Steerpike

Two down, one to go. Following the humiliating midnight departure of NatWest chief Alison Rose, Peter Flavel is the next banking boss to fall on his sword. Flavel, the chief executive of Coutts since 2016, this lunchtime announced his immediate departure from the luxury bank as it grapples with the fall out of the Nigel Farage scandal. Flavel said: In the handling of Mr Farage’s case we have fallen below the bank’s high standards of personal service. As CEO of Coutts it is right that I bear ultimate responsibility for this, which is why I am stepping down. Mohammad Kamal Syed, the head of Coutts’ asset management team, will step into the role of interim CEO of Coutts.

Nigel Farage blasted Nick Robinson for his 'condescending tone' during a fiery interview on the Today programme. The BBC host asked the former Ukip leader whether he was planning a political comeback following his run-in with Coutts bank. But Farage lashed out at Robinson, telling him he was 'sick to death' of his line of questioning: 'I'm really not going to have this. I am sick to death of your condescending tone. No, no actually you weren't. What you should say to people is, "you're the only person in British history who has won two national elections leading two different parties." Let's try that for size shall we.

Sorry doesn’t seem to be the hardest word over at the BBC. The Corporation has had to issue another grovelling apology – after a BBC reporter asked Morocco’s captain Ghizlane Chebbak whether any of the Women’s World Cup Squad are lesbians. In Morocco, it is illegal to have a gay relationship. Do you have any gay players in your squad and what’s life like for them in Morocco? https://www.youtube.com/embed/JU-ZokjFjks Same-sex sexual activity is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment in Morocco, which is the first Arab nation to quality for the Women’s World Cup. A Fifa official intervened following the question: ‘Sorry, this is a very political question so we will just stick to questions relating to football’.

Dogs bark, cows moo and the BBC makes a hash of it. After holding out for a week, the Corporation has today thrown in the towel and issued a belated and grovelling apology to Nigel Farage for misreporting the reason his bank account at Coutts was closed. The Beeb's original report by its Business Editor Simon Jack claimed that the reason for the closure was that Farage’s account had fallen beneath the bank’s wealth limit.  But following last week’s revelation that Farage’s account was shut because he was not ‘compatible with Coutts... as an inclusive organisation’, the BBC has been left with a substantial amount of egg on its face once again.

It's been a difficult time for the gay rights charity Stonewall. Chief Executive Nancy Kelley is due to leave her job next week, after a torturous year that saw the Allison Bailey case and numerous employers withdraw from the charity's 'Diversity Champions' scheme. Iain Anderson, Stonewall's Chair, was probably hoping to put all this behind him when he sat down with Sky's Beth Rigby for an in-depth interview on the charity's work. Unfortunately for Anderson, Rigby raised some of the thorniest issues with regards to trans rights, including elite sports and single-sex spaces. Asked about trans swimmer Lia Thomas beating two biological women on a podium, he replied 'We're working our way through on this' and 'We want everyone to play their full part in society.

You just hate to see it. Less than 12 hours after the Uxbridge result and already the Labour blame game is well underway. The chairman of the local party has quit in disgust, citing Starmer's lack of principles. And now Starmer has decided that the solution to his problems is to, er, throw his party's most senior elected politician in England under the bus. Let's hope it was a carbon-friendly one... Sir Keir told broadcasters this morning that Uxbridge was always going to be a 'tough' seat, arguing that: We didn’t take it in 1997 when we had a landslide Labour victory. And Ulez was the reason we didn’t win there yesterday. We know that. We heard that on the doors. And we’ve all got to reflect on that, including the mayor.