Steerpike

In a fresh bid to secure privacy for himself and his family, Prince Harry has announced this week that he is publishing his ‘intimate and heartfelt’ memoirs at the age of 36. The book – ghost-written by JR Moehringer, another of those dastardly journalists – will be published by Penguin Random House late next year and is set to provide ‘the definitive account of the experiences, adventures, losses, and life lessons that have helped shape him.’ The official press release includes this gem from the exiled royal: 'Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, said: 'I'm writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become.' Might be worth sharing that memo to Penguin’s publicists then.

After eight months of confining his thoughts to Substack and Twitter, tonight Dom Cummings went mainstream. His first television interview with Laura Kuenssberg laid bare the tensions that exited throughout Boris Johnson's first year in government and his growing discontent with how the Prime Minister runs his government. Steerpike has already covered Dom's role in saving the Queen from meeting a Covid riddled Prime Minister. But here are four more 'Dom bombs' revealed in tonight's interview: 1. Plotting to get rid of the PM days after the election Cummings revealed how his issues with Johnson started even before the pandemic began and that less than a month after the victorious 2019 election triumph he was on manoeuvres against the PM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

And so after months of debate and disagreement, at last the government has today revealed vaccine passports will be introduced in nightclubs and large events from the end of September. This afternoon vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told the House of Commons that a negative Covid test will not be sufficient; instead, only two vaccinations will do.  https://twitter.com/JasonGroves1/status/1417158734825074689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Proof of a jab will not be needed to enter pubs and restaurants but individual landlords do have the power to insist on them. Today's decision follows a review by Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove earlier this month into the possible use of Covid certification.

Following yesterday's news that health secretary Sajid Javid had tested positive for Covid, it seemed only a matter of time before other cabinet ministers were similarly forced to self-isolate. Javid had a 'lengthy' meeting with Boris Johnson on Friday afternoon, just hours before his symptoms developed. So, surely the Prime Minister will be expected to self-isolate? Think again...This morning, No. 10 has released the following statement: The Prime Minister and Chancellor have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace as contacts of someone who has tested positive for Covid. They will be participating in the daily contact testing pilot to allow them to continue to work from Downing Street. They will be conducting only essential government business during this period.

As the government prepares to lift nearly all legal Covid restrictions on Monday, ministers are at pains to emphasise that the pandemic is not over. A helpful reminder can be found in the news that Sajid Javid has today tested positive. In a video posted on Twitter, the Health Secretary — who is double jabbed — said he took a lateral flow test after feeling a ‘bit groggy’ on Friday evening, but his symptoms are ‘very mild’. https://twitter.com/sajidjavid/status/1416375392374513668?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Given around a million Brits were told to self-isolate in the first week of July alone, perhaps it’s a taste of things to come. But as Javid now faces a period of self-isolation, who will be getting pinged and told to join him?

Andy Burnham is very much the flavour of the month in Labour circles at present. Having left Westminster in 2016 when it became clear he wasn't going to become leader any time soon, he has undergone something of a renaissance as mayor of Manchester.  In this capacity he gets to govern an overwhelmingly left-leaning city and enjoy the tributes of cooing London based journalists who declare him the 'king of the north.' The contrast between Burnham and his struggling leader was most apparent in the aftermath of May's local elections; whereas the former was re-elected with 67 per cent of the vote and bagged himself a column in a London newspaper, the latter gave a dreadful pool clip and then disappeared for the following 48 hours.

Tomorrow will mark three weeks since the Matt Hancock scandal broke. The man himself has been keeping a very low public profile since his resignation as Health Secretary on 26 June but already there is talk about an improbable return to government.  Boris Johnson's letter accepting Hancock's resignation ended by claiming 'your contribution to public service is far from over' and the latter certainly seems to believe that, judging by a report in the Mail on Sunday which suggested he has appealed to current and former Ministers 'for advice on how to fight back.

Next Monday is ‘freedom day’ when all social distancing restrictions are removed. Clubs will reopen, pubs will be packed, sports crowds will resume and the bells of liberty will ring out across the nation. Well, that’s the theory at least. The reality is, as Sajid Javid told the Commons on Monday, that all these venues are being urged by the government to use ‘Covid passports’. Businesses operating in ‘high risk settings’ with limited indoor ventilation will be ‘supported and encouraged’ to use a certification system to check that customers have had either been double- jabbed or had a recent negative Covid test.

The last few years have been tough for Jeremy Corbyn. One minute you're being heralded by the trustafarians of Glastonbury; the next you're leading Labour to its worst result since 1935. Rejected by the electorate, suspended by his party, the world’s unluckiest anti-racist has found himself embroiled in a series of minor self-inflicted scandals, whether that be speaking next to a dubious ten foot inflatable sheikh or telling the intellectual adolescents of Cambridge that ‘Luciana Berger was not hounded out of Labour.’  Having lost the election, the whip and at times even the plot, the onetime leader of the opposition can add to that list his once iron-clad grip of the Labour faithful.