Steerpike

You might have thought that Europe's leaders would be wary of handing Brussels greater powers, given the various mishaps of the EU's vaccine procurement and roll out scheme since January. But for German Chancellor Angela Merkel the sorry episode has served less a chastening warning about the dangers of Euro integration than a justification for a more centralised state. Speaking earlier this week in a video conversation with European People's party group leader Manfred Weber, Merkel aligned herself with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen whose handling of the pandemic has been widely criticised.

When Boris Johnson announced he was running to be Tory leader in July 2019, few were more vociferous in their support than Johnny Mercer. The former Royal Artillery captain claimed at the time that 'Boris is the man of the moment' and 'a much deeper thinker than people assess him to be', being rewarded with a post as a junior defence minister. Fast forward nearly two years and Mercer has now left his post over the treatment of veterans who served in Northern Ireland after they were excluded from the amnesty in the Overseas Operations Bill. In a Times Radio interview this afternoon, Mercer let rip his frustrations, claiming that his spell in Whitehall was 'the most distrustful, awful environment I've ever worked in' – quite a statement from a Helmand veteran.

Sinoscepticism is on the rise in Parliament, with China's controversial 'Belt and Road Initiative' increasingly being the subject of attention in the House of Lords. Down the corridor and across central lobby it appears no MPs are now willing to be linked with the scheme which ties Chinese infrastructure spending with increased influence. The All Party Parliamentary Group for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was founded in 2018 by Labour MP Faisal Rashid, who managed to find time amidst the ongoing Brexit drama in the last Parliament to visit both Guangdong and Guangxi in China.

Leaked plans for a 'European Super League' of top football clubs have left fans feeling as sick as a parrot today, amid fears of the impact such a move would have on the beautiful game. Under the proposals, Europe's leading teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid would juggle their domestic leagues to sign with a new midweek competition that would see them play regular games across the continent against one another. Politicians here in Britain have already been quick to get ahead of the backlash, with Boris Johnson claiming such plans 'would strike at the heart of the domestic game and will concern fans across the country.

As Westminster reels from Alan Duncan’s shocking revelations that he didn’t much like Boris and that he should have been in the cabinet (not that he cared) who will be next to publish their tell all book? With the watering holes of SW1 shut for most of the last twelve months, politicians have been forced to find new ways to entertain themselves – including, err, writing about themselves.  Below Steerpike runs down the list of those who are or will be shortly bringing out their lockdown projects: Seumas Milne – the ‘thin Controller’ spent four years at the coalface of Corbynism as Labour’s director of communications between 2015 and 2019.

It was just two days ago that Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was claiming in his country's parliament that Britain was 'facing a very serious third wave.' But now cases in the country have overtaken those of its southern neighbour the USA, whose approach to the pandemic received widespread criticism prior to the vaccine roll out.  Data from Johns Hopkins University show Canada now have cases of 207.3 per million people compared to those in the United States where numbers are 206.7 per million. A day before Trudeau's comments on the UK situation, Canada registered a record 10,859 new cases despite the country's original response to the virus being widely praised.