There are significant blocks in government to the progress of reforms to leasehold which were kicked off by the Tories and which Labour pledged to carry through expediently. It has been a go-slow since the election in reality…
At the Liaison Committee this week Starmer said he could no longer guarantee that the publication of the draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill would be before Christmas. Despite the government promising to do so since November last year…
Government sources tell Guido that the usual suspect Richard Hermer is causing a particular headache. The Attorney General’s fears about arcane ECHR legislation – i.e. his bread and butter – are stymieing the bill’s progress. The AG’s formal advice is so far unhelpful…
There is a leadership element. Labour sources say top Rayner ally Justin Madders had a key role in organising Labour MPs to write a letter urging the government not to backtrack on eliminating ground rent. Rayner could swing behind leasehold reform in her usual backbencher/populist tack…
Sadiq Khan has also today said the ministerial delay on reform is “a concern for City Hall.” Trouble under the Labour roof…
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England has voted to slash interest rates to 3.75%. It was a 5-4 decision, with the Bank’s governor Andrew Bailey casting the swing vote. He said this afternoon:
“We still think rates are on a gradual path downward but with every cut we make, how much further we go becomes a closer call…”
The lowest level since February 2023…
YouGov has done its annual round up of how political opinion has changed over the year. You guessed it. Labour is the biggest loser of 2025…
Net government approval has fallen from -47 to -57 over the year, with Labour falling the most out of every other party in the polls since January, dropping by 8 points. A chunky 53% of 2024 Labour voters now see Starmer unfavourably, with his net rating plummeting from +21 to -14. There’s always next year…
Parliament Square was shut down this morning after a bomb squad was called in over a ‘suspicious package’ for communities minister Miatta Fahnbulleh. It turned out to be…a box of Christmas cards…
The Met Police shut off the road from Millbank to Parliament Square at 7:30 a.m. to bring in a bomb disposal robot to inspect the package. Bah humbug…
The BBC’s ‘on the ground’ piece for the Christmas junior doctors’ strike is based almost entirely on uncritical quotes from two BMA officials who are not named as such. This is the award-winning journalism you pay for on pain of prosecution…
Yesterday’s article in the South of England section was titled “I am sleep-deprived, overworked and deserve more” and carried quotes from three people, one of whom was the chief executive of the Royal Berkshire NHS Trust in Reading. The only two junior doctors consulted were called Heather Gunn and Matt Bilton. Gunn said “I do not want to be strike, I want to be at work helping my colleagues. Unfortunately the reality is that many doctors like myself face the prospect of not having a job”…
Bilton said “The government… put an offer this past week but it was too little, too late, and so unfortunately we have no alternative.” Nice line that, wonder who came up with it…
Nowhere in the piece does the BBC care to mention that Gunn is deputy chairman of the BMA’s South Central Regional Council and Matt Bilton is longtime Chairman of the BMA’s Thames Valley Regional Resident Doctors Committee. Pop that piece in the bin would you darling…
Tory Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake said he would form a coalition with Reform over the LibDems. You’d hope so…
Hollinrake was on the Daily T podcast with Reform’s Tim Montgomerie and insisted that was his preference “if there was no other choice at all.” Badenoch is allegedly “not interested in a coalition”…
The party chairman said the main issue today was migration: “Certainly Tim and I are far more closely aligned in terms of migration. That’s the reality.” Montgomerie for his part went further:
“There are parts of northern England, the Red Wall seats, parts of Wales, colliery communities and parts of Scotland that are never going to vote Conservative. Reform can reach parts of the electorate that the Conservatives just can’t. There are probably southern seats Reform cannot win that only the Conservatives can win. Let the British people decide. I think Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage could form a strong coalition together where they agree on the key issues. Immigration is the biggest challenge facing this country. What we don’t know is how bad the economy is going to be.”
Something weighing heavily on right-of-centre minds in SW1…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”
