Steerpike

Poor Rishi Sunak just can’t catch a break. Every time he tries to establish a new narrative, one of his MPs triggers a by-election that gets us talking about the same old Tory woes. Today it’s the turn of Blackpool backbencher Scott Benton. He was the MP caught on camera by the Times in April, allegedly boasting about lobbying ministers for cash to a gambling firm. Since then he has sat as an independent MP, pending an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and subsequent approval by the Standards Committee. Today their verdict was published and it doesn’t make for happy reading. Benton is facing a 35-day suspension from the Commons.

Kemi Badenoch isn't exactly known for beating around the bush, and her spat with a Labour MP at this evening's Women and Equalities Select Committee was no exception. After Kate Osborne accused the Business Secretary of using ‘inflammatory language’, and likening ‘children and young people coming out as trans to the spread of a disease’, Badenoch didn't hesitate to hit back, saying: KB: I never said that. That is a lie. KO: Well... KB: That is a lie. And I think you should withdraw that statement. That is a lie. You are lying. You are lying. KO: I’m not lying to you… KB: You are. I have never used the word disease. And this is exactly what I’m talking about. You are making a statement in a select committee that are untrue.

Oh dear. For a while now, Danny Kruger has established himself as one of the more troublesome Tory MPs from No. 10’s perspective. The 2019 MP served as political secretary to Boris Johnson before entering parliament. Yet in recent months he has tended to adopt positions that cause Downing Street a headache. He helped found the 'New Conservatives' - a Tory caucus largely made up of 2019 intake MPs in red wall seats. While Kruger's seat is very much in the blue wall category, he has warned repeatedly that Sunak must keep the 2019 election coalition of voters alive. This morning, Kruger was one in a group of 'New Conservatives' to have breakfast with the Prime Minister as Sunak tried to convince them to back the Rwanda Bill.

Will Gary Lineker ever learn? The BBC Sports pundit is now facing criticism after signing an open letter calling for the government to end the Rwanda plan and create a ‘fair new plan for refugees’. It comes just nine months after he sparked a huge row over describing government rhetoric as being not dissimilar from, er, 1930s Germany. So much for that famed BBC impartiality… Far from being chastened, the left-wing centre forward it at it again. Quote-tweeting Jonathan Gullis MP on Twitter — who criticised Lineker’s impartiality rule breach — the Match of the Day presenter sneered: ‘Jonathan hasn’t read the new guidelines…or, should I say, had someone read them to him?

It’s been a highly anticipated finale of I’m A Celebrity, not least because of the staying power of Brexit mastermind Nigel Farage — who tonight made third place in the series. For weeks, viewers have been glued to their screens, delighting in seeing the controversial GB news presenter squirm. From eating pig’s anus on pizza to being filmed in the nude, it’s certainly tested Farage’s humility.  But while no one could accuse Farage of being camera shy, ITV insiders have complained that the ex-MEP is ‘one of the least interesting campmates ever’. Others have criticised the former Brexit party leader of tactically stripping and wearing his shirt backwards to better display his voting information.

After months of tedium, Sunday newsrooms everywhere rejoiced at Robert Jenrick's resignation on Wednesday night. Finally, a return to the greatest hits: Tory splits and fevered speculation of a leadership contest. Leading the way is the Mail on Sunday which brings news of yet another food-themed conspiracy. Boris Johnson saw off the 'pork pie plot' but Rishi Sunak is reportedly facing the 'pasta plotters' who are 'cooking up a scheme' to oust him at a Covent Garden Italian eaterie. Penne Mordaunt for leader, anyone? The paper declares tonight that a 'determined cabal of MPs and political strategists' have been meeting at the legendary Giovanni's restaurant, a stone's throw away from Westminster.

Stop the presses: Starmer Chameleon has U-turned once again. In predictable fashion, he last night sought to row back on his praise for Margaret Thatcher less than a week after he hailed her ‘natural entrepreneurialism’ in the Sunday Telegraph. In a speech which justified his critics’ claims that he changes his rhetoric to match his auspices, Starmer told a Scottish Labour gala dinner in Glasgow: She did terrible things, particularly here in Scotland which everybody in this room, myself included, profoundly disagrees with. Trying to square this week’s views with last weekend’s column, Starmer pleaded that ‘the point I was trying to make…is that there are some political leaders who have a mission, a plan, that they implement’.