Steerpike

This week Nigel Farage revealed that he had been left 'worried' about Boris Johnson's ability to campaign for Brexit after his 'slightly shambolic' North London press conference. While the Ukip leader insists he has since come round to Johnson's involvement, Mr S wonders what he will make of the Mayor of London's turn on The Andrew Marr show. Johnson appeared on the BBC show to put forward the case for leaving the EU. However, what followed was a tense exchange between Johnson and Marr as each tried to set the interview agenda. With Boris keen to speak about the single market and sovereignty, he clashed with Marr when the presenter attempted to change topic: AM: Let's move on to tipper trucks just for a second.

To the Conrad hotel in St James where Nigel Farage went head to head with former Labour spinner John McTernan in a Ladbrokes' Brexit debate. Although the EU was the number one topic on the agenda, the panel chair Isabel Oakeshott -- who is the co-author of Call Me Dave -- managed to get pig on the menu as she recalled an email McTernan had sent about a journalist -- during his time advising Julia Gillard in Australia: 'This was an order as to how this journalist was to be treated: dead -- not ever, no transcripts, no returned calls, dead, forever -- that's an order.' She said that the email summed up Number 10's attitude to her since the release of Call Me Dave -- which included a passage suggesting the Prime Minister had once had intimate relations with a dead pig.

As Zac Goldsmith fights to be the next Mayor of London against Labour's Sadiq Khan, he is striving to appeal to all Londoners. Alas, somewhere in the process of doing this, he appears to have got a bit confused. In an interview with Pink News -- the news website aimed at the LGBT community, Goldsmith said that he wanted to be a mayor for everyone, employing the term 'pansexual' to try and make his point: Pink News: Would you like to be the mayor for everyone? ZG: I would use the term pansexual here, if my understanding is correct. https://vine.co/v/iXa9lEB5Jrx While Mr S suspects that Goldsmith means that he wants to appeal to all Londoners, given that the term pansexual means not being limited by gender in sexual choice, he may wish to rephrase in future...

When Richard Burgon appeared on Channel 4 News last year to defend John McDonnell over his fiscal charter U-turn, the shadow City Minister struggled to make a good impression. On top of not knowing what the deficit was expected to be for 2015, he appeared to concede that he was yet to meet with anyone in the City. So, it was a marked improvement on today's Daily Politics when Burgon actually managed to name the current deficit amount. He then went on to say that his party was committed to getting the deficit down. So, how would they go about doing this? RB: Through investment for long term growth AN: But doesn't that cost you more money?

This week Jeremy Corbyn provided the Tories with much comedy fodder after he announced that Syriza's Yanis Varoufakis would be advising Labour. It was then revealed that Varoufakis's old chum Paul Mason -- who is stepping down from his role as Channel 4's economics editor -- will also be helping the party -- contributing a lecture to Labour’s New Economics series. Osborne couldn't resist ridiculing John McDonnell over the appointments during Treasury questions.

Punch and Judy politics is clearly the mood of the moment in the House of Commons. Last week, David Cameron offered Corbyn some motherly advice on his dress sense, while a Tory MP heckled Jeremy Corbyn by yelling 'who are you?' during an EU debate. This morning, it was Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell's turn to be on the receiving end of some Chamber abuse. After trying to get the Government to withdraw its proposals over regulatory regimes for senior bankers, he sat back down but didn't quite get the answer he expected. Before Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands stepped up to reply, a Tory MP on the other side yelled out: 'Shut up your face'. Just what has got into MPs at Westminster over the last fortnight? The standard of insult seems to be going downhill quite rapidly.

Although the Tories currently find their party divided over Europe, they can at least take heart that the opposition face greater internal conflict. In fact, rather than attack Matthew Hancock in the Commons today over the Cabinet's Brexit issues, Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson opted to make a joke about his own party's misery: 'Mr Speaker sadly I am not in the strongest of positions to lecture the poor minister on handling splits in his own party.' Watson did at least manage to find time to take a small jab at the Conservatives.