The Whitehouse Communications team's take on the latest goings-on in Westminster in this week's Who's Top Who's Not.
Top-ish - Darren Jones
Few in SW1 have come out of this week smelling of roses so its slim pickings at the top for WTWN. But one who has at least been busy and seems to have emerged as the PM’s go-to guy is Darren Jones. Perhaps that’s unsurprising with a title like ‘Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister’ but it has become apparent that Jones is Starmer’s Mr Fixit.
Firstly, Jones fronted a renewed push for the government’s digital ID scheme. Whilst many in Labour hope that this policy that shoved up into the cabinet office attic and forgotten about, Jones put out a decent video on social media and articulated how it will make ordinary citizens’ lives easier, improving the messaging and narrative on this issue.
Jones also had to make a statement to the house about the latest tranche of Mandelson files. This issue is not going away and is sure to get worse for the PM when more messages and emails are released in the coming weeks. With Starmer’s judgement being questioned about this completely unnecessary appointment, the steady drip-drip of further revelations will mean this story still has plenty of legs and so the political pressure on the PM will continue to ramp up, especially if there are more gossipy communique that have little to do with the Mandelson appointment but cause political embarrassment nonetheless.
Middle-ranking - Reform
Nigel Farage is publicity-shy and struggles to get media coverage, said no one ever. Point proven this week with a well-executed PR stunt at a petrol station near Buxton to showcase their policy of reversing Labour’s planned fuel duty increase. The station was temporarily kitted out in Reform colours and fuel was sold at a discount for the day, demonstrating the party’s wealthy donors as well as its policies.
But on foreign policy, there was confusion galore in Team Reform. The party’s stance on Iran veered from Robert Jenrick and his stolid ‘England First’ approach, to Mayor of Lincolnshire and self-appointed Foreign Affairs spokesperson Andrea Jenkyns refusing to rule out British boots on the ground. It’s all a bit of a muddle and Farage will need to get a grip.
Sinking quickly - Hereditary Peers
The government finally achieved a breakthrough on constitutional reform this week when the upper chamber passed the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill after ministers offered a compromise with the Conservatives that will see several of their number offered life peerages. This means that come May and the end of the current parliamentary session, the remaining hereditary peers will no longer sit in the House of Lords.
It is very difficult to defend hereditary peerages on democracy grounds, and the current system is clearly an anachronism. But WTWN has a soft spot for some hereditary peers, many of whom are amongst the most passionate campaigners and hard-working legislators of those sitting in the House of Lords. Those expecting a new golden age of democracy may find themselves disappointed if we end up with poorer legislative scrutiny as a result of these reforms.