No escape from hard-right uncivil war ahead of a Runcorn and Helsby by-election, a constituency that Reform UK hopes to snatch from Labour. And not just because Elon Musk favourite Rupert Lowe, suspended by Reform and reported to the police over alleged threats towards his party’s chair, Zia Yusuf – which Lowe denies – is up for the fight. Tall-poppy chopper Nigel Farage insisting Reform’s five MPs be allocated offices next to each other on the same stretch of corridor in parliament must no longer feel like such a good idea. The quarrelling quintet won’t be able to avoid bumping into each other: Lowe has labelled the area “punishment block” in anticipation of uncomfortable encounters. One delighted Tory suggested the Serjeant at Arms should post security guards to keep the peace. Best laid plans and all that.
Spare a thought for Suella Braverman, the twice-sacked former home secretary widely tipped by colleagues to defect to Reform. A group of Tory MPs had a private bet on when she might jump ship, with six to 18 months being the range. One wagered before the Reform implosion that she and Lowe could be traded. Her dilemma, sneered a Tory, is to go now or wait because a harder-right party headed by Lowe to rival Reform would be more her cup of tea.
Four MPs at Monday’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Partyvoicing fears over welfare cuts, including one with a severely disabled daughter, was the sound of Keir Starmer crashing back to Earth after plaudits for his handling of Ukraine and Donald Trump. Critics regularly dig up what senior Labour figures declared in opposition about winter fuel and Waspi women to embarrass ministers now turned axemen and women. “There are more than enough denunciations by us of the callous and cruel Tory benefit cuts,” growled a Labour archaeologist nervously, “to fill the British Museum.” By coincidence, George Osborne, who insisted on many of those cuts, now chairs the museum. The idea of a special gallery displaying Labour’s broken promises must be tempting.
Monthly briefings by ministers and officials on child poverty are likely to pull bigger crowds now that the government is sharpening its welfare axe. Open to all MPs and peers, hitherto few Tories bothered attending. Jaws dropped at the most recent briefing by Alison McGovern when in sauntered a Thérèse Coffey draped in ermine after losing her seat and being elevated to the House of Lords. Coffey was briefly Liz Truss’s deputy PM and a work and pensions secretary in the era when it was the Conservatives scything benefits and the two-child cap was imposed. “Drivers of child poverty were on the agenda,” sniffed a snout, “so I suppose the Tories should also be at the table.”
Kevin Maguire is the associate editor (politics) of the Daily Mirror
[See also: Inside the Reform civil war]
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This article appears in the 12 Mar 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Why Britain isn’t working