Steerpike

Happy Brexit day! It is three years today that Britain left the EU. And a useful reminder of just why that happened was offered this morning in the form of Guy Verhofstadt, the arch-Eurocrat and lifelong federalist. The former Belgian Prime Minister popped up in LBC to eulogise the supra-national institutions to which he has dedicated his life. While bemoaning us Brits for the audacity of wanting to leave, he even found a way to suggest that Brexit was responsible for Russia's invasion of Ukraine – even though neither nation is a member of the European Union. Verhofstadt told Nick Ferrari that: A united Europe, certainly on defence matters, would make an enormous difference. I think maybe, without Brexit, maybe there was no invasion. I don't know.

Some Tories are losing faith these days – but there was no sign of it in parliament last week. Jacob Rees-Mogg kicked off the launch of 'Catholics in the Conservative party' on Wednesday night, to a packed room bedecked in Union Jacks and Vatican flags. The likes of former Cabinet ministers Damian Hinds and Sir Iain Duncan Smith gathered to herald the launch of the new group headed by former Canterbury MP Julian Brazier. In a speech that mixed the serious with the humorous, Rees-Mogg explained how: I did not set out in my political career to be somebody who went around talking about religion. I fell into it entirely by accident when I was interviewed by Piers Morgan on a show called GMB.

Rishi Sunak intended the firing of Nadhim Zahawi to draw a line under the affair. Yet there are already questions being asked in Tory circles about whether the report rushed out this morning exaggerated the case against him. In his resignation letter, Mr S notices that Zahawi makes no confession of guilt. It suggests that Zahawi could yet comment on its findings. So, why the silence over its contents? Perhaps Zahawi thinks he did notify the right people in the right way at the right time – and cannot see how this constitutes what the PM calls a 'very serious breach' of the ministerial code. Perhaps things are precisely as the report by Laurie Magnus, the PM's independent adviser on ministers’ interests, says. Why the silence over its contents?

Another week and another Sunday Times story about Boris Johnson's finances. The paper has got hold of a leaked Cabinet Office memo which it says shows that Johnson was told to stop asking Richard Sharp for 'advice' about his 'personal financial matters' days before the latter was announced as the next BBC chairman. The memo, written by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, was drawn up after Johnson and Sharp sought advice in early December on accepting a loan of up to £800,000 guaranteed by the PM's distant cousin Sam Blyth. According to the Sunday Times, the advice issued by Case stated that: given the imminent announcement of Richard Sharp as the new BBC chair, it is important that you no longer ask his advice about your personal financial matters.

The Nadhim Zahawi saga shows no sign of concluding. Every time the story looks like burning out, a new disclosure gives it legs. Tonight, it's the revelation by the Financial Times that a second senior Tory MP was being investigated by HMRC last summer around the same time as Zahawi. It's a curious tale, based on a freedom of information request by tax expert Dan Neidle – a man who ought to earn some sort of gong for services to the Labour party. In response to Neidle's request for information, HMRC admitted on 15 June that an unnamed minister was under investigation. Eight days later though, as the FT was about to publish a story on 23 June, HMRC claimed that no ministers were in fact being scrutinised, prompting the paper to pull the planned article.

A most undiplomatic row has engulfed one of Westminster’s most prestigious groups. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association boasts 180 branches around the world, with the late Queen Elizabeth among its former patrons, with former Cabinet minister Maria Miller now serving as its chair. But among those upcoming speakers due to address it in London include two controversial Hong Kong legislators in March. Whether one can call the current assembly of apparatchiks a ‘parliament’ is of course debatable. But one of the pair in question is Dominic Lee Tsz-king, who is especially objectionable, even by the standards of Hong King’s debased assembly.

If Sadiq Khan has his way, drivers of old cars will soon be stumping up £12.50 every time they get behind the wheel in London. Much to the outrage of Londoners, the Labour mayor has grand plans to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone across the whole city in several months’ time. But for plumbers and window cleaners worried about how the daily charge will affect them, David Lammy has some advice: they should hop on the train. https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1618190134612049920 Lammy was challenged by Nick Ferrari on LBC yesterday as to how tradesmen and women could travel around London once the Ulez prices them out of using their vans. Lammy answered: ‘One thing we have got is a fantastic transport system across London.