Megan Kenyon

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Megan Kenyon

It’s been a tricky week for Ed Miliband. First, on Tuesday the energy regulator Ofgem announced it would be raising the price cap on energy bills by 6.4 per cent. This will make Labour’s pre-government mission to cut bills by £300 per year by 2030 even less achievable. Then, on 26 February the Climate Change Committee (CCC) published its seventh carbon budget which advised that the sale of new oil and gas boilers should be banned in a decade’s time – a move which Miliband has previously opposed.

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Megan Kenyon

The biggest moment of Keir Starmer’s tenure so far took place this afternoon. In an unexpected statement in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister announced the government’s intention to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, up from 2.3 per cent, the “biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War.” Under these new plans, the UK will need to find an additional £13.4bn annually for defence in less than two years. Interesting timing.

2 months ago | newstatesman.com | Megan Kenyon

On the east side of Newquay – on the rugged Cornish coast – is Nansledan, a quaint new town currently in the midst of development. It is the second of two “environmentally friendly” new towns championed by King Charles III, albeit while he was Duke of Cornwall. (The first was Poundbury in Dorset.)Last week Nansledan played host to an unusual royal visit; the King was accompanied on a tour of the town by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his deputy, the Housing Secretary Angela Rayner.

2 months ago | newstatesman.com | Megan Kenyon

Richard Tice really doesn’t like net zero. The last time the Reform deputy leader mentioned it in parliament – during topical questions for the Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband – he referred to the policy as “”, sounding more like a precocious toddler than an MP. So, it was no surprise to hear Tice target the plan to cut carbon emissions again last week, telling a press conference that his party plans to put “the renewables industry on notice”.

2 months ago | newstatesman.com | Megan Kenyon

I almost didn’t get to speak to Kim Leadbeater. The 48-year-old Labour MP for Spen Valley is in such high demand that she rescheduled our interview – twice. In fact, in the lift on the way up to her parliamentary office on an inconspicuous wood-panelled corridor of Portcullis House, I was told by a member of her team that she had nearly cancelled. It was a bracing day in January, and she fitted me in after another commitment, racing back from the Ministry of Justice, bristling with energy.