Steerpike

In his interview on the Today programme this morning, Philip Hammond said nothing memorable - which Mr S finds a relief. It's about time that this job went back to being that of a finance minister, not a poseur itching to move to No10. The Today programme is listened to by six million people; by the end, Hammond had probably sent at least two million back to sleep. Mishal Hussein decided to try some quick-fire questions, to see if that would solicit something more interesting. Her gambit worked. What will he do about runways? 'Well, on the decision about the location of London's third, arm, London's additional runway that will be a decision now for the new government to make and it will have to make a decision collectively. Obviously we haven't discussed it yet.

Today's PMQs have proved to be a lively affair as David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn traded jibes at the despatch box for the last time. While the Labour leader found time to praise the Prime Minister's time in power, Cameron was less obliging when it came to Corbyn. As well as ridiculing Labour for its ongoing row about the leadership rules, he took a leaf from Corbyn's book by reading out an email he had received from a member of the public. The email -- from a woman by the name of Judith -- had been sent ahead of Cameron's first ever PMQs with Corbyn. In it, she warned Cameron to not go hard on his opponent, as if Corbyn left things would look worse for the Tories: 'She said "please, please keep dignity and not triumphalism at the first PMQs with Jeremy Corbyn".

News of Theresa May's coronation as the next Prime Minister is - as you'd expect - emblazoned on the front page of every newspaper today. However, the Daily Mail has gone one step further than its rivals -- claiming, pretty much, that it enstooled May itself. And  judging by its jubilations, if seems that Paul Dacre sees her as a Manchurian candidate programmed from High Street Kensington. In fact, on reading their article 'how the Mail backed May from the start', one could be forgiven for thinking that the paper's editor Paul Dacre was moving into No.10 with May come Wednesday: 'The Daily Mail was the first newspaper to throw its weight behind Theresa May in the race to succeed David Cameron as Prime Minister.

Today the Eagle has landed. After touring television studios yesterday with talk that she would run to be the next Labour leader, Angela Eagle officially launched her campaign this morning. Alas there was a problem. As the launch neared its end, Andrea Leadsom managed to upstage her by putting on a rival press conference to announce that she was dropping out of the Tory leadership race. As hacks raced across Westminster to make it to Leadsom's conference, the Labour leadership hopeful was left red-faced as she tried to take questions from the BBC and then ITV's Robert Peston only to learn that they weren't there.

Oh dear. Today Jeremy Corbyn fuelled concerns that he isn't interested in winning power when he failed to say that winning a general election was a priority, during an appearance on the Andrew Marr Show. Now Jon Lansman, the Momentum chief, has waded into the 'should winning matter to a major political party?' debate. After tweeting his followers to urge them to stand by Jeremy Corbyn in the face of the Labour coup, former Blair spinner John McTernan responded by suggesting that Corbynistas only care about their leader -- rather than the party or country: https://twitter.

Although John McDonnell has been busy of late helping fight off the Labour coup, he was able to find time this week to mark the 30th anniversary of the rate-capping rebellion of the eighties. The Shadow Chancellor joined forces with Ted Knight --  the former leader of Lambeth council who once warned 'no compromise with the electorate' -- to reminisce about the patch of history which saw the group earn the tabloid title ‘the loony left’. Speaking at Clapham library in front of a crowd of Momentum activists -- who regularly referred to the Labour MPs behind the no confidence vote in Corbyn as the '172 Judas Iscariots' -- McDonnell talked about his time as the GLC’s finance committee chairman.

Since Andrea Leadsom announced her leadership bid, the Conservative candidate has been dogged by allegations that she lacks the experience and knowledge to lead her party -- let alone the country. Reports this week from Leadsom's former colleagues claiming she exaggerated her banking credentials on her CV have only fuelled concerns that she could be out of her depth. Now Mr S understands that Leadsom could be in breach of parliamentary rules over the registered address of her leadership campaign.

After Michael Gove was knocked out of the Tory leadership race in today's vote, Theresa May will go head-to-head with Andrea Leadsom in the race to be the next Prime Minister. So, with a prospect of a Leadsom-led government now looming, what would Leadsom's Britain look like? Thanks to an old blog dating back to 2006, we have a glimpse of her vision for the country. What's more, it seems that Leadsom actually has a recipe for a 'perfect British society'.

In recent weeks, Westminster politicians have found themselves compared to the characters of House of Cards and Game of Thrones over their post-referendum antics. Happily, parliamentarians were able to put such differences aside on Wednesday night as they took a well-deserved break from work at The Spectator summer party. As Labour's Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall caught up with Liz Truss, Laurence Fox -- the Lewis actor -- put on a passionate display for the cameras with his male companion for the evening. Meanwhile with a Tory leadership contest underway, Theresa May made sure to do the rounds and rally support for her campaign at the champagne-fuelled bash.

Don't expect to see Ken Clarke on Sky News anytime soon. The former Chancellor has been left red-faced after the broadcaster aired footage of him engaging in a very honest assessment of the Tory leadership -- not realising the camera was rolling. No candidate mentioned got off scot-free during his lively discussion with Sir Malcolm Rifkind. While raising the prospect of Michael Gove as Prime Minister, Clarke expressed concerns about his 'wild' views on foreign policy -- concluding that, with the Justice Secretary as PM, Britain would go to war with 'at least three countries at once': 'I remember having a discussion once about something we should do in Syria or Iraq and he was so wild that I remember exchanging looks with Liam Fox., who's much more right-wing than me.

After a week of Shadow Cabinet resignations amid a Labour coup to oust Jeremy Corbyn, there have been several theories doing the rounds as to what it means for the party. While some have suggested that Corbyn's director of communications Seumas Milne is stopping Corbyn from resigning, there have been reports that he will resign and allow John McDonnell to run. However, today Corbyn has decided to set the record straight. In a -- rather clunky -- video message to Labour members, Corbyn declares that he is not going anywhere: 'I have a huge responsibility, I'm carrying out that responsibility and I'm carrying on with that responsibility.' https://twitter.