Presented by Goldman Sachs
By DAN BLOOM
with BETHANY DAWSON
PRESENTED BY
Send tips here | Subscribe for free | Listen to Playbook and view in your browser
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Donald Trump promised seismic changes to the trade policy of North America with a few taps of his orange thumbs. The incoming U.S. president posted on his Truth Social that “as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25 per cent tariff on all products coming into the U.S.” In a second post, Trump said he’ll also slap an extra 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Hopefully he’ll send Keir Starmer a quick text before doing anything like that to us.
Helmets on! The U.K. has the option of retaliatory tariffs on iconic American goods, including Jack Daniel’s whisk(e)y, Levi’s jeans and Harley Davidson motorbikes, ready to roll out immediately if it comes to it. My Playbook colleague Stefan Boscia reveals that British officials have told ministers that they can repurpose former EU measures against the U.S., implemented during Trump’s first term, without any need for a further watchdog investigation. Brace!
Good Tuesday morning. This is Dan Bloom.
DRIVING THE DAY
THE PLAN IS … WORKING: Like so many prime ministers before him, Keir Starmer will today stake his reputation on reforming Britain’s expensive welfare state. The government’s long-promised (and much-hyped) white paper on welfare reform will be published later today, and is already leading the headlines at 6 a.m. There’s no doubt the surge in economic inactivity since the Covid-19 pandemic has turbo-charged the need to do *something*, with the nation’s bill for health and disability benefits due to breach £100 billion by 2030. The question is, what? And, given the toughest decisions are still down the road … when?
**A message from Goldman Sachs: Stay informed with the 2025 Goldman Sachs Outlooks, exploring the fundamentals that are shaping the global economy in the year to come. Looking ahead: Find a detailed breakdown of market, regional, and sector trends for 2025. Read the reports.**
Today’s agenda: Starmer hosts a meeting of his Cabinet at 9.30 a.m.Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall will then formally unveil the “Get Britain Working” white paper in a House of Commons statement sometime after 12.30 p.m. An overnight press release from her department splashes the Times and Guardian, and the 70-odd-page document itself should pop up here around lunchtime. The main elements have already been briefed to journos, but given how central this whole thing is to Labour’s wobbling growth mission, this will be one to read very closely indeed.
There’s work to do: The DWP’s overnight press release shows the stark scale of the challenge, saying a record 2.8 million people are out of work due to long-term sickness … one in eight young people is not in education, employment or training … and the U.K. is the only major economy that has seen its employment rate fall over the last five years. It quotes Starmer as saying he wants to “end the culture of blaming and shaming people who for too long haven’t been getting the support they need.” But …
I’ve Got a Little Liz: Kendall follows in a long line of politicians who’ve promised to fix the system with, well, mixed success. Who could forget Peter Lilley’s “little list” of benefit offenders? Frank Field’s “welfare to work” push? Yvette Cooper’s expansion of sanctions? George Osborne’s bedroom tax, two-child limit and benefit cap? Iain Duncan Smith’s Universal Credit? Marks out of 10 for each on a postcard, if you’re so inclined.
Tick tock: We’ll see pretty much no changes immediately, as the white paper gives way to a dizzying flurry of consultations and “reviews” to report back next year. Aides insist they want to avoid the “headline-grabbing” approach of previous governments — and no wonder, given many pointy-heads still can’t agree on what is driving Britain’s wave of economic inactivity in the first place. Nonetheless, let’s whip through a few top lines.
YOUTH OF TODAY: As widely briefed, under-22s will have to accept work, education or training to stop them from slipping out of the labor market for decades. Or they’ll face … something. Kendall has said those who refuse would have their benefits stopped — but jobseekers who repeatedly fail to engage can already be sanctioned, and how exactly the carrot and stick work won’t be set out today. Instead, the white paper is set to commit to a review.
