Steerpike

Since Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader, the party have had a fair few run-ins with dictators of the past. After John McDonnell quoted Chairman Mao during the budget, Corbyn then cited Enver Hoxha at the Labour Christmas party -- while his director of comms Seumas Milne has questioned just how many deaths Stalin actually brought about. Happily some prominent Labour members are happy to talk about the shortcomings of such dictators.

Although Jeremy Corbyn has only been Labour leader since September, there has been much talk from various fractions of the party about who might succeed him. While many Blairites hope someone like Dan Jarvis or Chuka Umunna will be next, Ken Livingstone has now offered his prediction. In an interview with Sam Delaney -- on Russia Today -- the former Mayor of London says that if Corbyn were killed tomorrow, it would be John McDonnell who would become Labour leader: 'If Jeremy was pushed under a bus being driven by Boris Johnson, it would all rally behind John McDonnell. Because John, like Jeremy, like me, he’s been in this game for 45 years.

As the oldest living peer in the Lords at the grand age of 100, Baron Hutchinson of Lullington has a name that commands respect. While the QC stood as the Labour candidate in the constituency of Westminster Abbey in 1945 during which he canvassed 10 Downing Street, Jeremy Hutchinson is known for his illustrious career as a criminal barrister during which he defended the likes of Lady Chatterley and Christine Keeler. However, reminiscing about his life at the Oldie of the Year lunch where he was awarded the top gong, Hutchinson suggested that he may not be as honest and noble as people like to think.

Today is deadline day for all self-assessment tax returns, with those who fail to submit their return in line for a late-fee penalty. Happily John McDonnell looks set to escape this fate -- he tweeted a picture of his tax return this morning. What's more, the shadow chancellor of the exchequer is challenging George Osborne to do the same: https://twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/693749243673219072 Given that MPs were on a salary of £67,060 for the tax year ending April 2015, the £61,575 declared may be a reduced figure in light of pension contributions. However, what's more curious is that McDonnell hasn't actually published his final calculation.

Last year Alex Salmond told Anna Soubry to 'behave yourself, woman' after the pair clashed in the chamber. While it was Salmond who found himself in the firing line on that occasion for his choice of words, Soubry is now back in the spotlight over her Commons etiquette. John Bercow took the small business minister to task on Friday during a debate about job losses in Sheffield where Labour MPs accused her of lacking compassion. Soubry repeatedly heckled Gordon Marsden as he spoke, leading him to ask: 'will the minister stop chuntering from a sedentary position?' The Speaker then launched into a rant -- urging Soubry to show 'a basic dignity': 'Order! Minister, you have had your say, and you will have further says.

Mr S notices that the above video is circulating a lot on social media at the moment. An unfortunate choice of words, from a pro-immigration Chancellor. Perhaps George Osborne was paying homage to Rowan Atkinson's Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch. Or perhaps the Chancellor needs to get a little better at not walking into such traps if he hopes to succeed David Cameron.

David Cameron has today come under fire after he used the phrase 'a bunch of migrants' to describe the refugees Jeremy Corbyn met on a recent trip to Calais. Various politicians and columnists have since claimed Cameron's words were 'divisive' and 'dehumanising'. Alex Salmond has gone one step further and accused him of making the controversial comment on purpose as part of a 'dead cat strategy' to distract from the government's ongoing Google tax row. However, Anna Soubry has leapt to Cameron's defence claiming the phrasing was a slip in the heat of the moment -- adding that anybody who says that it was scripted is 'being silly and playing cheap politics'.