Steerpike

A promising early start that got everybody's hopes up before getting bogged down and allowing a mediocre opposition to equalise. To many Tory MPs watching the football last night, it was all too familiar. George Freeman took to Instagram to share his own sense of déjà vu: 'It's a shocker. Lacking coherence. Command of the game. Any sense of direction. Another night in Parliament watching the national team. A v quiet tearoom dreaming of a super sub. "We need some inspiration from somewhere".' The big question, can Theresa May take inspiration from Harry Kane's final moments on the pitch. Has the Prime Minister got an injury time win in her?

When the contestants of ITV2's Love Island discussed Brexit earlier this month, it led to widespread ridicule after one reality star – by the name of Hayley – suggested that Brexit could mean the UK no longer had any trees. However, should you be in the market for a slightly more informed political discussion on the hit reality show – in which contestants try and find love – you could be in luck. Last night, a 'government adviser' entered the villa. Step forward Zara McDermott.  In the past eight months, Zara has worked for the Department of Education under Damian Hinds, advising on policy. On entering villa, she said: 'I think I'm a catch. I'm definitely a catch.

When Sir Christopher Chope stopped to a bill to ban upskirting on Friday, he was denounced in the most vicious terms, as Steerpike revealed, by his fellow Tories. They were appalled by the optics of a 71-year-old Tory who rejected the bill without saying why. Sir Christopher has now come out swinging, saying how appalled he is that his fellow Tories assumed he was against the ban when he was – and remains – all for it. In fact, his main complaint is that it has taken the government so long to back a ban. Theresa May, he says, has 'a lot to answer for' in not banning upskirting until now. Chope says his problem was the way the Bill was being taken through parliament (via a Private Members Bill) with no debate rather than as a government bill with debate.

The day has finally come – it's Labour Live. The inaugural JezFest – first imagined as a follow-up to Jeremy Corbyn's Glastonbury appearance – has been beset by difficulties from slow ticket sales to failure to secure headline acts. Happily, thanks to some last minute giveaways, transport by Unite and price reduction, there are more people than first expected in the North London 15,000 capacity venue. 'Labour are for the many,' said Eddie Izzard as he told a half empty field of his recent hobby: learning Russian. Meanwhile, Len McCluskey found himself in the firing line in the peoples' Question Time with union members asking why he wasn't being more militant – and why there wasn't enough transport being provided for events.

Theresa May ends the week with a damaging rebellion – just not the one she expected. Sir Chritsopher Chope has set the cat among the pigeons after he shouted 'object!' to a private members' bill – brought to the House of Commons by Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse – to make ‘upskirting‘ a sexual offence. Given that the government had given the bill its full support, Chope's decision to block is particularly unhelpful. It's safe to say the Conservative MPs' behaviour has not gone down well on Tory MP WhatsApp. Chope's comrades are openly bitching about him – and asking if he is even on the thread: Richard Benyon: Is anyone getting flak about Chris Chope objecting to Voyeurism bill?

Jeremy Corbyn was given a taste of a Brexit rebellion last night when 90 of his MPs declined his suggestion of abstaining on the single market amendment and rebelled. Perhaps the most interesting aspect, however, was not who backed the amendment but the 15 Labour MPs who rebelled to vote against it. One such MP – Laura Smith – resigned as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office to vote against remaining in the EEA. Explaining her reasons, she said she would always put her constituents in Crewe & Nantwich first: https://twitter.com/LauraSmithMP/status/1006974022343647232 So, it made for interesting viewing today when Smith was pitted against chief Labour Remain-er Polly Toynbee on the issue of honouring the referendum result: JC: Do you think Polly is part of the problem?

Jeremy Corbyn has promised to deliver '21st century socialism' to the UK if elected. Only Mr S isn't so sure all Corbynistas are on the same page as to what this will mean in practice. With the ill-fated LabourLive festival just four days away, the blame game has already begun on who is at fault over the low ticket sales. Making matters worse, is the fact that things could have been so different had the organisers managed to get Stormzy to perform. The chart-topping Grime artist is a big Corbyn supporter; 'My man, Jeremy! Young Jeremy, my guy. I dig what he says.' While his omission was first blamed on scheduling issues, the Evening Standard reports that it is actually down to... money. Jeremy Corbyn’s team apparently balked at his 'six-figure' fee.

What is it about Brexit campaigners and select committees? First Vote Leave's Dom Cummings declined an invitation to appear before Damian Collins' select committee (leading MPs to back a motion demanding he does so by 20 June). Now Arron Banks – of Leave.EU – has cut his time before the committee short. Banks appeared before the same DCMS committee this morning – following allegations at the weekend over his links to the Russian ambassador – but left early after he decided that lunch was his priority: 'Sorry, we're late.' Collins appeared in a state of shock that he could not convince them to stay – pleading for a few more minutes of their time. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?

What a difference eight months makes. Back in October, Grant Shapps launched a failed coup against Theresa May after a disastrous Tory conference which saw the Prime Minister cough her way through what was supposed to be a set piece speech. Since then, we've had Cabinet feuding, backbench rebellions and a lack of leadership from an increasingly beleaguered Prime Minister. Yet despite all this, Shapps has had a change of heart and thinks there is now a chance May could lead the party into the next election – and even possibly win it: 'I think it's perfectly conceivable now... that she leads us into the next election and I think potentially even wins that election.' https://twitter.

Oh dear. It seems that not everyone has taken Theresa May's appeal for party unity to heart. Although Amber Rudd and Iain Duncan Smith penned a Sunday Telegraph article calling for Tories to come together this week for the EU Withdrawal Bill votes, not everyone appears convinced. Over the weekend, former Remain rebel Antoinette Sandbach took to social media to tweet 'Remainers need courage to go for the kill', and share Matthew Parris's Times column on the topic. In the piece, Parris urges would-be rebels to not be put off rebelling by the whips: 'This is the moment when you must lift your eyes from the trees and see the wood.

Theresa May's cabinet is divided and her MPs increasingly worried over the government's Brexit plans – or lack thereof. Yet despite all this, the latest Times/YouGov poll puts the Tories seven points ahead of Labour. With many in Westminster left scratching their head over the apparent disconnect, could a clue be found in ITV2's Love Island? Mr S only asks after Friday's episode saw contestants on the popular reality show – in which twenty-somethings attempt to find their perfect match – discuss the issue of the day. Only, rather than talk backstop options, customs arrangements, the Irish border or post-Brexit immigration systems, the conversation centred around what Brexit was and whether the UK would still have trees come March 2019: https://twitter.

Labour's flip-flopping on Brexit means that many Leave supporters simply don't trust the party. So Mr S wonders whether it was really such a wise idea for Shami Chakrabarti to heckle a voter on Question Time last night: Audience member: We're the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We voted to leave so let's pull up anchor and sail away, OK. Shami Chakrabarti: Where you going? ... I mean 'Sail away' is a lovely song but you need to go somewhere. Perhaps it's time for Shami to listen to voters rather than shout at them...

While David Davis has hogged the headlines recently, Boris Johnson has been slowly losing his cool over Brexit and lost it, just a little bit, when addressing Tory activists at the Conservative Way Forward on Wednesday. It was a candid speech but, with recording devices built into every smartphone, it was hardly surprising that it should have leaked. Perhaps BoJo, fed up with Theresa May's Brexit backsliding, wanted it to leak. The Times and BuzzFeed have the story, and here are the best quotes. On HM Treasury "What they don’t want is friction at the borders. They don’t want any disruption. So they’re sacrificing all the medium and long-term gains amid fear of short-term disruption . . .