# Parties rethink old policies as Labour shifts on North Sea drilling

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/what-essentials-to-keep-what-rubbish-to-get-rid-of-burnham-badenoch-farage-dont-know-either-robert-hutton/
- Published: 2026-10-24T07:00:27+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-24T07:32:17+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/24/burnham-badenoch-farage-essentials-truss
- Topics: Americas, Business, Culture, Food, Markets, World

## Key points

- Labour has dropped its opposition to new North Sea drilling.
- Badenoch is distancing herself from her party’s record in government.
- Hutton criticises Reform’s rhetoric on race and religion.

## Summary

Robert Hutton’s column uses the idea of political “housekeeping” to describe parties discarding old policies and arguments after a fractious week. Labour’s move towards new North Sea oil and gas drilling has unsettled its opponents, while the changing positions leave the political debate increasingly focused on whether Margaret Thatcher was right.

The article says Kemi Badenoch is distancing herself from the Conservative record, including taxes raised under the last government, despite having served in its cabinet. It also mocks Reform for continuing to promote divisive ideas about race and religion, citing comments by MP Danny Kruger about Muslims. The supplied text ends mid-sentence, so it does not include the full account of those remarks.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.