Varun Chanrai

Personal profile

[Gordon Fielden @GordonFielden]

With Darren Jones now confirming that he will not be entering any leadership contest, I find myself, and I suspect many others, reflecting deeply upon our future within the Labour Party.

I did not join the Labour Party to witness a mandate, won through immense effort and entrusted to Sir Keir Starmer by the British electorate, quietly transferred to another individual through pressure, intrigue, and political calculation. Nor did I join in order to endorse a process which appears, at least to many ordinary members, to be drifting perilously close to a political coup rather than a democratic exercise.

Let me be perfectly clear. I do not wish to see Andy Burnham become Leader of the Labour Party, and I certainly do not wish to see him become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

That is not born of personal animosity. It is a matter of principle. Leadership should be earned, not assumed. Mandates should be won, not inherited. Legitimacy should flow upwards from the membership and the electorate, not downwards from a collection of parliamentarians, advisers, commentators, and newspaper columnists who appear increasingly determined to decide the outcome before the contest has even begun.

What troubles me most is the growing sense that some believe the membership should simply acquiesce and accept whatever arrangement is placed before them. Such an attitude betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Labour Party is. It does not belong to the Parliamentary Labour Party. It does not belong to newspaper editors. It does not belong to political factions. It belongs to its members.

Those members pay for the party. They campaign for it in all weathers. They knock on doors, deliver leaflets, defend its values, and devote countless hours of their lives to its success. They are not an inconvenience to be managed. They are the very foundation upon which the party stands.

If Andy Burnham genuinely believes he is the right person to lead Labour, then he should place that proposition before the membership and allow them to render their verdict. Let there be a contest conducted openly, honestly, and democratically. Let the 350,000 members exercise the rights afforded to them by the party's constitution. Let us discover whether the enthusiasm proclaimed by certain sections of the media and elements within Westminster truly extends beyond those circles and into the wider Labour movement.

For my part, I remain unconvinced. More importantly, I remain profoundly uneasy at the manner in which this entire affair is unfolding. The Labour Party has always prided itself on being a democratic movement. If that principle is to mean anything at all, then the members must be permitted to determine their own future free from coercion, manipulation, or prearranged outcomes.

Anything less would not merely diminish the authority of a future leader. It would represent a profound disservice to the very people upon whom the Labour Party ultimately depends.

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

Equalising capital gains and income taxes keeps coming up. And it keeps not happening. Because it's a bloody awful idea.

[Wes Streeting @wesstreeting]

A Prime Minister with no mandate, squatting in Number 10, running from the voters. He can run, but he can’t hide.

[Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar]

EXCL: Michel Barnier said Britain could regain its special terms if it rejoined EU and claimed it was becoming clearer every day to the British people that they would be stronger in Europe.

EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator said he could not see any obstacle to UK keeping the pound and remaining outside passport-free Schengen travel area should it rejoin.

Interview by @danielboffey

https://t.co/IclORZkeCU

[Bryan Johnson @bryan_johnson]

This is biblical.

A woman in her eighties. Ten years into Alzheimer's. Hadn't spoken a full sentence in five years.

Takes one, 5 gram dose of psilocybin.

She slept 19 hours and woke up and spoke for hours about her life, recognized family and held real conversations. She regained bladder control after five years, walked on her own. and dressed herself. Gains held for weeks.

[Kevin Schofield @KevinASchofield]

Strong stuff from Wes Streeting on Reform's attack ad on Kemi Badenoch.

He tells @TheNewsAgents: "They want people to believe that the black woman who leads the Conservative Party cares about black people, but doesn’t care about white lives.

“And that was dangerous, it was incendiary, and I don’t say this lightly, this is the type of propaganda that is reminiscent of the 1930s."

https://t.co/WSOQkjxQ2L

[Josh Hunt @iAmJoshHunt]

The OBR didn't miss by a rounding error. It understated borrowing by £60bn and called its own growth forecast "too optimistic."

The entire fiscal framework is anchored to a body that has just admitted it was structurally wrong. Not by a small margin either. By tens of billions.

Their fix to this? They've "adjusted the toolkit."

Optimistic forecasts don't fund themselves. That bill comes due at the next budget... and it has your name on it.

[Sir Jeremy Hunt MP @Jeremy_Hunt]

Here are the top 20:
1. DEBT: Bring down debt with a new fiscal rule saying that, outside emergencies, public spending will not grow faster than the economy.

2. WELFARE #1: Remove mild/moderate anxiety, depression and musculoskeletal conditions as criteria for claiming benefit and replace it with a guarantee of rapid NHS treatment as happens in Denmark.

3. WELFARE #2: Cap the DWP benefits budget just as defence and NHS budgets are capped. Otherwise the DWP has little incentive to find savings or stop abuse.

4. WELFARE #3: Devolve administration of the welfare system to elected mayors allowing them to keep a proportion of any savings made.

5. WELFARE #4: Require face-to-face benefit assessments with no telephone applications except in exceptional circumstances.

