt for a Transport Secretary) by the PM.
Haigh’s attacks on P&O, dubbing them a ‘rogue operator’ and encouraging people to boycott them, were ill timed ahead of the investment summit as Starmer prepared to schmooze DP World for £1 billion investment. Downing Street consequently felt the need to distance the PM from Haigh’s remarks. Parent company DP World withdrew from the summit, albeit briefly, over the remarks but still attended Monday’s event and confirmed their investment.
Despite her telling off, Haigh was undeterred in throwing her weight behind Deputy PM Rayner and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood in expressing alarm at Reeves’ upcoming budget. Speculation has emerged that the Transport Secretary is running out of lives and may be penalised in the first reshuffle. An alternative reading would be that Haigh is making a name for herself by standing up for the politically-salient workers’ rights and fiercely pushing for greater infrastructure investment for her department.
More importantly, the blunders point to the failure of No. 10’s grid to provide a consistent narrative. What Starmer does next will be a defining moment in his leadership.