Presented by Lloyds Banking Group
London Playbook
By DAN BLOOM
with BETHANY DAWSON
IMAGINE THAT HANDSHAKE: Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to his inauguration, “multiple sources” told CBS News’ Jennifer Jacobs overnight. She reckons Xi — whom Trump accused of presiding over Beijing’s “rape of America” then called “brilliant” — will be one of the foreign dignitaries invited on Jan. 20. It seems unlikely he’d turn up. But will the same call go to Keir Starmer? Or Nigel Farage?
Good Thursday morning. This is Dan Bloom.
DRIVING THE DAY
CAN HE FIX IT? They’ve been briefed for months and will be buried in a groaning wad of techy detail — but the planning reforms Labour will confirm today are still quite a moment. To show his fabled “delivery,” Keir Starmer has to achieve a housebuilding explosion where a long line of prime ministers failed, and grow the economy with improbable speed … all while avoiding mutiny in Home Counties seats that voted Labour after a century. Such best-laid plans oft go awry.
Get the hard hats! Starmer and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner will celebrate at a Cambridgeshire housing site, where the PM should record a mid-morning pool clip while his deputy is grilled by the regional BBC and ITV. Sadly for body language experts, they’re not planning a joint interview.
**A message from Lloyds Banking Group: At Lloyds Banking Group we believe everyone deserves a safe and warm place to call home. That’s why we’ve joined forces with the National Wealth Fund to deliver £500 million in funding to retrofit social homes across the UK. Find out more here.**
Like watching paint dry: Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook has the business end of this, doing TV and radio interviews right now (times below) and giving a Commons statement late this morning. Then on gov.uk we can expect the real meat — a document dump including the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) for England. Yes, it’s as tedious as it sounds, but bear with us … it’s a big part of the story of the next election.
BRICK WALL: The housing crisis feels like it’s gone on forever, the target to get 1.5 million homes built by 2029 is a keystone of Starmer’s missions/milestones (choose your listicle) and there’s huge pressure to deliver. The PM and his opponents are leaning hard into this: an overnight trail has Starmer praising the “grafters” who “are denied the security of owning their own home,” while the Tories are already saying he’ll “bulldoze through the concerns of local communities.”
So let’s all pretend … to know what the “standard method assessment” means. It’s the formula to identify the minimum number of homes needed in an area. Today’s NPPF will have the new version, with figures on how many homes each council is expected to get built — including more in the expensive south. MPs, councilors and local reporters will be poring over it.
Mortar love: It’ll also reveal exactly how councils should define “gray belt,” Labour’s nickname for supposedly unsexy bits of green belt that can be bulldozed over. Opponents galore will study that. The Mail’s Jason Groves has an analysis by consultancy LandTech claiming it could free up enough green belt to build 2.5 million homes. That … might take a while.
HARD RAYN: Rayner’s department is keen to ham up the bits that make her look tough, reinstating the mandatory housing targets that the Tories ditched in 2022 and saying councils will have to set a timetable to produce a new “local plan” — their long-term housing strategy — 12 weeks from now or face Rayner’s intervention. Councils will have three months to advance local plans that are already being developed.
Pincer movement: Separate reforms briefed over the weekend (and due next year) will then let some developments bypass a planning committee if they’re in line with these newly hardened-up local plans. So taking these two moves together, they mean Labour expanding freedoms to build homes … and making those homes harder to block at the same time.
Tanks on manicured lawns: No wonder the trail is already dividing the parties hard. Starmer loyalist, YIMBY and Labour Growth Group Co-Chair Chris Curtis tells Playbook “I’m over the moon,” while the Telegraph’s splash headline is “Labour to ‘bulldoze’ the Home Counties.” Shadow Housing Secretary Kevin Hollinrake is on morning TV and radio.
