Steerpike

Much has been made of Liz Truss's book since its publication a fortnight ago. Jeering critics were quick to mock but Mr S was among the first to note that Amazon actually sold out of copies within 72 hours, such was the demand from punters. And today's Sunday Times confirms that there is a still keen public interest in what the former premier has to say. For Truss is now number three on the newspaper's highly-prized bestseller list for general hardbacks, taking the bronze medal behind Salman Rushdie's harrowing tale of his 2022 assault and, er, RuPaul's autobiography. The Sunday Times boasts that its list is regarded as the 'most accurate and comprehensive estimation of book sales in the country'.

So. Farewell then Dan Poulter. The Central Suffolk MP has today switched from the Conservatives to join the Starmer army, firing off a double-barrelled blast at his former party's handling of the NHS. The Tories, Poulter says, are now little more than a 'nationalist party' who have abandoned 'compassion' as part of an increasingly 'rightward drift.' Ouch. One place where there is certainly little compassion for Poulter today is in the Tory MPs' WhatsApp chat where his onetime colleagues are reacting with a mixture of mockery and fury. 'Didn't he step down in 2019?' asked Alex Stafford, labelling Poulter 'A nobody trying to be a somebody.' 'I didn't even know he was an MP!' added Sara Britcliffe while Chris Clarkson went for brevity and labelled Poulter 'An arse.

If the Scottish Greens are good at anything, it's making every issue about themselves. While the First Minister of Scotland faces two votes of no confidence next week — one in his own leadership and another in the SNP government — his party's former coalition partners continue to vent their anger at the breakdown of the Bute House Agreement on the airwaves. As though a scorned lover, Patrick Harvie's barmy army has used most of the last 36 hours to release embittered statements about their abrupt exit from government.

Oh dear. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is no stranger to poor poll outcomes – but a new survey may cut a little closer to the bone. Over 500 GB News loyalists were quizzed on their political attitudes in the lead up to the next general election and the results are now in. Amongst the channel’s devotees, the most popular party of the moment — with a rather comfortable lead – is, um, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot. How times change… In a weird twist of fate, Starmer Chameleon's party outflanked the Tories by eleven points after the ‘don’t knows’ were excluded. Almost four in ten viewers backed the reds, while Sunak’s boys in blue garnered support from less than a third of viewers.

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill might have got through parliament, but are his own ministers convinced it will work? Among the sceptics appears to be Lord Cameron, who seemed a little apprehensive this morning when grilled on the government’s immigration plan. It’s hardly the best look when your own Foreign Secretary appears unconvinced… Cameron was asked by interviewer Anushka Asthana on ITV’s Peston show whether he would have pursued this same policy if he still was in the top job. A rather reluctant Cameron replied: ‘Well, we had a totally different situation where you could return people directly to France. I’d love that situation to be the case again.’ Hardly a full-throated defence. The newly-created peer continued: That’s the most sensible thing.

Following last night’s mammoth parliamentary ping pong session, a funny thing happened early this morning. As various members of HM Press Gallery began to stir themselves today, the social media feeds of various Labour candidates began to be bombarded with graphic after graphic of the English flag, emblazoned with a message wishing one and all a happy St George’s day. Clearly, the free thinking men and women of the Starmer army had all got the message from on high. And then the great Keirleader himself published a rather snazzy video, waxing lyrical — in true Shakespearean style — about what England means to him. Eat your heart out Prince Hal. But — and Mr S hates to be a cynic about such things — how genuine is all this flag-waving?

It's hard these days being a teller of truths. So many of the leading lights in British broadcasting have found in recent years that they're unable to do so in the less-than-lucrative halls of the BBC. Among those who have joined the exodus from the Corporation in recent years was Jon Sopel, who left in early 2022 to take up a role at Global with Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall. There the trio fearlessly dissect issues on which they all agree, on the wildly successful News Agents podcast. Yet in his haste to stick it to Sunak on the Rwanda Bill, it seems that Sopel has blundered quite spectacularly.

Has Nicola Sturgeon discovered a sudden enthusiasm for free speech? The former SNP leader has today reviewed Salman Rushdie’s latest book Knife for the New Statesman. Steerpike has read it so you don’t have to. Cliche abounds: ‘Rushdie pours himself, heart and soul, onto the page.’ The former FM also writes that: It is clear that [Rushdie] sees the response by some to the fatwa not just as a betrayal of himself, but also of the principle of free speech, which he defends with every word he writes. Rushdie argues that the abandonment by progressive forces of the right of individual free speech in favour of the protection of the sensibilities of vulnerable groups has allowed its weaponisation by the far right – it has become ‘a kind of freedom for bigotry’.

Might this be the worst week of 2024 for the Nats so far? Hapless Humza Yousaf demonstrated extraordinary indecision over the Cass review, Patrick Harvie’s barmy army helped ditch a Scottish government green pledge and, to top it all off, Nicola Sturgeon’s husband has been charged with embezzlement. You couldn’t make it up. The long-running police probe into the SNP’s finances reared its head again yesterday, when the party’s former chief executive was rearrested and charged. And, not long after the announcement went out, it emerged that Sturgeon’s husband had hung up his yellow coat and resigned his membership of the Scottish National party. An eventful few hours, to say the least. So what now for the SNP?