President Starmer’s pledge card

25 mins read

May 16, 2024 7:59 am CET

Good day morning. This is Dan Bloom.

DRIVING THE DAY

PAGING MONDEO MAN: Keir Starmer is off to Essex with most of his shadow Cabinet to campaign a bit like it’s 1997 — with a presidential-style pledge card to sell himself to swing voters. Labour officials are treating the boiled-down snippets from their leader’s five “missions,” plus a sixth on migration, as a big deal. Now for the air war to ensure it’s remembered more as New Labour card than, er, EdStone.

Media blaze: It kicks off at 10 a.m., with speeches by Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and other “mission leads” in the shadow Cabinet. Starmer then has a string of sit-down TV interviews including with the BBC’s Chris Mason, Sky’s Beth Rigby and GB News’ Christopher Hope. They should pop up late afternoon.

All hands to the tiller: Playbook hears there’s a push for shadow ministers to pop up in front of broadcast cameras too (don’t all move at once). They’ll then be ordered to fan out to campaign visits across the country. “A range of members of the public” will be speaking too. The Mirror reckons they include an NHS patient and a victim of crime. Hopes of a surprise Tory defector seem remote.

THOSE SIX PLEDGES: To deliver economic stability … cut NHS waiting times … launch a new Border Security Command … set up Great British Energy … crack down on antisocial behavior … and recruit 6,500 new teachers. More on those in a tick.

**A message from bp: bp is working to bring more lower carbon energy to the UK – like designing two hydrogen plants on Teesside. And, we’re keeping oil & gas flowing to help meet today’s energy needs. And, not or – that’s our approach. See how bp is backing Britain.**

President Keir: But most striking is that one-third of the card (see it here) is taken up by somewhat unlikely poster boy Starmer himself — a torso length, shiny black-and-white photo with no jacket and sleeves rolled up. A party spokesperson says: “We have made a choice to do that. People want to hear from someone who is a party leader, who is the candidate to be prime minister.” They’re even called “*my* first steps.” With “for change” added smaller, presumably to avoid confusion with the babywear shop.

Air war: The image will go on billboards for at least two weeks in battleground seats including Swindon … Doncaster … Norwich … Peterborough … Darlington … Bolton … Great Yarmouth … Northampton … Burnley … and Stoke-on-Trent. Labour officials say it’s their biggest advertising spend since the 2019 election. It also involves ads in local newspapers in towns like Worksop, Leigh and Doncaster, and Metro regional editions.

News battle: The launch splashes the Times, Independent and Mirror. Starmer has a Mirror op-ed saying it won’t be a “hopeless gimmick.” The Mail evidently didn’t get the memo, mocking it all up as the “Starmer stone.”

Oh, PS … Don’t call it a pledge card. Labour insists the credit card-sized handouts are a “doorstep offer.” Put it this way, it’s a card with pledges on it.

SO WHAT ABOUT THE POLICY? There is no new policy today — this noise is about a campaigning tool. Its purpose is to condense Starmer’s sprawling “five missions” into a saleable message Labour activists won’t stray off on the doorstep.

Then and now: Labour’s 1997 pledge card was packed with numbers, promising to treat an extra 100,000 patients … cut VAT on heating by 5 percent … and so on. Today’s version is much lighter on detail and has only one number, on teachers.

This is fine! A Labour spokesperson argued voters don’t just want loads of numbers anyway — “they want to know how you’ll do it and pay for it.” But it has the handy by-product of making the pledges easier to achieve and (in some cases) harder to measure. Two of them are just to “set up” public bodies. “Stop the boats” it ain’t — though maybe that’s just as well, given how that one is going for the government.

*Checks watch*: Then there’s the timescale. Despite calling these a “bridge to the longer-term plan,” Labour has put no precise time limit on them — a spokesperson said only they would be achieved within a five-year parliament, though some may be wrapped up much earlier.

The defense: Labour officials stress these are merely a “downpayment” on Labour’s manifesto. The National Minimum Wage was not in the 1997 pledge card. And sure, the missions said “economic growth” while the six steps only say “economic stability” — but fear not! Both still apply.