BUT BUT BUT: Despite all this, there are still big questions about whether Labour will achieve its target. There were just 221,070 net new homes in the year to March (down 6 percent) and no year has topped 250,000 in two decades. Today’s NPFF will re-state a target of 370,000 a year, but officials were fuzzy last night about when, precisely, councils will get to it. Instead they pointed to 1.5 million over five years as the big target. Hmm.
Don’t ask them: The FT’s Joshua Oliver and Jim Pickard quote housebuilding firm MJ Gleeson saying it will take “three, four, five, six, seven years” for the changes to start feeding through to housing numbers. Campaign group Britain Remade says it’s not enough and “root and branch reform to our planning system” is needed. And Lib Dem housing spokesperson Gideon Amos (after, well, some debate in his own ranks) said we need 150,000 social homes a year.
Tick, tock! One Labour MP tells Playbook there is a vested interest in getting people inside new homes and on the electoral roll by 2029. The more time that passes after a development is finished, the more local anger will have faded away — while “the sorts of people who buy houses in these new developments are more likely to vote in elections, even if it’s not always for us.” Got to hold on to Buckingham somehow.
Carbuncle parade: Expect Tories to nose in on Labour dampening their “build beautiful” crusade. While there will still be some references to beauty in the NPPF, officials confirm others have been removed because they are subjective and “difficult to define.” Updates to the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code will only come next spring.
A small dilemma: Will Conservatives complain about Labour blocking Tory plans to scrap “nutrient neutrality” rules that were designed to protect the environment … or, will they point to an impact assessment (obtained by the Telegraph) that says today’s changes will have a “negative environmental impact”? Perhaps it’ll be a bit of both.
HE WAS THE FUTURE ONCE: A warning of how quickly things can go south in the form of this speech, almost exactly one year ago, by Rayner’s predecessor Michael Gove. The title: “Falling back in love with the future.”
So was he: Today marks five years since the 2019 general election, which the Tories won after promising 300,000 homes a year and which left Boris Johnson squatting “like a giant toad across British politics” (h/t Tim Shipman) and contemplating a decade in power (h/t my own colleague Jack Blanchard). Starmer will be hoping his plan actually comes off — especially as he won’t have a pandemic to blame. One hopes.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
DESPITE BREXIT: Keir Starmer is set to become the first prime minister to meet the 27 EU leaders of the European Council since you know what. The PM should be given the invitation to a Feb. 3 dinner on security matters when he meets European Council President António Costa in London this lunchtime, the FT reports. Playbook hears it’s on the money, though it’s separate from a U.K.-EU summit that isn’t yet nailed down.
Bezzie mates? Today’s meeting on Costa’s 12th day in office gives Starmer a big opening to trumpet his “reset” with the EU, along with matters like Syria and Ukraine. But there are no interviews due, depriving the Lobby of the chance to ask how much Costa would like a youth mobility scheme in negotiations next year. The IfG’s Jill Rutter notes that the contest to find the PM’s new EU “sherpa” closed this week after a long wait — while the EU has been busy nailing down what it wants.
All aboard! Labour may be about to turn to Europe for help with its reset of Britain’s rail network, too. The government is considering joining Eurofima, which would help provide cheaper finance to buy trains and could eventually mean lower ticket prices, my colleague Jon Stone writes.
Not on board: Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith speaks from 11 a.m. at a Legatum event to celebrate the U.K. joining the CPTPP trade pact this weekend. “This, along with trade with the U.S., is the path to prosperity, not realignment with the EU,” he’ll say.
FIGHTING TALK: Elsewhere in Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron is meeting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk today. They’ll discuss the deployment of a potential 40,000-strong postwar peacekeeping force in Ukraine, my POLITICO colleagues report.
It’s a tricky issue: YouGov and Datapraxis have an interesting poll on this for the European Council on Foreign Relations. It asked people in six countries whether, if Donald Trump tries to make Ukraine accept major concessions toward Russia, Britain should follow his lead. Some 53 percent of Brits said we shouldn’t — but this fell to 39 percent in Spain and Germany, 38 percent in Poland, 37 percent in France and just 29 percent in Italy. The i writes up more findings. It’s all difficult reading for Keir Starmer, who has joined the global mood shift and started talking about “negotiations” in Ukraine.
