Barnier’s back

LOOK AWAY NOW, THERESA: Former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier emerged as the surprise frontrunner for French prime minister overnight as President Emmanuel Macron tries to break his own Theresa May-style parliamentary deadlock, POLITICO’s Playbook Paris reports today. Three people tell my French colleagues that Barnier’s name — which became infamous during Westminster’s Brexit wars — was sent to Macron on Wednesday and was being very seriously considered after midnight. An announcement is tipped as soon as today, though of course it could yet all unravel … This is France, after all.
Making friends: One advantage is Barnier has no history with the leaders of the far-right National Rally. But at least he already knows former British Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins — who is a prime candidate to take over as Keir Starmer’s Cabinet secretary. Playbook looks forward to seeing who turns up with the thickest folder next time.
Good Thursday morning. This is Dan Bloom.
(TOWER) BLOCK ON JUSTICE: Housing Secretary Angela Rayner hits the airwaves this morning as Grenfell families resume a decade-long wait for their day in court. Wednesday’s frankly astonishing 1,700-page report into the 2017 fire that killed 72 people, after “decades of failure” on flammable materials, will give the deputy prime minister plenty to look back on and condemn. But the spotlight has already shifted to the pace of what ministers do now — not to mention the police.
Media round: Rayner is due on the Today program at 8.10 a.m. (full times below) accompanied by a near clean sweep of newspaper front pages, peppered with words such as “dishonesty,” “indifference,” “complacency” and “greed.” The Metro, Mirror, i, Guardian and Times all splash on a full gallery of the victims. And several of them lead on the next problem — the Met Police’s admission that it could take 18 more months to decide on any criminal charges and until 2027 to put anyone in the dock.
**A message from Lloyds Banking Group: Last year, over 100,000 households were homeless and living in temporary accommodation, the highest on record. That’s why we’ve committed to becoming the first UK bank to enter the market to own good quality housing that will be available to house families at risk of homelessness. Find out more.**
Holding the line: Ministers will naturally be wary of meddling in operational policing but can make noises about their own pace. After Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised MPs the government would respond within six months, Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook told Radio 4’s PM that it would be “hopefully far sooner.”
One to ask about: Pennycook (echoing No. 10) also said there would be a “remediation acceleration plan in the autumn” for the thousands of buildings that are still a concern. Let’s hope they can make it better than the one we got in *checks notes* 2018.
But but but … Downing Street has made clear it is still going through the report and does not want to hint yet at backing recommendations — not even the central one to have a single construction regulator. It is considering “all options” including legal changes and criminal penalties. This will leave a bit of a vacuum until the story cools.
Meanwhile, on the police: Several victims call for the police and prosecutors to accelerate their process. Asked if former ministers should be prosecuted, Foreign Secretary David Lammy told LBC: “We are all accountable to the law.”
On the bosses: Rayner will be trying to keep her choicest words parked when asked about some of the construction firm executives named in the report. The Times tracked down one in August — who the report excoriated after he refused to give in-person evidence — in his “picturesque medieval village in Alsace” where he insisted: “I am 100 percent sure not to have any responsibility.” One exec wrote in an email that a firm raising questions about safety could “go f*ck themselves” (via the Guardian).
If you want more: Sky has a straight list of the building firms shamed in the report, while the Mail has a more rage-inducing version which includes the top execs’ names, and details of their nice houses and fancy cars. Mirror social justice columnist Ros Wynne-Jones spoke to the nephew of disabled Hesham Rahman, who died on the 23rd floor. He said: “This was systematic corruption and manipulation. Corruption at the highest level.”
It’s unanimous: The PM faces pressure to go fast and hard in the response in today’s leader columns. The Telegraph calls for shamed firms to foot the £200 million bill for the inquiry … the Times calls for a “minister charged exclusively with forcing through remedial work” … the Mirror says no one should live in a building with dangerous cladding … the Mail backs the PM to “make the deep changes that are obviously needed” … and the Sun says “manslaughter charges must follow.”
