Steerpike

Uh oh. Following a rowdy bust up with the SNP’s chief whip Brendan O'Hara, the party establishment has now chosen to expel Angus MacNeil MP. MacNeil, a close ally of former first minister Alex Salmond, was initially suspended after news of the fight broke, which saw him reportedly seethe ‘you’re a small wee man!’ at O'Hara several times before flinging an entire stack of papers at him. He has been sitting as an independent MP ever since.  In a scathing Twitter post, MacNeil announced that ‘the summer of member expulsion’ has ‘come to pass.’ The decision to expel him from the party was made by a ‘member conduct committee’, the MP tweeted, alongside a kangaroo emoji… Now, whatever could he be trying to suggest? https://twitter.

To say the SNP have a disastrous record on transport would be putting it lightly. The ferries don’t run on time (if at all), the mystery of the motorhome remains unsolved and the nationalists still haven’t dualled Scotland’s most dangerous road. Perhaps then it’s no surprise to hear that former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and her husband (and former party chief executive) Peter Murrell have been caught driving an untaxed car around town.  It took an awkward phone call from the Sun newspaper for the couple to rectify the late tax, overdue by eight days. Sturgeon and Murrell may now receive a ‘late licensing penalty’ letter and an £80 fine.

Is Diane Abbott OK? A day after the independent MP hit out at Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson for his foul-mouthed comment about migrants, Abbott has again waded into the subject. This time, however, it is Abbott who is guilty of using a rude word: Abbott subsequently deleted the tweet, which was a reference to 41 migrants tragically losing their lives in a shipwreck off the coast of Italy. This isn't the first time that Abbott appears to have failed to think carefully before she wrote something. The MP was suspended by Labour back in April after she suggested Jewish people had never been 'subject to racism'. In a letter to the Observer, Abbott wrote: 'It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice...

As if there aren’t enough questions about the SNP’s spending habits, it turns out the Nats have been using £55,000 of taxpayer’s money to fund their library collection. An investigation by Labour has unearthed some rather amusing revelations about the SNP’s reading list, not least that the party has been busy educating itself with books on, er, ‘How To Run A Government’. That might have come in useful 16 years ago… Public funds were used to purchase 22 copies of the book – almost enough prints for every member of Humza Yousaf’s cabinet. Mr S allowed himself a chuckle at the irony of the book's tagline, which reads: ‘...so that citizens benefit and taxpayers don’t go crazy’.

Can Matt Hancock sink any lower? Considering that only last year he lost the whip for abandoning his constituents to appear on I’m a Celebrity, and before that had his lockdown-busting affair exposed to the world, you would probably think not. Even so, the former Health Secretary has managed to once again plumb new depths, this time after turning his talents to lip-syncing. In a video released on his TikTok account this week, Hancock can be seen in a white shirt and shorts on a beach in an undisclosed location, singing along to the song ‘I’m just Ken’ from the recently released Barbie movie.

Having previously been known simply as ‘that footy pundit off the telly’, over the past year Gary Neville seems to have been trying to manoeuvre his way into politics. The former Man Utd captain signed up as a Labour member, conducted a cringeworthy Q&A with Keir Starmer at last year’s party conference, and has consistently called for the Tories to be removed from office. But is Neville a true comrade of the workers' movement? Mr S thought he'd do some digging into the right back's past... Qatari hypocrisy Having been a consistent critic of the Qatari government, their human rights' abuses and stance on gay rights, Neville then, er, became a fully paid-up member of Qatari state media by agreeing to be a pundit at the 2022 World Cup for beIN Sports.

Taylor Swift mania has hit Los Angeles this weekend as the best-selling songstress takes her sold out Eras tour to the Sunny State. It means local residents are on high alert that there is a chance they cross paths with Swift. So spare a thought for the young woman who headed to an early morning Taylor Swift-themed spin class only to see security everywhere. In a video on TikTok, she explains that she had the 'biggest heart attack of my life': 'my mind immediately goes "holy sh-- Taylor Swift is about to be riding in my 7am Soul Cycle class"'. Alas, it wasn't to be. Rather than Swift, the 'VIP' in question was none other than... Rishi Sunak. 'Turns out it was the Prime Minister of the UK. Apparently he's a Swiftie,' she explains in the video. https://www.tiktok.

As the earth orbits the sun and leopards avoid changing their spots, so Eddie Izzard is again attempting to become a Labour MP.  This time the comedian and actor, who also goes by the name Suzy, is standing to become the Labour candidate to replace Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion. In 2022, Izzard tried unsuccessfully to become the candidate for Sheffield Central; and in 2016 and 2018, Izzard ran to be on the Labour National Executive Committee, failing on both occasions.  An all-too-slick Twitter video announced Izzard’s candidacy, and Mr S wonders at the cost and production value, considering Izzard has not even been selected as Labour’s candidate. A timetable for Labour’s selection process has not yet been set out.