The first day of the Parliamentary session always has a slightly back to school feel to it. There are two, traditionally, witty speeches that are full of in jokes. The leader of the opposition then makes a speech that mixes the serious with humour and the Prime Minister replies in kind.
But today won’t be remembered for the jokes but the shifts in Labour’s position that Harriet Harman attempted to execute. First, she confirmed that Labour would now support the EU referendum. But then, more surprisingly, she announced that Labour was ‘sympathetic’ to Tory plans to reduce the benefits cap, the amount that an able-bodied family without anyone in full time work, can receive in benefits to £23,000. Given Labour’s opposition to the introduction of the cap in the last parliament, this is quite a shift in Labour’s position. It’ll be fascinating to see if any of the candidates in the party’s leadership and deputy leadership elections break ranks on this issue.
Cameron, for his part, attempted to set the Labour leadership candidates a series of ‘aspiration’ tests. He said that if they did not back policies such as the extension of the right to buy to Housing Association tenants then their commitment to aspiration would be shown to be mere verbiage.
But it was when Cameron sat down that we were reminded of, perhaps, the most dramatic change in British politics. For the third party leader called was not the Lib Dem leader but Angus Robertson, the head of the SNP group at Westminster.
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