Politics

Michael Gove – Suella Braverman ‘is the right person’ to be Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s return to the government benches has become a lightning rod for criticism of Rishi Sunak’s new administration. She had been sacked only a few days prior to her reappointment, thanks to her sending an email containing sensitive information to the wrong person. Michael Gove, who has himself made a comeback as the Levelling Up Secretary, defended Braverman when challenged by Laura Kuenssberg, who was keen to share an inconvenient follow-up email: Braverman ‘did not ignore legal advice’ Sophy Ridge was also keen to raise the issue of immigration, especially relating to the Manston Processing Centre

The revolving door in No/ 10 seems to turn even faster these days, given the news that Downing Street will shortly be greeting its fourth director of communications in eight months. Amber de Botton will be next to sip from what has become widely regarded as a poisoned chalice, following the departure of Adam Jones, Guto Harri and Jack Doyle since February. Let’s hope she gets more time in the role. She at least comes with plenty of experience. De Botton is well-regarded among the lobby – judging from the Twitter reaction to her appointment – and will bring senior broadcast knowledge to the team, working closely with long standing

When Liz Truss’s premiership came to an abrupt end, it appeared to spell doom for a historic policy shift raised in her leadership campaign. In a break from a widely held but diplomatically fruitless consensus, Truss stood on a platform of reviewing the location of the British embassy in Israel.  That legation is still based in Tel Aviv despite Israel proclaiming Jerusalem its capital in December 1949 and placing its parliament, government and Supreme Court there. Successive UK governments have deemed Jerusalem a ‘corpus separatum’ and withheld recognition, noting only Israel’s ‘de facto’ authority over the western portions. This is despite Israel exercising all the functions of a sovereign in

Fire up the engine, the clickbait machine has gone into overdrive. Mr S doesn’t spend much of his time watching America’s Daily Show for obvious reasons: life is short and sermons are best delivered on a Sunday. Yet, stumbling across Monday’s episode of the late-night satirical programme, Steerpike couldn’t help but reflect on the sheer crassness of its host Trevor Noah: a man who has done for comedy what Harold Shipman did for palliative care. As predictable as he is tedious, Noah, inevitably, seized on the imagined ‘backlash’ which has – supposedly – greeted Rishi Sunak’s appointment to the premiership. In an achingly right-on monologue, accompanied by the hollow whoops