Andrew Rawnsley

1 week ago | observer.co.uk | Andrew Rawnsley

The health secretary’s plans for prevention, digital reform and community care could turn rhetoric into reality Wes Streeting has been sounding even chirpier than usual since the spending review. Speaking the day after to a conference of health professionals, he told them that an extra £29bn for the NHS was “a hell of a lot of money”. Indeed it is.

2 weeks ago | observer.co.uk | Andrew Rawnsley

The spending review has the potential to renew the government – but it won’t be easy for Rachel Reeves to stay within her fiscal rules Rachel Reeves repeatedly told us that she is about the “renewal of Britain”. The question anxious Labour MPs want answered is whether she has done enough to prompt the renewal of their government after a period of drift, disillusion and division. No member of the cabinet needs a lift more than the chancellor herself.

2 weeks ago | observer.co.uk | Andrew Rawnsley

With friends like Mel Stride, Kemi Badenoch does not need any more enemies. For those of you who may be understandably fuzzy about the composition of the Tory team, Sir Mel Stride is the shadow chancellor and the second most important personage in the Conservative hierarchy. Commenting about his embattled leader, he compared her struggles to be taken seriously with those faced by Margaret Thatcher in her first year as opposition leader and suggested that: “She will get better through time.

3 weeks ago | observer.co.uk | Andrew Rawnsley

Under the shadow of fiscal rules and political backlash, Rachel Reeves is tasked with delivering a plan with nothing in the coffers Gordon Brown liked to joke that there are only two kinds of chancellors: those who fail and those who get out in time. He went on to be an illustration of a third category: those who are cock of the walk while at No 11, only to come a cropper upon moving to No 10.

1 month ago | observer.co.uk | Andrew Rawnsley

It’s tempting to use Reform as a weapon against the Conservatives, but the PM must beware playing such a risky game A couple of months after the 2024 general election, I asked Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s chief strategist, whether he thought the Conservatives or Reform would be his party’s primary opponent at the next national contest. He gave what I thought was a candid and reasonable response, because it was the one I would have given myself at the time.