Life imitated art this week when the Pope passed away on Easter Monday, less than 24 hours after being driven around St Peter’s Square to cheering crowds, and only a few months after the cinematic release of Robert Harris’ thriller Conclave. With world leaders including Donald Trumps gathering in Rome for his funeral on Saturday, one can only hope the solemn event focuses the minds on the push for peace in Ukraine and beyond.

Forget the Grinch that stole Christmas, this week started with the Government that stole Easter [recess]. Fresh from saving British Steel and pledging – caveat: where possible – to use British steel in the many infrastructure projects coming up, we fully expect to see the Cabinet handing out solid steel Easter eggs in Scunthorpe on Sunday (if only Ed Davey was in power…) When not racing back from their holidays this week, MPs were also getting in on the AI action figure craze...

10 years ago today US President Barack Obama met Cuban President Raul Castro – the first meeting of its kind in 50 years, in a milestone for US diplomacy and international relations. Today, the US is engaged in a trade war with China, it has placed minimum tariffs on imports from the rest of the world, and has pulled back from its global leadership in international defence and security. But at least it’s recess, right? Wrong. Surprise! Parliament’s back on Saturday…

It’s Trump’s world and we’re all just living in it… Not one to enjoy the limelight, the US President must have hated knowing the entire world’s gaze was on him on Wednesday evening as, like the ultimate capitalist Santa Claus, he unveiled his nice/naughty list. Scored just 10% naughty, Keir Starmer will get his GI Joe action figure this Liberation Day morning, but the world-wide 25% tariff on cars means the matching soft-top 4x4 wont be under the tree. [T&Cs apply. Optional military intelligence bonus package may or may not be included, dependent on presidential mindset at the time]

After weeks of speculation, rumour and the regular number of leaks/pre-briefs [delete as appropriate], Rachel Reeves had the opportunity to finally deliver her definitely-not-a-major-fiscal-event Spring Statement on Wednesday. Fighting against increasingly limited fiscal headroom, the Chancellor just had enough time to catch up on a plethora of less-than-friendly headlines the next morning, before President Trump announce crippling tariffs on car imports, less than 24 hours later. Just over a week to crawl to the Easter recess…

Following a week of regulator-bashing, a secret trip by the PM to pose on a nuclear submarine, the launch of a major plan to cut benefits, and a Chancellor fielding off questions about austerity, you could be forgiven for thinking we’d skipped back 15 years to the start of the Coalition Government. Only the internal wranglings of the Official Opposition’s opposition to Net Zero served as a reminder of who is in power and who isn’t this week…

Following a small but noticeable uptick in the polls after his leadership on Ukraine peace talks, it’s safe to say Keir Starmer has seized the moment and thrown everything bar the kitchen sink at this week. Taking aim at regulations and regulators, bats blocking transport projects, and cricket balls blocking housing developments, there has been a distinct change in tempo, boldness and confidence in the Government’s major announcements, as even the harshest tabloid critics gave a welcome nod of approval.

All eyes were on the Prime Minister and his meeting with international leaders in London last weekend as they sought to bring the US’ support for Ukraine back from the brink following last week’s meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy… that arguably could not have gone any worse. In a dramatic week for international diplomacy and the NATO alliance, things seem more stable as we go into this weekend, with a new €800bn agreement and ‘Defence Spending’ on the lips of every European leader going; but as last Friday’s events showed, anything is possible right now…

Keir Starmer returned to the UK this afternoon after what seems like a very successful trip to meet President Trump in Washington. Announcing an uplift in UK defence spending, and playing up to the President’s love of British pomp and circumstance, all eyes will be on the President’s reaction over the coming days and weeks after an initial series of positive smoke signals. Back in the UK, the PM is facing his third ministerial resignation since the General Election – and first for genuine policy disagreements – as he deals with the backlash from his cuts to the international aid budget…

It’s probably safe to say no single Tweet (or Truth Social post…) has stopped the world in its tracks quite so quickly as Donald Trump’s accusation on Wednesday that President Zelenskyy was a “Dictator without Elections” who had done a “terrible job”, before later adding at a press conference that he should “never have started” the war… With Russia laughing, and Europe scrambling to deal with the ramifications this has for Ukraine, it’s not been the quiet, peaceful week’s recess anyone had hoped for…