Still no response from … Ex-PM David Cameron, whose “one in, one out” rules on red tape got such a pasting in the report (as did many other things).
IN OTHER MATTERS: This is only Rayner’s second full morning broadcast round since the election (and her first since she went raving in Ibiza, obvs), so she’ll face questions on other bits of her brief. Not least the right to buy council houses, and the Telegraph’s report that she is considering scaling back the policy. No. 10 has insisted it won’t be killed off altogether, but the Times’ Chris Smyth reports discounts will be slashed “within weeks” and ministers are looking at lengthening the three-year threshold at which people can start to buy their homes.
She could also be asked about … Labour’s mid-negotiation plans for workers’ rights. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds — who now shares Rayner’s pet policy — is up at departmental questions in the Commons from 9.30 a.m. 
Like old times: Lesser-spotted Leader of the Opposition Rishi Sunak is working on just that topic. The Tory leader is due to meet business groups including the CBI, FSB, BCC and IoD this morning to discuss Labour’s plans on workers’ rights and the upcoming budget. Perhaps he’ll bring some smoked salmon to win them back.
HAND OF HISTORY: Banishing hereditary peers … jail for water bosses … a publicly owned energy firm … and talk of a vote on assisted dying. Throw in the rail nationalization bill which cleared the House of Commons on Tuesday, and it feels like one of those periods in parliament where you can feel the fabric of the nation changing in real time. Well … a teeny bit. Let’s take Labour’s first big legislative steps in turn.
PEER LESS: The Cabinet Office will publish the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill at lunchtime today. The new law aims to get rid of all 92 remaining hereditaries that survived Tony Blair’s reforms in 1999. However you feel about it, this will be one of those things that is a proper moment.
Well, maybe not: It’s only the first reading, so there will be no debate or speech on the bill today. Playbook is told it is expected to be short and not contain Labour’s other manifesto vow to force peers to retire after they turn 80. That will be subject to a consultation which hasn’t started yet. 
And let alone … all Labour’s other Lords reform plans that didn’t even make it to the manifesto, like, say, scrapping the place altogether.
Trouble ahead: The bill should sail through the Commons once it gets its second reading, so the real intrigue will be over what amendments get introduced at the committee stage in the Lords, probably after Christmas. Despite this, aides are confident that the overall balance of the Lords will be in support. And if it isn’t, more Labour peers are pretty widely expected to be appointed in the next few months. Isn’t the power of patronage great?
SOAKING THE RICH: Prepare for Environment Secretary Steve Reed to bash the fat cats this morning as the Water (Special Measures) Bill is introduced in the Lords and published online. Reed has gushed to today’s Times about his love of rock pools ahead of a speech and huddle with hacks at a rowing club from 11 a.m.
Deep breath … The bill will pledge that water bosses who obstruct investigations face up to two years in jail (up from a fine) … auto-fines for pollution breaches will rise from £300 to a mystery sum “set out in secondary legislation, following consultation” … firms will be told to monitor 100 percent of the 7,000 “emergency” storm overflows (the Tory government’s 100 percent monitoring was for non-emergency ones, officials say) … and CEOs or “senior leadership” who fail environment, consumer or financial standards won’t get their bonuses, subject to consultation.
Permanent campaign mode: All this is deliberately populist from Reed, a close pal of No. 10 political strategy chief Morgan McSweeney. Labour officials point to a YouGov poll that showed criminal liability for water bosses was the most popular measure in the king’s speech, and lo, it splashes today’s Telegraph. 
But but but … So populist is it that CCHQ has accused Labour of “attempting to pass off measures implemented under the Conservatives as their own.” Others say it’s too headline-grabby and has too little systemic change; the Lib Dem complaint that it “looks to be a job half done” is echoed by campaigners including River Action, Feargal Sharkey and Friends of the Earth, which calls for more Environment Agency funding.
