Steerpike

It never rains but it pours. Boris Johnson began PMQs just minutes after backbencher Christian Wakeford defected to Labour, with the subsequent session largely consisting of Keir Starmer and opposition MPs laughing at the Prime Minister's current difficulties. But the highlight was undoubtedly senior backbencher calling for Johnson to go, quoting the words of Oliver Cromwell to the Long Parliament in 1653. Like many on these benches, I spent weeks and months defending the Prime Minister against often angry constituents. I have reminded them of his success in delivering Brexit, and on the vaccine and many other things. But I expect my leaders to shoulder the responsibility for the actions they take. Yesterday, he did the opposite of that.

Defecting Tory MP Christian Wakeford did not mince his words in his letter to Boris Johnson, informing the PM of his decision to switch to the Labour party. 'You and the Conservative party as a whole have shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves,' he wrote.  Wakeford is no stranger to criticising his fellow politicians: he famously called Owen Paterson a 'c***' in Parliament. The fledging Labour MP also made a habit of attacking Kier Starmer's party during his brief spell on the Tory backbenches. Here are six times Wakeford took a pop at Labour: Wakeford is no stranger to criticising his fellow politicians 'What we are seeing is a paradigm shift whereby the Labour party no longer represents those working-class communities.

Roll up, roll up: the leadership game is afoot. Every Tory with a smidgen of ambition is out on manoeuvres, flashing their ankles like a Victorian courtesan. All the aspirant 'big beasts' are getting in on the act: Jeremy Hunt is doing interviews, Liz Truss is hosting drinks at 5 Hertford Street while Penny Mordaunt is getting glowing profiles too. Most privately expect to lose to the heir apparent, saintly Rishi Sunak, but hope in so doing that they grab a decent Cabinet post as a consolation prize. But if the sinking SS Boris takes down all its crew, there is a chance that fearful Tories could turn to someone untainted by the ancien régime. Someone decent, moderate and sensible, who represents the best in British conservatism.

Now that the government has stuck its neck out and frozen the BBC licence fee, will its next target be the Met Office? Our national weather forecasting service – which derives most of its income from arrangements with government departments – is certainly not going out of its way to make friends in government with its latest ‘forecast’. The ‘UK Shared Socioeconomic Pathways’ professes to look ahead to the year 2100 and what effect climate change might have had on British society by then. It is produced by academics at the Universities of Exeter and Edinburgh, in association with a forecasting group Cambridge Econometrics but is funded by the Met Office as part of its UK Climate Resilience Programme.

It doesn’t say much for this government that Dominic Grieve can run rings around them. An amendment drafted by the ardent Remainiac was just one of 14 defeats inflicted by the Lords last night as peers opted to torpedo Priti Patel’s flagship Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Cue a crowing press release from Grieve’s group Best for Britain, declaring victory.  The rare triumph for the Beaconsfield barrister is all the more sweet in light of another result which, er, doesn’t make for such good reading.

So, here we are then. Despite a monstering in the Lords and near-universal condemnation across the press, the Animal Sentience Bill has reared its ugly head once more, returning to the Commons today for its Second Reading. The flagship legislation, which Mr S has covered extensively, is designed to protect helpless creatures and recognise they can feel pain by creating a new super-committee to judge the effects of government policies. Proposed amendments mean that shellfish are to be included; hapless ministers forced to defend them are not.