Steerpike

Oh dear. Although today's Budget was expected to be rather boring, it's shaping up to be a lot more interesting than Philip Hammond had intended. The Chancellor's decision to break a 2015 Tory manifesto pledge and raise National Insurance Contributions (Class 4) by two per cent for self-employed workers has left many in uproar. But surely Hammond can rely on former Treasury staff to have his back at this testing time? Perhaps not. Rupert Harrison, George Osborne's former chief of staff in the Treasury, has offered his snap verdict: While Harrison -- who now works alongside Osborne at BlackRock -- says the dividend changes are likely to encounter opposition in Tory heartlands.

As part of John McDonnell's recent 'tea offensive' to reach out and offer an olive branch to politicians on all sides of the Labour party, the shadow chancellor has invited both Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair for a cuppa. Alas, extending the hand of friendship to New Labour grandees is proving costly when it comes to McDonnell's comrades on the Left. Step forward George Galloway. The former Labour MP -- who was expelled from the party in 2003 -- has previously been supportive of the Corbyn regime.

As Budget day approaches, the opposition are attempting to pile pressure on the Tories. As part of these efforts, Jeremy Corbyn has published details of his tax return in an effort to force Philip Hammond to do the same. However, if the stunt was meant to put the focus on the Chancellor, it has backfired spectacularly this evening. Rather than questions being raised over Hammond's finances, Corbyn is facing questions over his own. Namely whether he declared his full income as Labour leader. His tax return shows that he earned £114,342 in 2015-16, and paid £35,298 in tax. However, as the Leader of the Opposition, it's thought he would also be in line for around £37,000 for that tax year -- should he choose to accept it.

The row about whether Douglas Carswell did or didn’t block Nigel Farage’s knighthood has sparked another bout of civil war within Ukip. But Mr S is pleased to report there could be a happy ending after all. On Russia Today (natch), the former Ukip leader had a taste of what it would be like to get his gong. Unfortunately for Farage, his 'knighthood' was given to him by a child dressed in a cape rather than the Queen. But at least Farage got to hear those magic words: 'Arise Sir Nigel'. However, the happy moment may well have been dampened at the end when the child turned to Farage and said to him: ‘My mummy says you hate foreigners’ Mr S thinks Farage should pay heed to the old adage 'never work with children or animals'.

On your first day as a spin doctor for the opposition there are a few things that you probably shouldn't do. Near the top of that list is going to the pub and asking a Muslim journalist if they are an Al Qaeda supporter. But that's what Steve Howell did on Monday after starting his job as Jeremy Corbyn's new deputy director of communications. Seumas Milne took his new colleague -- and one-time Straight Left comrade -- to the Red Lion for a post-work drink. Alas it proved to be a bit more dramatic than planned when guests from the Fabian Society's 'What now for Syria?' Commons event flocked in.

Last week Mr S revealed that Jeremy Corbyn and Seumas Milne had come up with affectionate nicknames for one another. The Labour leader refers to his director of strategy and communications as TGM, which stands for 'The Great Milne'. Meanwhile, Milne in turn refers to his boss as TSL -- 'The Supreme Leader', natch. So, what of the rest of their colleagues? Well, it turns out that Corbyn has a penchant for acronyms and abbreviations -- referring to Emily Thornberry as 'ET'. Only going to confirm Mr S's suspicions that Team Corbyn really are living on another planet...

Although Keir Starmer refuses to say whether he harbours ambitions to be Labour leader, the shadow Brexit secretary did do his best to dazzle hacks this afternoon as the guest of honour at today's press gallery lunch. Alas while Starmer was full of charm for the hacks, he was less willing to wax lyrical about the current Labour leadership. Referring to the Copeland by-election defeat, he said the loss was 'really serious' and could not just be blames on bad weather and New Labour: 'The timing of this lunch could not be better from my point of view and you're probably thinking that's because it's five days after Copeland and Stoke and I'll get lots of questions about how my 17,000 majority is now reclassified as a long term marginal seat.

Oh dear. Although Paul Mason has taken to the airwaves this morning to suggest that Scottish independence would be a good thing, it had been thought that comrade Jeremy Corbyn was still on the side of the unionists. So, Mr S was curious to hear the Labour lead thank the SNP in his speech at today's Scottish Labour party conference. Referring to plans for a new Scottish Labour policy to increase child benefit, Corbyn confused delegates by thanking 'our SNPs': 'I’m delighted Scottish Labour announced a new policy to use powers of Scottish Parliament to increase child benefit, which will lift thousands of Scottish children out of poverty. Well done Scottish Labour and well done our SNPs... our MSPs for keeping that up.

Labour is doing its share of soul searching this morning following its disastrous defeat in the Copeland by-election. There are many reasons being put forward for why the Tories were able to snatch the seat from Labour. But Emily Thornberry thinks she knows exactly why Labour lost: fake news. Lady Nugee suggested that the ‘big worry’ about the future of the Sellafield nuclear power plant was the decisive factor in voters abandoning Labour.