Death by a thousand amendments
Filibustering peers, laying over 1,100 amendments to derail Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill, are straining the patience of committed colleagues and courting a clash with the House of Commons. Even adding ten extra sitting days – though one calculation suggests it would take until 2030 to consider them all – is triggering a backlash. Former justice secretary and lord chancellor Charlie Falconer, a key supporter of the bill, described some of the amendments as “crazy” at a packed meeting of lords and ladies, who deplored opponents’ tactics as undemocratic and likely to bring the whole Upper House into disrepute.
One amendment, which called for every assisted death to be filmed, was denounced as “grotesque” and “cruel”. Another, from former cabinet minister Thérèse Coffey, insisting no request be approved if the person had left the UK in the previous 12 months, provoked the sarcastic response: “If you’re dying, make sure you don’t pop across to Spain for a weekend break or visit any family living abroad!” Gallows humour is created by others. Tanni Grey-Thompson proposing every applicant must provide a negative pregnancy test had Dianne Hayter asking if that would include her, as she’s 76 and doesn’t have a womb. Tory peer Michael Dobbs, author of the House of Cards political thriller, shook his head in disbelief and enquired: “Does that include me too?”
The stonewalling is, we can reveal, splitting “no” ranks. Tory former leader Michael Howard, now Baron Howard of Lympne, told a bill supporter he’s worried about a constitutional crisis. “I am opposed to the Assisted Dying Bill but have grave doubts,” wrote Howard, “whether it would be appropriate for the House of Lords, which of course is unelected, to overturn the view of the elected House of Commons.” Quite.
With Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves fighting for their political lives, the once outlandish possibility of Ed Miliband returning as Labour leader is discussed with increasing seriousness. Among left-leaning party members, the Climate Secretary remains by far the most popular cabinet minister (with an approval rating of +69). But nearly 30 years after he served alongside Ed Balls as a special adviser to Gordon Brown, is a Treasury return more feasible? MPs close to Green Ed are encouraging him to build bridges with Angela Rayner, arguing he could emerge as the natural choice to be chancellor under any other soft-left leader. The £40,000 question is: could she run?
Treat yourself or a friend this Christmas to a New Statesman subscription for just £2
Reeves impressed Treasury civil servants and Spads during her appearance at Westminster’s Two Chairmen pub for a celebratory Budget drink with the team. Accompanied to the boozer by three bodyguards, the Chancellor was shielded by a brolly with such an enormous wingspan that it protected her whole entourage from drizzle outside. Apt for a minister doubling her headroom.
Rare giggles in No 10 over a suggestion that Starmer’s embattled enforcer Morgan McSweeney is a dead ringer for River Cartwright, fictional MI5 agent in the TV adaptation of the Slow Horses spy novels. Cartwright was scapegoated after a colleague’s mistake. McSweeney could yet be handed a can to carry for the PM.
Comparisons between John Redwood and Star Trek’s Spock helped critics dismiss his free-market obsessions as being from another planet. Redwood, a minister in the Thatcher and Major eras who was overlooked by subsequent Tory PMs, stood down ahead of 2024’s bloodbath and has concluded, after 37 years as an MP, that he wields more influence as an adviser to right-wing groups and causes than he ever did as a backbencher. Redwood is so often in parliament since leaving that newcomers reckon he resembles another fictional character: Ricky Gervais’s David Brent, the excruciating boss in The Office who keeps turning up to work after he’s been fired. Perhaps “Vulcan” wasn’t so hurtful after all.
The row over Kevin Hollinrake likening a Reform badge to a Nazi pin isn’t over for the Tory chair or the rival hard-right party. Former Labour MP Denis MacShane accused Hollinrake of ignorance because, he said, the lapel button for Nigel Farage’s turquoise shirts echoes one of Hitler’s Quisling forces. “The Reform slogan ‘Faith, Family, Country’ is not Nazi, but much closer to the motto of Marshal Pétain’s Vichy government, which collaborated with the German occupiers,” the onetime Europe minister MacShane told the New Statesman. “This was: ‘Travail, Famille, Patrie’ – work, family, fatherland. Good to see the Farage cult finally learning to speak European.” Talk about twisting the couteau.
Farage’s most irritating tormentor? Basil the Great, an anonymous X account with over 222,000 followers. Basil harries Farage and his team for not being hard line enough and champions party exile Rupert Lowe in his ongoing spat with the Reform leader. Real-life right-wing influencers pick up Basil’s talking points and attack Farage. “It’s a fucking cartoon mouse,” members of Farage’s entourage are heard groaning, referring to the account’s profile picture – an AI-generated image of a rodent standing outside parliament. Proof that mice can be very annoying.
Snout Line: Got a story? Write to tips@newstatesman.co.uk
[Further reading: Should Labour fear a Reform-Tory pact?]
Content from our partners
Related
This article appears in the 04 Dec 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Books of the Year