“Roses are red, violets are blue, no wait – don’t mention blue, definitely not Reform’s turquoisy-blue, and make sure you shoehorn the word Growth into every sentence possible”. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone…

In proof February will be just as tough for the Government as January was… the PM’s big EU reset meeting was rather overshadowed this week by Donald Trump’s perplexing plans for Gaza, questions over whether Keir Starmer broke covid rules on Christmas Eve 4 years ago, concerns over a new deal for the Chagos Islands, and the Bank of England halving the UK’s growth forecast. Another normal week then…

The Chancellor’s big growth reset dominated the week’s news, as she sought to reclaim the momentum, trailing the Government’s backing for a third runway at Heathrow over a week in advance. Deregulation, regional investment and planning reform… Coming just a fortnight after calls for her to resign, this was one punchy way to end January…

The inauguration and first acts of the Trump administration on Monday, and a week dominated by questions around the events leading up to the horrific murder of three children in Southport last year: it’s been another week when the Government’s planned domestic media agenda has gone out the window, and announcements on growth, regulatory burdens and the spending review have flown under the radar…

Rachel Reeves’ visit to China should have been the biggest story out of 11 Downing Street this week, but after Tulip Siddiq’s resignation as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, it got bumped to the inner pages… A new AI growth plan, more support for Ukraine, and the Middle East teetering on the edge of a ceasefire: this week’s had it all. Thankfully there are no big global leadership changes or anything taking place next week…

This week’s big news is the simplification, downsizing and relocation of the Downing Street Grid team… now staffed by just one man on X, based at SpaceX’s HQ in Brownsville, Texas… The Government and much of Westminster has spent 2025 in reaction mode so far, largely in response to Musk and his Mar-a-Lago based boss…

And so, just like that, another year draws to a close. We had intended to produce a write up of Keir Starmer’s first Liaison Committee appearance this week… but it was so dull (much to Labour’s press team’s glee) that we’ve swapped it out for a much more fun quiz of the year. We’ll be back with your first Weekly Roundup of 2025 in two weeks’ time. In the meantime, we wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year.

The unexpected, swift collapse of the Assad regime in Syria last weekend overshadowed Downing Street’s packed grid this week, as a million and one announcements were fired out in a last minute pre-Christmas rush. With a new planning policy, a new energy policy, a new prisons policy and multiple reviews launched this week – it’s clear we’re all going to need to wait until Christmas Day itself for the Government’s policy confetti cannon to be switched off for the year.

5 months in and this week was dominated by the PM’s definitely-not-a-reset speech in which he set out his Plan for Change through 6 key milestones he aims to deliver this decade. In a week that the South Korean President tried (and failed) to impose martial law, the French Prime Minister was forced to resign, and the Lib Dems began a new push for PR… Keir Starmer will be hoping his new targets are enough to set him up for a slightly less frantic 2025.

It’s rare the big parliamentary news of the week comes on a Friday, but MPs took the historic decision this afternoon to vote in favour of permitting assisted dying in strict, limited circumstances. The Bill still has a long way to go and many hurdles to jump over to pass into law. Meanwhile, the Government’s been fighting other battles on migration, and we got our first Cabinet resignation since the election…

With Ukraine firing Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for the first time this week, all eyes were on the Prime Minister at the G20 summit in Rio, as he refused to be drawn on operational measures in Ukraine. Meanwhile, farmers descended on Westminster to protest recent tax inheritance tax hikes, and MPs paid tribute to political heavyweight and former Deputy PM John Prescott who passed away aged 86.

With Westminster still debating just what Donald Trump’s second term will mean for the USA’s relationship with the UK, the PM headed off to Baku to announce new environmental targets, and Rachel Reeves announced new plans to roll-back on some of the rules introduced to the City in the wake of the 2008 financial crash that eliminated risk and stalled growth. So an easy week all round then…

The man the UK’s new Foreign Secretary and chief diplomat described as a “woman hating, neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” just a few years ago, will be back in the White House in just over two months’ time. I’m sure he won’t hold a grudge…

Gone are the days when key Budget announcements were teased in the preceding Sunday papers... A full month-long, above-ground briefing operation saw vast swathes of this week’s Budget – the first delivered by a female Chancellor – announced long before Rachel Reeves approached the dispatch box. In case you’re not yet Budget’d out, here’s your regular Friday briefing summing up the key announcements, as well as our usual roundup of this week’s other big news.

