Starmer's decision to treat Farage as "the real opposition"; the political calculation, the risks, the polling. Contributions from @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social John Curtice and Nigel Farage "laughing his socks off" www.ft.com/content/2715...
Political Editor Financial Times, former FT bureau chief in Brussels. Presenter R4 Week in Westminster. Crystal Palace and Somerset CCC supporter
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Starmer's decision to treat Farage as "the real opposition"; the political calculation, the risks, the polling. Contributions from @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social John Curtice and Nigel Farage "laughing his socks off" www.ft.com/content/2715...
on.ft.com/4jHhvkF Rachel Reeves and a defining moment for her chancellorship - analysis of the Spending Review with Sam Fleming
"REEVES RETREAT RESTORES WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS TO PENSIONERS" @georgewparker.bsky.social for @financialtimes.com. Chancellor #RachelReeves will restore Winter Fuel Payments to all but 2 million pensioners with income of more than £35,000. #FinancialTimes #IBPAPERS #TomorrowsPapersToday
Rachel Reeves and the spending review bunfight. Excellent chat with @robertshrimsley.bsky.social @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social and Sam Fleming www.ft.com/content/892d...
New - Big Reeves announcement coming on transport, including new line from Manchester to Liverpool, ahead of Spending Review on June 11. @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social and me www.ft.com/content/9e2d...
Starmer v Farage and Reeves’s fiscal fix, dissected by the brilliant @stephenkb.bsky.social @chrisgiles.ft.com and @annasophiegross.bsky.social - plus hot @lucyfisher.ft.com baby news www.ft.com/content/c005...
great story from @annasophiegross.bsky.social
"Crossing the Rubicon"? Treasury confirms it will legislate for "reserve powers" to tell pension funds to put billions of pounds of savers' money into private assets. Good move to get more cash into the British economy or a dangerous state power grab? www.ft.com/content/a637...
New Big cuts to civil service on the way as part of the spending review squeeze (but only heading back towards where numbers were before Brexit and Covid) www.ft.com/content/1311...
📻Starmer - happier on the world stage? @georgewparker.bsky.social in the hotseat with @pmdfoster.bsky.social and myself, plus @andybounds.bsky.social in Brussels on all this hyperactive dealmaking. www.ft.com/content/1789...
Gimps, overnight train journeys to Kyiv, late steel deals, 11th hour Macron blessings, commas. Inside the EU deal with @andybounds.bsky.social on.ft.com/4j6oVNT
New: Deal done. All the details. @andybounds.bsky.social and me. EU diplomats say Britain has agreed a 12-year extension of fisheries access to UK waters..but disappointed by wording on youth mobility. Big econ win for UK - unlimited agrifood trade deal www.ft.com/content/78f1...
What you really want, when you want your opponents to stay divided, is to give a clear steer as to which one the main rival is. All that and more in this terrific read by @georgewparker.bsky.social:
New - latest on today's US/UK trade deal. Limited focus on most affected areas - cars and steel - but hopes in London that Britain might swerve future Trump tariffs on pharma. Cuts to UK tariffs on US goods, inc cars/meat expected. Details about 3pm www.ft.com/content/8115...
EXC: Pentagon wants UK military to focus more on Europe and less on Asia, in a major policy shift from Biden administration, which pushed European allies to boost Indo-Pac activity to send a strong signal to China From Demetri Sevastopulo & me 👇 on.ft.com/4iTeDRi
FT leak from imminent immigration white paper: “Migrants in the UK would need to wait longer before they could apply to make their residency permanent under plans being drawn up by the Labour government as part of a crackdown on foreigners coming to work in Britain.” www.ft.com/content/afa1...
New - Keir Starmer's vaunted industrial strategy targets sky high industrial energy costs. “If we don’t deal with uncompetitive energy prices, it doesn’t really matter what else we do,” said one government official. www.ft.com/content/7c49...
New - EU negotiations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds tells the FT a "smart, controlled" youth mobility scheme is on the table as part of a big package. “I don’t worry about selling something that we believe would make the UK more secure and more prosperous,” he said. www.ft.com/content/d2d9...
Great scoop by @pickardje.bsky.social and @pmdfoster.bsky.social
Apocalypse now. Analysis with @lucyfisher.ft.com on what Farage’s advance means for Starmer and Badenoch on.ft.com/42Zq6ZA
Farage declares end of two party politics on day of electoral destruction for Starmer and Badenoch. News wrap at end of a big day with @pickardje.bsky.social and @lucyfisher.ft.com on.ft.com/44lfwyh
Analysis of a transformational night in British politics www.ft.com/content/59d1...
