Steerpike

Well, well, well. The political peerages list is finally here and the nominations from Sir Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Sir Ed Davey have been formally approved by King Charles III.  The list includes some rather interesting names – including the Spectator’s Toby Young, Liz Truss’s former deputy prime minister Thérèse Coffey and despite her rather, er, eventful year, Starmer’s former chief of staff Sue Gray.  See the full list below… Nominations from the leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer: Professor Wendy Alexander FRSE – Vice Chair of the British Council, former Member of the Scottish Parliament for Paisley North and previously Labour Leader in the Scottish Parliament.

Parliament may be in recess, but Sir Keir Starmer's Labour government still can't catch a break. The Prime Minister is facing further allegations of cronyism after a pro-Labour lobbyist was appointed to a top government advisory job. Dear, oh dear… Iain Anderson, a prominent businessman who defected to Labour from the Tories in 2023, has now been hired to the Department for Business and Trade as a non-executive director. Yet Anderson will not be stepping down from his executive chairman role at Cicero, a lobbying firm whose roster includes Royal Mail, Barclays and Accenture – the latter being a management consultancy firm which holds multiple government contracts. How curious.

Is there room for more than one furry feline in Whitehall? Initially brought into quell the government’s mouse problem, the various departmental cats have over the years become a brand in themselves – with one of the longest serving being No. 10’s Larry the cat. Yet since Labour got into power, Larry has been the unfortunate subject of some rather negative briefings. The new Scottish Secretary Ian Murray is on the record as calling the Prime Minister’s chief-mouser ‘the most miserable animal you’ll ever meet in your life’, summing it up simply: ‘Larry the cat is a little sh*t.’ It's a view the Labour minister shares with former PM Boris Johnson, who is said to have blasted Larry as a ‘thug’.

Jetting off on one of his (many) trips abroad last month, Keir Starmer was snapped on his plane sipping from an intriguing choice of mug. The Labour leader seems to favour a specially produced cup emblazoned with the number '10' – just in case he, er, forgets that he is actually the Prime Minister, again. The item in question was specially produced by the No. 10 gift shop, though sadly purchases are only available to Downing Street staff. Spoilsports! Limited-edition £17 mugs are just one of the 19 items currently being sold at the power centre of British politics. The costliest items are the top-of-the-line hooded sweatshirts on offer for £29 while branded cufflinks go for £9-a-pop.

The talk in Westminster is how much Elon Musk is going to give to Reform. But might the Tories might be a better bet for the Tesla billionaire? On this morning's media round, Andrew Griffith – the Shadow Business Secretary – made his pitch to the X owner, praising him as an 'accomplished' businessman and insisting that his party is best placed to take the fight to Labour. Griffith told Kay Burley on Sky that the Tories were the 'only' force able to take on 'the woke mind virus', saying: What I would say to Elon is: he's been campaigning a lot about freedom of speech. He talks a lot about the "woke mind virus", this whole thing that he thinks is infecting the world. And I'd say, look, look at the Conservative party.

Nigel Farage's party has been having a rather good time of it lately, after winning its first five seats in the July election and continuing to gather support across the country. But north of the border, Reform has found itself in a spot of bother after its party organiser in Scotland was found to have links to terrorists. Good heavens… A probe by the Daily Record has revealed that Craig Campbell's late father was an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) commander who was jailed after the bombing of Catholic pubs in Glasgow. Campbell's cousin Jason was also handed a lengthy jail sentence after he was found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Celtic supporter and aspiring sportswriter Mark Scott.

Well, well, well. It has now emerged that the SNP government will ban WhatsApp on official devices in the wake of the Covid Inquiry. The announcement from the SNP's deputy first minister Kate Forbes came today after the publication of an external review into the use of mobile messaging apps on government devices. 'The use of mobile messaging apps increased during the pandemic as staff worked remotely in unprecedented and difficult circumstances,' Forbes remarked, adding: 'Having reflected on our working practices, we are now implementing changes to the use of mobile messaging apps.' How curious. A number of Scottish government figures endured rather embarrassing sessions at the Covid Inquiry after their pandemic messages were dredged up for all to see.

Another day, another drama. Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has finally confirmed that the WASPI women will not receive pension compensation. The decision comes after women born in the 1950s began campaigning to be reimbursed for a previous rise in the state pension age, with activists claiming millions had not been adequately informed of the changes. Kendall has today said that the 'great majority of women knew the state pension was increasing', adding that a pay out costing up to £10.5 billion would not be 'fair or proportionate' – although she did accept that there had been a delay in sending letters communicating the changes. But Kendall's firm stance on the matter now may come as a surprise to those who knew the Labour politician in 2019.

Well, well, well. It now transpires that hapless Humza Yousaf will step down as an MSP at the next Holyrood election, with the former first minister of Scotland making the announcement this morning. It comes after Yousaf spent a year in the top job before being ousted in April this year when he rather abruptly cut off his eco-activist coalition partners. Dear oh dear… Posting his letter to John Swinney on Twitter, Yousaf wrote that being Scotland's first minister had been 'the greatest honour' of his life, going on about his time in the Scottish government: In government, I was proud to have significantly increased our budget for active travel, laid the groundwork for taking Scotrail back into public ownership and overseen the completion of the Queensferry crossing.