Steerpike

Last summer as Corbyn-mania swept the country, the MP for Islington North's appeal proved so far-reaching that even his ex-wife had high praise for him. Ahead of the election result, Professor Jane Chapman -- who was married to the Labour leader between 1974 and 1979 -- told the Daily Mail that her former husband had her vote as he had 'really shaken politics in this country' -- pulling in bigger crowds than Tony Blair. Alas, what a difference a year makes. Today Corbyn's first wife has appeared on 5 Live to announce that she voted for Owen Smith rather than Corbyn.

There’s a great scoop in The Times today. A political columnist, former chief leader writer of a national newspaper was, unbeknown to readers, acting as David Cameron’s chief stenographer for six years. In his columns he’d present himself as a former Tory official, retired and out of action. Full of self-deprecating anecdotes about what happened back in the day when he was working for William Hague. What he failed to disclose was that, in between writing opinion pieces for his newspaper and acting as its Executive Editor, he was scurrying off to Downing Street to take dictation for the Prime Minister on a monthly basis. He recorded Cameron’s ramblings, hoping a to use them for a memoir for which the PM is keen to bag a million quid.

Any Britain politician of note will at some point in their career face the question: what is your favourite biscuit? While David Cameron opted for oatcakes, Gordon Brown had to take a recess to consider his options -- before returning to say that anything with 'a bit of chocolate' would suffice. Today it was Jeremy Corbyn's turn to step up to the plate. Although the question was inevitable, the Labour leader showed little enthusiasm for any type of biscuit. Instead, he launched into a lecture on the danger of sugar: 'I'm totally anti-sugar on health grounds, so eat very few biscuits, but if forced to accept one, it's always a pleasure to have a shortbread.' Alas, Mr S doesn't quite buy this. After all if Corbyn has such an issue with sugar, how does he make all that jam?

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'.