Steerpike

What goes around, comes around. In producing their latest attack ad, it seems Kemi Badenoch's Conservative crowd has taken inspiration from their very own political opponents. Back in 2023, Sir Keir Starmer's lefty lot conjured up a campaign poster in the run-up to that year's local elections which showed then-Tory PM Rishi Sunak grinning cheerfully next to the words: 'Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn't.' Ouch. The image prompted widespread outrage, with former Tory MP Tobias Ellwood calling the attack 'appalling' while former Labour home secretary David Blunkett slammed it as 'deeply offensive'.

It's the big question all Westminster is asking right now. Who has got a golden ticket to Donald Trump's inauguration? The quadrennial bash is happening in just twelve days' time, with the great and the good all fighting to get a seat. Nigel Farage will be there, keen to show he's still besties with '47' after his falling out with Musk. But while the Reform leader missed out on bagging the plum post of becoming 'our man in Washington', at least he gets a seat when Trump gets sworn in. For Mr S has confirmed that Lord Mandelson will not be representing the UK at the ceremony, with the role instead performed by outgoing ambassador Karen Pierce. Now, Pierce is a well-respected member of the DC diplomatic corps.

There's no rest for the wicked. Twitter chief Elon Musk has barely come up for air over the last week with his continued attacks on the Labour Prime Minister over Britain's grooming gang scandal. As calls for a national inquiry intensify, the tech billionaire has taken to his social media site yet again to take a pop at Sir Keir Starmer over the Labour party's stance on the issue. In a scathing tweet, Musk wrote this morning: Now why would Keir Starmtrooper order his own party to block such an inquiry? Because he is hiding terrible things. That is why. Crikey. The bold claim follows days of accusations aimed at Sir Keir by the Tesla boss – who insisted that, on the issue of grooming gangs, 'Starmer is complicit in the crimes' before calling for the UK PM to be incarcerated.

All is not well in the Royal Society of Literature. It now transpires that the bosses of the prestigious 200-year-old organisation have resigned after a rather tumultuous year – and ahead of an AGM that could have seen a vote of confidence called by outraged former chairs, presidents and directors. The reason for the widespread unhappiness within the group? Frustration over diversity hires and growing concerns about censorship. Not even our literary societies are safe, eh? Chairman Daljit Nagra and director Molly Rosenberg have resigned in the face of growing criticism of their tenure at the RSL. The organisation's leadership has had a litany of complaints levelled at it, including claims it has failed to defend writers dealing with physical or online attacks, like Salman Rushdie.

It's all change at Meta HQ. As Mr S reported last week, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg – who has served as one of Mark Zuckerberg's senior execs at the company since 2018 – is now on his way out. Taking, ironically, to rival platform Twitter, Clegg wrote that it was now 'the right time' to move on from his role at the social media giant, adding his experience 'truly has been an adventure of a lifetime'. How sweet. Clegg's replacement will be his current deputy, Joel Kaplan – who was also George W. Bush's White House deputy chief of staff. But that's not the only reshuffle Meta has made. Now it transpires that the chief exec of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Dana White, has joined the social media titan's board of directors.

The focus on Britain's grooming gang scandal is very much here to stay. Calls for the government to hold a national inquiry into the matter are intensifying and the Labour government is coming under increasing pressure from opposition politicians in the wake of Elon Musk's rather heated social media posts on the issue. Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones was sent out by Labour on the morning round today, with the MP was quizzed on multiple programmes about the need for another probe. On Sky News, host Wilfred Frost asked Davies-Jones about the Conservative party's attempts to force a vote on whether there should be a full national inquiry into the sex abuse scandal – and whether she would back it.