Steerpike

It's a day ending in 'y', which means another Labour scandal. Today marks the return of Lord Alli, the media luvvy with more money than sense. Alli, famed for perfecting TV 'presented by morons for morons', hit the headlines last month for the 'passes for glasses' row. Now it seems he has also been making recommendations for posts and public appointments which are due to open up over the course of this parliament. Talk about the grift that keeps on giving... According to Bloomberg News, Alli was making recommendations while he was soliciting donations for the Labour party. The project, which he has apparently been worked on since early 2024, was unbelievably named, er, 'Operation Integrity'.

More bad news for the BBC. Following the fall-out from the Corporation's catastrophic handling of the Huw Edwards affair, a long-running controversy threatens to re-ignite once more. Steerpike understands that next week a major report is set to be published on the Beeb's coverage of the conflict in Gaza, with a 100-page publication by a team of lawyers prepared to drop on Monday morning. Talk about a way to start the week off right... It is the first of two reports planned for successive weeks. The one released on Monday will use artificial intelligence to analyse the Corporation's dispatches on the conflict, which has seen the broadcaster repeatedly accused of being biased against Israel.

Another day, another drama. This time Ed Miliband is in the firing line after his opposite number took aim at him in parliament on Thursday. Shadow net zero secretary Claire Coutinho pulled no punches as she attacked Labour's Energy Secretary over his government's controversial pensioner palaver, Sir Keir Starmer's much-lauded GB Energy proposal and exactly how much money Labour policies will save the public. Addressing Miliband in the Commons, Coutinho poured scorn over his party's claims that GB Energy would save voters from paying an extra £300 a year on their energy bills.

Back to Whitehall, where the row over civil service appointments continues to gather pace. It transpires that the Conservatives have called for a watchdog inquiry into recent perks awarded to Labour donors – after one was offered a civil service job and another received a pass to No. 10. It certainly doesn't seem like this cronyism row is going anywhere soon for Sir Keir... Now shadow Commons leader Chris Philp has informed MPs that he is requesting the civil service commissioner and the adviser on ministerial interests to examine the rather curious cases of Sir Ian Corfield and Lord Alli. Philp slammed Sir Keir Starmer's Labour lot for 'improper appointments', fuming: 'A "government of service"... They mean just service to their cronies and their donors.

To the Lords, where this afternoon an urgent question was granted on the subject of hereditary peers. It follows today's news that Sir Keir Starmer's Labour government will remove the remaining 92 seats in the second chamber reserved for the hereditary position in 18 months, meaning these peers will be unable to both sit and vote in the House. But not everyone, it transpires, is particularly thrilled by the prospect... This afternoon, Lord Strathclyde grilled the Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon, on why the government had been courteous enough keep peers informed of its reform timeline before the latest development made its way to the media.

All is not well in Holyrood. The SNP announced its programme for government on Wednesday – but it hasn't left many impressed. And now it transpires that the governing party is set to face further problems in passing its budget, as it continues to fail to work with its political opponents. Not like the Nats to rub people up the wrong way, eh? Once in a co-operation agreement with the SNP, it seems the Scottish Greens are still rather upset with the nationalists. Patrick Harvie's barmy army has thrown its toys out the pram after Swinney's speech revealed that policies the parties had formerly worked on together were to be delayed. One decision blasted by the pro-indy eco-zealots is the removal of the pledge to deliver universal free school meals to all primary students.

Political artwork has rather dominated the headlines of late. After Sir Keir’s peculiar opposition to the ‘unsettling’ painting of his predecessor Margaret Thatcher, Mr S has been interested in learning more about what artwork is deemed acceptable to the Labour lot. Via a Freedom of Information request, Steerpike can now reveal which Parliamentary Art Collection works adorn the walls of Britain's top politicians. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Starmer is surrounded by the portraits of his prime ministerial predecessors – including Winston Churchill, Pitt the Younger, Robert Peel and Benjamin Disraeli. Curiously, no former female PMs make the cut – with the Iron Lady already having been moved from the No. 10 study to Downing Street’s first-floor meeting room.

The SNP's 90th party conference has finally wrapped up in Scotland, after the Nats spent a long weekend discussing their flailing party's fortunes. Support for the party has been on the decline since the pandemic, with its latest leader John Swinney presiding over a rather disastrous general election result that saw his party left with just nine seats. And now, in a bid to stop the 'fragmentation' of the nationalist movement, some in his group have even suggested breaking bread with their rivals... Pete Wishart, the SNP's longest-serving MP and former Runrig band member, made the rather curious suggestion at the weekend that his group should work with former first minister Alex Salmond's Alba party – despite it saying 'really awful' things.

To Downing Street, where a painting of a former prime minister has been causing quite a stir lately. Sir Keir Starmer found himself at loggerheads with a number of Conservative politicians last week when it transpired the Labour PM had removed a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from the former No. 10 study – after he'd agreed the Gordon Brown-commissioned painting was 'a bit unsettling'. While Starmer was slammed for his 'petty approach' by Tory politicians, it now turns out that the portrait has found a new home – in a first floor visitor meeting room. Talk about a downgrade... The revelation – which emerged during an interview with Starmer's biographer Tom Baldwin at Glasgow's Aye Write book festival – has continued to attract criticism from Sir Keir's rivals, however.