Steerpike

Ahead of the Labour leadership results, Lucy Powell engaged in some gentle bitching online about Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of social interaction with her. Ed Miliband’s former deputy campaign chief told Miliband’s former political secretary Anna Yearley that she had never, ever met the man of the moment. https://twitter.com/LucyMPowell/status/633748657712398336 This led Ukip's Douglas Carswell to offer to make an introduction. Happily this gesture won't be needed as the times are a'changin. Seemingly willing to overlook this slight, the newly-elected Corbyn has appointed Powell as Labour's shadow education secretary. However, given that blunder-ridden Powell was behind some of Labour's worst election gaffes, she may not be the asset Corbyn requires at this testing time: 1.

With Jeremy Corbyn appointed as the new leader of the Labour party, few could be more pleased by the news than the left-wing messiah's personal cheerleader Owen Jones. In fact the Guardian columnist was one of the first to celebrate the Labour MP's victory yesterday, praising Corbyn during a string of media appearances. He then moved on to offer some advice to the New Labour wing of the divided party over what they should do to support Corbyn's election campaign; urging them to 'turn away from the negativity of your media champions' and 'come up with a vision' as 'that's how you win'. Alas these comments did not go down well with Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell — who had urged people to vote for Anyone But Corbyn.

With Jeremy Corbyn announced as the new leader of the Labour party, shadow health minister Jamie Reed immediately resigned from the shadow cabinet. However, it seems the party aren't too down hearted by the news. In fact Labour heavyweight John Prescott doesn't even know who the Labour MP for Copeland is. https://twitter.com/jreedmp/status/642649854624309248 Speaking on BBC News — seemingly unaware he was live — Prescott admitted he did not know who the former shadow health minister was. When asked by Jane Hill, what he made of Jamie Reed already standing down, Prescott replied that he didn't know who he was: 'Who is Jamie Reed? Is he in our party?' Watch @johnprescott: Who’s Jamie Reed? Is he in our party? pic.twitter.

With charter renewal looming, the BBC is under increasing scrutiny from the government to justify its licence fee. So it's fair to say Thursday night's Newsnight Yemen special did little to endear the corporation to some members of the Tory camp. The programme -- led by the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse -- looked into Yemen's 'forgotten war'; highlighting the Saudi-led coalition's bombing campaign over Yemen to drive Houthi rebels from the city. It reported how the airstrikes -- which have hit some civilian targets -- are supported by Britain as the country sells arms to Saudi Arabia. Alas, this focus has not gone down well with Daniel Kawczynski, the Tory MP who is a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

An excerpt from Anthony Seldon's David Cameron biography claimed that George Osborne finds his Tory leadership rival Boris Johnson 'plain annoying'. Happily the pair put any differences aside today as the Chancellor of the Exchequer paid a visit to Johnson's constituency. The happy duo visited the Battle of Britain Bunker in Uxbridge to see how a £1m investment will help to restore the historic site. This bunker, if you remember, was the one Osborne joking referred to in the Budget when he said 'I want to thank the member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip for bringing to my attention the dilapidated state of his campaign bunker'. The Mayor invited Osborne to check out the state of that campaign bunker, and the pair had great fun pushing flags across a map together.

Harriet Harman ended her final appearance at PMQs as the interim Labour leader with a parting shot in the direction of Jeremy Corbyn, who is the odds-on favourite to be the party's next leader. ‘It was quite surprising to discover I’m not possibly old enough or posh enough to be the frontrunner of this leadership election,' Harman told Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics. It's true Corbyn is one year older than Harman, at 66, but is he really more posh than the St Paul's Girls' School alumnus? The die-hard socialist certainly has the most privileged upbringing of any of the Labour leadership candidates. Growing up in a seven-bedroom manor house in Shropshire, he is the only candidate who attended private school, studying at the independent Castle House Preparatory School.

Although Conservative politicians insist they are not worried by the threat of a Jeremy Corbyn led opposition, an incident that occurred on Tuesday night appears to suggest otherwise. Channel 4's Michael Crick discovered a Conservative press officer sat in the audience at Corbyn's political rally in Nuneaton. When Crick confronted the staffer -- known as Mike Watkinson -- with his camera crew behind him, Watkinson came across all camera shy and immediately fled the scene: https://twitter.com/MichaelLCrick/status/641294675001901057 A chase scene followed as Crick threw questions in Watkinson's direction, asking him why he was attending the event on behalf of the Tories: 'Were you sent here by the Conservative party? Have you come to gather intelligence?

Given that Corbynmania has so far led users on Mumsnet to lust over Jeremy Corbyn's 'world weary sea dog' looks, as well as inspiring a host of politicians to grow their facial hair, it was only a matter of time until the LGBT community also got in on the action. Mr S has come across a new Corbyn fan base which goes by the name of 'Lezzers4Jezzer'. The group of ladies, who are backing Corbyn in part because he supports gay rights, have even been promoting the Twitter account at Jeremy Corbyn events: https://twitter.com/Lezzers4Jezzer/status/640462819289337856 However, Corbyn beware.