However you square it … The wait for all the detail of Labour’s policy offer goes on.

THE BIG PICTURE: This does at least show us how Starmer plans to campaign in the election — core issues like health and the economy — and raises questions about whether he’d take a slimmed approach to the manifesto. Two senior Labour officials tell Playbook the party’s pre-election policy work is basically done, and they are now just waiting for the election. There will be things in Labour’s manifesto that weren’t in its National Policy Forum, one adds. Keep watching this space?

The reviews are in: CCHQ called it “Labour’s 16th relaunch,” with Tory Chairman Richard Holden saying Starmer “still has no coherent plan.” Tory MP Mark Jenkinson’s jibe: “A low energy Ed-stone.” As for the left, one long-grumpy correspondent texts: “Those pledges are sh*t. These were better!”

Out to sell it: Pat McFadden is on the morning round including Today at 8.10 a.m. He might get asked about the Telegraph’s revival of a 2015 story saying he claimed more than £40,000 in expenses to rent the house next door. Labour tells the Tel he sold the house at a loss in 2017.

Not on the pledge card: Any direct mention of Labour’s plan for workers’ rights, or much for Scotland and Wales, which are due separate launches in the coming weeks.

Also not on the pledge card: Having called for the two-child benefit limit to be axed Wednesday, ex-PM Gordon Brown is pushing to restructure debt in African nations. The foreword to a Christian Aid report runs in the Independent.

SCOOP — BROWN BACK IN TOWN: The ex-PM has paid close attention to selections for Scottish seats — and was even tempted to return himself after two local botched selections, in Glenrothes and his former seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, my colleague Esther Webber hears. But he has now definitively ruled out a comeback. Esther has an ace piece running a rule over his influence in a Labour government, asking if the “Teebie-Geebies” could return.

More oomph! David Cameron’s ex-pollster Andrew Cooper, who is now backing Labour, had a pop at Starmer’s “ming vase-ist” approach. He told a event by Starmerite think tank Labour Together last night that “Labour’s support is very soft,” and “they’re so terrified of saying anything, they’re basically now relying on the fact the Tories are so unpopular they’re going to win. And that worries me.”

Counterpoint: Should Labour worry about losing left-wing votes in safe seats, the audience asked? “No,” replied Labour Together chief Josh Simons, in one word.

Now read this: The FT has an interview with Simons — and a look at his think tank’s ever-growing army of secondees into shadow Cabinet ministers’ offices. Nicknamed “Morgan McSweeney’s Wagner group” by one Labour insider, it now loans staff or services to Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper, Louise Haigh, Darren Jones, David Lammy, Shabana Mahmood, Nick Thomas-Symonds and Ian Murray. Playbook reported in December how it had gone from two to 34 staff members in a year.

MEANWHILE IN ISLINGTON NORTH: Applications to replace Jeremy Corbyn as a Labour MP are open until Monday, with candidates so far including lefty hack Paul Mason (who Playbook hears has been having private chats with shadow Cabinet ministers) … Christian Wolmar, according to the Guardian’s Jess Elgot … a “very credible female candidate about to enter,” via Lee Harpin … and likely LOTO favorite Praful Nargund. Mason sent his 260-word tweet while sitting in Labour Together’s event.

But the most interesting question is … What will whip-suspended Corbyn do?

Will he run? One idea floated to Playbook — will Corbyn decide to run for the selection? Two people confirm he *can* technically submit an application, but it’d be blocked pretty rapidly and he wouldn’t be seen by the selection panel.

Sorry, what? Labour’s NEC passed a motion last year blocking Corbyn, but … it only stopped him being “adopted” as a candidate, not from running. If he does run, is blocked and then switches to become an independent, he could tell supporters he tried to do right by the party he loves but got blocked by the machine, and all that.

He’s running … Corbyn outriders did little to dispel this theory: left-wing group Momentum said “Labour members in Islington North should decide” if he runs and John McDonnell agrees. Corbyn attended two events last night — a Nakba commemoration and a campaign to stop an Ocado depot near a school.