MILI’S FAN: Energy Secretary and Tory bête noire Ed Miliband will then be on his feet in the Commons from 11.30 a.m. (later if there are statements or urgent questions) for the second reading of his four-page bill setting up Great British Energy. Expect a good old party ding-dong — from ideological splits on net zero with right-wingers and Reform to MPs raking over the government’s numbers.
What the SNP might ask him: Whether the HQ is being lined up for Aberdeen, as per the BBC. DESNZ hasn’t denied it but says no decision has officially been made.
Red Corner: Allies say green warrior Miliband is up for the fight when it comes to the debate about public ownership — one of the more controversial symbols of the change under a Labour government. He said overnight: “This is a new institution that the country can be proud of — a company owned by the British people, for the British people.”
Blue Corner: His Tory opposite number Claire Coutinho is on the morning round and CCHQ has gone to town on the plans in an overnight release, which says the bill will give Miliband “a blank cheque to spend £8.3 billion of taxpayers’ money without setting out an investment plan” … “where they used to promise £300 bill savings, they are now silent” … and the whole thing is a “vanity project.”
While we’re at it: Peers will debate Labour’s VAT on private school fees this afternoon. Ross Kempsell, the Tory peer, Boris Johnson aide and Guido contributing editor, warms up with a Mail op-ed saying military families should be exempt.
LIFE AND DEATH: All of this stuff carries little mystery because of Labour’s 167 majority. But here’s a big exception. The 20 MPs who will be allowed to helm private members’ bills this year will be picked at 9 a.m. (via Deputy Speaker Nusrat Ghani’s low-energy bingo hall), kick-starting a frenzy of lobbying by campaigners to push their pet topics onto the agenda. The list of lucky MPs should go up here at 9.30 a.m.
And by far the hottest topic … is assisted dying, after Keir Starmer promised to give a PMB government time and a free vote. Playbook hears the whips have been hands-off and aren’t encouraging Labour MPs to put the issue on the table, yet. But that could change — or turn out to be irrelevant — depending on what the winners decide to do. Your author hears several MPs have privately said they could bring an assisted dying bill, and Starmer is not against the issue coming forward this year. One to watch — the bills will be introduced on Oct. 16.
THE OTHER INTRIGUE … Is around next Tuesday’s vote on axing most pensioners’ winter fuel payments, which could be confirmed by Commons Leader Lucy Powell this morning. Playbook is told some MPs raised concerns about the “cliff edge” nature of the policy at Monday’s PLP meeting and there are talks about whether it can be lessened. But one government aide dismissed talk of a climbdown or rebellion and suggested the objectors were a mix of new MPs nervous at the public backlash, and a few “stirring” the issue.
Rebellion watch: Ten Labour MPs — along with the suspended two-child benefit limit rebels — have now signed an Early Day Motion against the cut. The Times’ Geraldine Scott hears any vote would be whipped, but it’s not yet clear if rebels will be disciplined. The i’s Hugo Gye hears some left-wing MPs are seeking permission to be absent, and Katy Balls in the Times says Chancellor Rachel Reeves has started meeting worried MPs to talk through her decision.
On the upside: Just before Tuesday’s vote was confirmed, one MP told Playbook: “There is going to be a crescendo on this going into conference season.” Government aides will be hoping the vote flushes the issue out quickly instead.
Coming attractions: TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak has called on Reeves to look “in the round about the support we can give to pensioners and to families” in the budget. Interviews with him before the annual unions’ get-together via the New Statesman, FT, Guardian, Independent, Mirror and PA.
Stick it in the suggestion box? Nowak also says “we need to see” public sector pay restored to past levels in real terms and argues for raising capital gains tax to match the rates of income tax. Two issues the Tories will jump on. Reeves will no doubt be pleased to have the feedback.
Leak hunt: Shadow ministers will ask the statistics watchdog if the BBC’s scoop of “internal working calculations” about a £400 state pension rise next year broke Treasury rules on handling data. A Tory “source” alleges to the Telegraph’s Nick Gutteridge that it was leaked as a “smokescreen for the furor” over winter fuel.
