Steerpike

With Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet now somewhat depleted, brains at Labour are left with less choice when it comes to who to send onto the airwaves to protect the leader's honour. As a result, readers ought to expect to hear a lot more from Diane Abbott -- the newly appointed Shadow Health Secretary -- in the coming days. Alas this may not be exactly what the beleaguered Labour leader needs as he continues to try and fend off the threat of a vote of no confidence. This morning Abbott appeared on the Today programme to make the case for Corbyn's survival. Abbott said that if there was another leadership election, she was confident that Corbyn stood a very good chance of winning once again.

While Corbyn faced an open revolt from MPs at tonight's meeting of the PLP, over in Parliament Square the Corbyn fightback got underway as hundreds gathered for a Momentum rally in support of the Labour leader. Not content with the drama at the meeting, Richard Burgon -- Labour’s former blunder-prone shadow City minister who has just been promoted to Shadow Justice Secretary --  left early to attend the rally. In his speech to the Corbynistas, he turned on his fellow MPs, accusing them of 'behaving like bullies' inside Parliament: https://twitter.com/katyballs/status/747493155621199873 'I think everyone in the Parliamentary Labour party can hear you shouting tonight.

Ahead of the EU referendum, David Cameron's sister-in-law declared that she would never vote Conservative again if Leave won. Now that Brexit is firmly on the agenda -- and her brother-in-law set to stand down -- Emily Sheffield is preparing to join the Labour party. Samantha Cameron's sister has taken to Twitter to ask how quickly she can join, adding that she only ever voted Conservative for David: While this news doesn't come as a huge surprise -- given that she tweeted a Sadiq Khan campaign messages during the London mayoral election -- it does beg the question of her sister's voting preference. After all, back in 2010 Ed Vaizey claimed that Samantha 'may have voted Labour' in the past. Will she too be tempted to vote red now the Brexiteers have won?

It's not turning out to be a great weekend for Jeremy Corbyn. First he had to pull out of a planned appearance at Glastonbury on Sunday to focus on Brexit, now his visit to London Pride has, too, been ruined by the referendum result. On meeting with members of Labour's LGBT community at Pride, Corbyn was repeatedly heckled over Remain losing the EU referendum. In a video shared on Twitter, Labour members repeatedly shout at the party leader: 'It's your fault Jeremy! It's your fault! When are you resigning? I had a Polish friend in tears because you couldn't get out the vote in Wales, the North and the Midlands.' https://twitter.com/TomMauchline/status/746674742204239872 https://twitter.

Given that the result of the EU referendum was likely to have a monumental impact whatever the outcome, Jeremy Corbyn's plan to speak at this weekend's Glastonbury festival was always a curious choice. Now faced with Labour MPs calling for his removal, it seems Corbyn has had second thoughts. The Labour leader has pulled out of his planned appearance at Glastonbury festival on Sunday to focus on the issues thrown up by the 'momentous' EU result. The news will just add to the woes of its festival-goers. When the result reached Worthy Farm this morning, tears were shed across the site. Mr S has since been passed a photo of an article on the matter from the Glastonbury Free Press.

In last year's general election, Andrew Cooper was left red-faced after his firm Populus's final 'prediction' of a 0.5 per cent chance of David Cameron winning a Tory majority turned out to be somewhat, em, pessimistic. Since then, Lord Cooper of 0.5 per cent has been on a PR offensive in an attempt to rebrand himself as the next Lynton Crosby -- helped by his pal and former flatmate Lord Fink. So, with another election result looming, one could be forgiven for thinking Cooper may wish to be a bit more circumspect this time. It seems not. Today Populus has sent round its final poll for the EU referendum, showing that Remain should win by an astonishing ten points.

Another day, another Brexit poll. This time YouGov claim to have discovered what a name can tell you about someone's voting tendency. If you're called Sheila or Graham you're most likely to vote Leave, whereas those by the name of Kathryn and Samantha are most likely to fall into the undecided category. However, the poll finding that caught Mr S's eye relates to Remain. It claims that when it comes to men, those by the name of Tim are most likely to plump for In. So, is it a case of Tim-Nice-But-Dim for Remain?

Although the Sun were only recently found guilty of 'significantly misleading' its readers with its 'Queen backs Brexit' splash, it seems the red top was onto something after all. While the paper reported that Her Majesty had expressed Eurosceptic views at a private meeting prior to a referendum being on the table, it appears that she does still harbour doubts when it comes to the EU. The Queen's biographer, Robert Lacey, reports that Her Majesty has been presenting her dinner guests with a special EU challenge of late. She has reportedly asked dinner companions: 'Give me three good reasons why Britain should be part of Europe'.

In recent weeks, there has been a genuine concern among Brexiteers that the In campaign are hiding Stuart Rose out of harm's way in a secret location. The hapless Britain Stronger in Europe chairman has all but disappeared from the media spotlight after a series of campaign blunders -- from forgetting the name of his own campaign group to mistaking Sweden for Switzerland. Despite this, Rose has become a topic of conversation in nearly every EU television debate thanks to his less than helpful claim that wages would actually rise in the event of Brexit. So, Mr S was relieved to locate Rose just last week -- sun-kissed and smiling at a fashion bash at Mark's Club for London Collections.

There's a lot at stake for David Cameron when it comes to the EU referendum. As well as having to try to mend party divisions, a vote for Brexit could bring an end to Cameron's time as Prime Minister. Now he has another problem to deal with should the nation vote to leave -- his sister-in-law will never vote for his party again. Although Cameron can at least count on Emily Sheffield's support in the EU referendum, this will change if Leave win. Samantha Cameron's sister -- who is the deputy editor of Vogue -- has been doing her best of late to motivate voters to back Remain. Alas if things don't go to plan on Thursday, she has vowed to never vote for the Tories again.

Aside from the EU debate, it's John Whittingdale who has become the talk of the Commons this week thanks to the black-eye he's been sporting. While there has been much speculation as to how he came to get the bruise, his aides have insisted that it was simply won through an altercation with a lamp post. Tonight at the UK Music summer party, the Culture Secretary's colleague Nigel Adams -- chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Music -- appeared to hint at another cause. 'Let's welcome our fantastic secretary of state, who you will see got on the wrong side of an argument with a remain-er in the last week or two,' Adams joshed to partygoers in the Lords. Happily Whitto was on hand to put forward his version of events, in his party speech.