Sebastian Payne

The House of Lords is set to vote on several measures relating to the tax credits reforms today and Westminster is on tenterhooks to see if they have the nerve to kill off the cuts. Matthew Hancock, the Cabinet Office minister and close college of George Osborne, said on the Today programme the government is listening to the concern in the Lords — echoing the words of Nicky Morgan yesterday: ‘George is very much in listening mode and the peers this afternoon have the opportunity through a motion put down the Bishop of Portsmouth to express regret at this measures without braking this constitutional convention, long standing.

The Chinese President’s visit to the UK ended today in the heart of the Northern Powerhouse. David Cameron took Xi Jinping up to Manchester to announce various new deals that supposedly demonstrate China’s commitment to the British economy. The Prime Minister said the president's appearance in Manchester highlighted China’s commitment to the northern project and will ‘see real investment going into the north.’ But how much money is China really putting into the Northern economy? Today’s FT says the deal is netting just £4 million of actual investment for the North — the Beijing Construction and Engineering Group will finance the construction of an apartment block at Middlewood Locks, a desolate piece of land between Manchester and Salford.

The battle for Britain to remain in or leave the European Union is now very tight. What UK Thinks, a new website providing non-partisan information on the referendum, reports on a new poll from YouGov and the ESCR that looks at the influence party leaders may have on the referendum. Without any leader mentioned, 50.6 per cent would vote to remain in, compared to 49.4 per cent who would vote to leave — a tiny 1.2 per centage point difference. Unsurprisingly, the poll finds that a large majority of those inclined to vote to leave are Conservatives, while the Remain vote is comprised of Labour, SNP and Lib Dem backers. Both David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn’s recommendations will have an impact on the vote.

The Labour MP for Oldham West & Royston Michael Meacher has died, aged 75. According to the Oldham Chronicle, he passed away after suffering from a short illness. A committed environmentalist, he had leadership ambitions and made them to Spectator readers seven years ago. He was one of the 36 MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader this year — there was some surprise as to why Meacher wasn’t given a position in Corbyn's shadow cabinet but his recent illness may explain why. His passing means the first by-election of this Parliament is upon us and the first electoral test of Corbyn’s Labour.

We might not know what deal David Cameron will bring back from his renegotiation with Europe but now we know what the two campaigns will look like. Their leading lights went head-to-head at the Spectator debate this evening and it was a fascinating insight into how they plan to fight. Dominic Cummings, the co-director of the Vote Leave campaign, argued that a vote to leave the EU would force a rethink of the entire European project, Britain would gain £20 billion to invest and we'd have ‘far more influence around the world’ thanks to the opportunity for Britain to finally represent itself on global bodies.

The two major EU referendum campaigns have gone public over the last week: ‘Vote Leave, Take Control’ and ‘Britain Stronger In Europe’. Both camps have formidable campaigners at the helm: Dominic Cummings for Vote Leave and Will Straw for Stronger In. They both passionately believe in their causes and are prepared to do whatever it takes to win. Cummings is renowned for his tenure as Michael Gove’s special adviser, where he successfully took on the education ‘blob’, the Whitehall machine and some in his own party. Straw founded the Left Foot Forward blog, before working at the IPPR think tank. He also stood as the Labour candidate in Rossendale and Darwen at the last general election.