Steerpike

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'.

Oh dear. It appears that it is time for David Lammy to brush up on his history knowledge. The pro-EU Labour MP appeared on the Daily Politics today to discuss the EU referendum with Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe. During the debate the pair discussed immigration, during which Lammy made the claim that one million Indians had died in the Second World War fighting for the 'European Project'. Happily, Woolfe was on hand to query the claim -- and mention Hitler. DL: One million Indians died fighting for us. They fought for the European project and they're not now going to vote on the basis of whether Granny can come over for a wedding SW: Did you just say they fought for the European project?

Last year Lord Ashcroft appeared to exact revenge on his old foe David Cameron, with a section in his unauthorised biography of the Prime Minister which suggested that Cameron had once enjoyed intimate relations with a dead pig. While Cameron soon became the subject of much ridicule, No.10 refused to comment on the claims. However, it appears that Cameron's wife Samantha felt more comfortable discussing the claims. The comedian Jason Manford claims that he discussed piggate with SamCam on the set of The Great Sport Relief Bake-Off. Filming began a week after the Daily Mail published the claims as part of their serialisation of Call Me Dave: 'It was the week after - what shall we call it? #PigGate. It was after that had happened.