Morning Call (The New Statesman)

4 days ago | morningcall.substack.com | George Eaton

Good morning, it’s George here. Rachel Reeves is seeking to mask cabinet divisions over next week’s Spending Review by announcing £15bn of investment for transport outside London (Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner and Yvette Cooper have yet to settle their budgets with the Chancellor). But below I report on what’s behind the new tensions inside No 10. Keir Starmer’s Downing Street was dysfunctional from its earliest days. Labour, senior figures often say, had a plan to win but not a plan to govern.

6 days ago | morningcall.substack.com | George Eaton

Good morning, it’s George here. As parliament returns from recess, Labour’s divisions are on full display. Expect Rachel Reeves’ looming Spending Review (11 June) to dominate this week as the Treasury seeks to settle with cabinet ministers resisting spending cuts. Below I report on the alternative programme that Andy Burnham set out at Compass’s weekend conference and Labour’s insurgent soft left. Inside Labour there might not be a vacancy but there is always a contest.

1 week ago | morningcall.substack.com | George Eaton

Good morning, it’s George here. Parliament is in recess this week but the reverberations from Keir Starmer’s winter fuel U-turn continue. Below I explore what that move and others tell us about the government’s direction. The Labour Party, Harold Wilson once observed, is “like a stagecoach. If you rattle along at great speed everybody is too exhilarated or seasick to cause any trouble.

1 month ago | morningcall.substack.com | Freddie Hayward

Good morning from Washington DC. It’s Freddie here. Westminster’s reaction to the Maga movement is bemusing. It’s as if the radio waves crossing the Atlantic get scattered, transforming President Trump into a Union-flag-waving royalist with a holiday home in Aberdeen. Thoughts on the US-UK trade deal below. Peter Mandelson’s brief grimace was the only sign the government knew the ploy was a stretch.

1 month ago | morningcall.substack.com | George Eaton

Good morning, it’s George here. Across Westminster, the political fallout from Labour’s election defeats is reverberating. Below I explore the renewed backlash against the winter fuel payment cuts and the dilemmas they pose for Keir Starmer. In 1976, as Harold Wilson announced his surprise resignation, Labour was wracked by questions over its future direction. A vivid new play, The Gang of Three, depicts the fate of a trio of modernising candidates: Denis Healey, Roy Jenkins and Anthony Crosland.