Members tie on Mahmood's settlement U-turn as housing and gambling ads win big

The day's most awkward result came on immigration, where refnation members could not pick a winner. On whether Shabana Mahmood is right to water down her plan to make migrants wait longer for settlement, the result is a dead heat, the closest of the day. Even the Yes side could not agree with itself: some defended the care-worker carve-out, others called the whole plan cruel, and the top Yes case managed only "marginally less wantonly cruel". No voters mostly wanted the original plan kept.

The verdicts

Elsewhere, members were rarely shy. Should the UK build a lot more new homes? Yes, overwhelmingly, though the most-respected voices on both sides asked for something narrower than building: social housing from Yes, regeneration from No. Should adverts for betting and gambling apps be banned? Also an overwhelming Yes, with members borrowing the tobacco and alcohol playbook. The best No offer was a watershed, treating gambling ads like swearing.

On the economy, members comfortably rejected a legal limit on how much the government can borrow, with the best No case resting on a single scenario: "Say another covid happens". Yes voters countered with future generations and broken fiscal rules. Members also comfortably judged that Andy Burnham's Government is failing to deliver real change for living standards, though the sharpest No refrain was that it is too soon: "He isn't Mary Poppins for goodness sake."

Transport produced the day's most polite rejection. Members turned down, overwhelmingly, compulsory staggered start times for large employers, while the No side kept praising the idea itself: "It's a good idea, but why make it compulsory?"

Two more went the Yes way, both comfortably. Members backed the UK leading a drive to give the Commonwealth's poorest countries longer to repay their debts, on grounds of stability and soft power, even as the best No case was a gentler plea for better trade deals. And members voted to cut Pride Month back to a single Pride Day, helped by a gay voter's shrug: "Even us homos are sick of it."

A fresh ballot is open today, and the votes keep adding up.

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