Steerpike

If you thought the last you’d hear of George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain would be the Rochdale by-election, you were sadly mistaken. 'Gorgeous George's' group is back in the limelight after former England cricketer, Monty Panesar, announced that he would be the party's candidate in Ealing Southall at the upcoming general election — even revealing ambitions to one day be Prime Minister. Panesar is just part of an eclectic bunch trying to be recruited by the Workers Party. While Galloway claims he's held secret talks with several Labour MPs keen to jump ship, it has also been announced today that Craig Murray — the pro-indy blogger jailed for contempt of court over the Alex Salmond trial — will be joining his party's ranks.

In what seems like a watershed moment for the government’s Rwanda plan, the first migrant has been sent to the country from the UK. Only, um, it’s not actually the primary Rwanda deportation scheme that’s supposed to stop the small boats. No, this man voluntarily relocated to the central African country after being offered up to £3,000 to do so. Alright for some... In a rather confusing series of events, separate to the Rwanda Act there is also a voluntary deportation plan on the go. Migrants who are unable to stay in the UK legally are rather more politely rounded up and asked if they would please move elsewhere, incentivised by the promise of financial aid.

Starmer Chameleon does it again. The publication of the Cass review brought about a period of reckoning for politicians previously willing to live in fantasyland — and now it's Sir Keir who has been forced to swallow his words. After years of flip-flopping on the trans issue, the Labour leader this morning admitted that he does in fact agree with one of his most vocal MPs on women’s rights: Rosie Duffield.  A politician with a penchant for U-turns, Starmer has a long and convoluted history of changing his mind on the trans debate. Sir Keir was staunchly in favour of gender reforms and allowing trans people to self-ID as recently as 2021, even working with LGBT+ site PinkNews to release a video reiterating his support for the trans community.

It’s a gaffe a day with the SNP. Even with hapless Humza stepping down, the Nats are still slipping up. This time the deputy first minister Shona Robison is in the limelight, after Yousaf’s second-in-command made an on-air blunder just hours after the First Minister announced he would be quitting his job. In the world’s shortest-lived leadership bid, Robison confidently told Sky News on Monday night that ‘yes’, she would be in the running for the top job. ‘You are in the running?’ presenter Mark Austin replied incredulously. ‘No — sorry,’ Robison corrected herself after a rather awkward pause. ‘No I am definitely not in the running.’ Mr S can only imagine the collective sigh of relief that reverberated around Scotland at her retraction.

Dogs bark, cows moo and Sadiq Khan puts his foot in it again. With a week to go until polling day in the capital, you might have thought that the Mayor of London would try to avoid any bad headlines. But there he is, giving another ill-judged interview to Mehdi Hasan. In it, the Mayor implied that the Chief Rabbi’s criticism of Khan’s call for a Gaza ceasefire was influenced by his Muslim-sounding name. Quite the claim to throw around… Khan told Hasan he was ‘disappointed’ when Jewish leaders and ‘friends’ including Ephraim Mirvis condemned his decision to speak out on Gaza, while a similar ceasefire call by Manchester Metro mayor Andy Burnham was ignored.

Oh dear. Poor Chris Philp has done it again. Fronting up the broadcast brief last night, the policing minister was wheeled out on Question Time to sell the government's migration mission. But the Home Office minister appeared to make a bit of a blunder when asked a question about the Rwanda scheme. One audience member who said he came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, asked Philp: I come from a neighbouring country called Congo, if you know geographically that it is located right next door to Rwanda. And right now in Goma there's a genocide going on and there's such a big conflict going on with people from Rwanda. So had my family members come from Goma on a crossing right now would they be sent back to the country that they're supposedly warring, Rwanda?

If last week wasn’t bad enough for hapless Humza Yousaf, this week has brought him even more turbulence. Now the Scottish government’s SNP-Green coalition has collapsed leaving the SNP to field a minority government and some rather, er, furious Greens in opposition. And to add insult to injury, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross delivered a real zinger in First Minister's Questions today when he announced that he was lodging a vote of no confidence in Humza Yousaf. ‘He is a failed First Minister,’ Ross told Holyrood, ‘he has focused on the wrong priorities for Scotland.’ With Labour, the Lib Dems and the Tories all looking to support the motion, all eyes are now on – you guessed it – the Greens.

More bad times at the BBC. The Corporation is in hot water yet again following last week's episode of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. During a discussion on whether extreme weather events are caused by carbon emissions, TV eco-warrior Chris Packham launched into one of his patented rants when asked by businessman Luke Johnson to provide some evidence. Packham sneered: It doesn’t come from Toby Young’s Daily Septic [sic], which is basically put together by a bunch of professionals with close affiliations to the fossil fuel industry. It comes from actually something called science. But in his haste to put down Johnson, Packham appears to have blundered. For Young, a longtime Spectator contributor, has now submitted a complaint to the Beeb over the 'false and defamatory' claim.

To the fantasy land of the Greens, where no promises are off the table — no matter how surreal. Just 48 hours after the Scottish branch embarrassed themselves over the Cass report, now it's the turn of their London counterpart. Step forth Zoe Garbett, the party's pink-haired nominee for the capital's mayoralty, who is running on a platform of... 'zero murders'. Yes, that's right, if the Greens win, they claim they can end homicide in the capital within ten years. Garbett was rightly grilled on her ludicrous promise last night during LBC's 'London Mayoral Debate'. After a somewhat incredulous Tom Swarbrick asked Garbett: 'You've suggested that you would like to see no murders in London in ten years?

Will Humza Yousaf ever catch a break? The short answer is: not anytime soon. Last week was dubbed the First Minister’s worst in the job – which is saying something, given the chaos that has engulfed his party over the past year. And if Yousaf had hoped for improved fortunes this week, his wishes were in vain. The pesky Greens are still causing the Nats a headache over the Bute House Agreement and Patrick Harvie’s barmy army could well vote themselves out of their coalition next month. Tuesday’s statement on the Cass review has raised yet more questions about the Scottish government’s tartan Tavistock problem – and now hapless Humza has seen a mini rebellion over juryless trials. Oh dear.