Steerpike

The Tories might be trailing in the polls but there was no sign of glum faces in Westminster last night. The crème de la crème of the Conservative establishment was out in force to hail the fifth birthday of the Onward think tank. Star of the show was a beaming Rishi Sunak, displaying no indication of any pre-election nerves in his speech. The PM remarked on his shock at the SNP paying him a compliment and Nick Cave’s coronation plans before praising the quality of attendees, remarking that ‘looking around this room tonight, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many prospective Tory parliamentary candidates in one place since my own selection.’ The craven careerists duly tittered appreciatively.

Just in the nick of time, the SNP have at long last – after cold calling almost every auditing firm in the country – found some new accountants. The small Manchester-based firm, AMS Accountants Group, must be hungry for a challenge: the Westminster group’s accounts need auditing in just over three weeks, while the Holyrood party’s accounts have a deadline of 7 July. Tick tock! Commenting on this minor triumph, First Minister Humza Yousaf said:  We take our statutory obligations extremely seriously, so it is welcome news that AMS Accountants Group will complete the accounts for both the party and the SNP Westminster group. I am very grateful for the work of our new party treasurer Stuart McDonald in securing the auditors' services.

Is that it? After keeping half of SW1 on tenterhooks all day, it seems that Keir Starmer's favourite gamekeeper-turned-poacher has done it again. Fifteen months ago, it was the partygate inquiry; today it's the probe into Sue Gray's spectacular defection to Labour. After much speculation, the government has today published a written statement about the Cabinet Office review into her appointment as Keir Starmer's Chief of Staff. In a terse and pithy notice, the Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden wrote that 'Ms Gray was given the opportunity to make representations as part of this process but chose not to do so.

Another quiet, uneventful weekend for the Cabinet Secretary. The resignation of Richard Sharp as BBC Chairman on Friday re-opened questions about Simon Case's involvement in facilitating a loan for Boris Johnson. On Saturday, Case was reported to have been sidelined by Johnson's successor Rishi Sunak. Then on Sunday he was embroiled in questions about the use of Chevening as Liz Truss's leadership base last summer. And now on Monday, he has become engulfed in a briefing war with Sue Gray and her allies amid claims that he is blocking her from being Starmer's chief of staff as part of a 'personal vendetta.' Four headline stories across four consecutive days – what would Sir Humphrey have to say about that?

There's not a day that goes by in Scottish politics without the woes of the Sturgeon-Murrell empire being discussed in full. Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross didn’t hold back when asked about whether he felt sorry for Nicola Sturgeon during what feels like the SNP’s perpetual state of crisis. Mr S caught the slightest of smirks cross the politician’s face before he conceded: ‘No.’ Did he believe Sturgeon’s performance in Holyrood on Tuesday, on the afternoon of former treasurer Colin Beattie’s bombshell comments on Scotland’s most infamous motorhome, was sincere?

Another one bites the dust. Mr S can only marvel at the lemming-like tendency of the Labour left. Just days after Diane Abbott used the Observer letters page to get herself suspended, a draft speech by John McDonnell has ended up in the New Statesman in which the former Shadow Chancellor argued that you are 'now more likely to be disciplined for antisemitism [in Labour] if you are a Jew than a gentile'. And now, Emma Dent Coad, one of the lesser-known Corbynites, has decided to euthanise her political career by quitting Labour.

Has London’s top copper met his match? Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley got more than he bargained for when he attended parliament this morning for a session of the Home Affairs Committee. Taking to the hot seat to be quizzed on policing priorities, Rowley came in for a grilling by the notoriously straight-talking Tory deputy party chairman Lee Anderson. Half way through what Mr Steerpike could only describe as a gruelling committee session, Anderson asked the police chief if it was time he ‘got out of his ivory tower’ to ‘sort out’ the Just Stop Oil protestors that have been causing disruption in Westminster.

It seems that the Starmer army have once again been caught trying to be too clever by half. Earlier today, Labour sought to exploit Tory woes over sewage by tabling a motion in an opposition day debate. The motion called for the government to set a target for the reduction of sewage discharges, implement financial penalties and carry out an impact assessment of such discharges. Stung perhaps by the debacle of October – when an opposition day debate ultimately precipitated Liz Truss’s resignation – the government opted to not object to those arguments. However the Labour motion included a fourth part that would have given the opposition the ability to take control of the Commons order paper in future and introduce legislation of their own.

All change at Murdoch Towers: Tucker Carlson has hosted his last primetime show at Fox News. His departure was clearly a shock: his 8 p.m. show was being trailed on Fox and Friends this morning. In a rather neutral press release, the network announced that: Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor. The reasons for Carlson’s shock departure are unclear – Steerpike understands from a source with knowledge that no reason was given. Rumors had been circulating in the Fox offices that a big dismissal could follow the $787 settlement of the Dominion case – but most had assumed that Carlson was invulnerable.