Steerpike

All eyes tonight will be on Rishi Sunak when he addresses the annual Lord Mayor's Banquet. The Prime Minister is expected to give his first major speech on foreign policy in which he will pledge to treat Britain’s adversaries in Beijing and Moscow with ‘robust pragmatism.’ Such talk is likely to be read in the Westminster village as a signal that Sunak will likely prioritise economic benefits when it comes to relations with countries such as China. So it’s fitting then that a perfect symbol of such co-operation is found just a mile away from London's Guildhall in the borough of Tower Hamlets. Here, on the site of the nation’s old Royal Mint, there are plans to build the world’s largest Chinese embassy, sitting opposite the Tower of London.

All of Westminster was glued to their screens on Sunday tonight to watch the final of I'm A Celebrity. For three weeks, SW1's finest have watched Matt Hancock – the Casanova of the Commons – battle heroically against endless jungle-based challenges. The onetime Health Secretary has been covered in creepy-crawlies and subject to public opprobrium but against all odds, he had heroically made it to the last episode of this year's series. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and Sunday night saw the end of the Hancock dream. Much like his ill-fated 2019 leadership bid, Hancock promised much, but failed to deliver, with his luck running out in the celebrity jungle, just as it did in its Westminster equivalent.

Will the last Conservative MP please turn out the lights? In recent days both Will Wragg, 34, and Chloe Smith, 40, have announced they will be quitting the Commons at the next election. And now Dehenna Davison – the Red Wall poster girl of the 2019 election – has become the eighth (and youngest) Tory to declare they're standing down, at the age of just 29. Davison has cited personal reasons for quitting, saying in a statement that: For my whole adult life, I’ve dedicated the vast majority of my time to politics, and to help make people’s lives better. But, to be frank, it has meant I haven’t had anything like a normal life for a twenty-something. Her move will, however, be read as yet another sign that the Tories have given up on winning the next election.

Perhaps the most cathartic moment of The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards was when the relatively quiet former PM Theresa May had a pop at the not-so-quiet Piers Morgan. Picking up her award for Speech of the Year, May did acknowledge her weak reputation as a rhetorician. But she got Piers where it hurts: I’m really pleased that I have been recognised for my abilities for speaking. I just only hope that somebody is going to tell Donald Trump. Obviously, those of who who didn’t hear what Donald Trump said about my speaking clearly didn’t read The Spectator!... But he once said he would pay £100,000 not to hear me speak.

What a year in politics it has been. 2022 has seen five Education Secretaries, four Chancellors, three Prime Ministers but there is only one Spectator and so it was no surprise to see some of Westminster's most familiar faces descend on London's Rosewood Hotel. Ministers and their opposite numbers tonight enjoyed the chance to break bread and toast each other. Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Robert Buckland, the man who switched from backing Rishi Sunak to Liz Truss in the first leadership race of the year but then ended up being sacked when the former succeeded the latter in October. He quipped: 'Last year I was referred to as "the recently defenestrated Robert Buckland". This year I ask my friends in the press to refer to me as "the recently defenestrated Sir Robert Buckland.

Owen Paterson – there's a name Mr S hasn't heard in a while. It was just over a year ago that the former Environment Secretary became embroiled in the infamous lobbying scandal which led to his resignation, the North Shropshire by-election and the beginning of the end of Boris Johnson. But now, after a year in political obscurity, Paterson is back and with a vengeance. The former Tory MP has now launched a case against, er, Rishi Sunak's government at the European Court of Human Rights, complaining about the House of Commons process which found against him. Paterson argues that his right to privacy under the European Convention of Human Rights was infringed as the public finding that he had breached the Code of Conduct 'damaged his good reputation'.

The Autumn Statement was truly awful: no rabbits, no silver linings and no growth. But amid the many groups suffering this Christmas, spare a thought for high-earners — those much-despised but ever-necessary wealth creators. The 45p top rate of tax now applies to anyone earning over £125,140, with fiscal drag pulling many more in. The energy profits levy will increase total oil and gas tax from 65 per cent to 75 per cent in January (initially 40 per cent) with corporation tax to go up from 19 per cent to 25 per cent. Soaking the rich might be good politics, but Steerpike understands that hiking taxes hasn’t been pain-free so far for Jeremy Hunt.

Oh dear. It seems that the Scarlet Pimpernel of politics is at it again. Chris Bryant likes to portray himself as the sleazebuster-in-chief, fearlessly standing up for standards in public life. But in his haste to hold his fellow politicos to account, it seems that Bryant has blundered in his eagerness for retweets. Steerpike’s colleague Kate Andrews appeared on Question Time last night, prompting Bryant to fire off a post complaining that the BBC hadn't accompanied her appearance with a mention that she 'is part of the Institute for Economic Affairs, which is notoriously secretive about their funding’. But as others were quick to point out, the BBC did refer to Andrews’s former employment at the IEA, even though she left the thinktank almost three years ago.

Justin Trudeau might be the self-anointed king of elite liberal opinion but it appears his methods find little favour with Beijing. Cringeworthy footage has now been released of President Xi Jinping dressing down the Canadian premier on the side-lines of the G20 conference. The two leaders were caught on camera having an, er, lively discussion at the global summit in Bali today, with Xi tearing into the Prime Minister. A visibly irritated Xi confronted Trudeau about how details of an earlier meeting between them, which was held yesterday, had been leaked to the press by Canadian government sources. The media reported that Trudeau had raised 'serious concerns' over suspected domestic interference by China during his first talks with Xi in more than three years.