Steerpike

Jacob Rees-Mogg has just given a pretty accurate summary of the state of British politics. The leader of the House of Commons pulled no punches as he addressed the Tory faithful at party conference. Mogg said Corbyn is a 'weak man', likened shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer to Brutus and said the Lib Dems were 'extremists' over their Brexit stance. Still, at least Mogg did have some kind words to say about one politician: his sister, Annunziata: Like Gulliver tied down at Lilliput, we are tied down by a ragtag, motley collection of feeble, fickle, footling politicians. All in desperate pursuit of a single ignoble aim – to renege on the solemn promise they made to the British people and try to cancel the largest single democratic mandate in our history.

David Cameron's autobiography was supposed to be a chance for the former prime minister to settle scores and have his say on his time in office. But Cameron's book is also something that he didn't intend: a convincing case for Brexit. 'For the Record' is littered with examples of EU officials and council members undermining UK interests and reneging on promises. Here are 13 times David Cameron's book makes the case for Brexit: Jean-Claude Juncker frustrating British interests:  ‘Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, was particularly dismissive of British concerns. As a finance minister, he’d been there at Maastricht when the journey to monetary union began. He’d been there when we refused to join the euro.

Justin Trudeau found himself in hot water last week after pictures emerged of him 'blacking up' for a fancy-dress party. A week on, an unlikely supporter has leapt to the Canadian prime minister's defence. Step forward, Desmond Swayne. In a blog on his website titled 'Trudeau's Turban', the flamboyant Brexiteer said the only thing Trudeau did wrong was say sorry. Swayne then made a surprising confession of his own: 'I once went to a ‘Blues Brothers’ themed fancy-dress party as James Brown. I went to some trouble to be as authentic as possible.' So will Swayne now follow in Trudeau's footsteps and say sorry? Don't bank on it: 'I can assure readers of this column that I have no intention of apologising.

There is no love lost between MPs in the Commons today following last night's fractious debate. But has one Labour MP gone a little too far in calling for her opposite number to say sorry? Shadow Commons leader Valerie Vaz took to her feet this afternoon to ask Geoffrey Cox to ‘come to the House to apologise’. The reason? For ‘calling us turkeys’, Vaz told the Commons. Mr S. remembers hearing worse in the school playground...

Geoffrey Cox is not a happy bunny. The Attorney General has just blasted MPs, telling them that Parliament is a 'disgrace'. Here's what he had to say in the Commons: 'This Parliament has declined three times to pass a withdrawal agreement. Then we now have a wide number of this house setting its face against leaving at all. And when this government draws the only logical inference from that position, which is that it must leave therefore without a deal at all. It still sets its face, denying the electorate its say in how this matter should be resolved. This parliament is a dead parliament. It should no longer sit. It has no moral right to sit on these green benches... ' Mr S. finds it difficult to disagree.

What's the biggest threat facing the Labour party? The Tories? The Lib Dems? Brexit? All wrong, says pro-Corbyn film director Ken Loach. The Kes filmmaker reckons its the likes of Tom Watson and other Labour MPs failing to line up behind Jeremy that is the thing to worry about right now. Loach told Mr S's favourite paper, the Morning Star, that 'the right inside Labour are the biggest obstacle to a Labour government'. He said: 'The right wing of the Labour party is the biggest threat we face. These are the inheritors of Ramsay MacDonald, Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley, Blair and Brown. The right, embodied by Tom Watson, aims to destroy the socialist programme. In the party there is the leadership and a core of socialists backing it.

Labour conference was mired in controversy this afternoon, as the party voted against backing  Remain in a second referendum. While the party's conference ended up passing Jeremy Corbyn's preferred Brexit position, the key vote on whether Labour would back Remain was only dropped after Labour's general secretary and Corbyn ally, Jennie Formby overruled the debate chair. Labour motions at conference are voted on with a show of hands, and at first, the chair of the debate believed that the Remain motion had passed – which would  have been an embarrassing setback for Jeremy Corbyn. Remarkably though, the chair's decision was then contested by Formby, who believed more people had voted against the motion in the hall.

Here we go. As the debate continues within the Labour party as to which Brexit policy will win the party the most seats at a general election, the mainstream domestic policy agenda is progressing nicely. This evening, Labour delegates approved a motion for a Labour government to seemingly abolish private schools. The motion is to 'integrate' private schools into the state sector. Rather than knock them down, the idea appears to be that a school such as Eton would become part of the state system. However, Mr S's Labour mole says there is a grey area as to the exact details as the motion passed is clumsily worded. Set aside the small matter that private schools educate 15pc of sixthformers (ie, the ones who apply to university) when 7pc is a figure for the whole system.

With a cross-party group of MPs successfully passing legislation to instruct the government to seek an Article 50 extension rather than go for no deal, the Prime Minister could be forced to seek a Brexit delay if he cannot agree a deal. However, Boris Johnson has said on numerous occasions that he will do no such thing. There's chatter in Tory circles that if No. 10 cannot find a way around the legislation, he could either resign or be brought down by MPs and an attempt then made to form a letter-writing government of national unity. This government's sole aim would be to seek a Brexit delay before going into a general election (or second referendum depending on who you speak to). But who to lead it?

Tom Watson's position as deputy leader of the Labour party hangs in the balance this weekend after a move was made on the party's national executive committee to oust him by abolishing his post. The motion was proposed by Jon Lansman, founder of Labour grassroots group Momentum. Although Watson survived Friday's vote, a second attempt will be made on Saturday at the party's conference. Figures on both sides of the party believe it will be successful. It's safe to say that this won't come as a huge surprise to Watson. The Corbyn critic has previously spoken of the vulnerability of his position. Appearing on the BBC's political thinking podcast last summer, Watson admitted he could be taken out as deputy leader.