Isabel Hardman

Keir Starmer seems to be most comfortable when he’s pointing out how badly the Tories are doing, rather than when he is setting out his own plans. This afternoon he talked about the importance of long-term decision-making, skills and supply side reform: none of which would sound out of place in a speech by Jeremy Hunt or Rishi Sunak. The question-and-answer session afterwards was more enlightening than his speech. Starmer distanced himself not just from the Conservatives on public spending, but the Labour party too.

What is the Tory party’s policy on immigration after record-breaking net migration figures and the failure of its Rwanda policy at the Supreme Court? It was a question that was actually asked this afternoon by a Conservative MP. James Morris confronted immigration minister Robert Jenrick in the Commons on the new Home Secretary’s claim that the Rwanda policy was not the ‘be all and end all’ for the government. He asked twice what the Conservative policy on stopping the boats is. The immigration minister replied: What is the Tory party’s policy on immigration after record-breaking net migration figures and the failure of its Rwanda policy at the Supreme Court?

The Autumn Statement marks the latest in Rishi Sunak’s series of (often contradictory) relaunches Jeremy Hunt has started the week of his Autumn Statement in a rather more upbeat mood than usual. He spent yesterday talking about the importance of bringing the tax burden down and getting the British economy ‘fizzing’: a significant change of language from his previous focus on the importance of getting inflation down. He told me on Times Radio that he saw a clear dividing line with Labour: ‘Conservatives do believe that if we're going to be a dynamic, thriving, energetic, fizzing economy, we need to have a lower tax burden actually, than we've got now.

Tory whips are doing a ring around of their MPs to find out what they think of the row over Suella Braverman’s Times piece. The Home Secretary accused police of 'playing favourites' when it comes to dealing with protests. As I blogged earlier, several have made their views on Braverman's intervention very well known to the party hierarchy already. One senior MP says to me: ‘I think she will be gone by the end of the week. And they should take the whip off her too. I am leaving this place at the next election and I will be happier knowing that she is not still in the party to win its leadership contest when I’m gone.

Landscape architects use the term ‘hostile design’ to describe elements that stop anti-social behaviour. They could be armrests along a lengthy bench aren’t for the comfort of the people who choose to sit there, but to break up the space and make it impossible for someone to lie down and sleep rough. Little studs running along the edge of the bench stop skateboards. Cruder examples include spikes around air vents: not only do these stop rough sleepers from lying down in the warmer space, they also send a very loud message about who is welcome and who isn’t. Subtle or not, armrests and spikes don’t stop rough sleeping.