Reform UK will now have a voice in Parliament, and yet another race row for the Prime Minister...Read all about it in this week's Who's Top, Who's Not!
Flying High: Kemi Badenoch
What’s worse than one of your biggest donors being exposed for a horrific racist rant?... Having the donor be exposed for racist comments, and not having the nerve to call it out.
Kemi Badenoch boldly went over a rather unauthoritative looking Sunak’s head to condemn Tory Party donor Frank Hester’s comments about Dianne Abbot as racist. By doing so, she broke the government’s message and undermined the Ministers who had spent all day claiming that the comments were unacceptable, but no further.
Once again, Badenoch’s defiance of number 10 backed a sheepish looking Sunak into a corner, finally forcing a government spokesperson to agree with her a few hours later. Her refusal to toe the line and placement of her values (or ambition) above loyalty to the government, will concern the Prime Minister, but also raise her profile ahead of any future leadership bid.
Middle ranking: Lee Anderson
As WTWN predicted a couple of weeks ago, Lee Anderson continued his political journey from left to right by finalising his defection to Reform UK this week. Anderson, who previously ridiculed his new party’s leader, Richard Tice, as a “pound-shop Farage”, will now sit as their first MP.
Farage, the puppet master of the party, claimed that Anderson’s defection was a bigger moment than the high-profile Tory to UKIP swaps made in 2014 of Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless. However, with each passing day it becomes less likely that anyone will follow the former Vice Chairman of the Tories. Despite Reform’s success for now, it is unlikely they will hold the seat for long with Labour donning an almost 20% lead in Anderson’s constituency of Ashfield ahead of the general election.
Sinking Quickly: Thangam Debbonaire
Amid ongoing debate over the UAE-backed takeover of the Telegraph, Shadow Media Secretary, Thangam Debbonaire took the liberty of freelancing Labour’s position on the issue. The bid to buy control of the Telegraph is spearheaded by Manchester City owner, and UAE Vice-President, Sheik Mansour, and both Ofcom and the CMA delivered their reports on the acquisition which were considered by Culture Secretary, Lucy Frazer.
That was until Debbonaire came out strongly against the takeover this week, and any government ownership of press, domestic or foreign, making it very difficult for the Tories to continue to consider the deal. The substance of her announcement is not terribly problematic for Labour, but WTWN understands that other shadow ministerial colleagues were peeved at not being properly consulted on such a cross-departmental issue. And Debbonaire did herself few favours with her shadow cabinet colleagues after siding with Tory journalists such as Fraser Nelson on this issue. Debbonaire is popular amongst Labour MPs but she may need a more collegiate approach to collective decision making in government.