IN THE MIDDLE EAST: The West’s response to the turmoil in Syria could well develop today, since Bloomberg’s Alberto Nardelli and Fiona MacDonald reported that a statement by G7 leaders was due this week. A COBR meeting was held on Wednesday but with officials, not ministers.
But but but … Officials say the U.K. is still in no hurry to remove Syria’s new rulers Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from the list of proscribed terror groups (despite what Pat McFadden said). The process is still being worked through, as a group has never been de-proscribed in this way and it turns out British diplomats can talk to the regime while it is banned. Though any ministerial visits or reopening of Britain’s embassy, shuttered since 2017, would require taking HTS off the list, Playbook is told.
Here’s another take: Former deputy head of MI6 Nigel Inkster told LBC’s Andrew Marr “there is a point of leverage here,” as de-proscribing HTS could be made contingent on Britain getting guarantees in return.
ON GAZA: Conservatives are kicking off about Starmer’s decision to commit an extra £13 million to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency after a meeting with its boss Philippe Lazzarini. Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said: “UNRWA had to fire nine staff after investigations into their involvement in the appalling attack on Israel on Oct. 7.” The Telegraph writes it up.
IN THE CARIBBEAN: David Lammy is in Barbados for a conference on his long-planned first visit to the region as foreign secretary. He is due to meet PM Mia Mottley at around 10 p.m. U.K. time, though he is not due to speak to media … which will mean he can’t be asked about reparations. How handy!
It’s Pat McFadden’s world, we’re all just living in it: Foreign affairs isn’t one of the five missions or six milestones, which leaves the Foreign Office triangulating Lammy’s visit into every key metric that it can. An overnight release says he will launch a partnership to “tackle organised crime, boost economic growth and adapt to the climate crisis.” Tick, tick, tick!
COURT CIRCULAR
ALL RISING: Ministers are set to announce proposals to speed up crown court cases this morning — just as nine months of (ironically, backlogged) data on criminal court backlogs is dumped out at 9.30 a.m. The new stats are widely expected to show that things have got worse since the time to complete a crown court case fell slightly to 366 days at the last count. The Independent’s David Maddox sets the scene with some grim stats from Labour here.
What to expect: A written statement on Labour’s “independent review of the criminal courts” will be published, days after Justice Minister Sarah Sackman told MPs she was looking at “fundamental reform.” Officials have been studying calls by a former top judge to abandon jury trials for some crown court cases. The trigger point where magistrates’ cases have to be sent to a crown court has already been raised from six to 12 months’ jail; could it be raised again?
Reminder: There’s a law of unintended consequences when you try to speed up court cases, as evidenced by flaws in the “single justice procedure” for low-level cases. A separate review of that is underway.
NOT JUST COURTS: Today’s front pages lay bare how other parts of the protective state are under severe strain. Sara Sharif, 10, died with 25 fractures and injuries including human bite marks and burns caused by an iron after 15 missed opportunities to save her. The convictions of her abusive father Urfan Sharif and his wife splash the Metro, Mail, Mirror, Express and Times. Sara’s heart-rending photo makes the front pages of other papers.
This is political: The op-eds are fairly brutal — the Mirror says the authorities “face serious questions” about why they didn’t do more, while the Mail says the system is “clearly failing” — and you can imagine an MP or two calling for a statement on this. Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza has a Mirror op-ed with some suggestions for immediate changes, saying Sara’s death is a “heartbreaking reminder of the profound weaknesses in our child protection system that, as a country, we have failed time and time again to correct.”
Ones to watch: The i’s Richard Vaughan hears ministers are “looking carefully” at whether to follow Scotland and Wales by banning the smacking of children … while the Times reports that the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has a report today saying 485 children died or were harmed in serious safeguarding incidents in the last year.
