Steerpike

He's back and this time he's got a pledge card. Sir Keir is out this morning in Essex, outlining the bold, dynamic first steps he would take if he wins the next election. Among his exciting new pledges includes a forensic policy to 'deliver economic stability' and, er, 'cut NHS waiting times.' Truly, riveting stuff. Unfortunately, it's not the first time that Captain Charisma has relaunched his leadership since his election in April 2020 – as a cursory look below will show.... September 2020 – Sir Keir uses a ‘new leadership’ slogan to try and relaunch his party – replacing the ‘under new management’ phrase he had been using since July.

Who’s been educating the Education Secretary? If 'what is a woman?' was an exam question, Mr S is certain Gillian Keegan would’ve flunked the test — given her abysmal performance on the BBC’s Today programme this morning… The Education Secretary was on the airwaves today after she wrote for the Sun on the government’s plans to reform sex education in schools. Speaking to interviewer Emma Barnett, Keegan’s first slip-up came when the discussion turned to the issue of educating children about gender identity, one of the areas on which her education changes will focus.

The renegade royal never manages to stay out of the news for long. Now the spotlight is back on Prince Harry and his memoir Spare, nominated for a number of prizes at last night’s British Book Awards. But, unluckily for the precious Prince, his book was beaten to first place in every category it was in. Better luck next time... First, the ex-royal faced disappointment in the book of the year award, which saw a publication of puzzles — Murder by GT Karber — beat the Prince’s tell-all. Then Harry lost to Rory Stewart’s Politics on the Edge in the non-fiction narrative category.

Back to Scotland, where hapless Humza Yousaf is still managing to cause the SNP problems even after his resignation. It's been over a month since Yousaf's controversial Hate Crime Act came into force, and it still isn't going down particularly well with the people of Scotland — to put things mildly. It now transpires that almost half of all Scots would rather it be repealed, according to a new Savanta poll for the Scotsman. Talk about a flop… The rather revealing survey, which polled 1,080 Scots between May 3-8, found that 49 per cent of Scots thought the new law should be repealed. Only 36 per cent felt it should remain in place, while 15 per cent didn’t know one way or the other.

Another day, another development in the curious case of Angela Rayner’s tax affairs. It now transpires that the deputy Labour leader is set to face a police interview under caution in the next few weeks. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) will quiz Sir Keir Starmer's second-in-command over which of her two homes was her primary residence — and they have, it is understood, now contacted her to arrange the meeting. The Labour frontbencher has insisted she has done nothing wrong Rayner found herself in the spotlight after the publication of Lord Ashcroft’s Red Queen, when the unofficial biography of the deputy Labour leader unearthed some rather confusing information about her living situation.

Five days have passed since Keir Starmer's masterstroke of getting Natalie Elphicke to defect from the Tories and join the Labour party. Yet in Starmer's rush to secure a defective Tory, no-one in the Leader's Office (Loto) seems to have wondered whether the Labour party would actually welcome into its ranks a scandal-prone, hardline Eurosceptic with a history of rubbishing sexual assault victims. Surprise, surprise, they hadn't. Labour MP Jess Phillips, union boss Matt Wrack and, er, Lord Cameron are among those lining up to criticise Elphicke for her dodgy comments, anti-strike rhetoric and naked perfidy. Trebles all round!

Poor Rishi Sunak is not having a very good week. After a bruising set of local elections and two defections to Labour in a fortnight, the latest Times poll won’t do anything to settle the Prime Minister’s nerves as the general election looms. Labour now has a staggering 30 point lead over the Tories — the biggest since the Liz Truss era — according to the latest YouGov data. To add insult to injury, the poll also finds that most voters are unconvinced by Sunak’s claim that Britain is not heading for a Labour majority government. Bad luck, Rishi… Today’s poll is officially the worst set of results for the Prime Minister since he started in the top job.

Will the last Tory MP to leave please turn out the lights? Nadhim Zahawi today becomes the 67th Conservative to announce they are standing down at the next election. The former Chancellor – who has held nine different ministerial posts – announced the decision on Twitter/X this morning. 'My mistakes have been mine,' he wrote in a lengthy statement, declaring that: The time is right for a new, energetic Conservative to fight for the honour of representing Stratford-on-Avon and assuming the mantle of MP for Shakespeare. Parting is such sweet sorrow. I would like to thank all of my parliamentary staff and colleagues, civil service officials, special advisers, and everyone else who has ever given me advice, praise, or kept me in check with criticism.

The Green party has no problem getting attention these days – but it’s for all the wrong reasons. A second Green councillor is now being investigated by the party for using ‘inflammatory rhetoric’ about the Israel-Gaza conflict in the Middle East. When will they learn? Alexi Dimond was re-elected in last week’s local elections to his council seat in Sheffield. Though newly under investigation, the eco-activist has made no secret of his views over the last few months. Posting regularly on X about the conflict in the Middle East, Dimond has regularly placed blame at the feet of Western leaders for their role in the war — and has even drawn comparisons between a town hall flying an Israeli flag and, um, a South African flag being flown at the height of apartheid. Crikey.

Another day, another BBC slip-up. This time the much-lauded public service broadcaster has been dragged back into the spotlight after an independent review found it hadn’t been reporting fully on immigration — because it feared being labelled either ‘racist’ or ‘woke’. Oh dear... The 75-page report, carried out by Madeleine Sumption of the Migration Observatory with Samir Shah before he became BBC chairman, revealed that journalists had been ‘anxious’ about covering issues that might appear anti-immigration. What complexities might these stories involve? Concerns from local residents about an influx of migrants to their hometowns or immigration fraud which is, er, a crime.