Steerpike

These days, it's not hard to find an example of departmental failure. From procurement problems at the MoD to accounting errors at the Treasury, Whitehall offers a rich mine of failure from which to draw. But of all the great ministries of state, few provide more gems than the Home Office. The mandarins at 2 Marsham Street are always working on some hare-brained scheme that can destroy a Home Secretary's career. The trouble is, in the words of Richard Wilson, not only does the minister 'not know who they are, but neither will they.' So it is with a sense of weariness then that Steerpike brings news of some of the more interesting views being spouted by one of the department's directors.

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt has backed Lindsay Hoyle in the row over the Gaza ceasefire vote – and accused Labour of picking on the Speaker. Mordaunt said Hoyle was a 'decent man' and blamed Keir Starmer's party for last night's debacle in the Commons. The Tory MP hit out at her opposite number, shadow leader of the house, Lucy Powell, saying: 'I would never have done to him (Hoyle) what the Labour party have done to him'. She added: 'If she cannot rise above narrow and immediate needs of her weak and fickle leader...perhaps she might like to reflect on the damage her party has done to the office of the Speaker.

The chaos of the Brexit days has reignited in parliament tonight. The drama broke out after Speaker Lindsay Hoyle selected a Labour amendment calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, despite the Clerk of the House’s warning that doing so went against parliamentary convention. Hoyle reportedly wanted to offer a wider debate, in light of concerns about MPs safety. In response, the government pulled its own amendment and the SNP joined in with the anger. The Speaker attempted to placate MPs by returning to the Commons to apologise – but sorry wasn’t good enough for some MPs. The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn wondered whether Hoyle could stay in his job.

'Change Labour, change Britain' has been the internal mantra of the Starmer army since seizing the party leadership nearly four years ago. But while a 20-point lead suggests they've made considerable progress in that area, there are infrequent reminders of the not-so-distant Corbynite past. The Rochdale debacle proved to be an uncomfortable reminder of all that, with the Mail on Sunday reporting on 11 February the not-so-savoury views of Azhar Ali. Even more awkward perhaps was the fact that just five days earlier, Morgan McSweeney – Keir Starmer's election overlord – was boasting to fellow Labourites about the progress they have made in the field of, er, candidate selection.

An almighty war of words has broken out over the biggest political drama of the year. In the red corner is Henry Staunton, former chairman of the Post Office. He has used an interview in yesterday's Sunday Times to suggest the government deliberately tried to slow down compensation payments to sub postmasters. And in the blue corner is Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, who has furiously hit back at Staunton, suggesting his interview was 'full of lies' and that she will 'tell the truth in parliament' later today. Someone get the popcorn in. Both Badenoch and Staunton claim they have contemporaneous notes of the phone call in which she sacked him, with both alleging different reasons for why this happened.

Who'd want to be a Scottish nationalist, eh? The SNP's poll ratings are tanking faster than their Ferguson Marine ferries fleet, with Humza Yousaf proving to be as adept at First Minister as he was at transport, justice and health. After 17 years in power, the party's record on crime, spending and drug deaths is finally getting the attention it deserves. But with the Holyrood press now turning on them, at least the SNP can count on one uncritical media outlet for support. Step forward, the National – the self-identifying newspaper in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act. In their ceaseless zest to turn attention away from Michael Matheson and his five-figure phone bill, the craven hacks there have stumbled on an ingenious wheeze. Why not run a story suggesting that all MSPs are at it?

If the Scottish Labour party are keen to get one message across at their Glasgow conference, it’s that they are the party of change. ‘That is what change means. That is why change matters,’ riffed Anas Sarwar throughout his keynote speech – 14 times, to be precise. But while more specifics about Scottish Labour’s ‘change’ agenda wouldn’t have hurt, the party hardly needs to convince the public that they are committed to it – they’ve changed their position on, er, just about everything.  Perhaps it’s no surprise then that Labour remains in a muddle about its stance on Gaza. While Sarwar used his conference speech to call for an ‘immediate ceasefire’, Ian Murray MP was not quite as clear.

Irony alert up in Scotland. Conference season is upon us again, with Anas Sarwar’s Labour party hosting their three-day soiree in Glasgow. It’s significantly busier — and bigger — than last year’s event, with one veteran declaring to Mr S: ‘This looks like a party preparing to win an election.’ And it was in that spirit that Sarwar gave his keynote speech this afternoon, with the Scottish Labour leader taking aim at the SNP’s recent U-turns. He told the party faithful: ‘It’s hard to keep track of their strategy. First it was “the general election will be a defacto referendum”. Then they scrapped the de facto referendum. Then it was back on the table. Then it was a majority of votes. Then it was about a majority of seats. Then it was the most seats.

How much longer can Sir Keir Starmer's local survive under the ever-blundering regime of Sadiq Khan’s City Hall? As every Westminster obsessive knows, Starmer’s favourite pub is The Pineapple in Kentish Town – a site ‘woven into the fabric of the community since it was built in 1868.’ Yet the battle-class boozer is struggling to survive: all thanks to the incompetence of Transport for London, responsibility for which sits with the capital’s Mayor. Kentish Town station has been shut since June to fix two escalators and carry out ‘wider work’ on the station. But sadly, the effect on local business has proved to be catastrophic.

David Cameron is currently in the States, urging politicians there to back support for Ukraine. Currently Washington DC is ensuring a stalemate over £75 billion of aid for Kyiv's struggle against their Russian invaders. The Foreign Secretary used an article in the DC website the Hill to urge Congress to support Ukraine with more funding. He wrote: I believe our joint history shows the folly of giving in to tyrants in Europe who believe in redrawing boundaries by force. I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s. He came back for more, costing us far more lives to stop his aggression.

As Keir Starmer flounders over Rochdale, Rishi Sunak is enjoying the delights of County Durham this evening. But speaking at the GB News 'People's Forum', the Prime Minister was confronted by one voter who certainly wasn't willing to stay on script. An audience member used his opportunity to speak to Sunak to angrily raise qualms held about the Covid jab, demanding he 'look him in the eye' as he made an impassioned address: We have been left with no help at all. I know people who have lost legs, I know people with heart conditions like myself, Rishi Sunak. Why have I had to set up a support group in Scotland to look after the people that have been affected by the Covid-19 vaccine?