Acting up: Ministers have signed up the Premier League, Channel 4 and *checks notes* Royal Shakespeare Company as early partners in this “youth guarantee,” a line that splashes the Guardian. There will be eight “trailblazer” areas including Liverpool and the Tees Valley, and £45 million to match up young people with work and training. Though the FT notes the CIPD’s Peter Cheese wants a wider apprenticeship guarantee to all adults under 24.
One question: Will any of these work placements be unpaid? Those with long memories may recall the Tories’ “mandatory work activity” scheme, dropped in 2015 after a woman’s unpaid stint in Poundland. Labour officials say they’ll do things differently, but unpaid placements don’t seem to be ruled out.
NO RUSH: Kendall will also consult on changing the work capability assessment for sick and disabled people, with details in spring 2025. Officials say it will put “voices of disabled people at the heart” of reform, but the go-slow leads the Telegraph and Mail write-ups and there are still huge questions about what it’ll look like. Labour is saying it plans to do things differently to the reforms laid out under the Tories — but still commit to the £3 billion in savings that the Tory plans would’ve achieved. Sounds tricky.
Carrot and stick: Another key question will be how Labour balances its crackdown on those who it says should work with gentler encouragement for those who can’t. The white paper will mention voluntary job offers for “up to” 100,000 people with disabilities or health conditions under “Connect to Work,” which is essentially the existing Universal Support scheme renamed and redesigned. An independent review on supporting these people in the workplace will run to next summer.
Other policy (much of it already announced): Jobcentres merged with a national careers service with £55 million starter cash … extra staff to cut waiting lists in 20 NHS trusts with the highest economic inactivity … more mental health support … AI-driven jobs information in Jobcentres … “coaching academies” for Jobcentre staff … £125 million to join up work, health and skills support, including in the northeast, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire … £15 million for mayors in other areas to develop their own plans … the Apprenticeship Levy changed to a “Growth and Skills Levy” … and a youth advisory panel and a disabilities panel.
Put her in the maybe pile! Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately writes in the Telegraph: “Once you get past the word soup of their announcement, the only notable news is that Labour will launch a consultation on what to do in the spring … [it] is nothing more than rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.”
Out to bat: Employment Minister Alison McGovern is on morning TV and radio, followed by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson this afternoon.
Ask the umpire: Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill is discussing economic inactivity with the Lords Economic Affairs Committee at 3 p.m.
SCOOP — ZERO SUM AIM: But a good few business giants will be more interested in a different policy today. Ministers will confirm tonight that they plan to relax the U.K.’s electric vehicle rules after intense lobbying from the car industry. Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will announce a “fast track” consultation, likely to start next week and lasting as little as four to six weeks, into proposed changes to the zero-emission vehicle mandate, a government official tells Playbook.
Driven up the wall: It comes after months of crisis warnings from car giants about the ZEV mandate, which forces 22 percent of car sales and 10 percent of van sales to be electric from this year — and more each year after. Firms pressed Reynolds and Transport Secretary Louise Haigh last week.
Heading off some awkward dinner chat: Reynolds is due to tell tonight’s Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders dinner in Mayfair that he and Haigh have “heard you loud and clear on the need for support to make this transition a success.” POLITICO’s Morning Trade newsletter had the scoop that a consultation was coming way back in August — more details on what this means for Pro subscribers in today’s edition.
The only red line: While Reynolds will stick to phasing out new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, Playbook hears all other options are on the table, including changing the percentages that firms must hit each year before then. The Sunday Times had a rundown of options.
But but but … So far ministers are sticking to plans to fine firms £15,000 per car from January 2025 if they miss the targets, as the FT reported last week. Happily, Reynolds is due up at the Business and Trade Committee at 2.30 p.m.
BOOKMARK THIS: Over in No. 11, meanwhile, Chancellor Rachel Reeves wakes up to the sight of the new box she wedged herself into at Monday’s CBI conference. Her comments — “I’m very clear that I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes” — are written up firmly by many including the Mail splash as her ruling out any more tax rises. In the i, pol ed Hugo Gye points out that if she keeps her promise, think tanks estimate services such as councils, schools and prisons will have to make billions of pounds in cuts from 2026. Fingers crossed for that growth, eh?
