Steerpike

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.

Oh dear. Is there trouble in paradise? For a few weeks now, Nigel Farage has been basking in a transatlantic glow thanks to the support of his buddies Stateside. The Reform party leader’s meeting with Elon Musk last month led to concern in both Labour and the Conservative party that the world’s richest man will soon give a sizeable donation to his party. This combined with the president-elect’s longstanding friendship with Farage has led to concern amongst Conservatives that 2025 could be Farage's year. However, in a sign that things may not be quite so simple for the Reform party leader, Musk appears to have gone cold on his new friend.

Parliament returns on Monday – and not a moment too soon. For one of the barmy Starmer army has found themselves splashed all over the newspapers this weekend, with the Tories now scenting blood. The Financial Times reports that City Minister Tulip Siddiq was given a two-bedroom flat near King’s Cross, free of charge in 2004. It was donated by developer Abdul Motalif who is connected to Bangladesh's Awami League party, led by Siddiq’s aunt Sheikh Hasina. Who she you ask? Why, none other than the authoritarian premier of Bangladesh who was forced to flee from power last year, having ruled since 2009. Among Siddiq's responsibilities is – get this – the task of tackling financial crime and corruption.

The advent of the new year brings with it a fresh sting: the introduction of 20 per cent VAT on private school fees. Labour repeatedly argued that the move is necessary to improve standards in the state sector. But this week the Telegraph revealed that the Treasury has made no plans to ringfence the funds – meaning they can theoretically be spent on any number of government initiatives. The paper quoted a Treasury source who said: The money is not directly hypothecated in the same way other taxes are. The physical pounds and pence are not directly ringfenced [for state schools]... It’s not physically funnelled from ‘A’ to ‘B’ but in value terms the principal is still there.

Another one bites the dust. Now it transpires that the former Conservative MP for Dudley North, Marco Longhi, has defected to Nigel Farage's Reform UK party ahead of its regional conference in Leicester this evening. How very interesting. The ex-Tory announced his move this afternoon, lauding the Farage-founded group – which he dubbed 'the People's Army' – and gushing that he is 'now truly at home with Reform UK'. Reflecting on his time with the Tory lot, Longhi admitted: 'My loyalty to party leaders started to overshadow my loyalty to you, the people.

Another day, another Labour drama. Now it's Independent MP Rosie Duffield making waves after giving a rather revealing interview to TalkTV. The animosity between the former Labour politician and the current party leader has spanned years, with public disagreements over women's rights, policy decisions and sleaze scandals. Are there any circumstances in which the left-leaning politician would ever consider rejoining her old party? Well, maybe. Speaking on TalkTV today, Duffield was quizzed by Talk's Russell Quirk on her relationship with Labour. RQ: What would you do, Rosie, though? Will you wait for Keir Starmer to be replaced, which I think is probably inevitable before the next general election and then find a way back?

You might have forgotten about Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch's Twixmas Twitter spat, but the Reform UK leader certainly hasn't. Mr S would remind readers that, during the Christmas period, a fight on the right broke out between the two party readers after Reform announced it had officially overtaken the Conservatives' membership total – which led to a rather unedifying back and forth. Talk about a lack of festive spirit, eh? On Christmas, the Farage-led party projected a ‘countdown clock’ onto CCHQ to mark the moment when Reform got its 131,670th member – thus overtaking the Tories. While the up and coming party took to social media to celebrate the achievement, their political rivals were not quite as chipper.