Politics
Dan Carden on being Blue and feeling hopeful
Dan Carden, the Labour MP for Liverpool Walton, was never a natural figure to front a political faction. That may be why, as he tells me walking from Westminster to escape the estate, Carden has relinquished control of the Blue Labour Group to his colleague Jonathan Hinder.
Carden and his successor were first introduced by Maurice Glasman, the godfather of Blue Labour thought, shortly after the 2024 general election. Glasman saw in Hinder a promising ideological ally looking for direction, while Carden – an MP since 2017 – stepped forward as the inaugural chair of the Blue Labour caucus.
In Carden’s telling, the group formed organically out of conversations among like-minded Labour MPs who did not quite think like other Labour MPs. The group now meets weekly but is otherwise defined by its lack of traditional structure. If it was the European Research Group (ERG) of eurosceptic Conservative MPs that taught Westminster to love factions, the Blue Labour collective suggests we re-evaluate our model.
When I ask whether Shabana Mahmood, who has repeatedly name-checked the tendency, counts as a member, Carden shrugs off the question. “We’re just quite relaxed about it.”
Blue Labour’s amorphous status – as a school of thought, parliamentary group, factional identity, occasional essay theme, X account and website – means it is remarkably democratic in character. It has no designated spokespeople, no permanent staff and no director. Carden, who claims to speak only for himself, refers to criticism the group has received “for not being organised and effective enough.” One senses that Blue Labour’s weekly meetings contain rather more ideological diversity than one might expect from a collective of just over 10 MPs. For Carden, these sessions serve as a forum for “ideas, free thoughts, and then every so often it gets attention either for positions we take or things that we say”.
But for all the room for dissension, Carden and his Blue Labour colleagues are bound by a shared political analysis.
The Blue Labour faithful, Carden contends, share a conviction that the party at large must “move forward to reconnect with working-class communities, to reindustrialise the country, to restore some hope and dignity, especially in the world of work, but also in those communities.”
Carden, prefacing that he is now speaking for himself, takes this thesis further. He thinks Britain is broken. “It doesn’t work”, he says. “The biggest challenge to every prime minister has been state failure across the board, and it will remain the biggest challenge for Andy Burnham. And it won’t be too long before he’s blamed for that state failure if he’s not able to radically change things.”
He adds: “So it would be pretty pointless to be in a parliamentary Labour party clapping along, saying everything’s great, especially when you look at the depths of unpopularity that the last prime minister took us to.”
Blue Labour is an ideological instinct rather than a political institution. But its prominence has ebbed and flowed since it first emerged in a recognisable form from the lecture series led by Lord Glasman in 2010/2011. The renewed attention it has garnered during the course of this parliament is generally attributed to the rise of Reform UK.
How does Carden explain the rise of Reform? “It is not because people are turning right-wing or fascist or anything else”, he tells me, “but we’ve had a political settlement in this country for generations now – and across Europe and other parts of the globe – that working-class communities have found has not worked for them, and they are looking elsewhere for their interests to be represented.”
He adds: “There’s no doubt in my mind, Reform does not represent those interests. It represents the interests of big tech and big money.
“It’s a small little cabal of people that don’t care about the working class. But it doesn’t mean that working-class communities haven’t been dispossessed. They have.”
Much of my conversation with Carden revolves around his politics and its complications. First elected to parliament in 2017, Carden rose to prominence as a “Corbynite” lieutenant, serving loyally on the former Labour leader’s frontbench and as an officer in the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG).
Carden characterises his political evolution as a “journey”. But he rejects the suggestion that he has shifted from left to right: “my politics is left. My economic politics is left, especially.”
He adds: “But I think I recognise more than ever the difference between liberal progressive politics and left politics, and there’s a chasm between the two, and just because somebody like me questions a lot of the received wisdom of progressive liberal politics, doesn’t mean I’m not left-wing – quite the opposite.
“I actually think liberal progressive politics has been part of the issue that has driven working-class communities away from the Labour Party.”
For Carden and Blue Labour more broadly, “progressive” is a term of pure opprobrium. He repeats a favourite joke of Glasman’s: “The last thing you want to hear when you go to the doctor is ‘it’s progressive’.”
Carden treads carefully when questioned on his Corbynite era. He insists he still “really like[s] Jeremy Corbyn as a man and a politician”, and praises him for having “caught the mood of many people in the country” during the 2017 general election. Skipping ahead to his twin resignations from Keir Starmer’s frontbench in 2020 and 2023, he reflects: “I guess I haven’t fitted in very comfortably anywhere, which is fine.”
Would he welcome Corbyn back into the Labour Party – something he called for upon the former leader’s suspension in October 2020? “I guess it would be firstly down to Jeremy if he ever saw himself coming back”, he responds initially.
