Steerpike

After two years of planning, Tory MPs are finally having their long-awaited away day today. Rishi Sunak and the whizz kids at CCHQ have booked a fleet of buses to whisk the members of his parliamentary party away to Windsor for a 24-hour away day. They'll be put up in the luxury hotel where Sunak unveiled his 'Windsor framework', with even Boris Johnson reportedly set to attend. Talk about happy families eh... On the agenda for today is an exciting range of talks, breakout sessions and even a jolly old pub quiz. Chats on political strategy and beating the Lib Dems are planned alongside sessions on 'demonstrating delivery to your constituents' and 'maximising your social media profile.' Presumably TikTok sat Luke Evans will be leading that one.

Ding, ding, ding! It's day two of the revelations from the Telegraph's lockdown files and today's chosen battlefield is the school playground. The paper splashes on claims that Matt Hancock as Health Secretary fought a 'rearguard action' to shut down the nation's schools against the efforts of Sir Gavin Williamson, who held the Education brief from 2019 to 2021. Exchanges reveal the lengths which Hancock went to fight such battles, privately suggesting it was 'mad' that Sir Gavin was trying to re-open them in January 2021. After Johnson initially backed Williamson, his cabinet rival sneered that 'the next u-turn is born', adding: I want to find a way, Gavin having won the day, of actually preventing a policy car crash when the kids spread the disease in January.

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.