THE MORNING AFTER: Tory MPs should be switching their phones to do-not-disturb mode right now. The five surviving leadership candidates are hitting the phones hard this morning as they battle to make the final four when MPs vote again next Tuesday. And with only six votes separating four of the five candidates, not even Grant Shapps’ spreadsheet could honestly say who’ll be knocked out next.
Sitting Priti: Eliminated with just 14 votes on Wednesday, Priti Patel put on a brave face with a statement here while her team headed to the pub. Playbook is told she won’t be swinging publicly behind another candidate, at least not in the coming days, so the key question is who her backers will go to. The Times’ Aubrey Allegretti reckons the majority are expected to support Robert Jenrick or James Cleverly.
Melmentum: Playbook picks up various whispers that some MPs voted for Mel Stride simply to ensure he got over the first hurdle. One Tory official says MPs regarded it as a “free vote” to see where the land lies. Stride’s allies insist this isn’t true, and the center-right underdog got as many votes as they predicted. Playbook even hears Stride has been drawing up plans to hold his “launch” next week (currently Thursday), after the fourth round. Now that’s bravery.
Had enough of Badenoch? The other persistent mutter is that Kemi Badenoch didn’t do as well as expected — getting perhaps 10 fewer votes than her team hoped. A person from one rival camp insists many remaining MPs are an “anti-Kemi vote” who are unlikely to shift to her. But her place in the final four feels assured.
Feeling Cleverly: Cleverly’s allies are chuffed with his tally, even if some admit he is seen as many MPs’ second favorite, while Tom Tugendhat’s supporters insist he can pull it back from 17 votes. The fact the two men are in contention for many of the same MPs didn’t stop Tugendhat singing Cleverly Happy Birthday in the Carlton Club last night, Playbook hears.
And out in front … At first an underdog, the widespread assumption is now that Robert Jenrick — whose team is delighted with his progress so far — will make the final two. As evidenced by this briefing from an official in a rival camp: “If MPs don’t want to leave the Conservative Party in the hands of Mark Francois, Edward Leigh and John Hayes they need someone who can stop Rob.”
Erp: Jenrick’s lead is starting to provoke some snippy comments from critics who don’t like the evolution of his views. One long-serving Tory, not working for any camp, texts Playbook: “He’s the kind of guy that if you told him he’d get 1 percent extra in the polls by beheading a kitten on College Green he’d do it without question.” Yikes.
SO IN SUMMARY: Every camp insists they can reach the final two, and the ban on inter-camp briefing is … er … all going terribly well.
LAME DUCK TAKES FLIGHT: Brace for tons more of this at the Tory conference, where three days will be devoted heavily to multiple appearances by the leadership contenders — and Rishi Sunak will not even give a main stage speech. Nor will most shadow Cabinet ministers. The BBC’s Henry Zeffman was first with the details and Playbook is told he’s on the money.
UP IN ARMS: Britain’s suspension of some arms exports to Israel won’t have “any significant impact” on the country’s military campaign in Gaza, former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast host Anne McElvoy. Full episode here.
LAMMY RAMMY: Foreign Secretary David Lammy insisted last night that the U.S. was not left “unhappy” by his decision, despite being at odds with it. “I have spoken to Tony Blinken about this matter,” he told LBC. “They totally respect and understand our legal regime.”
ROBOT OVERLORDS: Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is in Lithuania with 45 counterparts to sign the world’s first legally binding AI treaty. It will require signatories to ensure the tech is rolled out in a way that protects people’s privacy and doesn’t undermine democracy — though my tech reporter colleague Joseph Bambridge points out critics say it lacks teeth as it only applies to the public sector.
HE’S HELPING AGAIN: Downing Street may have clammed up on a youth mobility scheme with the EU, but ex-PM Tony Blair (surprise!) is in favor. He spoke to ex-Conservative Leader William Hague on The Story podcast.
