Sturgeon sighs in relief, Kendall out manoeuvres the Tories and Powell left with zero response.
Read all about it in this week's Who's Top Who's Not.
Top: Nicola Sturgeon
It’s been a tough few months for the former First Minister: the SNP lost dozens of seats to Labour at the general election and Sturgeon recently announced that she would not be standing for re-election for her seat in Holyrood at the next Scottish Parliamentary elections.
But Sturgeon will be delighted and relieved at this week’s news that the police will no longer be investigating her links to alleged embezzlement of party funds. After two years, of investigation, it must be a huge relief.
To refresh readers’ memories; Sturgeon, her estranged husband and former SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell, and former party treasurer Colin Beattie, were all arrested in June 2023 in connection with alleged financial mismanagement of the SNP’s coffers.
But, things are not so simple for either her ex-husband or the current SNP leader. Murrell has been charged with embezzlement, so his legal difficulties continue. And for current SNP leader John Swinney, he must deal with the political challenge of having his party’s finances still under the spotlight from the ongoing investigation into the SNP’s former chief executive. As long as this legal case continues, so will the SNP’s political pain.
Middle: Liz Kendall
The Spring Statement is now less than a week away, but the advanced pitch-rolling has been happening in earnest for some time.
With the Chancellor’s strict but self-imposed fiscal rules on borrowing deemed sacrosanct, and the government determined not to increase the record tax burden even further, there is only one other way to balance the books: cuts to public spending. We’ll find out on Wednesday where else the axe is falling but this week was all about benefits.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has been going back and forth with No.11 about exactly which part of the benefits bill to cut in order to save the taxpayer up to £5 billion. Stricter eligibility criteria to access PIP got most of the headlines - not least because of the heartbreaking personal stories of those set to lose out.
Labour tried to frame the changes around a moral argument in favour of getting people back into work, especially the nearly 1 million young people not in work. And the changes to give people the right to try returning to work "without the fear this will put their benefits at risk” is a credit to Kendall.
But whilst these changes have been forced by the poor economic situation, there is also plenty of politics at work. It is absolutely essential for Labour’s long-term economic – and therefore, electoral – credibility that they do not break Reeves's fiscal rules. But by having a big and public argument that has resulted in the government being seen to be cracking down on the benefits bill, Labour is also forcing the Tories further to the right and leaving them with no political space to occupy, not much new to say, and no one really listening.
Bottom: Lucy Powell
We’ve all been there; a slip of the tongue and then an urgent, embarrassed correction. But, few of us have had the unfortunate experience of doing it at the Dispatch Box in the House of Commons chamber.
This is a pain that the Leader of the House, Lucy Powell, now knows all too well.
At business questions this week, she was defending the government’s environmental commitments by declaring that “net zero will lower jobs”. Cue incredulity in the chamber, especially from the Tory benches as their leader had been saying much the same thing at the Conservatives’ local election launch.
Chin up, Lucy. And fewer Freudian slips next time.