Steerpike

Will Theresa May's government find a way out of the Brexit maze? As the Prime Minister's backstop plans are deemed a dead end by her colleagues, it looks as though Downing Street are fast running out of options. But could inspiration be found in Jeremy Hunt? The Foreign Secretary took to social media to boast that he and his fellow European foreign ministers had managed to navigate Chevening maze in the rain – making the Brexit negotiations seem comparatively straightforward: https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt/status/1051512481435275265 Captions in the comments.

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.

Anyone lusting after a McChicken sandwich will be left disappointed today, as McDonald's employees go on strike to protest against low pay. As they man the McBarricades, they will be heartened to see veteran filmmaker and Corbyn devotee Ken Loach’s film team, Sixteen Films, come out strongly in favour of the strike. They urged Loach’s followers on social media to watch a video about the protest and retweeted several messages of solidarity and support. Mr S wonders though if they know about their own boss’s chequered past when it comes to McDonald's. After all, the director has been happy to take money from the fast food giant when it suits.

Choosing a warm-up act to introduce a big speech is a delicate balancing act. Pick someone too woeful and the crowd is deflated before you’ve even begun. But pick someone too impressive, and your own efforts begin to pale in comparison. Theresa May came perilously close to the latter this afternoon, when she asked her Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC to introduce her conference speech. Conservative members, the cabinet and watching hacks were left agape as Cox’s booming baritone voice echoed across the hall in a robust defence of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. Cox was quickly dubbed ‘Mufasa’ and ‘Gandalf’ by those watching. Mr S thinks the video speaks for itself though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?