Steerpike

As Labour's anti-Semitism storm continues to dominate PMQs, it's almost too easy to forget that the Tories are dealing with a big problem of their own. Today electoral watchdogs are meeting with police to ask for more time to decide whether to launch possible criminal investigations into Conservative campaign spending in the general election. Following a Channel 4 investigation by Michael Crick earlier this year, the party has admitted that it failed to declare £38,000 of general election expenses. While they blame this on an 'administrative error', Grant Shapps appeared on Daily Politics to be quizzed by Andrew Neil on the topic. As co-chairman of the party at the time of the election campaign, surely Shapps would have some invaluable insight to offer? Alas not.

This Sunday marks the debut of Robert Peston's new ITV politics show. Peston on Sunday is set out to rival the BBC's politics shows -- such as the Andrew Marr Show, Daily Politics and Newsnight -- as the channel try to win back ground with its politics coverage. However, before Peston's former BBC colleagues break a sweat over their new rival's efforts, they can breathe a collective sigh of relief that the former BBC economics editor harbours no plans to mimic their greatest stars. In fact, if anything Peston plans to do his best to be nothing like them. In an interview with the Radio Times, the ITV political editor has launched a thinly-veiled attack on presenters who grill their interviewees on air.

Tomorrow is D-day for the London mayoral hopefuls. After months of mud-slinging between Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan's teams over the Labour candidate's links to extremists, Goldsmith's campaign has been branded 'racist' by certain Labour politicians. However despite these allegations, the Tory candidate has also been the provider of some of the biggest laughs of the campaign. Although it is rarely on purpose, Goldsmith's many awkward interviews and photo opps have offered much light relief as the campaign has progressed.

Throughout his London mayoral bid, Sadiq Khan has been at pains to distance himself from Jeremy Corbyn. Although Khan was one of the 35 MPs to help get Corbyn onto the ballot paper, he has since gone on to declare that if elected mayor, he will not be 'Corbyn's representative in London'. His comments have led his mayoral rival George Galloway to accuse Khan of 'stabbing Jeremy Corbyn in the back'. Happily, Corbyn's team still seem happy to support Khan's mayoral bid despite. With less than a week to polling day, Khan's official campaign Twitter account has shared a photo of their bustling phone bank in action: https://twitter.com/TeamKhan2016/status/725409506591670274 While the photos show Labour's Stephen Pound helping out, it's another volunteer that caught Mr S's eye.

Last night lobby hacks gathered with their favourite SpAds in tow for the Westminster correspondents' dinner. This year's guest of honour was George Osborne, who proceeded to win over the crowd with a jibe-filled speech. Osborne -- who has previously accused the BBC of harbouring 'imperial ambitions' -- did manage to find time to include a serious message alongside his many parliamentary put-downs. He urged Auntie to work alongside local news rather than against. However, it was his jibes against both his colleagues and himself that received the biggest laughs from the well-hydrated audience. Referring to his esteemed guests, Osborne said that never had there been so many big egos in one room since John Bercow dined out alone.

This morning Rupa Huq managed to anger listeners when she used a slot on the Today programme to compare Naz Shah's anti-semitic social media posts to tweeting a photo of Boris Johnson on a zip-wire. With both the presenter and audience left bewildered by her disastrous defence of Shah's posts, it appears that Huq has now had second thoughts. Opting to give an interview to the Russia Today show Sam Delaney’s News Thing -- rather than return to the BBC -- Huq claims she was simply unprepared for the interview.

Ken Livingstone has been the talk of the Commons today after he took to the airwaves to defend Naz Shah over her anti-Semitic posts. Since then he has been suspended after several Labour MPs urged their leader to take action. So, what's Diane Abbott been doing to help the cause? While the MP for Hackney North stayed quiet on the row this morning, she has busied herself by deleting past supportive tweets about Red Ken from the internet. Abbott appears to not want members of the public to know that she was once on friendly terms with Livingstone.

As the Labour party continues to implode over the party's handling of Naz Shah's anti-Semitic social media posts, a number of MPs have turned on Ken Livingstone in light of his comments today on anti-Semitism. However, John Mann has gone one step futher. The Labour MP confronted Livingstone over his claim that Hitler supported Zionism, just before Livingstone appeared on the Daily Politics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JByaUjb5UCc 'You're a Nazi apologist, rewriting history, rewriting history, rewriting history. Go back and check what Hitler did, go back and check. There's a book called Mein Kampf, you've obviously never heard of it.