TODAY IN WESTMINSTER
TEPID BATH BOILS: Ministers are planning to cut 10,000 civil service jobs, the FT’s Lucy Fisher and Guardian’s Rowena Mason report. Fisher reckons ministers are looking at voluntary redundancy schemes. Prospect union chief Mike Clancy was straight out the blocks warning against “blunt headcount targets.” One government official insisted there will not be an “arbitrary headcount” but the story sounds pretty on the money.
No respite: Chancellor Rachel Reeves got an ear-bashing from businesses in person about the budget on Wednesday (via the FT), and even Tony Blair (in a big op-ed in the Mail) says taxes and public spending are both “too high.” Just six more months of this before the spending review.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch in today’s Spectator: “What’s a lunch break? Lunch is for wimps. I have food brought in and I work and eat at the same time. There’s no time … Sometimes I will get a steak … I’m not a sandwich person. I don’t think sandwiches are a real food, it’s what you have for breakfast. I will not touch bread if it’s moist.”
Fire up the news machine: It’s part of a typically spicy Badenoch interview with Katy Balls, where she also says she identifies with “the Mother of Dragons” from “Game of Thrones” … says “people should be fined” for putting up Christmas decorations before Dec. 1 … and complains of those demanding her actual policies: “I feel like I am going to be opening a restaurant in four years’ time and people are demanding to see the menu right now.”
Didn’t get the memo: Attempted leader James Cleverly told LBC’s Natasha Clark the Tories should be “offering up solutions” to fix the country rather than just “pointing at problems” with the government. Badenoch does promise “lots of red meat” … in the 2029 manifesto.
OPEN REVOLT: Staff at the U.K.’s prestigious AI body, the Alan Turing Institute, are up in arms about the way it is being run, my colleague Laurie Clarke reveals. Some 93 employees have signed a letter expressing no confidence in its executive and calling on the board to “urgently intervene” — saying concerns about gender diversity, a redundancy round and the general direction have been “ignored, minimized or misdirected.”
OPEN ARMS: Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Defence Minister Maria Eagle will today chair a Whitehall meeting of arms firms including BAE Systems, Babcock and Rheinmetall, as well as cuddly banking giants Barclays and Rothschild, to “realize the economic potential of the defense sector.” The trail — that Reynolds will promise he won’t give into calls to boycott arms firms — makes Page 1 of the Times.
ONE TO WATCH: There’s a written statement on “local government best value,” which in the past has meant sending in commissioners to a failing council, on today’s order paper.
IN CASE YOU BLANKED IT OUT: There’s also a written statement due about marking the annual Covid-19 day of reflection in March.
STATS DUMP: It’s a big data dump day at 9.30 a.m. Deep breath, there’s info on tribunal waiting times (including the number of benefit cases overturned at appeal) … A&E, cancer, ambulance, referral to treatment and other NHS diagnostic waiting times … terror arrests … work capability assessment stats for Universal Credit and ESA … the use of discretionary housing payments to tide people over … plus driving test pass rates … railway delays … primary school performance … visa applications … and drug misuse.
One for Rachel Reeves: Annual stats on how much agricultural land is actually used for farming in the U.K. — a number that’s been waning — will be out here (England’s figures already came out in September).
And because it’s Christmas … See here for annual data on the population of the Turtle Dove.
ED’S UP: Friday will be Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband’s turn to launch his “clean power action plan,” and the FT’s Jim Pickard and Rachel Millard hear ministers are considering the biggest auction yet of renewable energy subsidies in 2025.
GLASS HALF EMPTY: Tory peer Andrew Sharpe has told the Sun he fears a “metric maniac” could seize ministerial office and use the Product Regulation Bill to replace pint glasses with the “abomination of a vessel” that is a schooner.
TRY, TRY AGAIN: Legislation on medical clinical trials is due to be laid today that the government is billing the “biggest overhaul in 20 years.” A hangover from Rishi Sunak’s time in No. 10, it’ll remove “duplicative requirements” with tighter timelines for approval. Safety nerds will watch the small print.
