Steerpike

It's been a difficult week for Ben Bradley, the new Tory vice chair for youth. In unearthed blog posts dating back to 2012, Bradley suggested that benefit claimants should have vasectomies rather than claim multiple child benefits, accused public sector workers of being 'lost in their own fantasy land' and said that in the case of the London riots that: 'For once I think police brutality should be encouraged.' Bradley has been quick to apologise for his comments – claiming he has matured since then. But this isn't good enough for Labour. The party has been quick to go on the attack and hail this as evidence that the 'nasty party' lives on. However, Mr S suspects they would be well-advised to tread with caution.

Oh dear. After three Momentum candidates – including key Corbyn ally Jon Lansman – were elected to Labour’s national executive committee on Monday, the NEC swiftly moved to oust Ann Black as chair of the Disputes Panel in favour of Christine Shawcroft. Given that Shawcroft was previously suspended by the party in 2015, the move has raised alarm bells in the Labour party. However, should you be concerned that Shawcroft is now responsible for deciding whether to investigate sexist, racist, homophobic and anti-semitic abuse, you're probably just a member of the elite. Or at least that's what Paul Mason thinks.

Ken Clarke is back on his feet talking about Brexit in the Commons again – but his speech has not gone down well with all of his colleagues. Sitting behind him, his fellow Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne struggled to stay awake as Clarke talked about the rights of EU citizens. Swayne even appeared to nod off at one point. Mr S thinks Swayne could be forgiven for thinking he had heard it all before...

The return of Esther McVey to the Cabinet is bad news for John McDonnell and Labour's claim of a kinder, gentler politics. It has led many hacks and broadcasters to return to remarks he made about 'lynching' McVey, at a Remembrance Sunday event back in 2014. But when they do so, Labour complain. The shadow chancellor's defence is that he was quoting someone else who (he claims) wanted to lynch her – rather than wanting to lynch her himself. Happily, for clarity's sake, the Sunday Politics today aired the recording: https://twitter.com/daily_politics/status/952504692684173313 Mr S will leave it to readers to judge for themselves...

Since joining Parliament in the snap election, the Labour MP created a media-storm last year when she declared that she would not be friends with a Tory. Happily, Jeremy Corbyn sees no issues with such a stance and has just promoted Pidcock – appointing her Shadow Minister for Labour. Only it's a bit complicated. Just a few hours ago, Pidcock expressed her solidarity for her comrade Chris Williamson – who resigned from the frontbench – declaring that she was 'buzzing' to have him join her on the backbenches for 'the struggle ahead': https://twitter.com/LauraPidcockMP/status/951808065849954304 That show of solidarity lasted long...

The news that Chris Williamson has resigned from the Labour front bench has been met with dismay by Conservative MPs who quite enjoyed his calls to double council tax on some of the highest-value properties. However, fear not, Williamson will continue to play a pivotal role in Corbyn's Labour. In an interview with Corbynista site Skwawkbox (natch), Williamson lifts the lid on his new role – as requested by the Labour leader. he will be using his background as a 'hunt saboteur' to work on the party's environmental stance: 'Jeremy has also asked me to develop our thinking around environmental and animal rights issues, in line with my background as a hunt saboteur.

This week, Toby Young stepped down from the Office for Students over concerns his appointment had 'become a distraction' from the 'vital work' needed. His decision came following a series of historic tweets that were described as sexist. Since then, Labour have been quick to go on the attack – asking why he was ever appointed in the first place. However, given that many supported giving Jared O'Mara – the suspended Labour MP who made a series of sexist remarks on social media – a second chance, there has been talk of hypocrisy. Happily, Andrew Neil was on hand to put this point to shadow cabinet member Debbie Abrahams on the Daily Politics: https://twitter.

It's the morning after the night before and Theresa May's newly reshuffled Cabinet has just held its first meeting. Only there might not be much of a need for introductions given that the Cabinet hasn't changed all that much. Despite a brief game of musical chairs, the big beasts remain when it comes to the great offices of state. Shame the Prime Minister couldn't fit in the picture... Captions in the comments please. Update: ...