Steerpike

With rumours flying around the Commons that if elected, Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn would appoint a Shadow Peace Secretary in the place of a Shadow Defence Secretary, Mr S is also looking forward to hearing Corbyn's plans to reform judicial punishment. However, Mr S is happy to place a bet on his approach not being as radical as a crime policy Tony Blair heaped praise on while in power. In today's Times, Blair's former chief speechwriter Philip Collins reveals what happened when he put forward a paper which suggested Blair take a less liberal approach when it came to dealing with crime: 'The Blair government was, to my mind, daftly authoritarian on crime and punishment so I submitted a paper in which I suggested we ignore all the namby-pamby liberal nonsense.

Nick Robinson recently revealed Jeremy Vine's off-air reaction to the exit poll on election night. ‘So Scotland will go independent and the BBC will be shut down,' the Radio 2 presenter quipped on hearing the poll predict a Tory majority. While Vine's predictions are yet to come good in full, he did correctly foresee that the Tories would crack down on the BBC, with reports emerging yesterday that the government could decide to close Radio 1 or Radio 2. Despite John Whittingdale stating that there are no current plans to close the station down, Vine took to Twitter to voice his opposition: https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/status/621997521452277760 However, Vine may have to rejig that figure following today's radio show.

When James Naughtie steps down from the Today programme this autumn, his Jeremy Hunt gaffe will stand out as one of his more memorable moments. The Scottish presenter accidentally introduced him by the wrong surname in 2010: 'First up after the news, we're going to be talking to Jeremy C--t.' The health secretary continues to cause problems for the staff of Radio 4. This morning, Naughtie's colleague John Humphrys also got Hunt's name wrong. Reading the news bulletin at 7am, Humphrys said the 'health secretary James Hunt' is setting out plans for NHS consultants to work at weekends. While the slip wasn't an expletive this time around, given that the BBC are currently at war with the Tories, it's probably the wrong time for presenters to get Cabinet ministers' names wrong.

When Martin Freeman endorsed Labour ahead of the election, his credentials were called into question after Steerpike reported that Freeman was a former supporter of Arthur Scargill's far-left Socialist party. So Mr S was curious to hear Burnham last night reveal his own admiration for Scargill - who formed the Socialist party because he was so angry that Labour had ‘abandoned any pretence of being a socialist party'. As the Tories raised a glass to Lynton Crosby at the election strategist's bash in Kensington, the Labour leadership hopeful was across town setting out his brand of self-titled 'aspirational socialism' over at Soho House, the £1400 private members' club.

Last week the SNP MP Phil Boswell made a 'depravity' gaffe in his maiden speech. Happily, his colleague - and Parliament's youngest MP - Mhairi Black had more luck today when she gave her first speech in the House of Commons. The 20-year-old SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South began by praising her predecessor Douglas Alexander, Labour's election strategist. 'Firstly in my maiden speech I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Douglas Alexander, he served the constituency for many years.

Yesterday Nick Robinson confirmed reports that he is leaving his role as the BBC's political editor to join the Today programme. Now the race is on to find a worthy successor. Helpfully Ladbrokes have released a rather intriguing list of favourites for the job. Robinson's deputy political editor James Landale is the favourite for the role at 5/2. David Cameron's revelation to Landale that he wouldn't 'serve a third term' if re-elected became one of the big stories of the elections. While this ought to win him favour upstairs, Landale has two problems: (a) he is not a woman (b) he is an Old Etonian. It's thought that -- in the interests of equality and diversity -- Tony Hall is keen that a woman is given the plum job.

Although George Osborne was on the front page of every paper this morning following his Budget announcement, it was Iain Duncan Smith who came the closest to breaking the internet yesterday. The Work and Pensions Secretary became the subject of ridicule after he was filmed in the Commons vigorously fist-pumping following Osborne's National Living Wage announcement. So when IDS appeared on LBC this afternoon to speak to Iain Dale, the host couldn't help but ask a question George Osborne had avoided in an interview this morning: Was Viagra to blame for Iain Duncan Smith's excitable appearance in the chamber? The Conservative politician replied that not only had he not taken it, he has never taken it: 'I didn’t no.