Steerpike

After the Jeremy Corbyn-backed 'grassroots network' Momentum was launched, several Labour politicians voiced fears that the campaign group could be used to oust moderate Labour MPs in favour of Corbyn champions. The campaign group has since insisted that although it grew out of the Corbyn campaign, it is independent to the party’s leadership. Now things have been made official with the Labour leader's election campaign group renamed Momentum on Companies House.

Today Theresa May has hit out at the lack of black and Asian officers in the police forces, arguing that the current diminutive figures are 'simply not good enough'. She said that the current forces must increase ethnic diversity in order to represent their communities, claiming that there are no black officers in Cheshire, Durham, Dyfed-Powys and North Yorkshire. Strong words from the Home Secretary, which left Mr S wondering just how diverse May's own personal work force is. Surely with May -- an apparent champion for ethnic diversity in the workplace -- branding police forces 'too white', she herself has a high proportion of staff from ethnic minorities?

Oh dear. Labour under Jeremy Corbyn is about to get a whole lot stranger. The Labour leader has appointed none other than Guardian columnist Seumas Milne as his 'executive director of strategy and communications'. Milne starts the job next week and joins on leave from the paper. https://twitter.com/SeumasMilne/status/656540739753615360 The controversial appointment may well do Corbyn some good, in the sense that when compared to the left-wing columnist, Corbyn begins to look like a moderate. While Corbyn has apologised for the Iraq war, Milne has gone further and actually praised the other side.

The launch party for Call Me Dave proved to be an eventful affair as it was revealed that Lord Ashcroft was unable to attend after falling critically ill around the time of the book's launch. As guests munched on cocktail sausages and sipped champagne, his co-author Isabel Oakeshott took to the stage to give a speech. To kick things off, Oakeshott recalled David Cameron's advise to her when she first planned to help Ashcroft write the biography. Oakeshott, who was the Sunday Times political editor at the time, says he warned her against joining the project: 'We had a conversation about my plans to help Michael with his book, I recently looked at the transcript of our conversation and was struck by his dark warnings about me getting involved.

Nicola Sturgeon and the Daily Mail hosted a drinks reception for journalists last night. The unholy alliance included speeches from the First Minister and Scottish Daily Mail political editor Alan Roden. Roden recounted a fashion show he had covered at the Scottish parliament which had involved Sturgeon as one of the models, and two Mail correspondents covering it, while Sturgeon teased the journalist for asking so many questions about her shoes that she had begun to wonder whether he was less interested in writing about them and more interested in buying them. She then handed Roden a sewing kit so he could fix a pair of split trousers. ‘Can you do it for me?’ he asked, jokingly, as Sturgeon threw the pack to him.

This year's SNP conference has proved to be a somewhat tame affair with Nicola Sturgeon playing down talk of a second independence referendum.

Since Jeremy Corbyn was elected as Labour's new leader, few of his colleagues have been more supportive than Diane Abbott. As well as defending John McDonnell on the Today show this week over his fiscal charter U-turn, the shadow secretary for international development -- who reportedly once enjoyed a romance with Corbyn -- took it upon herself to defend Corbyn's honour at a PLP meeting last month when Jess Phillips criticised him over the lack of women in his shadow cabinet. With Phillips responding by telling Abbott to f--- off, it's safe to say that Abbott's new role as Corbyn's champion has not gone down well with some Labour MPs.

Earlier this year Sandi Toksvig stepped down from her role on Radio 4's The News Quiz to launch a career in politics as part of the newly-formed Women's Equality Party. Speaking about her decision to leave the BBC for politics, the presenter-turned-politician said that she had had enough of making jokes about politicians and instead wanted to participate in politics, with the aim to field party candidates in the 2020 election: 'I have made jokes over and over again about politics and, do you know, this election I’ve had enough, and I have decided that instead of making jokes about it, I need to participate. So I am involved in the founding of a new political party. It’s called the Women’s Equality party.