The election is over and with MPs now being sworn in, where better to take the temperature of Westminster then at The Spectator’s annual summer party? As New York Magazine recently wrote, it is ‘an unmissable event on the social and political calendar’ and perhaps the only place in the world that you would find Jordan Peterson laughing at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s jokes.
The party, always in early July, is typically a scene of political drama: prime ministerial resignations, leadership plots etc. ‘But while the Tories inside are licking their wounds,’ said Sky News’s Sam Coates, reporting outside the door, ‘it’s been a parade of Labour cabinet members coming in and out of the building behind me that has been the most striking.’ The Times made the same observation. Amidst the usual mix of politicians, actors, academics, journalists and clerics we were delighted to welcome ten students from the Social Mobility Foundation (with whom we have long collaborated). And of course, Mr S was on hand to hear all the latest gossip.
Below are a selection of photos from the event, taken by Jamie Lorriman and Tom Aizenberg.
