Steerpike

The Queen’s Speech yesterday may have seen the government’s fairly dry vision for modern Britain but a group of Conservative backbench MPs and peers have now banded together to propose their own alternative. Cracking down on immigration, breaking up the BBC and taking aim at woke policing are all proposed in a new book by the Common Sense Group of around 50 Tory parliamentarians. Titled Conservative Thinking For a Post-Liberal Age, it takes aim at the Equality Act, Supreme Court, British broadcasters and Extinction Rebellion, proposing a much tougher line on the forces of 'wokeism' and its practitioners.

Under first George Osborne and now under new editor Emily Sheffield, the Evening Standard has become something of a safe exile for onetime players in the Cameroon government. But now it seems the winds of cross-party change are blowing through Northcliffe House as Sheffield took to Twitter to announce the newest signing for the self-proclaimed 'Voice of London': newly re-elected mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham. Burnham's first outing for his new editorial home was speaking today at the Standard's London Rising event at which he told the people of London that they do not need to be 'levelled down' for the North, adding 'Don’t believe what people say — I love London.

While the Conservatives in Cornwall may celebrate winning control of the council in last week’s election, they had one notable setback: Liberal Democrat Thalia Marrington won the Mousehole, Newlyn and St Buryan division, which has been Tory for as long as anyone can remember. What did it take for the Tories to lose England’s biggest fishing port? According to those sages at the Guardian it was the Cornish fishing vote turning against the government after the Brexit deal. Others argue that the traditional rivalry between farmers and fishermen means they were never going to vote for a farmer like William Bolitho.

With dozens of Labour councillors defeated across the country, the recriminations and inquests have already begun. Various reasons have been suggested for Tory gains across the Red Wall including the vaccine rollout and Boris Johnson’s own personal popularity, with Labour’s leadership using the occasion to (attempt) a reshuffle of its top team. One defeated Labour councillor in Amber Valley though has now offered up his own explanation for his defeat and that of 200 other colleagues across the country. Outgoing leader Chris Emmas-Williams, told the Derby Telegraph today: ‘It’s been a disastrous day for us. I don’t think I’ve ever been in an election with so acrimony and so many lies in campaign literature. The voters have let us down.

As the dust settles from Scotland’s elections and the war of words heats up over a future referendum, one thing is perfectly clear: Alex Salmond’s Alba party has been a monumental failure. The former First Minister, whose disastrous party launch six weeks ago set the tone for what followed, failed to be elected as one of the seven North East MSPs, despite much talk of ‘gaming’ the list system. The 17 seats in that region were divided between the SNP (9) Conservatives (5) Labour (2) and Green (1).Salmond himself polled just 2.3 per cent of the vote in what was once his mighty heartland, with Alba failing to win a single seat across the country.

Having claimed earlier in the week that would he take 'full responsibility' for Labour's election results, it took until 4 p.m. for Keir Starmer to emerge and face the media on what went wrong in Hartlepool. In contrast to a jovial Johnson who got to do his piece to camera in front of a twenty foot blow up Boris with a newly-elected Tory MP in Teesside, Starmer had to do his in his London office – hardly a surprise given there were few newly gained seats for him to visit.A grim-faced Starmer give a painful five minute long interview that reminded Mr S of Ed Miliband's infamous 'get round the negotiating table' rehearsed attempts ten years ago.

Last month Steerpike revealed which politicians are set to release books after putting their respective lockdowns to good use. But it appeared Mr S missed one looming literary attraction – the release of Michel Barnier's forthcoming memoirs about the Brexit talks. Barnier, who held the role of the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator between 2016 and 2021, is releasing his 'secret journal' tomorrow in which he focuses on the role of Conservative infighting shaped Britain's departure from the EU. Thus far, the main revelations trailed in today's newspapers include the bombshells that (shock) the Frenchman was repelled by Johnson's 'baroque personality' and that the former mayor of London was 'not serious' in Barnier's eyes.

It has been a tough few weeks for David Cameron. The former Prime Minister’s brief lobbying career appears to have come to an end with the collapse of Greensill capital while his long-awaited UK-China investment fund is still ‘yet to be established’ four years after being announced. Still, at least he can always relax with a good game of golf. Cameron is known for his love of the game, having enjoyed complimentary membership to the Ellesborough golf club near Chequers when in office. Now though he enjoys practicing his swing in the coastal surroundings of St Enodoc in North Cornwall, near his £2 million holiday home.