Steerpike

Wanted: a chief of staff for Sir Keir. Steerpike was first to break the news last year that the Labour leader was on the hunt for a top civil servant to become his head honcho. And today Sky has a delicious report that suggests he has found his man – or woman in this case. For it seems that the person best suited to pursuing Labour's electoral success is none other than, er, Sue Gray, of Cabinet Office fame. She of course was the fearsome sleaze-buster who investigated Boris Johnson's lockdown parties, playing her role in events that brought down the man who achieved the best Tory result for 30 years.

Is even the BBC starting to accept reality on questions of sex and gender? The Corporation has often been woker than woke, not least thanks to militant internal staff groups seemingly ready to persecute colleagues who don’t adhere to doctrine on trans matters. But the case of the Scottish double rapist Isla Bryson/Adam Graham has loosened the grip of trans orthodoxy on many previous believers. Several politicians, including candidates to replace Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader, have said they accept that Bryson is not a transgender woman but is actually a man who claims he is trans. Bryson was today sentenced to eight years for two rapes.

Another troubling story out of West Yorkshire. Four pupils are reported to have been suspended from Wakefield's Kettlethorpe High School after a copy of the Quran was scuffed by students on Wednesday. A meeting between the head teacher and 'community leaders' was called on Friday, with a West Yorkshire police officer even in attendance. The force subsequently confirmed to the BBC that they were 'liaising' with the school about the 'minor damage' to the text. The 14-year-old boy in question is claimed to be 'highly autistic' – another concerning detail. So in light of all of this, Mr S was surprised to see a Labour councillor charging head-first into this tinderbox.

It's Groundhog Day in Westminster. A week ago, many were braced for the grand unveiling of the new, improved Northern Ireland Protocol – only for it, er, to be shelved at the last moment. The key actors of various Brexit-related factions have been out all over the airwaves in recent days. And Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group, has seized on comments made by James Cleverly on Friday to Times Radio: When, hopefully, we get those issues resolved, then I would hope that the DUP would recognise that we've addressed their concerns, and until we have addressed those concerns, we're not going to sign off on the deal.

The Six Nations season is well underway, which means the return of the parliamentary tournament too. Two weeks ago the Westminster team delivered the sporting equivalent of a Section 35 order, when they beat their Holyrood equivalent 17-10 in a feisty match that saw multiple yellow cards awarded for the first time in a Commons & Lords game. Good to see no love lost... But today saw an even tougher test for the Westminster side, when they faced a Senedd squad comprised of the finest talent that Cardiff Bay has to offer. And while the Welsh national team is currently facing a few difficulties, its parliamentary side has no such problems. They eased to a 10-0 victory – 'which is good as the Welsh normally batter us', in the words of one London player.

Some late-night Friday drama in the West Midlands. The selection committee of the Stafford Conservative Association have tonight passed a motion to prevent incumbent MP Theo Clarke from being their candidate next time around. Clarke was elected in 2019 and resigned her role as a government trade envoy last July in protest at Boris Johnson's leadership. She returned on Monday from six months of maternity leave. In a statement tonight she said: I have only returned from maternity leave this week and I have been very disappointed by the abuse that i have received since i announced I was having a baby. The selection committee have made their decision and it is my full intention to go [to] the membership.

With inflation and strikes gripping the nation, it seems that the public are not in a generous mood when it comes to the perks afforded to our political class. Following Labour's much-hyped 'GPC files', Mr S has done some polling and the results don't make good living for those in Westminster who enjoy a life of largesse. Given a set of four options, 40 per cent of the public would put the Foreign Secretary up in a basic hotel for a conference overseas for two nights – though thankfully with their own room. Just 14 per cent would select the kind of five-star accommodation which Rishi Sunak stayed in for the G20 summit in Venice. Some 30 per cent would stretch that to four-star while seven per cent would rather they share a room in a basic hotel.

It seems the wokest paper in all the west has blundered once again. Last Wednesday the Guardian published a leader column on 'Labour and antisemitism' in which the bastion of right-on liberalism opined on the party's record under Jeremy Corbyn. It opined that: Mr Corbyn has a formidable record fighting against racism and in speaking up for many persecuted peoples, but in this case he was too slow and too defensive. To show how much better he was than some of his critics allowed, he should have tried harder to engage with their criticisms. But it seems that not all of the Graun's readers share their paper's view of the Magic Grandpa's reign of error.

It seems that Kate Forbes' stance on same-sex marriage hasn't gone down too well with some of her more socially liberal backers. Within 24 hours of announcing her candidacy, the Finance Secretary's campaign has actually gone backwards, managing to lose four MSPs following an interview in which she said that she would not have supported gay marriage as a ‘matter of conscience.’  That was enough for some of her SNP colleagues at Holyrood. One by one they trooped out on Twitter to deliver their lines of condemnation: Richard Lochhead MSP – 'I welcomed my colleague Kate Forbes’ decision to join the SNP leadership contest given her talents & felt it would give us a real contest: new ideas and a new approach that we desperately need.

It's less than 24 hours since the SNP leadership election became a three horse race but already there seems to be a disproportionate focus on LGBT issues. Ash Regan was out of the blocks first, saying she would dump Nicola Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform Bill if she replaced her as First Minister. Then this afternoon Kate Forbes, a staunch member of the Free Church, threw her weight behind Regan's stance and added that she would not have supported same-sex marriage had she been an MSP at the time it was debated in the Scottish parliament. And now tonight Humza Yousaf has hit back at Forbes with a barely-concealed jibe at his rival on LBC's Andrew Marr Show saying: I’m a supporter of equal marriage. Let me get to the crux of the issue that you’re asking me. I’m a Muslim.