Steerpike

To the Commons, where Theresa May was the guest of honour for today’s parliamentary press gallery lunch. The former premier was on sparkling form as she spoke of the crisis facing global democracies. Asked by one journalist as to whether populism worked, May retorted: ‘Well, let me I see - how many successors am I on now?’ And it was her successors who were the subject of her ire as the ex-PM scrutinised their literary efforts. May, who recently published her first book Abuse of Power, joked that:  I’ve been around quite a few bookshops recently. It’s quite interesting to notice where political titles are categorised, where they’re showed in the bookshops. Tim Shipman, of course, No Way Out, under horror. Or maybe that should just be fiction? I was there.

Uh oh. The dreaming spires are once again caught up in controversy. Ministers have accused Oxford University of attempting to ‘stitch up’ its chancellor selection process to stop another white, male politician from taking the top job. Now, after a number of senior politicians urged the uni to rethink its plans, Oxford has finally thrown in the towel and U-turned. Talk about a row back… The publication of chancellor election rules in March was met with a heated backlash after critics accused the university of attempting to ‘vet’ candidates it did not like.

Dear oh dear. Has all Labour’s tough talk on tackling immigration been purely for show? That’s how things appear after a question on illegal migration today saw a grand total of, er, zero Labour backbenchers turn up. Not even Natalie Elphicke, the Dover and Deal defector who made tackling immigration her defining mission, bothered to attend. How curious. On Friday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer travelled to the coastal town of Deal to bang on about his party's immigration plans amidst the controversy he found himself in over Elphicke's defection. He committed to scrapping the Rwanda scheme ‘absolutely, flights and all’ and instead pledged to divert £75 million to allow specialist officers 'to break gangs'.

How time flies. Half a year has passed since former prime minister David Cameron made a shock return to frontline politics — and the House of Lords. His appointment as Foreign Secretary was a controversial one, with certain sections of the Tory party pretty sceptical at Dave’s big return. His ardent support for Remain ruffled some feathers, combined with an underlying resentment that Sunak maybe didn’t much value the talent pool among his own colleagues in the Commons.  Cameron’s history of foreign policy failings isn’t short, either. From his Libya adventure and the Syria debacle to the Brexit gamble that cost him his job, the former Prime Minister certainly isn’t without a chequered past. So how has Cameron handled the last six months?

Oh dear. It’s not just Reform UK that has had trouble with party candidates in recent weeks — the Labour party is facing issues of its own. Candidates for both the local and general elections have been found to have made and shared some rather inappropriate views — which are now coming back to bite them. Only yesterday, one prospective parliamentary candidate was dropped by Labour after being investigated over her social media activity while just last month a Labour councillor quit the party when her Twitter came under scrutiny. When will they learn?  Find the list – so far – here: Wilma Brown The Scottish Labour candidate for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy was suspended from the party last month after being accused of liking racist and Islamophobic social media posts.

There may be a new First Minister in the driving seat but can the SNP overtake Labour's lead in the polls? Just this morning, Savanta revealed that, for the very first time in the pollster's history, Labour is four points ahead of the SNP in Westminster voting intention. It's certainly not the best start to the job for freshly-appointed John Swinney... And despite officially leading his country for about, er, two days, Swinney is already facing dissent over his decision-making. In a move that was widely anticipated, the First Minister made Kate Forbes his second-in-command – much to the dismay of the Scottish Greens. The eco-activists promptly fell into fits of rage, ranting and raving about ‘progressive values’ and a return to the 1950s.

When it rains for the Tories, it pours. Now Tees Valley’s Conservative mayor Ben Houchen has hit out at his party’s leadership – just 24 hours after yet another Tory MP defected to Labour. The re-elected Conservative mayor this morning admitted the path to Tory electoral victory is ‘getting narrower by the day’ before adding, in more bad news for poor Rishi Sunak, that ‘ultimately it all rests on the shoulders of the leader.’ Talk about trouble in paradise… In a series of damning remarks made during an interview on BBC Radio Tees today, Houchen seemed rather downcast on the topic of his party’s prospects. ‘Things don’t look great for the Conservative party at the moment,’ he told the station.

Another one bites the dust. The second Tory to defect to Labour in as many weeks is none other than Natalie Elphicke, MP for Dover. In a shock announcement just before Prime Minister’s Questions today, Labour declared that one of the Conservatives’ most hawkish MPs on immigration had defected to the Starmer army. Elphicke released a statement at noon, claiming that ‘under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have become a byword for incompetence and division’ and that ‘the centre ground has been abandoned and key pledges of the 2019 manifesto have been ditched’. Not really what Sunak wanted after last weekend’s dire local election results.