Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

Policy Reporter at The New Statesman

Policy Correspondent, @NewStatesman. Covering social affairs | 📩 [email protected] | boo-urns twitter

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Articles

Why is Birmingham leading Britain's child poverty spiral?

1 week ago | newstatesman.com | Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

To truly understand the impact of child poverty in Birmingham, the best place to go is Ladywood. Sitting to the west of the city centre, research from 2008 identified this area as having the highest percentage of children who live in poverty of any parliamentary constituency. A newspaper report from the time depicts the situation on the ground for locals: “I’d rather starve than let them go hungry,” a father who was out of work said of his girlfriend and their 12-month-old daughter.
Tottenham’s victory won’t save English football

2 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

Is it fitting, or tragic, that European football’s second-tier competition would come to rescue the dismal footballing seasons of Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur? After record-poor domestic campaigns in the Premier League era – United sit 16th and Tottenham 17th in the table – the two contested the Europa League final in Bilbao yesterday (May 21). Beleaguered fans of both had dubbed the encounter – which Spurs won, 1-0 – as “the Battle of Mid”, and even “El Crappico”.
“We must not allow people to fall in love with Reform”

3 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

After losing the election to become the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands last May – had he won, it would have been his third term – Andy Street has barely been seen in public life. “I had a little rest and good holidays,” Street, an effulgent yet spiky figure, told me when we met in Birmingham city centre recently.
How Birmingham became Britain’s scapegoat

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

There’s been a lot of trash talk about Birmingham recently. Most obviously, a strike by the city council’s refuse workers, now in its fifth week, has filled the streets with sweaty black bin liners. The accumulated rubbish has now reached thousands of tonnes.
Nigel Farage’s mutinous army

2 months ago | newstatesman.com | Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

It was billed as the “biggest political rally in history”. But as its 6.30pm start time drew near, it became clear that Reform UK’s local-election campaign launch at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena on Friday (28 March) was going to reflect its true position: an insurgent party on the verge of civil war.
Mark Fairhurst: “I do not fear the law. I will accept the consequences.”

2 months ago | newstatesman.com | Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), is nostalgic about his early days working in Britain’s jails. When the Scouser joined the profession in the early Nineties, aged 22, life for him and his fellow prison guards was “fantastic”. “It was really disciplined,” Fairhurst, now 55, told me when we met at the trade union’s north-London office. “We had plenty of staff.
Morning Call: The axewoman cometh

Mar 6, 2025 | morningcall.substack.com | Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

Good morning, it’s George here. The last week has been dominated by foreign affairs but that has sharpened rather than ended Labour’s domestic dilemmas. Below I explore those confronting Rachel Reeves as she prepares to deliver her Spring Statement on 26 March. Rachel Reeves and welfare have a complicated history.
Morning Call: The return of the Americosceptic Tory

Mar 5, 2025 | morningcall.substack.com | George Eaton |Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

Good morning, George here. In his 100-minute address to the US Congress last night – the longest in American history – Donald Trump declared that he was “just getting started”. Below I explore the new domestic divides that his presidency has already opened. Joe Biden’s presidency left no lasting imprint on British politics and culture. Labour embraced “Bidenomics” as a model of state intervention. Conservatives chafed at the president’s Irish sympathies.
Will the government stop Rosebank?

Feb 4, 2025 | newstatesman.com | Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

In case you somehow missed the endless briefings given last week,Rachel Reeves wants you to know: economic growth is the Labour government’s “No 1 mission”. The chancellor announced a flurry of government-backed infrastructure projects, most controversially a third runway at Heathrow Airport. But the noise around Heathrow meant that another environmentally significant decision, taken in the British courts last week, largely flew under the radar.
Can Labour's £315m school breakfast plan save a generation?

Jan 29, 2025 | newstatesman.com | Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

This article first appeared in our print Spotlight Party Politics Special, published on 15 November 2024. Read the full supplement here. By 8.45am on a bright spring morning at the St John’s Primary School in east London, pupils were nearing the end of their hour-long morning breakfast club – eating buttered bagels, creating arts and crafts, and playing Connect 4 with friends. Teddy, who is in Year 6, arrived an hour earlier.