Steerpike

Was Matt Hancock shrugging off Coronavirus in late January? An 'insight' article in the Sunday Times which has spread like wildfire online accuses him of doing so. The virus was making its way over the world, it says, but 'it took just an hour that January 24 lunchtime to brush aside the coronavirus threat. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, bounced out of Whitehall after chairing the meeting and breezily told reporters the risk to the UK public was “low”.

It was a tale of two interviews on the Today programme this morning. First up on the show was Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, who has been instrumental in forming the UK government’s response to the coronavirus crisis, and whose virus modelling led to the current lockdown being put in place.  On the show, the professor received an almost deferential line of questioning from Sarah Smith with his views seemingly taken as near-Gospel as he declared that a 'significant level' of social distancing could have to be maintained indefinitely until a vaccine becomes available.  Then came along the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock.

There's nothing like a national crisis to get your priorities in order. With the coronavirus death toll in the UK passing 10,000 this weekend, one government adviser has said Britain could be on course to be the worst performing country in Europe when it comes to overall fatalities. So, surely this is the issue on which the Labour party has spent the bank holiday Monday campaigning? Actually, no. Instead, Labour bods – and new Labour leader Keir Starmer –  have busied themselves with their favourite topic of old: internal party politics. A seemingly leaked internal report alleges that anti-Jeremy Corbyn sentiment within Labour thwarted the party's effort to tackle anti-Semitism.

Most people are delighted at the news that Boris Johnson's condition has improved enough for him to come out of intensive care. But not union boss Steve Hedley. Hedley, the assistant general secretary of the RMT Union, wrote on Facebook: 'I don't want to offend you, but if Bojo pops his clogs, I'm throwing a party. I hope the whole cabinet and higher echelons of the Tory party have been touching various bits of him.' Unfortunately for Hedley, his comments were picked up by LBC's Maajid Nawaz, who confronted him live on air.  https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1248580466577477632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Hedley promptly hung up but the RMT has since announced that he has been suspended and is under formal investigation. Oh dear...

This week Keir Starmer's formed his new Shadow Cabinet replacing several Corbynista stalwarts with his own favoured MPs on the frontbenches. As a result the Labour party has lost some of the ‘titans’ and ‘heavyweights’ of the Corbyn-era, who are no longer shadowing the great offices of state. To commemorate their departure, Mr Steerpike is compiling the best moments of their careers in opposition. On Monday, Mr S highlighted Richard Burgon’s greatest hits, after he was booted out as Shadow Justice Minister. Today we look at Diane Abbott, who announced in advance of Starmer's election that she would be stepping down from the role. Her successor is Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds.

Donald Trump was one of the first world leaders to voice his support for poorly PM, wishing him a speedy recovery and calling Johnson 'a great gentleman'. At last night's White House press briefing, the US President went a step further, telling reporters that he had personally instructed private medical staff to assist Boris Johnson. Trump said: I’ve asked two of the leading companies... They’ve come with the solutions and just have done incredible jobs – and I’ve asked him to contact London immediately. They’ve really advanced therapeutics… and they have arrived in London already. The London office has whatever they need. We’ll see if we can be of help.

So long Richard Burgon. Yes, Keir Starmer has decided to 'stand down' the would-be firebrand. Since Jeremy Corbyn appointed him as a shadow minister in 2015, the dedicated socialist has been a regular source of entertainment to Westminster watchers. So it is with some sadness that Mr S sees him returned to the Labour backbenches.  With that in mind, let's take a look at his greatest hits: 1. Burgon's bumbling response to anti-Zionism allegations The former frontbencher took umbrage with newspaper suggestions that he had called Zionism the 'enemy of peace', claiming that he had never uttered those words. So he was left somewhat redfaced when footage emerged of him saying those exact words.  https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1118189803416244224?

Some in the Labour party were hoping that the end of Jeremy Corbyn’s shambolic tenure as leader today, would usher in a new era of competence for the party, as Keir Starmer takes over. It appears though that some of Labour’s issues might run deeper. Today, the party was set to announce to the world which lucky candidate had won the Labour leadership contest on its website. But it doesn’t exactly bode well that just as Keir Starmer’s victory was set to be announced, the party’s website crashed, leaving anyone hoping to use the Labour party as a source of information in limbo.

Over the last few weeks, we've all been getting used to the realities of working from home. So Mr S was pleased to see the Cabinet getting stuck in with remote working earlier this morning. Yes, secretaries of state and government ministers dialled in from their London pads and constituency piles to coordinate the response to coronavirus.  https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1244985949534199808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Downing Street mandarins opted for the popular video conferencing app Zoom (The Spectator favourite, if you're interested, is Houseparty). Some have questioned whether it was sensible for the PM to post a pic of his assembled team alongside the digital code for the Cabinet's online meeting.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has just announced that he has also tested positive for coronavirus. Matt Hancock has tweeted out a video in which he says he has been suffering from mild symptoms of the disease and is now self-isolating at home.  https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1243522325397622784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw His announcement follows the revelation by Boris Johnson that he has also contracted the disease. And, like his boss, Hancock will continue working from home to coordinate the government's response.  The question now, though, is how many people in government also have coronavirus. Michael Gove's wife Sarah Vine has said that her husband has not yet been tested because he' is not displaying any of the symptoms.

As the House of Commons rises for a premature Easter recess, coronavirus continues to dominate all parliamentary business. However, today also marks Jeremy Corbyn's final day in parliament as Labour leader – he put in his last Prime Minister's Questions opposition performance this lunchtime. While many in Corbyn's own party won't be sad to see him go, Jacob Rees-Mogg appears to take a different view. The Leader of the House gave an unlikely tribute to the departing Labour leader: 'I perhaps have a particular admiration for him which may surprise him.

It seems the Observer's favourite intrepid investigative journalist has been at it again. Yes, Carole Cadwalladr has been tweeting. On Sunday evening, Cadwalladr decided to deviate from telling her half a million Twitter followers that the UK is in the palm of the Russians by explaining that we are now living through an unprecedented era of press control and media manipulation.  Cadwalladr was able to uncover something that no other journalist had yet revealed - that the daily coronavirus press briefings are, in fact, a sham: As you, dear reader, may have guessed by now, this statement is entirely and utterly false. it is untrue. It bears no resemblance to the facts.  The press conferences are not 'stage managed'.

With Westminster seemingly awash with coronavirus, the number of MPs and government aides in self-isolation increases by the day. This has led to chatter within government over who ought to step in should Boris Johnson find himself out of action for two weeks with a case of Covid-19. As first secretary of state, Dominic Raab is the minister No. 10 plan to draft in should Johnson fall ill – reportedly to the disappointment of Michael Gove and Matt Hancock. So, what about Labour? Given that the leadership contest doesn't end til next month, the stand-in leader would have to come from the current shadow cabinet.