The Speaker declined to call either Anderson or Galloway, just as he had declined last week to call Abbott.
Without some serious and fast work on the cost of living – the British public’s number one priority – a wholesale polling turnaround looks far, far off.
Between Lee Anderson’s defection and the row over Frank Hester, MPs are questioning the Prime Minister’s judgement. But they should remember Simon and Garfunkel’s wise words: every way you look at it you lose.
Being in tune with voters’ concerns could mean saving some seats as well as saving the planet.
The Conservative benches were glum, but not so glum that they stabbed the PM in the back.
The Prime Minister also attacked Labour for having ‘a litany of unfunded promises’.
Spoiler alert: it isn’t Lee Anderson.
The tobacco epidemic is already nearing its end and there is strong public support for measures to hasten its arrival.
Anderson has responded to Rishi Sunak’s suspension of the whip – opposed by almost two-thirds of our panel – by becoming Reform UK’s first MP.
I have a theory: more often than not, a political party is better at evaluating its opponent’s political weaknesses than its own.
The PM and Chancellor are right to avoid the “jump to glory style of politics”, but this may only be recognised when they are gone.
A new body needs to be created, working with the reorganised UK Health Security Agency. It must be fully independent and i financed through a means that false economies cannot touch – a ring-fenced endowment.
Collectively, these measures will have been enough to ensure Tory MPs didn’t leave the Commons chamber feeling empty-handed. But none will have been fooled into thinking this was a transformative Budget.
When asked about the overall effect, only 14 per cent of voters said they thought the Budget would leave them better off personally, with 2019 Labour voters (19 per cent) more likely to say this than 2019 Tories (12 per cent).