Steerpike

It may be winter but Sir Keir is already sporting flip flops. The Labour leader's appearance on Laura Kuenssberg's show this morning was the best advert for voting Tory seen in recent months, with Starmer unable to give basic answers to simple questions. Having broken most of the ten pledges on which he was elected – and which are still listed on his website – he refused four times to say whether he still stands by his pledge to abolish tuition fees. 'When I was running for leader I made pledges which reflected my values,' he sighed 'since then, we're now three years on, a lot has changed'. By that logic, Starmer's current policy platform, er, doesn't actually reflect his values? Such vacillation was on show again when Kuenssberg pressed Starmer on the tricky topic of trans rights.

Nowadays, MPs' expenses claims are vetted by IPSA to ensure that the spectre of duck houses and flipped mortgages don't darken Westminster once more. But occasionally the odd claim or two gets approved which seems, er, somewhat incongruous: Zarah Sultana's ring light and Angela Rayner's personalised airpods are just two of the more examples. And, perusing the data today, Mr S stumbled across a similarly shocking claim made by the disgraced former MP Imran Ahmad Khan. Six months ago, Steerpike revealed that Ahmad Khan had billed the taxpayer £3,218 for legal costs after being charged with child sexual assault, for which he was subsequently jailed.

Angela Rayner hasn’t always had the best of relationships with Fleet Street’s finest. But there was no sign of discord tonight when she charmed the cream of the parliamentary press gallery at the women’s lobby drinks. The Labour deputy leader remarked how ‘I came in [to parliament] in 2015 when the wheels fell off politics, I had about 18 jobs – I’ve still got about 18 jobs’. She also reflected on the relationship she has with her leader: ‘Keir under-shares, I over-share, always an interesting one to one with me and Keir. We promised each other we wouldn’t disclose what we say in those meetings but we rub along quite nicely’ adding to the inevitable laughs ‘steady on.

Much was made of Amy Lamé's appointment as London's first 'night czar' back in November 2016. The then newly elected Mayor Sadiq Khan trumpeted that she would be a 'much-needed ambassador for the city after dark... a fantastic hire who will give a big boost to our city’s flourishing nightlife' with a 'proven track-record of helping save venues'. But fast forward six years and such rhetoric seems somewhat hollow now. Estimates vary as to how many London venues have closed in recent years. One count claims 58 venues shut during the pandemic – or 25 per cent of the capital's nightclubs. Khan's own City Hall points to data which suggests that the number of venues operating as nightclubs in the capital dropped by 22 per cent between 2019 and 2021, the fewest since the mid-nineties.

What, if anything, will survive of Liz Truss's legacy? Last week it was her childcare review that was dropped by ministers. And now, the Foreign Office (FCDO) has reversed her decision to end the department's funding for the the Great Britain China Centre (GBBC), an executive public body established to support UK-China relations. Just seven months ago, Mr S broke the news that the FCDO, then run by Truss, was ending its grant-in-aid funding in response to cuts in the development budget. A spokesman told Steerpike in June 2022 that 'due to the current fiscal climate, including reductions to Official Development Assistance, we have made the decision to end FCDO grant-in-aid funding to the GBCC.

It's a tough gig politics. One minute you're leader of HM Loyal Opposition, the next you're an independent backbencher likely to lose your seat come polling day. For Jeremy Corbyn, the witless, whip-less Member for Islington North, it's been a tough few years. He lost the election in December 2019, lost the Labour leadership in April 2020 and then lost the party whip in October 2020 after claiming that antisemitism in the party had been overstated for political reasons. Luckily for Corbyn though, one group has come to his aid in these tough times. After having the whip withdrawn, backers of the ex-leader set up a company to fund his defence in legal battles connected with the antisemitism furore.