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Good Wednesday morning. This is Eleni Courea.
DRIVING THE DAY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, INANIMATE PUBLIC SERVICE: The NHS turns 75 today — and in that quarter of a century it has got a bit slow and creaky, and now finds itself in a similar state of ill-health as the wider U.K.
Pray for the NHS: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer are both *checks notes* giving readings at a Westminster Abbey service for the NHS’ birthday. (Totally normal country.) Tune in from 11 a.m.
Who loves the NHS more? The government will light buildings up in blue and Health Secretary Steve Barclay has written for Times Red Box that the NHS is “our most treasured national institution.” He’s due to address an NHS Parliamentary Award ceremony later. Starmer has a Mirror op-ed about what the NHS meant to his family and pledges that Labour would make the reforms it needs.
On the airwaves: Health Minister Maria Caulfield and Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting are touring morning broadcast shows — and Streeting is also doing an LBC phone in from 1 to 2 p.m.
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Taking a step back: For politicos and policy wonks, the NHS’ 75th birthday is a chance to discuss how it needs to adapt to care for an increasingly aging population with chronic health issues. In a policy paper, Tony Blair backs an argument by Sajid Javid that the NHS needs fundamental change to survive. Barclay rejects this in his Red Box piece and underlines that the Tories are “fully committed” to keeping the service free at the point of care — the Times’ Chris Smyth has more. Three leading health think tanks are calling for both parties to change their approach, warning that otherwise the NHS won’t reach its 100th anniversary — eek.
SO MUCH FOR PRIME MINISTER’S QUESTIONS: With Sunak and Starmer tied up at Westminster Abbey, we get to watch Oliver Dowden and Angela Rayner spar in the Commons at noon. Dowden might be tempted to take a pop at Labour over Just Stop Oil after meeting the F1 boss on Tuesday. There are fears the protest group — which is supported by eco-entrepreneur Dale Vince, who also gives bags of cash to Labour — will disrupt the British Grand Prix for another year.
Worth noting: It’ll be Dowden vs. Rayner again next Wednesday while Sunak attends the NATO leaders’ summit in Vilnius. It’s being widely pointed out that this won’t be good for his already dire PMQs attendance record.
Going a step further: Opposition parties are accusing Sunak of evading parliamentary scrutiny, tying his habit of skipping PMQs with dodging difficult Commons votes — e.g. on suspending former Prime Minister Boris Johnson for misleading parliament. In a release this morning the Lib Dems accuse Sunak of having “thrown in the towel.”
TODAY’S OTHER SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARY: It might feel like an eon, but it’s been one year since Boris Johnson resigned as PM. On 5 July 2022, Sunak and other Tory leadership hopefuls flocked with their closest aides to the Spectator summer party, where they soft-launched their campaigns among influential journalists and MPs.
This year: The chatter at tonight’s Spectator bash is more likely to be about the election defeat that many Tory MPs now believe they will face next year. Watch what you say there because it’ll probably end up in one of the papers’ weekend reads (or better yet in Playbook).
Here’s a preview: One MP who is a close ally of Sunak’s confided to Playbook that they expected to lose but said: “We could have got away with removing Boris if Rishi had come in straight away. The car crash that was Liz Truss’ premiership has ruined us.” Meanwhile, a former minister allied with Truss was telling my colleague Annabelle Dickson: “Rishi is a technocrat, he hasn’t got any political instinct whatsoever. We are in an economic mess of his creation when he was chancellor … Liz recognized there was a problem, although the way she went about it was mental. But she was trying to buck that technocratic trend.” Another year of this to look forward to — unless No. 10 finds a way to boost morale.
LABOUR LAND
SCOOP — SUE’S SPAD SCHOOL: Keir Starmer’s office has created an in-house crack team that is training shadow Cabinet ministers for government, five Labour officials tell Playbook — and it’s soon expected to have Sue Gray at its helm. The small LOTO team, comprised of a handful of people and currently led by Helene Reardon-Bond, runs training sessions for shadow ministers and their advisers about how their potential department works and what to expect in transition talks. One official told Playbook that former civil service chief Bob Kerslake was involved with its work before he died, as well as external consultants from the Institute for Government, EY and Grant Thornton.