Done in a flash: The selection process has been wrested from control of the (still quite Corbyn-sympathetic) local party, and the shortlist will be drawn up by a panel of Labour’s ruling NEC. There’ll be an online-only hustings and a whistlestop online and postal vote of local members, over by June 1.

Brace, brace: One London Labour organizer tells Playbook: “This campaign will be an utter sh*tshow. The party has a duty of care towards anyone it puts on a shortlist.”

MEANWHILE IN BELFAST: Starmer’s Chief of Staff Sue Gray is making a rare public appearance at the Covid-19 public inquiry. She’s up from 10 a.m. to talk about decision-making in Northern Ireland, where she worked as a civil servant at the time. Watch live here.

MEANWHILE IN THE GOVERNMENT

CLASS DISMISSED: Age limit guidance on school sex education (details here) may have leaked on Tuesday, but gets plenty of coverage in the papers thanks in part to a government media blitz. Rishi Sunak has an op-ed in the Mail saying he was “horrified to hear reports of disturbing and frankly dangerous ideology” … Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has the morning round and a Sun op-ed saying “never again will young girls be led to believe they might be happier if they were a boy” … and the Times notes plans to tell children to “ration” their time online. Sage advice.

So what now? Union chiefs say the guidance has been politicized and they have “serious concerns” about how it’ll work (via the Mirror). A nine-week consultation means it won’t become legally binding until at least September. But officials want schools to follow it from now.

What will Labour do? A party spokesperson told hacks on Wednesday that Labour backs age-appropriate sex education. But the most contentious point may be that “the contested theory of gender identity will not be taught” at all. The spokesperson said: “We’ll have to wait and see what the guidance actually says. But I would just point out that the Gender Recognition Act is the law of the land … you can choose to identify in a different gender to the one that you were born in.”

WHILE WE’RE YOUNG! Elsewhere in government arrives a report from the National Infrastructure Commission, warning ministers have catching up to do when it comes to building regional transport, reservoirs etc., and the window is closing to do so.

MEANWHILE IN BRUSSELS: Foreign Secretary David Cameron is co-chairing the U.K.-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement Partnership Council — the governing body for Britain’s post-Brexit trade deal. On paper it’s not jam-packed with news, with an agenda including energy trading and fisheries. But a not-far-off deal with Gibraltar could easily rear its head again, my ace Brussels nerd colleague Jon Stone texts to say.

IN ENERGY: Ministers are considering “very carefully” whether to follow the U.S. decision to put 100 percent tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars, Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has told the Sun’s Never Mind the Ballots show.

Speaking of China: Security Minister Tom Tugendhat and former National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill talk about defending Taiwan with Policy Exchange from 12.15 p.m. (details here)

ON SLOVAKIA: FCDO officials will be keeping a nervous eye. Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in a life-threatening condition after being shot in an attempted assassination, reports BBC Newshour overnight. But Slovak officials have warned the country is “on the verge of civil war” and it splashes the Mail and the Guardian. Tory MP Tobias Ellwood tells the Mail: “This tragic incident could easily be used as justification to introduce similar draconian restrictions as we now see in Hungary and Belarus.” More on how Slovakia got to this place from my colleague Tom Nicholson.

ON UKRAINE: Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said “the whole of Ukraine” — including annexed Crimea — should be invited to join NATO when the alliance meets for its annual summit in July. Rasmussen told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit: “There will be difficult issues to solve. We know that.”

IN MIGRATION: Rumblings over whether to crack down further on student visas continue in the FT, which splashes on a letter from businesses warning it’d hurt business. Peter Foster got hold of extracts from the Office for Students’ annual report — due out this morning — which says 40 percent of universities expect to be in deficit in the 2023/24 academic year.

IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE: Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is hosting tech firms at his Dorneywood country residence to try to stop them jetting off to list in the U.S., writes my colleague Hannah Brenton. News that computer maker Raspberry Pi is considering floating on the London stock market won’t solve it all. Hunt will also be at a Royal Society event to announce “up to” £85 million against antibiotic resistance.

AND, OF COURSE, IN LEADERSHIP: Tory whips have submitted up to five no-confidence letters they could later withdraw in an “early warning system” to tell if Sunak is nearing a no-confidence vote, reports the Express’ Sam Lister.

