Steerpike

Another day, another Downing Street blunder. Now it transpires that No. 10 sent a group of lobby journalists halfway across the country for a meet with Prime Minister Keir Starmer – only to belatedly clock they'd been directed to the wrong place. A pack of political journalists have found themselves stranded in the West Midlands after a Downing Street directive gave them the address to, er, the wrong car factory. Or perhaps No. 10 hoped that by sending the press to Coventry, they'd silence their criticism a bit… No. 10 sent a group of lobby journalists halfway across the country for a meet with Prime Minister Keir Starmer – only to belatedly clock they'd been directed to the wrong place.

Well, well, well. The conflict in the Middle East has caused splits among the Labour lot and now it seems serious divides are forming in the Conservative party over the issue. As reported by the Guardian, it transpires that more than a dozen senior Tory MPs and peers have broken ranks and written to Sir Keir Starmer calling for the UK to immediately recognise Palestine as a state. The seven MPs and six House of Lords grandees have signed a letter that insists 'recognising Palestine would affirm our nation’s commitment to upholding the principles of justice, self-determination and equal rights'.

It's been a whirlwind few days for Sarah Pochin who has become Reform's newest MP after winning the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes. It was only on Friday morning that Pochin discovered she had clinched the victory in the Labour safe seat – and today, Runcorn's new representative has been sworn in as a Member of Parliament in the Commons. In an excruciatingly close contest, Pochin overturned a 15,000 Labour majority to beat Sir Keir Starmer's candidate to the Cheshire seat. The count took a dramatic turn after 'doubtful' votes led to a recount that saw Nigel Farage's party swoop to victory early on Friday morning. Pochin replaces ex-Labour man Mike Amesbury as the constituency MP, after he was caught on CCTV punching a local.

Uh oh. Commons Leader Lucy Powell has found herself in hot water after making some rather careless remarks on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions yesterday. The Labour politician sparked outrage over her reaction to a point by Tim Montgomerie – the founder of Conservative Home who has since aligned himself with Reform – who brought up a recent Channel 4 documentary on grooming gangs.  Cutting across him, Powell replied: ‘Oh we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we?’ ‘No,’ Montgomerie responded. ‘There was a real issue…’. Not that Powell appeared willing to listen, interrupting again: ‘Let’s get that dog whistle out, shall we?’ Oo er. Talk about flippant!

Prince Harry has said he 'would love a reconciliation' with the Royals after losing a legal challenge over his security in Britain. The Duke of Sussex told the BBC that King Charles 'won't speak to me because of this security stuff', but insisted he would love to get back on speaking terms with his family: 'It would be nice to reconcile,' he said. 'There's no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious,' said Prince Harry 'There's no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious,' said Prince Harry. Asked whether his wife Meghan and children would come to Britain, Harry said: 'I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point. And the things that they’re going to miss is, well, everything.