Steerpike

Will a UAE-backed entity buy the Telegraph and The Spectator? Not if parliament gets its way. More than 100 MPs have signed a letter saying that this should not happen, demanding a veto on foreign states taking over British titles. Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, who organised the letter, told this morning's Today programme: We believe that freedom of the press is a fundamental bulwark of democracy, and it is therefore very important that we protect our major national newspapers and media outlets from inappropriate control by foreign powers.

Another day, another government figure in a spot of bother. Michelle Donelan, Science and Technology Secretary, has today had to retract false accusations she made about an academic and agreed to pay the damages and costs. It’s a rather embarrassing case of the science minister unable to get her facts right: sub-optimal to say the least. Last October, Donelan accused Professor Kate Sang, an academic working at Heriot Watt University, of expressing sympathy for Hamas in the aftermath of the 7 October attack. She also accused another academic, Dr Kamna Patel, of sharing extremist material. Both woman, Donelan claimed, had breached the Seven Principles of Public Life and should be removed from their positions.

He’s back. George Galloway, victor of Friday’s Rochdale by-election, has this afternoon been sworn in as MP in the House of Commons for his fourth different constituency. After a morning swanning around the estate, ‘Gorgeous George’, who last sat in 2015, arrived to a rather empty chamber, flanked by Alba MP Neale Hanvey and Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley. The unwilling escorts were chosen after David Davies and Jeremy Corbyn both turned down the chance to accompany Galloway into the House for his triumphant return. Talk about awkward… After taking the oath – on a Holy Bible – parliament’s newest MP set about doing what he does best: holding an emergency press conference outside parliament to talk about, er, himself.

Poor John Bercow just can't seem to catch a break. In his never-ending quest to find some relevance post-parliament, the former MP has been thwarted at every time. First, Covid put a stop to his burgeoning career on the speaking circuit. Then a report into his bullying behaviour led to a suspension of his Labour membership, thwarting any hopes of a comeback there. And now, inevitably, Bercow's reality-TV career has ended abruptly after he was banished from the US version of the Traitors. The ex-Speaker today became the seventh 'celebrity' to be axed from the second series of the reality show, hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming. During the episode, Bercow was seen opening an envelope which read: 'By order of the traitors, you have been murdered.

After Rishi Sunak's speech criticising the Rochdale result, there was only one reaction worth getting. The duty of interviewing George Galloway was left to Sam Coates of Sky News, following Sunak's claim that last night's result was 'beyond alarming.' Galloway initially played ball, telling Coates that he wasn't taking the matter too seriously: We're talking about little Rishi Sunak in the fag end of his prime ministership. Don't talk to me as if he has come down from the Mount with tablets of stone. As if the things he says are meant to awe me... I've got the democratic mandate here, not Rishi Sunak. He didn't even come second! He's lucky to come third.

Thursday morning in parliament brings with it Business Questions and the chance for Penny Mordaunt to slap down another opponent from the despatch box. Today though, her stand-out moment came not against her regular SNP opponents but rather a former colleague. Andrew Bridgen, the sage of North West Leicestershire, called for a debate on capital punishment in a not-so-subtle way of obtaining a clip for his vaccine-hating fan-base. He said to Mordaunt: I've always opposed capital punishment on the principle that it's wrong to take a life so it can't be right for the state to take a life in revenge. Events have caused me to reconsider my position.

All eyes were on the House of Lords this afternoon where it is the second reading of the Media Bill. Lord Forsyth, the former Scotland Secretary, has tabled what is known as a 'motion to regret' – a device which allows peers to express their opposition to legislation without stopping it. Forsyth's ire had been sparked by the failure of the Bill to include a motion banning the ownership and control by foreign governments of British newspapers. It comes as the Emirati government is seeking to buy both the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, via an investment vehicle called Redbird IMI. In his speech this afternoon, Forsyth criticised those who suggested that the Emirati state would have no editorial control over these organs of public opinion.