Will Yvette Cooper’s new mental health centres work?
Are mental health centres in libraries, banks and high street locations really going to make much of a difference? Health…
Andy Burnham must get used to being unpopular
Andy Burnham is apparently enjoying his first taste of unpopularity as prime minister, in the form of the furore over…
Burnham won’t reform social care with ‘cross-party consensus’
Does Andy Burnham really believe that cross-party consensus is going to resolve the decades-long stalemate on the funding of adult…
Burnham must also tackle the quality of Britain’s social care
Andy Burnham knows that ‘fixing’ social care will drain political capital away from him faster than a teenager emptying their…
Anas Sarwar’s peerage is hardly a surprise
To the surprise of very few in Scottish politics, bar apparently himself, Anas Sarwar is stepping down as leader of…
Does Burnham really know how to change Britain?
Andy Burnham told his Cabinet this morning that they need to give people a ‘sense that help is coming’. He…
Yvette Cooper is a left-field pick for Health Secretary
What does Yvette Cooper as Health Secretary mean for the NHS? It’s a question no one thought to ask before…
No, we don’t need a better tone at PMQs
Keir Starmer has been quite an irritable – and irritating at times – performer in the Commons as prime minister.…
It wasn’t all cosy at Starmer’s final PMQs
It’s difficult for an outgoing Prime Minister to mess up their valedictory PMQs: there is always more goodwill in the…
Burnham’s HR whips department won’t work
Now that he’s officially the Prime Minister in waiting, Andy Burnham is trying to work out how to stop Labour…
The most appalling thing about the NHS maternity scandal
By the end of this year, Britain will have had (at least) seven prime ministers in the past decade –…
Did Kemi Badenoch take the personal jibes too far at PMQs?
Keir Starmer came to PMQs wearing that look of post-resignation relief that we’ve grown all too used to seeing on…
Starmer’s tears show why he failed as PM
Keir Starmer looked visibly emotional as he walked up to the lectern in Downing Street this morning. The Prime Minister…
David Lammy’s heart wasn’t in DPMQs
Claire Coutinho emerged as the Tory frontbencher taking deputy prime minister’s questions today, with the shadow energy secretary focusing on…
Will Burnham avoid the Starmer trap?
Voters in Makerfield haven’t even gone to the polling stations, but already the Labour leadership contest is well into a…
Keir Starmer’s weakness was on display at PMQs
Prime Minister’s Questions today was ostensibly about the Defence Investment Plan – or its absence. But Kemi Badenoch was really…
Starmer is in survival mode – but for what purpose?
Keir Starmer is using this morning’s cabinet meeting to underline the message he has been sending to more junior ministers…
The irony of Keir Starmer’s plan to fund defence
Where could the government possibly find the money to fund its defence investment plan (DIP)? That question has been the…
Burnham’s leadership ambitions have fooled no one
Andy Burnham finally confirmed last night that he is indeed standing for the Labour leadership – just in case anyone…
Emotional politicians create bad policies
We have now reached the stage of political debate around Henry Nowak’s murder where politicians are talking more about tone…
Starmer and Badenoch can’t avoid the politics of Henry Nowak’s death
Kemi Badenoch clearly decided that it would be difficult to call for calm around the Henry Nowak case, and then…
No one wants to be honest about social care
It’s refreshing that social care has become a topic over which the putative Labour leadership contenders are prepared to scrap,…
Streeting has abandoned the NHS like everyone else
As well as making noises about wealth taxes that sound suspiciously similar to the kind of thing Andy Burnham would…
It’s no surprise Starmer’s ‘pompous’ tone annoys voters
Keir Starmer probably found it vaguely comforting that today’s Prime Minister’s Questions at least gave the impression that he is…
Starmer’s King’s Speech response bore little resemblance to reality
Like the rest of the King’s Speech, Keir Starmer’s address on the government’s legislative agenda had been prepared long before…
