Big break: Natasha Irons (centre), new MP for Croydon East, makes her debut on the BBC’s Politics London show. There probably won’t be a rush to get her back on

It wasn’t just Keir Starmer who was being judged on his first 100 days in office. On Day 101 of her career as an MP, Natasha Irons popped up on our tellyboxes to dazzle us with her brilliance. Or not.
Political editor WALTER CRONXITE tuned in, so you didn’t have to

A whole lot of nothing: Natasha Irons giving new emptiness to the idea of vacuity

Here was a new MP, carefully groomed for Sunday morning television, eager to make an impression.

It is fair to say that Natasha Irons, the Labour MP for Croydon East, did indeed make an impression in her debut appearance on the BBC’s Politics London yesterday morning. Just not a very good one.

It was Irons, our loyal reader will recall, who was selected as a Labour candidate for the new Croydon East constituency after she had been rejected as not good enough for their CLP by Labour members in Croydon South.

Irons’ selection in Croydon East was far from straightforward, as well. It came in the contentiously disputed process where dodgy dealings were spotted with the Anonyvoter system. Funnily enough, come the selection meeting, London Labour officials never bothered declaring how many votes the candidates had won before declaring “Any Old” Irons the winner.

It is hard to determine from her early public appearances as an MP whether Irons is just vacuous, or a cypher. In her maiden speech, Irons, who was previously a Merton councillor, referred to Croydon as being London’s “most iconic borough”. It’s a formulation she has repeated since. She clearly doesn’t understand the correct meaning of “iconic”. Or “most”. Or know much about Croydon.

It seems that Irons is having her novice MP’s hand held by Sarah Jones, now the MP for Croydon West. One of Jones’s parliamentary aides, Woodside councillor Amy Foster, has been a Westminster summer transfer, moving into Irons’ office. Maybe to keep an eye on her?

There’s been all sorts of functions and receptions to attend, and Irons has even had the chance to dress up and get to see behind the scenes at the trams depot. Which is nice. But it doesn’t really amount to much.

Irons is certainly no firebrand, her voting record in those first 101 days showing her to be fully subscribed to the role of Starmer lobby fodder – voting against lifting the two-child benefit cap to help families in her constituency, voting to remove the Winter Fuel Payment from pensioners in Croydon. Such dependability in the lobby was no doubt one of the reasons she was allowed to be selected.

So there was no expectation of any surprises as Irons appeared in the BBC studio alongside presenter Samantha Simmonds yesterday. And even then, we were left very disappointed.

Dressing up day: Irons appears to be relishing being invited to receptions and tram sheds

The producers led with the state of London local councils’ finances, an area even Irons ought to know something about, having been a council cabinet member in Merton before being promoted to the giddy heights of parliament.

Back in the summer, sure in the knowledge that she would win the seat at the General Election, Irons appeared at hustings and dismissed Labour’s bankrupting of Croydon Council as “a load of nothing”. As one left-leaning voter said at the time, “I’m not really holding much hope for Irons as an MP, given that she seems to think criminality and bankruptcy is ‘nothing’.”

So, Irons was asked on air, what would she do to fix councils’, and Croydon’s, financial problems? There seemed to be an air of vague uncertainty. The solutions, her party’s, if not her own, she conceded, will be seen by some as insubstantial.

“I can’t pre-empt the Budget,” she said, resorting to the safe option of staying schtumm when you don’t know much about much.

Pressed again by Simmonds on financial solutions for local government, Irons said, “Again, I can’t pre-empt the Budget. I just… I can’t do that.” So a whole load of nothing then.

Irons said there was “a change in tone” in central government towards local government.

But you can’t spend “a change of tone”.

Irons pointed out that the government’s financial review was due in the spring, though by that time, Croydon Council is likely to be effectively bankrupt yet again, and her constituents would be paying more and getting much, much less in terms of essential services.

Irons conceded that “it doesn’t sound like much”, but she hoped that setting out government grants to local councils over a number of years rather than one year at a time would help: “I don’t think we should underestimate the power of multiyear funding assessments, I know it doesn’t sound like much.” A whole load of nothing, in fact.

Knowing that your budget is hopelessly inadequate over several years, instead of just one, does not seem much of a solution. But it was the closest all morning that Irons came to actually answering a question.

Let’s not forget: she was not freelancing here. Irons will have been put forward as the official Labour spokesperson for a London politics programme, in response to a BBC request. There will have been briefings, official lines will have been provided, the whips’ office will have given its blessing.

Labour’s intention to introduce no fault evictions of tenants – “ending Section 21 evictions” – would help reduce council homeless housing budgets, Irons said. But this is something that won’t be much help for a year or more. Irons’ response seemed to overlook the £250million extra spending this year by councils across the capital (did Irons not know this?). Croydon’s homeless housing budget is expected to be 66% overspent this year. Did Irons not know this?

On social services, Irons said, not entirely coherently: “Like a borough like Croydon, where I’m an MP, you’ve got the phenomenon of people getting older and living good quality older lives and you have people moving in with their families, we’re both the youngest borough in London and quite an older borough of London, and what means is that the council is then having to deal with things like children’s social care and adult social care, and the state of the local council is that it is struggling to keep up with that kind of demand.”

Got that?

Basically, Natasha Irons’ big TV debut as an MP amounted to a load of nothing. We shouldn’t be surprised.

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