But Carden’s full answer is more complex. “If you look at the principle of this, it’s one of how should politics be governed… Do you use discipline to control political debates – and that’s what we’ve had for most of the time that I’ve been in Westminster?”
Carden adds: “If you use discipline to control political debates, then we’ve lost the argument, and that’s what we’ve had too much of. So, of course, people should decide if they’re in the Labour Party, if that’s where their politics is, and that’s where they’re comfortable.
“And if every other member of the Labour Party disagrees with them, that’s fine. You don’t use discipline to kick people out.”
Carden’s political journey from Corbynite disciple to Blue Labour chair was motivated by something more than naked electoralism. In Liverpool Walton in recent years, the question at election time is not whether he will be returned to parliament, but whether it will be with a 70% or 80% vote share.
Instead, Carden frames his politics as in dialogue with working-class communities like those he represents. He draws a straight line from his experiences as the son of a dock worker to his election in 2017. “It’s not because I went to the London School of Economics [that I went into politics]”, he says. “It’s about where I come from and the values that I was taught when I was young.”
I sense it is the interaction between the values instilled by his upbringing and the lived experiences of his constituents that produced Carden’s politics – and sometimes reproduces it.
Andy Burnham gives Carden “a little bit of hope”. He sees the prime minister as sharing his view of politics and who it is for. “Even just having a prime minister who can at least connect with people and has some emotional intelligence. That’s a f***ing major step up from the last guy.”
There is notable overlap in the sources of Burnham and Carden’s politics. “I have all the Catholic guilt”, Carden responds when I ask him about one such influence. He argues that religion and faith are too readily written off by the “progressive” worldview – an instinct he has come to challenge.
Carden suggests that this re-evaluation emerged from his recovery from alcohol addiction. Seven years sober, he describes his recovery as part of a process in which he became “a lot more open to thinking about things differently”, including his Catholic upbringing.
He reflects: “I think it’s that sense of duty to other people, and almost a public decency, where it matters the commitments you make, the duties you have, the responsibilities you have.
“I was brought up to kind of dismiss all of that. I look back and think how tragic that is now. Religion, culture, history – these are things that have kept the human race and countries like ours on an even keel.
“I think sometimes politics can be just a little bit too quick to try and dismantle everything, and not understand the consequences of doing that.”
***
Throughout the interview, Carden repeatedly – and without prompting – refers to Keir Starmer’s tenure in office with real disdain. So when I finally ask him directly for his thoughts, starting with Starmer’s decision to stand down as an MP, he is scathing.
“I think it was pretty terrible, to be honest”, Carden responds.
“First, I think back to all those people who were attacking Rishi Sunak, saying, ‘Well, he’ll lose and then he’ll go off to California.’ Yeah, that never happened. And I just think that you should have a respect for your constituents and a respect for the privilege of being a member of parliament.
“Yes, there’s other jobs to be done in government and everything else, but if you take on that responsibility, you should treat it with some courtesy and respect. So I’m quite amazed, but no doubt Keir Starmer thinks he’s due another big job somewhere else.”
Carden traces Starmer’s undoing as prime minister to the June/July 2025 welfare rebellion, which he calls “the beginning of the end.” He still struggles to make sense of the government’s position, which crumbled in the face of a mass rebellion of Labour MPs.
“There was nothing behind it. We were told we need 5 billion quid, and a few weeks later we were told, right, I’m going to cut 5 billion off welfare, and there was no political narrative story, and there was no willing to go out and fight for it.
“Because I’m up for doing difficult things in politics, but you have to have a vision for where you’re taking people, and you have to win people around. I just never felt like the top of the Labour Party at that time had the ability to do that.”
Carden is at his most animated when our discussion turns to the Chagos Islands deal and the proposed handover of the archipelago to Mauritius. He is utterly uncompromising in his criticism of the “disastrous” arrangement.
He tells me: “I’m still amazed that so few Labour MPs have had anything to say about it. I just say to any of them, go meet one of your constituents, try and explain the Chagos deal to them, and see how it goes down.
“For me, that’s what politics is – to see whether people understand what you’re doing and why you’re there.”
We are talking on 9 September, shortly after Kemi Badenoch called attention to the Chagos deal to bash Burnham at prime minister’s questions. Carden is not surprised by the Conservative leader’s line of questioning – and shares her concerns.
He relates: “I have been saying, it might be an idea to drop this terrible policy because you’re going to get beaten around with it, and then you get the Falklands [controversy].”
Carden links the row directly to Argentine president Javier Milei’s recent sabre-rattling over the Falklands. “It will be a domino effect, and we don’t take overseas territories seriously”, he says.
“We need to look at how we actually give the territories a stake in parliament and a stake in government.”
“So I hope Andy is capable of doing that, and I have some hope that he will look at the disastrous Chagos deal and drop it, and look to do something different – because he’s got the ability and the capacity to do that.”
