From newbie MP to a Treasury minister in just four years. Even by the dizzyingly quick churn rate of the UK government, Laura Trott’s elevation to high office has been remarkable.
Elected Conservative MP for Sevenoaks and Swanley in 2019, she was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Work and Pensions in October 2022. In Rishi Sunak’s recent reshuffle she was promoted to the post of Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
To that list of achievements and titles the former adviser to David Cameron can now add “minister for the Sunday politics shows”. From Downing Street aide to being grilled on BBC1’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is no mean feat.
Her debut on BBC1 went well, with Kuenssberg throwing two softball questions in at the end – was Ms Trott good at managing her own finances, and was she someone who pays her bills on time?
It would have led to some interesting headlines if the answer had been a double no, but it was not to be.
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“I am of course someone who pays my bills on time,” said the minister, adding for good measure that she had an economics background (Oxford).
A successful Sunday show debut then – apart from becoming caught in a tangle between Rishi Sunak and his new Home Secretary over the Rwanda asylum plan.
In an interview with the Times on Saturday, James Cleverly said the initiative was not the “be all and end all” to stopping Channel crossings.
Yet in a sit-down with the Mail on Sunday, the Prime Minister said he was “prepared to do whatever was necessary” to get the Rwanda scheme up and running.
Asked about the apparent difference of opinion, Ms Trott told Sky News Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “They’re both actually saying the same thing, which is that Rwanda is part of our plan. Both saying it is part of the plan, it is not all of the plan.” One to be continued.
Ms Trott’s opposite number, Darren Jones, has been the Labour MP for Bristol North West since 2017. Both thirtysomethings are seen as rising stars in their parties.
Jones doesn’t get as much media attention on spending matters as his boss, Rachel Reeves, but he made an impact yesterday by adding a new term to the political lexicon – “switch spends”.
Mr Jones was being pressed on how a Labour government would do things differently if it was not going to spend more money than the current administration.
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He told Laura Kuenssberg: “There are things where we have already identified that there are things that the Conservatives currently spend money on, not very effectively, that we think we could spend more effectively to solve problems, especially in the short term.”
One example he cited was the backlog in asylum claims.
“There’s been an underspend in certain budgets that we think we can spend on recruiting more senior case workers to make decisions more quickly,” he said.
How “switch spends” differ from the oft cited “efficiency savings” was not clear, but prepare to hear the phrase used ad tedium in the general election.
On BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House the air continued to be a shade of (Tory) blue with an item on swearing. The discussion came on the back of the Home Secretary apologising last week for calling Labour MP Alex Cunningham “s***”.
Former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer recalled an occasion when a worse four-letter word had been heard on air, but that was in the context of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and it was after 11pm.
Suzi Dent, lexicographer and presenter of a Channel 4 series on the history of swearing, said cussing had its benefits.
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“It lowers your cortisol levels, your stress hormones, it raises your serotonin levels,” she said.
The Home Secretary had been had been accused of calling Mr Cunningham’s Stockton North constituency a “s***hole” but Mr Cleverly denied this. A n aide told the Press Association: “He would never criticise Stockton. He’s campaigned in Stockton and is clear that it is a great place.”
Shona Robison, deputy First Minister, had been due to appear on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show last week but called off the day before for reasons unspecified.
Also unwilling or unable to appear on the show were Michael Matheson, the minister at the centre of the iPad expenses row, and his boss, the First Minister.
Had she appeared last week, the deputy FM would have been asked about the Matheson row. Given the story was still dominating the Sunday papers, you might have expected it to be raised yesterday, but questions on that topic came there none.
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