It’s now been a month since David Lammy last wrote a post for his “Progressive Realism” Substack after he produced two long reads in three days. He started it up in September to “explore” how to reach “progressive ends” with “realist means”…

So far the blog has only managed to achieve some typos like “I am the first Black Britain to go to Harvard Law School” and triggering a diplomatic incident. Lammy praised Azerbaijan’s bloody campaign to reclaim the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh as a “liberation.” Forcing the FCDO to clarify that UK policy – to “urge meaningful dialogue” – had not changed as a result…

Lammy has done a lot to put his mark on foreign policy in a month – thawing relations with China, giving away the Chagos Islands, and “forging a closer relationship” with the EU. Is he not keen to explain himself on his personal blog?

It’s three months on from Starmer’s brutal suspension of the seven Labour MPs who voted for the SNP’s amendment on the two child benefit cap. Until they are let back into the party – which may take some time judging by previous experience – they are independent MPs…

Some of them just can’t get over losing Starmer’s warm embrace. They’re still pretending to be Labour MPs on Twitter…

Richard Burgon, Zarah Sultana, and John McDonnell all still have Labour in their bios. The rest have removed all mention of their old party. The onetime Shadow Chancellor and Shadow Justice Secretary might need a stern word from their former employer…

It’s not just a few Labour MPs using employment practices the party wants to ban through its “Make Work Pay” push. If you trawl through job adverts for Cabinet Ministers it turns out that almost all of them have specifically violated their own stated policy on employment rights and “insecure work.” One rule for them as usual…

• 16 Cabinet Ministers including Reeves, Cooper, Miliband, and Lammy have hired roles which include working outside of regular hours and on the weekend. SpAds and staffers will be furious they don’t have the “Right to Switch Off”…
• 7 Cabinet Ministers including Rayner, Streeting and Kendall have hired on “insecure” fixed-term contracts.
• 6 Cabinet Ministers including Lammy, McFadden, and Darren Jones, have hired with long probation periods. The bête noire of Labour’s employment rights plans…

Dodds, Hermer, and Angela Smith are the only Cabinet Ministers who haven’t hired using these nefarious practices. That’s 86% of the Cabinet. It’s almost like arbitrary restrictions on voluntary working arrangements are a bad idea…

Starmer has spent the afternoon dodging questions from journalists on Sue Gray’s ridiculous non-presence at the inaugural meeting of the Council of Nations and Regions in Scotland. He was asked why she wasn’t there and said: “We’ve just had the first meeting of the Council of Nations and Regions.” He can’t even dodge a question properly…

He was asked again why Gray wasn’t present and just said that “we’ve got a long way down the road of collaborating” to get investment in the regions. So he didn’t bother maintaining the line from this morning that Sue’s having a well-deserved break…

Starmer was asked about Guido’s story yesterday and whether he would approve Sue’s severance pay. Didn’t answer that one either…

He repeated:

“We’ve had a really important meeting today.”

The farce continues…

Labour’s vaunted International Investment Summit is losing steam before it even starts. Rayner and Haigh have put their foot in it…

Dubai-based DP World, which owns P&O Ferries, has paused plans to invest a whopping £1 billion in its London Gateway container port after getting heated criticism from Labour cabinet ministers. Haigh and Rayner have called P&O a “rogue operator” in a press release which accused its hiring of foreign workers as a “national scandal.” Released right before the big summit’s kick off on Sunday – no wonder Rayner has been snubbed from hosting it…

Downing Street says the summit will act as a “reset” after a disastrous first 100 days. DP World’s chairman Ahmed bin Sulayem will now miss the event and pull the £1 billion. How’s “letting the cabinet ministers do their own thing” going then, Keir?

UPDATE: Labour tries to save the situation by saying its official press release of two days ago doesn’t “reflect the government view.” Uh-huh…

UPDATE II: DP World now says it will show up to the summit after Starmer repeatedly slapped down his own Deputy PM and Transport Secretary’s words in an official government press release.

The Labour Party is making a massive deal of its Employment Rights Bill today which it hailed as the “biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.” Current laws have created an “economy riven by insecurity, ravaged by dire productivity and blighted by low pay”…

It looks like some Labour MPs haven’t got the memo about the “insecure work” on which Labour is set to crack down. Labour’s “Make Work Pay” plan is in a broad-brush consultative stage, with most changes coming into force in late 2026 once agreed. Labour is targeting fixed-term contracts where work is not “genuinely temporary.” It looks like some of its MPs haven’t got the memo…

While almost all Labour MPs hire on permanent contracts from day one, at least four MPs, including the Solicitor General, are currently advertising fixed-term contracts “with a view” to make them permanent. That is, permanent work…

Taiwo Owatemi, Sarah Sackman, Paulette Hamilton, and Naushabah Khan are all employing the tactic with various contract lengths. Not the most “secure” employment for the staffers as the Labour MPs try to keep their options open. Labour says it’s targeting exactly that skullduggery – will it make an example of its own MPs?