Hugo Gye

Some news... I'll be joining @TheEconomist later this year as political correspondent Will still be around Westminster covering government, opposition, elections and public opinion Very excited to join a newspaper I've always loved

Angela Rayner’s speech on Tuesday has sparked a backlash in some quarters of the PLP. MPs have accused Rayner of “selfish” behaviour, of being on “obvious” leadership manoeuvres and of talking “bollocks” with her immigration intervention. Story link in tweet below👇

Angela Rayner told Mainstream reception tonight 🚨 “The very survival of the Labour Party is at stake" amid rising populism and party is "running out of time". There is a need to “rebuild” the party 🚨 The Labour govt’s migration reforms are a "breach of trust" and "un-British"

Coming late to the party on this but @RachelReevesMP has announced plans for 'revenue assignment' for English mayoral authorities - letting local areas share in the risk and reward of growth in tax bases for more taxes, including income tax. My initial @theIFS thoughts... [1/6]

Here's how govt may roll out targeted support for energy bills if necessary later this year - @eleanormia reveals DSIT is fast-tracking a database project which would identify households most in need of help: inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

Mamdani, decked in shamrock, once against fails to pledge support for a united Ireland. Simply saying he believes in self-determination. Not sure the British consulate has had a Mayor this on message on HMG's views on the meaning of the Good Friday Agreement settlement in Northern Ireland in generations!

Lol - dangerous game for this guy to start playing!

Exclusive: Margot Robbie’s attempts to hawk her gin to London’s top restaurants and bars comes a cropper. “We don’t want to have to ask people if they are allergic to molluscs when they order a gin,” one restaurant manager told me theguardian.com/business/2026/…

Chancellor announces Govt will set up a new AI Economics Institute which will "closely monitor the impact of AI on our productivity and our labour markets". Modelled on success of AI Security Institute.

🚨 Reeves will set out a "roadmap for future fiscal devolution" at the next Budget, she announces - giving regional leaders "control of a share of national taxes" including income tax, initially prioritised in a few key regions.

Rachel Reeves says in the Mais lecture she will deliver "a break with the laissez-faire politics of the passive state". This will help boost medium-term productivity growth, she claims.

@roryisconfused Also - he is presumably aware of the most popular and successful books of this century, given he has written an extremely long fanfic knockoff of them - and I'm *pretty sure* they are basically about 'good people doing good things' lol

What he’s advocating for — here’s a good person acting the way you should — is functionally useless. It’s barely even helpful for children (and children’s fiction has become blandly morally didactic lately! People notice it! The classics were better for being less constrictive!)

I don’t know, it’s actually very depressing that a lot of people in the tech sphere genuinely have this view (which is somehow more reductive than the Hays Code) that fiction *must* be about a good person doing good things so as to set a clear example

Can see how a promise like this might be attractive to voters, so the gambit could work. But Labour's manifesto pledge to cut £300 from bills is looking more like a millstone. And it doesn't seem likely that the £150 cut will hugely shift the dial either.

Reform promising to take £200 a year off bills by removing VAT and remaining levies Labour has already taken £150 off by removing some levies (which is why everyone is now talking about how energy bills have got cheaper - oh hold on...)

Why such a focus on petrol prices? They are one of the most main ways that households notice the changing cost of living Look at the data - big swings in prices over the 12mths before an election can herald a bad result for govt (eg 2010) or a surprising surge in support (2015)

Labour MP Chris Curtis has written in the FT this his party must change course otherwise it risks losing a whole generation of young voters Curtis says decision to increase and then freeze student loan repayment thresholds will ‘take cash out of young people’s pockets’ when they now have ‘other choices’ at the ballot box ⬇️ ft.com/content/53f66c…

Reeves to gamble on closer EU ties to save economy - but Europe plays hardball inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

BBC on Today prog has just said that Scotland and England have had different laws "since 1999" - er.......

🚨🇬🇧🇪🇺EU demands major UK concessions - on lower tuition fees and paying Brussels - before it will even discuss Rachel Reeves' push for closer economic ties inews.co.uk/news/politics/…