Steerpike

Things became heated in the commons today after Barry Sheerman told Esther McVey to stop being a 'hard-hearted Hannah' during a Department for Work and Pensions questions. The incident occurred after Sheerman voiced his concerns over the department's handling of the government's welfare reforms. McVey has taken none too kindly to the term, which is a reference to an Ella Fitzgerald song. The Conservative MP says that it is 'not the first time that the opposition benches have been like this to me'. Sheerman meanwhile insists his innocence, claiming it was not a sexist comment.

‘What I'm seeing in this election is the influence of these big American advisers and it's becoming the most negative, personal and nasty campaign I've ever seen.’ So said Nigel Farage to LBC this morning, as he promised to ‘rise above’ personal attacks in the coming election slog. Stung by rumours about his declining health, fingers are being pointed about a certain antipodean master of the dark arts, but are Ukip really in any position to lecture on the Americanisation of our political process?

As Lord Ashcroft turned 69 this week, the international businessman celebrated with a polling event on his birthday to announce the impending Labour bloodbath north of the border: 'Good evening and welcome. If you have ever wondered what a pollster does to celebrate his birthday, now you know. Somebody kindly asked me this morning if this was the big “four-O”, and I was compelled to admit this estimate was outside the margin of error.' Curiously, Mr S hears that the only party leader to wish the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party a happy birthday was Ukip's Nigel Farage. With Ashcroft's polls currently putting Ukip slightly behind the Tories in South Thanet, perhaps Farage is hoping he can inspire a boost in fortune in his next poll.

This week Tony Blair donated £106,000 to the Labour Party, with £1,000 going to each Labour candidate fighting for a target seat. Ed Miliband has since faced flak for accepting the 'blood money' funds, due to unease over the source of the cash given Blair’s dealings with dictatorships such as Kazakhstan. Not that any of this is worrying Blair. Mr S hears that the former Labour leader has been busy sunning himself in Myanmar, where human rights are regarded as among the worst in the world. Blair, who has an estimated worth of nearly £100 million, was spied fine dining in the country's capital Naypyitaw. When a journalist inquired as to what he was doing there, they were told that he was in Burma for 'private meetings'.

Thanks to the internet, it has become increasingly difficult for politicians to hide any past indiscretions. However, this hasn't put some MPs off from trying. Mr S has noticed some edits have recently been made to Tory MP Craig Whittaker's Wikipedia profile. The page has had some interesting amendments, with two negative references to the MP for Calder Valley being deleted. First, an edit in December saw all reference taken out to an incident in 2011 where Whittaker was arrested for an alleged attack on his son outside a petrol station. A second change was then made which saw a line deleted regarding claims that he had misled his constituents over cuts to the NHS.

Angry Conservative Party officials have hit back at attacks from the left on the education of the Prime Minister's children. On Monday the PM's spokesman claimed: 'Like tens of thousands of other parents, the prime minister and Mrs Cameron expect to hear which secondary schools have offered a place to their daughter Nancy. If she gets more than one offer they will make a decision in due course.' It is thought Nancy Cameron will attend a central London comprehensive, which would make Cameron the first Tory PM to send his child to a state comp. This has not stopped education campaigners weighing in. Fiona Millar, who lest we forget is Alastair Campbell's partner, was quick off the mark: https://twitter.