Steerpike

A heart-warming moment at the first day of Wimbledon today. In the crowd to watch matches on centre court was Professor Sarah Gilbert who developed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for coronavirus. Having spent much of 2020 working on finding a jab, the scientist was today enjoying a rare day out, having been appointed a Dame in the Birthday Honours earlier this month for her services to science. The crowd may have been there to see players like Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray but there was only one star this afternoon when the Wimbledon announcer declared Gilbert was in attendance. The crowd rose to give the obviously affected scientist a standing ovation to thank her and the Oxford team for all they had done to rid the country of Covid-19.

A belated effort is underway to salvage the remains of Matt Hancock's reputation. The latest line, repeated by a dutiful Brandon Lewis on Sky this morning, is that the former Health Secretary quit for the good of the country – which begs the question as to why he waited 48 hours after the news broke to do so.  A cynic might suggest that Hancock's resignation had more to do with public anger and media pressure failing to subside rather than any high moral principle but for Lewis the answer was clear: Hancock went for the good of his family. The Northern Ireland Secretary told breakfast viewers this morning: His position was untenable and distracting from the wider work that we've all got to do to move forward in the pandemic and out of the pandemic.

Sixth time’s the charm for Sajid Javid who takes up the health brief following Matt Hancock's resignation. Javid, who has previously run the housing, business, culture, Treasury and home affairs departments, resigned from Boris Johnson's government in February last year, following a power struggle with No. 10. The former Deutsche Bank executive quit after being told in a face to face meeting with the Prime Minister to fire all of his advisers at the Treasury and replace them with individuals selected by Johnson's backroom team, led at the time by one Dominic Cummings. Javid declined and left office, claiming ‘no self-respecting minister would accept those terms’ – terms which, presumably, will not be forced on him in his new found role.

These days it’s easier to work out who is leaving Keir Starmer’s team than who is still in it. Ahead of the Batley and Spen by-election next Thursday, there have been a series of moves and departures – from one-time political secretary Jenny Chapman’s demotion to a raft of departures in the comms team. After Labour’s top spinner Ben Nunn stepped down, the hunt is on for a new Director of Communications to turn round Starmer’s lacklustre approval ratings. Already the team is on its second interim replacement, with Steph Driver replaced on Wednesday by Blair-era fixture Matthew Doyle. Asked for their thoughts on who'd get the job, one top Labour aide told Mr S 'God knows.

Oh dear. Back in March, Mumford & Sons banjoist Winston Marshall landed himself in hot water after praising a book by conservative American journalist Andy Ngo.  Following the publication of Unmasked – Ngo's recent critique of the antifa movement – Marshall tweeted his praise, declaring: 'Finally had the time to read your important book. You’re a brave man.' The subsequent backlash over Ngo's alleged status as a 'notorious right-wing agitator' forced Marshall to take 'time away from the band' culminating in today's announcement that the latter is leaving his band after 14 years.

Oh dear. While all eyes in Westminster were on the dispatch boxes at Prime Minister's Questions today, it appears an unsightly scuffle was going on just out of sight. Joanna Cherry, the onetime SNP darling sacked from her party's front bench in February, has accused the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey of 'unacceptable behaviour.' In a series of tweets shortly after the session ended, Cherry claimed that Davey, buoyant after last Thursday's by-election triumph in Chesham and Amersham, had tried to dislodge her from her perch on the Commons green benches. She wrote on Twitter that: 'There are no reserved seats in @HouseofCommons at present yet Ed Davey just made me give up my seat for him at #PMQs in a v forceful manner.

After last year's A-level results day debacle and the ongoing saga about catch-up funding, Gavin Williamson is one of the bookies' favourites for the Cabinet chop. The incumbent education secretary has suffered some brutal headlines in the last 12 months and appears to have stumbled on the culture wars as his best bet for ministerial survival, jumping headfirst earlier this month into the Oxford Queen portrait row. https://twitter.com/educationgovuk/status/1406990765906145281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Now though Williamson's department might have overstepped itself in its zeal to promote British values.