Steerpike

Labour’s Kim Leadbeater may be celebrating her triumph in Batley and Spen (though not as much as her leader Keir Starmer) but the by-election was another setback for George Galloway’s efforts to get back into parliament — any parliament. The serial candidate hasn’t been an MP since 2015 and Batley was the 15th time he has stood for elected office, and his ninth defeat. What Steerpike admires most about Galloway is his geographical flexibility: he’s never let attachment to a particular constituency hold him back. From Bradford to Bromwich, Glasgow to Gorton, Comrade Galloway has always gone where the workers needed him. Some call him ‘Gorgeous George’, Mr S prefers ‘GPS George’.

After a long and often unpleasant campaign, the Batley and Spen by-election is over, with Labour managing to cling on to the seat. Labour’s candidate, Kim Leadbeater, won a paper-thin majority of 323 votes over the Tory candidate, with George Galloway trailing around 5,000 votes behind Labour. Galloway was certainly not happy with the result this morning and gave an impromptu speech outside Huddersfield’s Cathedral House after the count was finalised.

Dilyn may be top dog in Number 10 but these days there's only breed of choice for the aspiring Tory: a fox red Labrador. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is photographed in today's newspapers clutching his new eight week old puppy Nova. And while his next door neighbour Boris Johnson has an (appropriately) badly-behaved, chaotic and randy Jack Russell rescue mutt, his photogenic Treasury minister prefers a sleek, pedigree type of labrador which has become increasingly popular in recent years. Sunak's daughters are cited as the reason for the new arrival, with a Number 11 source quoted in the Sun as saying 'Rishi was fighting it but finally gave in, and the whole building is cooing over him.

It has been a busy month for Dawn Butler. Whether it's joining Cameo, backfiring Twitter polls or even being an apparent contender for the Labour leadership, she has rarely kept away from the headlines.  In such circumstances, it's no surprise then that Butler's services have at last been recognised, with the MP herself excitedly tweeting how she was 'honoured to have been dedicated' with a 'Blue Plaque' unveiling near Stratford.  Mr S was surprised to see so many rapturous supporters tweeting their approval of this public symbol of recognition – normally the left is keener to pull them down than putting them up. https://twitter.com/DawnButlerBrent/status/1409879353161302020?

Much ink has been spilled over the shenanigans of the James Dornan, SNP MSP and amateur Hate-Finder General. Just last week the gaffe-prone Glaswegian was forced to apologise for suggesting that an Edinburgh bus company had stopped services on St Patrick's Day because of 'anti-Irish racism,' an unsubstantiated claim for which Dornan had no evidence.  Now fresh evidence has come to light of Dornan's efforts to whip up another sectarian drama. Last month a video of Rangers football players celebrating their league triumph went viral on Tik Tok, with the players allegedly chanting bigoted slurs in an add on to the song 'Sweet Caroline.

Since her election to Parliament in December 2019, Labour backbencher Kate Osborne has become something of a transparency campaigner. The Jarrow MP has urged the extension of Freedom of Information laws to cover private companies and criticised Conservative opponent Nadine Dorries for sharing 'fake news propaganda' online. But Osborne seems less keen to divulge information about herself, being one of a handful of new MPs such as Felicity Buchan and Neil Hudson to decline to disclose her date of birth in the most recent Times guide to the House of Commons.

It appears the Liberal Democrats have fallen foul of the Trade Descriptions Act. During the Brexit years, the party did its best to eschew the 'democratic' part of their name by promising to nullify the largest democratic mandate the UK has ever seen. And now Mr Steerpike is intrigued to see that party grandees don’t seem too keen on their 'liberal' roots either. Former party leader Vince Cable has this week written a piece for the Independent arguing that there is no point in the West criticising China for its policies towards the Uighur Muslims. Cable denies that ethnic cleansing is going on in Xinjiang, despite reports of forced sterilisations and abortion, justifying measures against the Uighurs as counterterrorism 'crackdowns'.

One man's loss is another man's gain. Matt Hancock's downfall has meant the return of Sajid Javid, restored to Cabinet sixteen months after his resignation in a Downing Street power struggle.  Javid wasted no time in taking to the airwaves yesterday, paying the obligatory tribute to his disgraced predecessor and telling broadcasters: 'We are still in a pandemic and I want to see that come to an end as soon as possible. That will be my immediate priority – to see that we return to normal, as soon and as quickly as possible.' Fighting talk after the past year and a half. Hancock was known to be one of the most pro-lockdown 'doves' around the Cabinet table with his department naturally reluctant to back a loosening of restrictions.

Efforts to rid Huawei from Britain's 5G mobile network were a constant feature of Tory politics last year. The question of whether a company with links to the Chinese state should be involved in such sensitive infrastructure dominated much of 2020, culminating in Oliver Dowden's announcement in November of a ban on Huawei in 5G networks. It followed a long-running campaign by the 40 or so MPs who belong to the China Research Group, run by Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. But now it appears that a similar fight could be looming over another Chinese tech giant.