NEVER FORGET: Ex-PM David Cameron popped up in the Lords to defend putting Britain’s long-delayed Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens. He said moving it would be “surrender” but Tory peer Guy Black, a trustee of the Imperial War Museum Foundation, said it should go to the IWM. The Mail and Telegraph write it up.
OH LORD, MAKE IT STOP: Former Cabinet minister Michael Gove, who famously built a smoking hut on the roof of his department, is not impressed by Labour’s plans for an outdoor smoking ban. “It’s certainly not very brat summer,” Gove tells my colleague Esther Webber.
NOT LEARNING CURVE: Secondary schools suspended pupils 540,000 times over two terms in 2023-24 — more than double the number before Covid-19, according to a pretty alarming report for the IPPR think tank. It’s written up in the FT and by PA.
LAD ON TOUR: Defence Secretary John Healey will visit Royal Navy HQ in Portsmouth today before flying to meet U.K. troops in Ramstein, Germany.
SW1 EVENTS: Recruitment and Employment Confederation Deputy CEO Kate Shoesmith and the FT’s Delphine Strauss will launch the Resolution Foundation’s report on low earners at 9.30 a.m. (details here).
HOUSE OF COMMONS: Sits from 9.30 a.m. with business and trade questions … the business statement … and the second reading of the Great British Energy Bill. Labour MP Melanie Onn has the adjournment debate on rail and road connectivity in northern Lincolnshire.
WESTMINSTER HALL: Debates from 1.30 p.m. on waste crime in Staffordshire (led by Labour MP Adam Jogee) and SEND provision (independent MP Richard Burgon). 
On Committee corridor: Women’s Health Minister Gillian Merron discusses preterm birth with the preterm birth committee (10.30 a.m.). 
HOUSE OF LORDS: Sits from 11 a.m. with the introduction of former UUP MP Tom Elliott and former 1922 committee Chair Graham Brady … then questions on online safety legislation, support for Ukraine and arms sales to Israel … followed by a debate on modern methods of construction in housing (led by Conservative peer Matthew Carrington) … then a short debate on financial compensation for those who’ve suffered complications from vaginal mesh implants (Conservative peer Julia Cumberlege) … closing with a debate on VAT changes to independent schools (Conservative peer Alistair Cooke).
WHITE ELEPHANT GOES HARRUMPH: The final segment of Britain’s new longest rail bridge, the Colne Valley Viaduct on HS2, is being put in place today.
BETTER TOGETHER? The Scottish government has shelved its plans to end LGBTQ+ conversion therapy and will instead prioritize a “U.K.-wide approach,” the National reports.
RESHUFFLE RUCTION: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy faced criticism for overstepping in the biggest reshuffle of his government since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, with critics saying he has given jobs to a coterie of close allies in a bid to consolidate power around his office. POLITICO’s Kyiv correspondent Veronika Melkozerova has the details.
PUTIN’S PEOPLE: Russian President Vladimir Putin has two sons with former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva who live in a heavily guarded residence and barely interact with the Russian president’s other children, according to Russian investigative site Dossier Center. The Times and others follow it up.
POWER CUT: Volvo has scrapped its target for all its new cars to be electric by 2030 as nations grapple with the realities of net zero. Reuters has more.
CALIFORNIA DREAMING: After Stewart “Yes and ho!” Pearson inspiration Steve Hilton set his sights on becoming governor of California, as POLITICO revealed last week, there have been skyrocketing eyebrows among former colleagues in Westminster, my colleague Esther Webber reports. Hilton was depicted as a sometimes-comical figure during his stint in David Cameron’s No. 10 … And yet Tory big beasts say he’s in with a shout of pulling this off. “He is a natural disrupter,” Michael Gove tells Esther. “I don’t think anyone should underestimate him.”
