A memo moves Rayner to the top of the political charts, Rachel Reeves wrestles with the cost of backtracking, and Nigel Farage swaps the Commons for the Côte d’Azur.
Read all about it in this week's Who's Top, Who's Not!
Top of the Pops – Angela Rayner
Many have doubted Angela Rayner over the years and yet here she is; Deputy Prime Minister. This is due to her political abilities, ambition, competence and charisma. But it is also due to her moxie and her refusal to be pushed around, and both qualities were on display this week.
Her team have been keen to deny that this week’s leak to the Telegraph of a memo was from the Rayner camp but it does appear to most of Westminster that she is the one to benefit.
In the leaked memo to Rachel Reeves, Rayner sets out several revenue raisers and many of them are aimed squarely at the wealthy. This may be designed to try and court the left and soft-left wings of the Labour Party (particularly amongst members) but there are risks involved.
Firstly, she may alienate starmerite MPs who could see her as causing unhelpful and unnecessary division. And secondly, most of her tax suggestions don’t actually raise all that much revenue which not only invites scorn but also demonstrates the tough fiscal position Rachel Reeves is in in the first place.
Middle ranking – Rachel Reeves
It may have been her boss that gave the announcement of a U-turn on Winter Fuel at PMQs this week, but it is our Iron Chancellor who is going to have to find the cash and deal with the political consequences.
Winter Fuel has been nothing short of a debacle for this government. What was supposed to be a way of communicating the twin messages that Reeves is serious about fiscal discipline and pinning the blame on the Tories for the terrible state of the economy has turned into an enormous political headache. Dozens (if not hundreds) of Labour MPs have been getting a collective kicking on the doorstep over the policy and this reached a climax at the local elections at which many reported winter fuel to be the top issue.
Not only has this caused untold frustration and upset within Labour’s parliamentary ranks but Downing Street has spent an enormous amount of political capital defending the controversial policy. And with this week’s U-turn announcement, that is now all for nothing.
But the political pain doesn’t stop. The U-turn announcement was so vague that this story is inevitably going to run and run until further details of the timing and the substance are confirmed. The opposition parties are going to be licking their lips.
And Downing Street has sent a clear signal that they are vulnerable to effective campaigns and collective political pressure. Last July, Downing Street asserted its authority by throwing a political elbow when they suspended several left-wing Labour MPs for daring to vote against the government. Downing Street doesn’t look quite so tough now.
Dropping like a stone – Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage is a politician that rarely misses an opportunity to shine. Unfortunately for him, this week his shine came from a beach lounger wearing factor 50, instead of receiving the political spotlight in Westminster.
In a week when the Government proudly announced its EU-UK trading agreement and the PM defended it in the House of Commons, Reform’s leader was holidaying in the South of France. For someone so keen to crack down on people working from home, he doesn’t seem to prioritize turning up to his own place of work.
Whilst Starmer was keen to show off securing access to European defence contracts, Farage missed out on the political opportunity to legitimately criticise the government for its negotiating choices on fishing access. Hopefully he was able to tuck into some fresh French fish instead.