Steerpike

Happy six months anniversary to Kemi Badenoch. Elected leader at the start of November, she today has to watch her party shed councillors at a rate of knots. Coming off the back of the 'Boris bounce' in 2021, it was always going to be a hard night for her – but even this will be a tough result for her supporters. Inevitably, Nigel Farage was on hand to stick the knife into his Tory rival. At the Runcorn count, he was asked by Sky's Jon Craig what was his message to Badenoch. He replied: Kemi Badenoch – please stay. I mean please don’t resign, we want you to stay on as leader, I’ll put some money in if you like to keep you there.

Dear oh dear. Rachel Reeves has found herself in yet another spot of bother, as it transpires that the Chancellor is under investigation for a late declaration of theatre tickets. The Labour politician is being probed by Westminster's standards watchdog for belatedly declaring two sets of gifted tickets from the National Theatre after the freebies from last year were only registered last month. How very interesting… Reeves was given free tickets to a December showing of Ballet Shoes last year, worth £276, as well as freebies worth £266 to Nye – about the founder of the NHS – in March 2024. Yet despite MP guidance stating that politicians must declare any hospitality within 28 days of receiving it, Reeves took much longer to record her freebies.

Is the era of political satire over? The Kingston Riverside TownSq venue seems to think so. It transpires that the Surrey events space has cancelled an exhibition of political cartoonists' work called Licence to Offend in case, er, anyone was offended. You couldn't make it up… The Kingston TownSq venue has cancelled an exhibition of political cartoonists' work called Licence to Offend in case, er, anyone was offended. The showing featured work from celebrated newspaper cartoonists including the Spectator's JG Fox, Morten Morland, also formerly of the Spectator, the Mail's Mac and Pugh, and the Guardian's Martin Rowson.

Ding ding ding! The gloves are coming off, as Scottish Labour backbencher Brian Leishman today took aim at Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband in the Commons over Grangemouth. First bashing both the SNP and previous Tory governments, Leishman turned the guns on his own government minister. Today marks the day that all oil refining in Scotland has come to an end, after the company that runs the refinery, Petroineos, notified staff that operations had ceased and the first group of redundant workers will be leaving the plant, with 200 to lose their jobs by the end of June. Hitting out at Labour pre-election promises on the future of Scotland's oil plant, Leishman raged: Mr Speaker, today is the end of over a century of refining at Grangemouth.

To the Commons, where Reform MP Lee Anderson has taken a pop at Labour over Britain's grooming gang scandal. First blasting Home Office minister Jess Phillips for not backing a full national inquiry, Anderson went on to question whether she was 'part of the cover up'. Then the Ashfield MP took to Twitter to slam the lefty lot for their 'weak' handling of the matter. 'Labour MPs shouted "shame" at me today when I asked this question,' he wrote scathingly. 'Sorry, minister, but the shame is with you.' Shots fired! This afternoon Anderson described how 'thousands of young, white British working class girls have been raped, tortured and abused by Pakistani grooming gangs'.

After the 4 July wipeout last year, Ben Houchen became the most senior Conservative left in public office across the UK. So it is intriguing then to hear the Tees Valley mayor make a series of remarks that are not entirely helpful to party leader, Kemi Badenoch. First, there were his comments last month to PoliticsHome in which Houchen warned that: We do not live in a world of academia and think tanks. That’s not what modern politics is about. It’s a street fight. You’ve got to get out there. You’ve got to dig your nails in. You’ve got to dig your heels, and you’ve got to make progress one inch at a time. We’re not doing enough to earn the respect from others, journalists, political parties or the public, because we’re not doing that. Whomever could he mean?

The generational smoking ban is (slowly) making its way through parliament, as part of Labour's plan to ban nicotine purchases for anyone born after 1 January 2009. The plans – first announced by Rishi Sunak – are being eagerly pushed through by Wes Streeting, despite Mr S pointing out a potential breach of the Windsor Framework with regards to tobacco sales in Northern Ireland. Some parliamentarians, though, do not feel the current ban goes far enough. So now Lord Bethell – best remembered as Matt Hancock's chief lockdown lieutenant – has now tabled a little-noticed amendment in the Upper House. It inserts a new clause to the text, advocating 'complete prohibition of tobacco products from 2040.' How liberal!