Steerpike

Uh oh. There's more trouble in nationalist paradise. A series of interviews with past and present Scottish government ministers have been published on the Institute for Government website as part of a devolved government series – and they make for some rather revelatory reading… As if the Nats hadn't aired their dirty laundry enough, the IfG interviewees – including former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and disgraced ex-health minister Michael Matheson – pulled no punches when conversations turned to their colleagues. One person in particular came out of it all worse for wear – with hapless Humza Yousaf on the receiving end of a rather lot of criticism.

Oh dear. In his never-ending desire to appear clever, it seems that Rory Stewart has slipped up again. You might have thought that after his poor predictions of a Kamala Harris landslide, the former Tory MP might be taking a break from super-forecasting and philosophising. But no, undaunted by past humiliations, 'Florence of Belgravia' seems unable to break his addiction to social media, weighing in on each and every matter on both sides of the pond. Today it's an interview which J.D.

When it rains for the Labour lot, it pours. This morning Rachel Reeves came under fire on Good Morning Britain as she appeared on the airwaves for a media round. She may have made her big growth speech yesterday, but the Chancellor still can't escape questions about her rather controversial curriculum vitae. Quizzing Reeves on whether she has been straight with the public about her economist background, Richard Madeley wasn't pulling any punches.

Well, well, well. In a new report released by the Higher Education Policy Institute, it has emerged that a number of pro-Gaza university campus protests relied on non-students to help bolster campaign numbers – after widespread demonstrations took place across top university campuses last year. Both the US and UK saw mass university protests – prompted partly by frustration that student tuition fees were 'funding genocide' – beginning after activists took to Columbia University in New York. As reported by the Times, the probe also found that Jewish students complained the camps encouraged antisemitic behaviour on campus, with slogans written in Arabic to hide their meaning, and claimed England's higher education watchdog 'missed an opportunity' to help universities.

Uh oh. Things aren’t looking good for the Tories – after a number of former Conservative donors paid five figures to attend a fundraiser for Reform UK. The luxurious do included Dom Pérignon champagne, bagpipers and even an opera singer. Talk about switching sides… It transpires that multiple Tory donors attended the £1 million-raising Reform UK fundraiser – at which party leader Nigel Farage asked guests to give him the 'ammunition' he needs to soar to electoral victory. Audience members included Bassim Haidar and Mohamed Amersi, who each paid £25,000 for a VIP ticket to the event to sit with Farage – while other attendees paid £10,000 for a seat the Oswald’s dinner.

Another day, another City Hall scandal. Mr S can today reveal that Labour's London mayor Sadiq Khan has splurged a whopping £2.1 million on a statues commission. So much for sensible public spending, eh? In a Freedom of Information response returned to Mr S, the Greater London Authority admitted that, so far, £2,138,888 had been funnelled towards the Mayor of London's 'Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm'. The initiative aims to 'lead a London-wide conversation on how to achieve greater diversity of representation across the public realm and heritage sites' and focus on 'increasing the presence and visibility of underrepresented groups'. Er, money well spent then?

It's a busy day for the Labour lot, what with Rachel Reeves's big growth speech this morning and Sir Keir Starmer's PMQs at noon. But as viewers tuned in to watch the back-and-forth play out between the Prime Minister and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, there was one rather notable absence on the Labour benches. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband was nowhere to be seen. In fact, PMQs isn't the only thing the Energy Secretary chose to skip today. Miliband decided not grace the Chancellor with his presence during her address this morning where she formally backed plans to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport – proposals that Ed had previously threatened to resign over under Gordon Brown.

To Scotland, where today the SNP government's embattled Health Secretary Neil Gray is in the firing line. The Scottish Tories have tabled an amendment – which will be voted on today – calling for the 'Limogate' minister to step down after Gray admitted to inadvertently misleading parliament over using taxpayer-funded cars to transport him to sports matches. Dear oh dear… Gray used chauffeur-driven cars to take him to nine football games between 2022 and 2024, which the Health Secretary claims he attended on ministerial business.