Steerpike

Having urged her supporters to back Liz Truss yesterday, Suella Braverman has now been forced to, er, do the same again today. Team Truss are doing their damnedest to try to lock up the right-wing vote by sending out leading figures like Lord Frost and Simon Clarke to urge rival candidates to stand aside. Unfortunately for the Foreign Secretary, thus far the Badenoch camp seem noticeably reluctant to do just that. While not all of her supporters still think she could make the final two, others have their doubts about Truss and her electoral prowess. Braverman's latest appeal therefore is an attempt to remind right-wingers that, unless they unite sharpish, the final two presented to party members are likely to be Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt.

Oh dear. It seems bumbling 'Uncle Joe' has done it again. Fresh from his Holocaust gaffe, President Biden has now decided to offend not one, but two allies, when he gave his thoughts on the Israel-Palestine conflict. On a visit to a hospital in East Jerusalem today, President Biden made remarks that were picked up by the travelling American press. He compared Israel's contemporary treatment towards Palestine to that of Britain's historic attitude towards Catholics in Ireland, saying that: ...the background of my family is Irish American. And we have a long history not fundamentally unlike the Palestinian people, with Great Britain and their attitude toward Irish Catholics over the years for 400 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

And then there were five. Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat – one of these names will become Britain's next prime minister. Ahead of tonight's Channel 4 debate there's much excited chatter about who will survive the final rounds of MPs' voting and be presented to the final two. With more than 100 backers, Sunak looks set to make it to the membership: the question is who will face him? After Mordaunt bagged second yesterday with 83 votes, there's now increasing concern among some right-wing Tories that a candidate from their wing of the party won't make it to the last two. In such circumstances then it's hardly surprising to hear calls for a pact between Liz Truss (who got 64 votes) and Kemi Badenoch (49 votes).

Nicola Sturgeon has never been all that bothered about the remit of her devolved government and the parameters of its responsibilities. So exactly no one was surprised when she popped up this morning with another speech on independence. It comes as part of her ramp-up to a referendum which she insists she will hold next October, despite Westminster refusing permission. Today's speech unveiled the second in a series of papers making the case for independence. What might have surprised casual observers of Scottish politics is just how closely the address resembled a party conference speech in its unabashedly partisan attacks on the Tories and Labour.

Of all those revelling in Boris Johnson's downfall last week, few probably enjoyed it more than Theresa May. It would only be natural for the former Tory PM to enjoy a little schadenfreude from Johnson's defenestration, given how his resignation and subsequent maneuverings played their role in destabilising her premiership. Outwardly, of course, May has remained Sphinx-like with regards to the leadership, refusing to divulge who she is backing or even say if she submitted a letter of no confidence in Johnson. But there are signs, perhaps, about her true feelings. The Maidenhead MP did turn up to the aforementioned confidence vote while clad in a full length ball-gown, beaming broadly at assembled lobby reporters.

In an excoriating interview on TalkTV just now, Lord Frost has said he has ‘grave reservations’ about Penny Mordaunt becoming the prime minister. The former Brexit negotiator, who quit Boris Johnson’s cabinet last year, told Julia Hartley-Brewer ‘To be honest, I'm quite surprised she is where she is in this race. She was my deputy – notionally more than really – in the Brexit talks last year’. He went on: I’m sorry to say this, I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary in the negotiations last year, she wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary and I’m afraid she wasn't fully accountable. She wasn’t always visible, sometimes I didn’t even know where she was.

Prime Minister’s Questions got off to a rowdy start today – which was perhaps not surprising considering that it was the first since Boris Johnson’s resignation last week. But while Boris might have been expecting trouble from the Labour benches, it was parliament’s Scottish MPs who ended up causing trouble.  As the Prime Minister began to answer his first question, the session was drowned out by heckling from the Alba party (formerly of the SNP) who began shouting incoherently about another referendum. Not to be outdone, the MPs were promptly shouted down by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, who told them to ‘either shut up or get out’.

The Westminster rumour mill is in overdrive about Michael Gove’s intentions in the leadership contest. Fresh from bringing down Boris, the Brutus of the backbenches has surprised some by opting to back Kemi Badenoch in the race to find Johnson’s successor. His endorsement of Badenoch impressed some colleagues but many right wing Tories have convinced themselves that it is just part of a plot to split their wing of the party. Steve Baker went public on Monday, telling LBC listeners that: I am given to understand quite authoritatively from a candidate that Michael Gove started with Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove is now backing Kemi Badenoch.