Steerpike

It’s finally here. The SNP independence convention has been in the works for quite some time – it was initially supposed to be Nicola Sturgeon’s de facto referendum conference – so you’d think that its execution would be slick, its planning well organised. Think again. It will come of no surprise to readers, Mr S is sure, that there is little about this conference that has been ‘slick’ or ‘well organised’. The decision to keep Indyref superfans waiting outside until the (very late) start meant that anti-separatist protestors had time to set up shop on the steps of Dundee’s Caird Hall. A suitably Scottish brawl broke out between those from ‘ultra unionist’ group A Force for Good while SNP loyalists retorted with chants of ‘Flower of Scotland’.

You might have thought that the National had successfully cornered the fiction market among SNP devotees. But now Mr S has discovered the existence of another pro-independence media outlet keen to shake up Scotland’s media landscape. ‘Skotia’ claims it will divert from the ‘obsessive hysteria of Scotland’s political class’ by making ‘life difficult for the architects of Scotland’s political consensus’ and maintaining a ‘constant vigilance on those who sow hate and inhumanity’. Noble stuff. Its launch video features the outlet’s new editor, Coll McCail, an earnest redhead, who proclaims: While the British state looks out for its own, the Scottish establishment is too comfortable.

Penny Mordaunt might be the media darling since wielding the Coronation sword but it wasn't always this way. The Leader of the House has had a fair few run-ins with the Four Estate in recent years, including last summer's leadership election. So it was with great enthusiasm that Mr S attended tonight's Parliamentary Press Gallery summer reception where Mordaunt was billed as the star speaker. Welcoming 'friends – and Lord Frost', Mordaunt introduced herself as 'one of the handful of Conservative MPs not to have their own show on GB News.' The former magicians' assistant was quick to work her magic, referencing the infamous lobby briefing at which Mrs Thatcher's press spokesman described John Biffen as a 'semi-detached' member of the government.

It was rare to find anyone willing to stand up and defend Boris Johnson in parliament this afternoon. But cometh the hour, cometh the Mogg as the Honourable Member for the eighteenth century arose to deliver his best defence of his former boss. Jacob Rees-Mogg described it as a 'deliberate attempt to take the most unfavourable interpretation that the committee can of Mr Johnson's activities.

Will Partygate ever be over? Today’s front page of the Sunday Mirror splashes on leaked footage of Shaun Bailey’s mayoral campaign team enjoying an illicit Christmas party in December 2020. At least two dozen revellers were filmed drinking and laughing while two even twirled past a sign that reads ‘Please keep your distance’. The news hook for this story is that two of those involved – Bailey himself and his aide Ben Mallett – have just been given honours in Boris Johnson’s resignation list. Bailey gets a peerage while Mallett had to make do with an OBE. The latter might be feeling especially embarrassed today because he’s currently running Moz Hossain’s campaign to be the Tory candidate in next year’s mayoral contest.

Not another one. Less than a week after the resignations of Boris Johnson and Nigel Adams prompted by-elections in their respective constituencies of Uxbridge and Selby, another contest now looms in Somerton and Frome. David Warburton, suspended as a Tory MP since April 2022, has tonight said he will shortly stand down from parliament too. Nadine Dorries meanwhile is expected to (at some point) follow through on her promises to quit the Commons and her Mid Bedfordshire seat. It means that Rishi Sunak  now faces the nightmare scenario of losing four elections in North Yorkshire, North London, the East of England and the South West, all within the space of weeks or months.

Boris! Boris! Boris! For a week now, the cry has been incessant among our national media. Liberated from his parliamentary cage, what will the albino gorilla do next? And last night we got our answer: a new column with the Daily Mail, that organ of Middle England sensibility. Eagerly, the whole of Fleet Street awaited Johnson's first column, published at 5 p.m today. What would he write about, they speculated furiously? State secrets, perhaps? A denunciation of Sunak, Gove and all the sinister forces that they embody? Or some great revelation about his future plans? The answer, it turns out, is, er, no. Rather anti-climactically, Boris published his first Mail column on a weight loss drug – two weeks after every other newspaper did a feature on it.

Nicola arrested, Boris now seatless, Nadine's on the warpath and the Tories are in the mire. These days life seems pretty sweet if you're Keir Starmer. You can even U-turn on your flagship policy on the Today programme and have it completely forgotten about by the time of the Six O'Clock news. And now a new survey commissioned by Mr S brings more cheer for the Labour leader. Starmer's first priority upon replacing Corbyn – other than tackling antisemitism – was winning back the Red Wall and it seems his efforts have not been in vain. A new poll for The Spectator by Redfield and Wilton of 1,200 voters shows that if offered the choice of a pint with the two main party leaders, a third (32 per cent) would prefer Keir Starmer with just one in five (20 per cent) opting for Rishi Sunak.

The Privileges Committee are all set to deliver their report into whether Boris Johnson lied to parliament – but there's a sudden, last-minute twist in the tale. Guido Fawkes – that enduring sore on the national body politic – has revealed tonight that Bernard Jenkin, a member of the panel, attended a lockdown-breaking bash for his wife during the pandemic. It's prompted Johnson to demand his resignation from the committee, hours before it's set to deliver a judgement on him. Sir Bernard has denied attending 'any drinks parties during lockdown' – including an event hosted by Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing in December 2020. Yet now Nadine Dorries (who else?) has written to the committee clerk, prompting an investigation by Chair Harriet Harman.