Dear John,

Parliament is back, conference season is over and yesterday marked 365 days since Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister - can you believe it?

While we’re talking timescales, there’s a famous phrase that ‘a week is a long time in politics’. After the result of this week’s by-elections, I imagine the Government feels like the last 24 hours have been an eternity. Let’s get into why…

By-election Bonanza

The headline news, as I’m sure you’ll know, is that the Labour Party overturned two huge majorities in by-elections that took place in Tamworth and Mid-Bedfordshire, with a huge congratulations to the two successful candidates and now new MPs Alistair Strathern and Sarah Edwards.

In Tamworth we saw a whopping 23.9% swing from the Conservatives to Labour  - the second highest in post-war by-election history. Meanwhile in Mid Bedfordshire, the old stomping ground of Nadine Dorries (leader, treasurer and patron of the ‘Boris Johnson Appreciation Society’) saw the Conservative vote share completely collapse by 28% - the sixth biggest fall in Tory support in a seat in the post-war period. A dire night for the Tories was summarised best by political polling guru Sir John Curtice who described the results as ‘one of worst nights any government has endured’. Yikes. 

Although there will be smiles across many senior Labour faces, they will be under no illusion as to how difficult it will be to replicate this result when the whole country goes to the polls - and that’s before you even factor in our broken voting system. Had Reform UK stood aside for the Tories in these by-elections  (like they did in the 2019 and 2017 GE) the results could have been different. With that, we must remind you of the importance that tactical voting has played during these by-elections, and can play in the upcoming General Election.

Luckily, Best for Britain has got you covered. We’re updating and relaunching the most powerful tactical voting operation the UK has ever seen - ‘Get Voting’ and it’s going to be crucial in ensuring that we get rid of this rotten government. Do keep an eye out for it!

Conference Season Ends

And breathe! After three weeks of conferences that saw political party members gather in Manchester, Liverpool, Brighton, Bournemouth and Aberdeen, Conference Season is finally over. As you’ll know from previous editions of Weekend Wire, all of our events were a huge success and the rooms were full to bursting, but  I thought it’d be remiss of me not to do a quick recap for you all.

A few weeks ago we started out at Lib Dem Conference in Bournemouth, Business Secretary Sir Vince Cable, House of Lords LD Europe Spokesperson Baroness Sarah Ludford, Cambridgeshire County Councillor Edna Murphy, and Eastbourne PPC Josh Babarinde all spoke on our panel about Europe - it was indeed standing room only.

We then headed over to Green Party Conference in Brighton for a panel discussion with former Green MEPs Ellie Chowns and Molly Scott Cato as well as Deputy Leader Zack Polanski covering “‘How the EU benefits environmental protections” - another fantastic event!

Last but not least at the Labour Conference in Liverpool, we held a joint-reception with SME4Labour and the Kebab Awards, and it’s fair to say it was Grilliant. Our speakers were buoyant about Labour’s prospects at the next election, and their ambition to work with our friends in Europe. Nick Thomas-Symonds MP and Hilary Benn MP joined us from the Shadow Cabinet; PPCs Miatta Fahnbulleh and Rachel Blake; International Chamber of Commerce UK’s Paul Drechsler; - and Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram.

We were blown away by the encouragement that we received for the work that we do and the massive optimism  at all three Conferences.

Select Committee Chairs

With Parliament back sitting for just its fourth week in three months, it's an exciting return to House of Commons Business, which this week included elections of new Select Committee Chairs.

I know right, enthralling stuff. As much as I jest, some important appointments were made on Wednesday evening. These Chairs hold great influence in Parliament, scrutinising and questioning MPs and legislation in their specific remits. These positions were only made open as a result of Darren Jones, Chris Bryant and Cat McKinnell getting promotions to the Labour front-bench; meaning that only Labour MPs were able to run for the roles.

Most notably Harriet Harman was elected as the new Chair of the Standards Committee. Due to the never ending list of Tory Sleaze, the Standards Committee rose to high prominence with a highlight/lowlight being its high profile questioning and eventual suspension of Boris Johnson, after he was found to have misled Parliament (which Harriet Harman chaired after Chris Bryant recused himself). Other Committee Chair appointments include Liam Bryne to the Business and Trade Committee and Cat Smith as Chair of the Petitions Committee. 

Conflict in the Middle East continues

Of course, news continues to be dominated by the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza with both the British Prime Minister and the US President visiting the region in the last few days. As the death toll climbs we continue to hope for a quick and peaceful resolution.

Shock election poll in Poland

Meanwhile in Eastern Europe, Polish election results this week showed that Poland's opposition parties have won enough seats in last Sunday’s general election to take power from the right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party which has ruled the country since 2015. 

The Civic Coalition Party led by, wait for it, ex President of the European Council Donald Tusk (of Brexit negotiations fame) has pledged to enter coalition with the ‘Third Way’ and ‘the Left’ in order to oust the PiS from power. Hopefully a sign that Right-Wing Populism no longer possesses the electoral success it once did… (and that seems like a nice note to end!).

I hope you have a nice weekend. Next week, you’ll be joined next week by B4B Development Manager, Georgia Wiltshire. 

Ben Stead Lewis
External Affairs Officer
Best for Britain