Steerpike

Greeted by a throng of angry protesters outside Tory conference, some of the party's MPs are taking the easy option – and choosing to walk a different way. But not Jacob Rees-Mogg.  After leaving the conference centre, Mogg – dressed immaculately, as usual, in his buttoned-up suit – walked straight into the thick of it. He might have regretted his decision.  Mogg was booed loudly and heckled by demonstrators, with one calling him 'scum'. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQE5THylJiY Having headed through the crowd of demonstrators, Mogg then turned back and ran the gauntlet again – only this time to be confronted by an angry protester who blamed the Tories for not being able to find work.

It's been a tough few years for Conservative Remainers. First the shock Brexit result and then the premiership of Boris Johnson with all that entails. But last night the long-suffering bearers of the torch of Tory moderation gathered together for a rally of the One Nation caucus of Conservative MPs and their supporters within the Tory Reform Group (TRG).  Theresa May's former deputy Damian Green welcomed attendees by quipping that 'the TRG is essentially full of young and beautiful people – if you see people here who are not young and beautiful they may well be members of the One Nation caucus.

It's day two at the Conservative party conference and many attendees will be waking up with sore heads today. The fringes were packed last night as Tory ministers did the rounds. Liz Truss, the darling of the free market think tanks, appeared at the Think Tent equipped with a magnificent blow dry and an applause-winning speech which castigated cancel culture as 'fundamentally wrong.' That and other jibes at identity politics in her conference address lead the Daily Mail this morning to ask whether she is in fact the new Mrs Thatcher.

While all eyes in Brighton yesterday were on the shenanigans in the conference hall, Jeremy Corbyn’s loyal band of followers were meeting to discuss how to rid themselves of his successor. At The World Transformed, the rival socialist festival set up in 2016, the great and the not-so-good of the millennial left met for a panel titled: ’Starmer out? And if so, how?' Billed as a ‘debate’ there didn’t seem to be much in the way of disagreement here as Novara founder Aaron Bastani, Momentum chief Gaya Sriskanthan and former Jezza speech writer Alex Nunns all competed to rubbish Sir Keir’s leadership.

As day four of Labour conference begins here in Brighton, Mr S has been touring the conference centre and World Transformed festival to see how Keir Starmer's party is preparing for government. It's the first time the party has had an in-person jamboree for two years and thus far the occasion has lived up to expectations.  Whether it's Sadiq Khan on the decks at Dawn Butler's Jamaica night, Seumas Milne plotting with Len McCluskey in the bar of the Grand or Piers and Jeremy Corbyn facing off, all sorts of exotic creatures have been spotted among the clubs, pubs, fringes and forums of Brighton. Below is Steerpike's guide for all those unlucky enough not to have got a ticket...

It's been a tough few days for Keir Starmer. Unloved by his party's activists and outmaneuvered by his union barons, his conference season has had more rows than Hollyoaks. Still, the under-fire leader will no doubt be delighted to discover one Labour member is still happy to uncritically sing his praises – new recruit John Bercow, the former Commons speaker. Last night Bercow took to the stage at an SMEs for Labour Q&A to an ecstatic welcome by fawning Remainers in the crowd. The onetime Monday Club member made sure to brush up on his verbal cues for the night, peppering his half-an-hour appearance with frequent references to his new found 'comrades' and declaring 'I'm very proud belatedly to be a member of the Labour party'.

Much like Brighton’s weather, Labour’s conference started brightly but has now become a much more gloomy affair. As ‘scumgate’ rumbles on, cranks scrap in public while frontbenchers take subtle pot shots at one another. Still, despite all the bleakness and infighting, Mr S is delighted to bring news of one ray of light amid the darkness – the return of Seumas Milne. Jeremy Corbyn's former director of communications was spied by Steerpike's man in the Grand, holding court in the bar of the Brighton conference hotel yesterday afternoon, sporting a fresh trim and his trademark black suit.

Long-suffering commuters have had further misery this month, thanks to the shenanigans of eco-warriors Insulate Britain. The group are an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion and have today blocked the M25 for a sixth time – despite a High Court injunction warning that they face jail if they carried on disrupting traffic on the UK's busiest motorway. Members of the group argue that the ends justify the means – that their disruptive methods help to bring attention to their cause. But is that the case? Polling by Redfield and Wilton for The Spectator, conducted on Wednesday 22 September, shows that when asked how much they had read or heard about the sit-in protests on the M25, opinion was split.

Sunday at Labour conference was a trying affair. Beset by questions about whether Tory voters were 'scum' or not, many leading left-wing politicians sought out the fleshpots of Brighton to drown their sorrows. And where better to do that then at Dawn Butler's legendary Jamaica night, held this year in the gratifyingly sticky confines of Brighton's much-loved Pryzm nightclub? Just like party infighting and Piers Corbyn, Butler's Kingston knees-up has become a mainstay of recent conference shindigs. Activists, MPs, hacks and various hangers-ons all endured the half-an-hour wait to enter the bowels of Pryzm, accompanied by the rhythmic beats of a steelpan band.