In a week the Government have desperately been working to take back control of the media agenda, over a thousand more prisoners have been released early, Donald Trump has compared Labour activists campaigning in the US election with the 1781 Battle of Yorktown, and it’s safe to say Brits aren’t taking the big NHS consultation overly seriously… So that’s all going well then.

After recent suggestions the Government’s much hyped International Investment Summit might turn out to be a huge flop and cabinet rows over attendees… one week, one new Investment Minister and £63bn of investment later – Whitehall is breathing a huge sigh of relief. Now just to get through the next 12 days until the Budget without any further cabinet ministers calling for a whopping great u-turn…

The 10 Downing Street Chief of Staff is out, the opposition leadership election is ruffling feathers on both wings of the party, the Government’s fiscal rules appear to be changing, and a very early reshuffle is on the cards. It’s 2020 all over again (let’s just hope without the pandemic…)

The fight for the Conservative Party leadership stepped up a notch this week with the four remaining candidates showcasing their wares at the Tory Conference in Birmingham in a last pitch to make the final two. The clear winner from the week was… the branded merchandise industry, with supporters dishing out everything from branded hats, to foam fingers, cups and even apples. Rumour is even Keir Starmer popped up to Birmingham for some freebies…

They say a week is a long time in politics, but three nights out on the trot in Liverpool will have made this week even longer for the thousands of public affairs execs who headed to Labour conference. The Government finally had their election celebration, dampened only by the torrential rain and the looming threat of a budget full of “hard choices” in just over four weeks’ time…

Westminster breathed a huge sigh of relief last Thursday at the thought of another recess… before every Public Affairs Manager remembered they had three back-to-back conferences to tackle… Laden with business cards, paracetamol and Berocca (other vitamin brands are available), half of Westminster and a staggering 72 MPs jumped on the train down to Brighton…

Labour’s 243 new MPs had their first real taste of party whip versus constituency pressure this week as the Government pushed through its decision to remove winter fuel payments from 10 million pensioners. Add to that the publication of a report concluding the NHS is in a “critical condition”, and it’s a surprise anyone had time to vote in the select committee chair elections…

With Parliament back for the briefest of periods between the summer and conference recesses, this week has seen two major Government Bills make progress, the suspension of a small number of arms exports to Israel, and the first knockout round of the Tory leadership contest. But overshadowing this has been the publication of the damning report into the Grenfell Tower fire. As well as our usual news summary, in this week’s roundup we’ve taken a look at what’s happened since the fire seven years ago to set the scene for the report’s publication.

Another week of recess = another week of Budget expectation management (read: tax rises are coming and it ain’t gonna be pretty). Enjoy your last weekend of relative peace and quiet before we dive head-first into a long, and action-packed autumn.

In deepest, darkest August it’s been a pretty slow news week this side of the pond – despite growing allegations of cronyism in Whitehall and the top Tory leadership hopefuls going at each other. Enjoy this slimmed down Weekly Roundup whilst you can… September is set to be a busy one.

It should be the quietest week of the year in politics; but summer riots forced the PM – just 6 weeks into the job – to cancel his holiday to avoid the inevitable tabloid backlash. Criticism of a union pay deal, arguments over Labour’s economic inheritance and just two weeks left of recess… best enjoy the sun whilst you can…

If the new PM was hoping to easy gently into the summer recess, he certainly didn’t get it, with riots and counter-protests dominating the week’s news and political attention. As things hopefully begin to settle down again, we’ve been taking a look at all the action in the select committee chair elections due to take place in early September…

Budget tax rises, mandatory local housing targets and a far-right crackdown – the last week of July (usually the first week of recess) hasn’t been this busy since Boris Johnson took over as PM in 2019…

Labour have sought to spend their first few weeks in power with a lot of energy and aiming to get the country back on track, with the creation of GB Energy and the nationalisation of the railway early pledges that have begun to be taken forward. With the Conservative leadership contest starting and the Prime Minister showing some ruthlessness in response to rebelling, there never does seem to be a quiet week in Westminster.

