Benedict Cooper

19 Mar Parliament

Private Members' Bills: The flawed and occasionally successful route to change

Most Private Members’ Bills fail, and those that succeed take months or even years of dogged negotiation and campaigning against the odds. Yet MPs’ names fill the ballot bowl to get the chance to table a bill each session, and some go to extraordinary, unorthodox lengths to see their legislation through to royal assent. Benedict Cooper takes a closer look at one of the most eccentric aspects of the parliamentary process

24 Feb 2020 Political parties

Talk of the town: On the road in Worksop with Lisa Nandy

After 85 years as a Labour seat, the Nottinghamshire constituency of Bassetlaw witnessed the largest swing from Labour to the Conservatives in the country at the general election. Benedict Cooper joins Lisa Nandy on a trip to the area to hear first hand how she plans to reconnect with the party’s former heartlands