TODAY IN WESTMINSTER

TICK, TOCK: Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt will announce next week’s business today. Will the next stages of the Criminal Justice Bill and Sentencing Bill — both controversial with Tory MPs — come before Whitsun recess? One insider told Playbook it was in the balance, but only a faint hope. The Sentencing Bill has more on early prison release, a bruise Labour tried to punch hard at PMQs.

Last night in the Commons … Headline-friendly pieces of the Criminal Justice Bill did go through, including a new offence of death by dangerous cycling (via Sky) … longer sentences for necrophilia (via the BBC) … and a pledge to make a specific offence of “cuckooing” for criminals who take over a vulnerable person’s home. A Labour bid to ban “ninja swords” was voted down (via the Mirror), as was a Lib Dem bid to criminally fine water firm bosses, with neither Labour nor Tories backing the wording.

MAY PRODUCE NEWS? Ex-PM Theresa May, famed for her small talk, has 40-odd minutes on the record with hacks at the press gallery lunch from 1 p.m.

ANOTHER INQUIRY: Today is the first hearing of the Thirlwall inquiry into babies’ deaths at the hands of nurse Lucy Letby.

DECISION LOOMS: Labour will “of course” decide whether to split the aid department back out of the Foreign Office before the general election, Shadow International Development Secretary Lisa Nandy said last night. Playbook is told there have been differing opinions among Starmer’s top team about which option to take. One senior backer of the status quo argues it would be too disruptive. Nandy told a UK in a Changing Europe event attended by Bethany Dawson: “We will make a decision before the election because, you know, if you’re going into a government … you need to know what department you’re going into.”

Nandy also said … Her “access talks” with the civil service start today.

HEALING: The BMA junior doctors committee has started mediated talks with the government in a bid to solve a pay dispute lasting more than a year. NHS Confederation CEO Matthew Taylor called it a “hugely positive step.”

IT’S GETTING POLITICAL: The Mail is calling on Rishi Sunak to step in and block “Czech Sphinx” Daniel Křetínský’s £3.5 billion offer for Royal Mail — saying “the King’s head is not for sale at any price.” One for today’s No. 10 briefing no doubt.

STATS DUMP: DWP stats on benefit fraud and error … GP workforce … knife crime … prison and probation staff … the criminal justice system more widely … and U.K. armed forces casualty and fatalities are all out at 9.30 a.m.

BEST BUDS! The U.K. could conclude trade deal talks with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council — which includes Saudi Arabia and the UAE — this year, Deputy PM Oliver Dowden has told the Times on a business jaunt to Riyadh. “I’m hopeful of course,” he says, but “we need to get the best deal.”

Ruh-roh: The Guardian has taken a look at the business links of senior Conservatives involved in the trip. It reckons Tory peers Jo Johnson, Philip Hammond and Eddie Lister are all employed by firms that had a presence at the Riyadh summit. Hammond has called conflict-of-interest criticism “preposterous” and Lister’s said it’s “rubbish.”

AT THE POST OFFICE INQUIRY: Former Post Office Chief Information Officer Lesley Sewell starts a full day of evidence at 9.45 a.m. Chief Financial Officer Alisdair Cameron has been moved to Friday.

HEAVENLY SOLIDARITY: The SNP’s Kate Forbes suffered “disgraceful” abuse over her faith, devout Muslim and Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has told the Spectator’s Katy Balls. The frontbencher also reveals she will vote against assisted dying if Keir Starmer holds a free vote. “I feel that once you cross that line, you’ve crossed it forever,” she says. “That’s a really dangerous position.” The full interview will be on the Women With Balls podcast on Friday.

BIRTH TRAUMA: Campaigning Tory MP Theo Clarke has a harrowing interview in today’s Times about her experience of birth trauma, after a report by the APPG she chairs said other women were “mocked or shouted at, and being denied basic needs such as pain relief.” She describes her ordeal in detail, saying she has still not fully recovered and probably never will.

SAVE THE DATE: Rishi Sunak and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps will host events in Portsmouth June 5 and in Normandy on June 6 to commemorate D-Day. More via the Portsmouth News.

