Steerpike

David Cameron left 10 Downing Street with indecent haste. Britain had voted for Brexit and we were about to discover a scandal: he had instructed the civil service not to do any preparatory work in the event of a Yes vote. This led to a crushed timetable that destabilised his successors as he ran for the door. Cameron then further broke the normal conventions of public service by resigning and forcing his constituents into a by-election rather than serving them for a full term as he promised. (Nadine Dorries is the only other MP in recent years to have bolted when her career headed south).  Cameron’s hiding from the public eye has meant he's dodged many questions about his record.

Remembrance Sunday traditionally brings with it a pause in political hostilities but not for Nadine Dorries. The former Culture Secretary was out on Laura Kuenssberg's show this morning, three days on from the release of her long-awaited book on the supposed 'plot' to bring down Boris Johnson in which Michael Gove is cast as one of the central villains. And following the bizarre scenes yesterday in which Gove was mobbed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Dorries showed little sympathy with her onetime cabinet colleague: ND: "But the point on Michael Gove in that, I've got to raise it, what was Michael Gove doing in the middle of Victoria Station on a day when every other sensible politician would not want to make the police's job any harder and would keep away. I mean was he drunk?

Rarely has a protest had so much hype before it has even happened. But today’s pro-Palestinian march had something for everyone. Sadiq Khan has pointed the finger of blame at Suella Braverman over the attempts by right wing protesters to ambush pro-Palestine supporters. Meanwhile, the chants of ‘from the river to the sea’ have led watchers to question whether this was really a march for peace after all. And now a government minister has been thrown into the mix. Footage is doing the rounds on social media of Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, being mobbed by pro-Palestinian protesters at Victoria station this afternoon. Gove appears to have got caught up in the march, rather than having planned to be there.

Ding, ding, ding! The latest round of fighting has just concluded in the weird and wonderful world of Tory WhatsApp groups. In a series of messages obtained by Sky News, various backbenchers turn on each another in the ongoing fall-out from Suella Braverman's row with the Metropolitan Police. Some were supportive; others critical but one thing is for sure – none of them are very happy. Veteran right-winger Sir John Hayes kicked off the exchange by declaring that it was 'so sad to see protests being allowed on the Remembrance weekend', arguing that it was 'wholly inappropriate' and urging colleagues to 'speak for the law-abiding, patriotic majority by saying so'. Others then weighed in.

It would be easy to get the impression that the Covid Inquiry – with its relentless focus on bad language and offensive WhatsApp messages – has so far been a waste of time. But that’s not quite true: it’s been a massive waste of money too. Today the Inquiry released its accounts for up to September 2023, which show that the cost of the lumbering investigation has already ballooned to £56 million, even though public hearings only began in June. As you’d expect, the largest expenses so far have been on lawyers, with the Inquiry shelling out £19.6 million to keep 62 barristers (including 12 KCs) and a team of solicitors on the books. Another £11 million has then gone towards legal representation for key participants in the hearings.

The Holyrood WhatsApp drama can now be upgraded from ‘mystery’ to ‘scandal’. As if not handing over important messages wasn’t bad enough, the First Minister and his deputy have today been accused of misleading the Scottish parliament on the UK Covid Inquiry. It seems pantomime season starts early north of the border… Yousaf and deputy first minister Shona Robison told the Chamber last week that the Scottish government had only been asked for Covid WhatsApp messages in September. It now turns out this isn’t quite the case. After the Covid Inquiry requested the Scottish government set out the timeline of events in full, it became clear that it had first requested messages in February — seven months earlier than Yousaf had initially claimed.

Oh dear. Just hours after Keir Starmer was touting Labour as a government-in-waiting, he lost his first frontbencher over the ongoing Gaza conflict. Imran Hussain last night quit as Shadow Minister for the New Deal for Working People, after eight years serving as a party spokesman. Hussain was one of fifteen Labour frontbenchers who have called for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. Will others now follow suit? In his resignation letter to Starmer, Hussain said: 'Over recent weeks, it has become clear that my view on the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza differs substantially from the position you have adopted... I believe the party needs to go further and call for a ceasefire.

It’s the King’s Speech tomorrow and all of Westminster can barely contain itself. A new monarch might be on the throne, but the usual pre-briefing game hasn’t changed, with press stories aplenty as to the draft laws that are likely to be included. One bill that is set to be announced tomorrow is legislation to implement the gradual smoking ban announced by Rishi Sunak at this year's Conservative Party conference.  Much has been made of the public’s support for such a move, but if Sunak hopes it will energise his base, he ought to think again. For polling of 696 members by the Tory news site ConservativeHome suggests that the generation smoking ban was the least important of ten issues floated for inclusion in the King’s Speech.

Nadine Dorries continues to make waves in Westminster. One episode she references in her book concerns shocking claims that the Tory party 'covered up' incidents of sexual misconduct by one of its own MPs. Today's Mail on Sunday reports that Sir Jake Berry, who served as chairman between September and October 2022, wrote to the police shortly after taking office. His letter revealed that a number of allegations about the MP had been made to the party, but that only limited action had been taken. Berry reportedly uncovered the scandal when he discovered that the party had paid for one of the alleged victims to receive treatment at a private hospital.