Steerpike

This evening King Charles III addressed the nation for the first time as sovereign. He reflected on his mother's life-long service and pledged to do the same, saying: 'As the Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation.' The King praised his predecessor, remarking how 'in her life of service we saw that abiding love of tradition, together with that fearless embrace of progress, which make us great as Nations. The affection, admiration and respect she inspired became the hallmark of her reign.

Therese Coffey is a well-known music lover. When she's not reciting prayers for Queen and country, she's enlivening the corridors of parliament with her karaoke singing. But this morning the newly appointed Health Secretary suffered a moment of slight embarrassment after her ring tone went off in her first broadcast interview on LBC. Interviewer Nick Ferrari is used to his guests practicing all kinds of trick to evade questioning when they enter his studios but even he can't have been prepared for the lyrical offerings of Dr Dre at 8:00 a.m. Coffey explained it was her ring tone for an alarm that she had forgot to switch off. He shot back 'Dr Dre with Dr Coffey, the Health Secretary, it just gets better and better!

Tory wives: where would we be without them? Among the casualties of today's reshuffle was Johnny Mercer, the veterans' minister who duly published a farewell letter on Commons headed paper, defending his record in post. The former soldier wrote how 'disappointed' he was 'to leave a role I established' adding, acidly, that 'any Prime Minister is entitled to reward her supporters.' But now his wife Felicity has revealed the truth behind the lengthy statement, with a pithy tweet featuring a blonde Beaker of the Muppets. Felicity Cornelius-Mercer declared on Twitter this evening that Mercer, the 'best person I know' had been 'sacked by an imbecile.' According to her, Truss was unable to give a justification for the Plymouth MP's dismissal.

Quick, nurse! Those boss-eyed Brit-bashers at the New York Times are at it again! The antics of America's least reliable news source continue to amuse and irritate in equal measure, with the NYT concocting an image of Britain for its readers that seems strikingly at odds with reality. In the fevered imaginations of the average NYT reader, the UK is a quasi-dictatorial kingdom, where locals huddle round bin fires on the streets of London, gnawing on legs of mutton and cavorting in swamps. That is thanks to a series of bizarre editorial choices by the NYT, including the continued employment of former Russia Today star Tom Walker, better known as fictitious news reporter Jonathan Pie.

Well, that was…interesting. The BBC’s flagship political interview show, hosted first by Sir David Frost then by Andrew Marr, relaunched this morning under Laura Kuenssberg. On paper, she had it all sorted: she secured an interview with leadership frontrunner Liz Truss after she had pulled out of one with Nick Robinson just days before. It was a decent interview, as you’d expect from a former BBC political editor. It felt like the first interview of her premiership. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Crime is on the rise in London but spare a thought for the real victim in all of this: Cressida Dick. The former Metropolitan Police Commissioner quit her post in February after a string of scandals on her watch. But an independent report has today claimed that she 'felt intimidated' into resigning after an ultimatum from London mayor Sadiq Khan. The report, written by the former chief inspector of constabulary Sir Tom Winsor, says: In my view, in this case, the commissioner faced political pressure from the mayor to resign, that pressure being of a character and intensity which was effectively his calling on her to leave office, outside the established statutory procedure and contrary to the wider legislative scheme.

Throughout the leadership contest, Liz Truss has been all too keen to paint herself as a Brexit queen, keen to slay the dragons of Brussels. Yet Mr S has been doing some digging into the Foreign Secretary’s past and it transpires she was rather more of a Europhile than previously revealed. Truss even headed up a pro-EU group that backed the Maastricht Treaty while a student at Oxford University doing PPE. Despite being a late convert to the Brexit cause, the PM-in-waiting was once an active Liberal Democrat and pro-European. As a blue stocking girl in the mid-1990s she was a key player in the federalist Oxford Reform Club, even being snapped alongside Theresa May's controversial EU negotiator Olly Robbins when the pair were students.

The winds of change are blowing through Paddington, with news reaching Steerpike of something of a bloodbath over at GB News. The self-proclaimed 'People's Channel' is currently undergoing a shake-up in its personnel and programming, with staff being told today of changes to take effect from the beginning of next week. All individual shows between midday to 4 p.m are to be effectively scrapped and replaced. Stars Gloria De Piero, the former MP, and economics journalist Liam Halligan will therefore no longer work on their current shows: instead they will both expand on their work on other features. De Piero also gets to co-host a new weekday show, titled simply: 'GB Newsday.