After all, it is the Chagos Islands – a dispute over a remote archipelago thousands of miles away – that brings Carden’s politics into its sharpest relief. For Carden, Chagos is a test case for a politics built on dialogue. If a policy cannot survive a discussion on the doorsteps of Liverpool Walton, it must be misguided. That same sense of disconnection – between Westminster and the people it answers to – is what Carden believes hollowed out Labour’s support under Starmer.
Carden’s politics, perhaps, are not so complicated after all.
Ahead of the show’s return later this month – with Richard set to host a week’s worth of shows before handing over the reins to Michael – a new set photo has been released by the BBC.
In a statement, Michael quipped that he had “quite literally very large shoes to fill”.
He enthused: “As a huge fan of the show, I’m incredibly excited to be able to move into the House and at long last see my silhouette on a fondue set.”
Explaining his decision to step away from his hit gameshow, Richard said earlier this year: “Thank you for all your kind words as I step down from House Of Games after nine amazing years. It is honestly the most fun show to work on, with the most wonderful team, but, after 800 episodes it’s time to hand over the keys to a new host.”
He added: “There are plenty of new episodes still to air though, and I’ll even be filming one final handover week later in the year! It really has been a treat from start to finish.”
Channing Tatum has set the record straight on claims that he has a secret Instagram account that he uses to pass comment on pop culture – including matters relating to his famous ex.
Over the weekend, speculation spread suggesting that the Magic Mike actor had been commenting on stories about his ex Zoe Kravitz and her relationship with Harry Styles, among other subjects, using a “finsta” account.
Fuelling the speculation was the fact that this anonymous page had just one follower in Channing.
While the account – which has since been deleted – maintained it had nothing to do with Channing, the man himself has since hit back at the claims in a post on his verified Instagram page.
“Yo, I truly can’t believe y’all think this is what I’m doing with my free time,” he wrote in a story post on Monday night. “Fuckin’ hilarious.
“Also why would I follow a burner account if I didn’t want people to connect me to it? Wtf come on…”
He added: “If I really need to say it, l only have one [Instagram] account.”
One potential explanation that had previously been put forward by fans was that Channing had previously hit “follow” on what he thought was a fan account devoted to him and his work, which he’s previously been known to do, only for the owner of the page to then change its name and start commenting on other people’s posts.
HuffPost UK contacted Channing’s team for comment on Monday but did not receive a response.
Channing is gearing up for the release of his next film, Josephine, in which he and Gemma Chan play the parents of a young girl whose life is drastically changed when she witnesses an assault in Central Park.
Following this, he’s expected to reprise his role as Gambit – a role he finally originated in the comedic superhero outing Deadpool & Wolverine after years of rumours – in the Avengers movie Doomsday later this year.
Pictured: Sir Alex in the turbine hall at EDF’s Sizewell B nuclear power station
Sir Alex Chisholm, UK Chair
| EDF
At recent economic policy fora I’ve attended, one topic has dominated: how infrastructure investment can restore growth. We want new infrastructure, but at lower cost. This article explores how we can achieve these twin goals.
Whether its building new projects, or renewing existing infrastructure, there is a mammoth task underway across Britain, involving millions of people.
More wind, solar and nuclear energy, improvements to electricity networks, water system upgrades, transport projects, digital infrastructure – all of them vital to the country’s future prosperity and economic competitiveness.
The government has rightly prioritised this; the investment is badly needed and should be welcomed. Government has also been clear about wanting to learn from previous infrastructure programmes and improve delivery.
But if we want the new infrastructure to drive growth, we should prioritise enabling over replacement infrastructure.
Simply replacing an old asset with a newer version of the same thing often delivers limited additional economic value. For example, a new rail line replacing an antiquated one may improve reliability and journey times – of great importance to the users of the line – but fundamentally does not change what people are able to do.
Contrast this with infrastructure that enables entirely new activity. Fibre replacing copper enables new digital services and capabilities. New energy and data infrastructure can unlock wholly new forms of economic activity, stemming from the AI revolution that is upon us.
The biggest gains come when infrastructure enables something that could not previously happen.
So, what are the solutions?
First, we need to move away from one-off projects and embrace the ‘build and repeat’ philosophy.
Take the nuclear sector. For many years, particularly in Europe, we built nuclear reactors one by one, with long gaps between projects. That is not an efficient industrial model.
What we see today is very different. Countries are developing nuclear programmes, not just individual projects. And for industry, this is fundamental.
At EDF, this is exactly the approach we are taking. In the UK, Sizewell C in Suffolk will replicate Hinkley Point C in Somerset and benefit greatly from this. At Hinkley we are seeing major efficiency improvements in the construction of unit two versus unit one.
