Steerpike

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...

Voters have been heading to the polls for the local elections today, as a long and gruelling campaign for the two main parties is wrapping up. Activists have been touring the doorsteps issuing heartfelt promises to repair potholes and collect bins faster. It’s been a familiar script – the Tories accuse Labour of waste, and Labour accuse the Tories of cutting services. Something that’s been conspicuously absent though, is any mention of the two main parties' leaders. Mr S was curious to see how prominent Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn were featuring in the campaign literature in this election, but after a search of over 50 randomly selected election leaflets, failed to find a single mention of either of them over the past two months.

Theresa May once said that 'no deal is better than a bad deal', but did she really mean it? The Prime Minister was asked to clarify those comments in front of MPs this afternoon. May said that while she stuck by what she said at Lancaster House in January 2017, she was actually 'talking in the abstract': 'I stand by the references I have made in the past, that 'no deal is better than a bad deal', but I happen to think we have a good deal. When I first made that reference, I was talking in the abstract. We now are no longer talking in the abstract. We are talking against the background of a negotiated deal, hard-fought, which I believe is a good deal for the United Kingdom.' Mr Steerpike is glad that May has finally cleared that up. The Prime Minister didn't stop there though.