Crucially: The expectation is that Sue Gray — who was recruited from Whitehall by Starmer to be his chief of staff with the express purpose to prepare Labour for government — will be taking the reins of this operation when she starts her new job in September.
On standby: The feedback so far seems largely positive — except that nobody is sure whether they’ll be shadowing their current departmental briefs for much longer. One Labour official told Playbook: “It makes less sense to engage with it when the reshuffle hangs over us all.” Another said more bluntly: “The irony of telling us how to run a department by day and briefing that we’ll be sacked from that department by night hasn’t been lost on all of us.”
OVER IN UXBRIDGE: At a hustings last night Labour’s candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip Danny Beales said now was “not the right time” to expand ultra-low emission zones into the constituency. Which surely has nothing to do with the fact Labour is hoping to win a by-election in the seat which is home to lots of drivers who are angry about the plans. Beales, who previously defended the policy, said the cost of living had changed things. The event was chaired by Sky’s Rob Powell — Alex Rogers has the story.
Elsewhere in Labour candidates: Faiza Shaheen — one of the only left-wingers who has slipped through the Labour selections net — has recorded a video for the NEU backing teachers’ strikes and accusing Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey of talking “nonsense” by blaming inflation on wage increases. Quite the contrast from the party’s carefully calibrated (read: tortured) frontbench position on whether it supports the industrial action.
Reminder: Teachers in the NEU in England are walking out today and again on Friday.
In other news: Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told BBC Newsnight’s Nick Watt that Starmer supporters are “drunk on power” and conducting almost a “search and destroy” of the Labour left. He said he’s written several times to Starmer about it.
POLICY CORNER
ALL CHANGE: Rail operators will kickstart a process to close almost every railway ticket office in England by launching a consultation today. The plans are being pushed through as part of a modernization drive despite staunch union opposition. Staff in ticket offices — or a “cohort of Dickensian clerks” as a source describes them to the Times’ Ben Clatworthy — would be moved onto concourses instead. Feels like this could be UQ territory in the Commons.
Expect … Another escalation in RMT strikes which have been going on for more than a year.
OVER IN THE LORDS: The Archbishop of Canterbury is launching another attack on the Illegal Migration Bill, which is in the Lords for its third report stage session today. Justin Welby has teamed up with other faith leaders to put forward an amendment that calls for a long-term government strategy to tackle the refugee crisis and human trafficking. They have a letter in the Times about it.
Meanwhile: The Times’ Matt Dathan has seen internal Border Force figures suggesting Rishi Sunak is on course to fail in his pledge to “stop the boats.” Around 40,000 migrants are expected to cross the Channel this year, according to the figures, though it could be as many as 55,000.
POLICING THE POLICE: The Home Office is bringing in reforms that will make firing failing or disgraced officers easier, which could see at least 2,000 in England and Wales dismissed, David Woode reports in the Times splash.
TOUGH CLIMATE: The government is preparing to drop its pledge to double U.K. spending on international climate finance to £11.6 billion, according to a leaked Foreign Office briefing note seen by the Guardian’s Helena Horton and Patrick Greenfield.
UKHSA FIASCO: A report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee has concluded that the U.K. Health Security Agency has a “staggering” lack of control over billions of pounds of spending and that its Chief Executive Jenny Harries was appointed with no previous experience. The Guardian has a write-up.
BRANCHING OUT: The Bank of England is looking at proposals to force more international banks to set up subsidiaries in the U.K. — with their own capital and liquidity — rather than just branches, Laura Noonan reports in the FT splash. It’s part of a review into dealing with the failure of international lenders after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
HARD YARDS: The government is considering reviving plans to introduce imperial measurements in the King’s Speech this fall. PoliticsHome’s Adam Payne has the story.
TODAY IN WESTMINSTER
POLITICO’S POWER 40: Politics is home to planet-sized egos, big bust-ups and plenty of noise. But where does the real power lie? It’s a question we put to policy and politics reporters in Brussels, London and Paris over the past few months, and today we’re publishing the inaugural POLITICO Power 40 list for Westminster.
