OPINION: Express political editor Martyn Brown brings you up to date with all the latest twists and turns in Westminster Insider
Express political editor Martyn Brown says Reform UK have dominated the past week (Image: Daily Express)
If last week was all about the travails of our lame-duck Prime Minister, then this one was dominated by the party many people believe will form our next government – Reform UK. While MPs were hitting the ski slopes on their half-term break, Nigel Farage’s rapidly upwardly mobile political movement seized the void.
Weary political hacks hoping for a quiet(er) recess were treated to not one, not two, but three press conferences by the teal blue brigade. And the Express’s parliamentary team was there every step of the way to bring the brightest, most incisive and thorough coverage on Fleet Street. Farage used the middle of the trifecta of events inside Westminster’s historic wood-panelled Church House to prove he’s not a “one-man band”, dishing out some big jobs to his burgeoning team.
‘Lame duck Keir Starmer’ faced MPs at PMQs this week (Image: PA)
Sacked Tory Robert Jenrick was given the plum Treasury spokesman job, tasked with taking on Chancellor Rachel Reeves and proving Reform can be trusted with the economy.
Cracking down on immigration is the big bazooka in Reform’s armoury, and Zia Yusuf, who is not an MP but the party’s home affairs spokesman, promised to do what Labour and the Conservatives have failed to do – stop small boat crossings.
Farage’s first top-team appointments tell us much about how he plans to fight the next general election.
Be sensible with the nation’s finances, but a harder, more radical edge on pretty much everything else.
Suella Braverman will relish a new round of culture war battles as she takes the axe to the Equality Act in her role in charge of Reform’s education and equalities policies.
“Ronseal” MP Lee Anderson – he does exactly what it says on the tin – could well have the most eventful job, in charge of party discipline as chief whip.
A bespectacled Jenrick – his eyesight is pretty bad, apparently – gave his first big speech on Wednesday, before the week did a major U-turn.
Robert Jenrick making his first speech as Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman (Image: PA)
Firstly, Donald Trump dolloped out fresh humiliation for Sir Keir Starmer, yanking away American support for the Prime Minister’s controversial Chagos surrender deal.
Then Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest eclipsed everything else – more details of which can be found in our royal editor’s excellent Emily in Palace column tomorrow morning.
Politics gets back to normal when MPs return to Parliament on Monday, and the week will be geared towards the crunch Gorton and Denton by-election.
We will bring you all the thrills and spills, building up to our unrivalled through-the-night coverage on Thursday in what is shaping up to be a landmark battle between the Green Party and Reform.