Speaking of growth: The Telegraph splashes on impatient businesses at the conference, with CBI President Rupert Soames telling the paper: “People will be making their minds up in the next six months to a year about whether this government’s actions match its words.” But another attendee tells the FT: “I don’t agree with the idea in some newspapers that this is the start of a communist takeover.” So that’s something.
WE’RE ALL NANNY STATISTS NOW: It is a testament to the size of Labour’s majority that a truly generation-defining policy is relegated down the grid. MPs will this afternoon debate the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which will ban anyone born from 2009 onward from ever buying tobacco products, open the door to outdoor smoking bans near schools and hospitals and ban nicotine-free vapes to under-18s. The second reading will pass by a landslide, of course, but the vote around 7 p.m. is still a moment in history.
Rishi’s legacy: This was largely a Rishi Sunak policy before the ex-PM called that pesky election, albeit one that Health Secretary Wes Streeting supported while much of the Tory party railed against it. Playbook is told Tory MPs will have a free vote today, while Labour MPs will be whipped in favor. Streeting is due to open the debate sometime after 1.30 p.m.
MEANWHILE, IN WAR
BITE YOUR FINGERNAILS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting his Cabinet this morning to discuss a cease-fire in the conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon. A deal encouraged by the leaders of the U.S. and France would see Israeli soldiers withdrawing from southern Lebanon within 60 days and regular Lebanese army troops deploying in the region, according to Reuters, which reports a text is there to sign off.
But but but … Officials from multiple countries told the Washington Post overnight that it was not yet finalized and could break down. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said “we’re close” but “nothing is done until everything is done.” BBC write-up here.
Meanwhile in Blighty: Playbook hears Development Minister Anneliese Dodds is set to announce later today that a British emergency medical team will go to Lebanon, the first time this has happened in the conflict.
PERFECT TIMING … for David Lammy to answer standard monthly questions in the Commons from 11.30 a.m. The foreign secretary is sure to be put on the spot again by Tories over his refusal to disavow the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu — along with plenty of questions about the fast-moving situation in and around Ukraine.
Package of questions: Lammy could be asked if he detects a whiff of Russian involvement in Monday’s crash of a DHL cargo plane in Lithuania — given Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said we should “seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident” (via Reuters). Germany was already investigating several fires caused by incendiary devices hidden inside DHL parcels earlier this year, and there was another at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham in July. Lithuanian officials said there was no indication of sabotage so far.
FWIW: Three officials who’ve spoken to your author said they believe there was no link between suspicious packages found at Gatwick Airport, Euston station and near the U.S. embassy over the last week. A man was charged over the latter on Monday.
ON UKRAINE: Lammy continued to back Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO in a three-way interview with La Repubblica’s Antonello Guerrera, Le Monde and Die Welt. He said “we’re very pleased to be one of the most active NATO members in supporting that desire,” and said the question of whether to compromise on territory to reach a deal is “a matter for Ukraine.”
On British troops: Lammy said there was a “longstanding position that we are not committing U.K. troops to the theatre of action” in Ukraine and that “remains the U.K. position at this time.” But he did not rule out the possibility of British and European peacekeeping troops being involved if or when there is a cease-fire. “I do recognize that when this comes to an end, Ukraine will need all the security guarantees that you would expect,” he said.
Speaking of which: The MOD confirmed “several British soldiers” guarding NATO’s eastern flank in Estonia were injured in a road traffic incident last Friday, eight of whom were flown back to the UK on an RAF C-17. Three are still in hospital. Sky’s well-sourced Deborah Haynes reckons it involved two civilian cars colliding with three minibuses containing troops in heavy snow.
