Steerpike

In Toryworld, big changes are afoot. Kemi Badenoch has started with the personnel: out goes Priti Patel, replaced as foreign secretary by Tom Tugendhat; Sir James Cleverly, off to run for London mayor; Stuart Andrew axed as shadow health secretary; and Sir Mel Stride gone, with Andrew Griffith installed in his place as shadow chancellor. And Mr S wonders whether the new faces in the shadow cabinet will bring some old enthusiasms with them… The announcement naming Griffith arrived with a series of endorsements from business, including M&S chairman Archie Norman and AJ Bell founder Andy Bell. But what the announcement rather skipped over were Griffith's own endorsements. Chief among them: scrapping inheritance tax.

It's been a tough old time for private schools. Amid endless self-aggrandising, Keir Starmer's ministers took great pleasure in whacking VAT on school fees, prompting the inevitable closure of some of Britain's finest institutions. But now it seems that one of Andy Burnham's new cabinet is doing her bit to help out. Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Energy Secretary, has enjoyed a series of glowing profiles amid chatter that she could be Labour's long-awaited first female leader. Yet Fahnbulleh has a problem: she sends her own kids to private schools. Cue horror from some on the Labour left... Appearing on the News Agents, Fahnbulleh was asked if her decision to pay for her children's education would be a problem for her political ambitions.

They’re always tough, the first weeks back at work after a holiday, but the Prime Minister really has been off the ball since returning to the job from wherever he went. First, there was that awkward defence he made of the Home Office booklet requesting asylum seekers not rape people. Very odd. Now, Mr S has noticed him saying more strange things. ‘I’ve deliberately gone out this first month just doing things, saying we’ll do it, and doing it. No reviews, no commissions, no consultations,’ Andy Burnham told Times columnist Patrick Maguire in a piece for yesterday's paper. No reviews? No consultations? Mr S hates to be a pedant, but that’s just wrong. You’ll remember that one of the first things our new PM did on entering No.

It is no secret that Labour MPs struggle to understand how wealth is created – hardly surprising when just one member of the Cabinet has a business background. But Jonathan Brash has now offered a particularly dazzling insight into the economic literacy of the governing party. In a post on X last night, which was hastily deleted this morning, the Hartlepool MP declared: Public sector workers use their income to pay FOR the private sector. The state is one of the biggest procurers of the private sector. It wouldn’t exist without taxpayers. People creating the divide between public and private genuinely don’t understand how an economy works. There we have it. In Brashonomics, the private sector owes its existence to a state funded by taxes levied on the private sector.

https://twitter.com/LBC/status/2090341312423731420 The new Home Office pamphlet telling illegal migrants not to rape Brits is ‘right’ and ‘important’, Lucy Powell told the country this morning. The Education Secretary appeared to have no qualms about the guidance, which has sparked fury across the country. According to Powell, the government must be ‘absolutely clear with people’ that cultural norms here may differ from those in their home countries – and it is only right that ministers explain the rule of law while migrants enjoy taxpayer-funded hospitality. The Education Secretary told LBC: ‘I think it's it's pretty straightforward that we should be explaining to people and being clear about the the expectations, the rule of law in this country.

https://twitter.com/novaramedia/status/2089804526500954586 Comrade Aaron Bastani looks to have narrowly avoided a one-way ticket to the gulag after apologising last night for comments he made on X about Jason Arday. In a video reminiscent of a hostage confession, or a Soviet show trial, the Novara Media co-founder admitted to the wrongthink sin of describing Arday, before his tragic death, as a ‘conman’. He also pleaded guilty to the thought crime of criticising a YouTube clip of Arday delivering a lecture at UCL. The grovelling followed days of Novara fans ripping Bastani to shreds for daring to challenge the approved left-wing narrative: that Arday was the entirely innocent victim of a fascist witch hunt for which journalists must pay a price.

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/2089684213607879074 Andy Burnham today insisted he does not feel a shred of embarrassment after exchanging messages with a fraudster posing as Donald Trump’s chief of staff. The Prime Minister claimed there was ‘nothing of consequence’ in his exchanges with the fake Susie Wiles and that he ‘handled it the right way’ by valiantly reporting the debacle. Downing Street yesterday refused to comment on what it called a ‘national security matter’. A spokesperson for Burnham declined to confirm when the messages were exchanged, how many there were or whether the conversation took place over WhatsApp or another platform.

