Steerpike

This week, Theresa May's government teetered on the point of collapse over her proposed Brexit deal. The withdrawal agreement between the UK and Brussels led to Dominic Raab and Esther McVey resigning in protest. However, May's remaining ministers have since attempted to rally around her at least in the short term. Speaking on Friday, Liam Fox – the International Trade Secretary – gave a speech in which he declared 'a deal is better than no deal'. This is rather different to May's old claim that 'no deal is better than a bad deal'. So, is Fox right? Mr S thought it best to let readers decide for themselves. In theory, Britain is leaving the EU on 29 March 2019. But the legal small print, published by Brussels, shows what this means.

Theresa May has just been doing her best to sell her Brexit plan to voters. But the Prime Minister's pitch didn't go down well with those calling into LBC. The PM's first call came from a Tory councillor who urged her to stand down and let someone else negotiate with the European Union. And she finished off her half-hour stint by being compared to Neville Chamberlain: 'Do you consider yourself the modern day Chamberlain, who also went to Europe and negotiated with a foreign power and came back as having appeased that foreign power and not having stood up for our country?' Mr S. thinks it is safe to say that things could have gone better...

Nigel Farage was back on the airwaves today, and somewhat unsurprisingly, he was not a fan of Theresa May's Brexit proposal. So much does he hate it in fact, that he told viewers: 'There's only one thing to do, when this, the worst deal in history, and that is to put it in the bin. A strong opinion. But had he actually read the 'worst deal in history' he professed to hate so much? Asked by the BBC, Farage had to admit that he hadn't yet found the time: 'Well I've read some of it, and my lawyers read all 585 pages and the more I learn, the less I like it.' But have you read the whole document? 'No, I could take three days off and so I suppose.' Well, to be fair him, it can be hard these days to find the time.

To the surprise of some Brexiteers, today's front pages have been broadly sympathetic to Theresa May and her troubled deal. In fact, it's today's Evening Standard which appears to play to the Brexiteer cause most strongly. The paper's editor George Osborne – May's old nemesis – has tweeted out the front page which reads 'EU takes back control': https://twitter.com/George_Osborne/status/1062667935225970688 Does anyone else get the impression he is enjoying this? Less impressed was prisons minister Rory Stewart, who picked up the front page on Politics Live, and angrily told the panel: ‘This is really crazy stuff here. This is really crazy, really crazy. Because he’s taking unbelievable risk here.

The House of Lords privileges and conduct committee recommended today that the former Lib Dem peer, Lord Lester, be suspended from the chamber until 2022, after he was accused of offering ‘sexual inducements’ and sexually harassing a complainant - which he strenuously denies. If the House of Lords agrees with the recommendation (which it will decide in a vote on Thursday) it will be the longest suspension of a politician in parliament's modern history. Mr Steerpike suspects though that Lord Lester won’t be the only parliamentarian sweating ahead of the vote on Thursday.

After Jo Johnson resigned on Friday over the government's Brexit position, his brother Boris was quick to take to social media to commend Jo for taking a brave stand – by calling out the flaws with the proposed Brexit deal. However, the former foreign secretary stopped short of backing his brother's call for a second referendum – also known as a so-called 'People's Vote'. Still, Jo need not worry – there are plenty of other Johnsons willing to fill that void. With Jo and Boris's sister Rachel a vocal Remain campaigner already, their brother Leo has now joined the fold. Leo Johnson took to Twitter to praise his brother Jo and call for a 'real vote' – going so far as to @ his rogue Brexiteer brother Boris. https://twitter.

At Labour conference this summer, the party’s leadership were clearly spooked when its previously loyal members demanded the party support a second Brexit referendum. With this in mind, and ever keen to ensure that the rank-and-file are in step with Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing campaign group Momentum recently decided to survey its supporters to see what they really thought about Brexit and Labour’s position. The group asked over 6500 of its members from across the UK what they thought of Labour’s spurious six tests, the possibility of no deal, and most importantly: if Momentum members wanted a second Brexit vote. Well today the results came in, but they were clearly not what the Momentum higher-ups were hoping for.