Steerpike

The faults in the Tory party were on show for all to see today, as MPs were forced to debate No 10's efforts to block Owen Paterson's suspension from the Commons. Ministers had hoped to quietly u-turn on their efforts to overhaul the standards system but following Sir Chris Chope's last minute intervention, a very public debate played out in public today. Members on both sides of the aisle queued up to savage the government's handling of the case. Shadow Commons leader Thangham Debbonaire attacked the 'total absence of leadership we have seen from this sorry government over this sorry affair' while her SNP counterpart Pete Wishart noted how 'public trust' in Boris Johnson was 'at an all time low' with Tory MPs facing inboxes 'swamped with furious constituents.

You'd have thought certain Tory grandees would be chastened after the past fortnight. But while most Conservatives on the green benches now admit the decision to try to overrule the standards committee's recommendations on Owen Paterson was a mistake, it seems that one diehard remains unbowed. Step forward Sir Christopher Chope, the veteran MP for Christchurch, and no stranger to political controversy. Chope of course is a long-time member of the Tory awkward squad who specialises in filibustering parliamentary bills, most famously in 2018 when he blocked legislation that would have made upskirting an offence – an act which led to Commons staff placing a bunting of women's underwear outside his office entrance.

And so COP26 ended, not so much with a bang, but rather a whimper. Alok Sharma's tears aside, there was a muted feel to the unveiling of Saturday's Glasgow protocol, at which countries agreed merely to 'phase down' rather than 'phase out' coal. That sense of anticlimax was only enhanced by yet more strike action at the conference close, with the RMT union ensuring the cancellation of all sleeper trains back to London – just two days after the Foreign Office admitted Liz Truss took a domestic flight to the summit after the cancellation of her train. https://twitter.com/RMTunion/status/1459145830921871361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Still, Boris Johnson has never been one to let facts get in the way of a good story.

Well that's the end of COP26. After a fortnight of selfies, speeches, pledges and promises, the eco-jamboree has tonight wrapped up, with Western nations expressing their 'profound disappointment' after China and India secured a last minute watering-down of the commitments on coal. British negotiators wanted a 'phase out' of unabated coal; instead the two Asian powers succeeded in substituting it for the term 'phase down.' There's anger and sadness tonight from European and vulnerable nations, with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres declaring that the 'collective political will' was 'not enough to overcome some deep contradictions.

Like Rembrandt or Michelangelo, Mariah or Britney, Jolyon Maugham is a performance artist simply known by his first name. The journey of this Rumpole of remainers from obscurity to Twitter fame was slow but steady. He first hit the headlines during the Ed Miliband years when, as Labour's non-dom adviser, he was revealed to have represented multiple so-called 'celebrity tax dodge film schemes.'  Then came Brexit and his reinvention as the High Priest of remainier. In 2017 he announced plans for his own party – 'Spring' –  and his intention to hold a 28-day festival at a Maidenhead football stadium, with each day dedicated to the national dress and cuisine of a different EU member state.

It's been a tough eighteen months for staff in the Commons. Afflicted by Covid in the initial first wave, mothballed by restrictions and virtual proceedings, forced to dance to Mogg congas and mask up with face coverings, the Palace of Westminster has rarely felt like itself this past year-and-a-half. And now Mr S has found the figures to show Covid's cost to the Commons after Parliament was forced to close its doors to visitors in March 2020. Income from paid-for tours slumped from £2.1 million in 2019-20 to nil in 2020-21, according to a recently parliamentary answer by the House of Commons Commission. Staff had estimated to receive some £2.4 million, a significant chunk in income foregone. Catering costs spiralled to £4.

In his memoirs, Tony Blair did not have much good to say about his government's seven-year long struggle to ban fox hunting. The former PM, writing in 2010, admitted he deliberately sabotaged the 2004 Hunting Act to ensure there were enough loopholes to allow hunting to continue. Confessing that he initially agreed to a ban without properly understanding the issue, Blair wrote: 'If I’d proposed solving the pension problem by compulsory euthanasia for every fifth pensioner I’d have got less trouble. By the end of it, I felt like the damn fox.

Westminster is full of stories at present of politicians cashing in. But while much of the attention thus far has focused on the excesses of current MPs like Andrew Mitchell and Geoffrey Cox, will it soon be the turn of former MPs to be in the firing line? Already, questions have been asked as to whether Owen Paterson will request the parliamentary pass to which he is entitled – something denied by friends of the (now former) MP for North Shropshire. The passes give access to the Palace of Westminster, without having to register any kind of outside interests. Perfect then for a political consultant.