BRIGHT SPARKS: Energy firms could be forced to offer tariffs with no daily “standing charges” (or very low ones) as part of a consultation kicked off today by the regulator Ofgem.
A WHITTY IDEA: Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has recommended a levy on unhealthy food, the Telegraph writes.
JUSTICE DELAYED: The government has launched a £75 million compensation scheme for LGBTQ+ veterans dismissed or discharged due to their sexuality, with applications opening on Friday. Veterans are due to attend today’s Commons debate (details below).
ON THE HORIZON: The Met Police identified “dozens” of persons of interest in the Post Office Horizon scandal, a senior commander tells ITV’s Daniel Hewitt. The force is focusing on potential perjury and perverting justice offenses but is not ruling out corporate manslaughter charges.
TORTURE TOMATOES: Multiple products sold in British supermarkets contain tomatoes that could have been harvested using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region, according to a peer-reviewed study by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation written up by the Telegraph.
SW1 EVENTS: The Future Governance Forum is launching its report on scale-up policy with Labour MP Kanishka Narayan at noon (invite only) … and the Constitution Unit is holding an online event on improving election discourse in the U.K. with Electoral Commission Interim Head of Policy Michela Palese and Full Fact CEO Chris Morris at 1 p.m. (details here).
HOUSE OF COMMONS: Sits from 9.30 a.m. with business and trade questions … business questions to the Leader of the Commons Lucy Powell … a statement on planning reforms … a general debate on crossbench peer Terence Etherton’s independent review of the treatment of LGBTQ+ veterans … and a backbench business debate on the performance of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (led by Conservative MP Esther McVey). Lib Dem MP Pippa Heylings has the adjournment debate on SEND provision.
WESTMINSTER HALL: Debates from 1.30 p.m. on disability history month (Labour MP Jen Craft) … and floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea (Labour MP Jayne Kirkham).
HOUSE OF LORDS: Sits from 11 a.m. with questions on mandatory housebuilding targets, overturning the convictions of sub-postmasters and avian flu … a debate on eliminating domestic abuse (led by non-affiliated peer Caroline Chisholm) … and a debate about the future of small farms and family businesses (led by Conservative peer Thomas Coke).
BEYOND THE M25
WILL, THIS IS UNEXPECTED: Labour lost control of Nuneaton and Bedworth Council last night after councilor Will Markham defected from Labour to the Tories, citing the way “certain Labour members are … acting in their own interests rather than considering the residents.” The BBC’s Joshua Nevett has an X thread.
BETTER TOGETHER: Scotland is set to join England in introducing a ban on puberty blockers for under-18s questioning their gender identity. The BBC has more.
CHOUX-IN: French President Emmanuel Macron could name his new prime minister today, having said on Tuesday that he would announce one “in the next 48 hours.” Tick tock …
CASH DESERT: Qatar’s massive sovereign wealth fund wants to invest “aggressively” abroad, including in the U.K., ahead of a fossil fuels windfall, its new CEO tells the FT in a splash story. Good news for Rachel Reeves — just don’t mention those pesky human rights.
MOVING ON: U.S. FBI Director Christopher Wray, appointed by Donald Trump in 2017, said he would resign next month, three years before the end of his 10-year term. Wray’s position has been in doubt since the president-elect said last month he would appoint Kash Patel, a staunch loyalist, to run the law enforcement agency.
More from Trumpland: The U.S. Justice Department has told Jan. 6 defendants that accepting a pardon from Trump would be a “confession of guilt” … Republican lawmakers are inviting a Jan. 6 felon back to the Capitol for Trump’s inauguration … and prosecutors have accused a man on probation for his role in the 2021 attack of attempting to flee the country and volunteer for the Russian military’s fight against Ukraine.
