Steerpike

Oh dear. We're one day into August – also known as 'silly season' – and Cat Smith has stepped up to the plate so journalists don't have to. The shadow minister for voter engagement and youth affairs has penned a blog for the Huffington Post in which she makes the case for lowering the voting age to sixteen. Her argument? If you're 16-years-old you can have sexual intercourse with your MP... but you can't vote for them: https://twitter.com/CatSmithMP/status/892088118219812864 Putting aside whether this is the best message to be putting out at a time when female MPs have raised concern over abuse, Mr S doubts her claim regarding this great injustice even adds up.

Since Theresa May lost her Tory majority in the snap election, few of her MPs have been more critical of the Prime Minister than Heidi Allen. The MP for South Cambridgeshire has predicted that May will be gone within six months – and said in a speech in the Commons that she could 'barely put into words' her anger at her party's deal with the DUP. Is Allen now distancing herself from the party? There is no mention of the Conservative party in Allen's Twitter bio, and now her attendance at this year's Tory conference is up in the air. The Tory MP tells Bright Blue, the Conservative think tank, that she's 'not certain' she will attend: 'She'd certainly be better suited to being an independent,' mutters one put-out Tory.

Last week, Sir Vince Cable was appointed – unchallenged – as leader of the Liberal Democrats. While some in the party would have preferred a younger leader or at the very least a two-horse race, there is one thing they can all agree on: Cable comes with less baggage than his predecessor. There is a general consensus that the party's 'liberal' appeal was not helped in the election by Tim Farron spending so much time talking about how gay sex and abortion fitted in with his Christian faith. But is it too early for the Lib Dems to breath a collective sigh of relief? A little (yellow) bird tells Steerpike that there is concern at Lib Dem towers that Farron could cause the party more issues yet.

The Conservatives are back on the front foot. After Jeremy Corbyn appeared to row back on an election promise over the weekend that his party would abolish pre-existing student debt, Labour have been under attack in the press. Now brains at CCHQ have released an attack ad on the issue and it will not make for pleasant viewing at Labour towers: https://twitter.com/Conservatives/status/889547927609380864 Labour MPs and activists are trying to play down Corbyn's election comments to NME magazine – claiming that when Corbyn said he would 'deal with' pre-existing student debt there was no suggestion the party would actually do anything about it. However, some MPs may want to look at their own timelines before proceeding with this line of argument: https://twitter.

This weekend, Jeremy Corbyn was full of beans during an appearance on the Andrew Marr show. As well as frank comments on immigration and student debt, the Labour leader found time to turn his ire on the BBC over the gender pay gap. Discussing the disclosure that two thirds of the corporation's highest earners are men, Corbyn said the Beeb needs to 'look very hard at itself' – adding that a Labour government would insist on a pay audit of every organisation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL1pvY_Tbmc Strong words indeed. But is Corbyn just repeating empty platitudes? This time last year, Corbyn made a similar pledge.

On Thursday, Diane Abbott came unstuck in an interview with ITV News after she failed to explain how Labour would pay for its policy to put 10,000 more bobbies on the beat. The shadow home secretary's confusion was particularly telling given that she struggled with the same policy during the general election campaign – with a car crash interview on LBC. Abbott has since said that it was the broadcaster who was at fault for daring to ask her to go into specifics on a party policy. But have the powers that be taken a different view? Mr S only asks after the line-up for Radio 4's Westminster Hour was changed last minute. On Friday, Abbott was scheduled to join: https://twitter.

Although Theresa May's former co-chiefs of staff – Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill – both swiftly exited No 10 following the disastrous election result, there are some Conservatives who fret that her Rottweilers still hold influence from afar. So Mr S was curious to come across the latest offering to Eye Spy MP. A follower claims they spied Timothy enjoying a pint with none other than Michael Gove on Thursday night: https://twitter.com/eyespymp/status/888350069296156672 Surely it was just a case of two old friends catching up?

Here we go again. During the General Election campaign, Diane Abbott came under fire when it became apparent in an LBC interview that she had no idea how her party would pay for its policy of 10,000 extra police officers – at one point saying it would cost £300,000, working out at £30 an officer. So, surely the shadow home secretary has learnt her lesson? Apparently not. In an interview with ITV news on rising crime figures, Abbott came unstuck once again on the policy as she attempted to explain how Labour would pay for its plan for 10,000 extra officers: 'What we have is we would find the money to recruit the ten thousand police people by cutting the.... we would find the money because we would look at capital gains tax.

After weeks of Tory backstabbing, briefing and plotting at summer parties, Damian Green had to stage an intervention on the Marr show and warn his colleagues to lay off the 'warm prosecco'. So, the Secretary of State will be relieved to know that one Cabinet minister has managed to resist the temptation to secretly brief hacks at a booze-fuelled bash. At the Policy Exchange summer party last night, Michael Fallon cut to the chase and took to the mic to share his thoughts on his party's current woes.

For months now, it's proved a daily challenge trying to work out what exactly Labour's position on Brexit is. While the 2017 manifesto said the party wanted to retain the benefits of both the single market and the customs union, a lot of confusion follows when one tries to pin down whether that means staying a member of both or leaving them. This morning, Rebecca Long-Bailey attempted to set the record straight. In an interview with Andrew Neil on the Sunday Politics, the shadow business secretary said what Labour wanted was to... have their cake and eat it: 'We want to maintain the benefits that we currently have within the customs union... but you know, we want to have our cake and eat it.