Drumroll please: Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey arrived at the Bournemouth Conference Centre, with members of the Isle of Wight’s Vectis Corp of Drums, to open the Lib Dem Conference last Saturday © PA Images
The UK has recognised the State of Palestine, ending over 75 years of British foreign policy orthodoxy and signalling a major turning point in relations with Israel. The move was promised by the Prime Minister in July, with the deadline of the UN General Assembly gathering, unless Israel made process towards a peaceful solution and alleviated the suffering of civilians in Gaza. The UK was joined by Canada, France, Portugal and Australia, meaning three of the seven G7 states now recognise Palestine (alongside the overwhelming majority of UN member states which recognise both nations). However, Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch labelled it an "absolutely disastrous", while the Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel accused the Prime Minister of "capitulating to the hard-left factions of his party.”
Unsurprisingly, the topic dominated the opening of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly. President Trump labelled recognition a “reward” for Hamas (although his speech focused more on immigration), while Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in an address which began with dozens of delegates walking out, accused nations of “appeasing evil” and pledged to “finish the job in Gaza as fast as possible.” French President Macron declared that "nothing justifies the ongoing war”, while former Foreign Secretary David Lammy labelled the conflict “indefensible”, “inhumane” and “utterly unjustifiable” and declared the UK would “not stand up for one nation’s rights, whilst ignoring others.” Despite this, what caught most people’s eye was Donald and Melania’s run-in with a dodgy escalator at the UN headquarters (see You’ve Got To Laugh).
The country’s multi-party bunfight heated up as Ed Davey took the fight to Reform UK in his speech at the Liberal Democrat conference. Building on the neuroses of his party’s base of comfortable shire-dwellers, he declared, “don’t let Trump’s America become Farage’s Britain”, rattling off the accusations that Nigel Farage would privatise the NHS, “destroy our beautiful countryside with fracking”, allow “social media barons” to “poison young minds with impunity”, trample on basic rights and freedoms, empower racism and misogyny and keep the country “in a constant state of chaos.” Most strikingly (and in a move redolent of Farage himself), he fired his most unqualified accusation from the hip when he claimed Reform would roll back gun laws, “so schools have to teach our children what to do in case of a mass shooting”, which Reform labelled “total madness.” Lib Dem conference kicks off the traditional conference season, with Labour members heading to Liverpool this weekend for what promises to be a dour get together.
335 new MPs were elected in 2024, of which 227 were brand new faces on the Government benches… If you’re heading to Liverpool for Labour Conference this weekend, there are worse ways to spend the train journey than making sure you can tell the difference between your Keirs and your Rachels.
Avoid any mishaps or embarrassments by heading over to LabourConference.co.uk to check out the Labour-only version of our Guessminster MP recognition trainer. Keep your eyes peeled next week for your pre-Tory conference version.
0 – the number of times Ed Davey mentioned Keir Starmer by name in his conference speech, as opposed to 24 mentions of Donald Trump and 31 mentions of Nigel Farage.
1.4% – GDP growth in the UK in 2025, compared to 3.2% globally – according to the OECD’s latest interim economic outlook.
69.3m – the population of the UK according to the latest ONS stats for mid-2024. The annual increase of over 755,000 is the second-largest jump in 75 years.
£2.2bn – the contribution of YouTube content creators to the UK economy in 2024, according to an impact report by Oxford Economics.
2.7% – increase in NHS productivity over the past year.
£480m – prevented from ending up in the pockets of fraudsters over the twelve months since April 2024, a third of which came from identifying and recovering fraud committed during the Covid pandemic.
21 – the number of major infrastructure planning decisions made in the Government’s first year, the largest number of any first year of a Parliament in history.
The Prime Minister announced the Government’s latest plan to tackle illegal working: the introduction of digital IDs. Speaking at the Global Progress Action Summit in London, he said the measure aims to make Britain’s “borders more secure”, adding: “You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have a digital ID.” Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed the scheme as a “desperate gimmick”, warning that making digital IDs mandatory would require a “proper national debate”. Meanwhile, it’s been reported that Lib Dems may not immediately opposed the plans, although concerns around digital exclusion remain.
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has not ruled out a future Labour leadership bid. In a series of recent interviews, the three-term Greater Manchester mayor – and former two-time Labour leadership contender – revealed that Labour MPs had “been in touch” about the possibility of him standing. Speaking to the BBC, Burnham was careful to stress that it was “not a matter” for him but “a matter for the party in Westminster to decide”, diplomatically adding that he would “support the party in whatever way I can.”
Your Party has relaunched its membership portal… again. The move follows Zarah Sultana’s premature unveiling of the site last week, which prompted an awkward exchange between her five male fellow MPs and ultimately led to her sharing that she has spoken to defamation lawyers. Apologising for the confusion, Jeremy Corbyn said the party would “belong to the grassroots” and Sultana has since announced that she would be attending regional Your Party events. Water under the bridge… for now…
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered an urgent review into the use and cost of taxis transporting asylum seekers from hotels to appointments, after a BBC investigation revealed that some migrants had been required to travel long distances at a cost of hundreds of pounds. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Labour are writing a blank cheque for illegal immigration.” Meanwhile, Reform UK’s Lee Anderson claimed the revelations were “the tip of the iceberg and yet another example of how the Tories and Labour have spent billions supporting migrants at the expense of our own people.”
