Steerpike

In recent months, Derek Hatton has been taking to the airwaves to wax lyrical about Jeremy Corbyn. Although the former deputy leader of Liverpool Council's request to rejoin the party 29 years after they expelled him was turned down, he remains a supporter of the Corbyn regime. So, with this year's party conference in his home city of Liverpool, Hatton was keen to attend the event. What's more, Mr S understands that the Liverpool Echo decided it would be a good idea to get Hatton to write a conference diary for the paper and so he applied for a press pass. Alas brains at Labour HQ have deemed Hatton to not be suitable press pass material.

Although Alex Salmond is Scotland's First Minister no more, luckily the public still have a chance to hear the SNP politician's thoughts on a weekly basis thanks to his LBC phone-in. Today Salmond led the charge for Nicola Sturgeon blocking Brexit: 'If Scotland could block Brexit, then I think Nicola Sturgeon should do that. I think Nicola Sturgeon should take her instruction from the verdict of the Scottish people; she's Scottish First Minister. If you remember the Scottish people voted decisively to remain.

Although David Cameron's resignation honours were widely criticised for cronyism, it's fair to say that Jeremy Corbyn's one appointment to the House of Lords caused just as much upset. The Labour leader was accused of a conflict of interest for giving Shami Chakrabarti a peerage after she chaired his anti-Semitism inquiry. Apparently unfazed by the negative publicity, Baroness Chakrabarti of Kennington was introduced into the Lords today. Alas, it seems she couldn't find reason to smile.

Since the nation voted to leave the European Union in the referendum, Brexit has been described as a lot of things by a lot of people. However, until now Mr S had not heard it be described as sexy. At today's European Union Select Committee, David Davis -- the Brexit secretary -- claimed that his brief is the 'sexiest area of politics'. He made the comments as he answered a question on the possibility of establishing a 'clearing house' where interested parties can get in touch with the department: 'As you can imagine -- because this really is the sexiest area of politics at the moment -- everybody writes to us. And my department at the moment is actually quite tiny, it's quadrupled in one month.

Oh dear. It's fair to say that Emily Thornberry's appearance on Sky News this morning did not go to plan. The shadow Foreign Secretary -- and shadow Brexit Secretary -- appeared on Murnaghan to discuss Labour's stance on Brexit. Discussing her brief, Thornberry -- who is married to Sir Christopher Nugee -- slammed the government's Brexit efforts while bigging up her own work telling officials in Brussels that there are still reasonable people in Britain. So, just who has Lady Nugee been speaking to? While it remains unclear, what is clear is that France's foreign minister is not on that list. When Dermot Murnaghan asked her if she was in touch with Jean-Marc Ayrault, he received a curious response: DM: I mean, have you called the French foreign secretary for instance?

This year's Labour conference in Liverpool will be accompanied by the rival 'The World Transformed' event which will see Momentum host four days of talks. With speakers including Richard Seymour -- the journalist who once said if Falklands hero Simon Weston knew anything 'he'd still have his face' --  it's shaping up to be an interesting few days. Alas, in order for the event to even go ahead, Momentum claim they still need to raise £30,000 to host the event. As part of their efforts, last night they held a World Transformed fundraiser at Brixton Jamm. The event promised an 'unforgettable night of hip hop, documentary, tropical beats and discussion'.

Last summer, Chuka Umunna disappointed his Blairite mentors when he dropped out of the Labour leadership race. Explaining his decision, Umunna said that he was uncomfortable with the level of pressure and scrutiny on both himself and his loved ones. A lot has changed since then. With Jeremy Corbyn leading a fractious party -- and Umunna now happily married -- could a comeback be on the cards? After Keith Vaz stepped down from his role as chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday, Umunna has today confirmed that he will stand in the election to replace Vaz. Umunna -- who is already on the committee -- will have to beat off competition from fellow Labour comrades, with Yvette Cooper and Fiona Mactaggart both tipped to run.

Today Keith Vaz has stepped down as chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee following a series of claims about his personal life. His decision comes after a number of his Labour comrades tried to help his cause by going onto the airwaves to wax lyrical about their colleague. Simon Danczuk -- who is currently suspended from the party for sexting a 17-year-old -- appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire show to claim that Vaz is a well-respected MP. He was joined by Ken Livingstone -- who is currently suspended from the party over his claim that Hitler was 'supporting Zionism' before he 'went mad and ended up killing six million Jews'. Livingstone did manage to wax lyrical about Vaz briefly.