Steerpike

Almost every MP in Westminster will claim that tackling the cost-of-living crisis is their number one priority. It is the cause politicians are most desperate to show constituents they are banging the drum for in Parliament. Nowhere was this more evident on the left than in the Labour Growth Group, led by the MP Chris Curtis. The 100-strong caucus was formed rapidly in the wake of Sir Keir Starmer’s election victory, with backbenchers keen to prove they were pushing an agenda of growing the economy to bring down prices. The organisation sought genuinely to champion business and hard work as routes to prosperity, rather than yet more government handouts. But yesterday it was announced that the Labour Growth Group is itself shrinking, with its leader Curtis stepping down.

Another day, another BBC apology. This time, the corporation has said sorry to Nigel Farage after presenter Matt Chorley misquoted the Reform leader on Newsnight. In an interview with Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday, the former Times Radio presenter claimed Farage had called for ‘white cold rage’ in response to the tragic death of Henry Nowak. He hadn’t. The term the Reform leader actually used, in a broadcast clip, was ‘pure cold rage’. Furious friends of Farage warned that the misquote changed the meaning of what he said, making it sound racialised. Owning up to the error, which was made three times on camera, Chorley posted on X: I owe Nigel Farage an apology. This was a mistake on my part, a misremembering of the quote.

A co-sponsor of Kim Leadbeater’s failed assisted suicide Bill has privately admitted to constituents that MPs trying to ram through similar legislation are likely to fail. Peter Bedford was a leading cheerleader for euthanasia in the last parliamentary session. But the Tory MP now seems to have softened his stance on getting assisted suicide over the line quite so quickly. In an email to a constituent, Bedford’s office said the politician ‘does not think it will succeed if brought back as a Private Members’ Bill again during this parliamentary session and does not agree with this being debated again in the near future.

Happy Mandelson files' release day, one and all. After months of speculation, the Cabinet Office has today finally released all the texts between ministers and Britain's (former) man in Washington. Steerpike has been pouring over the various WhatsApps and brings to you his favourite selection of the texts that will doubtless soon be adorning Tory attack ads... McFadden's benefits admission Pat McFadden's texts during the great Labour welfare revolt last spring are among the most revealing. As well as admitting to Mandelson that the backlash over plans to cut disability benefits had shot Keir Starmer's authority, he also gave the peer a revealing insight into the minds of colleagues.

The tragic murder of Henry Nowak has sparked fury across Britain. The 18-year-old was disgracefully arrested and handcuffed by police as he lay dying, after being accused by his killer, Vickrum Digwa, of being a racist. Reform and the Tories have been damning about this most extreme example of DEI gone nuts. But among all political figures, Zia Yusuf has demonstrated arguably the most palpable rage. The 'Shadow Home Secretary' for Reform, with Nigel Farage's blessing, has called for the Kirpan to be banned from being carried in public. While he carried a small Kirpan under his clothes a second larger knife was used by Digwa in Southampton to kill young Nowak.

After being warned by Sir Tony Blair in a 5,600-word essay not to drag the country back to the 1970s, Andy Burnham has, of course, this evening vowed to do exactly that. In a bid to burnish his anti-Blairite credentials and show Labour’s lefties that he is truly one of them, the Greater Manchester Mayor published a 1,500-word riposte to Sir Tony in The Times. To spare you the pain of reading it: he calls for more public control of, and state intervention in, everything. And he rails against ‘the direction set by Thatcher’. Burnham insists that the political turmoil plaguing Britain, and the collapse in living standards after the 2008 crash, are down to deregulation. His comprehensive evidence that big government works?

https://twitter.com/wesstreeting/status/2059632154888298798 Wes Streeting is ready to listen to farmers. The ex-Health Secretary told Britain so in a video posted to social media. Isn’t that nice! Fresh from botching his bid to seize the Labour leadership at speed, Streeting is now preparing for the long game – a contest that could be drawn out over months. So, while the media’s eyes are on his rival Andy Burnham in Makerfield, the ex-Health Secretary is embarking on a lessons-learning road trip, visiting ‘people and places that Labour have lost since the general election to talk about what’s gone wrong’. First stop: farmers. Streeting says they are ‘absolutely huge contributors’ and ‘custodians of our land’. Riveting stuff.

As if Scotland hasn’t suffered enough at the hands of the SNP, the luxury campervan party and its Green accomplices have now formally voted to back a second independence referendum. In Holyrood this evening, MSPs voted 72-55 to approve plans for another ballot, almost 12 years after the last one failed. Of course, no such referendum could take place without Westminster’s say-so, and Sir Keir Starmer is in no mood to indulge John Swinney’s fantasies by granting a Section 30 order. Responding to the vote, a Downing Street spokesperson said: The UK Government does not support independence or another referendum. Ahead of 2014 there was agreement across all parties, across civic society in Scotland and across the Scottish and U.K. parliaments that there should be a referendum.