Steerpike

Steerpike is fond of a periodical check-in with modern Renaissance men. And they don’t come much more multi-talented than Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Mr. Meghan Markle, formerly HRH. Following his departure from official royal duties, the people’s prince has kept busy by locking himself into lucrative positions at some of the planet’s most prestigious companies. His multiple deals — Netflix and Spotify to name two — were not uncommon for an up-and-coming sleb, but the most bizarre of his roles was joining the ‘mental fitness’ start-up BetterUp as ‘chief impact officer.’ Oh, how we smirked, with the occasional eye roll, firm in the belief that he’d be back in Britain soon enough, grovelling to granny for his lovely old life back.

Talk about a tale of two campaigns. China has been one of the dominant themes this week in the Tory leadership race. Both candidates knocked lumps out of each other in BBC's Monday debate, with the Foreign Secretary suggesting she could even ban TikTok. But tonight, the issue has reared its head again twice within a few hours. First, Rishi Sunak was left embarrassed by a leaked Treasury paper which suggested he was close to signing a deal with Beijing to 'deepen trade links' earlier this year. It boasted 47 pages of 'policy outcomes' for closer ties in 20 areas. They included inviting a huge Chinese sovereign wealth fund to open a London office and welcoming the listing of Chinese companies on the London Stock Exchange.

Ah, HSBC. The Asian banking giant has raised some eyebrows in recent years with their endless antics to appear oh so right-on. Back in 2019, they ran a series of adverts proclaiming that 'we are not an island', ignoring the fact that, er, we very much are. More recently they've rushed to associate themselves with Halifax's pronouns stunt and this week unveiled their latest progressive wheeze: offering 'gender-neutral banking'. This means the bank will 'stop collecting data on the gender of its customers across some products' in order to provide 'more inclusive services for non-binary and trans people.' There's a rich irony in HSBC now refusing to collect data on its customers, given its involvement in abetting the Chinese government's crackdown on Hong Kong.

Well, that was fun. For an hour tonight Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss danced across a smorgasbord of political issues while the BBC's Chris Mason and Sophie Raworth demanded to know about a Boris Johnson comeback and, er, Claire's Accessories. There was, as usual, more heat than light but Truss's praise for Sunak's alma mater Winchester College as a 'very, very good school' probably cost her Jacob Rees-Mogg's vote. One key exchange came on China, when the Foreign Secretary was asked if she would support a crackdown on popular viral video app TikTok. The ties between its parent company ByteDance and Beijing have been much criticised in recent years. Truss replied that: 'We absolutely should be cracking down on those types of companies'.

Most Tories are focusing on the leadership race but for some there are other concerns. Take the five MPs who last year were sanctioned by the Chinese state. Tom Tugendhat, Neil O’Brien, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Nusrat Ghani and Tim Loughton were among a group of nine UK citizens to face sanctions in March for raising awareness of China’s human rights abuses against Ughur Muslim. Having banned this group from entering China, there are fears that Beijing will now try to seek revenge on them through other means too. One possible mechanism is by the exploitation of Interpol, the global police agency now feared to be acting in Chinese state interests.

With two years to go until the next election, constituency battles are well underway across the country. Labour candidates are scrapping it out with one another for selection in winnable seats, with one such case being Chingford and Woodford Green. This London seat was just 1,263 votes off going red last time, with the added bonus of a prized scalp of in Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the sitting MP and former Tory party leader. Faiza Shaheen, who fought the seat for Labour last time, is desperate once again to get selected in this area. But Mr S hears talk that some local members are unhappy about her lack of presence in north London – something of particular concern in an era when hyper-local candidates are favoured.