Katy Balls

Although Downing Street insists Nigel Farage will not be the UK's ambassador to the US, on Wednesday night the interim Ukip leader tasted what that would be like. At a party at the Ritz to honour his contribution to the Brexit campaign, Farage handed out Ferrero Rocher chocolates to guests as he hailed the new world order. 'In America the revolution is total,' Farage announced. 'In this country, the people have spoken, but the same players have just been shuffled around the chess board and we are still being run by the career professional political class.' With Farage's close ties to Donald Trump, speculation grows that he now envisages his interests best served across the pond.

Since the Leave vote, Ukip has struggled to capitalise on the post referendum moment. While the Labour party isolates itself from its once core working class voters, Ukip have been busy in-fighting. Today's figures from the electoral commission show how dire the situation is. In the donations received between 1 July and 30 September 2016, the cash-strapped party received just £42,943. Meanwhile the BNP received almost double this, with £94,428 in donations. Part of the problem they face is that -- as Nigel Farage steps away -- the party's biggest donor Arron Banks has expressed doubts over its future. Despite this, the largest donation -- nearly £30,000 -- in this quarter came from Rock Services Ltd, of which Banks is director.

As the government 'consider' inviting Donald Trump for a state visit, the president-elect was top of the agenda at today's Foreign Office questions. With the Westminster establishment riled over Trump's latest tweet claiming Nigel Farage would make a 'great' UK ambassador to the US, Simon Burns hit back -- suggesting Boris Johnson return the favour and request Trump send Hillary Clinton to fill the role of US ambassador to the UK. Continuing the theme of putting people forward against their will for jobs that either aren't available or don't exist, Labour's David Winnick said that it was Brandon Dixon -- the Hamilton actor who made an anti-Trump speech over the weekend -- who ought to become the 'unofficial ambassador' from the United States to Britain.

Today Theresa May used her speech at the CBI annual conference to both reassure and inspire business leaders about Brexit Britain. In doing this, she also managed to upset a number of Brexiteers by suggesting -- in the Q&A -- that the government could pursue a ‘transitional deal’ with the EU as ‘people don't want a cliff edge’ when we leave. However, it was her main speech that provided the most newsworthy line. May appeared to drop her previous pledge to put workers on company boards.

Labour tasted victory today in the Commons. MPs voted 253 to 37 in favour of Pat Glass's private member's bill to stop the government reducing the number of MPs from 650 to 600, as part of the boundary change review. The bill will now face a second vote, where the Tories are confident they can thwart it. Figures in the party put Labour's success down to many Tory MPs having returned to their constituencies, as well as a successful whipping operation from Nick Brown While Glass has said she has no personal agenda -- given that she is stepping down as an MP at the next election -- a u-turn on the plans would certainly help her beleaguered party.

Yesterday the BBC's Norman Smith reported that the government have prepared a short three line bill to begin the process of leaving the EU. This is to be used in the event that they lose the Article 50 appeal and the Supreme Court insist on a Parliamentary Bill before Article 50 is triggered. I understand that the government have also been mooting the idea of holding a snap vote on an Article 50 motion ahead of the court case. Last week, the whips' office sounded out figures in both their own party and opposition parties over how they would vote if they ran a snap vote on Article 50 -- potentially as a ten minute rule.

With Mark Carney stepping down from his role as governor of the Bank of England in 2019, it's been widely reported that relations between Carney and Theresa May are strained. As James Forsyth writes in The Spectator, the Prime Minister managed to rub Carney up the wrong way with her Conservative conference speech when she appeared to criticise central banks and citizens of the world. At today's Treasury select committee, Carney denied that May's comments played a role in his decision to extend his contract by just 12 months. He did, however, appear to take a swipe at May over her choice words.

Nigel Farage is once again a thorn in the Prime Minister's side. After Downing Street dismissed the interim Ukip leader's offer to help May forge a relationship with Donald Trump, they were left red-faced over the weekend when Farage became the first British politician to meet the president-elect since his victory. Now the Prime Minister is under pressure to rethink her approach to both Farage and Trump. Yet rather than perform a u-turn, she has issued a fresh rejection of Farage's offer of help.

After a few anxious hours this morning when it emerged that Donald Trump had found time to telephone nine world leaders -- including Taoiseach Enda Kenny  -- but not Theresa May, the Prime Minister has now received the call. In the course of the conversation, the pair agreed the US-UK relationship was 'very important and very special', and that building on this was a priority for both. The Prime Minister also tried to lay the groundwork for a US trade deal as she highlighted her wish to 'strengthen bilateral trade and investment with the US as we leave the EU'.

While Theresa May has offered Donald Trump her congratulations this morning, the leader of the opposition has no kind words for the newly elected President of the United States. Jeremy Corbyn has issued a lengthy statement on the result -- describing Trump’s answers to the 'big questions facing America' as wrong and offering his solidarity to 'a nation of migrants, innovators and democrats'. Although the Labour leader criticises Trump, the bulk of his statement is aimed at the failure of the 'governing elite'.

David Davis tried to reassure Tory MPs that last week's court ruling — and the forthcoming supreme court appeal — would not delay the government invoking Article 50, in a Commons statement this afternoon. The Brexit secretary re-stated Theresa May’s words that the government values the independence of the judiciary and the freedom of the press. He insisted that, despite the appeal, May still plans to trigger Article 50 by the end of March. The subsequent debate, however, made clear just how much division there is on the issue -- as Davis accused those MPs demanding control over Brexit of wanting to 'wreck the negotiation'.

Today in Parliament, press regulation was top of the agenda. The government secured a Commons victory overturning a Lords amendment to effectively implement section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, a Leveson recommendation. The Lords passed the amendment -- as part of the investigatory powers bill -- last month for victims of hacking by newspapers to be protected from paying the costs of bringing their claims in the civil courts. This afternoon it was overturned -- despite Labour's best efforts to keep it  -- with a majority of 37, defeated by 298 votes to 261. The result comes after Bradley was accused of a 'cover-up of a cover-up’ over Leveson this morning.

After days of speculation – and months of simmering tensions – over the Governor of the Bank of England's future, Mark Carney has finally revealed his exit plan. Following a meeting with the Prime Minister, Carney announced that he will stay on as Governor of the Bank of England only until June 2019 – three months after the UK is expected to leave the European Union. In a letter to the Chancellor, Carney expressed his wish to extend his current five-year term by one year in order to 'help contribute to securing an orderly transition to the UK's new relationship with Europe'. While some Brexiteers will no doubt be cheering that the end is in sight, his decision will come as a disappointment to the government.

Although Jeremy Corbyn has managed to tempt some MPs who resigned from his shadow cabinet back to the frontbench, there are still many with ministerial experience who are too proud, principled or outspoken to return. So, with that in mind, today's select committee elections offered a way for moderates to make their mark without having to compromise their values. After Keith Vaz was forced to resign from his coveted role as chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, several former Labour 'heavyweights' entered into the race to succeed him. Although Chuka Umunna had widely been tipped as the favourite, it was a case of Chuka can't.