Why does it matter? Because every time you repeat, you learn. Engineering is more mature. Modular components can be made offsite in factories. Suppliers know what is expected. Teams become more efficient. Construction sequences improve. And ultimately, you reduce risk, cost and schedule.
Secondly, we need a sustained effort to improve the national skills base. There has been some good work on skills. However, much more is needed.
Skills shortages remain a real challenge, particularly in recruiting highly skilled workers in the UK. Unless this is addressed, delivery ambitions will be harder to achieve.
Again at Hinkley, nearly 20,000 people have now been trained in local “Centres of Excellence” and over 1,700 apprentices hired and trained.
The project has had to deliver this level of training to fill the gap in the supply of suitably qualified people following the twenty-year hiatus in building nuclear plants. Sizewell B power station, completed in 1995, was meant to be the first of a series, but ended up being a “one-off”.
These new skills will benefit not just Sizewell C but the future Small Modular Reactor programme, as well as other infrastructure projects.
Thirdly, there is a need to deliver on the planning and regulatory reforms recommended by the Fingleton review and others.
The key question is whether they will translate into real-world outcomes, so the focus should now be on implementation rather than announcements.
We also need to ensure regulation is proportionate and doesn’t block growth. Speaking of growth, taking five regulators together – Ofcom, Ofgem, Ofwat, CMA and FCA – and looking at published data for the period 2014-24, expenditure has increased by 75 per cent (from £761m to £1.33b) and the number of staff by 97 per cent, to over 10,000 today. This is not sustainable.
Finally, we need to bring down the costs of electricity and energy generally – to help enable competitiveness to return.
Some of this cost reduction will be achieved by using more of the clean power that has grown so much in recent years.
Too much goes to waste in the current system, not least in transport where we spend billions on imported diesel and yet pay windfarms to turn off when there is low demand.
With only 20 per cent of the UK’s total energy consumption in the form of electricity, there is a huge opportunity to switch out of diesel, petrol, heating oil and gas and to enable a more electric Britain.
An increasingly electrified economy will be essential for supporting the digital economy, including vital but energy-hungry data centres. Future digital growth will depend on having access to reliable, large-scale electricity supplies.
The transition needs to be affordable. Overly expensive electricity risks becoming self-defeating if it undermines support for the transition or discourages adoption.
Conclusion
The government’s focus on investing in critical infrastructure and enabling better delivery through the reforms underway is to be welcomed. Industry knows it needs to play its part by improving efficiency.
Continued political backing will be important if reforms are to have an impact.
Future investment should focus on infrastructure that enables new economic activity, not just the replacement of existing assets.
Progressing reform in planning, regulation, skills and electrification will ensure infrastructure investment achieves its full potential.
Andy Burnham has hit back at the billionaire owner of Manchester United after he claimed Britain is “on the slide”.
Tax exile Jim Ratcliffe accused the government of trying to “tax everyone to death”, spending too much on benefits and failing to cut immigration.
But speaking to reporters on his way to deliver a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, Burnham rejected Ratcliffe’s claims, without mentioning him by name.
He said: “I hear people saying the country is on the slide – we’re the fastest growing in the G7, there’s lots to be proud of, there’s a lot right with the country and I’m going to give a really upbeat message when I speak.”
The prime minister, who will shortly set out his 10-year plan for the UK, said “we can be hopeful about where we’re going, we can draw a line under the last decade and say this next one’s going to be different”.
Burnham’s comments came after Labour chair Bridget Phillipson tore into Brexit-backer Ratcliffe over his comments.
She told the BBC: “You’ll forgive if I do take with a pinch of salt what someone who is a tax exile has to say about our country.”
Phillipson, who is also minister for women and equalities, added: “He was also someone, as I understand it, who was a big supporter of Brexit,” she said.
“That was over a decade ago now, but we’ve seen the impact of Brexit on our economy, and that’s why this government is committed to making sure we do have a better trading relationship with the European Union, which will be a central part of how we make sure we do see stronger growth.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
On Monday, the television press pool that covers the White House protested Trump’s ban against the three outlets by refusing to cover his activities there.
As a result, the president’s speech at the unveiling of a new helipad, unaided by news agencies’ audio equipment, was drowned out by helicopters.
Even Newsmax reporter Bianca de la Garza admitted that the instance of Trump being silenced because of his own actions ― and the copters ― was a sign that his attacks on the press were “backfiring just a little bit.”
Not surprisingly, many people were amused by the clip ― and some tried to see the positives.
The post ‘Ed Sheeran has been cancelled by the Palestine mob’ appeared first on spiked.
I stood in Parliament Square 10 days ago among a motley group of individuals opposed to assisted dying, waiting for the result of the vote on Labour MP Lauren Edwards’ assisted-dying bill. Whereas those demonstrating in favour of assisted suicide wore signature pink t-shirts, reflecting the campaign’s neat, middle-class support, we included fundamentalist Christians, Muslim doctors, Reform UK supporters, hardened left-wing activists, atheist disabled advocates and a colourful trans person with dwarfism. Other times, many of our side would have been at each other’s throats. But on Friday, we stood together.
