Steerpike

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.

It's groundhog day in the House of Commons today. Another Health Secretary, another Covid announcement and now another scheduled vote on the government's decision to abandon the Tory commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on international aid. The Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg told MPs this afternoon that there will tomorrow be a three hour debate and a binding vote on a motion about the Treasury's restrictions on the international aid budget. If the motion is rejected, the previous 0.7 per cent commitment on international aid will be reinstated from January 2022.

In a heartfelt letter addressed to Gareth Southgate, HM the Queen has sent her 'good wishes' to the team and praised 'the spirit, commitment and pride' shown by England during the Euro 2020 championship.  The Queen began her letter by recalling her presentation of the World Cup to Bobby Moore 55 years ago, after Geoff Hurst scored two goals in extra time to seal the victory.  Gareth Southgate has made his own sense of patriotism clear this weekend, revealing in the Telegraph that he wants the team to inspire people both on and off the pitch: 'We have a view of what being English should represent and standards we want to hit.

Fractious times over at Guardian towers. The long-running battle between Kath Viner, the paper’s editor, and Anette Thomas, the media group’s chief executive, concluded last month after the latter resigned over conflicting views about the Graun’s future. It’s not just the boardroom where such clashes are being played out. Mr S hears word that the editorial floors of the Guardian and its Sunday sister the Observer have become riven with tensions over the perennial problem of trans rights. WhatsApp groups are ablaze with talk that Observer commentator Sonia Sodha could become the next feminist hounded out of the group, following Suzanne Moore’s purging in November.

Football fever appears to have infected the Commons, following England's 2-1 win over Denmark last night. Tory backbencher Lee Anderson may still be maintaining his boycott over the team's 'taking the knee' stance but the rest of his parliamentary colleagues have been eagerly following the journey of Southgate's side, judging by the plethora of pictures plastered across various social media sites. Even the hallowed chamber of the Commons itself has not been immune from some dreadful football-related 'puns.' First Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner opened at the dispatch box today with this 'zinger': 'Football is coming home, but I also think the chickens are coming home to roost for this government.' Instant red card for that one.

It was just three weeks ago that Steerpike pointed out that Labour MP Naz Shah was being billed to speak at a charity fundraiser alongside a controversial imam. Now it seems the shadow minister for community cohesion has caused yet further headaches for her leader thanks to her speech on Monday on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.  Just hours after Kim Leadbeater took her seat in Parliament, following a campaign dogged by questions about a Batley school teacher forced to go into hiding for showing children a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, Shah delivered an eyebrow-raising intervention likening such depictions to the vandalism of Winston Churchill's statue.

Government flats have been in the news a fair bit recently. Much ink was spilled over the £88,000 Boris and Carrie shelled out to interior designer Lulu Lytle to do up the Prime Minister's flat at the end of last year. But now it seems the Johnsons got off lightly, judging by the current exorbitant rate going for Downing Street apartments. A Freedom of Information request by Steerpike has shed light on a previously little-known arrangement between government departments over the Chancellor's official flat, which is based in No. 10, adjacent to the Prime Minister's larger abode next door in No. 11.