Just as the dust settles from Labour’s reshuffle, the SNP has carried out a smaller one of its own. Jamie Hepburn resigned as Scottish Business Minister last weekend following accusations from former Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who alleged that Hepburn had grabbed him and sworn aggressively as he left the Holyrood chamber. In the ensuing mini-reshuffle, Graeme Dey was appointed Parliamentary Business and Veterans Minister, while Ben Macpherson took on the role of Higher and Further Education Minister.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell has died at the age of 84. A former Olympian, nicknamed the Flying Scotsman, Campbell represented North East Fife in Parliament for 28 years before entering the House of Lords. Lib Dem leader Ed Davey paid tribute, praising Campbell’s role in opposing the Iraq War and describing him as “a dedicated public servant and a true Liberal giant.”
Gatwick Airport’s plans for a second runway have been formally approved by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander. The £2.2 billion privately financed project will bring the airport’s Northern Runway into regular use and expand the existing terminals. The changes are expected to increase annual flights to around 389,000 by the late 2030s, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves saying the scheme would deliver “thousands of jobs and billions in investment.” Newly elected Green Party leader Zack Polanski criticised the decision, arguing it “ignores basic climate science and risks undermining efforts to tackle the climate crisis.”
The Prime Minister has announced a new Pride in Place programme, designed to give communities the power to revitalise their neglected high streets, create new spaces for young people and take back control of derelict pubs. The scheme will invest in 330 communities across the UK, aiming to address deep-rooted deprivation and tackle regional inequality.
The Government has prevented more than £480 million from falling into the hands of fraudsters over twelve months since April 2024. Over a third of that sum was recovered by identifying fraud committed during the Covid-19 pandemic, while further savings came from efforts to clamp down on unlawful claims for the single person’s council tax discount and from removing people from the social housing waitlist that wanted to illegally sublet their homes.
Jitters were sent through the NATO alliance when three Russian jets violated Estonian airspace, causing Estonia to trigger NATO’s article 4, which calls for consultation when an ally believes they have been threatened. It means three separate NATO members have reported Russian drone and jet incursions in a two-week period, while Denmark also assesses whether drone sightings near an airport can be attributed to Russia. It has led to a hardening of NATO rhetoric, with Poland demanding any future incursions be shot down, even if this potentially kills Russian pilots in the process.
For the first time, Britons are split on whether Keir Starmer or Nigel Farage would make a better Prime Minister according to new data from Ipsos. Starmer and Farage’s favorability rates are both 30%, with 30% of respondents saying there is no difference. Interestingly, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is slightly preferred over Starmer, though a significant proportion of respondents see no difference (20% Starmer, 25% Burnham, 38% no difference/neither).
31% of Britons say that they don’t know enough about the Liberal Democrats to vote for them, YouGov’s latest polling has found. One in four respondents say that they are unsure that the Lib Dem’s would be competent in Government, with their performance in the 2010-2015 coalition Government being another key factor for not backing them. Ed Davey isn’t seen as a major issue for most voters, with just 9% identifying him as a primary reason they wouldn't support the party. Although there have been claims that his publicity stunts might be off-putting, only six people surveyed mentioned them in the “Something else” section.
Revitalising Britain’s industrial centers was the topic of a new report by Onward, as they urged for ‘radical reform,’ to create new industrial zones with different governance, regulatory, and energy arrangements to the rest of the country. They suggest that these zones could be located ‘all across the great cities and industrial centres of Britain,’ with elected regional mayors who would be responsible for local planning decisions and policy frameworks. Within these zones, national regulations on environmental impact assessments, wildlife conservation and statutory consultation would either be ‘significantly streamlined or removed,’ and development within industrial zones would be prioritised for grid connections, with localised energy generation also being ‘facilitated and encouraged.’
It's been a bad week at the UN Office for President Trump, following a series of mishaps taking place during his visit with the First Lady. In what was either a rather unfortunate coincidence or some You’ve Been Framed-esque preplanned comedic timing, the pair were seen mounting an escalator in the building, only for it to stop completely in its tracks just as they got on, leaving the pair stood stock still at the bottom. While the UN have clarified the pause was caused by the videographer at the top of the escalator accidently hitting the emergency stop, POTUS also released a statement, claiming “three very sinister events” happened during his visit, including the teleprompter breaking and the sound in the auditorium turning off. He concluded by suggesting that that events were a “triple sabotage by the UN”. The Secret Service has been informed…
It was a quick recovery from the sabotage for the President as he met with President Erdogan of Turkey this week….. we’ll spare you the details of all that was said, but it would be amiss to not include this typical Trump line in You’ve Got to Laugh. Speaking of how long the two leaders have been friends, the President reminisced that the pair have been friends for four years, when he was “wrongly in exile for rigged elections”. Looking to find some common ground, the US President pointed to his Turkish counterpart (who has been in power since 2003) and declared “he knows about rigged elections better than anybody”.
Someone call a councillor for the Bravermans as former Reform UK member Rael Braverman took to X this week to share his opinions on the state of the Conservative Party, lamenting that ‘the Tories do not deserve to win a single seat in the next election’. As you would expect, many confused followers politely pointed out to Mr Braverman that he is in fact married to a former Conservative Home Secretary and current Conservative MP, but rest assured Rael managed to clear up these confusions by doubling down, clarifying “I mean none. As in zero.” Whilst he claimed it was “not a personal issue” it sure does make for an awkward chat around the dinner table.
And finally, assemble the Cadets for Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey MP, who kicked off his Party Conference in style last weekend by entering with a marching band in toe. Keen to make this year’s conference the one to establish the Lib Dems as a more credible party, and the only party serious enough to be viable opponent to the growing support for Reform UK, Davey very seriously marched into the conference centre in Bournemouth, positively gleefully, to the sounds of Neil Diamond’s very serious song Sweet Caroline and confetti cannons…. All eyes are on your entrance in Liverpool now, Prime Minister.