COUGHING UP: The Covid-19 inquiry has cost nearly £70 million in the last financial year — or £300,000 a day, according to number crunching by the TaxPayers Alliance for the Times. That’s excluding Whitehall, which has 265 civil servants working on it.

FAILING UP: Fujitsu staff who worked on the Horizon software blamed for the Post Office scandal were moved on to a “secret U.K. military contract,” reports the i’s Richard Holmes.

PHONE A FRIEND: The MOJ awarded a £50,000 contract to seek the public’s views on how different types of crime should be punished and “quantify the retributive benefit of prison.” Via the Times.

RED BRICK: The Telegraph has picked up on Tory defector Natalie Elphicke previously railing against “nutrient neutrality” rules on housing — which, er, her new Labour Party managed to stop being axed.

WRITTEN STATEMENTS: Ten are out later including on “smarter regulation” of businesses … an “update” on the gambling white paper … post-16 qualifications … energy infrastructure and nuclear commissioning … alcohol sales in pavement areas outside pubs … and vehicle regulations.

REPORTS OUT TODAY: The Tony Blair Institute finds only one-fifth of people think the U.K. government will reach net zero by 2050 … The TBI also argues for the Climate Change Act to be refocused and for politicians to chill out on setting targets … The IEA blames money-laundering rules for a “debanking epidemic” that shut 343,000 accounts in 2021/22, up from 45,000 in four years … and the Independent Commission for Aid Impact reports the government has made “adequate” progress implementing its recommendations, a “marked improvement from last year.”

HOUSE OF COMMONS: Sits from 9.30 a.m. with transport questions … the business statement for the week … and a debate on the Ombudsman report on compensation for “WASPI women” over their pension age (led by SNP MP Patricia Gibson). Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has the adjournment debate on mineworkers’ pensions.

WESTMINSTER HALL: Debates from 12.30 p.m. on inequalities in dementia services (led by Labour MP Debbie Abrahams) … and mental health and long-term conditions (Labour MP Peter Dowd).

HOUSE OF LORDS: Sits from 11 a.m. with questions on offshore wind farms, the green savings bond, and whooping cough … followed by a debate on challenges faced by disabled people (led by Labour peer Beverley Hughes) … finishing with a debate on the contribution of sports to society (Labour peer Stewart Wood).

BEYOND THE M25

OLD NEW LABOUR: Reelected Labour Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin has a Resolution Foundation speech today in Bradford promising to “create a Sure Start renaissance” in her second term.

LOOKING BACK: Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is due at the University of Edinburgh at 6.30 p.m. to reflect on her “time in government.” Plenty to talk about. Event details here.

ICEBERG: Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff, famous for building the Titanic, is at risk of closure. The FT reports the government is divided over a £200 million guaranteed loan facility, with the Treasury holding back, but the defense, business and trade, and Northern Ireland departments keen to open the coffers.

POPE PARTY: London Mayor Sadiq Khan is in the Vatican City to lead a delegation of nine mayors for an audience with Pope Francis to discuss climate change. No relation to George Galloway’s trip a day earlier.

EU STEPS UP ON GEORGIA: It may have taken almost 24 hours, but the EU condemned the Georgian parliament for passing its controversial Russian-style “foreign agent” law. Still, Brussels has refused to threaten sanctions, something the U.S. hinted at, despite growing calls from the European Parliament. POLITICO’s Gabriel Gavin and Jakob Hanke Vela have the full details.

BROAD CHURCH: Dutch far-right Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders has announced the country’s next government will be made up of his party, two center-right groups and the populist Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB). They will hold a press conference about cabinet appointments at 8.30 a.m. U.K. time, per Dutch media. POLITICO’s Hanne Cokelaere and Eva Hartog examine how Wilders turned all corners of Dutch society into far-right voters.

AID DELIVERY: Nearly 100 tonnes of U.K. aid is on route from Cyprus to Gaza, with the £2 million package made up of 8,400 shelter coverage kits. The FCDO has said the support will be distributed “as soon as feasible.”

