Steerpike

When seven Labour MPs formally announced that they were leaving the party to form the Independent Group on 18 February, it didn't take long for deputy Labour leader Tom Watson to release a video about their departure. In his statement, Watson lamented that his colleagues had decided to leave and suggested that there should be a reshuffle of Labour's front bench, to accommodate the 'Social democratic and democratic socialist traditions' of the party. Three weeks later, on the 9 March, Watson changed tack and announced that instead he would form a new party for social democrat MPs within Labour, called 'Future Britain Group', which had its first meeting today.

What does the Independent Group actually stand for? We know what they are against: Brexit and anti-Semitism. But so far the fledgling group has been somewhat shy about coming up with policies. With TIG MPs this week reportedly entering talks with the Electoral Commission about become a political party, they had better get a move on. Only Mr S. suspects the task won't be an easy one, given that one of their members – former Tory MP Anna Soubry – seems to take a difference stance to the bulk of their colleagues on most issues. To help out, Steerpike has compiled a list of where Anna Soubry stands compared to her new colleagues: Brexit: It's safe to say that when it comes to Brexit, TIG and Soubry are a match made in Parliamentary heaven.

At her speech in Grimsby this afternoon Theresa May made an attempt to get her colleagues in parliament to coalesce around her Brexit deal, by warning them about the dangers of Brexit being cancelled. It seems though that she may have alienated at least some of the audience today, when she took questions from the press on International Women's Day. As May left the podium after taking all her questions, ITV's Libby Wiener chimed in with another: why had May only taken one question from a female journalist? May appeared not to have heard as she left the stage, but just before she exited the room, turned round and quipped back: 'You've had all your questions answered by a female prime minister.' https://twitter.com/CBrockelbank/status/1104007936928612352 Fair enough.

With Theresa May's departure expected later this year, a host of ambitious males are keen to parade their wares. Frontrunner Boris Johnson has lost weight and is the RSPCA’s new pin-up boy, while Sajid Javid is trying to show his strength through the medium of ostracising Isis brides. On Wednesday night, it was David Davis's turn to make his mark.  The former Brexit secretary appeared in noticeably slender form for an event at the Adam Smith Institute where he began proceedings by introducing himself as a 'romantic radical'. Looking back on his university years at Warwick, Davis appeared to imply that he had an appeal to the Left as well as traditional Tory voters.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Sajid Javid likes to refer to himself as ‘The Saj'. While the Home Secretary has repeatedly denied the claims, the tendency to refer to one in the third person appears to be catching. The Times reports that Liz Truss has been known to go by 'The Truss' (though ‘The Chief’ has also been used). Now it seems the latest ambitious Member of Parliament with a penchant for the third person is Chuka Umunna. Except he’s a been bit more obvious. The TIG MP's website now includes the subtitle - ‘The Alternative’. It seems picture location faux paxs are in the Westmisnter water… Mr S reckons 'The Chuka' has a better chance of catching on...

Chris Grayling has managed to take the government's 'Global Britain' agenda up a gear this week with an appearance in the New York Times. The under fire Transport Secretary is the subject of a blistering editorial in the American paper (which has developed a penchant for negative UK stories these days) titled 'How Does He Survive? The Curious Case of ‘Failing Grayling’. The paper claims Grayling has 'bumbled his way from one government post to another' starring 'in a black comedy sideshow of his own'. Yet it's fair to say that in one respect the paper has gone easy on him. In the print article, it cites that the Labour party has calculated that Chris Grayling's misadventures have cost British taxpayers £2.7 million. However, it's actually £2.

Are Tory MPs actually proud to be Tories? Following recent defections from the party and the ever-present backdrop of Brexit in-fighting, it's a question being heard more and more around Westminster. There are mutterings of parties within parties and the Independent Group has said it expects another wave of defections, highlighting just how low Conservative morale has become. In a bid to track how Conservatives feel about their own party at the moment, Mr S has been through the Twitter accounts of every Tory MP to see who is still showing their Conservative credentials online and who is shrouding their social media allegiance in ambiguity. Interestingly, out of the 263 Conservative MPs on Twitter, only 143 have any mention of their party at all.

David Lammy has taken a break from talking about Brexit – to take a pop at Comic Relief. In a strange turn of events, the Labour MP, investigative journalist Stacey Dooley, and Comic Relief have become embroiled in an online spat this morning. The row began when Lammy complained about a film Dooley was making with Comic Relief in Uganda, which Lammy suggested perpetuated stereotypes of Africa, arguing 'The world does not need any more white saviours.' Dooley duly responded that if Lammy was so worried about a white woman raising awareness, perhaps he could go over there instead. https://twitter.com/StaceyDooley/status/1100825979981889536 A fair point you might think.

It's been a long time coming, but the Corbynite MP, Chris Williamson, has finally been suspended from Labour following his comments about anti-Semitism in the Party this week. The suspension follows the emergence of a video yesterday which showed Williamson speaking at a Sheffield Momentum event, saying that Labour had been 'too apologetic' for anti-Semitism. That same day, Williamson had come under fire for booking a room in parliament for a film screening about the 'unfair' expulsion of former Labour member Jackie Walker, who had been suspended in 2016 for making alleged anti-Semitic comments on Facebook, and saying that Jews were responsible for the African slave-trade.