Steerpike

Although Paul Nuttall made a quick escape from today's Ukip Spring Conference in order to avoid the pesky press, compared with Douglas Carswell it was an admirable effort. Mr S understands that Ukip's only MP has deigned not to bother turning up today. While there are over 25 Ukip politicians speaking at the event, Carswell will not be one of them. Instead the MP for Clacton will appear through the medium of video -- opting to record a video message rather than make the journey up North. While Nuttall has promised to give Labour a run for its money in the party's traditional heartlands, Mr S suspects the message would hold a bit more weight if Ukip's parliamentary party also frequented the area.

Ken Loach has carved out a name as something of a Corbynista luvvie. The director put together a droning, hour-long promotional film for the Labour leader last year. And Corbyn returned in kind by offering a glowing review of his pal’s recent I, Daniel Blake movie, which he urged people to go and see. This week, Loach stepped up his campaign against the Tories by criticising the Government in a speech at the Baftas, saying the Conservatives ‘must be removed’ from office.

Oh dear. As Theresa May avoids questions about the NHS up in Copeland ahead of this month's by-election, brains at No 10 decided a trip to Captain Shaw's Primary School in Bootle would make for a safe photo opp. Alas things didn't go quite to plan when the Prime Minister struggled to raise a smile in the company of two pupils. What ever will Andrea Leadsom say? Captions on a postcard please.

Just in case tensions between Brexiteers and Remain-ers were beginning to die down now that MPs have voted for Article 50, television producers are at the ready to whip up more drama between the two camps. Channel 4 is bringing back Wife Swap for a Brexit special. While it has been touted as a one-off special, Mr S has been passed the casting call which suggests they are looking for more than one pair of families to take part. So, are you a Brexiteer who is ready and willing to convince a family of Remain-ers that Brexit Britain isn't such a bad thing? If so, details on how to apply can be found above.

Oh dear. It's safe to say that Labour's candidate for the Stoke-on-Central by-election has not had a good day. After Guido published tweets in which Gareth Snell called a variety of women 'sour-faced' and 'annoying', the Sun revealed that he had said Deirdre from Coronation Street deserved a slap. Meanwhile, Mr S notes that Snell also found time to tweet an expletive-laden message telling Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight book series, 'f--- you very much'. So, what does Snell make of today's female politicians and his potential colleagues?

Last month, Tim Farron ruled out any electoral pact between the Liberal Democrats and Labour -- branding Jeremy Corbyn 'toxic'. With Labour mourning the loss of over 7,000 members in January, it seems Farron may be on to something. In contrast to Labour, the Liberal Democrats were buoyed by 4,000 new members last month. And just how many new members cited Corbyn as the reason they were joining the Lib Dems? Well, a little (yellow) bird tells Mr S that about 2,000 of them said Corbyn or the ‘state of Labour’ when asked why they are joining. It seems Corbyn's increased media presence is having a positive effect after all -- just for the wrong party.

There's little love lost between the BBC and the Leader's Office. Jeremy Corbyn's team have regularly accused the Beeb of anti-Corbyn bias, with the BBC trust recently concluding that its political editor Laura Kuenssberg inaccurately reported the Labour leader's views about shoot-to-kill policies in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Paris. Today, the battle took another turn for the worse as Corbyn appeared on BBC Breakfast. Things soon turned sour when the presenter asked Corbyn about rumours that he was planning to stand down. At which point, Corbyn said he was surprised the BBC was fuelling the 'fake news' epidemic: BBC presenter: There’s a story going about that you’ve set a date for when you’re going to quit as Labour leader.

As the committee stage of the government's Brexit bill rolls on, MPs have been debating a range of amendments. Signalling that she could back an amendment on parliamentary sovereignty, Claire Perry - a former transport minister defenestrated in Theresa May's purge of the Osbornites - said that she had been left disappointed by the attitude of some of her colleagues who back what she called a "hard" Brexit. Some people get all hysterical, she was saying. To make this point in a calm and restrained manner helpful to the debate, Perry compared some MPs who support hard-Brexit to Islamic fundamentalists. 'I feel sometimes I'm sitting along with colleagues who are like jihadis in their support for a hard Brexit.