Well, well, well. For all Labour’s high-minded talk of morality, one of its MPs has been suspended pending an investigation into whether he tried to dodge repaying a taxpayer-funded Covid loan. Bayo Alaba, the MP for Southend East and Rochford, refused to answer questions from The Times about why he appears to have attempted to wind up one of his businesses before settling a government loan issued during the pandemic. After the newspaper approached him for comment, Labour withdrew the whip. Oh dear… A party spokesman said: ‘Bayo Alaba MP has referred himself to the Labour Party so that these matters can be investigated in line with the party’s rules.

https://twitter.com/EssexPR/status/2087938634099945658 Oh dear. Just as the Tories were trying oh so hard to win back the right by presenting themselves as a serious party, Edwina Currie opened her mouth. The veteran Conservative was opining on the impending dumping of more than 1,000 illegal migrants in Piddington, Oxfordshire, when she dropped an absolute clanger. She told Times Radio: The obvious thing that 1,200 young men are going to need in the middle of a village like little Piddington is a brothel – I don’t think they’re going to provide that. The comments sparked fury on social media, with Zia Yusuf branding them particularly ‘sick’.

https://twitter.com/ZiaYusufUK/status/2087830304006287530 Vodafone executives who provide SIM cards to illegal migrants will be thrown in prison under a Reform government, Zia Yusuf warned today. The party’s home affairs spokesman has demanded that the telecoms giant immediately stop supplying SIMs to Care4Calais, one of the worst-offending NGOs when it comes to aiding Channel crossers. Vodafone has issued a gobsmacking 2,221 cards to the so-called ‘human rights’ organisation, which has sparked fury for seemingly helping to facilitate illegal entry into Britain.

A meagre 10 per cent of Unite members bothered to vote in the union’s election for general secretary. Arch-lefty Sharon Graham was today re-elected with just 68,694 votes, while her rival Simon Dubbins secured a measly 31,130. Of the 970,945 ballot papers distributed, only 100,089 were returned. Still, that didn’t spoil the party for Comrade Graham, who trumpeted: ‘It’s an honour to be re-elected by Unite members to serve as their general secretary. This decisive victory is a powerful mandate to continue change. The trust that members have placed in me will be fully repaid as we step up our focus on delivering for workers.’ A ‘powerful mandate’? Talk about working to rule… Unite voted in March to cut its bankrolling of Labour by 40 per cent – or £585,000.

Andy Burnham today insisted he wants to 'eradicate' illegal dinghy crossings – but admitted he probably won't be able to do so before 2029. The Prime Minister was forced to confront the illegal migration scandal blighting Britain after GB News pressed him on this week’s mega-dinghy arrival. On a visit to Ilkeston in Derbyshire during his ‘listening tour’ of the country, Burnham claimed that he ‘hears’ the public’s concerns about Channel crossings. Yet he argued that ‘it would be wrong for me to make a prediction’ about when the scandal will finally end and Britain’s borders will function again. The Prime Minister said: I just can only promise to people what I know I can do and what I know I can deliver.

Keir Starmer might be gone but Labour is still counting the cost of his legacy. Party membership figures published this week showed that the number of card-carrying activists plunged 20 per cent during the ex-PM's first year in office, falling from 333,235 at the end of 2024 to 264,754 twelve months' on. No wonder the Greens are now boasting about being on the cusp of overtaking Labour. Still, one man who is apparently happy to pay his dues is, er, John Bercow. Yes, that's right – the disgraced former Speaker of the House of Commons is now a Labour member. Bercow joined the party back in June 2021 but was suspended the following March, after a report by Parliament's Independent Expert Panel upheld 21 separate allegations of bullying and harassment.

Stop the presses! Labour has, at last, found something it thinks sixteen-year-olds should not be allowed to use. Not a ballot in national elections, obviously – but, er, sunbeds. For ministers are now proposing photographic ID checks before you tan. While Samantha Niblett may want a 'summer of sex', others within her party clearly want it to be one of (selective) scrutiny... Steerpike has done some digging and it seems that, at the same time as introducing votes at 16 and removing the need for photographic ID at polling stations, Labour thinks that more onerous restrictions are needed when you visit your local sunbed. For, according to a little-noticed press release, the government is now consulting on 'sunbed regulation'.

So. Farewell then Jason Arday. The 37-year-old lackademic has tonight resigned his post at Cambridge University – the latest chapter in a remarkable life that, according to talks he has given, has seen him overcome a raft of challenges. But it seems being at the centre of a self-induced media fire storm was just a challenge too far, amid a deluge of questions about Arday's past claims. His resignation comes after the university announced he was to face a new investigation into his qualifications and career. A classic of the 'you can't fire me, I quit' genre... Arday's statement is a 600-word classic of the 'whiny, self-pitying' genre. He bemoans how: The years since my appointment have also been marked by an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack.

https://twitter.com/RupertLowe10/status/2083801359913021951?s=20 Best of Frenemies? Following the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election, Rupert Lowe, Reform MP turned Restore Britain leader, has made a big, open and comprehensive offer to Nigel Farage. In Manchester, Restore Britain received 46, 289 votes and pushed the Conservatives into fifth. Now, Lowe has publicly called on Farage to put ‘personal differences’ aside and unite their efforts to deliver a ‘patriotic government’.