Hmmmm: Not everyone remembers Hilton’s time in No. 10 so fondly. “He was walking around Downing Street in his socks becoming an increasingly unhappy figure,” one ex-colleague says. A second adds: “He would just come out with these mad ideas, and had no patience for people who said ‘Hang on, isn’t that a bit mad?’ That was just their fault, not being revolutionary enough.” Read Esther’s ace profile here.
POLL POSITION: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is polling ahead of her Republican rival Donald Trump in four of six key swing states — Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin — and the two are tied in Pennsylvania.
Debate update: Harris agreed to ABC News’ rules for next week’s debate with Donald Trump, relenting on her campaign’s demand that both candidates’ microphones be unmuted for all 90 minutes they are on stage, my Stateside colleague Eli Stokols reports.
STEELY MOVE: U.S. President Joe Biden is set to block Japanese firm Nippon Steel’s proposed $14.9 billion purchase of U.S. Steel, the Washington Post reports.
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With an initial pilot in Cambridge, we will acquire suitable homes before working in partnership with housing organisations and local authorities to lower the costs of providing suitable and good quality accommodation for families who are currently living in temporary accommodation. Find out more about the innovative ways we are supporting the delivery of more social homes here.**
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner broadcast round: Times Radio (7.05 a.m.) … Sky News (7.15 a.m.) … BBC Breakfast (7.30 a.m.) … Today (8.10 a.m.) … GMB (8.30 a.m.) … LBC (10.30 a.m.)
Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho broadcast round: Times Radio (7.35 a.m.) … Sky News (8.15 a.m.) … LBC (8.50 a.m.) … GB News (9.10 a.m.) … Talk (9.20 a.m.). 
Also on Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: Former Justice Secretary Alex Chalk (8.35 a.m.).
Also on Good Morning Britain: Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis (8.15 a.m.). 
Also on Times Radio Breakfast: Paul Afshar from End Our Cladding Scandal (7.45 a.m.) … Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Conservative Party Leader William Hague (8.15 a.m.) … Labour peer Charlie Falconer (9.35 a.m.). 
Also on Sky News Breakfast: Environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey (8.30 a.m.). 
Politics Live (BBC Two 12.15 p.m.): Labour MP Rachel Blake … Shadow Women and Equalities Minister Mims Davies … Former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi … Guardian Political Editor Pippa Crerar.
POLITICO UK:  David Cameron’s bare-foot warrior bids for glory in California.
Daily Express: 72 killed by: Dishonesty, indifference, complacency.
Daily Mail: Will they ever get justice?
Daily Mirror: Now get them justice.
Daily Star: I’ll tell ALL I know about the little green men.
Financial Times: Official failings and industry deceits led to Grenfell tragedy, inquiry finds.
i: Everyone failed them.
Metro: Grenfell — the 26-year countdown to disaster.
The Daily Telegraph: Sewage leak water bosses to face two years’ jail.
The Guardian: Grenfell: a disaster caused by ‘dishonesty and greed.’
The Independent: All 72 deaths were avoidable. 
The Times: Killed by greed and a culture of dishonesty.
New Statesman: Starmer under fire — Labour’s battle to reassert the British state, by Andrew Marr.
POLITICO: The Metsola exception.
The Spectator: Ta-Da! Ross Clark on Ed Miliband’s empty energy promise. 
The New European: The promise Starmer should have broken, by James Ball.
WESTMINSTER WEATHER: It’s going to rain. Anyone miss complaining about the sun? High 22C, low 18C. 