What we wanted to ask: Who’s really making things happen behind the scenes while Sunak and Starmer duke it out? Who’s quietly shaping laws, setting political agendas and sparking big public conversations in their respective fields? Or put another way … who do you need to try to nab a meeting with if you want to get a hearing in SW1? The list has just dropped here.
TECH FEST THAT WASN’T: Oliver Dowden directed his department to support a proposed tech festival backed by David Brownlow, the Tory donor who funded the refurb of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat, the Times’ George Greenwood reports. He got hold of the email via FOI.
YOU MUST BE JENKIN: Several papers splash the return of Met Police Partygate probes — the Mail leads on liaison committee Chair Bernard Jenkin being investigated, while the Indy noses on the CCHQ “jingle and mingle” Christmas bash. Boris Johnson isn’t facing any further probes.
MINISTERIAL SPEECHES: Policy Exchange hosts an event on freedom of speech with Education Minister Claire Coutinho at 1 p.m. (the Sun has a preview) … and Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith will speak at a Centre for Policy Studies event to launch its Retail Therapy report at 2 p.m. Playbook is told he’ll be talking about how to make “equities sexy again.”
OTHER SW1 EVENTS: The Institute for Government holds its net zero conference with speakers including Shadow Climate Change and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband and Tory MP Chris Skidmore from 10.30 a.m. … Loughborough University London holds an event on the minimum income required to live in London with speakers including Work and Pensions Committee Chair Stephen Timms at 5.30 p.m. … and Chatham House examines the dilemmas of working in Afghanistan with the Taliban from 6 p.m.
CHINA CORNER: Tory MP Bob Seely will host a press briefing with Finn Lau and Christopher Mung, two pro-democracy activists who fled Hong Kong with a bounty on their heads. They’ve booked committee room 19 at 1 p.m. — Lau last night told Channel 4 News the safety risk “has escalated” after China issued bounties for the arrest of eight pro-democracy activists.
NOT IN WESTMINSTER BUT: Day 2 of the Local Government Association’s conference in Bournemouth features Local Government Minister Lee Rowley, Shadow Leveling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan.
TODAY IN COURT: Tory MP Bob Stewart appears in court after being charged with public order offenses involving a clash with a protester. The charges relate to an incident on December 14 last year — My POLITICO colleague Andrew McDonald has more … and the High Court hears a legal challenge supported by the Good Law Project aiming to force the government to toughen up its plan for reducing sewage dumped in England’s rivers and seas.
HOUSE OF COMMONS: Sits from 11.30 a.m. with Wales questions followed by deputy PMQs at noon and Tory MP Mark Eastwood’s 10-minute rule bill on safety cameras … and then the main business is an estimates day debate on DESNZ and DfE spending. Tory MP Robert Syms has the adjournment debate on financial markets and monetary policy.
WESTMINSTER HALL: Debates from 9.30 a.m. on the criminalization of victims of violence against women from ethnic minority and migrant communities (led by Labour’s Kate Osamor) … the potential merits of government support for the 200th anniversary of Robert Stephenson and Company, Newcastle (led by Labour MP Chi Onwurah) … and freehold and leasehold reform in England (led by Tory MP Gareth Johnson).
On committee corridor: Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie is questioned by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee about the effectiveness of the institutions of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (9.30 a.m.) … Chief Scientific Adviser Angela McLean is before the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (9.30 a.m.) … Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen is before the Welsh Affairs Committee giving evidence on the Welsh fiscal framework (9.45 a.m.) … Crossbench peer Tanni Grey-Thompson is before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee discussing women’s sport (10 a.m.) … DWP Minister Mims Davies is among those probed by the Work and Pensions Committee on cost of living support payments (10.25 a.m.) … The European Scrutiny Committee probes the Gibraltar government’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo about EU negotiations related to Gibraltar (1.30 p.m.) … DBT Minister Kevin Hollinrake and DSIT Minister Paul Scully are before the Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee discussing the review of the Digital Markets, Consumer and Competition Bill (2 p.m.) … and DWP Minister Tom Pursglove and DHSC Minister Maria Caulfield give evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee on the national disability strategy (2.30 p.m.).
