Steerpike

Well, well, well. Picking a fight with Elon Musk is hardly the wisest decision Sir Keir Starmer's Labour lot have made so far, especially given the new job the Twitter CEO has been awarded by Donald Trump. With Musk set to become co-leader of the president-elect's Department of Government Efficiency, the UK Prime Minister might want to start figuring out how to repair relations with the US tech billionaire – and now even some on his own side are urging Starmer to make amends… Speaking on Times Radio's How to win an election podcast today, Peter Mandelson has today urged the PM to 'engage' with Musk – 'rapidly, directly, personally'.

Dear oh dear. Rachel Reeves has ended up in something of a pickle over her employment history, with the Chancellor under fire over whether she has been straight with the public about her economist background. Certainly after that Budget, Mr S is hardly surprised eyebrows are being raised… Pressure has been piling on Reeves for weeks, with questions arising around exactly how long she worked at various institutions, exactly what she worked as and whether she has been playing fast and loose with the truth of the matter. As the curious case of the Labour MP’s CV rumbles on, Steerpike has pulled together a list of exactly which of her claims have been challenged when.

While farmers gather in Westminster today to protest Labour's Budget, it appears that north of the border Scottish Labour also have doubts about aspects of Rachel Reeves's fiscal statement. Party leader Anas Sarwar has now vowed he will bring back the universal winter fuel payment for pensioners in a pushback against a cut brought about by, er, his own party in government. How very interesting… Speaking to the Daily Record, Sarwar today insisted: 'A Scottish Labour government will reinstate the winter fuel payment for pensioners in Scotland.

To New Zealand, where parliamentary proceedings have become rather, er, heated during discussions on the Treaty Principles Bill. During a debate about the relationship between Māori and the crown tabled by the libertarian Act party – in which the minority coalition partner is seeking to remove principles from the treaty of Waitangi that protect Māori rights – parliament was suspended after Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke led a haka in opposition to the bill. It's certainly one way to protest… Here's a better angle that shows the @Maori_Party performing the haka right up in David Seymour's face.He looks shit scared. https://t.co/VM0Qx76P34 pic.twitter.

First they came for the Guardian, and then they came for the Clifton Suspension Bridge. In a move that will surely come as a blow to tech billionaire Elon Musk's global social media platform, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and Museum has announced that it too will boycott the online messaging site over a 'rise in appropriate content'. Announcing the move on, er, Twitter, the organisation lamented: X (formerly known as Twitter) has been a wonderful place to engage with our audience over the past 15 years. But the changes made to the platform in recent times have caused us to reconsider our use of it. With the rise in inappropriate content and decrease in meaningful engagement with our followers, we have chosen to no longer post to this account. Golly.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby this week announced he will resign from the top job after the pressure piled on from Church of England bishops. The move follows the publication of the Makin Review’s report on the Church’s handling of ‘serial child abuser’ John Smyth – which suggested Welby did not deal with complaints well enough at the time. But the Archbishop's resignation isn't quite enough for everyone. Now politicians and pundits alike are calling for Welby to lose his seat in the House of Lords. Richard Tice has blasted the Archbishop over the matter, with the Reform MP slamming Welby's position on GB News. 'I think his position is untenable,' Tice remarked. 'I suspect people have left for less.