NOT A COUP, HONEST: Don’t be alarmed if you see the chiefs of Britain’s armed forces striding up Downing Street in uniform in the next two hours. Playbook is assured they’re just due to hold a routine stocktake with Starmer before today’s Cabinet meeting. But then … anyone seizing power would say that, wouldn’t they?!
TODAY IN WESTMINSTER
ASSISTED DYING LATEST: Allies of Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told BBC Newsnight they’ve complained to the chief whip after Labour peer Charlie Falconer accused anti-bill Cabinet ministers of breaking neutrality rules. Clip here.
The lobbying goes on: Dignity in Dying has an event at 6 p.m. in the Jubilee Room on the “limits of palliative care” with a retired nurse, hospice CEO and criminal barrier … while assisted dying opponent and “Silent Witness” star Liz Carr was spotted in PCH on Monday. ITV has set up a tracker for MPs’ votes — it was at 135 for and 85 against overnight.
TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY THINK: Deputy PM Angela Rayner is digesting a wince-inducing verdict on her flagship workers’ rights bill by the Regulatory Policy Committee, an obscure watchdog. It says eight of the 23 impact assessments are “not fit for purpose” and the £5 billion projected cost to businesses could be an underestimate. Personnel Today, Guido and others spotted the deets and the Times elevated it to the front page.
Good timing: The Employment Rights Bill Committee hears from a slew of business, union and campaign chiefs today including the CBI, BCC and FSB this morning … UKHospitality’s Allen Simpson (2 p.m.) … RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch (3 p.m.) … TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak (3.40 p.m.) … and Fawcett Society CEO Jemima Olchawski and Pregnant Then Screwed Founder Joeli Brearley (4.30 p.m.).
HOLD THE SPLASH: Annual figures on bathing water quality in England will be released here at 9.30 a.m., along with stats on finds of treasure … school inspections … and social housing tenants’ satisfaction with repairs and safety.
OUT OF OFFICE: Ministers are drawing up plans for two “bonus bank holidays” in 2025 to mark the 80th anniversaries of VE Day and VJ Day, Giles Sheldrick reports in the Express splash. He reckons an announcement is “imminent.”
BRACE FOR A ROW: The Supreme Court begins hearing a case today that seeks to define a “woman” in law — with implications for single-sex spaces and transgender people. The BBC’s Phil Sim has a good explainer.
WORTH A PUNT: Casinos and betting shops will be forced to pay a £100 million-a-year pot to treat gambling harms under government plans announced as soon as Wednesday, the Guardian’s Rob Davies reports. He reckons Labour is about to rubber-stamp the last government’s plans for a statutory gambling levy, effective from next April.
HEARTBREAK HOTEL: Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood will raise legal aid “above and beyond inflation” this week to get more lawyers representing asylum seekers and reduce the hotel backlog, the Times’ Matt Dathan reports. Each appeal is taking an average of 46 weeks. But a Home Office source tells Dathan it’s likely a year before the overall number of hotels starts to fall.
STILL CHAGOING: Keir Starmer’s new national security adviser Jonathan Powell has flown out for talks with Mauritius’ prime minister to keep the Chagos Islands handover deal going, despite team Trump’s opposition, says the Sun’s Harry Cole.
WORKERS’ RIGHTS LATEST: The GMB union spent £507,000 last year and £339,000 in 2022 on “termination” costs for 29 former officials, according to the Times’ Aubrey Allegretti.
SOUR 16: The Climate Change Act was passed 16 years ago today under some bloke called Ed Miliband. Eco-campaign group Friends of the Earth says emissions in the U.K. have fallen 41 percent in that time,but key climate targets are off track. Fellow campaigners Britain Remade have a report out today saying Labour’s clean power by 2030 target is “almost impossible” without extending the lives of some nuclear power stations.
Meanwhile: Boris Johnson’s government was in close talks with Shell about relocating its HQ to the U.K. … just as Britain prepared for the COP26 summit, writes climate journalism site DeSmog.