 SPOTTED … at the launch for Anthony Seldon’s biography “Truss at 10” at Daunt Books in Marylebone, where he said “I feel sad for her. I feel sorry for the family. I also feel sorry for all the families across Britain” … Tory MPs David Davis and Jesse Norman … Tory peer Virginia Bottomley … Crossbench peers Karan Bilimoria and Simon McDonald … former 1922 committee Chair Graham Brady with his wife Victoria Lowther … former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi … former Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt … former skills minister Robert Halfon … former tech minister Damian Collins … CCHQ’s Danielle Boxall … former Downing Street comms chief Craig Oliver … former Downing Street press secretary Paul Harrison … Tony Blair’s former Director of Government Relations Anji Hunter … former David Cameron aide Caroline Preston … hacks Tim Shipman, John Pienaar, Adam Boulton, Tamara Cohen, Lauren McGaun, Miranda Green and Camilla Turner … BBC head of press Simon Alford … former U.K. Ambassador to the U.S. Kim Darroch talking to BBC Director General Tim Davie … former Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen MacNamara … former U.K. Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher … former U.K. Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Westmacott … the Institute for Government’s Hannah White and Alex Thomas … Constitution Unit Director Meg Russell … LSE academic Tony Travers … and RSA Chief Executive Andy Haldane.
SPOTTED … At the Netflix and Grill summer party at Soho House on the Strand: Creative Industries Minister Chris Bryant … Cabinet Office Minister Abena Oppong-Asare … Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury Nigel Huddleston … shadow health minister John Whittingdale … Labour MPs Jake Richards, Jon Pearce, Sarah Coombes, Nick Smith, Jeff Smith, Steve Race, Anna Turley, Gordon McKee, Florence Eshalomi, Marsha de Cordova and Dawn Butler … Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage … Conservative peers Tina Stowell and Stephen Parkinson … Lib Dem peers Jane Bonham-Carter, Tim Razzall, Timothy Clement-Jones … Downing Street Press Secretary Sophie Nazemi … Labour Director of Digital Tom Lillywhite … SpAds Harjeet Sahota, Richard Howarth, Sophia Kewell, Darren Murphy … Netflix’s VP content Anne Mensah and Senior Public Policy U.K. Director Benjamin King. 
HORRIFIC CRASH: A cyclist remains in hospital with potentially life-changing injuries and police are investigating after a truck collided with her in Parliament Square just before PMQs. The chaotic scene was captured here. 
Meanwhile: An ambulance was separately called to parliament at 6.30 p.m. Tuesday after someone fell ill on the estate. They were taken to hospital by paramedics. 
FOR THE GEEKS: The Institute for Government wonks have a database of all government ministers since 1979 — check it out here. Pub quiz gems include that the average secretary of state lasted just 15 months after the Brexit vote (down from 29) and Ken Clarke was the longest-serving Cabinet minister.
THROWBACK THURSDAY: The News Agents’ Emily Maitlis recounted interviewing then-Prime Minister Theresa May shortly after the deadly Grenfell Fire. 
TYPOS OF OUR TIME: A keen-eyed reader points out DSIT officials had two meetings with … er … Reform UK, say transparency docs. Playbook is assured it was the Reform think tank, not Nigel Farage’s insurgent party.
SPORTING MAN: GB News’ Chris Hope is cycling from London to the Lib Dem conference in Brighton on September 15 to raise money for Cricket Builds Hope, which supports communities in Rwanda through the sport. 
NEW GIG: Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Milton Keynes Central Johnny Luk has joined Communications Agency Cast from Clay as their new Head of Public Affairs. 
NOW READ: Andrew Marr in the New Statesman on Keir Starmer’s difficult job to be a popular prime minister, which Marr says is all about authority. 
WRITING PLAYBOOK PM: Andrew McDonald.
WRITING PLAYBOOK FRIDAY MORNING: Dan Bloom. 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Former West Dorset MP Chris Loder … Former West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper  … APCO’s Lynn Davidson … Crossbench peer Valerie Howarth … Scottish Tory MSP Murdo Fraser … former MoJ SpAd Sally Rushton … The Times’ Defense Editor Larisa Brown … Cleverly campaign aide Alice Hopkin.
PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editors Zoya Sheftalovich, Jack Blanchard and Alex Spence, diary reporter Bethany Dawson and producer Dean Southwell.
CLARIFICATION: This newsletter has been updated to clarify that Deputy Speaker Nusrat Ghani will be drawing the private members bill ballot, with the introductions taking place on October 16.
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