Steerpike

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.

This evening Jacob Rees-Mogg joined Rod Liddle in being able to say he has sold out the London Palladium for a Spectator event. The arch-Brexiteer appeared before a packed crowd – of over 2,000 – for an in conversation with editor Fraser Nelson. Despite a busy day in the Commons on Brexit and a spot on the stage, the Moggster still found time in the interval to help out on the ice cream stall. Here are seven Rees-Mogg takeaways from the event: 1. Most people who want to delay Brexit want to stop Brexit In reference to the news today that Theresa May will give MPs a chance to vote to delay Brexit, Rees-Mogg said he questioned the motives of the politicians pushing to extend Article 50: 'Most people who want a delay want to stop Brexit.

In yet another dramatic twist in the Brexit saga, Jeremy Corbyn announced this evening that Labour would now back a public vote on the outcome of the Brexit deal - albeit with some major caveats. His decision to support a second referendum has been met with delight by Remain supporting Labour MPs, who have been hoping for months that their famously Eurosceptic leader would eventually come round to supporting a People's Vote. But Mr Steerpike can reveal that one ardent Remainer and former Labour leader is still somewhat sceptical about whether today's announcement will bring about the end of Brexit.

When it comes to Brexit, the New York Times has a track record in prophesying doom and gloom. Last year, the paper's coverage included the suggestion that everyone in London was eating boiled mutton and porridge until a few years ago and that nervous citizens are stockpiling food for a Brexit emergency, Mr S. is saddened but not surprised to report that the Times is still at it. And this week, the paper hit new heights of fantasy. ‘Roads gridlocked with trucks. Empty supermarket shelves. An economy thrown into paralysis,’ a would-be novelist named Scott Reyburn wrote earlier this week. His story, ‘As Brexit Looms, the Art World Prepares for the Fallout’, was recycled as a front-page item on the Times’s international edition.

It’s Andrew Adonis’s birthday and how better for him to mark the occasion than with a tweet about Brexit? Adonis, who has busied himself as chief cheerleader for the campaign to stop Brexit, took to Twitter today to deliver his verdict on how he thought momentum towards a second referendum had grown beyond all doubt: But Mr S. isn’t convinced that the example he used really helped advance his cause. In the 2016 referendum, Islington was one of the top five strongholds for Remain in the entire country, with 75.2 per cent of voters opting for Britain to stay put in the EU. It seems that in the years since, in Islington at least, little has changed.

Derek Hatton's journey from Militant councillor to not-quite Labour member has been something of a rollercoaster in recent days. After being banned for 32 years for being part of the Militant tendency, it was revealed that Hatton had been readmitted to the party on Monday. Two days later, Labour said that he had been suspended once again - pending an investigation into a tweet he sent in 2012. One person who clearly hasn't been following the twists and turns of Hatton's story though is the Labour MP for Aberavon, Stephen Kinnock. In an interview on Newsnight last night, Kinnock was asked by Kirsty Wark what he thought about Hatton's readmittance, and subsequent removal from the party. But the MP, somewhat bizarrely, responded that: 'My initial reaction was Derek who? I mean who is he?

Mr Steerpike has a great degree of sympathy with those who have been trying to keep up with Labour's contorted Brexit position. First the party had its six tests - designed to be impossible to fulfil, then five demands - set out in a letter to the prime minister, and now a confusing hodgepodge of views with a commitment to take no deal off the table. But you would at least think that Labour politicians would have worked out what their own party's Brexit position actually was. Apparently not though. Jamie Driscoll, the Labour candidate to be the new North of Tyne Mayor was being interviewed by ITV news this afternoon ahead of the election on 2 May.