As a BBC crew pointed a camera in our faces to record our responses to the vote, I was worried that I might be sick, given my nerves. Not, perhaps, a good look on television. It was a real battle to ensure that all MPs against the bill could vote. Reform’s Suella Braverman, delayed on a train, bolted ahead of her security to get to the vote with 30 seconds to spare.
After the result was announced, the sickness vanished instantly and we cheered, more in relief than triumph. Those who had argued among each other went off to the pub together – including a Muslim doctor who had a Coke.
But now the sense of relief has subsided, it’s worth reflecting on a hugely important result. After the defeat of Liam McArthur’s assisted-dying bill in Scotland, the first rollback of the euthanasia regime in Alberta, Canada, and a referendum vote against assisted dying in Slovenia, we might wonder whether the momentum behind euthanasia and assisted suicide (EAS) has stalled.
Of course, those in favour of the UK’s assisted-dying bill immediately came forward with their own reasons why it failed. Labour MP Liz Kendall complained that the bill had been ‘scuppered by a tiny minority of unelected members of the House of Lords’. She insisted that the Commons vote against the bill belied ‘widespread and deep public support for assisted dying’.
These assertions are not grounded in fact. After all, the bill was defeated on Friday not in the Lords, but in the elected chamber, where Liz Kendall sits. And while among the public there is widespread support for assisted dying, it’s shallow support. The more people learn about assisted dying, the more they reject it. Palliative care doctors, who know most about the end of life, reject EAS by 82 per cent.
The truth is that EAS thrives when no one pays attention to it. The more light that is shone on the case for assisted dying, the more it falls to pieces. Campaigners assume that spending huge amounts of money on popularising simplistic slogans, or telling horrific end-of-life stories, will convince the public and silence the opposition.
But people’s common sense tends to cut through assisted-suicide campaigners’ rhetoric. It is common sense that ingesting poison with intent to die is suicide, no matter how much money is spent rebranding it as ‘assisted dying’. It is common sense to see that those with Down syndrome can be easily manipulated into assisted suicide if it is legal. It is common sense that killing is not medicine.
One of the hallmarks of EAS regimes around the world is that they list the cause of death as the underlying disease rather than poisoning. This cover-up – from California to Canada – has sinister echoes across history. During the Second World War, Nazi Germany ran a euthanasia programme known as T4. It led to the murder of more than 70,000 people deemed senile, mentally handicapped, mentally ill, epileptic and so on. The Nazis, using a similarly euphemistic phrase to ‘assisted dying’, called these murders ‘mercy deaths’. On 3 August 1941, Clemens August von Galen, the Catholic Bishop of Münster, exposed the T4 programme in a brave speech:
‘The patients who have been selected for killing are removed from their home area to some distant place. Some illness or other is then given as the cause of death. Since the body is immediately cremated, the relatives and the criminal police are unable to establish whether the patient had in fact been ill or what the cause of death actually was.’
Under pressure from growing protests, Hitler halted the T4 programme on 24 August 1941, though less systematic murder of disabled people continued.
We should seek to emulate Galen’s stand against the T4 programme today. The more the false claims of assisted-dying proponents are questioned, the more the reality of what they want is exposed. The Lords held the assisted-dying bill to the light earlier this year. They showed that the bill’s much-vaunted safeguards were inadequate. They showed that someone with Down syndrome could be pressured into the ‘choice’ of assisted suicide and that women suffering domestic abuse might also be pressured into an early death. The Lords even brought to our attention the fact that companies like G4S might be employed to dispatch British citizens for a profit. The more light that is shone on these dishonest practices, the better.
The last word should be left to Ashley Dalton, the Labour MP suffering terminal breast cancer. As she told the Commons on Friday: ‘The idea that it is not possible to alleviate pain and discomfort is false… It’s nothing short of irresponsible to scaremonger people like me into believing our deaths will be horrific.’
Kevin Yuill is emeritus professor of history at the University of Sunderland and CEO of Humanists Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.
Andy Burnham has revealed the UK will send help to Saudi jets against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Speaking to reporters while travelling to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the prime minister said Saudi Arabia had asked for assistance.
He said: “On the advice of the defence secretary and the foreign secretary, last night I agreed to that request.”
Burnham said he was “acting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region, because of course Saudi Arabia has been experiencing attack, is looking at potential further disruption and we need to keep those pathways open”.
The UK will offer one RAF voyager for air-to-air refuelling for Saudi planes on defensive missions, according to Sky News.
The UK military is not expected to be used for a wider range of military actions.
Burnham said the support – due to start in the coming days – will be “time-limited” and kept under “review”.
