Steerpike

Zack Polanski is no stranger to reinventing himself. He’s been an actor, a hypnotherapist capable of enlarging breasts, a nightclub promoter, a mental health counsellor and even… a Lib Dem. Now the Times has uncovered another entry on the already well-stuffed Polanski CV. According to the Green leader, he once served dutifully as a spokesman for the British Red Cross. Only the Times also discovered that this was a complete fiction, the left-wing leader never actually held the role. Polanski made the claim on his site while running for Green deputy leader in 2022. But the British Red Cross last night confirmed Polanski ‘has not been a spokesperson’. Rather, he had been an on-stage host ‘for several fundraisers’.

With two days to go before voters take to the ballot box, leadership manoeuvring, that perennial Westminster pastime, has slipped into a higher gear. Allies of Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting have been making the rounds among ever more febrile backbenchers. And their respective teams are at work to ensure plans are in place should the first blow be struck amid what many are bracing to be a local election bloodbath. So grave is the mood that Rayner has even quit vaping. One can only wonder if booze will be next after she was alleged to have drunkenly crashed into the door of parliament’s Strangers bar last week… Meanwhile, over in Downing Street, an operation to Save Sir Keir Starmer is in full swing.

Oh dear. Just when you thought the Greens could sink no lower on crime and justice, along came Zack Polanski yesterday with his take on the Golders Green stabbing. The ever-online left-wing leader thought it appropriate to share a post on X, criticising cops for kicking the knife-wielding Somalian attacker in the process of apprehending him, as he continued clutching a bloodied blade. Polanski reposted a tweet alleging that that officers were 'repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head' when he was already incapacitated by a stun gun. It was a take so tone-deaf that Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, felt compelled to intervene.

With a week to go before voters take to the polls, the race for victory is heating up. But it is not merely the familiar scramble over potholes, bin collections and municipal leisure centres that is exercising Westminster. The other contest – the one to replace Sir Keir Starmer – is acquiring a momentum of its own ahead of what’s set to be an electoral bloodbath on 7 May.  Aides and supporters of both Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham have been busy doing the rounds, sounding out opinion and swelling their supporter lists among MPs and party members. Yet while the two Mancunian contenders have been busily offering their wares to anyone within range of a lobby journalist, Wes Streeting has adopted a rather more minimalist approach.

It has been a pretty grim day in Golders Green. Two Jewish men have been stabbed, with the Metropolitan Police formally declaring it a terrorist incident. Both the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council have said they are 'sickened'; Sir Ephraim Mervis, the Chief Raabi, warns that ‘today’s event proves that if you are visibly Jewish you’re not safe, and far more needs to be done.’  Figures from the Community Security Trust, which works to tackle antisemitism, suggests that such incidents have spiked since 2023: attacks have become uncommon for some members of the Jewish community.

Oh dear. Just when you thought a British ambassador to the US couldn’t possibly cause any more grief for Sir Keir Starmer, enter Christian Turner. Peter Mandelson set a high bar for humiliating Labour ministers, but the career diplomat – who took up post in February – has given the Dark Lord a run for his money. Somewhere in King Charles Street, Karen Pierce is having the last laugh… The latest kerfuffle centres on a leaked recording of Turner dispensing pearls of wisdom to a group of British students on a jolly to DC, in the same month that he took up residence.

It’s that time of year again. Spring is sprung and that means another bad set of local elections for an unpopular incumbent government. Cue much gnashing of teeth, plenty of wringing of hands and an endless stream of policy announcements from Labour caucuses fearing the future of their party. One particularly noticeable faction is the 100-strong ‘soft left’ Tribune group, whose members include former ministers Louise Haigh, Vicky Foxcroft and Justin Madders. Respected backbenchers whom an embattled PM might want to keep onside... Steerpike has heard that Tribune will shortly be launching a pamphlet of policy essays in the aftermath of 7 May, in the latest headache for Sir Keir Starmer.

Up until now, the subject of the Prime Minister's political survival has been an awkward question for any Labour MP. Privately, many concede that he is 'done'; publicly their proclaim their faith in a man who is stretching their patience to breaking point. The number who have called on him to go can be counted on one hand, with Clive Lewis – the longtime troublemaker of Norwich – being the most obvious example. But now the first of the record 2024 Labour intake has suggested Starmer's exit is simply a matter of time. Jonathan Brash, the MP for Hartlepool – that battleground of Brexit aspirations – went on GB News this lunchtime and was clearly furious with Starmer's performance at Prime Minister's Questions.

Oh dear. It seems that Keir Starmer's strategy has, er, backfired once again. Having spent yesterday afternoon declaring to all and sundry that he was shocked, SHOCKED to discover that Peter Mandelson might have been a wrong 'un, it was left to Olly Robbins this morning to deliver his response. With the calm demeanour of a man who has spent a lifetime in the corridors of power, Sir Olly duly filleted the Prime Minister for two hours. In the battle of wits, only one man came unarmed... There were plenty of enjoyable moments for Mr S to chew over. He revealed that the Cabinet Office – the supposed brain of Whitehall – had not ever been keen on vetting Mandelson.