REFLECT ON THIS:The government has handed £453 million in subsidies toSouth WestWater customers’ billssince 2013 — despitethe firmpaying shareholders more than £1.5 billion in dividends in the same period,reports the Democracy For Sale Substack. TheMirror writes it up.
SH*TTY CITY: The Financial Conduct Authority has been branded “incompetent at best, dishonest at worst” by the APPG on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services after it heard from employees who say they were “criticized, bullied and sidelined.” The FT splashes on the damning report, whose findings the FCA rejects.
HOLY GUACAMOLE: Ex-PM Boris Johnson has blamed Britain’s obesity crisis on *checks notes* the Church of England. Via the Times.
GRIM: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard, and Laila Soueif, whose British dual national son Alaa Abd el-Fattah is on day 58 of a hunger strike in an Egyptian prison, are giving evidence from 9.30 a.m. to the APPG on Arbitrary Detention.
SW1 EVENTS: Policy Exchange hosts a discussion on why the Tories lost the “professional classes,” with MP Luke Evans and former ministers Edward Faulks and Francis Maude at 12.30 p.m. (details here) … Labour MP Lucy Rigby hosts a Which? event on economic growth in the Attlee Room at 6 p.m. … The Business4Bakerloo campaign, which is lobbying for the extension of London’s Bakerloo Tube line, kicks off at 7 p.m. (invites needed) … Bright Blue hosts a discussion on assisted dying with Labour MP Jake Richards at 7 p.m. (details here).
TODAY IN COVID: Bereaved families’ groups are due to give evidence at the Covid-19 inquiry.
REPORTS OUT TODAY: 89 percent of teachers in the northeast say pupil absences have risen since 2022, compared to 53 percent in Greater London, according to a survey by Teachers’ Union NASUWT … and Attorney General Richard Hermer’s new guidelines on legal risk “may sow confusion and slow down decision-making,” according to Policy Exchange.
HOUSE OF COMMONS: Sits from 11.30 a.m. with Foreign Office questions … a 10-minute rule motion on the treatment of terminal illness (led by Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh) … and the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has its second reading. Labour MP Graeme Downie has the adjournment debate on funding for coastal infrastructure improvements in Scotland.
WESTMINSTER HALL: Debates from 9.30 a.m. on electricity grid upgrades (Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin) … online safety (Labour MP Lola McEvoy) … and suicide and mental health of young people in Tatton (Conservative MP Esther McVey).
On Committee corridor: Ofwat boss David Black is grilled by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee on the water sector (10 a.m.) … Skills Minister Jacqui Smith and Employment Minister Alison McGovern talk apprenticeships and training with the Lords Industry and Regulators Committee (10.30 a.m.) … Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr is quizzed by the Justice Committee (2.30 p.m.) … and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is at the Business and Trade Committee (2.30 p.m.).
WRITTEN STATEMENTS … include changes to immigration rules, a shortage of radioisotopes and an older people’s housing task force.
HOUSE OF LORDS: Sits from 2.30 p.m. with questions on strengthening Wales’ position within the U.K., reducing drug-related deaths and aid workers’ access to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories … the Water (Special Measures) Bill has its third reading … and there’s a debate on the importance of the rule of law (led by Labour peer Catherine Smith).
BEYOND THE M25
BERT EMERGENCY: A major incident has been declared in Northamptonshire, where flooding from Storm Bert forced some people out of their homes. Welsh Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones, whose Pontypridd constituency has been hit by floods too, told LBC’s Andrew Marr the Met Office has “questions to be asked to them” about why Bert was only given a yellow weather warning.
IT’S ALL GONE SOUTH: The Scottish government faces tough choices despite its 4.9 percent funding boost in the budget, as that will give way to smaller year-on-year increases after 2023-24, says a new analysis by the IFS.
ELECTION WATCH: RTÉ is hosting the final leaders’ debate of the Irish general election, with the head-to-head between Fine Gael’s Simon Harris, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald going live at 9:35 p.m.
