The Whitehouse Communications team's take on the latest goings-on in Westminster in this week's Who's Top Who's Not.
Top: Ed Miliband
Miliband has been consistent in his focus: reshape the energy market to make it greener, cheaper and less reliant on foreign imports. Yet for all the ambition, progress has been slow. His latest proposal, accelerated by the Iran war, to decouple gas from electricity prices, may meaningfully hits two targets with one policy.
The current system works on a pricing model where the most expensive source of energy (usually gas) sets the price for all electricity. This leaves cheaper renewables priced at an artificially high rate, with consumers paying a premium. Breaking that link would allow the price of electricity to better reflect the UK’s growing renewable base, lowering bills while reinforcing the transition away from fossil fuels.
The politics may also be shifting in Miliband’s favour. The geopolitical instability and volatility of gas prices has exposed dependence on the market; while industry is once again lobbying for expanded North Sea drilling. This risks pulling Labour into an uncomfortable position between its own voters and its manifesto pledges, not to mention the Greens’ recent by-election success has sharpened the threat on Labour’s left flank. This gives left-leaning Ed the opportunity to push a progressive policy that could be politically well-timed.
Middle: Morgan McSweeney
For a figure who prefers to operate in the background, this has been another high-profile week for McSweeney. The row over his stolen phone—and the suggestion it intentionally disappeared because of messages linked to Peter Mandelson—has reinserted him into the centre of the political conversation, despite his departure from No.10.
The Prime Minister has dismissed any suggestion that the theft was a cover-up as “far-fetched,” and pointed to the police report. But the issue is less whether there is a conspiracy, and more that the circumstances create enough ambiguity to sustain one.
For Labour, this is an irritation rather than a crisis. The Mandelson episode had already forced McSweeney out and stoked the flames of leadership bids against Starmer. But the story lingers, despite the government’s best efforts.
And yet, the week also offered a timely reminder of McSweeney’s continued proximity to power. The Prime Minister’s decision to pop down the pub for a cheeky pint with him was not accidental; it signals loyalty, continuity, and a refusal to fully cut ties with the architect of Labour’s recent electoral success.
That leaves McSweeney inbetween: no longer formally at the centre of power, but not entirely out of the picture either. Will this continue? WTWN can't wait to find out.
Bottom: Nigel Farage
It has been a difficult week for Farage, not so much because of political opposition, but because events have exposed the fragility in Reform’s momentum. For one, the government’s decision to cap overseas donations and ban cryptocurrency funding goes directly to the heart of Reform’s finances, which leans heavily on international backers.
The politics of this are more damaging than the policy itself. Farage has carefully positioned Reform as a “British-made” insurgent force taking on a broken system. A reliance on foreign and opaque funding cuts against that narrative, handing both Labour and the Conservatives a clear line of attack. Labour’s framing that these changes are about defending democratic standards from external influence has landed neatly, and in doing so casts Farage as out of step with the national interest.
Reform’s current policy of “keep schtum” looks less like control and more like an inability to rebut the charge. Moreover, the week’s attempt at a grand parliamentary walkout did little to help. What was intended as a show of strength at PMQs – where Nigel Farage was embarrassed by the PM on Iran - descended into a half-formed walkout, with some Reform MPs following Farage’s lead and some staying put. Reform’s parliamentary participation is not its strength, but it needs to sharpen this element to be taken more seriously.