Esther Webber

Senior foreign and defence correspondent @POLITICOEurope

[Esther Webber @estwebber]

I'm back on this website after a brief interruption. Sadly I wasn't able to recover my House of Lords content archive, but we'll have to make new memories 💖

[Claire Ainsley @claire_ainsley]

Learning the right lessons from the US mid-terms - spoke to @estwebber for this @politico analysis on why progressives on both sides of the Atlantic need to focus on making life affordable and on opportunity.

@debmattinson Adam Terry

https://t.co/J2rNRp2FM8

[Jonathan Martin @jmart]

Trump just gave Donald Rumsfeld a promotion

https://t.co/5CSmHBYKqG

[Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh]

NEW piece that I'm PROUD OF: I took a deep dive into what happened with AI and the midterms. Not only about this week, it traces the last 18 months of AI politics — and how an odd coalition found its way together to push Dems towards safety/regulation. W/the homie @AlecAHernandez : https://t.co/cF2O0DFFUM

[ollie cole @ProducerOllie]

NEW - Ian Winter KC has reported himself to the regulator.

Russell Brand barrister Ian Winter reports himself to regulator - via @jessmsharkey

https://t.co/O07bWWTFmB

[Esther Webber @estwebber]

It was a lot of fun to be on this week's podcast talking about the midterms + how the UK deals (or not)

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

After a Democratic wave in the U.S. midterms, London is wondering how Britain should handle the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

🎙️ @patrickxrbaker discusses it with @SimonMcDonaldUK, diplomat Ed Roman and @estwebber on Westminster Insider:

https://t.co/uY4TYW6d8h

[Esther Webber @estwebber]

@Gabriel_Pogrund @RosamundUrwin Wow

[Gabriel Pogrund @Gabriel_Pogrund]

Deep cut / detail for all the Sunday Times connoisseurs out there: Ian Winter KC, Brand barrister who accosted @RosamundUrwin, once upon a time represented Charlie Ephicke, the Tory MP and sex predator during criminal proceedings, including those in which Ephicke sought to conceal character references submitted by powerful friends in his favour. Happily neither client succeeded in their elaborate efforts to thwart journalistic and judicial scrutiny:

[Meredith Lee Hill @meredithllee]

Vance, as we reported yesterday, gave the White House a “heads-up” before posting his stunning midterms post-mortem

He personally drafted the post laying the blame for Republicans’ electoral humiliation on the decision to attack Iran and other issues, according to two people familiar with his effort.

He then gave the White House a heads-up before he posted the 614-word missive, according to the two people and a senior White House official, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

@AlexGangitano @meganmesserly @SophiaCai99

https://t.co/6mk0h2tQ7r via @politico

[Clea Caulcutt @cleacaulcutt]

NEW: Marine Le Pen keeps Nigel Farage hanging over Paris rendezvous
With @BlewettSam

https://t.co/hbQ3YiXAP5

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Excl: Victim in Tony Vaughan bullying case speaks to @LBC

She claims he was a horrible boss, created a toxic culture and worries about misogyny. He denies those claims. She’s taking him to an employment tribunal over her dismissal and tells me none of this would have happened if he’d apologised and taken responsibility many months ago

Full story 👇

https://t.co/saKftjsFC9

[Meredith Lee Hill @meredithllee]

The reckoning and GOP knives out is underway —

“We are beyond candidate quality. It’s a bloodbath,” one senior Senate GOP official said. “Trump did this.”

Trump and his advisors, meanwhile, blamed a myriad of factors, including Fox News, RINOs and “lazy” candidates — even as the party resoundingly lost both chambers of government and the blue wave rolled through deep red Texas, South Carolina, Iowa, Kansas and more.

https://t.co/KSrRNIwbtF via @politico

[Esther Webber @estwebber]

not quite North East Fife 2017, but a good one

[matcha.cat 🔜 lucky dog @matchakitty_]

"my vote doesn't count"

[Esther Webber @estwebber]

A December vote would allow "preparatory works" to prop up parliament *NOT* the full moving-out fandango.

Nonetheless sets up a clash between new gen of Labour MPs and Tories who have radicalised against restoration

https://t.co/dyZBFXMcn0

[Esther Webber @estwebber]

EXCL:

MPs are moving toward a vote next month on the first step in the long-delayed restoration of the Palace of Westminster

Government aide: “No-one wants to be holding the baby when disaster strikes.”

w/@e_casalicchio

[Esther Webber @estwebber]

In fact, this already happens. I've dealt with several stories where subjects (in those cases, MPs) have argued, sometimes successfully, against publication on similar grounds.

One even prayed in aid not his own mental health but that of a close family member.

[The Spectator @spectator]

You need only recognise that if we start granting injunctions based on that risk, we open the door to bad-faith actors who will reach for mental health concerns as the first line of defence against investigation.

What are the bets that the bad-faith pleas will end up forming a significant majority of such injunction applications? Lawyers and tame psychiatrists will, you can imagine, soon get a lucrative mini-industry going.

Civil society can’t operate properly if unfalsifiable personal assertions are privileged over commonly agreed standards of knowledge and evidence.

✍️ Sam Leith

Article | https://t.co/Avm6rm3yTw | @questingvole

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

EXCLUSIVE: Brussels would be flexible on letting Britain stay out of the euro and the Schengen area if it applied to rejoin the EU, two EU officials have told POLITICO.

https://t.co/LjIClTjrgv

[Dan Bloom @danbloom1]

EXCL by @abby_wallace3

Government's flagship Warm Homes Plan could be cut by as much as £2.5 billion

The Budget confirmed £1 billion would be slashed to fund defence spending

But two industry figures tell Abby a *further* £1.5 billion is on the table

Story 👇

[Sascha O'Sullivan @saschaosullivan]

NEW ep: Britain by numbers — everything we don’t know about the country

Had a lot of fun pulling this together on just how uncertain we are on the basics of our economy, from immigration to welfare and workforce.

w/ex No10 data chiefs Laura Gilbert & Ben Warner

https://t.co/a1EaszkPDB

[Dan Bloom @danbloom1]

EXCL: Keir Starmer’s govt floated drastically scaling back the Commonwealth summit after his miserable trip in 2024

David Lammy ordered a review that suggested reducing frequency from every 2 years to “4 or 5” and seeking to ditch the secretive leaders’ retreat, says ex-aide

[Tom Forth @thomasforth]

I'm enjoying the @dantomlinsonmp reddit AMA so far.