Beijing sanctioning a carload of MPs and peers got China’s London ambassador barred from parliament in 2021. Russia banning a minibus’s worth this April triggered another volley of words amid the crisis of Putin’s Ukraine war. Israel blocking four MPs on two trips has also generated a diplomatic rebuke. So what will Keir Starmer do if Donald Trump’s authoritarian regime denies a visa to Labour peer and celebrated human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy, as she fears it might? Kennedy, who has been sanctioned by China, was a regular visitor to the US, where she owns a home. The potential ban is the talk of the Lords, and two sources told the New Statesman that Kennedy believes her visa could be withheld because she signed a letter critical of thin-skinned Trump. MPs and peers hoping to take the kids to Disneyland should beware – Big Brother Trump is watching and listening.
What a turnaround for Katie Lam. Billed as the brightest star of the Tories’ new intake, the one-time Goldman Sachs banker and Boris Johnson special adviser is mutating into a right-wing Terminator on immigration issues under the tutelage of mad monk Dominic Cummings. Lam’s hard-line approach might be securing name recognition and cut-through achieved by few backbenchers in a stricken party these days, yet is the Reform UK mini-me authentic? She’s written five musicals and is working on a sixth. One may surprise new bedfellows on the radical right: an adaptation of The Danish Girl, an award-winning book by David Ebershoff turned into a film that is regularly described as a “joyful trans story”. Was Lam progressively inclined before she saw which way the wind was blowing on the right?
Arched eyebrows elsewhere in Tory-land at the Conservative autumn reception thrown by incoming party treasurer Simon Dudley, who, as a housing developer and board member of the Conservative Yimby group, practised what he preached by hosting the coffers-filling jamboree in his Maidenhead pile. As the wine flowed and the majestic cheeseboard was rapidly consumed by senior Conservative thinkers, policymakers, donors and hacks, something – or someone – was noticeably missing. Robert Jenrick was on parade, of course, but there was no sign of Kemi Badenoch. Was she busy?
Government anti-Semitism tsar and Labour peer John Mann is accused of beastly behaviour towards Jewish News political editor Lee Harpin. The hack was overheard chatting with a sympathetic whip and MPs about messages he’d received from self-styled Lord John Mann of the People over a twist in the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at Aston Villa. The tone and content of the messages suggest, I’m told, it isn’t only football supporters who can be hooligans.
Treasury and pensions minister Torsten Bell coming out all guns blazing for the Mail and Times over “lies” suggesting he’d spent £900 on an office desk was a rare victory for the Labour government against a combative Tory press. The fourth estate’s “untrue garbage” was erased online and Bell took to X to correct the record. The Swansea West MP disclosed his office furniture was actually from Ikea and he’d “significantly underspent” the new member’s allowance. Bet he wishes he could ring the same Bell after 26 November’s Budget.
Listening to Nicolas Sarkozy’s jailing discussed on your correspondent’s frenemies podcast Pierce vs Maguire prompted a reader to recall a diplomatic near miss from 2008. It was during the former French president and his singer wife Carla Bruni ’s UK state visit, when the couple were invited to a grand dinner in London’s Guildhall. There, the Lib Dem Lembit Öpik imagined so many comparisons with his dating a Cheeky Girl that the self-obsessed MP drafted a letter offering to meet the president to give tips on how to handle public interest in his relationship with one of France’s most beautiful women. The note was passed from diner to diner up to the top table where the president read it before handing it nonchalantly to Lord Mayor David Lewis, explaining his English simply wasn’t good enough to understand. Corporate lawyer Lewis scanned the page and fully understood immediately, popping the offer into his pocket where it stayed.
Friends and foes alike wonder whether Jeremy Corbyn fully thought through swapping parliament for panto this Christmas to play the Wizard of Ozlington in the pantomime Wicked Witches, at the Pleasance Theatre in north London. Not taking himself too seriously to support a venue marking its 30th anniversary is admirable. But the Your Party chief may have overlooked that the wizard is unmasked as a snivelling, timorous weakling. Corbyn could have played it safe by agreeing to be cast as the Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, Dorothy or even Toto the dog.
Peers grumble Baron Gove of Torry isn’t adopting the upper chamber’s gentler ways, continuing Commons heckles rather than sighing and harrumphing. Michael’s decibel levels go up a few notches after lunch and dinner, notes an amused fellow inmate. Must be the grouse.
Correction: this article originally reported that Helena Kennedy had been denied a visa to the US
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This article appears in the 30 Oct 2025 issue of the New Statesman, No More Kings