Doing the minimum possible on legal migration would have the unwelcome effect for the Prime Minister of prolonging and intensifying debate about it.
He will likely be subject to more expert scrutiny than he would in the Commons – and if MPs want more opportunities to hold him directly to account, Parliament can create them.
“My Ministers will address inflation and the drivers of low growth over demands for greater spending or borrowing. My Ministers will put the security of communities and the nation ahead of the rights of those who endanger it.”
Instead of a Conservative housing policy that emphasises home ownership and architectural beauty, it will now be done the Labour way. When tower blocks start rising over the Home Counties, I hope that our remaining MPs realise their mistake.
A half-baked reform attempt would not only distract from his policies aimed at voters’ priorities, but actually make them harder to even pass.
These disputes between the executive, legislature and judiciary are normally settled by a codified constitution, but Israel, like the UK, is unusual in the modern age in not having one
‘The Commons is where you need to be if you want to influence things’, he tells Gloria De Piero.
The more totemic this legislation appears, the higher will be public expectations of it. Even if it passes, will Rishi Sunak be able to persuade voters it was worth the wait?
In the same interview he said “I tend to be rather bad at politics”, which is true if one takes the holding of great offices of state as the yardstick of success.
“He talks about people in the House of Lords – perhaps he could explain why he put forward for a peerage… Tom Watson, who spread vicious conspiracy theories”.
if there are going to be political peers at all, there needs to be some connection to democratic politics. Allowing the parties to nominate peers is that link.
“The Prime Minister has not intervened in any way,” adds the Energy Secretary. “The House of Commons Commission made all the decisions.”
Party activists could be forgiven for wondering if he would now rather have Starmer in Downing Street than Sunak.
A staunchly pro-Brexit Tory peer or an ardently Europhile Labour MP agree that it should be the legislature which sets the law of the land.
“Generations to come will look back in disbelief at the treatment of majestic animals like elephants, lions and rhinos, which need our protection now more than ever.”