HOUSE OF LORDS: Sits from 3 p.m. with oral questions on the recently announced discriminatory measures against LGBTQ+ people in Uganda, the re-introduction of legislation to close down unregistered schools and resolving the strikes by doctors in the NHS … and then the main business is the third day of the Illegal Migration Bill at report stage.
BEYOND THE M25
BEIJING CLAIMS IT TALKED PUTIN OUT OF USING NUKES IN UKRAINE: Chinese President Xi Jinping personally warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine when he was on his state visit to Moscow in March, the FT reports, citing Western and Chinese officials.
ZAPORIZHZHIA WATCH: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Russia has placed “objects resembling explosives” on the roof of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of plotting to attack the plant. As POLITICO’s Veronika Melkozerova reported earlier in the week, according to Ukrainian intelligence, Russian workers were told to leave the power station by July 5 — meaning, today.
THE PERILS OF E-VOTING: Welsh Climate Change Minister Lee Waters has apologized after accidentally voting against his own government three times — he blamed “lapses in concentration” when voting using an app. WalesOnline has the story.
COVID UPDATE: Former Chief Medical Officer for Scotland Catherine Calderwood will appear before the COVID inquiry from 10 a.m. — she resigned from her post weeks into the first lockdown after she was caught breaking her department’s own COVID advice.
LEYEN IN WAIT: Rumors abound that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to become the next NATO chief with the coveted backing of both Washington and Paris, according to the National’s Thomas Harding. Current Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s term has been extended by another year, supposedly so von der Leyen, who is a former German defense minister, can take up the post after finishing her five-year term as Commission president in 2024. The news splashes the Telegraph. Von der Leyen herself has been coy about whether she wants another term as the Commission chief in Brussels.
ISRAEL RETREATS: Israel has started withdrawing its forces from Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, ending a major two-day operation where 12 Palestinians and one Israeli solider were killed. The BBC has more.
RECORD HEAT: The world’s average temperature topped 17 degrees celsius for the first time on July 3, making it the hottest day since records began. The BBC has a write-up.
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MEDIA ROUND
Health Minister Maria Caulfield broadcast round: Times Radio (7 a.m.) … Sky News (7.20 a.m.) … LBC (7.50 a.m.) … GB News (8.10 a.m.) … GMB (8.30 a.m.).
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting broadcast round: Times Radio (7.30 a.m.) … GMB (7.50 a.m.) … Sky News (8.05 a.m.) … TalkTV (8.20 a.m.) … LBC News (8.50 a.m.) … GB News (9.10 a.m.).
Also on Times Radio Breakfast: Women and Equalities Committee Chair Caroline Nokes (7.20 a.m.) … Bishop of Durham Paul Butler and Tory MP John Hayes (both 8 a.m.) … NHS England National Medical Director Stephen Powis (8.15 a.m.) … Defense Committee Chair Tobias Ellwood (9.35 a.m.).
Also on Sky News Breakfast: Former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland (7.30 a.m.) … Head of Palestinian Mission to the U.K. Husam Zomlot (9.30 a.m.).
On the Today program: Chief Executive of Ofwat David Black (7.50 a.m.) … Chief Executive of NHS England Amanda Pritchard (8.10 a.m.).
Also on Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: NEU Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney (7.05 a.m.) … Tory MP Gareth Bacon (8.35 a.m.) … Non-Executive Chair of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Thomas Hughes-Hallett (9.05 a.m.).
Also on Good Morning Britain: Former Tory MP Edwina Currie (7.30 a.m.).
Also on GB News Breakfast: Political analyst Leon Emirali (6.10 a.m. and 7.10 a.m.) … Former Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Mellor and former Labour adviser Scarlett MccGwire (both 6.30 a.m., 7.30 a.m. and 8.30 a.m.).
Also on LBC News: Public Accounts Committee Chair Meg Hillier (6.30 a.m.) … Kevin Courtney (7.25 a.m.).