New - Jamie Dimon boost for Reeves' new bid to talk up the economy: "They have reinforced their commitments to an open economy, strengthening of infrastructure and the stability of markets — all of which is good for investor confidence.” www.ft.com/content/95ab...
“I asked if we could get a cherrypicker so I could fix the church roof here." Ed Davey on the trail, admitting some self-doubt about all the stunts. “It was outside of my comfort zone. I would come back in the evening and ask: “Are you sure this is right?” www.ft.com/content/8089...
🌟 Latest FT Political Fix features a star turn re the bond markets from @katie0martin.ft.com as @georgewparker.bsky.social and I plus host @lucyfisher.ft.com hang on her every word www.ft.com/content/30ca... - plus a chat on Starmer's Q1 performance
Lunch with the FT with Theresa May: holding hands with Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, coughing fits, Tories under Badenoch, geography - the former PM opens up in a rare personal interview. Washed down with a dry Gavi www.ft.com/content/f2ba...
Today's FT Inside Politics (while @stephenkb.bsky.social is away), featuring Reeves' EU gambit, tariff baseline blues, the magnificent Exmoor coast and the great RSC show at Soho Place, Kyoto www.ft.com/content/b584...
New - Rachel Reeves tells the @FT that closer EU/UK trade ties "imperative" in wake of Trump trade war and claims that Britain is a safe haven for investors in the midst of the chaos. With @DanielThomasLDN www.ft.com/content/f51a...
Superb investigation into the extraordinary saga gripping Unite by @pickardje.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/9e17...
A bit of brighter economic news from the US: Universal about to finalise deal with Treasury to build Europe's biggest theme park in a disused Bedford brickworks. with @danielthomasldn.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/5eb3...
Great story by @annasophiegross.bsky.social
Analysis: The chancellor called it a Spring Statement. The Conservatives called it an Emergency Budget. In practice, Rachel Reeves’ 33-minute statement to MPs had all the hallmarks of a holding operation. www.ft.com/content/cc19...
New - big news in the free speech debate as Sussex Uni hit with record fine. Sasha Roseneil, vice-chancellor, said the regulator had decreed “free speech absolutism as the fundamental principle” for universities. With @pmdfoster.bsky.social on.ft.com/3FDYHEu
Spring Statement: 25 minutes packed with bad news but is there worse to come. A look ahed to a difficult 2025. With Sam Fleming www.ft.com/content/f4ad...
New - @jreynoldsMP and UK negotiators in 72-hour push to keep US April 2 tariffs to a minimum. UK official: "Some friends of the US will be in the tent and others who will be outside. Our aim is to be in the tent.” UK digital sales tax being discussed www.ft.com/content/9f8a...
Jonathan Powell: Northern Ireland peacemaker at the heart of the Ukraine talks. A look at his role and career with @lucyfisher.ft.com www.ft.com/content/748a...
New - Isa reforms on the way, but not in the Spring Statement. Reeves "wants to continue to support cash savings whilst earning better returns for savers, boosting the culture of retail investment, and supporting the growth mission" www.ft.com/content/2212...
With £9.9bn fiscal headroom wiped out, Reeves looks to billions of pounds of cuts. Welfare cuts, efficiency savings, another red tape crackdown and NHS productivity drive incoming www.ft.com/content/c479...
New - Healey in DC for key talks as "parameters" of UK/FR/UKR peace deal take shape. Great relief in London that Zelenskyy preparing to sign minerals deal and up for initial air/sea truce. But crucially Trump still not on board for military backstop www.ft.com/content/fe6c...
New “This is not a moment for more talk. It’s a time to act, to step up and lead.” Full report on today’s Lancaster House summit, as Starmer urges more EU leaders to join the “coalition of the willing” in Ukraine on.ft.com/3Xodqtl
New - European leaders to work out peace deal with Zelenskyy before presenting it to Trump - but no sign of the US military "backstop" needed to make it work. Starmer says "coalition of willing" - led by UK and France - will put in troops to secure a truce www.ft.com/content/1370...