6. WELFARE #5: Replace the triple lock with a guarantee the state pension will always match inflation.

[Iain Dale 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧 ⚒️ @IainDale]

A powerful and clinical call to arms from @KemiBadenoch for a new generation of Conservative candidates.

"We need candidates with the five Cs: they must be clever, have charisma, communication skills, conviction and, most importantly, be Conservative."

https://t.co/E4PeyOETa5

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

The Milburn review could be be the most consequential report since Beveridge.

It's full of devasting inductments of state failure; things civil servants have wanted to say for years but never dared.

My column on why this could rewire the welfare state.
https://t.co/IslayB12CY

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Play like the champions you now are. Play with the resilience embodied by Declan Rice’s “it’s not done” declaration after Arsenal’s loss at the Etihad. It wasn’t done then. Arsenal fought back, deservedly became Premier League champions and now have to take that mentality into the Champions League final against Paris St-Germain, and the world’s most in-form attacker, Khvicha Kvaretskhelia, in Budapest. So much of elite sport is in the mind and Arsenal now have the belief. They held off Manchester City. They silenced all the “bottler” barbs. They faced down the widespread mockery and hunger for them to fail. They rose above it all and lifted the Premier League trophy.... Column #AFC

https://t.co/oEZrEzGKap

[Matthew Lesh @matthewlesh]

Andy Burnham's response to Tony Blair, just published in @thetimes, is a pretty frightening reflection on the man now at the front of the pack to be the next Prime Minister.

He understands the public's frustrations, but lacks a serious plan to fix Britain, instead leaning into boring old tropes.

⬇️

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

The opposite is true. The welfare crisis is as big as it is because so many of those in power genuinely think there's no crisis. They see it as "moral panic".

If you don't panic at the Neets / surge in sickness benefit, you're not paying attention.

Labour reformers know better.

[Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound]

Further to Blair. Literally every honest sensible person in all the main parties privately agrees with all these propositions:

- welfare spending is too high and is throwing good people on the scrapheap
- defence spending is too low
- the triple lock is unsustainable
- without cheap energy we cannot exploit the AI revolution
- we should be investing in EVERY form of energy: renewables, nuclear and the North Sea
- migration needs to be controlled to boost social cohesion and because the boats look like a huge failure of the state
- any new relationship with the EU will be imposed on us until we are stronger and cannot involve the closeness some desire without freedom of movement
- we are deeply embedded with America in ways which the public does not understand and cannot be told and however joyous it makes us feel to hate Trump, disengagement at the deep state level is not only wholly unrealistic but also undesirable
- Whitehall needs a total overhaul so specific project expertise and political appointees can be brought in quickly

Blair basically says all that.

The one thing he doesn’t say and which the same group of people agree on is this and it’s something Blair left behind:

- judges and quangos have too much power, are unaccountable and without redressing the balance in favour of parliament it is very difficult to do anything big fast
- the bare minimum that needs to change in this regard is to reform judicial review and planning law so we can put building and economic growth ahead of newts and NIMBYs

None of that above really ought to be up for discussion. It is all common sense but not one of our politicians will publicly say all of it

Whatever you think of Blair, engage with what he’s saying not how he makes you feel. The bare minimum we should expect from any leader is that they have an analysis of the current situation and a plan to deal with it which is as coherent and realistic as his intervention. Pretty well every critique I’ve read so far has failed to meet this requirement.

Over to Andy and Keir and Kemi and Nigel and Zack and all the others

[Elliott Christensen @elliott_xtensen]

Amid worries about the impact of conflict in the Middle East, today’s public finances data show a disappointing start to 2026-27: borrowing was £24.3bn in April, £3.4bn above (pre-war) forecasts. With conflict ongoing, plans for £17bn consolidation this year are at risk. Short 🧵

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

And as @griffitha points out, this is with the whopping tax rises hiking revenue.

[Tom Newton Dunn @tnewtondunn]

So the Labour leadership contest is moving into an arms race to tax the country’s entrepreneurs, risk takers and job creators ever higher. Just what low growth Britain needs right now.

[Kevin Hollinrake MP @kevinhollinrake]

What you don’t understand, @wesstreeting - is that your cleaner’s landlord is taking a risk with their money. Just like every entrepreneur, business person and investor does.

If you increase taxes on risk takers there’ll be fewer entrepreneurs, fewer risks taken, fewer jobs created, lower growth, less tax collected from wealth creators, which will then shift the tax burden back onto your cleaner.

It’s naive 6th form political nonsense, which just goes to show that it’s not just Starmer that’s the problem, it’s the whole Labour movement that really doesn’t have a clue how the system actually works.

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

The Arsenal. Your Premier League champions.

[Ruth Davidson @RuthDavidsonPC]

Youth unemployment (16-24 year olds) hit an 11 year high today.

It now sits at 16.2%- Nearly one in six of all young adults out of the jobs market, not earning a wage.

A direct result of Labour raising the cost of hiring workers - especially entry jobs like retail & hospitality