ROMANIAN ROGUE: My colleagues have an ace profile of Călin Georgescu, the 62-year-old far-right, NATO-skeptic, Russia-friendly ultranationalist who secured one of two spots in the second round of Romania’s presidential election despite not taking part in big TV debates or belonging to a political party.
BEING PRESIDENT IS GREAT: Both federal criminal cases against Donald Trump are about to end after a judge granted a motion to dismiss the president-elect’s Washington, D.C., case, in which he was charged with conspiring to subvert the 2020 election. The other, relating to hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, looks likely to end shortly too, at least until he’s served his second term. Write-up from my colleagues here.
MEDIA ROUND
Employment Minister Alison McGovern broadcast round: Times Radio (7.05 a.m.) … Sky News (7.15 a.m.) … BBC Breakfast (7.30 a.m.) … LBC (7.50 a.m.) … Today (8.10 a.m.) … GMB (8.30 a.m.) … GB News (9.05 a.m.).
Also on BBC Breakfast: Prison Officers Association General Secretary Steve Gillan (7.15 a.m.).
Also on Times Radio Breakfast: Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen (7.45 am.) … former High Court Judge Gerald Barling (8.15 a.m.) … President-elect Trump’s nominee for counterterrorism chief Sebastian Gorka (8.20 a.m.).
Also on LBC News: National Flood Forum CEO Tracey Garrett (7.40 a.m.) … British Retail Consortium Director of Insight Kris Hamer (7.50 a.m.).
Politics Live (BBC Two 12.15 p.m.): Education Minister Catherine McKinnell … Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell … SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn … writer and broadcaster Timandra Harkness.
TODAY’S FRONT PAGES
POLITICO UK: UK could strike back at Trump with taxes on Harleys and Jack Daniel’s.
Daily Express: Bank holiday thank you to nation’s heroes.
Daily Mail: No more tax rises, insists Reeves.
Daily Mirror: Mud, sweat & tears.
Daily Star: All I want for Christmas is … you.
Financial Times: FCA branded incompetent and dishonest by MPs’ report.
i: Public spending cuts on the way from 2026 as Reeves vows no more tax rises.
Metro: Starmer — I’ll make spiking a crime.
The Daily Telegraph: Reeves tax rises are milking us, say bosses.
The Guardian: Labour makes pledge to ensure ‘no young person is left behind.’
The Independent: Reeves battered by business bosses but refuses to back down.
The Sun: Revel without a cause.
The Times: Britain isn’t working, admits PM in jobs push.
LONDON CALLING
WESTMINSTER WEATHER: Reverting to the usual chilly temperatures, but it’ll be clear for much of the day to make up for it. High 10C, low 6C.
WORST BIRTHDAY EVER: Ousted MP Jacob Rees-Mogg took several of his six children to Boris Johnson’s mid-election-campaign 60th birthday party — despite the fact it fell his son Anselm’s own 12th birthday, his reality show “Meet the Rees-Moggs” reveals. Poor lad. Though it probably still beats what his dad was doing at his age.
Made in Somerset: Playbook’s Bethany Dawson watched the first episode last night at a live Q&A with Rees-Mogg and wife Helena, chaired by comedian Matt Forde. The happy couple refused to answer what makes a successful marriage (Jacob said that would be “hubris”), and Helena revealed her husband proposed to her by saying “you should marry me, you know.” Well, he does like having strong no-nonsense women in his life.
Keeping up with the Rees-Moggs: The Q&A session could’ve fooled the audience into thinking the pair aren’t hugely comfortable being TV stars, with a few awkward pauses and Helena letting out a minor “eeeeh” when asked if she’s happy being part of a reality show. It’s all fodder for the ex-minister’s hopes of returning to power, though. “I’d love to come back,” he told the audience.
