Steerpike

Is Theresa May's working majority about to get even smaller? After the Prime Minister called out unacceptable abuse directed at MPs, Theresa May is having to contend with bad behaviour from one of her own. The Huff Post UK has obtained a recording of Anne Marie Morris, the MP for Newton Abbot, using the N-word during an appearance on a Brexit panel – where she discussed what Britain's exit from the EU meant for financial services: 'Now I’m sure there will be many people who’ll challenge that, but my response and my request is look at the detail, it isn’t all doom and gloom. Now we get to the real n----r in the woodpile which is in two years what happens if there is no deal?' May is already under pressure to remove the whip from the MP.

This week, Emma Dent Coad, the Labour MP for Kensington, called for Sir Martin Moore-Bick to be replaced as head of the Grenfell Tower inquiry. The reason? He does not 'understand human beings'. Happily, her appearance on the Sunday Politics this morning presented an opportunity for Dent Coad to elaborate on her comments. Yet aside from the well reported ruling Moore-Bick made in a housing case in 2014, Dent Coad did not seem to have that much evidence for her claim. In fact, in the interview with Andrew Neil, it soon transpired that she hadn't actually met the judge: AN: This judge leading the Grenfell inquiry, have you met him? EDC: I haven't met him, no. AN: So what evidence do you have that he doesn't, in your words, understand human beings?

Theresa May is spending the day flying the flag for Cool Britannia at the G20 summit in Hamburg. The Prime Minister promised to use the trip to show that Britain remains a global player. But with May also planning to bring up the Paris climate change agreement with President Trump, how will the special relationship cope under the strain? [caption id="attachment_9896842" align="aligncentre" width="520"] Trump and May, back at the Nato summit[/caption] Captions in the comments. Update: ...

To say that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove's relationship is a complex one would be an understatement. The Vote Leave comrades fell out spectacularly when the former education secretary turned on BoJo during the last Tory leadership campaign – opting to launch his own (doomed) bid for No 10 at the expense of his so-called friend's. But there is good news at last for fans of the Boris/Gove psycho drama: it looks like the band are back together. With Gove back in the Cabinet as Defra Secretary, his written statement today reveals that it's Johnson who he is trusting with withdrawing the UK from the London Fisheries Convention.

Oh dear. Heidi Allen is fast establishing herself as one of the most rebellious MPs in the Conservative party. The Tory MP has spoken out against her party on issues like tax credits as well making her personal grievances with both George Osborne and Theresa May public. In today's Queen's Speech debate, Allen added her party's £1bn deal with the DUP to the list. Ahead of the crucial vote on the speech, she said she could barely put into words her anger at 'the use of public funds to garner political control': 'I can barely put into words my anger at the deal my party has done with the DUP. We didn't need to do it. I cannot fault the DUP for wanting to achieve the very best for their residents in Ireland, nor for their tough negotiating skills.

With austerity so last election, voters no longer seem too fussed by the deficit. It may be that they no longer think it's a problem, with polls showing that the average voter thinks that debt is going down. Why? Because they keep being given that impression by broadcasters who talk about ‘deficit reduction’ while wrongly thinking that people know what this means. ‘Deficit’ is a Westminster wonk word, used nowhere outside of politics. Reducing the deficit means cutting down the annual government overspend, but you won’t hear the state-funded BBC using phrases like that. The BBC might be state-financed but this is not a conspiracy.