Some very very gloomy budget stories in tomorrow’s Guardian / FT — with loads of detail of what’s being looked at including capital gains tax, inheritance tax and above-inflation rises in social housing rents 😬

Writing tomorrow's Playbook 🖊️

Writing tomorrow’s Playbook, accompanied by some sort of prawn

As reporters, there are days where juicy tips, confidential documents or secret intel show up unsolicited in our inboxes, leading to a big story. Other days, we receive EMBARGOED UNTIL THE BALLOONS DROP

Intriguing suggestion from Labour sources via Dan Bloom: “political” civil service appts are a way round limit on special adviser numbers politico.eu/newsletter/lon…

Why is this giving me Ed Davey energy?

Dear Larry Larry the Cat popping into the Foreign Office this morning I believe to check out the PMs favourite Steak crisps ! "Im sure they have lowered these gates" Happy Bank Holiday weekend all.

Well this was bloody brilliant 😍

In May this year, Lord Peter Hendy pressured my now-former employer SYSTRA UK & Ireland to sack me by threatening them. Why did he do this? Because I'd highlighted safety and accessibility issues at Euston station. He is unfit for office and should resign. politico.eu/article/uk-rai…

UK rail minister got engineer sacked for raising safety concerns about Euston station overcrowding politico.eu/article/uk-rai… Peter Hendy threatened to withhold public contracts from the man’s employer while urging disciplinary action — and asked officials to “deal with him”

Top scoop Govt is so far ruling out other suggestions from the same review: -Banning smoking in council houses, requiring cigs to dyed green and banning films and TV with smoking before 9pm watershed But those will be the next frontiers

This is really grim. Good reporting by Joe Pike bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Exc in this morning’s Playbook — Paul Marshall set to be declared owner of the Spectator within a week

Exclusive: Starmer strategist Deborah Mattinson heading to Washington to give advice to Kamala Harris campaign politico.eu/article/kamala…

Thanks to the readers who spotted I (somehow?) managed to pull a couple of details from a 2023 press release on the private members' bill ballot 😲 Corrected now online, and I promise the *other* details in those pars remain correct... 👀 politico.eu/newsletter/lon…

One long-serving Tory on Robert Jenrick: “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.” Yellow card system going well ... politico.eu/newsletter/lon…

PARIS — Macron appoints Michel Barnier as new PM, hoping to end political impasse 🍿 politico.eu/article/france…

Looks like MPs will get an assisted dying vote in the next year. Keir Starmer has committed to giving government time in the Commons to a backbench bill, and I'm told he has no objection to one being brought forward in this cycle. All it takes is for an MP to volunteer — as below