Steerpike

The switchboard operators at 10 Downing Street are well-known for their precision and professionalism, as they dutifully connect callers to the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister to senior officials, dignitaries and foreign leaders around the world. But it appears that they had an uncharacteristic slip-up the other day. The Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare reports that when a senior civil servant in a major Whitehall department recently rang the line and asked for Gavin Barwell, Theresa May's chief of staff, they clearly were misheard by the Number 10 switchboard. After a short pause, the senior civil servant, no doubt expecting to discuss important matters of state, was instead connected to Take That star Gary Barlow. It's easy to confuse the pair after all.

When Geoffrey Cox stood on stage at Conservative conference and gave a speech to introduce Theresa May, the newly appointed Attorney General managed to steal the show. Cox managed to bring the house down with his Mufasa-inspired routine – quoting poetry as he called on members to get behind the Prime Minister. At Tuesday night's Onward event – to celebrate the Conservative think tank's first year – Cox cut a more sombre figure.

With Theresa May set to leave office this year, the race is on to find her successor. Cabinet ministers are at pains to emphasise their leadership credentials. On Tuesday evening, Amber Rudd used a speech at think tank Onward’s first birthday party to share her views on the current situation. The Work and Pensions Secretary joked - to a crowd that included Rory Stewart, James Brokenshire and Geoffrey Cox - that the current Tory leadership was male dominated before going on to lay out her view on the European elections and what the Tory tactic ought to be: ‘Over the past year my own circumstances have changed so much. For example, getting in a cab is now a more personal experience. “Amber Rudd?” “Yes that’s me.” “Is the Bodyguard real?

Ben Shapiro is the famous, fast-talking conservative pundit who regularly ‘owns’ aggressive university students with his quick wit and rapid repartee in America. Alas, Shapiro isn’t so ‘crazy smart’ when he comes up against difficult questions from a real interviewer. Yesterday he just couldn’t cope with an interrogation from the BBC’s Andrew Neil. He decided that Neil must be a typical BBC leftist (complaining at one point that he'd never heard of him) and had an epic tantrum, before storming out of the studio. https://twitter.com/RobBurl/status/1126816217669488640 He then realised his blunder, and that he'd confused rigorous questioning with "political Leftism" and was about to become a laughing stock.

The Brexit Party has had a further boost in the polls today, but as Nigel Farage's fledgling group continues to hoover up support from both main parties, the story on the other side has been rather different. Start-up pro-remain party Change UK has been locked in a rivalry with its doppelgänger, the Lib Dems, achieving exactly nothing in terms of progress but creating a healthy groundswell of remainer exasperation on Twitter. Even the Change UK activists' networks have been infected with a creeping feeling of futility, with many struggling to name a good reason to not vote for the Lib Dems or give a solid defence for why their new party even exists.

With less than a month to go until the European elections, and with Nigel Farage's new Brexit party surging in the polls, pressure is continuing to build on Change UK – The Independent Group, whose performance has been far less impressive than its rival. Seeking to change that, was Change UK MP Mike Gapes, who went on Iain Dale's LBC radio show to sell his party to the public. The former Labour MP started off strongly, by attacking the source of the Brexit Party's funds, saying: 'Well it'll be interesting to see the huge amounts of funding Nigel Farage has had from various dubious sources.

What does it mean to be a Conservative? It's a question that most of the Tory front bench might struggle to answer these days, but if they were looking for guidance, they could do worse than heading to a packed Emmanuel Centre in London this evening. There, author, journalist and Spectator Associate Editor Douglas Murray was joined by the philosopher and housing tsar Sir Roger Scruton, as they discussed the future of Conservatism. The pair covered a large amount of ground over the course of the evening, as they mulled over the reasons the Conservative Party had abandoned its right-wing roots, the left's advantage in communicating slogans, and the role of beauty, hope and love in modern Britain.

With a Peterborough by-election scheduled for early June, there's talk that it could lead to Parliament's first Brexit Party MP. After disgraced former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya was forced out following a recall petition in light of her conviction for perverting the course of justice, Labour, the Conservatives and Nigel Farage's Brexit Party are all vying to clinch the Labour/Tory marginal. The Brexit Party are currently surging in the polls – and could fare well in the Leave constituency. So, what better platform on which to reveal the party's new candidate than Tuesday night's Brexit Party rally in... Peterborough? So far, the rumour mill has been in overdrive with Nigel Farage, Annunziata Rees-Mogg and even George Galloway tipped for the role.

When the former defence secretary Gavin Williamson was fired from his position on Wednesday, for allegedly leaking information related to Huawei, China hawks in the Cabinet lost a key ally in their fight against the company's involvement in the UK 5G network. The defence secretary was said to be one of five Cabinet ministers against Huawei's bid, with Jeremy Hunt, Liam Fox, Sajid Javid and Penny Mordaunt also allegedly wary of the company's closeness to the Chinese state, and the possibility it could use the network to spy on UK citizens. But while they may have been disappointed to lose another voice in Cabinet against the Chinese telecoms behemoth, elsewhere in London it appears that champagne corks may have been popping at the defence secretary's demise.

Things are going from bad to worse for Jeremy Corbyn. Labour has had a dismal night in the polls, losing nearly 100 councillors when the party had hoped to make gains at the Tories' expense. And now Tony Robinson – the actor best known for playing Baldrick in Blackadder – has said he is quitting Labour after nearly 50 years. Here is his verdict on the party: https://twitter.com/Tony_Robinson/status/1124297214472400898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Can things get any more miserable for Jeremy Corbyn? As an exasperated Blackadder might say, I think the phrase rhymes with Clucking Bell...