David cameron

The three main Labour leadership candidates have now all said that they want a referendum on Britain’s relationship with the EU. But the party’s ‘official’ position - that is, the policy it went into the last election with that everyone seems quite keen to disown - is that there should not be a referendum. The party will not have chosen its leader by the time of next week’s Queen’s Speech, even if MPs seem to be making their minds up pretty quickly, and so when the EU referendum bill is published in that speech, the party will need to respond. It would perhaps make sense if that response wasn’t a repeat of the old Miliband policy, given all the candidates likely to succeed him want a referendum.

During this election, every newspaper endorsed the party that most of their readers support – with two exceptions. The Independent and the Evening Standard, who have left-leaning readerships, both backed the Tories (in the Indy’s case, the coalition). A bold decision for the proprietor, Evgeny Lebedev, given that the endorsement divided readers and staff alike. But anyway he had plenty to celebrate on the day after the election: a Tory majority government and his own 35th birthday. Mr S gathers that a lavish party was held, attended by his closest friends: Emma Watson, Monica Lewinsky, Salma Hayek and… none other than David Cameron.

George Osborne has moved to strengthen his personal, political operation by hiring the political editor of the Daily Mail James Chapman as his director of communications. This beefing up of his media team will be seen in Westminster as a statement of political intent by the Chancellor; it gives him a more formidable operation than any of the other likely contenders for the Tory leadership. I am told that Chapman will be handling communications for Osborne in his role as both Chancellor and First Secretary of State.

All this talk from Labour and the Liberal Democrats about who will be their next party leader appears to have got to the Tory camp. Although the dust is yet to settle following David Cameron's surprise Conservative majority in the election, Mensch couldn't help but offer her prediction for who the next Tory Prime Minister will be, when asked over Twitter. The former Cameron Cutie says that the man for the job next time around is not odds-on favourite Boris Johnson, but instead George Osborne: https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/599155805582135296 She claims that Bojo's chance has come and gone: https://twitter.com/EJHarrison6 Of course, whether Boris would agree with Mensch's statement is another issue entirely.