Steerpike

Oh dear. Following the spring statement, Labour have been keen to make political capital in recent days, touting their credentials as responsible guardians of the nation's finances. Not for them, the financial mismanagement and sleaze of Boris Johnson's Tories: Labour have been reborn as the party of fiscal probity. So it must have been with some dismay that shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves last month found herself being investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for standards over her entries in the register of members' interests. Now the commissioner, Kathryn Stone, has concluded her report into the MP for Leeds West.

Susan Aitken, we meet again. The worst council leader in Britain is back in the news. What, pray, is it this time? Has Aitken finally fixed the rats which ran riot before COP26? Are Glasgow's finances now back in order? Will the 500 taxi trips on expenses be refunded now? Good God, no. For Aitken is above such petty, mundane trifles. Instead she has decided to focus on the issues that really matter: problematic statues and the eighteenth century slave trade. The Glasgow slavery audit has finally reported this month and identified eight statues in the city as representing people connected to the Atlantic slave trade.

Labour has been indulging in a ritual bout of moralising over the Tories' Russian connections. Having first tried to exploit the issue of wealthy British Russians donating to the party, now the opposition has turned its guns on a new target instead. Step forward 'friend of the stars' Evgeny Lebedev, the bearded proprietor of the Evening Standard and Independent. Rich, well-connected, the son of a former KGB agent, Lebedev was an obvious target for those probing Kremlin connections in the UK. In their eagerness to get the government on the back foot, Labour has today tabled a Humble Address motion on Lebedev. If successful, it will force the government to publish information on the decision to give Lebedev a seat in the House of Lords in 2020.

There’s a mutiny underway in Westminster. After years of revelations about the conditions of Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province, momentum is building behind plans to stop the government buying health goods made in the region. On Wednesday, MPs will vote on an amendment to the health and social care bill, tabled by former Tory chief whip Lord Blencathra. It would ban NHS procurement from regions where the government believes there to be a ‘serious risk of genocide’. Ministers have already tried to buy off the rebels by proposing a review of health supply chains but ringleaders fear these don’t go far enough. And now Mr S has seen evidence which suggests that the NHS has indeed been purchasing products made in the Xinjiang province.

It is now just six weeks until the first post-partygate test for Boris Johnson's Tories, with campaigning for the local elections already well underway. Labour under Keir Starmer are feeling confident: ahead in the polls, they know that the cost-of-living crisis will begin to eat away at the respite afforded to Johnson by Ukraine. Indeed there are even fears that the Prime Minister's own backyard, Hillingdon council, will go red for the first time in nearly 25 years. An early portent of what could be to come was provided on Thursday when England's most exclusive electorate went to the polls. Elections were held for the Court of Common Council, the main decision-making body of the City of London Corporation which governs the City of London.

Ping! An email lands in Steerpike's inbox. 'Will you join me?' reads the email line. Gosh. Who was this damsel in distress, this online agoniser in search of aid? Step forward none other than Mr S's favourite student politician, Zarah Sultana. It seems that Coventry's answer to Citizen Smith is in a bit of a jam, as the ring light-loving leftie apparently needs good comrades to come and help save her seat.  Back in 2017, Coventry South was a solid Labour constituency, re-electing veteran Jim Cunningham with a handsome majority of 7,947 votes. Two years on and the candidacy of Sultana saw that fall to a wafer-thin 401, as the Corbyn fan-girl narrowly avoided losing a seat that has returned a Labour MP since the days of Macmillan.

The best dramas in British broadcasting are only found on one channel these days. Parliament TV has hosted its fair share of unsavoury characters over the years but today a new villain joined the rogues' gallery. Step forward P&O Ferries chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite, who joins the likes of Philip Green, Fred Goodwin and Mike Ashley in being hauled up before a select committee for a ritual grilling. Hubris, folly and lashings of corporate jargon were on the menu today as Hebblethwaite – whose firm sacked 800 staff last week – was duly sliced, diced and skewered before a panel of distinctly unimpressed MPs.

How will No. 10 fight the next election? After government aides were told at a recent meeting to get election ready, Rishi Sunak's pledge of an income tax cut by 2024 appears to give an indication of what the pitch could be. But there was another indicator at Prime Minister's Questions what appeared to be a planted question from 2019-er Angela Richardson on trans rights, Boris Johnson replied: When it comes to distinguishing between a man and a woman, the facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important. The comments are in contrast to the position of his wife Carrie who publicly urged the Tory party to fight for the rights of transgender people at Conservative party conference.