Migration swaps, party hops, and economic drops.
Read all about it in Who's Top, Who's Not.
Yvette Cooper - Top of the Pops
Westminster embraced the tricolor this week as the UK welcomed President Macron for a state visit - À la vôtre !
Amid the celebratory formalities, there were also high-level meetings to agree a new migrant returns deal with France. Yvette Cooper’s new ‘one-in, one-out’ pilot will see up to 50 migrants who cross the channel to England in small boats returned to France. In exchange, the UK will then accept an equal number of genuine asylum seekers, including those with family ties to legal migrants in the UK.
Whilst this is only a trial and 50 migrant returns a week would still only make up around 6% of those crossing on small boats, there is optimism in government that this could be a real deterrent to those seeking to cross illegally.
Politically, the right-wing press has called this inadequate, the public are unlikely to be taken by a scheme that will still see the UK still accepting large numbers of migrants, and by claiming this pilot will be a significant deterrent Labour leaves itself open to the same ridicule as that which they subjected the Tories to regarding Rwanda.
But support will come in at least one unlikely form: detention centre interior decorator and Shadow Justice Secretary, Robert Jenrick, recommended a very similar scheme to prime minister Rishi Sunak two years ago. Oddly, the King of TikTok has yet to update his socials with his high praise for what Labour is doing to tackle illegal immigration. Get it on the Gram!
Jake Berry - Middle ranking
Alternative King in the North and perennial Boris superfan, Jake Berry, betrayed his blonde-mopped master this week by abandoning the Conservatives and joining Reform.
The Conservative Association in Berry’s former seat of Rossendale and Darwen said: “His defection says far more about him than it does about the modern Conservative Party. His decision to abandon the Party that gave him his platform, indeed his career, will be seen by many as a betrayal – not just of Conservative members, but of the voters who returned him under a Conservative banner.” Tell us what you really think!
Reform will be pleased to have attracted a relatively high-profile name to their party, along with his organizational knowhow, experience and fundraising ability. But a large part of Reform’s public appeal is based on their appearing as anti-establishment insurgents – too many ex-Conservative MPs and they may start to look like Tory-lite cosplayers.
Rachel Reeves - sinking quickly
The cabinet has timed today’s away day to Chequers to perfection – who wouldn’t want to start the sunny weekend in the Buckinghamshire countryside!
Unfortunately for Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the economic outlook is decidedly gloomy with the announcement that the UK economy shrank by 0.1% in May.
The Chancellor has endured a tough time in recent weeks, but she needs to find a way of bringing that lesser-spotted economic growth to the UK economy if she is to stand any chance of keeping all of her fiscal and political plates spinning.
No one said being Chancellor was easy but her colleagues on the Labour backbenches aren’t making her job any easier. After last week’s benefits fiasco, Reeves needs to raise revenue, but only bad options are available. Chunky public service spending cuts are politically dead-in-the-water, adjusting her fiscal rules to borrow more would likely lead to the bond markets calling time on her career, and tax-wise she is constrained by her manifesto promises not to raise VAT, Income tax or national insurance for working people.
Fiscal drag by freezing income tax brackets appears likely but that will only go so far. Sustained economic growth is the answer and whilst the government’s long-term investment policy may eventually reap financial rewards, will they come in time for the next general election?