Election survivors: All the MPs who only just held onto their seats December 13, 2019 With every General Election comes speculation that Westminster stalwarts and cabinet ministers might lose their seats, and this was no different. But for some, last night brought a sigh of relief, as campaigners hoping they would be ousted were proved wrong. Read more: General Election: Boris Johnson praises ‘stonking mandate’ for Brexit Theresa May For [...]
Sadiq Khan promises free travel for disabled people’s carers January 2, 2020 London’s public transport system will be free for anyone accompanying a disabled passenger if Sadiq Khan is re-elected. The Labour mayor of London has pledged to create a “companion pass” if he wins the May election, which would provide free travel on all Transport for London (TfL) services for carers of disabled people. Read more: [...]
Bercow criticised by House of Commons as peerage row rages on February 6, 2020 Former speaker John Bercow has been attacked by the House of Commons for naming staff members in his tell-all book of his time in the chair, which was published this morning. A spokesperson for the House of Commons said: “Staff work incredibly hard to enable the effective functioning of our democracy and have a right [...]
Labour leadership hots up as Rayner launches deputy bid, as Jess Phillips forced into Brexit u-turn January 6, 2020 The Labour leadership contest has intensified today, as the party’s national executive committee meets to thrash out the framework for the coming weeks. Angela Rayner has launched her bid for deputy leader, replacing Tom Watson who stood down during the election campaign, saying the party must “win or die”. The shadow education secretary, who at [...]
GE 2019: Labour takes aim at banker ‘hostility’, launching ‘radical’ manifesto with £20bn R&D fund November 21, 2019 Jeremy Corbyn will tomorrow (Thursday) launch Labour’s manifesto claiming that he “accepts the opposition and hostility of the rich and powerful” due to his “radical and ambitious plan” to transform the United Kingdom. Speaking in Birmingham, the Labour leader will compare himself to former US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who, Corbyn says, had to take [...]
The ‘graduate premium’ is little more than a myth — invest in further education instead February 5, 2020 Universities and their students are seldom out of the news. Ever since Tony Blair pledged to send 50 per cent of 18–21 year olds to university, they have been a persistent topic in political economy. University towns now notoriously favour Labour at the ballot box, often an island of red in a surrounding sea of [...]
Could AI help Rishi Sunak revive the UK economy? August 29, 2020 This was once meant to be the year the government balanced the books, a literal pay off for years of tight purse strings under George Osborne’s austerity programme. Instead, 2020 has seen government debt balloon to over £2 trillion. The coronavirus pandemic has meant UK spending has rocketed far beyond any previous peacetime records, leaving [...]
Brussels postpones Brexit delay decision October 25, 2019 The EU has pushed back the deadline to make a decision on how long a Brexit delay it will offer the UK. But EU leaders have agreed in principle to grant the UK a Brexit extension, the European Commission said today. Read more: The FTSE 100 is trading flat amid Brexit caution The EU’s chief [...]
Time for the Treasury to get with the programme — Britain can afford to spend February 19, 2020 In the days of the old Soviet Union, so-called Kremlinologists would pore over every utterance of the Politburo, every sentence in Pravda, to try to work out what was really going on. Sajid Javid’s defenestration from the Treasury has led to an upsurge in similar types of intellectual effort here. What was it really all [...]
Corbyn convenes Remainer alliance meeting August 22, 2019 Jeremy Corbyn will next week meet with leaders of various opposition parties, as well as senior backbench Tories, as the plan to block a no-deal Brexit gathers pace. The Labour leader has written to 10 MPs, including Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, Tories Dominic Grieve, Oliver Letwin, Guto Bebb and Caroline Spelman, and SNP Westminster [...]