Steerpike

As MPs head home for the holidays, Keir Starmer goes into the recess having put clear water between himself and his predecessor. As well as apologising to anti-Semitism whistleblowers, Starmer declared at Prime Minister's Questions that the party was under 'new management'. That management appears to be landing well with voters –  with Starmer leading over Boris Johnson on the question of who would make the best prime minister in a recent Opinium poll. So, surely the Labour party is delighted with the turn in fortunes since that disastrous election result in December? Alas, not. Rather than this being viewed as the nail in the coffin for the Corbyn project, several devoted activists are predicting disaster for the new leader: https://twitter.

If anyone thought the Labour party was through with the psychodrama of the Jeremy Corbyn years, they would have been bitterly disappointed by proceedings at the High Court this morning. In court, the Labour Party officially apologised for its own treatment of whistle-blowers involved in a BBC Panorama investigation into the party’s handling of antisemitism cases, which aired in 2019. In an apology read out at the High Court, Labour said it ‘acknowledged’ that previous statements it had made about the whistle-blowers – including accusing them of having ‘political axes to grind’ and being motivated by their opposition to Jeremy Corbyn – were ‘untrue and we redact and withdraw them and undertake not to repeat them’.

Why might a top medical adviser be dropped from the government's daily coronavirus press briefing? This was the question that MPs were keen to answer after England’s chief nurse gave evidence to the public accounts committee on Monday. Ruth May, who was interrogated by the committee chair Meg Hillier, failed to appear at the daily Downing Street presser on 1 June – days after the Dominic Cummings lockdown controversy. Instead, Matt Hancock was joined by epidemiologist John Newton from Public Health England. But those looking for a simple answer to the question of her sudden disappearance may be disappointed. She told the committee: 'It is indeed true I was dropped from a briefing but that happens to many of my colleagues as well.

Oh dear. When Chris Grayling was axed from Cabinet, he appeared to secure a consolation prize from No. 10: a role as chair of the intelligence and security committee. Downing Street backed Grayling as its candidate and with a Tory-weighted committee to pick their chair, he appeared to be a shoo-in. Alas it wasn't to be. This evening Graying has been thwarted in his efforts after Julian Lewis decided to go for the plum role and won 5/4. He and Labour members voted for him to become chair of the body. It seems the force of No. 10 was not enough to convince Lewis to play ball. 'Only Grayling could lose a rigged election,' sighs Mr S's man-in-the-know. Well, just another incident to add to failing Grayling's record...

The government has announced that wearing face masks while shopping will become mandatory from 27 July. It's fair to say though that some Conservative backbenchers aren't best pleased about the decision. ‘Nothing would make me less likely to go shopping than the thought of having to mask up’, Tory MP Desmond Swayne rallied in the House of Commons today. The MP for New Forest West argued that this is a ‘monstrous imposition against myself and a number of outraged and reluctant constituents’. (It's not clear whether Swayne's outrage applies to all face coverings: the MP has happily admitted to wearing blackface at a fancy-dress party in the past.

This week, former Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered a stark warning to Boris Johnson’s government about China. Speaking on Radio 4, the former Tory MP suggested that Britain should avoid weakening trade links with the world’s second largest economy, and instead be ‘frank’ in private about our ‘strong differences of opinion’. It was a strange intervention for him to make, as China implements its National Security Law in Hong Kong which threatens to undermine basic freedoms in the region.

A handful of Huawei executives testified in front of the Commons’ Science and Technology Committee on Thursday morning, to discuss the UK’s network infrastructure and the recent moves to reduce the firm’s role in our 5G network, over security concerns. Presumably the Huawei representatives were hoping to convince the committee and the wider world that their company is no different to any other network supplier, and that the Chinese state has no undue influence over them. That rather came undone though in a sustained grilling by committee chair Greg Clark. After one executive suggested that Huawei was no different to a company like BT, Clark asked if that meant Huawei employees were free to express their views.

The coronavirus pandemic has posed challenges for organisations right across the country – including the BBC. Although the corporation has said it has had to slim down its current affairs output temporarily as a result of social distancing, they have still managed to put out a series of podcasts for the younger generation – including a recent discussion where guests told white women to avoid becoming 'Karens' (American slang for entitled women, natch) and to 'stop being so loud' – which was later taken down from social media following complaints.But with a sense of normality slowly returning to SW1 as MPs debate and Westminster waterholes reopen, surely the BBC political coverage will soon, too, get up to date? Perhaps not.