Parliament Returns: Tory Turmoil, Farage’s Payday, and Labour’s Crucial Fortnight

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Parliament is back! (for two whole weeks)

It’s back to school as MPs across the country make their way to Westminster, ready for an entire two weeks of parliamentary activity, before party conferences begin.

And whilst Labour’s conference is set to be its busiest for over a decade, the Conservative conference will be an altogether more sober affair as the leadership contest begins in earnest.

Conservatives clamour for Cleverley

As the Conservatives sail towards Conference season with Rishi Sunak as its ghost captain, the only question on attendees lips is who the next leader will be.

The contest is wide open, with one new poll showing James Cleverly as the favourite of Conservative party members, and Tom Tugendhat as the wider public’s top pick. Of course, a separate YouGov poll has Kemi Badenoch as the favourite – so it really is all to play for. Except for Mel Stride, who is 40/1 at the bookies to become leader – which is similar odds to David Cameron.

Throughout the contest, the Conservative Campaign Headquarters has remained neutral except for one employee. Matthew Vickers, the Conservative Party Deputy Chair decided to step-down from his role in order to endorse Robert Jenrick.

Expect there to be a flurry of articles setting out how ‘Jenrick can deliver’ in the coming weeks.

Labour’s honeymoon fizzles out

Labour’s honeymoon period – if there was one – has well and truly come to an end, as Parliament returns this week to prepare for the upcoming budget.

Keir Starmer is understandably keen to frontload his most painful policies – in the hope it will all be forgotten by 2028 – but there’s no getting around the fact the upcoming budget is going to be unpopular.

Labour Conference will be full of jubilation and celebration – but the feeling in the party is that Starmer now needs to set out how things are going to get better – not just why they’re about to get worse.

Laughing all the way to the (non-Coutts) bank

Nigel Farage was predictably one of the first MPs to attack Labour’s emerging plans to outlaw smoking in some public spaces – and from recent figures it seems he can enjoy all the £15 packs of Marlboro Lights he likes.

Mr Farage has been confirmed as the  highest earning MP – as a new release shows he earns a whopping £1.2 million a year outside of Parliament.

The Reform UK leader’s GB News presenter role trousers him £97,900 a month, (more than the MP’s annual salary of £91,346), and he is also paid £4,000 a month for writing articles for the Telegraph.

Working as a presenter on GB News he also received a donation of £32,836 by businessman Christopher Harborne to visit the US less than two weeks after the election

Angela RAVEr MP

Step aside Michael Gove – with a new Government in place we’ve got a new generation of MPs tearing up the dancefloor, to a mixture of horror and delight of the public.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was spotted raving with Denise Van Outen and DJ Fisher at a superclub in Ibiza this weekend. Video footage shows Rayner boogieing to a remix of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know’ in Hi Ibiza’s 5,000-capacity club in Ibiza.

Expect this week’s Parliamentary business to be a bit of a comedown for Rayner after her holiday, and many more slightly embarrassing videos to come from Conference…