From classroom reform to committee déjà vu, here’s who aced it (and who flunked).
Read all about it in this week's Who's Top Who's Not!
Top – Bridget Phillipson
Bridget Phillipson may have lost the Labour Deputy Leadership election, but has she won the war to enact real change from within government?
Fresh from touring the rubber chicken circuit, Phillipson has left countless Labour CLP meetings behind to get back to the day job of running the Department of Education. And it was a big week for her, selling the new proposed school curriculum changes outlined in Professor Becky Francis’s Curriculum and Assessment Review.
Whilst the media focused on how kids will be taught how to spot fake news and how mortgages work, there were also moves to encourage more children to learn a musical instrument and ensure all children take three science GCSEs.
And whilst Phillipson has sided with teaching unions on issues such as school assessment, on phonics she appears to be building on the previous Conservative government’s work to improve reading standards for younger children.
Powell may have the title but it is Phillipson who is making stuff happen.
Middle- Remainers Osborne and Cable
As a seasoned political nerd, WTWN is more than au fait with committee sessions. It was the Treasury Committee that caught our eye this week and the Return of the Remainers!
Ex-Chancellor George Osborne and ex-Business Secretary Vince Cable were in the political vanguard of the failed 2016 remain campaign. But the blue flame of European unity still burns bright for these two loyal sons of Brussels.
Ahead of the Budget, they each proclaimed the economic cost of Brexit and the huge economic opportunity of re-joining a form of the customs union.
Many businesses cite the huge amount of red tape that is acting as an obstacle to trade and Rachel Reeves is certainly scrambling around the back of the sofa for any way of boosting economic growth, but does Labour really want to restart the Brexit wars? Those still nursing the political scars on their backs from the referendum may urge the government to instead focus on tangible and realistic delivery.
Bottom – David Lammy
Justice Secretary David Lammy might have been looking forward to enjoying his moment in the Westminster spotlight, covering for the prime minister at PMQs. But instead, he fell into a carefully laid Tory trap.
When asked if there had been any more wrongly-released prisoners, Lammy prevaricated and avoided directly answering the question. And lo and behold, soon after it went public that there was indeed another prisoner on the run and that Lammy was aware of it before PMQs.
Many went on the airwaves to point out that under the last government the Tories were wrongly releasing up to two prisoners per week and that prisons are literally crumbling from years of under investment. Nonetheless, it’s Lammy wiping the egg from his face as it is the Labour government that is now seen as being unable to get a grip.