The announcement marks the first time the prime minister has made a major military decision since taking office in mid-July.
Burnham’s offer to help comes as the Iran war continues to rock the Middle East and upset the global economy.
The US and Israeli strikes on Iran back in February saw Iranian forces close the major oil shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation.
A fifth of the world’s oil usually passes through the waterway, meaning the knock-on consequences have been significantly pushing up costs – for US allies in the Gulf and countries around the world.
Burnham insisted this military action would also help drive down the cost of living at home.
He also he will use his first meeting with US president Donald Trump on Tuesday to call for de-escalation in Iran, as the “dark clouds of global instability” are affecting people worldwide.
“Of course the message is that we want to see an end to the conflict as quickly as possible and we stand ready to play our part,” he said.
The Houthi rebels control parts of Yemen and have been attacking Saudi Arabia since July, when the militants declared a naval blockade.
The Houthis also claimed responsibility for a series of drone attacks targeting the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday.
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
ALL EYES ON GRACIE: Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to sit down with President Donald Trump at Gracie Mansion this afternoon, their third in-person meeting in less than a year and the latest wrinkle in one of the strangest relationships in American politics.
Since Mamdani’s first, shockingly cordial meeting with Trump at the White House last November, political observers have scratched their heads about the democratic socialist mayor playing nice with the Republican president despite their deep disagreements on … just about everything. Ostensibly, Mamdani is putting his personal distaste for Trump aside and betting it’s best for New York City to keep things cordial so as to avoid drawing the president’s ire.
But as resistance to Trump remains animating for Democrats nationally ahead of November’s midterms, Mamdani’s strategy for engaging with him stands out.
Earlier today, Gov. Kathy Hochul made clear that she, for one, has no plans to meet with Trump while he’s in New York. “I speak to him on the phone whenever I need to,” she told reporters in Manhattan.
Hochul, who’s facing reelection in November and tends to directly criticize Trump more frequently than Mamdani, said it was her understanding that the mayor agreed to host the president at Gracie Mansion during a previous conversation at the White House.
“The mayor and [Trump] said that when he’s back in town again, he would go to Gracie Mansion,” the governor said. “I don’t have a Gracie Mansion to invite him to.”
Still, Hochul said there’s an opportunity for Mamdani to use the Gracie confab to push Trump on releasing federal funding for New York, including for law enforcement, that she said the president’s administration has been withholding.
“We have to continue fighting for what New York needs,” she said.
Mamdani’s office wouldn’t say who requested today’s meeting or share specifics about the expected focus in advance, only saying the mayor will talk to Trump about “issues affecting New York City.” A Mamdani spokesperson said the mayor will elaborate on what was discussed at a post-meeting press conference that Trump isn’t expected to attend.
After the appointment at Gracie, Trump is slated to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron before headlining a couple Republican fundraisers. By contrast, after his Trump tête-à-tête, Mamdani will have dinner with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s in the city to headline a United Nations Charter event this evening that will also feature pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a person familiar with the plans who was granted anonymity to discuss them told Playbook.
The Queens-born Trump is in town ahead of his Tuesday address to the United Nations General Assembly.
Maintaining a relationship with Trump isn’t without risk for Mamdani.
As Trump remains deeply unpopular amid the war in Iran and other controversies, some Democrats are privately questioning why the mayor sees a need to keep interacting with the president. But so far, Mamdani hasn’t faced any significant pushback from his hard-left base over his engagements with Trump, with leaders of the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America largely viewing it as the mayor acting in the city’s best interests. — Chris Sommerfeldt and Madison Fernandez
From the Capitol
EYES ON AI: Hochul floated requiring safeguards like an artificial intelligence “kill switch” as part of state-level interventions to address the rapidly evolving technology.
During a Monday event in Manhattan rolling out next steps for enacting the RAISE Act, New York’s landmark AI safety law that is set to go into effect in January, the governor said she’ll “look closely at additional ways to build on” the legislation — including AI kill switches “if they’re deemed feasible and in the best interest of our state.”
The governor in recent days has vowed to take additional AI-related actions beyond the RAISE Act, but has not specified what that might look like. Her suggestion of a kill switch comes days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to explore such a requirement for AI companies’ most-advanced models.
Some in the tech industry have argued implementing one is not technically feasible. Federal legislation to enact a kill switch requirement is currently stalled in Congress.
When asked to expand on the prospect of requiring a kill switch, Hochul said that “all options are on the table,” but wasn’t making a commitment.
“We’re going to do the research and make the decisions that are thoughtful to protect New Yorkers,” she said. “We’ll go as far as we need to to protect people of this state and ultimately this country in the absence of other leadership.”
Read more from Madison Fernandez in POLITICO Pro.
