Steerpike

After Hilary Benn gave a passionate speech in favour of airstrikes, many on the left praised him for his words even if they did not agree with the sentiment. Alas Alex Salmond took a different approach and instead claimed Benn had shamed his late father Tony Benn who would be 'birling in his grave' after his son's pro-war speech. While Salmond's comments were widely condemned by members of Labour -- including Tony Benn's own granddaughter Emily, the party may need to address a similar personal attack on Benn which is closer to home. Jeremy Corbyn's brother Piers has taken to Twitter to criticise Hilary, claiming that he is a 'disgrace' to his socialist father: https://twitter.

Although David Cameron recently made a promise to make broadband available to everyone in Britain, not everyone in his cabinet appears to be so on-message. Speaking at yesterday's UK Israel Tech Hub event at Wayra Telefonica Accelerator's HQ, Sajid Javid disclosed the preferred method of punishment that operates in his own household: 'I'll start by saying this, when I was a kid and my parents wanted to punish me if I'd been a naughty boy, they'd say "right that's it, you're not going to be allowed to play cricket anymore" and now that I've got kids of my own, my way of punishing them if they are naughty is to change the WiFi password.' As the Business Secretary sat down to hear about the apps of tomorrow at the event, he promised to give his own honest feedback.

Covering the upcoming Syria vote is proving to be a challenge for hacks at the Guardian. Steerpike understands that the paper is having a difficult time deciding its editorial line on the issue which is currently undermining Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. Meanwhile, the little fact that Corbyn's head of comms Seumas Milne -- the Guardian columnist and associate editor -- is on leave from the paper only complicates matters further. Now the New Statesman's George Eaton reports that the Guardian are even having issues when it comes to their insider briefings.

Jeremy Corbyn is not having a good day. A large number of Labour MPs are uniting against him over his stance on Syria, while the news that the Labour party has lifted its suspension of his aide Andrew Fisher has been met with hostility by Caroline Flint and Siobhain McDonagh. With the knives out for the Labour leader, happily Corbyn can at least rely on the support of one man at this testing time. Step forward David Icke. Yes, the purple-tracksuit-wearing-lizard-conspiracist has tweeted his support for Corbyn, sharing a charming clip art picture urging him to 'stand by your principles'. https://twitter.com/davidicke/status/670230963167739904 While Corbyn needs all the friends he can get right now, he may need to treat his new cheerleader with caution.

MPs in the Commons are currently debating whether or not to vote in favour of airstrikes in Syria, after the Prime Minister delivered a statement on the issue this morning. As members of the opposition -- including Dennis Skinner and Chris Leslie -- raise questions over the potential airstrikes, where are the self-titled 'real opposition'? Well, for all their talk, the SNP's foreign affairs spokesperson is nowhere to be seen during this Westminster debate. Instead Alex Salmond has decided it is the opportune time to take a trip up to Edinburgh to attend First Minister's Questions at Scottish Parliament.

With Diane Abbott recently given the nickname Madame Mao by her colleagues over her behaviour since Jeremy Corbyn was elected as Labour leader, Mr S had thought that Corbyn's team would be at pains to distance themselves from the Chinese Communist revolutionary. Yet think again, as not only did John McDonnell bring up Chairman Mao today during the today's Spending Review announcement, he also decided to quote the communist leader at length. McDonnell attempted to make a joke about Mao in response to Osborne's questionable business relationship with China -- the shadow chancellor said that he had brought Osborne a gift of Mao's Little Red Book: 'Let's quote from Mao -- rarely done in this chamber.

Today's Trident debate in the Commons made for a lively affair, as the SNP made their case for the government to veto plans to renew the nuclear deterrent. Not that they were keen on any other parties having their say during the event, with Labour's John Woodcock and Jamie Reed struggling to find an opportunity to have their voice heard. When Woodcock -- who is fiercely pro-Trident -- did get the chance to speak he didn't mince his words, calling the SNP 'robots': 'You see, I would have been happy to take every single one of you robots in getting your instruction, I would have been happy but the thing is Madame Deputy Speaker that the proposal of your motion refuse point blank to take me so I'm not taking any single one of you.' https://soundcloud.

Faced with the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn one day becoming Prime Minister, Lord Sugar said that if elected, we should all move to China. Strong words from the Apprentice star -- who quit the Labour Party after the election over its 'negative' stance on business, yet he doesn't seem all that happy with Britain under Tory rule either. Today Sugar told the Mayor of London that he needed a 'whack' after the millionaire businessman found himself stuck in traffic. 'I have been sitting in Lower Thames st for a bloody hour,' he moaned in a tweet directed at Boris Johnson. 'What a bloody joke, it's getting worse.' It's thought that the delay was in part caused by the East-West Cycle Superhighway. https://twitter.