The Navigate team have produced this year’s conclusive, thematic, King’s Speech deep-dive below – giving you the all need-to-know briefing on the main pieces of legislation coming up in year’s bumper bill session. Filled with golden nuggets of info and backstory, this is one we advise not to miss.

After last night’s Labour landslide, and with most of the Navigate team operating on little to no sleep over the past 36 hours; we’ve decided to skip the generic blow-by-blow account of the political earthquake that’s taken place – and instead bring you some interesting stats about the new Parliament and a look at the big names who we won’t be seeing on the green benches next week…

All eyes will be on the newly elected Prime Minister this time next week as the election campaign nears its end. With Labour expected to win a record majority and the King’s Speech taking place on 17 July, we look ahead to what could be on Labour’s legislative agenda in the new parliamentary session.

Welcome to Navigate Politics’ new weekly election roundup, bringing you all the new policy pledges, stats, polls, insights, and candidates to watch – right up until polling day. If you know somebody who would find this briefing useful, please do forward it on so they can subscribe and get it direct to their inbox each Friday.

Manifestos launched, senior Conservatives warning of a Labour ‘super majority’, Reform UK overtaking the Tories in the polls, and debates and interviews all week – it’s been the busiest campaign week since the General Election was announced 23 days ago… just 20 days to go now.

Welcome to Navigate Politics’ new weekly election roundup, bringing you all the new policy pledges, stats, polls, insights, and candidates to watch – right up until polling day. If you know somebody who would find this briefing useful, please do forward it on so they can subscribe and get it direct to their inbox each Friday.

Welcome to Navigate Politics’ new weekly election roundup, bringing you all the new policy pledges, stats, polls, insights, and candidates to watch – right up until polling day. If you know somebody who would find this briefing useful, please do forward it on so they can subscribe and get it direct to their inbox each Friday.

“We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that it’s the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist..." [President Thomas Whitmore in 1996 cult movie Independence Day NOT Rishi Sunak to Tory candidates...]

Although we still don’t know when polling day will be, the General Election campaign unofficially began in earnest this week, with both the Prime Minister and Labour leader setting out their stalls and giving us big hints on what they’re wanting to fight the General Election over. With a severe lack of legislation for MPs to discuss, at least there’s something going on to keep everyone busy…

The party spin machines went into overdrive this week trying to put unique, positive and in some cases highly wishful twists on last week’s election results. With two MPs crossing the floor in as many weeks, the pre-general election silly season has well and truly begun.

As the early results of this week’s local and regional elections flood in, it’s safe to say the Conservative Party did not have an ideal night on Thursday. As senior MPs on all sides are dispatched to the broadcast studios for a second night of spin, we bring you the latest from another action-packed and at times bizarre week in politics…

In a week that started out with a major defence announcement and a Government victory on its flagship immigration policy, all eyes turned to Scotland as Humza Yousaf’s career teeters on a knife edge. By this time next week we could have a new First Minister or even an imminent Scottish Parliament election. They say a week is a long time in politics…

Conflict in Israel, a smoking ban and yet more allegations of sleaze… Lily Allen’s back on the airwaves, low-rise jeans are back in fashion and the PM’s under continued pressure to step down… It’s 2006 all over again.

With Parliament very much in recess, two former Prime Ministers battled it out for press coverage across the pond this week, whilst Labour and the Tories battled it out for column inches back in Blighty. Spoiler alert: Labour definitely had a better week. However with yet another Tory MP losing the whip (weirdly voluntarily…) and a police investigation into Labour’s deputy leader, both parties prepare to return to Westminster next week fighting fires on multiple fronts.