Also on TalkTV Breakfast: Tory MP James Sunderland (7.05 a.m.) … Tory MP Anna Firth (9.05 a.m.).
Politics Live (BBC Two 11.15 a.m.): Tory peer James Bethell … Labour peer Helena Kennedy … Times columnist Melanie Phillips … Journalist Ella Whelan … Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth.
Shelagh Fogarty (LBC): Wes Streeting phone-in (1 p.m. until 2 p.m.).
TODAY’S FRONT PAGES
POLITICO UK: Power 40 — London class of 2023.
Daily Express: Cheaper food on way as price war finally hots up.
Daily Mail: Boris’s Partygate accuser faces his own police probe.
Daily Mirror: It’s time to tell people … I have Alzheimer’s.
Daily Star: I shall say zis only once — ‘Allo ‘Allo! caused Brexit.
Financial Times: BoE considers forcing foreign banks to replace branches with subsidiaries.
i: U.K. mortgage crunch — four more interest rate rises in 2023 forecast.
Metro: Let’s do it Nye’s way.
The Daily Telegraph: U.S. pushes for Von der Leyen to be NATO chief.
The Guardian: U.K. ready to drop £11.6 billion pledge for climate fund.
The Independent: New police probe into Tory “jingle and mingle” COVID party.
The Sun: Boris hid horse in bedroom.
The Times: Overhaul to tackle the scourge of rogue police.
LONDON CALLING
WESTMINSTER WEATHER: Scattered showers and 20C highs.
MEA CULPA: Labour MP Chris Bryant is chair of the standards committee, not the privileges committee, as Playbook PM wrote last night.
Apologies also to: ITV’s ace Westminster News Editor Rachel Bradley — Tuesday’s Playbook job ad should have said the channel is hiring a regional Westminster news editor, looking after the ITV regions.
THEY’RE RUNNING: Sporty MPs who didn’t attend any boozy receptions last night will gather in St. James’ Park at 8.45 a.m. to take part in a run for the NHS, which is being organized by the Parkrun APPG. Runners will do two laps of the park before having a coffee in St. James’ Cafe. Playbook hears that government Chief Whip Simon Hart is planning to go — his team reckon he’s done more parkruns than any other MP (he hit 100 in 2017, the first MP to meet that milestone). Useful for chasing down errant Tories in the voting lobbies.
SPOTTED: Political journalists packed into the Commons Speaker’s House for his annual press reception. In his speech, Lindsay Hoyle paid tribute to Playbook’s unmatched canapé coverage over the last year. Lobby Chairman Hugo Gye implored anyone standing near a Playbook writer (of whom there were several) to “tie them down” so they can’t write any “epic poems” about the food. We can attest that it was once again excellent.
More gags: Hoyle said of the Conservative Party’s controversial charge for journos to attend its conference: “£137 would certainly buy you a lot of Chorley cakes” … and professed he was looking forward to the moment five days into recess when the Lib Dems say parliament should be recalled.
Also spotted: Tom Tugendhat opened his speech at the IEA’s bash by attacking the “draconian, anti-free market, some might even say unconservative new policy [that] hangs over Westminster … Elon Musk’s decision to start rationing tweets.” He then launched into a tortured cricket metaphor that Playbook won’t try to reproduce here. Spotted at the IEA do were … Tory MPs David Davis and John Penrose … SpAds Victoria Hewson and James Roberts … Hacks Paul Staines, Christian Calgie, Adam Cherry, Callum Jones, Olivia Utley, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Cindy Yu, Daisy Graham-Brown, William Atkinson, Gus Carter, Tom Goodenough, Tim Montgomerie, Sam Lister, Hugo Gye, Martyn Brown, Daniel Martin, Melissa Lawford, Sabrina Miller, Ben Bloch and Katy Dillion … the ASI’s Duncan Simpson and Max Marlow … and the IEA’s Mark Littlewood, Christopher Snowdon, Matthew Lesh, Andy Mayer, Reem Ibrahim, Joseph Dinnage, and Harrison Griffiths.
