NEW: Interview w/ Lib Dem leader Ed Davey 🔶 Davey thinks the Lib Dems could pick up environmental-focused Green voters who are unhappy with their party’s leftward shift 👀 He shares some of his more critical MPs’ “restlessness” 🇺🇸 Hillary Clinton gave him some “choice advice” about fighting Reform

Ed Davey has revealed to PolHome that Hillary Clinton privately told him to "stand up to bullies" like Reform In an interview with @zoecrowther.bsky.social, Davey insisted he was the best person to lead the Lib Dems, and said that the party could pick up traditional Green voters put off by Polanski

PolHome’s @tomscotson.bsky.social visits planet Burnham to find out what makes the hope of the Labour left tick Oscar Wilde, Ian Brown & Lenin feature As does David Blunkett, who recently advised him: “Timing is everything in politics” (more on that via @siennarodgers.bsky.social below…)

EXC w/ @adampayne26.bsky.social The government is carrying out a consultation on whether to implement tougher laws on the public sale of fireworks MPs, including @sarahowen.org.uk and Simon Hoare, have welcomed the news, with Owen calling it a "huge step forward"

Exclusive: We reveal Travelodge has been handed over £68m by the public sector (including to house vulnerable people) since a woman was sexually assaulted in one of its rooms in 2022 There are now growing questions over whether Travelodge should continue to receive taxpayers' money

George was born 12 years after Napoleon died which just sounds insane. We knew a creature whose mother probably wandered on the same soil as Napoleon.

Trump is sinking. Now +22 disapproval via @fiftyplusone.news.

Please pause to consider for a moment 193 years of age. Jonathan the tortoise had been on the scene for nearly three decades by the time the US civil war started. The best part of a century when Titanic sank. We’ve lost a real-life time lord

I wonder how many are the same who went LibDem 2010 to UKIP 2015. Voters are funny things 🤫

I'm late to it but @bwalker.uk spots something that makes sense, but is still fascinating: the Greens seem to be taking votes from Reform "Some voters are looking more to Shake Things Up than pursue a necessarily right or left platform. They may see little difference in a Green or Reform vote"

"What the Greens were saying about redistribution of wealth, improvement of public services – that’s basically Labour Party stuff" Labour MP and ex-goalkeeper Brian Leishman talks to @bengartside.bsky.social about playing snooker with Stephen Flynn and his party being "miles off" where it should be

Over a dozen universities wrongly spent £190m of taxpayers' money on student loans, PolHome can reveal Bridget Phillipson has accused the universities involved of “incompetence” and “abuse of public money” Around 22k students are estimated to be affected, according to a DfE letter seen by PolHome

The Whitehall write-round process is to be overhauled, as PolHome first reported in November The Cabinet Office says a ripping up of "consultation culture" will "reform the process for collective Cabinet agreement of government policy to speed up decision-making"

More MPs read PoliticsHome than Labour List, New Statesman or The Spectator Yet another reason why you should follow @politicshome.bsky.social, subscribe to our newsletters, and listen to our podcast! And you can find and follow our reporters on this list: bsky.app/profile/poli...

Chuffed with these @politicshome.bsky.social numbers — but the work continues!

Multi-party politics isn’t necessarily chaotic – we could be moving towards a new local two-party-ism, write @profjanegreen.bsky.social and @martamiori.bsky.social

Lisa Nandy sits down with @franciselliott.bsky.social to discuss the BBC, AI in the arts, being "non-factional" to her "core", and how the government can communicate better On Andy Burnham's bid to become an MP: "had I been sitting in that seat... yeah, I would have voted to allow him to stand"

Rugby league is cherished by many of the 'left behind' towns that have become central to Britain's electoral politics. But now community clubs in northern England are fighting to stay afloat What next for 'The Workington Man', asks @adampayne26.bsky.social

For The House magazine, I dust off the writing hat to look at a topic close to my heart — rugby league Years on from Boris Johnson’s 'Workington Man', the game, rooted in communities, is facing existential questions. What can, what should, the government do to help?

Colleague @siennarodgers.bsky.social reprises her role as Labour-faction-chronicler-in-chief to look at how the party’s future could be determined by an arm wrestle between two organisers called Luke Akehurst (Labour First, right of party) vs Hurst (Mainstream, soft left)

"64 councillors have defected to the Greens since the July 2024 general election at the time of writing. Of these, 48 defections have taken place since September 2025, shortly after Polanski became party leader on 2 September." @zoecrowther.bsky.social

NEW: Labour MPs are pushing ministers to go further in plans to regulate holiday lets. DCMS will introduce a national register of lets, but this will be "light-touch" and seems to be delayed. MHCLG is meanwhile "considering" giving councils more powers: www.politicshome.com/news/article...

I was delighted to make my Today programme debut at the weekend! Here’s a bit of me on fragmentation in our party system

The PM is really going after the Tories & Reform in his Iran presser. He says his approach to UK involvement is principled and in line w/ the public, whereas others "would've rushed the UK headlong into this war" without a "full picture" or exit plan. He says: "That's not leading, that's following."