“What Ukraine needs now is guns and butter. It doesn’t need people tweeting and virtue signalling.” British official. on.ft.com
White House/Ukraine, what Texan prisons policy can teach us, Tory MPs behaving badly and missiles v aid, all coming up @BBCRadio4 Week in Westminster at 11am. ☕️
Breaking - Starmer to warn Trump that any Ukraine peace deal will ultimately fail without US security guarantee. Trump not so keen. Report from Keir Force One en route to crunch talks at White House on.ft.com/41gbgwQ
I see the Treasury are still saying we're going to spend £13.4bn more on defence by 2027. And Starmer says it will be entirely covered by cuts to the aid budget. So always ask ministers: is aid being cut by £13.4bn? Clue: the UK spent £15.3bn on aid in 2023
Everything has changed: Analysis of Starmer's big defence announcement and Britain's big retreat from its former role as "an aid superpower". With @lucyfisher.ft.com www.ft.com/content/9d8c...
IFS Ben Zaranko says Starmer's claim that defence spending will be £13.4bn higher after 2027 is "misleading" and "frustrating" and must assume the defence budget would otherwise have been frozen in cash terms. Difference between 2.3% GDP and 2.5% is about £6bn
New - Rachel Reeves to discuss new defence funding models with EU counterparts at G20 in Cape Town this week (as everyone looks for ways around their fiscal rules) on.ft.com/4idXiCt
This is a very neat way of illustrating the essential weirdness of the Starmer project by @georgewparker.bsky.social:
New - Rachel Reeves allies signal a loosening of the purse strings on defence: “The world is obviously changing. Governments have to adapt to a changing world. Rachel takes national security incredibly seriously — a secure economy requires secure defence.” www.ft.com/content/664b...
German railways worse than ours, shock. Or at least it will come as a shock to Olaf Scholz. Great bit of research by Jonny Vincent and Olaf Storbeck www.ft.com/content/d3b6...
BINGO! Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has called on the Prime Minister to recall Parliament to discuss plans to defend Ukraine
on.ft.com/3QmxaJJ New - end of the road for some of Britain’s 130-plus regulators as Reeves launches new growth push?
Still wrestling with this. How does “dealing with” what is said or taught at universities square with free speech? And who decides what sort of non-poisonous things people should be allowed to hear to foster their belief in Britain? The state?
Richard Walker, executive chair of food retailer Iceland, has given the Labour party a lacklustre “six out of 10” for its performance in government despite having introduced Sir Keir Starmer at the launch of his election manifesto last summer www.ft.com/content/5a06...
Kemi Badenoch this morning: "A country cannot be successful if its people and intellectual elite don’t believe in it. This means dealing with the poisoning of minds through higher education."
Bridge over troubled waters? Or wishful thinking? www.ft.com/content/3b31...
New - Jonathan Reynolds says that if Trump levies 25% tariffs on UK steel/aluminium, Britain would "revert" back to a position of imposing tariffs on US jeans, motorbikes and whiskey. They were suspended in March 2022 under deal with Biden. That deal would "fall away". www.ft.com/content/4298...
As usual, even better with a coffee in print! Also worth reading in conjunction with the excellent @robertshrimsley.bsky.social review of Get In - and the central role played by Mandelson ally Morgan McSweeney
Thanks James
Thanks Rachel!
On his relationship with Epstein. “I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell,” he says. “I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women.” An icy chill descends. “It’s an FT obsession and frankly you can all fuck off. OK?”
He is busy in London during the week but then he longs to “return from whence I came and to the sheep and cattle of the Vale of Pewsey”. There’s a twinkle in his eye as he delivers this Hardy-esque paean to English country life: the adjective “arch” was invented for him.
NEW - Peter Mandelson @FT interview: “I’ve always been capable of being diplomatic.” Reveals George W Bush calls him "Silvertongue". His Trumpian critics "young minds ploughing their own furrow on a sea of too much inauguration alcohol". Quote gold from our new man in DC
this is such a brilliant interview/profile with Peter Mandelson by @georgewparker.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/085e...
Positive Trump comments about Starmer overnight will fuel hopes in No10 that UK isn't in the firing line and that he won't block Chagos deal or appointment of Mandelson www.ft.com/content/ed30...
Look at how Rachel Reeves is trying to use the barrage of bad economic news to do politically contentious stuff on growth. Tories say she is out of her depth / some privately egging her on. With @danielthomasldn.bsky.social @pickardje.bsky.social and @annasophiegross.bsky.social
New - Reeves seeks to intervene in estimated £44bn car loan misselling case in the Supreme Court. Treasury claims it could damage Britain's reputation as a business location, damage lenders and hit access to affordable car loans for consumers. www.ft.com/content/fcba...
great interview by @georgewparker.bsky.social over dumplings and mushrooms in Kyiv with Keir Starmer just published on the FT website www.ft.com/content/c1c4...
