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Chris Smyth Profile
Chris Smyth

@Smyth_Chris

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Whitehall Editor of The Times. DMs open

Joined September 2009
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
3 days
Starmer says "we have to deal with people who repeatedly break the whip" . Pretty uncompromising message to unhappy backbench MPs.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
4 days
Rayner says votes at 16 will "get democracy back on track". With analysis - most voters see this as a cynical ploy: But with young voters divided and angry, this is a high risk move when Labour is already struggling with the messy compromises of power.
Tweet media one
www.thetimes.com
Angela Rayner confirms age measure promised in Labour manifesto as part of wider plans to ‘break down barriers to participation’
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
4 days
Starmer won the last election by promising to bring back grown-up government after years of chaos. The risk now is he ends up fighting the next one like a frustrated parent trying in vain to make angry teenagers listen.
@edhodgsoned
Ed Hodgson
4 days
Looking at the potential electoral implications of letting 16-17 year olds vote- one group that could really benefit is independent candidates. Places with the most people aged 16-17 also had the strongest performance of independent / WPB in the 2024 election
Tweet media one
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
4 days
Top use of the phrase "persistent knobheadery" as rationale for suspending 3 Labour MPs. I'm sure we could all think of others in Westminster who'd in danger if that's the bar.
@Geri_E_L_Scott
Geri Scott
4 days
Keir Starmer suspends Labour MPs for ‘breaches of discipline’.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
4 days
RT @Geri_E_L_Scott: Excl: Sir Keir Starmer is having a clear out of MPs he believes to have committed "persistent breaches of party discipl….
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
5 days
RT @larisamlbrown: BREAKING: The British military is responsible for a data leak that put up to 100,000 Afghans at risk of death - and succ….
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
11 days
Badenoch says Britain needs to reclaim the “Protestant work ethic”. “you need to go out, get a job, look after yourself and look after your family, should be the default position”.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
11 days
Kemi Badenoch dismisses Jake Berry as a “banana republic” politician. “A lot of people who come into politics just to play the game of politics, and they will follow polls and defect wherever they can, like they do in banana republics, to wherever they think that they can win”.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
11 days
New figures show 300,000 more children affected by two-child benefit cap than when Labour took power. 1.67m kids in households hit by the cap - double what it was two years ago.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
13 days
He adds that "the big risks have got bigger" since last year, citing an unfunded £38.6 billion promise on defence spending.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
13 days
"The UK cannot afford the range of policies it has made to the public". Pretty bald statement from OBR chief Richard Hughes, launching its review of risks to the public finances which shows debt spiralling upwards.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
13 days
But Labour MPs who forced the climb down will be pleased that reforms now lift 50,000 people, mostly children, out of poverty. That’s after original package would have increase poverty by 250,000.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
13 days
Those cost cutting welfare reforms? They’re actually going to cost money after last week’s chaotic retreat . We’ll be spending more on benefits for the next two years, with just a £200m saving at end of decade - wiped out by £1bn in extra employment help .
www.thetimes.com
The latest breaking UK, US, world, business and sport news from The Times and The Sunday Times. Go beyond today's headlines with in-depth analysis and comment.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
18 days
I asked Keir Starmer why his NHS 10 year plan would succeed when a string of others with basically the same goals have failed . His answer? “We’ve got the resolve to see this through. And I genuinely think it's only Labour governments that can do this”. Convinced?.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
18 days
Rachel Reeves looking determinedly happy at the launch of the NHS 10 year plan. “We are spending money on taxpayers priorities, but that wouldn't have been possible without the measures that we took in the budget last year” she says
Tweet media one
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
18 days
Is reform of the welfare system still possible?. After Starmer’s chaotic climb down, where do we go from here?.
www.thetimes.com
The latest breaking UK, US, world, business and sport news from The Times and The Sunday Times. Go beyond today's headlines with in-depth analysis and comment.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
19 days
RT @elliottengage: Fancy something that goes against the narrative? Then try this puckish piece from Tim Leunig on the left case for Reeves….
Tweet media one
www.politicshome.com
The bond markets barely blinked at a spending review that included a substantial real-term increase for the NHS. That’s something the left should celebrate, argues Tim Leunig
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
19 days
49 Labour MPs voted against the bill even after it was gutted. Biggest rebellion of Starmer's premiership by far.
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
19 days
Keir Starmer actually turned up to vote down reasoned amendment - only 8th time he's voted since election . (two of those were assisted dying).
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@Smyth_Chris
Chris Smyth
19 days
Timms says there has been "a passionate and eventful" debate, in a masterly deployment of understatement.
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