Steerpike

Will anything end Nigel Farage's winning streak? The Brexiteer famously walked into a Ladbrokes in June 2016 and placed a £1,000 bet on Leave winning the EU referendum campaign – a decision that pocketed him a tidy £2,500 sum. In April, ahead of the European parliament elections, the Brexit party leader decided to chance his arm once again, revealing that he had placed a £1,000 bet at 3/1 on the Brexit party winning the most seats in the European parliament. And, as the results on Sunday night showed, it was yet another act of foresight as his party came top in the UK with 29 seats, 13 ahead of the second placed Lib Dems. All of which would leave the Brexit party leader £3,000 better off at the end of the night.

Alastair Campbell has been something of a Labour party fixture for the last twenty years – but not any longer. Blair's former spin doctor has just been given the boot from the party for revealing that he voted Lib Dem at the European elections. Campbell said he was 'sad' and 'disappointed' to get an email from Labour expelling him from the party: 'I am and always will be Labour. I voted Lib Dem, without advance publicity, to try to persuade Labour to do right thing for country/party. In light of appeal, I won't be doing media on this. But hard not to point out difference in the way anti-Semitism cases have been handled.

There's a lot of soul-searching in the Labour party after Sunday's abysmal results in the European elections. On Monday, Corbynista commentator Paul Mason was one of the first out of the blocks, with a lengthy autopsy of Labour's electoral failure. He placed the blame squarely on Corbyn's Brexit-leaning advisors, and urged those responsible to be fired. 'Three point plan for Labour. 1. A members ballot on Remain/Reform as the new line. 2. Sack the officials responsible for this fiasco. 3. Defend Corbyn against the inevitable coup. More from me tomorrow - sign our petition here https://www.left2030.org/petition/ ' https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/1132940829335654400 Unsurprisingly, the column didn't go down well in all quarters of the hard left.

Tonight was a vital night for the fledgling Remain party Change UK. After the resurgence of the Lib Dems in the local elections, Chuka Umunna and Heidi Allen's party had to fight to justify its existence, and prove that it wasn't simply another party which was splitting the Remain vote. Alas, it appears that that party hasn't even managed to meet its own low expectations tonight - it may be that it can't even muster enough votes to justify going into a coalition with the Lib Dems at the next general election. Here are five reasons that suggest tonight could mean the end of Change UK: Number of seats: 0 As of writing, Change UK have failed to get a single seat across the entirety of the UK. Overall the party has received only 3.

It’s one day since Theresa May set an exit date for her departure from 10 Downing Street and the leadership contest to replace her is already heating up. This morning, Rory Stewart - the International Development Secretary - performed a media round in which the Tory MP declared that he would not be able to serve in a Boris Johnson-led government. The reason? BoJo, the current favourite, would explicitly push for a no deal Brexit - something Stewart could not contemplate. Besides Stewart is planning to run himself. However, he is seen as an outside bet as someone who voted Remain and backs Theresa May’s deal. He has previously hit out at certain Brexiteers for - in his eyes - over-simplifying issues raised by Brexit.

The door of Number 10 had barely closed after Theresa May's resignation statement this morning when Tory MPs began debating who would be the best person to replace her. Brexiteer and ERG deputy chairman Steve Baker certainly wasted no time today, but revealed that the candidate he was really thinking about was... Steve Baker. Asked by Sky News' Adam Boulton if he would back Boris Johnson in the upcoming race, Baker replied that he couldn't support him just yet, as: 'I can't back a candidate yet because I've had both members of parliament and members of the public, in considerable numbers, which has taken me by surprise, suggesting that I stand. And until I've fully considered what's being said to me, out of respect for those giving the advice, I won't be able to back a candidate.

Theresa May has made her latest Brexit deal pitch – and it isn't going down well with Tory MPs. The Prime Minister used a speech this afternoon to say Parliament will get a vote on whether to hold a second referendum if it backs the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill. But Simon Clarke – a Tory MP who supported the PM's deal the last time around – has changed his mind and vowed to vote the deal down. Here is what he said: And Simon Clarke wasn't the only Tory MP to vent his fury at the PM in the aftermath of her speech. Owen Paterson said the offer is a 'direct insult to 17.