Steerpike

Boris Johnson made a rare appearance on the Today programme this morning to drum up support for his agenda ahead of his conference speech tomorrow. But while listeners may have been hoping to hear a serious discussion about the state of the country, petrol pumps and supply chain woes, the interview quickly became a scrap between the Prime Minister and the programme’s host, Nick Robinson. The interview got off to a tetchy start with Robinson chiding the prime minister for not appearing on Today for two years. The PM jovially replied that ‘time had flown’ and began declaiming on the current global energy crisis.

The world’s oldest democratic party has had a few problems with technology in recent years. Famously it was the 2018 Tory conference which saw a security breach where the official party app allowed anyone to access the private phone numbers of members of the Cabinet – or in the case of Boris Johnson change his profile picture to that of a pig. Once again, tech issues are plaguing Tory conference, with three of the world’s most popular apps – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – all being offline since 4:30 p.m. today. The last of these is the favoured platform for disloyal backbenchers and scheming hacks to conspire mischievously to make life harder for long-suffering Tory whips.

Oh dear. With the Tories in town, the Labour left were hoping to make a strong impression in Manchester when they organised a protest outside the venue this afternoon. A large crowd, led by the Corbynite stalwarts Richard Burgon and Barry Gardiner, slowly made its way down Oxford Road toward the conference venue, with the usual gaggle of trade union delegates, activists and Communist party members making up the numbers. Things didn’t exactly go to plan though, with the protest pelted with rain giving the whole escapade a rather bedraggled look. Things went even less well for Richard Burgon, who even appeared to be struggling at protesting.

The Conservative party conference begins tomorrow in Manchester. Coming at a time of fuel shortages, tax rises and post-Covid drift, many disgruntled activists will be hoping to see some sign of dissent from backbenchers uncomfortable at the government's direction of travel. Yet however bad those divides are, they're surely nothing compared to those on show at Labour's conference in Brighton just a few days ago. Nowhere was that better evidenced than at The World Transformed (TWT) festival, the socialist shindig to rival Labour's 'official' event, held just a stone's throw away from the main hall.

It can be a difficult task picking out the most incompetent minister in the Scottish government. There's Sturgeon's deputy John Swinney, the man who faced two votes of confidence in seven months. There's Shona Robison, resurrected in May having been forced to resign in 2018 amid near-universal criticism of her management of the health brief. And of course there's Transport minister Michael Matheson, a man with no discernible achievements to his name, now knee-deep in the ferries scandal. But of all the SNP's top talent surely no man has blundered more regularly than Humza Yousaf.

Oh dear. Less than 24 hours after David Lammy (of all people) claimed Labour should not get involved in identity politics, his leader has plunged straight back into the culture wars.   Asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain who was his favourite Bond actor, Sir Keir passed up the chance to win back, say, badly-needed Scottish voters by plumping for Sean Connery, or appealing to Denis Healey fans within Labour by choosing the eyebrow-wiggling Roger Moore. Instead Starmer replied: 'I don’t have a favourite Bond but I do think it is time for a female Bond,' inducing a collective Twitter meltdown.

Labour's conference is finishing off in much the same way it started: with party members determined to shout at each other rather than take the fight to the Tories.  During Keir Starmer's big speech in Brighton, the Labour leader has been repeatedly heckled – including as he spoke about his mother's harrowing ordeal in the intensive care ward of an NHS hospital. One particularly worked-up Labour party member took to her feet to vent her feelings about Starmer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s3sTVv6cNA Starmer responded by asking: 'Shouting slogans or changing lives, conference?' Early on in the speech, the Labour leader was heckled for his Brexit policy and over his refusal to back demands for a £15-an-hour minimum wage.

Whether it's scum-gate, party democracy, membership expulsions or the minimum wage you'd think Labour had had enough splits this conference. But to add to that (growing) list of disputes is the issue of transgender rights in the wake of Rosie Duffield's decision not to attend conference, as first reported by Mr S.  Tensions have played out within the Parliamentary Labour Party and in the wider conference too, between those supporters of transgender rights and gender critics whom the former label TERFs – or trans-exclusionary radical feminists. A transgender woman was stopped on Sunday trying to enter a ladies' toilet, leading to an ugly and distressing stand-off. On the conference floor this afternoon one Labour delegate received shouts of 'shame!