Steerpike

There were few silver linings in today's Budget announcement – but one measure the Labour lot are rather keen to harp on about is the cut to draught duty by 1.7 per cent. What exactly does this work out at? Er, a rather measly one penny off the cost of a pint. How very generous... While the announcement received one the most enthusiastic cheers in the chamber, it seems that industry experts are not quite as thrilled about the move. Rachel Reeves was rather fast to glaze over the fact that the Labour government will raise alcohol duty rates on products like spirits and wines in line with the retail price index from February next year.

To the subject of office decor, with Rachel Reeves now in the spotlight for matters other than her Budget. It now transpires that the Chancellor has made some rather controversial alterations to her workspace’s wall art — in replacing a portrait of Margaret Thatcher’s chancellor with a founder of the, er, British Communist party. Good heavens. The swapping out of Nigel Lawson’s portrait for one of Ellen Wilkinson was revealed after the Treasury published a picture of Reeves in her No. 11 study ahead of Budget day. While it had been reported that the Chancellor had removed Lord Lawson’s portrait over the summer, there had been no confirmation over what would be taking its place.

The prisons are bursting but it seems there is room for at least one more convict. Tommy Robinson has today been jailed for 18 months after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee. Robinson admitted ten breaches of a High Court order made in 2021 during a hearing in Woolwich Crown Court, with lawyers for the Solicitor General accusing him of 'undermining' the rule of law. Barristers for Robinson said it was his 'principles that have brought him before the court' – which is, er, one way of looking at it. Today's hearing was the culmination of a five-year series of events which began in October 2018. A video went viral that month showing how Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian in West Yorkshire, had been attacked by another teenager at school.

They've handed over the Chagos Islands and are up for talking reparations. So what else of Britain's heritage is Labour prepared to surrender? An obvious case, perhaps, is the Elgin Marbles, whose fate briefly became the subject of a major diplomatic incident involving Rishi Sunak and his Greek counterpart late last year. At PMQs, the-then Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer quipped: 'Never mind the British Museum, it's the Prime Minister who has obviously lost his marbles.' But now he is in office, is this yet another issue on which Starmer is prepared to cede ground? Word reaches Mr S from Athens where the best-selling Greek newspaper seems very excited about the Marbles' fate.

The Tory leadership contest looks set to end next week without a single 'yellow card' being awarded. But the two remaining candidates seem to be making a late bid for a reprimand from Bob Blackman. Both Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch have this morning traded verbal blows with each other, four days before polls close on Thursday. Talk about a Halloween massacre... In an interview with today's Sunday Telegraph, Kemi Badenoch was quoted as saying that 'Integrity matters… with me you’d have a leader where there’s no scandal. I was never sacked for anything, I didn’t have to resign in disgrace or, you know, because there was a whiff of impropriety.

So. Farewell then the Women's Equality party. Founded to much fanfare by Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer in 2015, the self-proclaimed 'intersectional feminist organisation' has decided to push for its own abolition at a special conference next month. It comes after a decade of stunning electoral success that saw them win a single seat in Hampshire in this year's local elections. At this general, they then fielded four candidates across the country who won a combined total of 1,275 votes. How will Westminster cope with their absence? In a lengthy self-justificatory piece for the Observer today, the co-founders cite financial challenges and a changed political and media context as reasons for why the party is no longer the most effective way to campaign for women’s rights.

When it rains for Sir Keir, it pours. It now transpires that the Labour leader has achieved a worse rating as Prime Minister than all of his recent predecessors – bar Liz Truss, who didn't manage to last quite as long in the top job. It seems for Keir Starmer, things can only get, er, worse... New polling by YouGov collected between 19-21 October from over 1,600 adults shows that little more than a quarter of Brits believe the current PM is doing well in post, while almost two-thirds of the population think Starmer is performing badly.

To Westminster, where outside the Ministry of Justice more than 300 protestors have held a silent vigil this afternoon. Activists from a myriad of campaign groups – including Just Stop Oil, Palestine Action and Black Lives Matter – gathered in front of the department building for 90 minutes today to call for the release of political prisoners and the resignation of crossbench peer Lord Walney, an independent adviser on political disruption. The action was organised by 'Defend Our Juries' which slams 'sham trials' that, it claims, jail protestors for 'peaceful acts of protest' like road blocking, traffic disruption and throwing soup at 100-year-old paintings.