Steerpike

As any good Spectator subscriber knows, Joan Collins is a national institution. The Hollywood star took centre stage at last night's big Thatcher Centre bash to mark one hundred years since the Iron Lady's birth. Boris Johnson reminisced about Collins' diaries when he edited this august outlet some twenty years ago. But it was left to Sir Conor Burns, the former MP for Bournemouth West, to deliver the best line about the Golden Globe winner. Having joked that any future autobiography ought to be called 'Dominated by Blondes', given his friendship with both Thatcher and Johnson, he introduced Collins thus: Her performances are known, I imagine, to everyone in this room...

To the Cliveden Literary Festival, where Health Secretary Wes Streeting has offered up his support for Sir Keir Starmer's Brexit attack strategy. The Prime Minister is planning to use Brexit – and Nigel Farage's part in the campaign – as a way to both excuse the difficult decisions that will be made in next month's Budget and as a means to take the fight to Reform UK. How interesting… Speaking at a panel event at the festival, Streeting doubled down on the Brexit message, telling his audience about how much Brexit can be blamed for the UK's low productivity and growth: It's part of it. There's no doubt that that's the other problem we're dealing with. I'm glad Brexit is a problem whose name we now dare speak.

Well, well, well. SNP conference has gotten off to a rather, er, interesting start. As one might expect, the subject of independence has dominated the first day of the big meet-up in Aberdeen. The party's strategy as laid out by First Minister John Swinney says that an SNP majority at next year's Holyrood election would be a mandate for a second independence referendum. But party activists aren't happyabout the state of the SNP: both its independence stance and the way the party has conducted itself more generally over the last few years.

It's the SNP's big weekend out as party members and politicians make the painstaking journey to Aberdeen for the nationalists' annual conference. Just seven months away from next year's Scottish parliament elections, the Nats will spend the weekend discussing campaign strategy, devolved policy and – you guessed it – independence. It would appear the talks about separatism are about to get even barmier than usual, however, with SNP members set to face a vote on whether a provisional parliament should be set up north of the border to run alongside Holyrood as part of yet another pro-indy push.

To India, where Keir Starmer has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the UK-India trade deal and learn more about the country's digital ID scheme. But of course the curious matter of the China spy case collapse came up at today's press conference as questions remain about why the charges against Chris Cash and Christopher Berry were dropped. Quizzed about whether national security adviser Jonathan Powell or any other minister were involved in the decision to drop the case, Starmer was clear: I can be absolutely clear, no ministers were involved in any of the decisions since this government’s been in, in relation to the evidence that’s been put before the court on this issue.

The Conservative party conference may be in full swing in Manchester but Reform UK's politicians are still creating headlines. Deputy leader Richard Tice has given a rather punchy interview to Arabian Business during a trip to Dubai – in which he slated Britain's immigration 'disaster', insisted a decline in the British work ethic was because the 'UK became complacent [and] decadent' and even claimed that Britain is 'going bust'. Then the Reform man turned his attention to some big British names. First he took a swipe at a rather, er, controversial British broadcaster: former England footballer Gary Neville. Taking a pop at the left-wing right back over his patriotism, Tice fumed: Dear Gary Neville, everybody's entitled to their own opinions.

It’s not just Conservative politicians popping up at the Tory party conference this year: Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has appeared at some fringe events to wax lyrical about the successes of devolution, his hopes for a Manchester tourist tax and reform of council tax. But just a week after the Labour Party conference, Burnham didn’t gloss over the rather, er, frosty welcome he received in Liverpool. ‘I’ll probably get a better reception here than I did last week,’ he quipped at the Centre for Cities event.  Burnham wouldn’t rate the performance of the Labour government out of ten – but he did pack a few subtle digs into his discussion about Sir Keir Starmer and his cronies back in London.

The Tory conference parties are in full flow and the political speeches are underway. At the TaxPayers’ Alliance reception, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick was the speaker of choice – and he didn’t disappoint. Crowning himself the ‘drug mule’ of the party, Jenrick laughed about the Ozempic trend that has taken over London: I've managed to persuade quite a few people in this room to get slim. I'm like Pete Hegseth now. Fit, not fat. And the weight loss analogy didn’t stop there: On a serious note. The work that has been done to ensure, through the brilliant campaigns that you have been waging, that we actually begin to turn the tide, and that we start one day to shrink. The size of the state is immensely valuable.

In Manchester, a vigil is taking place after Thursday's horrific terror attack left two people killed and three seriously injured in hospital. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to do ‘everything’ in his power to protect Jewish people in Britain, condemning the ‘horrific’ terror attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has also paid her respects to the victims and their families – before, this morning, turning on pro-Palestine protestors.  And while new Justice Secretary David Lammy has also urged pro-Gaza protestors to 'stop and stand back' instead of joining planned marches this weekend, he has not been well received in Manchester.