MORE BLAKEMAN MONEY: Billionaire former casino developer Steve Wynn has donated $1 million to the main super PAC supporting Republican Bruce Blakeman’s gubernatorial bid, records filed with the state Board of Elections this morning show.
The committee, Strong and Safe New York, has now raised $5.3 million since July.
Wynn has been a top donor to national Republican causes for over a decade. His most recent large donations in New York came last year, when he gave $361,000 to the state GOP and $500,000 to a super PAC boosting Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid. — Bill Mahoney
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ENDORSEMENT CORNER: Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) endorsed GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in his reelection campaign in suburban New York, Golden wrote in an opinion article published Monday.
Lawler is facing a tough reelection campaign against Democrat Cait Conley in one of the biggest House battlegrounds this November. The lawmakers have previously collaborated to advance the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, and are both members of the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus.
Golden, who is not running for reelection, was one of two House Democrats to break with the party and twice vote in favor of the Republican legislative agenda earlier in September.
“Mike Lawler has been a true partner to me and a friend to fishing families he will never represent,” Golden wrote. “I strongly back him, and I hope voters send him back to work. Wherever you live, find the members who pass laws with the other party, and keep them.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the cross-aisle endorsement a “smoke and mirrors ploy” that “will do nothing to change the outcome of the race.”
“In desperation, [Lawler] is peddling an 11th hour endorsement from a retiring Congressmember who represents an out of town district more than 400 miles away,” Jeffries said in a statement. “Mike Lawler is an unadulterated phony who has never shown bipartisan courage when it matters.”
Read more from POLITICO’s Elleiana Green.
ON THE AIRWAVES: With fewer than 50 days to go before Election Day, House Democrats’ main super PAC is making its first TV ad buy in support of Conley on Monday.
The House Majority PAC said it is reserving $1.2 million on cable in the Hudson Valley contest. (An additional $1.2 million is going toward fighting Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr.’s re-election in New Jersey, which is also covered by the New York City media market.) HMP said earlier this year that it didn’t include the high-dollar NYC media market in its initial reservations because it was “prioritiz[ing] markets where rates increase significantly.”
Republicans have been largely outpacing Democrats in NY-17 on the ad spending front, thanks to significant buys from super PACs backed by the president and House leadership. From the beginning of September through Election Day, the GOP has placed $15 million on ads across broadcast, cable, CTV and digital platforms, according to ad tracker AdImpact.
The new HMP spend is the biggest from an outside Democratic group so far, but still leaves a large gap between the parties. Democrats have placed around $3 million on advertising in the period between September and Election Day, with the largest chunk coming from the Conley campaign. — Madison Fernandez
IN OTHER NEWS
IN OTHER NEWS:
— JUDGES CASH IN: Brooklyn Democratic Party leaders have raked in $190,000 in contributions from judges and judicial candidates since 2012, raising some ethical and legal concerns. (New York Post)
— AFFORDABILITY AHEAD: Anthony Shorris, the mayor’s new pick for the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, laid out a vision for solving the city’s affordability crisis that goes beyond Mamdani’s vision for five city-owned grocery stores. (The New York Times)
— BUY NOW, PAY LATER: The Mamdani administration is pushing Albany for tougher ‘buy now, pay later’ regulation, as many New Yorkers use the plans to pay for basic essentials, sinking deeper into debt. (amNY)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Ed Sheeran resumed his Loop Tour over the weekend, after landing himself at the centre of controversy for bowing to pressure to remove Macklemore as the show’s opening act.
Last week, Ed made headlines when it was announced that Macklemore would no longer be serving as his support act, following comments the Thrift Store rapper had made on stage in support of Palestine earlier in the run.
This decision was met with widespread backlash, and his remaining opening acts eventually announced that they were withdrawing from the tour, as did his backing band.
On Saturday night, the Grammy winner performed his first live show since the controversy, which was not always smooth sailing.
Speaking from the stage at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, where the tour continued without any support act, Ed began: “This is not usually how I would open the show, but before I play some songs tonight, I hope it’s okay if I say a few words about this last week.
“I’m used to my music being criticised, and I’m always happy to take that […] but this week the criticism was about something much more important. And I’ve had to take, and make, difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I’m so, so sorry.”
While Ed maintained that he “never wanted to be an activist musician”, he said the events of the last week had “put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech, and the most complex political issue on the planet”.
Appearing to read from a teleprompter, he said: “Honouring my commitment to my fans is completely central to who I am, and that is why I’m here tonight on my own and continuing my current tour. But I am deeply worried about the idea of venues pre-approving content of performers. This happens in so many places I perform around the world, but it should never happen in the free world.”
Ed continued: “I’ve tried in my career not to be a political commentator of any kind, because I want my music and shows to be about unity, not division, about humanity, not politics.
“But this is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel at a music festival on October 7th was horrific, and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilian’s lives – of children’s lives – and the systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.”
