Katy Balls

Theresa May has just issued her much-anticipated telling off to Cabinet for the recent string of damaging leaks. Happily, the Prime Minister's spokesman was on hand to (officially) leak details of the discussion on leaks to the press afterwards. May told her ministers that the leaks showed that some were not 'taking their responsibilities seriously'. Urging them to change their ways, she said it was important that all Cabinet discussions remained private in order to allow an open discussion on policy: 'There is a need to show strength and unity as a country and that starts around the cabinet table.' Given that the Prime Minister's spokesman yesterday told journalists that May was going to rebuke her MPs, the ticking off itself isn't so surprising.

Justine Greening has found the cash to soften her department's new funding formula. After much to-ing and fro-ing between the Department of Education and the Treasury in recent weeks, Greening has announced a £1.3bn increase to school funding. Speaking in the Chamber, the Education Secretary said she had recognised public concern over levels of school funding during the general election. This move will be welcomed by Tory backbenchers who feel education funding was a doorstep issue that allowed Labour to take votes from them. However, it's notable that the austere Chancellor appears to have still won this tussle – the money will come from the existing education budget (with part coming from the free schools budget) rather than the Treasury's mythical magic money tree.

Last month, David Davis warned that a Tory leadership contest would be 'catastrophic' for the Brexit negotiations. But as the Brexit secretary heads to Brussels for the second instalment of talks, the jostling among MPs to be the next party leader is well underway. The weekend papers have been filled with Cabinet members briefing against one another and reports of growing tensions (not helped, it's safe to say, by The Spectator summer party). While leadership rivals Davis and Johnson have been described as 'a pair of rutting stags locking antlers', the person receiving the most flak is none other than the Chancellor.

It's exactly one year to the day since Theresa May became Prime Minister. To mark the occasion, she has given a lengthy interview to Radio 5Live's Emma Barnett. Unfortunately for May, it wasn't the interview she would have envisaged giving a year ago when she entered No 10. Rather than talk of the achievements so far of her time in office, she had to defend her decision to call the disastrous snap election and discuss what mistakes she had made. May insisted that she was right to call the snap election and for the first time gave a real insight into her reaction on that night. She said she got her husband Philip to watch the exit poll as she is superstitious about it. When he came in and told her, she was surprised.

If an MP has been overlooked for a government role, a coveted select committee chairmanship can provide an important platform in Parliament. As a result, lots of Tories have been jostling and manoeuvring in the past week to be in a with a short of just this.

Despite Theresa May's plea to opposition parties to contribute to policy, there is little sign of co-operation so far. Following the launch of the Taylor Report on employment practices, the SNP have said the findings 'fall shamefully short', while Jeremy Corbyn has called it a 'huge missed opportunity' to tackle insecure employment. As Isabel notes, Taylor could be forgiven for wondering whether he might as well have just written a blog post instead and spent the rest of the time eating crisps. Still, the Prime Minister does appear to have listened to other parties on one issue. Following cross-party pressure, No 10 has said an inquiry will be held into the contaminated blood scandal that left at least 2,400 people dead.

What a difference three months can make. In April, Theresa May stood on the steps of Downing Street and announced that she was calling a snap election to increase her majority and stop opposition parties from 'political game-playing' during the Brexit process. Having lost that majority in the subsequent election, the Prime Minister will this week mark her one-year anniversary in No 10 with a plea to said parties asking them to 'contribute, not just criticise'.

After days spent fighting over the public sector pay cap, today marked a return to politics as usual. The Labour party bickered about the threat of mandatory re-selection and the Conservatives tried to hide their differences on Brexit. Michel Barnier – the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator – used his first major speech since talks began to warn that the UK cannot leave the EU single market and keep the benefits. This comment is nothing new – and given that the UK and the EU are in the midst of a negotiation, it would be unwise to read too much into posturing from either side. Still, the media's coverage of the talks so far have got one Brexiteer's back up.

Over the weekend, the Conservatives appeared to suffer a crisis of confidence. As calls for Theresa May to scrap the public sector pay cap grew, many Tories appeared to give up on the long term economic plan altogether. Damian Green called for a 'public debate' on tuition fees and Justine Greening 'demanded' £1bn to protect school funding. Add to all this the small fact that Philip Hammond still needs to account for the £1bn DUP deal and NICs U-turn in the Autumn Budget and the Tories' economic record looks at risk. As the government embraced its inner Corbynista, the man himself was quick to make some political capital out of the situation. Jeremy Corbyn used a rally to put pressure on the government over tuition fees.

How do you solve a problem like the dwindling Conservative youth vote? That's the question Tories have been grappling with today at the Bright Blue conference. As party members gathered at the liberal Conservative think tank event, one remarked that what the party needed was a Tory version of Momentum – 'we'll only be fine when a Conservative politician can go to Glastonbury and not be booed'. While that seems a rather ambitious feat, Damian Green did manage to set out some of the changes he thinks the party needs to make in order to win back young metropolitan voters at the next election.  With the Tories lagging behind Labour by 30pc among 18- to 35-year-olds, the First Secretary of State said his party could not just 'stay calm and carry on'.

Yesterday, the Queen's Speech cleared Parliament with every amendment defeated. This shows that Theresa May's £1bn deal with the DUP is working when it comes to votes on key legislation. However, as Isabel notes, while it can govern in a technical sense, it cannot guarantee that it will get what it wants in the Commons. In order to prevent a Tory rebellion on Stella Creasy's abortion amendment, the Chancellor had to grant a concession for free abortions for women from Northern Ireland. So, how do the whips intend to stave off future rebellions in the House? The DUP agreement means that the Conservatives have a working majority of 13 when it comes to votes on key legislation.

After a difficult few weeks, Theresa May can today breath a sigh of relief – the Queen's Speech has passed. MPs voted for the government's legislative programme by 323 votes to 309 – a majority of 14. The government successfully defeated each amendment put to the House. Labour's official Brexit amendment was defeated by a majority of 26. Meanwhile Chuka Umunna's single market amendment saw a Labour rebellion. The whips had ordered MPs to abstain, but it's thought 51 Labour MPs defied the whip and backed the motion anyway. However, the fact that this amendment was still defeated by a majority of 221 shows that the House backs Britain's exit from the single market overall. There was one amendment notably missing from the vote.

After much confusion today over the Conservative position on whether the party ought to lift the cap on public sector pay, tonight MPs voted to reject Labour’s proposal to the Queen's Speech to end the pay cap. The government won by 323 votes to 309. While Jeremy Corbyn has since complained that ministers missed an opportunity to 'put their money where their mouth is', this result shows that the agreement between the DUP and Tories is working out. Conservatives worried about living hand-to-mouth in Parliament can take heart that the pact is already securing the Tory party's longevity. While the final vote will take place tomorrow, tonight's events will help to assure Conservative voters that the party will be around in the coming months – and years.