A real 👀 inducer courtesy of PolHome’s Harriet Symonds Amid disquiet in the Lib Dems over strategy and a sense of momentum lost, there is internal concern that some MPs could defect to the Greens Polanski is “clear that his door is open to anyone who shares the Green Party’s values”, says a spox

NEW: My interview with Green leader Zack Polanski • He's been speaking to a “handful” of Labour MPs about defecting to the Greens • Explains why he criticised Corbyn for Labour antisemitism but doesn't now • His plans to run for Parliament & lots more 👇 www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Reform UK and the Greens are hoovering up financially insecure voters. My piece this week looks at the return of Britain's class politics (with a twist) www.economist.com/britain/2026...

The ministerial payroll will be increased under reforms being unveiled on Thursday, reports PolHome Editor @adampayne26.bsky.social The Labour government will argue it's not right that some ministerial positions continue to favour those who have the financial means to afford to do them unpaid

A Whitehall scoop: A bill is coming to increase the number of paid ministers 11 new salaries will be created to bring the payroll in line w/ the average size of a modern government "The PM believes that ministerial office should not be reserved for those wealthy enough to fund it for themselves"

PolHome's Tom Scotson reveals what Labour's chair told a private meeting of campaigners last night: - The party must tackle immigration - but "in a way that stays true to our values" - It must "find the right language" to combat the Greens - suggesting it hasn't yet found the right balance...

Radical parties of the right and left in top two slots. Legacy parties getting only a third of the vote between them. A whole new world.

There's fury among parliamentary staff after being given a smaller pay rise than MPs IPSA said the move reflects growing demands on MPs, like "higher levels of complex casework, and abuse & intimidation" However, staff say it's "mind-blowingly tone deaf" and fails to appreciate pressures they face

Read in full Starmer's letter to Labour MPs after their bruising by-election defeat Obtained by PolHome, it says Polanski's party embraced the "sectarian" politics of George Galloway to win It also sought to assure Labour MPs that the Greens won't be able to replicate their success at the next GE

Labour MP tells me: “Even with the world’s best campaign you can’t win without having/delivering progressive policies. This is a result of the strategy Downing St has set” Senior Labour MP adds: “Labour needs to be offering hope to progressive voters. Just an anti-Reform [strategy] isn’t enough”

Starmer’s letter to Labour MPs following Gorton and Denton:

Like in Caerphilly last year, G&D shows ‘stop Reform’ is a real motivator. The Green & Labour combined vote shade was more than double Reform’s. Goodwin’s candidacy likely fuelled it. Obv at a GE there’ll be many seats where it doesn’t apply. But in terms of a Reform majority, it’s a real hurdle.

That's an astonishing result, bloody hell. Appallingly bad for Labour, which is being devoured from both left and right, the "electoral valley of death" - @robfordmancs.bsky.social. It could be a dire sign of what's to come in May, and raises fresh, huge Qs for party strategy and leadership…

Government is preparing to launch its digital communications overhaul The work, months in the making, is expected to see the New Media Unit given expanded capacity to boost the Labour administration's digital reach, PolHome understands @zoecrowther.bsky.social & @adampayne26.bsky.social report

Story w/ @zoecrowther.bsky.social: The government's digital comms overhaul is to be launched imminently Months in the works, it's expected to redeploy Whitehall staff and resources to an expanded New Media Unit…

Pleased to be invited to speak on BBC news yesterday about the government‘s SEND reforms and how they’re landing with MPs Coverage from the day linked below www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Fascinating interview by @siennamarla with Reform UK's Danny Kruger - who (among other things) tells her political parties have a "limited but important" role in undoing the sexual revolution and UK is suffering from a "totally unregulated sexual economy". www.politicshome.com/news/article...

@philipjcowley.bsky.social finding the head of the nail

“He's political up to his eyeballs" Is Wes Streeting a details man? What do his days look like? Who does he delegate to? @siennarodgers.bsky.social & @zoecrowther.bsky.social explore how the Health Secretary runs his department

In comparison to those considering Reform, Green considerers are more numerous, but less convinced. Zach is a ‘breath of fresh air’, and offers the focus on social justice many 2034 Labour voters are looking for. But few believe the Greens can win, and many are worried they’re too idealistic.

How strong is Green support? Ahead of Gorton & Denton, PolHome teamed up with @thinksinsight.bsky.social to have a close look at people considering voting for the party at the next general election The findings suggest Polanski has some work to do to turn mid-term popularity into hard votes...

Our Sunday read from @adampayne26.bsky.social is a really good look at how popular the greens truly are right now www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Sorry, but the guy who has survived longer an achieved more of his priorities than anyone else in politics over the past two decades, who has outmaneuvered multiple leaders of two larger parties and reoriented politics around his priorities is not “bad at politics”. This is cope.

My weekend read on the issue of student loans - and why the debate is not going anywhere anytime soon ➡️Several Plan 2 Labour MPs have had discussions with sympathetic ministers ➡️Labour Together and IPPR look at what could be done ➡️Tories, Lib Dems, Reform forming policies in this area

The workload facing MPs and their staff is growing, in ways that aren't visible to the public: casework and the inbox. For @thehousemag.bsky.social, I delved into what the workload looks like, why it's growing, and what this means for how MPs can balance the different aspects of their role

This, as set out by recent insider Ben Judah, should obviously happen. For all of its charm, the No 10 set up, especially in relation to the rest of Whitehall, is absolutely mad www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...