“I, honestly, am so grateful that you’re here tonight with me,” he then noted. “This concert is still a place where everyone is welcome. And everyone here can stand beside people who have opposing views, and stand by people that they don’t agree with on everything, but they can all agree on singing these songs. And these songs are about love, hope and unity.”
Per Entertainment Weekly, the Grammy winner added that he was working out how he could contribute to help what he described as the “victims of these terrible times”, as well as dedicating time to “listening and learning, because I do not know enough” about the conflict in the Middle East.
Later in the evening, Ed claimed that he’d also edited his show in light of the past week.
“At this point in the show, to be honest, I usually go out to a B-stage,” he explained. “And I’m going to be totally honest with you, I didn’t know what this audience would be like tonight. I didn’t know if I’d have things thrown at me.
“I apologise that today is not the usual show. I took the B-stage out because I was afraid of what might happen if I stood in the middle. And I will admit that. So, the show is a little bit different.”
At another point in the show, Ed said that the “last week of my life has been one of the worst weeks of my life” while “today has been one of the weirdest days of my life”.
“Tonight has been, honestly, the best show of my life,” he then enthused, to cheers from the crowd. “I really didn’t know whether this tour would be carrying on. I really didn’t know whether I’d even be getting on stage again, whether I even wanted to be an artist at all. In these situations, you really find out who your friends are, and it’s been a weird week. It happened very quickly, and the whole time, I have so many people telling me to cancel this tour, and so many people falling out of my life, that I’ve known for years and years and years. People just kind of backing away.
“And in the back of my mind, I saw the ticket sales for this gig, and you know… I didn’t see cancellations, I saw people buying tickets for this gig. And, everyone’s telling me to cancel [the tour], and I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me. And I look at the end of the week, and I see 50,000 people who haven’t abandoned me.
“People will say what they want, but I am doing this for you. I love you.”
During another emotional moment, he was seen breaking down in tears as he stated: “The world is a scary place right now. America is a scary place right now. This gives hope. Thank you so much, Philadelphia.
“I hope you all have had fun. The one thing that I would like to apologise for is the first bit of the show, where it wasn’t about music, and I had to talk. And I understand that people have children here, and I understand that families didn’t buy a ticket to hear that first bit of the show.
“But that was something that I felt like I needed to say. I felt there were a lot of questions that I needed to answer. So, for all the parents there with their kids tonight, thank you so much for bringing them, and I do apologise for that first bit. My shows are about this – they’re about unity, they’re about love, they’re about family, they’re about people coming together that have different beliefs.”
Earlier this month, Macklemore told Ed’s fans in New Jersey: “A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘free Palestine’. I said, ‘free Palestine!’.
“I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza, to the occupied West Bank, know that we have not forgotten about them.”
Reacting to the news he had been dropped from the tour, Macklemore detailed alleged phone conversations he’d had with Ed in the preceding days, in a statement shared on Instagram.
“Nothing I’m writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character,” Macklemore told his followers. “But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can’t change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.
“Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said [on stage], Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium.
“Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues. Ed was in a fucked up position. He knew it. His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before.
“He told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides’.”
The following day, Ed broke his silence on the matter, claiming: “After Macklemore’s performances at my New Jersey shows, venues on my upcoming tour dates communicated that they would pull the shows if he was still supporting.
“I was informed that this stance was based on how Macklemore conveyed part of his message during his performance, rather than on everything that was said. I spoke with the venues at length all week to try and build a bridge.
“One of those people was Robert Kraft. I was also involved in direct talks with promoters along with activists on both sides to try and find a mutual resolution for all, but the venue’s and promoter’s decision was final.
“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine. Macklemore’s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me. I would never let down the fans who had made plans, nor would I abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living.”
Ed also maintained: “I have always used my platform and music to bring people from all backgrounds and cultures together and this won’t ever change. Those who have been to one of my shows will know that they are about unity, joy, escapism, love and a place for everyone to feel welcome.
“I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.
“There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics – my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum. I respect Macklemore’s strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes. However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace.”
In his own statement to Rolling Stone, Robert Kraft said that Macklemore’s removal from Ed’s tour had been based on “recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”.
He was seemingly referencing an incident in 2014, when Macklemore performed in an outfit many critics claimed was inspired by antisemitic tropes and imagery. The rapper later apologised, insisting this had not been his intention.
“I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Macklemore and discuss the facts, because ultimately our goal is the same – peace for all people, an end to suffering, and an end to all hate,” Kraft added.
“This decision is not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf. Their pain and loss are real.”
Following this, Macklemore pledged his entire $1 million pay from Ed’s Loop Tour to charities offering aid in Palestine, encouraging Robert Kraft to match his donation.
Both Robert Kraft and Ed Sheeran then said they’d be giving $2 million each “to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis”, without offering specifics.
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