March opened with a row over two-tier justice. Robert Jenrick spotted that new Sentencing Council guidance would require pre-sentence reports for ethnic minorities. The scandal turned into a blame game: Shabana Mahmood insisted it was all down to former Tories who’d backed the consultation, while Jenrick pointed straight at David Lammy’s own report endorsing the idea. Jenrick warned he’d intervene if Labour wouldn’t, prompting Mahmood to demand the Sentencing Council scrap the policy…
The Council immediately slapped her down. Mahmood was ultimately forced to ram through emergency legislation to kill the guidance entirely. As Guido noted at the time, the measure still managed to be in force for two hours before it was binned…
A full-on Reform row blew up after Rupert Lowe told The Mail that Nigel Farage was a “Messiah” leading a “protest party”. A day later, Reform had withdrawn the whip from Lowe, citing alleged “threats of physical violence”, and referred him to the Met Police – though the CPS later said he would not face charges. Farage vowed Lowe would “never” be allowed back…
Then came Reeves’ Spring Statement – swiftly dubbed an “emergency budget” by the Tories after the carnage of the Autumn one. Ahead of the statement, Reeves unveiled a raft of “welfare reforms” designed to shave £5 billion off the welfare bill: popular enough with voters, though Labour backbenchers were far less keen. On the morning of the statement, the OBR shifted the goalposts again – downgrading growth and dumping yet another fiscal hole in Reeves’ lap. In the Chamber she ploughed on regardless, promising welfare reforms and Whitehall spending cuts. And as co-conspirators will know, those welfare-cutting plans didn’t pan out quite as intended…
It wasn’t a great month for Starmer either. In early March, fawning hacks were still swooning over his Oval Office charm offensive with Trump at the end of February, breathlessly touting his supposed “global leadership” and even murmuring about a Falklands moment. By the end of the month, his “Coalition of the (Un)Willing” had run aground. He’s still touting that coalition as this story goes to pixel…
Honourable Mentions:
Headline of the Month:
Every KC Hired by Labour to Defend Its VAT Policy Went to Private School
Reform MP Danny Kruger welcomed adult film star Bonnie Blue’s support for the party, adding:
“I’m not going to be judgemental about people who want to vote Reform. We want all the support we can get – quite like Bonnie Blue.”