Also spotted … at Best for Britain’s summer party on the top floor of 55 Broadway and its rain-soaked terrace: Peers Ros Altmann, Peter Hain, Mark Malloch-Brown, Patience Wheatcroft and Paul Strasburger … Hacks Ben Glaze, Alex Andreou and Peter Foster … True and Fair Party leader Gina Miller … Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve … Former Lib Dem leader Vince Cable … U.K. in a Changing Europe’s Anand Menon … European Centre For International Political Economy U.K. Director David Henig … British Chambers of Commerce Director General Shevaun Haviland … International Chamber of Commerce U.K. Chair Paul Drechsler … Integrity International Group Chair Tony Matharu … Former YouGov President Peter Kellner … TV presenter Nick Hewer … Food writer and cook Nigella Lawson … Best for Britain CEO Naomi Smith … and the whole Best for Britain team.
Also spotted … on the Pavilion Terrace for a summer party thrown by Higginson Strategy, run by former hacks John Higginson and Clodagh Higginson, were No. 10’s Beatrice Timpson … former Lib Dem leader Vince Cable … MPs Nigel Evans and Matt Warman … peers Sandip Verma, Cathy Bakewell, Dee Doocey and Robert Hayward … former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett … and hacks George Parker, Tara Fair, Anthony France, Aubrey Allegretti, Darren McCaffrey, Jane Hamilton, and Jessica Doyle.
Anecdote of the night: Addressing the event as guest speaker, the FT’s George Parker recounted being smacked over the head as a child by Margaret Thatcher for stealing a sausage at a Commons Christmas party which he attended with his father, who worked for Hansard.
Also spotted: The APPG Beer Group held its annual awards dinner — Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell won Parliamentarian of the Year.
THINK TANK WARS: Congratulations to the Institute for Public Policy Research, whose team was victorious in the inaugural pub quiz for SW1’s finest think tanks last night, hosted at the Walkers of Whitehall and organized by the Institute for Government’s Maddy Bishop and Stuart Hoddinott with the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ Bee Boileau and Laurence O’Brien. In second place was Demos followed by the Centre for Policy Studies … the IFS… the IfG … Bright Blue … U.K. in a Changing Europe … Onward … with the Resolution Foundation in last place. Better luck next year!
Briefing wars: It’s Westminster so not even policy wonks are immune to a little negative briefing. One pub quiz attendee told Playbook that winners IPPR had “a massive numerical advantage” as “too many people turned up” and pointed out mischievously that “half of Resolution Foundation’s geography questions were about London — not very leveling-up.” Another mole noted that the Centre for Policy Studies had fielded the only all-male team — apparently after someone dropped out.
The most heated debate … was over the reach of the former Italian empire following a question asking which two African countries have never been colonized (the answer given was Ethiopia and Liberia — but the Italians present insisted that Ethiopia had been an Italian colony).
NOAH’S CULTURE FIX: A photo gallery to mark the NHS at 75 opens at the Fujifilm House of Photography in Covent Garden today. Take a stroll up Whitehall to see the exhibit which features 75 photos taken by NHS staff and volunteers and will run until August 31.
NOW READ: In the Times, Danny Finkelstein argues that Keir Starmer was right to expel Compass Chair Neal Lawson from Labour, arguing Starmer “simply cannot allow each member of his party to start advocating a different position about whether to vote for the local Labour candidate.”
LISTEN TO: Radio 4’s More or Less has a special program devoted to immigration levels from 9 a.m.
JOB AD: The Tony Blair Institute has four roles going in its research and data unit.
THAT’S ALL FOLKS: Playbook can only see 600 posts on Twitter and quite a lot of those are about Nigel Farage having to swap Coutts for NatWest. See you on the Metaverse, or something.
BIRTHDAYS: Shadow Women and Equalities Minister Yasmin Qureshi turns 60 … Former Security Minister David Hanson … Newton Abbot MP Anne Marie Morris … York Central MP Rachael Maskell … Former Wolverhampton South West MP Eleanor Smith … Times Red Box’s Patrick Maguire… Former Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield … Lib Dem peer John Shipley.
PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editors Jack Lahart and Zoya Sheftalovich, reporter Noah Keate and producer Dato Parulava.
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Eleni Courea
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