Steerpike

Labour MPs like to see themselves on the front line when it comes to protecting women's rights and creating safe workplaces for everyone. In fact, the slightest sign of impropriety in the Conservative Party or society at large is usually enough for them to call for sackings and public apologies. So you would expect after an impartial report said that Speaker John Bercow would not be able to tackle the House's huge bullying and harassment problem - and hinted that he should be removed, the Labour benches would be the first to call for him to go. Apparently not. It appears that when you have a Speaker who is popular with (and helpful to) the Opposition, the usual rules do not apply. Instead, Labour MPs seem to have come out in favour of Bercow.

It's been a curious day in Parliament after Labour MPs en masse came to John Bercow's defence amid a damning report into bullying in Parliament. Despite the report concluding that the Speaker is among those who should consider their position, numerous Labour MPs have said that he should stay in place. It seems that treating employees well pales in comparison to having a chair sympathetic to your party's Brexit opposition. The majority of Labour MPs (see Steerpike's full roll call of shame) have been vague when it comes to their real intentions. However, in an interview with the BBC, Margaret Beckett has broken rank and offered an honest explanation as to why she and her colleagues want Bercow to stay in place: Brexit – which apparently 'trumps' bullying.

Today, Theresa May stood before the Commons to update MPs on the state of the Brexit process. At this critical juncture in the negotiations and in her career, the Prime Minister tried to convey a solemn and statesmanlike appearance as she spoke about her dealings with the European Union. Unfortunately for her, the statesmanlike approach probably wasn’t helped by some rather on the nose heckling from the Labour benches. As May outlined the roadblocks she faced in Europe: 'But Mr Speaker, two problems remain' One cheeky Labour MP shouted: 'Boris!'  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-8xVvlLiIM Judging by the ashen faces on the Conservative front benches, it seems like May thinks the Boris joke is wearing thin.

No one has their finger on the pulse in the House of Commons like the government’s chief whip. To make sure every bill gets through parliament unscathed, the whip has to understand exactly how every MP in the party plans to vote, what they're thinking about the government - and work out how they can get rebellious MPs to change their minds. But it looks like Theresa May’s chief whip Julian Smith has drawn up the drawbridge tonight. The man in charge of relations with backbenchers might just have had enough of talking with his own MPs. The government enforcer posted this picture (without caption) on social media at 9 p.m. tonight: https://twitter.com/JulianSmithUK/status/1051567081177698310 What possibly could the whip be receiving this many calls about on a Sunday night?

Oh dear. This year's Labour conference was notable for the fact that the big dispute was not between the moderates and the Corbynistas but instead the trade unions and Momentum. With the majority of Labour moderates now resigned to defeat on the direction of the party, it's fallen to the various Corbynista hard left factions to continue the internal fight. So, Mr S was intrigued to learn of the latest Left-on-Left action. The elections are coming up for places on National Constitutional Committee – this is Labour’s highest internal body and members of which have the power of expulsion. It follows that who ever is on it with have a sizeable say on how the party handles allegations of anti-Semitism regarding members.

Labour frontbenchers are no strangers to getting their numbers in a muddle, but Mr S. would still expect better from the shadow treasury minister. Anneliese Dodds has just popped up on Politics Live to talk about today's GDP figures. But when she was asked how much Britain's economy grew by in the last three months, she didn't know: Andrew Neil: How much did GDP grow in the 3 months to the end of September? Anneliese Dodds: Erm, I don't know that off the top of my head AN: Well you were just talking about it, you should know that. Well I’ll tell you what it grew by 0.7 per cent. https://twitter.com/sw1a0aa/status/1049986891574124545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Oh dear.

Much outrage this afternoon over the Tories' mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey. In a pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies think tank in 2005 on his experiences as a youth worker in West London, Bailey wrote that 'good looking' girls in the area 'tend to have been around'. Since those quotes were published by Buzzfeed, critics have been quick to call out Bailey over his sexist comments. But the question that's bugging Mr S is: why no similar outrage about what Bailey said about boys? In that same pamphlet, Bailey wrote that the 'cheeky' boys are those who are the most likely to have 'been around': 'I say to the girls that boys you like – all the cheeky ones – who are quite clever and all the rest of it. They are probably the ones that have been around.

Just last week Donald Tusk took to social media to claim that the EU's offer to the UK a 'Canada+++' deal was a mark of respect. Only the EU council leader failed to find space in his tweet to make clear that this offer only applied to Great Britain – not Northern Ireland. Now it's Jean-Claude Juncker's turn to show how he pays the UK respect. In a speech to the Committee of the Regions, the European Commission president appeared to do his best impression of Theresa May's Dancing Queen turn at conference: https://twitter.com/JamesCrisp6/status/1049283494004903936 Stay classy Brussels.

Is Jeremy Wright the new David Cameron? By that, Mr S does not mean to suggest that Wright is the man to go on to win a majority for the Tories at the next general election. Instead, Steerpike's concern relates to football. During Cameron's time in No 10, there was a running joke that despite his claims to the contrary, Dave wasn't much of a football fan. Despite claiming he was an Aston Villa fan, Cameron later said he supported West Ham United. The new Culture Secretary is showing signs of suffering from a similar condition. In an interview with Sophy Ridge this morning, Wright said that he was particularly enjoying the sports element of his new brief. He went on to say that Liverpool was his football team.

When it emerged over the summer that Jeremy Corbyn had attended a ceremony which commemorated the deaths of several terrorists linked to the 1972 Munich massacre, Labour were very annoyed at how newspapers covered the event. The media has seriously misrepresented what went on, they complained, while they dithered over whether Jeremy (pictured) had ever held a wreath. In an unusual step, the party showed how seriously they took the allegations by complaining to the press regulator, Ipso, about the coverage. But it appears that, despite their protests (and despite promising at Labour conference to hold the media to account) the issue has since slipped off their agenda. The Guardian reports today that the hapless officials missed the deadline to respond to Ipso about the complaint.