James Heale

On Friday, the Commons will vote on the third reading of the assisted dying bill. Most MPs expect it to pass by a narrower margin than the majority of 55 MPs last time. There has been a shift in momentum throughout the bill’s passage through parliament, with at least a dozen more names now voting against Kim Leadbeater’s legislation. This shift has coincided with the steady erosion of much of the goodwill which characterised second reading in November. The subsequent committee stage was characterised by fraught exchanges, with the changes Leadbeater made to the bill infuriating some colleagues. The private tensions within the Labour party were on public display last Friday.

Kemi Badenoch said that 'survivors and their families' have been 'ignored for far too long' as she appeared alongside those affected by the grooming gangs' scandal. 'What this morning is about is not the politics, but giving...(victims) a platform to say what they want to see from a national inquiry,' the Tory leader said at a press conference in Westminster. The Tory leader was on less safe turf when she claimed, slightly implausibly, that she wanted to 'take the politics out of' the issue Marlon West, the father of grooming gangs' victim Scarlett, asked about local-led inquiries and whether 'local authorities are going to be answering their own homework.' Fiona Goddard, a survivor who waived her anonymity, urged law enforcement to continue.

First, it was Robert Jenrick tackling fare dodgers. Then it was Gareth Davies pursuing a thief. You might be forgiven for thinking that copies of Marvel’s Avengers were circulating in Portcullis House. But among elements of the British right there is a renewed appreciation of the benefits of direct action. Shut out of office until at least 2029, Tory and Reform politicians are finding ways to channel their frustrations into novel, low-cost, forms of protest. Nigel Farage’s aides have embraced humorous stunts such as beaming their membership numbers onto CCHQ and handing out blank books to journalists titled Highlights from my first 100 days, by Kemi Badenoch. Others, like Jenrick, try to think of new ways to land messages.

Gordon Brown may not be every teenager’s political pin-up. But as an Oxford student, Rachel Reeves proudly kept a framed photo of him in her bedroom. It was Brown who introduced the first multi-year spending review in 1998: the kind of big political set-piece speech which he relished. Reeves’s speech on Wednesday showed the level of constraints facing the Treasury this decade vs the 1990s. Chess, not poker, is the Chancellor’s chosen game of recreation. As a player and a politician, she prides herself on making decisions guided by skill, care and thought. Yet this week she staked her government’s future on a series of political bets. Her tax rises and changes to Treasury rules gave her some £300 billion to spend across Whitehall – including £113 billion in capital funding.

This afternoon Rachel Reeves finally completed the longest U-turn in British politics. Ahead of her spending review on Wednesday, the Chancellor confirmed she intends to reverse most of the cuts to winter fuel that she announced last summer. In July, she removed the benefit from ten million pensioners; today she admitted she will restore it to nine million of them. All those with an income of less that £35,000 will have their payments of between £200 to £300 restored this winter. Roughly two million pensioners with an income above £35,000 will lose it via PAYE or self-assessment. Cutting winter fuel was forecast to save £1.25 billion; today’s U-turn whittles that sum saved down to around £450 million.

Well, that was quick. Within 48 hours of his resignation as party chairman, Zia Yusuf has returned to the Reform fold. In a joint Sunday Times interview with Nigel Farage, Yusuf has admitted to making a ‘mistake’. He will now take up a new revised role within the party, focusing on policy formation and leading on the party’s DOGE mission in local government. A new chairman will be named on Tuesday, amid a backroom shake-up focused on sharing the load on Reform’s leadership. ‘Welcome back Zia,’ wrote Richard Tice on one internal Reform WhatsApp group. ‘Hope you enjoyed your holiday!’ What led Yusuf to change his mind? The obvious precedent here is Farage himself in May 2024.

Following last month's local elections disaster, Kemi Badenoch's team promised a 'step change'. So just 24 hours after Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride offered a 'mea culpa' for the mini-Budget, Badenoch has followed up by suggesting that the UK 'will likely need to leave' the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It comes amid a hardening of internal Tory opinion on the subject, following both a number of high-profile rulings by British courts and a surge in illegal migration. 'I do believe that we will likely need to leave', Badenoch said Badenoch's argument is as follows: foreign criminals, convicted of horrific abuse, currently cannot be deported. The ECHR is now being used in ways never intended by its original authors.