James Heale

The most interesting moment from Keir Starmer’s big set speech today came during the questions. The Labour leader had just set out his ‘five missions’ to fix the NHS, economy, crime, energy and education systems – the issues on which Labour hopes to fight the next election. But journalist after journalist preferred to ask Starmer instead about the last election he fought – the leadership contest to succeed Jeremy Corbyn. How, they asked, can voters trust the Labour leader’s promises, when he’s broken so many that he made to his own member? Starmer’s answers were clear: the goal is a Labour government, anything else is an irrelevance. The old Fortress Twickenham slogan could have been tattooed on his forehead: ‘Winning – that is why we are here.

Much has been written about Damian Green’s failure on Saturday to be selected for the new Weald of Kent seat. It was swiftly hailed as the ‘grassroots revenge’ of pro-Boris forces within the party. Theresa May’s onetime deputy was described as a ‘prominent anti-Boris activist’ responsible for forcing him ‘out of Downing Street’ last July. The newly-formed Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) was quick to trumpet the result. Its chairman David Campbell-Bannerman said that ‘Those who turned on Boris Johnson are being punished – this deselection is hard evidence of this being real.’ Party chair Greg Hands tweeted his ‘full support’ of Green, declaring that ‘we stand behind our MPs.

After much speculation, Kate Forbes has today become the third candidate to officially enter the race to replace Nicola Sturgeon. The Finance Secretary is currently on maternity leave until the beginning of April but has just released a slick video, setting out her stall to be First Minister. There's no mention of any specific policy but there's plenty of familiar buzzwords for the party faithful: talk of 'self-definition', 'unleashing' Scotland's potential and comparisons to wealthy Scandinavian countries. As for her own credentials, Forbes cites her record running the finance ministry and says she is 'bold, brave and energised, fresh-faced and ready for new challenges'.

The first two candidates have declared in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon: Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf. The pair announced their intent in a front-page story for the Sunday Mail titled ‘Battle of the Bill: FM hopefuls go head-to-head on gender reform’. That focus reflects Regan’s major claim to fame as the only minister to resign over Sturgeon’s trans reforms back in October. In so doing, she became the first minister within the SNP to resign over government policy in 15 years. That is a testament to how united the party has been on most policy planks and suggests that the Gender Recognition Reform Bill will probably be one of the few public points of contention in this contest.

This week two former Foreign Secretaries offered competing visions for how Britain should engage with China. On Wednesday, Philip Hammond was quoted in China Daily as championing a ‘trade-first approach’, urging politicians to ‘return to business as usual’ and ignore ‘background noise.’ And last night, Liz Truss set out a much more hawkish alternative, using her first post-premiership speech in Japan to make the case for strengthening ties with Taiwan and countering ‘the rise of a totalitarian China.’ The fact that these two politicians served alongside each other in successive Cabinets for five years – with Truss working as Hammond’s deputy for two of them – is testament to the divergence and shifts of opinion within the Conservative party on this issue.

It's more bad news for the Beeb with a stinging set of Sunday papers today. The Culture select committee has released a report in the appointment of Richard Sharp as the Corporation's chairman – and it makes for damning reading. The MPs accuse him of failing to publicly divulge his role in facilitating an £800,000 loan for Boris Johnson by omitting key details in introducing Johnson to businessman Sam Blyth. He is accused of making 'significant errors of judgement' and undermining the selection process for his role. The omissions 'constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals' applying for top public jobs. And while the MPs stop short of calling for Sharp to go, their conclusions suggest his future at the BBC ought to now be in doubt.