SPOTTED … at the Foreign Press Association Awards at the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane … Labour peer Thomas Chandos … veteran journalist Michael Crick … impressionist Rory Bremner … La Repubblica’s Antonello Guerrera … FPA London Director Deborah Bonetti … Omani Ambassador to the U.K. Bader Al Mantheri … C40 Cities Communications Director Zermina Toghey … BBC Asian Network’s Poonam Taneja … FPA President Dagmar Seeland … Brunswick’s Charlotte Sidwell … Bloomberg Television Editor-at-Large Francine Lacqua … News Media Association CEO Owen Meredith … News Media Coalition CEO Andrew Moger … Action on Armed Violence Director Iain Overton … former DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr. … Society of Editors Director Dawn Alford … Walpole CEO Helen Brocklebank … Channel 4 News’ Matt Frei … Royal reporter Robert Jobson … and EU Delegation to the U.K. Head of Press Federico Bianchi.
CAT WHO GOT THE CREAM: Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s cat Attlee has been elected Purr-Minister in a Battersea Dogs and Cats Home competition. Hoyle said “his manifursto clearly resonated with the public.” But but but … It’s the second time in a row one of Hoyle’s cats has won this competition. Fix?
HE SHOOTS: Labour MP Jake Richards has been elected chair of the U.K. Parliament Football Club APPG —making him the team captain. His first job is to select his squad, although Playbook hears a nepotism scandal is already in the works. He picked as a starter fellow Labour MP Gregor Poynton … who happens to be his brother-in-law.
A WHOLE MONTH OF THIS: Christmas dinner is already being served in Adjournment — making parliament surely the only place in SW1 where you can get a three-course meal with the trimmings for under £30. The gift shop is full of holiday cards, the Despatch Box has festive coffee options and there’s a brie and cranberry sandwich available at Moncrieff’s. It’s not even December yet.
NEW GIG: ITV’s Andrew Dagnell has been promoted to director of news and current affairs.
JOB ADS: Labour MP Claire Hazelgrove is on the hunt for a parliamentary assistant.
NOW READ: The Sheffield Tribune’s report on how the city is one of 15 local authorities not to have built a *single* affordable home since the beginning of the year.
WRITING PLAYBOOK PM: Emilio Casalicchio.
WRITING PLAYBOOK WEDNESDAY MORNING: Sam Blewett.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn … Milton Keynes Central MP Emily Darlington … crossbench peer Gisela Stuart … Tory peer John Gummer … Labour peer Joyce Quin … Crossbench peer Karan Bilimoria … former DSIT SpAd Sam Hamilton … Tory peer Donald Cameron … Channel 4 News Europe Editor Matt Frei.
PLAYBOOKCOULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT:My editors Zoya Sheftalovich, Jack Blanchard and Alex Spence, diary reporter Bethany Dawson and producerCatherine Bouris.
This email has been updated to clarify the nature of the South West Water bills subsidy.
**A message from Goldman Sachs: 2025 starts now with the sharpest forecasts on next year’s global economy from Goldman Sachs. Explore a comprehensive range of viewpoints — from the specialists on the trading floor to the independent research desks — on the year ahead. 1. Listen to leaders, investors, and analysts from across the firm as they break down the key issues shaping next year’s economy in our award-winning weekly podcast, Goldman Sachs Exchanges. 2. Every Friday, hear timely market updates on the most important trends of the week from across the trading floor, all under ten minutes in The Markets. 3. Analysis. Outlooks. Intelligence. Subscribe to Briefings, our flagship newsletter delivering the latest insights on markets, industry, and finance. Stay ahead with insights from the 2025 Goldman Sachs Outlooks.**
SUBSCRIBE to the POLITICO newsletter family: Brussels Playbook | London Playbook | London Playbook PM | Playbook Paris | EU Election Playbook | Berlin Playbook | Global Playbook | POLITICO Confidential | Sunday Crunch | EU Influence | London Influence | China Watcher | Berlin Bulletin | Living Cities | D.C. Playbook | D.C. Influence | All our POLITICO Pro policy morning newsletters