Scottish Labour’s leader, Anas Sarwar, sneakily met Eric “even madder son of” Trump during the bearded kid’s flying visit to these shores, whispered a snout. SNP First Minister John Swinney got it in the neck for hosting Baby Trump in Bute House, so usually garrulous Sarwar was uncharacteristically shy about slipping into Edinburgh’s plush Gleneagles Townhouse hotel for a chinwag with the US president’s adult tot. Asked about the private tête-à-tête, Sarwar’s spokesperson said Trump complained about the vandalism of the family’s Turnberry golf course. Sarwar agreed abusive slogans shouldn’t be daubed on clubhouses. If only Keir Starmer could engineer a similar meeting of minds with big daddy over Zelensky, Putin, Ukraine, trade, tariffs, hate speech…
Everything was too good for the workers when Labour Spads were summoned to the Foreign Office to be read the riot act. No tea or coffee was served to avoid Freedom of Information submissions allowing the Tories to claim taxpayers subsidised the bash. Inviting Tony Blair’s old spinner Alastair Campbell to address the ranks on the day Starmer bade goodbye to spokesman Matthew Doyle was brutal. Just Stop Doyle.
Nigel Farage must be a messy eater to still, at the age of 61, tuck a napkin into his shirt collar before picking up a knife and fork. The Reform leader awarded himself close personal protection at a press gallery lunch with journalists where posher scribes ruminated that the former City slicker may have learned the habit during his private-school days. Farage no longer requires a hazmat suit on the Reform corridor, however. Rupert Lowe was moved double-quick off the punishment block into a new office far away in the rafters.
Political rocker Kevin Brennan is advertising for a noble drummer to play in an upper-chamber band after swapping the Commons for the Lords. The veteran of Commons band MP4 will call the new group Peer Pressure or, in a nod to his Bevanite outlook, Lower than Ermine. I hear an ugly rumour that hereditaries desperate to stay on the stage are picking up sticks to learn how to drum a reprieve.
An informant was surprised to bump into Kemi Badenoch at an Anthropy conference in the Eden Project. The movement was established in part to combat the poisoning of debate by a Brexit championed by the beleaguered Tory leader. Did she hope to lose Conservative assassins in the Cornish undergrowth for the day?
The Treasury had to beg hacks to attend a presser after Rachel Reeves’ Spring-clean Statement. One high-profile broadcaster declined after asking a question wasn’t guaranteed. No say, no way.
Kevin Maguire is the associate editor (politics) of the Daily Mirror
[See also: Is Keir Starmer falling into the Rwanda trap?]
Content from our partners
Related
This article appears in the 02 Apr 2025 issue of the New Statesman, What is school for?