Dear John,

‘Fail to plan, and you plan to fail,’ - Google tells me Benjamin Franklin once said this, apparently. It’s a message those at the top of government appear to have both taken very much - and not at all - to heart this week. 

The Industrial, National Security and Trade Strategies were all published in the past few days, in a seeming triumph of joined-up government communications. But much of the focus was pulled by a brewing Labour rebellion set to force No10 to change course on a major welfare reform bill, with accusations the Prime Minister’s top team failed to strategise and avoid the danger early. 

And we thought the first rule of politics was learning to count. Here to tot up the numbers is your Weekend Wire.

Strategising…

The Industrial, National Security, and Trade Strategy documents thudded - metaphorically - onto desks on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday respectively.

Ministers set out the UK industries they are backing to help achieve the goal of the highest sustained economic growth in the G7, including AI, offshore wind power, and electric vehicle batteries, in Monday’s industrial strategy.

While in Tuesday’s national security strategy, the government said the UK must actively prepare for a “wartime scenario” on British soil “for the first time in many years”, in a document setting out how to protect the UK at home and abroad, and boost defence investment. 

But our favourite - naturally - of the three chunky PDFs was of course the UK’s shiny new trade strategy, released on Thursday. Coming in the wake of the crucial UK-EU reset summit last month, it outlines steps to make it easier for UK firms to export, as well as to “confront the threat that protectionism poses to the UK by significantly upgrading our trade defence toolkit”.

And Sir Keir Starmer says he wants the UK to focus on a series of small deals, rather than major free trade agreements (FTAs).

In response, Best for Britain’s chief executive, Naomi Smith, highlighted how the real “gamechanger” would be restoring frictionless access to reliable EU markets for all British industries.

“The UK is facing an economic hurricane, and sheltering too close to the unreliable US risks placing us in the eye of the storm. Polling shows voters want to see our tried and tested partnership with Europe prioritised.”

Read her - and UK Trade and Business Commission (UKTBC) chair and MP Andrew Lewin’s - thoughts in full here.

Ceasefire watch

The world held its breath for much of this week after US President Donald Trump announced late on Monday that Israel and Iran had agreed to what he called a “complete and total” ceasefire to end the “12 day war”. 

That didn’t stop Trump issuing an angry tirade directed at both countries, as he spoke to reporters just before departing for the NATO summit in the Hague on Tuesday, for seeming to break the agreement. But since then, things appear to be holding steady. 

At the summit itself, the leaders of the alliance’s 32 member states agreed to “commit to invest 5% of GDP annually” on defence - including defence and security-related spending - by 2035.  Although Spain has already officially announced that it cannot meet the target.

For the UK though, that’s quite the step up from Starmer’s previous announcement that he would hike it to 2.5% by 2027. How times change…

Underdiscussed

With the world's attention understandably on the exploding nuclear facilities, an underreported element of the escalation in the Middle East is what all this means for Ukraine and their resistance to Putin’s illegal invasion. Well fret not, your author has you covered.

Well, well, welfare…

A growing rebellion among Labour backbenchers over the government’s planned welfare bill hit new heights this week, after an amendment to the proposed legislation - led by Treasury Select Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier - was published.

The so-called wrecking amendment, which would prevent the bill reaching the next stage in the parliamentary process to become law, now has 126 Labour signatures. 

But the government has insisted it will press ahead with the vote on the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, slated for Tuesday next week. 

Shortly after midnight on Friday morning, it was confirmed that the Prime Minister was prepared to un-hoist himself from the petard, agreeing to a rake of changes to the Bill, but at time of writing it is still unclear if this will be enough to stave off a significant rebellion next week. 

In any case, coming after the government’s u-turn on winter fuel payments and on holding a public inquiry into grooming gangs, this latest episode isn’t doing wonders for the Prime Minister’s authority. Watch this space…

On the airwaves

UKTBC chair Andrew Lewin MP was on the BBC’s Politics Live panel this week, just after the nine year anniversary of the Brexit referendum, making the proud case for closer relations with the European Union.

Watch the full clip here.  

Squeezy-jet

In some welcome news for people allergic to ‘travelling light’, a European Parliament committee has put forward proposals for passengers flying from EU airports to be entitled to an additional piece of cabin luggage up to 100cm long and weighing up to 7kg for no extra charge.

While the changes have not yet been confirmed, we’re arguing the UK should seek deeper alignment with the EU which has some of the highest standards for consumers. 

Naomi Smith, Chief Executive of Best for Britain, said:

“Too many fall afoul of these inconsistent rules  - and once again the European Union is at the forefront of improving consumer protections, providing yet more evidence that the UK should align with these kinds of high standards that can tangibly benefit millions of people.”

Read her thoughts in full on the Best for Britain website here.

Across the pond

In a rare bit of positive news for progressives Stateside, Zohran Mamdani, 33, a self-described democratic socialist beat former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, to win NYC’s Democratic mayoral primary. 

With 93% of the votes counted, state representative Mamdani, profiled here by the Guardian, was on 43.5% versus Cuomo’s 36.4%. He will go on to fight incumbent mayor Eric Adams, who plans to stand as an independent, a Republican challenger - and a potential Cuomo independent run - this autumn.

Kings College London lecturer in German and European Studies and BlueSky user Alexander Clarkson noted on the platform in response: “In European terms, Mamdani is about as radical as Andy Burnham.” Could NYC be about to get its own ‘King in the North’?

Cringe Column 

This has been your Weekend Wire from Best for Britain. Keep an eye out next week for the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, among others) summit, as well as a bit of light relief via International Joke Day.

Jessica Frank-Keyes

Senior Press Officer

Best for Britain