Steerpike

The circumstances of David Lammy’s Chagos deal get murkier and murkier. This week, the incumbent Mauritian government went to the polls – and got roundly thrashed. Pravind Jugnauth’s MSM party won just two of the 62 seats in parliament, with the Labour party taking the other 60. Now, five days after losing office, the Mauritian press is reporting allegations that Jugnauth is banned from leaving the country. It is the latest extraordinary claim in an alleged wire-tapping scandal that could derail the UK-Mauritian agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands. It follows the revelations of Sherry Singh, the former CEO of Mauritius Telecom, which highlighted Jugnauth’s alleged involvement in the acquisition and installation of illegal listening devices.

Good old Remainiacs: where would be without them? It is eight years now since the UK voted to quit the EU and nearly five since we actually left – but a small band of Hiroo Onoda-impressionists are still refusing to accept those basic facts. Chief among them is 'Led by Donkeys', the self-identifying 'satirists' who claim to bravely be speaking truth to power. Now it hasn't escaped Steerpike's attention that the group is extremely selective in who it judges to be the powerful. The group tends to pick Tories as its targets, such as ex-MP Liz Truss, rather than, er, the actual Labour government who run this country today. Still, at least they could get the 'truth' part right eh? Sadly not, it seems. For the latest Led by Donkeys campaign takes aim at the monarchy.

Oh dear. It is more than a week since Steerpike broke the news of Downing Street's Diwali debacle. Many Hindu attendees at the No. 10 reception were horrified to be served alcohol and meat at the event, which aimed to improve the links between Labour and the British Indian community. When Mr S first Downing Street on this story there was no apology, despite multiple requests for comment. But now the government line belatedly has changed. Eight days after the story broke, No. 10 has now issued a grovelling statement admitting its error: A mistake was made in the organisation of the event. We understand the strength of feeling on this issue and so would apologise to the community and assure them it will not happen again.

The absurdity of the Guardian never fails to amuse. Now the lefty newspaper has decided it is too good for one of the world's most used social media platforms and today announced it will no longer use Twitter – by posting on, er, Twitter. You couldn't make it up… Sharing a link to an article explaining 'why the Guardian is no longer posting on X' on the site itself, the Grauniad editorial states rather pompously that: We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere. This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including the far-right conspiracy theories and racism.

Back to Scotland, where parliamentarians are under scrutiny over questionable expenses claims – this time on heating their second homes. It transpires that between 2023-24 Scottish politicians claimed a whopping £36,000 in energy bills for their rented homes in Edinburgh, with the Nats and Labour lot making up £26,000 of the total cost. Alright for some! John Swinney's separatists were the biggest beneficiaries, as pointed out by the Scottish Daily Express, with almost half of the Holyrood group expensing energy costs. The Nats claimed over £25,000 from the public purse, while over £1,000 of taxpayer funds are covering Labour MSP Colin Smyth's utility bill.

The Terminally Ill Adults has at last been published and MPs can finally pour over the detail. But one supporter of assisted dying who might want to brush up on her answers is Christine Jardine, the Honourable Member for Edinburgh West. Jardine – who is co-sponsoring Kim Leadbeater's bill in the Commons – appeared on Newsnight last night to try to make the case for the legislation. Yet the Lib Dem MP came unstuck when host Victoria Derbyshire asked about coercion of patients. How, Derbyshire asked, would anyone know if someone had been coerced? Jardine babbled about 'medical knowledge' before her host – correctly – pointed out that 'doctors are not trained in coercive control.