Bad day for Tulip Siddiq but a good week for the Henricson-Bell twins. Starmer names Torsten Bell as new pensions minister, days after appointing his brother Olaf H-B as head of the Number 10 policy unit www.ft.com/content/5917...
New - in another sign of the crisis enveloping British Steel, we reveal how the company had to close one of its two furnaces after using the wrong kind of (cheaper) coal www.ft.com/content/6987...
New - meet the new Olly Robbins. The former Gordon Brown media chief picked by Starmer to lead the EU reset talks, Michael Ellam www.ft.com/content/8a42...
How the City of London reinvented itself - interview with Michael Cassidy (retiring after 44 years) who oversaw the Square Mile’s response to Big Bang, the IRA, Canary Wharf and King Charles’s architectural vision at a pivotal period on.ft.com/3DAZfKl
“He needs a break.” Long read on Starmer’s shaky start - what went wrong and what he’s doing to try to fix it, with frank insights from ministers, allies etc. with @pickardje.bsky.social and Jonny Vincent on.ft.com/4iTFlKz
Fascinating piece by Sarah Neville and Michael Peel on.ft.com/3P8AiIu
Great piece of reporting by @rafeuddin.bsky.social and colleagues
Analysis - the inside story of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador. “Absolute moron” or inspired choice? on.ft.com/404jbxR
Weekend @FT read on Reeves’ perilous 2025, what could go (more) wrong - and her plan for a new year fightback on growth. With Sam Fleming and @valentinaromei.bsky.social on.ft.com/4gMc036
Great column by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social on.ft.com/3DkbASU
And I win the prize for the snappiest Christmas look!
Mandelson is back! Why he had been hired and the challenges waiting for him in Washington. Feels like only yesterday I was writing about his comeback from Brussels in 2008. www.ft.com/content/c71d...
New - Uni tuition fees expected to top £10,000 before the next election, as @bphillipsonMP eyes a continuation of inflation-linked rises - in exchange for a better deal from the universities, including access. With @pmdfoster.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/7ead...
New - Govt had promised a review into "pensions adequacy" - to boost retirement savings - by the end of the year. Not now. Rachel Reeves puts it on hold, amid fears it would impose new costs on business, through higher pension contributions. With @marymcd.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/d102...
Brilliantly written piece on an attempt to completely reinvent a British heritage brand. By Kana Inagaki and @henrymance.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/87b7...
Yes, I had to explain in the copy what the Danelaw was, in case the concept went over the heads of any readers born after the 11th century!
“We’re polling at a point where the first-past-the-post system stops impeding a party and starts to help it,” Zia Yusuf said. Full data-rich analysis here with @georgewparker.bsky.social and Jonny Vincent www.ft.com/content/324f...
New: Darren Jones sets up spending review dashboard that starts flashing if ministers bust their budgets. Admits six month review will be "tight" but insists no return to austerity www.ft.com/content/ee47...
Great scoop by @annasophiegross.bsky.social
Takes me back to the days when you had to phone over your story to copy * [joke for oldies only]
After Jacob Rees-Mogg left passive aggressive notes for WFH civil servants, Sir Keir Starmer now promising "the heavy thud of the gauntlet" on their desks. Do gauntlets thud? www.ft.com/content/5f02...
Tackling migration is apparently a "foundational thing govts must do", so not a milestone. Not sure voters will follow the difference between missions, first steps, foundational things and milestones
Breaking: Starmer redefines green target as he sets out his Plan for Change - with @annasophiegross.bsky.social and @pickardje.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/5f02...
Keir Starmer is planning to award peerages imminently to: 1] ex chief of staff Sue Gray 2] former Labour MPs Lyn Brown, Kevin Brennan & Julie Elliott 3] Thangam Debbonaire, ex shadow culture secretary who lost her Bristol West seat to the Green party at the election www.ft.com/content/c3ef...
NEW - Chris Wormald beats Olly Robbins, Antonia Romeo and Tamara Finkelsten to become Britain's top civil servant www.ft.com/content/89d5...
Assisted Dying: The Vote On the latest Political Fix pod, we focus on this highly emotive issue as MPs vote for the first time in almost a decade Plus: the PM’s upcoming ‘reset’… & can he grip migration? Feat stellar line up of @stephenkb.bsky.social, George Parker and Laura Hughes
Enjoyed tonight’s R4 Westminster Hour chat on Starmer’s busy week on foreign and domestic front. Just trying out @bsky.app on the way home