Time’s up for ticket touts… but who else in politics should be watching the clock?
Read all about it in Who's Top Who's Not
Top: Lisa Nandy
Time is up for ticket touts, declared Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, this week. Nandy spent the morning at South London grassroots music venue, Electric Brixton, bigging up the Government’s new policy to ban all ticket resales above face value of the original ticket.
It’s one of the bigger announcements for the Department under this Government, and one they can count as a manifesto pledge ticked off.
Sites will be monitored by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and will be liable for penalties of up to 10% of turnover. The real kicker is that many in the industry feared the best they could hope for was a cap on the resale price but instead resale above face value will be illegal.
A strong supporter of grassroots football, Nandy is keen to put fans first in the music industry as well. Fans of the genres Nandy is into – let’s not forget her Labour Conference Britney power hour DJ set – will be delighted at the more affordable gig costs and at just how far Nandy has gone to improve consumer rights.
It’s bold, game-changing announcements like this that show the Government making a real difference to people and their wallets. But the proof will be if Nandy’s culture department can also make further vital changes in the creative industries – did I hear the words “dynamic pricing”?
Middle: Shabana Mahmood
Not everyone gets something named after them but careful briefers have made references to the Home Secretary’s approach to immigration as “Mahmoodian”. You can decide whether that’s a compliment or not.
The debate still rages over the political implications of the new rules on asylum-seekers, with some accusing Mahmood of being Reform in disguise, whilst others acknowledge that voters want to see significant change on immigration. The Labour soft-left are up in arms but it might be no bad thing for Labour as political fights get column inches and help to communicate that the Home Secretary is tough on immigration.
Whatever you think of the reforms, though, Mahmood is one Cabinet Secretary who appears to be getting stuff done which is exactly why she was appointed to the post. She even found time to declare that Police and Crime Commissioners will be abolished, and you don’t get the sense she’ll be bothered by Andy Burnham criticising her plans. Like the boats she’s trying to turn around, Mahmood is making waves.
Now that Keir Starmer and his team are done trying to start a scrap with Wes Streeting, will there be room in Starmer’s Government for someone like Mahmood, a strong, high performer, who can grab the headlines and isn’t the PM?
Not: Nigel Farage
No 10 has joined cross-party calls for Farage to explain allegations of past racist behaviour that reappeared this week. The anti-Semitic allegations date from Farage’s schooldays, ones that Farage has dismissed as “one person’s word against another”.
It's been a busy month for Farage trying to defend himself and his party. Just last week he was called on to explain racist comments by Sarah Pochin, MP for Runcorn. Then this week, Laura Anne Jones MS, Reform UK’s only member of the Welsh Senedd, has been suspended over a racial slur she posted in an office WhatsApp group.
Reform has stated that if there was “hard evidence” of similar comments from a Reform candidate in the future, then they would be blocked from standing. A chorus of MPs and Peers have joined in condemning Farage’s dismissal of the claims, including Joani Reid MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism. The question, as always with Reform, will be whether these allegations stick when it comes to voters?