Sebastian Payne

The status of Labour's council of seven economic advisers is becoming a little clearer. Following Danny Blanchflower’s revelation that John McDonnell didn't consult him about the fiscal charter, another adviser has said the team has yet to meet — and it wasn't even the shadow chancellor's idea.

John McDonnell’s U-turn on backing the government's fiscal charter is just the sort of inconsistent positioning some in Labour fear will destroy the party’s reputation under Jeremy Corbyn. No one from the shadow treasury team was willing to speak on the Today programme about the U-turn so it was left to seasoned media performer Diane Abbott, now the shadow international development secretary, to defend the party’s position. In a rather bizarre interview, Abbott claimed that Labour was not in a shambles: ‘No, no, no, I think we’re in the right position to oppose Osborne’s mismanagement of the economy’.

Tom Watson, Labour’s embattled deputy leader, delivered a statement to the House of Commons this afternoon on accusations about the former home secretary Leon Brittan - which proved to be baseless. In response to a point of order by Sir Nicolas Soames, the Conservative MP for Mid Sussex, Watson delivered the following statement about the Brittan allegations which were later dismissed by the police. Watson acknowledged that people might have been angry with his language but did not apologise for his actions: 'I understand the honourable and right honourable members feel aggrieved that Leon Britain was interviewed by the police and that they’re angry with my use of language.

It's been a good week for the Conservatives, topped off by one of the best speeches   David Cameron has ever given. James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss the Prime Minister's keynote address in this View from 22 podcast special — looking the new policies and themes he has laid out, the direction we can expect to see the Tories heading in and his strong attacks on Jeremy Corbyn. Can Steve Hilton's influence be seen in the text? And does this mark a new era for Cameron's leadership?

Philip Hammond this evening hinted he doesn’t think Britain is going to get any fundamental reforms on freedom of movement. The Foreign Secretary, appearing alongside Tory grandee and Peter Lilley at a Demos fringe event, argued that Eastern European countries have an ‘emotional ownership’ to their EU membership in a way Britain does not: ‘Because of the emotional linkage with their own freedom from Soviet slavery and the ability of people in Eastern Europe to travel for the first time in their lives, a deeply emotive thing, no political leader in Eastern Europe is going to support the end of freedom of movement. It would be domestic political suicide.

Matt Hancock has a list of three things the Tories need to do to win again in 2020. At a Westbourne Communications fringe event, the Cabinet Office Minister (one of the few senior Tories to appear at fringes today) said the Tories should use their mandate from the 2015 election to prove they are the party of government and can be trusted to run the country over the next decade. This is how he believes they can do it: 1. Making sure we deliver effectively: Hancock said the government must show in five years time that the country is going in the right direction and some of the ‘deep seated problems’ have been solved.