Steerpike

All is not well in the Scottish Tory party. Now four of the six candidates have released a statement calling for the leadership race to be paused until they receive assurances on the contest's 'transparency and fairness'. The letter, signed by Murdo Fraser, Jamie Greene, Liam Kerr and Brian Whittle, is addressed to the party's management board and comes in light of 'disturbing claims' about outgoing leader Douglas Ross. Oh dear... The Telegraph reported this morning that according to senior sources in the party, Ross wanted to ditch the leadership role over a year ago and coronate the current frontrunner Russell Findlay. Ross – who at the time was both an MP and MSP – previously insisted that he wanted to step down as a Member of Parliament at the 2024 general election.

Will the last lobby hack please turn out the lights? After Torcuil Crichton and Paul Waugh made the jump from journalism into politics by being elected last month, now another scribe has formally joined the Starmer army. After much Westminster speculation about the slowness of SpAd appointments, today Guido Fawkes revealed an interesting new hire. It transpires that the political editor of the famously partial Mirror tabloid has jumped ship – and right into the Cabinet Office. John Stevens has opted to leave the world of lobby journalism for go and spin for top Keirleader Pat McFadden. During the Tory years, Stevens relished causing headaches for Tory spads with his scoops on ‘Partygate’ and the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Back to the curious case of Ian Corfield. Revelations emerged this morning that the civil service watchdog was not informed of the banker's donation history to Labour before it approved his selection to a top civil servant job in the Treasury. As Politico reported, the Civil Service Commission chief Kate Owen stated that government departments are responsible for vetting candidates, but the Treasury refused to say whether Corfield's donations – of over £20,000 in the past nine years – were indeed declared. And now it appears the Tories have started sniffing around the Labour donor's appointment.

Back to Scotland, where there appears to be trouble in Holyrood's progressive paradise. The Scottish government's Culture Secretary Angus Robertson has received strong backlash after appearing in a photo with Daniela Grudsky, the deputy ambassador of Israel to the UK. It transpires that the Scottish government minister met with Grudsky to discuss 'culture, renewable energy and engaging with the country's respective diasporas'. A Scottish government spokesperson added that the discussion 'emphasised the Scottish Government’s continued work with Police Scotland to protect Scotland’s faith communities and tackle all hate crimes, including antisemitism'. But Robertson's meeting has ruffled feathers – particularly with the SNP's former coalition partners.

Blue is the colour, winning is the game. The Premier League returns this week and it seems that one Tory leadership contender is taking notes. After the 1922 committee ruled that any candidate found engaging in 'blue on blue' will face the public shame of a 'yellow card', James Cleverly has now gone a step further. Well, as a former Home Secretary, it is only right that he taking a stern approach to laying down the law.... Steerpike understands that Cleverly has ordered his campaign team that there will be no 'yellow cards' for blue on blue, only straight reds. Any Tory attacks coming out of camp Cleverly will be rewarded instead with the perpetrator being booted straight off the team.

Ding, ding, ding! It's another round in the endless online wars involving the erratic owner of Twitter/X. Fresh from his spat with Keir Starmer, Elon Musk has now turned his guns on Humza Yousaf – the flailing former First Minister of Scotland. Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Thursday, Yousaf described Musk as 'one of the most dangerous men on the planet' because of his 'amplification' of disinformation. Musk then responded the following day, claiming on Friday that Yousaf, the Scottish-born son of first generation Pakistani immigrants, 'loathes white people'. 'He is super, super racist', he said in reply to a speech Yousaf made in 2020 about structural racism in Scotland. 'Scotland gave him everything and yet he loathes white people.

And there we have it: the first person to be charged with intending to stir up racial hatred online has now been jailed for 20 months. 28-year-old Jordan Parlour pleaded guilty to charges put to him at Leeds magistrates' court on Tuesday, confessing in court to having taken to Facebook during the recent unrest to rile up rioters. His own city Leeds saw approximately 400 people turn out last weekend and cause chaos on the streets – with a local hotel manager having to put his business into lockdown after rioters pelted it with stones and smashed windows. Good heavens... But while the court heard Parlour was at home at the time with a broken heel, he was still engaging with what was going on.