Steerpike

Just when you thought it was confined to political folklore, the EdStone returns again to haunt Labour. Mr S was interested to learn this morning that the Electoral Commission has fined the party £20,000 for failing to declare the money spent on the doomed eight-foot tombstone. Labour failed to declare £7,614 worth of receipts for the stone plinth, which form part of 74 payments worth £123,748 that appear to have been missed out of the declaration of expenses from the 2015 electoral campaign. The commission's fine is the largest of its kind since it was set up in 2001. Were the receipts lost in the post? Or were they ripped up at the same point that the EdStone was smashed to pieces by Miliband's loyal political flunkeys?

Steven Woolfe has said Ukip is in a ‘death spiral’ and on the basis of the latest candidate to join the party’s leadership contest, it seems like he might be right. John Rees-Evans announced this morning that he was throwing his hat in the ring to replace Nigel Farage at the top of the party. Rees-Evans is a relative outsider in the race and few know quite what he stands for. But what is known about the Ukip leadership candidate is that he once accused a ‘gay donkey’ of trying to ‘rape’ his horse. And during his leadership pitch on the Daily Politics, he was keen to try and move on from what he called ‘playful banter with a mischievous activist’.

During the EU referendum, there was a fierce contest between Vote Leave and Grassroots Out over which would win the official designation to campaign for Out. In the end, it went to Vote Leave -- after it was decided that they held the widest cross-party support. Part of the issue was that the majority of eurosceptic Conservative MPs backed Vote Leave. This was down -- in part -- to an unhelpful interview, Grassroots Out's Arron Banks gave to the Times. The Ukip donor struck a low note when he accused David Cameron of using his late disabled son Ivan as a prop over NHS policy. At the time, the comments were put down to the Ukip donor having one too many during the interview. So, has time healed old wounds? Apparently not.

Although Chuka Umunna was widely tipped to succeed Keith Vaz as chair of the home affairs select committee, in the end it was Yvette Cooper who proved triumphant. In fact, Umunna came a distant third in the election -- with Caroline Flint coming second. So, what went wrong? The word being put round Westminster is that the vote was split between Cooper and Umunna until the Tories -- allegedly worried that Umunna would prove too great a threat as chair and then have a springboard to become leader -- conspired to thwart the New Labour darling. Alas, this version of events fails to ring true in the Conservative camp. 'Let's just say no Tories were losing sleep over Umunna's bid,' Mr S's mole retorts. 'He might want to look closer to home'.

Theresa May’s track record of telling jokes in the Commons isn’t good. Last month at Prime Minister’s Questions, her wise cracks went down badly and she was criticised by a Labour MP for telling ‘silly jokes when asked serious questions’. At today’s PMQs, she was at it again - and Mr S is pleased to report she had much more luck in making her fellow MPs laugh. Backbencher Peter Bone has long been a thorn in the side of Tory leaders. But ever since the Brexit vote, he's been somewhat more upbeat about life. And on his birthday today, he had an extra reason to be happy. Yet despite his good mood, he probably wouldn’t have been bracing himself for Theresa May’s risqué reply to his question about prisons.

Another day, another piece of embarrassing data for those who predicted that the Brexit vote would trigger an immediate recession. Their foundation was based on the belief that confidence would plunge. As things turn out the Deloitte Consumer tracker has hit an all-time high. It has only been running for five years, so the real story could be even more impressive. And while George Osborne was talking about half a million jobs going as a result of the Brexit vote, the Deloitte survey found a strong increase in confidence of job security, up from -10 per cent to -4 per cent. [caption id="attachment_9651592" align="alignnone" width="560"] Source: Deloitte[/caption] And how does this compare with what was being said about consumer confidence before the vote?

Emily Thornberry put in a memorable performance on Question Time last night. Unfortunately for the shadow foreign secretary, it was an appearance that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Thornberry was heckled after sucking up to Corbyn, and she managed to make the audience groan when she claimed what united Labour was ‘so much more than what divides us’ (Mr S suspects there are many Labour MPs who might disagree with that view). Thornberry also tried to claim Labour were more grown-up than the Tories, saying her party fought ‘in the press’ rather than ‘in closed rooms’. But she saved her biggest clanger for when she was talking about Brexit.

With Seumas Milne on the way out as Jeremy Corbyn's director of communications, he is widely expected to return to the Grauniad. The columnist and associate editor has been 'on leave' from the paper since he moved to the Leader's Office last October. However, Mr S hears there is a slight hiccup delaying his much anticipated return. While bosses at the top of the paper are keen for Milne to return as a columnist -- complete with inside knowledge of the Corbyn regime that would make for essential reading --  some have reservations over Milne coming back as an 'associate editor'. They feel that if Milne were to take on a role overseeing the the editorial line of the paper this could lead to 'complications'.

Since the -- fast depleting -- SNP 56 descended on Parliament last year, there have been a number of incidents -- from clapping in the Chamber to trespassing through the Chancellor's office -- that suggest the majority are not taking to Westminster etiquette like ducks to water. However, could it be one of the SNP's longest standing MPs who has the most to learn? Today Angus MacNeil -- the MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar since 2005 -- was taken to task in the chamber by the speaker over his unstatesman-like behaviour. Bercow accused MacNeil of chewing gum while contributing to the Brexit debate: 'Mr MacNeil, you are an exceptionally boisterous fellow and in the course of your boisterous behaviour you appear to be chewing some sort of gum.

With the latest ICM poll putting the Tories on a 17-point lead over Labour, it seems as though Jeremy Corbyn's beleaguered party are in a bit of a jam. But fret not -- they have a plan. Today Momentum have released details of its new initiative 'Concerts for Corbyn'. The plan is to inspire the nation to vote for Labour with music. What's more Paul Weller will play at the first of these concerts. Explaining his decision, the rocker said he agreed to perform as he likes 'what Corbyn says and stands for'. So, is this a sign of the swing voter finally being wooed back by Labour? Alas not. It turns out that Weller actually abstained from voting in the general election -- voicing his disappointment at the time that he wasn't able to vote for...

Oh dear. After the Guardian ran a story claiming Jeremy Corbyn was unable to find a seat on a Virgin train journey, a media storm shortly ensued when the train company responded by releasing CCTV footage to the contrary. Since then, it's been revealed that the freelancer behind the story was actually a campaigning Corbynista who wasn't even present on the train journey. So, why did the Grauniad publish the story in the first place? Happily -- if a tad too late -- hacks at the paper have been asking themselves just this of late. Following an investigation into the error, the paper has published its findings -- and they don't make for pretty reading.