Steerpike

Well, well, well. It was only a fortnight ago that the government was forced to gut its own welfare reform in the face of a full-blown backbench rebellion, leaving Rachel Reeves with a £5bn black hole to cover up. And now, fresh from their self-inflicted bloody nose, the Department for Work and Pensions revealed on Tuesday that the number of people receiving Universal Credit has soared within Labour’s first year by, um, over a million. The DWP also acknowledged that over a million recipients are foreign nationals – in the first time the immigration status of benefit claimants has been published. 7.9 million people are currently on the dole. That’s a 16 per cent increase from the 6.8 million in the dying days of the last government, with the vast majority (6.

Immigration is never off the news agenda these days, as Brits remain concerned about the influx of people to the country while the cost of living crisis and housing pressures only seem to worsen. Last week Sir Keir Starmer sealed a ‘one in, one out’ migrant returns deal with France’s President Emmanuel Macron which some number-crunching suggested is a little more akin to an, er, 17 in, one out set-up. The Labour lot have other borders-related problems on their plates too, however, as an independent watchdog has warned that the cost of supporting asylum seekers is set to absorb a whooping one-fifth of the gutted aid budget. Crikey!

Oh dear. It seems that Layla Moran – the oracle of Oxfordshire – has been left with egg on her face once again. Since her election in 2017, the pansexual pioneer has distinguished herself in two ways. First, her consistent embrace of every passing progressive cause. And second, her determined commitment to oppose any new development in her constituency. No wonder Robert Jenrick has dubbed her 'the greatest Nimby in the House of Commons'... Whether it is new homes or solar panels, Moran is always there to block anything which might offer a boost to Britain's anaemic economy. One notable crusade was her 2022 attack on a new reservoir in Abingdon, to cope with consumers' increasing demands.

It is a century this year since the Iron Lady's birth – and conservatives are determined to mark it in style. Amid a whole host of dinners and seminars, the Margaret Thatcher Centre held a symposium on Monday to debate the legacy of the former Prime Minister. Among the likes of Lord Lilley, Sir Anthony Seldon and David Starkey was a writer from the New Statesman who duly filed a predictably snippy piece about the day. Quelle surprise... Yet it seems that the piece has backfired somewhat. For Donal Blaney, the conference organiser, has penned a letter in response.

Well, well, well. It transpires that Independent MP Rupert Lowe – formerly of Reform UK – has now been cleared by parliament's standards commissioner after he was probed over funds for his independent 'Rape Gang Inquiry'. Lowe was investigated after allegedly failing to register hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations for his project, with more than £600,000 raised by a Crowdfunder started by the Greater Yarmouth MP in March. The Commissioner noted: I opened a formal inquiry on 10 July 2025. My inquiry sought to confirm whether these donations qualified as registrable interests and whether Lowe had failed to register them within the 28-day window set by the House.

Well, well, well. There has been a rather interesting appointment made to the Foreign Office board by David Lammy, as Karen Blackett joins as a non-executive director. This is not the advertising executive's first brush with the now-Foreign Secretary however – as it transpires that Blackett is actually a Lammy donor, putting a whopping £5,000 towards the Labour MP's campaign in the run-up to the general election last summer. How very interesting… Blackett has joined the board to help provide 'strategic direction, oversight, support and challenge for the department with a view to the long-term health, reputation and success of the FCDO' – and will be paid up to £15,000 a year for the job, which typically requires a commitment of 20 days a year for three years. Alright for some!

When it rains for Sir Keir Starmer, it pours. The Prime Minister faced the biggest rebellion of his premiership last week after 49 Labour rebels voted against his welfare bill – despite the government making significant concessions that effectively put off any reforms until the end of next year – and now the public has delivered a rather damning verdict on their new PM. YouGov polling reveals that 44 per cent of Brits think that, just a year into Labour's first term, Starmer should quit the top job and let someone else take over as Labour leader. Crikey! The survey – which quizzed 1,702 British adults on 7 July – revealed that almost one in two Britons think the PM should step aside, while a third think Starmer should stay on as Labour leader.

Oh dear. It appears that after the Sunday Times story last weekend, there is no way back for James McMurdock. The paper went hard on allegations about the Essex MP's financial dealings, reporting that he had borrowed £70,000 under the government’s Bounce Back loans scheme in 2020 through two companies. A sub-optimal look for a party campaigning hard on government waste and mismanagement... And it seems that McMurdock has now concluded that is future (or what remains of it) is going to be outside the party. He, like Rupert Lowe before him, intends to now serve out the remainder of his time in parliament. In a statement, McMurdock wrote on X that: Further to my statement tweeted on 5th July 2025.