**A message from bp: We’re investing in today’s energy system and helping to build out tomorrow’s while we do. And, not or – that’s our approach. While today we’re mostly in oil and gas, we increased the proportion of our global annual investment that went into our lower carbon & other transition businesses from around 3% in 2019 to around 23% in 2023. bp.com/AndNotOr.**

MEDIA ROUND

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan broadcast round: GB News (6.45 a.m.) … Times Radio (7 a.m.) … Sky News (7.15 a.m.) … BBC Breakfast (7.30 a.m.) … LBC (7.50 a.m.) … Today (8.30 a.m.) … GMB (8.30 a.m.).

Labour National Campaign Coordinator Pat McFadden broadcast round: BBC Breakfast (6.45 a.m.) … Times Radio (7.30 a.m.) … Today (8.10 a.m.) … Sky News (8.30 a.m.) … LBC (8.50 a.m.) … GB News (9.05 a.m.).

Also on Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: Prison Officers Association General Secretary Steve Gillan (7.05 a.m.) … actor and comedian Eddie Izzard (9.33 a.m.).

Also on Times Radio Breakfast: Director at the Progressive Policy Institute Claire Ainsley (8 a.m.).

Also on Sky News Breakfast: Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood (8.15 a.m.) … Us For Them co-founder Molly Kingsley and Talk Consent CEO Dan Allchurch (9.30 a.m.).

Politics Live (BBC Two 12.15 p.m.): Conservative peer James Bethell … Labour MP Angela Eagle … journalist and commentator Owen Jones … former MEP Lucy Harris.

TODAY’S FRONT PAGES

POLITICO UK: With a Labour victory in sight, Gordon Brown rides again.

Daily Express: Britain goes pension cash-in crazy.

Daily Mail: Europe on edge after pro-Russian Slovak PM is gunned down.

Daily Mirror: My 6 fixes for Britain.

Daily Star: Dr Dolittle — We can chinwag with apes.

Financial Times: Business leaders warn Sunak that Tory migration policy threatens investment.

i: UK’s toxic water — illegal sewage, parasite in taps — and higher bills on the way.

Metro: Blood test to give us 7yr notice of cancer.

The Daily Telegraph: NHS turns on doctors who blow whistle over safety.

The Guardian: Slovakian leader ‘fighting for his life’ after assassination attempt.

The Times: Starmer sets out to woo voters with six pledges.

TOMORROW’S NEWS MAGS

POLITICO EU: The robots are coming — Gian Volpicelli, Veronika Melkozerova and Laura Kayali explore how Ukraine became the testing ground for AI-powered combat.

The Spectator: Veep show — Freddy Gray on the race to become Trump’s running mate.

The New Statesman: The Great Stink — Will Dunn writes on how Britain’s water companies turned pollution into profit.

LONDON CALLING

WESTMINSTER WEATHER: It was nice while it lasted. Raining with highs of 19C, lows of 13C.

THE CROSSOVER WE ALL WANTED: Shadow Minister for Clean Power and Consumers Jeff Smith was once — *squints at notes* — the warm-up artist for Taylor Swift in his old job as a DJ at the V Festival in 2009. H/t the Times Diary.

SPOTTED … at Buckingham Palace garden party for the creative industries: King Charles and Queen Camilla … Prince Edward … Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer … Wales Secretary David TC Davies … Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch … Northern Ireland Secretary Chris-Heaton Harris … Creative Industries Minister Julia Lopez … Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott … Arts Minister Stephen Parkinson … Conservative MPs Andy Carter, John Whittingdale, Damian Collins and Damian Green … Liberal Democrat peer Jane Bonham-Carter … London Deputy Mayor for Culture Justine Simons …

… and breathe … No. 10 SpAds Jean-Andre Prager, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin and Tom D’Silva … DCMS SpAds Pierre Andrews, Neil Reilly and Anne Shooter … BBC Director-General Tim Davie … Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon … Society of Editors President Kamal Ahmed … Disney Vice President David Fares … NBC Universal Vice President Gidon Freeman … Warner Bros Discovery President Andrew Georgiou … Sony Music U.K. Vice President Jessica Carsen … Radio presenter Roman Kemp … artist Tracey Emin … actor and model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley … comedian Lenny Henry … choreographer Arlene Phillips … TV presenter Bradley Walsh … actor Meera Syal … actor Toby Jones … documentary-maker Louis Theroux … TV presenter Vernon Kay … TV presenter Tess Daly … Daily Mail Editor Ted Verity … BBC pol ed Chris Mason … The Spectator’s Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls … Telegraph Editor Chris Evans … and Sunday Times Editor Ben Taylor.