Convention states Parliament should be in the midst of a quiet recess this week... But after the shock news of Jeffrey Donaldson’s arrest last Friday, the revelation Tory MP Will Wragg has fallen for a classic honey trap, and mounting pressure on Rishi Sunak to suspend arms sales to Israel, and it’s like any old week in Westminster

Parliament has finally risen for recess, after a long start to the year, giving Westminster’s inhabitants and hangers on a well needed rest. We hope you have a lovely break over the Easter weekend, but in the meantime, here’s a roundup of what’s happened over the past 6 days…

As Parliament gears up for Easter Recess, it’s all go for Rishi Sunak who today launched the Tories’ local election campaign after this week’s fall in inflation. However, with new figures showing the sharpest increase in UK absolute poverty in 30 years, the damning report into the state pension scandal and the delayed Rwanda Bill, calls continue to grow for the PM to call a general election.

Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform on Monday and hyped up rumours a string of further Tory backbenchers were considering the same made for a difficult start to the week in Downing Street; fuelling May election rumours. The PM has finally ruled out a 2nd May election, as all of Westminster breathed a collective sigh of relief ahead of the weekend. Expect this pattern to repeat itself every week until hot podium guy finally emerges from the famous black door later this year.

With almost every single major new policy appearing in the press before he had even stepped out of 11 Downing Street, Jeremy Hunt was left standing at the dispatch box with a rabbit-less hat on Wednesday lunchtime. That said, there was a good amount to unpack, as the Chancellor went on a last ditch spending spree ahead of this year’s election…

Welcome to the weekly roundup from Navigate Politics, bringing you all the top news, publications and movements from UK politics over the past seven days, ensuring you’re fully briefed on the top stories ahead of the weekend. If you know somebody who would find this briefing useful, please do forward it on so they can subscribe and get it direct to their inbox each Friday.

Keir Starmer couldn’t have had a worse start to this week – fresh off the back of Labour’s £28bn U-turn and facing yet more allegations of antisemitism in the party. But a week is long time in politics, and it’s the PM who ends the week on a new low: two by-election defeats and the financial news no one wanted. We know he’s a Swifty, but after that Superbowl half time show, we can only imagine Rishi Sunak will be pacing the Downing Street staircase with the words of Noughties pop sensation, Usher’s greatest hit in his ears…“If I'm gonna tell it then I gotta tell it all, damn near cried when I got that phone call, I'm so throwed and I don't know what to do, but to give you part two of my recessions”.

Incredibly we’re already into our first recess of 2024… in what feels like just a few days since the year began. Labour will be hoping for a quiet year ahead after choosing this week to drop their plagued flagship £28bn green spending pledge. Meanwhile, the popcorn was out for the Pop Cons meeting to set their leadership stalls out ahead of the next Conservative Party leadership contest, and government finally returned to Northern Ireland as the Executive’s new ministers began the daunting process of sifting through two years of administrative backlog.

After two years of public wrangling and political stalemate, the Northern Ireland Executive is finally returning, to the relief of politicians across the spectrum. It’s been a week and a half of political developments… and with the Northern Ireland Assembly sitting tomorrow – spare a thought for your favourite political monitoring experts…

Westminster held its breath (albeit briefly) this week when former Cabinet Minister, BoJo and Truss supporter Simon Clarke publicly called on Rishi Sunak to resign. His outburst received short shrift from fellow Tory MPs and quickly fizzled out, but with the cracks increasingly showing, January hasn’t proved the easiest start to the year for No 10.

The PM has bookended the week with his biggest Government rebellion yet triggering two resignations, and a street-side disagreement with a former health worker on the state of the NHS. Perhaps not one to remember. However with his controversial Rwanda Bill having passed through the Commons, his Chancellor making headlines about tax cuts and a heroes welcome in Kyiv, it hasn’t been all bad.

In Westminster’s first week back of the new year, when the Government had hoped to be setting the news agenda, Ministers (and party leaders on all sides to be fair) have been firmly on the back foot, scrambling to deal with the sudden and dramatic fallout from the Post Office Horizon scandal. If this week tells us anything about the political year to come, it’s that very little of it is likely to go to plan…

Welcome to 2024, the year in which we can expect a local election, mayoral elections, police and crime commissioner elections, a General Election, a US Presidential Election, European Parliament elections, and a potential election in Ireland… take a long breath now whilst you can…