**A message from Lloyds Banking Group: Together with the National Wealth Fund, we are delivering £500m in funding to support the retrofit of social homes across the UK. It is estimated that close to £36 billion of investment will be needed to bring housing association properties to EPC C by 2030. These loans will help provide upgrades such as low carbon heating and insulation, creating warmer homes, lower bills and better life outcomes for social housing residents. At Lloyds Banking Group, we have championed the social housing sector for decades, providing over £18.5 billion in new funding to the sector since 2018. Find out more about our efforts to support sustainable housing here.**
MEDIA ROUND
Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook broadcast round: Times Radio (7.05 a.m.) … Sky News (7.15 a.m.) … BBC Breakfast (7.30 a.m.) … LBC (7.50 a.m.) … Today (8.10 a.m.) … GMB (8.30 a.m.) … GB News (9.05 a.m.).
Shadow Housing Secretary Kevin Hollinrake broadcast round: GB News (7.30 a.m.) … Times Radio (7.45 a.m.) … Talk (8 a.m.) … Sky (8.15 a.m.).
Also on Times Radio Breakfast: Israeli Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Sharren Haskel (7.20 a.m.) … Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza (8.15 a.m.) … former Downing Street comms boss Lee Cain (8.45 a.m.).
Also on LBC News: Community Planning Alliance co-founder Rosie Pearson (7.45 a.m.).
Politics Live (BBC Two 12.15 p.m.): Labour MP Natalie Fleet … Conservative peer David Frost … former Conservative SpAd Salma Shah … Runnymede Trust CEO Shabna Begum.
TODAY’S FRONT PAGES
POLITICO UK: Brexit Britain looks to Europe to help fix its railways.
Daily Express: ‘Killed by the very adults who should have loved and protected her.’
Daily Mail: Little Sara, let down by EVERYONE supposed to protect her.
Daily Mirror: The smile that hid a life of torture.
Daily Star: Rise of the psycho scumbag chatbot zombies.
Financial Times: Qatar’s $500bn fund aims to invest gas windfall in ‘big ticket’ U.S. and U.K. deals.
i: ‘Sara was failed’: Child protection must now change, ministers told.
Metro: Not even a tear for Sara.
The Daily Telegraph: Labour bid to ‘bulldoze’ the Home Counties.
The Guardian: Ministers to axe more than 10,000 civil service jobs in budgets purge.
The Independent: Dozens face police perjury probe over Post Office scandal.
The Times: Missed chances to stop horrific murder of Sara.
TODAY’S NEWS MAGS
POLITICO Europe: Class of 2025.
The New European: Gisèle Pelicot — Person of the Year 2024**.**
The Spectator: Christmas special.
LONDON CALLING
WESTMINSTER WEATHER: Cloudy again, but this time with added mist. High 9C, low 6C.
SPOTTED … Spilling out of the Old Queen Street offices into the garden for the Spectator’s Christmas drinks, with the customary Pol Roger Champagne: Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and her SpAd Owain Mumford … Health Secretary Wes Streeting chatting to Reform UK Chair Zia Yusuf … Education Minister Catherine McKinnell … No. 10’s Matthew Doyle, James Lyons, Sophie Nazemi, Calum Masters and Tom Lillywhite … SpAd John Stevens, chatting across party lines with former Tory minister Thérèse Coffey … shadow frontbenchers Mel Stride, Ed Argar, Victoria Atkins and Alan Mak … Labour MP Yuan Yang … Tory MPs Julia López and James Cleverly … Tory MP John Hayes asking people if they wanted to dance … Ministry of Justice perm sec Antonia Romeo, who walked in, looked around and walked out again … Cabinet Office Head of News Joseph Potts … broadcaster Rachel Johnson … LOTO comms chief Dylan Sharpe and deputy chief of staff Henry Newman … PLP Secretary Matthew Faulding … outgoing Labour COO John Lehal … Labour’s External Relations Manager Jane Eagles … former Labour press officer Leila McIntyre … Reform UK Head of Communications Ed Sumner … Farage staffer Dan Jukes, carrying his dog Bobby … Reform donor Nick Candy … New Spectator owner Paul Marshall laughing with Reform Leader Nigel Farage … Team Speccy including Editor Michael Gove, Political Editor Katy Balls and Political Correspondent James Heale … CCHQ’s Josh Grimstone, Gabriel Millard-Clothier and Harriet Smith … Tory aide Emma Pryor … Lib Dem spinners Gareth Lewis and Robert Macdonald … “Scoop” author Sam McAlister … Cavendish’s Emma Barnes … ConservativeHome’s Henry Hill … Labour Together boss Jonathan Ashworth … and former No. 10 spinners Nerissa Chesterfield and Guto Harri.