Also spotted … at the first Sky News Salon in Piccadilly’s Neon194 for an on-stage rendition of the POLITICO and Sky News podcast Politics at Jack and Sam’s, as well as Sky’s Beth Rigby, Conservative peer Ruth Davidson‘s and Labour MP Jess Philips’ predictions for the future: Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove … Education Secretary Gillian Keegan … Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner … SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn … Crossbench peers Kim Darroch, Simon McDonald, Elizabeth Sugg and Simon Woolley … Conservative peer Matthew Elliott and wife Sarah Elliot … non-affiliated peer Jitesh Gadhia …

… another breath … Labour PCCs Dave Rowntree and Tom Gray … Former Ofcom Managing Director Sharon White … Sky News Executive Chairman David Rhodes … presenter-turned-activist Carol Vorderman … satirist Armando Iannucci … former English footballer David Seaman … Labour Director of Communications Matthew Doyle … writers Afua Hirsch and Giles Coren … the Resolution Foundation’s Torsten Bell … Sky News’ Matt Ridsdale, Lucy Aitkens, Sian Parry, David Chaplin, Steph Schwarz and Alex Hodges … CPS director Rob Colvile … Independent editor Geordie Greig … and hacks Michael Wolff, Emily Maitlis, Katy Balls, Sonia Sodha, Janice Turner, Zeinab Badawi, Tim Shipman, Wilf Frost, Mark Austin, Anna Botting and Gillian Joseph.

Also spotted … celebrating the launch of Andrew Marr’s new art collection at Eames Fine Art: journalist Jackie Ashley (Marr’s wife) … Starmer adviser Peter Hyman … LBC’s Tom Cheal, Natasha Clark, Matt Harris, Ellie Tivey, Grace Mainwaring and Sukhmani Sethi … Kuenssberg producer Brian Hollywood … and hacks Andrew Pierce, Polly Toynbee, Steve Richards, Jason Cowley, George Eaton and Freddie Hayward.

Also spotted … at the EU delegation to the U.K. media spring drinks at Europe House: Deputy head of mission Nicole Mannion … Hungarian Embassy press attaché Petra Hajdu … Estonian Embassy’s Kadri-Liis Turton, Romanian embassy’s first secretary political secretary Georgiana Giunca … Mittel Consulting’s Andras Juhasz … Bloomberg’s Alberto Nardelli … and PoliticsHome’s Adam Payne.

COMMISSION KLAXON: The Building Back Britain Commission has launched a policy advisory board with participation from the Federation of Small Businesses, Onward, JL Partners, the TUC and the Future Governance Forum.

NEW GIGS: Labour peer Dianne Hayter has been appointed chair of the Property Institute, replacing interim chair Felix Keen.

MEA CULPA: Tonia Antoniazzi is a Labour MP, despite a typo in Playbook PM. Apologies.

NOW READ: The Spectator’s Cindy Yu on how young people in China are starting to reject the traditional 72-hour work week culture, with some instead protesting by opting to “lie flat” — aim for no job, no marriage, no house. Living the dream.

WRITING PLAYBOOK PM: Emilio Casalicchio.

WRITING PLAYBOOK FRIDAY MORNING: Dan Bloom.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Labour peer Kay Andrews … Tory peer and Lords Chief Whip Susan Williams … Tory peer David Maclean … Scottish Labour MSP Sarah Boyack … The Draft’s writer-in-chief and Evening Standard columnist Philip Collins … Crossbench peer Anthony St John.

PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editors Zoya Sheftalovich and Alex Spence, diary reporter Bethany Dawson and producer Seb Starcevic.

London Playbook