Robert Hutton

I n one sense, Andy Burnham represents continuity from Keir Starmer: we're watching a prime minister work out his relationship with his father through the medium of politics.

Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives have developed an extraordinary confidence in their own inevitable return to power

O n reflection, it would have been better for Andrew Griffith if he'd abandoned his speech when the announcer got his name wrong.

K emi Badenoch's broadcast interviews on Tuesday were a touching celebration of someonewhose extravagant boasts and relaxed relationship with reality won the heart of Conservative members.

“T he last thing this country needs,” Kemi Badenoch warned us, “is a Paddington Bear Prime Minister.” It was at one level unarguable.

W ho will speak for Brexit? Two years ago, not even the Liberal Democrats were promising to take Britain back into the European Union.

O ne of the basic rules of being a successful drug dealer — I'm told — is “don't get high on your own supply”. Politics, sadly, is full of people whose approach is more “look at this massive supply, guys!

“T here is a big fishing fleet here in Portsmouth!” Nigel Farage announced. It was a line that would have gone over better had he not, at the time, been addressing a rally in Plymouth.

Lindsay Hoyle might be even less amused by our politicians than the rest of us “I t is shameful!” Lindsay Hoyle was furious. Spitting mad.

After a fractious week, they probably agree that no one at all needs Liz Truss’s new book, but then the political housekeeping decisions get much harder, says author and journalist Robert Hutton