Steerpike

This week Mark Steyn became the latest star to leave GB News, following a lengthy leave of absence for health reasons. The TV shock jock has made a name for himself with his diatribes about the Covid vaccine. But it seems that not all at the channel welcomed Steyn's multiple Ofcom investigations. The presenter uploaded a resignation video on Monday, complaining that TV bosses wanted to make him financially liable for any fines imposed because of his show’s output and calling CEO Angelos Frangopoulos an 'habitual liar.' And it seems that Steyn is not done yet unloading on his former colleagues. Announcing the launch of his first 'post cardiac Steyn Shows' on Wednesday, his website attacked the 'duplicitous weasels of GB News' and sneered at the channel's supposed ratings.

It seems the days of ex-prime ministers going quietly into the sunset of retirement are well and truly dead. By this point, it will come as no surprise to any readers of Mr Steerpike to learn that, in the six months since Boris Johnson left No. 10, he has been keeping well and truly busy.  Phew, it’s a wonder Boris has had time to pop to Kyiv at all! Now it seems that all that hustling is finally paying off for Boris. Strain your ears hard enough and you might just be able to hear the sound of cold hard cash raining down into the honourable member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip’s bank account.  A quick lift of the lid on the parliamentary register of MPs’ interests reveals that since 7 July 2022, Mr Johnson has earned nearly a whopping £5 million.

How can you tell a political movement is well and truly dead? Easy – the Times newspaper finally drops said movement’s advocates from its opinion pages. It’s a process that can take time, as we've witnessed with the painfully slow demise of Britain’s media Blairites. RIP. Steerpike was as sad as anyone to learn last month that David Aaronovitch has left the Times, having spent almost two decades farting out his centrist dad radicalism from the paper of record. We can all take comfort in that fact he will have a new Substack, natch, and he continues to be a voice for the voiceless on Twitter.

The Tory grassroots are revolting – and they clearly aren’t happy either. This weekend has seen two selection battles engulf different Conservatives associations. Local Tories are currently picking their prospective parliamentary candidates, ahead of the expected general election next year. For incumbent MPs, reselection is normally a formality: the sitting member is proposed and re-adopted by the party activists who live in their constituency. Unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to have been the case for several sitting Conservatives. First, there was an unfortunate bun-fight for the new Penrith and Solway constituency.

To the Hurlingham Club, that seat of sporting privilege. Where better to host the 1922 committee’s centenary dinner? Tory grandees, MPs and donors piled in last night to raise a glass to King and cause. ‘In the 100 years of the ‘22’s existence,’ remarked Rishi Sunak, ‘we have had Conservative prime ministers for two-thirds of the time.’ The accompanying hearty roars were testament to the good spirits (and wines) in evidence last night. While the polls may predict grim things for the Tories come the next election, there was little sign of it within the hall It’s been a difficult few months for the Tories, with three prime ministers and a whole host of cabinet changes.

Labour are all too keen to present themselves as a completely new party these days. So Keir Starmer must be pretty annoyed at one of his more hard-of-thinking MPs for reminding voters that there are plenty of Corbynistas still sat on the Opposition benches. At Prime Ministers' Questions today, Kim Johnson – one of a handful of 'Corbyn's kids' selected under his leadership – used her 30 seconds in the spotlight to launch an attack on the 'fascist Israeli government' and its 'apartheid' policies. Surprisingly, Sunak did not use his reply to condemn this intemperate use of language. But plenty of others watching now have, noting that Johnson's language comes less than a week after Holocaust Memorial Day and caused barely a flinch on the Labour benches.

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?