The prospect of Labour select committee chairs joining the monster revolt over welfare cuts ahead of its scheduled 1 July vote is rattling the whips’ office. The Lewisham North MP Vicky Foxcroft, once shadow minister for disabled people, was greeted as a hero by fellow MPs for quitting as one of Keir Starmer’s parliamentary enforcers. The writing was on the wall for the Prime Minister and for slasher-of-state Liz Kendall in the tangible support enjoyed by Foxcroft during the assisted dying debate. Hugs and back-patting from colleagues indicated whose side they were on. Spare a thought for Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, forever whispered to be for the chop. No 10 sent her out to assert that the resignation of Foxcroft, who incidentally backed Nandy’s 2020 leadership bid, didn’t signal a major rebellion. Oops.
His self-described “Robin Hood” tax plan instantly exposed as a sheriff-of-Nottingham fat bung to the super-rich, Nigel Farage and his Reform upward-redistributors have been soaking up the sun on the Commons terrace. The hard-right crew with an aversion to small boats looked the other way when a vessel monitoring the old palace’s foundations was moored to a rig on the Thames. The vessel was called The Siberian, a gift from Vladimir Putin to fanboy Nige, joked a wag. When a fleet of kayaks paddled by, Labour’s sharp-tongued Bermondsey bruiser Neil Coyle was overheard asking bar staff for a mop because Reformers would abe wetting themselves at the sight of more small boats.
The Tory shadow justice sec Bobby J’s relentless campaign to overshadow Kemi Badenoch saw Mr Duracell complete the Three Peaks challenge. Hiking the UK had, Robert Jenrick informed a group of Cons at the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation’s Now and England conference, given him “a renewed appreciation of the wild beauty of the British Isles”. It also gave him blisters. Not that sore feet will stop Bobby J from stepping on the toes of anybody – particularly flat-footed Badenoch – in pursuit of his relentless quest for her job.
The Scottish Secretary, Ian Murray, was generous in his praise for “my political mentor and hero” Gordon Brown and wife Sarah in Dover House, the Scotland Office HQ on Whitehall. “I wouldn’t be standing here today without their inspiration and friendship,” the cabinet minister added. Murray told how the young daughter, Ella, of legal-eagle peer Catherine Smith, Advocate General for Scotland, had played sofa Olympics, jumping from seat to seat in his official lair. Ella, born prematurely at 28 weeks, weighing under 2lb, survived in part thanks to an Edinburgh research centre founded by Sarah and Gordon after the couple’s ten-day-old daughter, Jennifer, died in 2002. The charity PiggyBankKids is now TheirWorld and the group’s reception was hosted by Murray. Living proof that good people can make a difference.
With Lindsay Hoyle widely expectedto vacate the hot seat before the next election, 2027 is the year many MPs expect the Commons Speaker to hang up his gown. Tory deputy Caroline Nokes is the successor whispered by many lips, unless Labour whips its majority for another one of the party’s own. Treasury Committee chair Meg Hillier was tipped as the party’s putative nominee. That, however, was before she emerged as an organiser of the great benefits revolt.
Unpopular with Tory workmates is Windsor newbie Jack Rankin. Fairly or otherwise, they’re branding him a tea-room sneak who allegedly retells private conversations. This column is open house for gossip and there’s always a safe home for him here. Which is why we can reveal a Tory ex-minister who survived the Labour tsunami suggested Rankin’s surname should be pronounced in a Jonathan Ross voice.
Talk in the Lords is Tory opposition kamikaze leader Nicky True will be out of the job after he fails to save hereditary peers. On manoeuvres is Whitley Bay baron and former culture minister Stephen “Parky” Parkinson. The ex-Theresa May Spad could, according to our snouts, be up against ex-David Cameron Spad Baroness Simone Finn if she fancies the role. The ermined Spad spat could be quite the ding-dong.
Rosena Allin-Khan, for whom self-doubt has never been considered a weakness, is riding high after a poll of potential Labour London mayoral candidates put her top among members. Several snouts recalled a Westminster tale that Allin-Khan would, it is said, end each day by asking staff what they’d done over the past 24 hours to help crown her leader. As they say in the north-east, shy bairns get no sweets, so ambition would be needed to succeed Sadiq Khan in the capital.
Reform hokey-coker Zia Yusuf’s revolting staff are spreading dirt on their old boss. Former employees of Velocity Black, the concierge company that earned Yusuf a fortune, told the Beeb’s Billy Kenber the CEO’s dog occasionally fouled the carpet. “Every time he turned up to canvas at the locals,” moaned a Reformer, “he [Yusuf] just stood there and stared at his phone without speaking to anyone.” Perhaps he was looking for a dog sitter.
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[See also: Keir Starmer has a problem: the left is organising]
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This article appears in the 25 Jun 2025 issue of the New Statesman, State of Emergency