Steerpike

Although Mark Carney has warned that a Brexit is the 'biggest domestic risk to financial stability', his predecessor Mervyn King takes a somewhat different approach when it comes to the impending EU referendum. The former Bank of England governor used an appearance today at the Hay Festival to hit out at the 'wildly exagerated claims' made in the run-up to the vote. 'I wondered who would be the first to lower the tone,' King joshed when asked whether he thought Britain should stay or go.

Poor Ed Miliband. Since his defeat in the General Election, the former Labour leader has seen his influence fade -- dropping to number 40 in this year's Doncaster Power list. Now it seems some are struggling to even remember his name. On last night's Question Time, Red Ed was mistaken for his brother David Miliband twice by his fellow panel member Dreda Say Mitchell. The Brexit-backing novelist mistook him for Labour's prince across the water while discussing the EU: DM: Are we saying David, as a country we are the fifth largest economy EM: It’s Ed, actually DM: Sorry, Ed Alas Mitchell failed to learn her lesson and went on to refer to him as David for a second time later on. Miliband then suggested Mitchell simply refer to him as 'you there' in future.

Oh dear. Today at PMQs, George Osborne could not resist boasting about the government's new enterprise tsar, Sir Alan Sugar. When asked whether he could confirm reports that The Apprentice star would be assisting the government, the Chancellor replied that this was the case -- after Sugar had recently told Labour they were 'fired'. However, for all their glee at the celebrity appointment, Mr S suspects Cabinet members should refrain from getting too excited. When Andrew Neil asked Matthew Hancock on the Daily Politics why he thought Sugar was such an expert on business, the minister seemed lost for words: AN: I just wonder why you politicians are so obsessed with him. What's been his greatest business achievement? MH: Well, he's started a long time ago...

Although Jeremy Corbyn managed to survive the Queen's Speech relatively unscathed last week, his republican beliefs are likely to be called into question once again thanks to a new appointment to his press team. Steerpike understands that Matt Zarb-Cousin has been chosen as the winning candidate to fill the 'leader’s office media spokesperson' vacancy first advertised last month. Cousin -- who currently works as a consultant for the Campaign for Fairer Gambling -- is an interesting choice given that he is already a familiar name in Labour circles thanks to an incident that occurred when he worked as a staffer for Andy Slaughter.

Although Bernard Jenkin tabled an urgent question today, the Conservative politician didn't seem to feel any sense of urgency when it came to arriving in time to read it. As John Bercow called Jenkin's name, the Eurosceptic MP was nowhere to be seen -- leading MPs to joke that he was busy in Brussels. 'I find it very hard to believe that the honourable gentleman is in Brussels,' Bercow replied. When he did eventually arrive, Bercow launched into a lengthly tirade about Jenkin's timekeeping skills: 'It's a considerable discourtesy when I grant the honourable gentleman's urgent question application when he's not here at once, he should be in the Chamber, This must not happen again.

Oh dear. Spare a thought for whichever bright spark at Labour HQ is responsible for today's email on the EU referendum. The message -- which has been sent out to party supporters -- asks voters to help Labour campaign to remain in the EU. To do this, they are keen to take the personal approach -- inviting readers to share the reasons they will be voting In. The email also urges recipients to donate money. Alas, a technical glitch means that the email has struck the wrong chord with would-be supporters. Instead of individually addressing each email to the recipient by name, all the emails begin with 'Dear Firstname': A second email has since been sent out presumably with the aim of correcting the technical blunder. Alas, this email also begins 'Dear Fristname'.

In the General Election, a number of Labour supporters defected to Ukip over growing concerns that the party was no longer able to address the issue of immigration. Given that uncontrolled immigration is a big issue in the EU referendum debate, Labour's Remain-ers need to win back trust here. Alas, Pat Glass appears to have done the In camp no favours today while out on the campaign trail. The Shadow Europe Minister described a voter she met on the campaign trail in Sawley, Derbyshire, as a 'horrible racist' after they described a Polish family in the area as 'scroungers'. Speaking to BBC Radio Derby, Glass said: 'The very first person I come to was a horrible racist. I’m never coming back to wherever this is.

Labour's high command are not showing themselves to be the most statesman-like of figures today. After Jeremy Corbyn was caught on camera ignoring David Cameron's attempts at conversation, his shadow Defence Secretary struggled to control herself in today's Queen's Speech debate. Emily Thornberry took offence after Cameron described her as a 'shadow defence secretary who doesn’t believe in defence'. She protested to his comments by mouthing 'bollocks' from the Labour frontbench: https://vine.co/v/i0xEIb9Eg9U Mr S suspects that next time she has a point to make in the Commons, Lady Nugee ought to take a more dignified approach when it comes to airing her grievances.