Also spotted … drinking Guinness and munching on canapés of Clonakilty black pudding at the Irish Embassy Christmas reception … Ambassador Martin Fraser … Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden … former Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen MacNamara … SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn … former Deputy Labour Leader Tom Watson … former Reform UK comms boss Gawain Towler … CBI CEO Rain Newton-Smith … Labour peer Peter Hain … Irish Embassy press officer Jamal Alkayed … broadcaster and journalist Michael Crick … Express Associate Editor Sam Lister … Foreign Press Association Director Deborah Bonetti … pol eds Chris Mason, Gary Gibbon, Nick Watt and Hugo Gye … hacks Joe Pike, Claire Ellicott, William Keegan, Bénédicte Paviot and Richard Vaughan … News Agents host Lewis Goodall … the EU’s spokesman in the U.K. Federico Bianchi … Hungarian Embassy press attaché Petra Hajdu.
Also spotted … at the trendy Glasshaus in Elephant & Castle for the Christmas drinks of Blairite/Labour “right” groups Progressive Britain, Labour First and Labour to Win: No. 10’s Henna Shah and Matthew Doyle … Whip Christian Wakeford … MPs Mark Sewards, Josh Dean, Deirdre Costigan, Josh Fenton-Glynn and Gurinder Singh Josan … NEC member Abdi Duale …Progressive Britain Director Adam Langleben and Deputy Director Thomas Collinge … Labour to Win Director Jane Thomas … Ofwat public affairs chief Charlotte Butterick … parliamentary assistant Cathleen Clarke.
Also spotted … having Champagne and caviar at the HQ of lobbying firm Strand Partners: Political biographer Anthony Seldon … SpAds Anthony McCaul and Alex Zatman … former Downing Street Deputy Head of News Georgie Barker … Strand directors Adam Jones, Naomi Stanley and Jess Seldon … former SpAds Asa Bennett and Madeline Sibley … Times Radio presenter John Pienaar … and former Labour adviser Matthew Lavender.
THE PRESSURE IS ON: The Next Gen Tories group has appointed an advisory board including Conservative peer and Resolution Foundation President David Willetts and former Conservative MPs Simon Clarke and Bim Afolami as part of their plan to boost youth support. Clarke told PoliticsHome’s Zoë Crowther the Conservatives could “cease to exist” if they don’t increase their appeal to young people and would “deserve it.”
JOB ADS: Labour MPs David Pinto-Duschinsky, Amanda Hack and Katie White are hiring parliamentary assistants.
NOW READ: The FT’s Anna Gross and George Parker have tried to answer one of Westminster’s biggest questions: Can Nigel Farage fulfill his promise at last week’s Spectator awards to form a Reform UK government? With colorful (and very informative) graphs, they note the Clacton MP will need a 26-point national swing to win a majority. So, good luck, as they say, with that.
WRITING PLAYBOOK FRIDAY MORNING: Dan Bloom.
WRITING PLAYBOOK PM: Emilio Casalicchio.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Former North Antrim MP Ian Paisley Jr. … BBC presenter Reeta Chakrabarti … The Dial’s Esther King … Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editors Zoya Sheftalovich, Jack Blanchard and Alex Spence, diary reporter Bethany Dawson and producer Dean Southwell.
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