Brian Harrison

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

I'm confident nobody will share this.

[Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall]

Chances of Farage quitting before next election, partly because he hates this sort of questioning, still underpriced.

[Don McGowan @donmcgowan]

If you have a spare 3 mins and 45 secs today, watch this fantastic grilling by Sally Nugent on BBC Breakfast.

The very first time I've seen Farage questioned properly about his £5M bung, and it's fair to say, he totally fluffed it.

There are points when you can see Farage tremble and even accuse the BBC of putting him in danger. 🤦‍♂️

It was for security. It was for cars. Nobody cares. It's no one's business. He won't tell us. DANGER!

At one point, he let slip that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards may 'disagree' with him on the rules around donations.

He knows he's going to be found guilty on this one. He's in trouble, and his face gave it away gloriously.

Top hats off to Sally Nugent. Stellar work. 👏

[Count Binface @CountBinface]

Binface back on Sky News! Here's my full post-Makerfield by-election interview with @sophyridge. #Burnham #Starmer #Cheeky

[Tom Baldwin @TomBaldwin66]

We seem to be in a strange place where Keir Starmer is being told he must quit to prevent more uncertainty and chaos (by those who have caused much of it) but then stay on for a couple of months because the guy who has been desperate to take his job is not yet ready to do so…

[Jack Dart @JackWDart]

Keir Starmer may resign, and commentators say he leaves no legacy. That is absurd. Liz Truss crashed the pound in 49 days. Boris Johnson illegally prorogued Parliament and deliberately misled MPs. They’re not even comparable.

[LBC @LBC]

'If you have any information about the whereabouts of Nigel, whose mummy is very worried about him, the number is 0345 6060 973.'

After Andy Burnham's Makerfield win, James O'Brien wonders why the Reform UK leader is not doing any live interviews.

[Gabriele Molinelli @Gabriel64869839]

This is (unfortunately) one of the most interesting and enlightening articles i've ever seen on British Army Review. I say unfortunately because it is a tale of literal regression and drips with frustration caused by procurement reforms that have only made everything even slower.

[Count Binface @CountBinface]

I enjoyed every second of this interview. Which makes one of us…

[Alex Wickham @alexwickham]

NEW: How would Andy Burnham govern? Labour’s big fear is he can’t live up to his promise of change and he ends up not much different to Keir Starmer.

The levers available to him to go big on policy are limited. Binding himself to the manifesto and fiscal rules means he cannot significantly raise taxes, borrow or spend more. Only more incremental fiscal options are possible unless he changes his mind.

He will pursue soft-left social justice policies: social care, a long-term investment plan, more public ‘control’ of industry, council houses, bus fares, some small tax rises on the wealthy. All good stuff for a Labour PM, but so far there’s not really a big idea there that can turn around Labour’s fortunes in three years. And there’s no detail yet.

Like Starmer, Burnham has judged he needs to be tough on immigration to stop Labour’s traditional working class vote going to Reform. He wants more detention of asylum seekers, backs Shabana Mahmood’s policies and wants to try welfare cuts again. His language around the Henry Nowak case was fascinating: suggesting banning the kirpan and that Britain does have two-tier policing except in Manchester under its ‘no nonsense’ police chief.

Soft-left social justice + tough on immigration… trying to appeal to both right and left to prevent votes bleeding both ways… within the confines of the fiscal rules and manifesto… sounds quite a lot like Starmer.

There have been some red flags during his campaign. A lot of Starmer-esque u-turns. The Waspi gaffe. And loose talk, saying repeatedly he’ll “look at” various policies that would cost billions, like a pensioner tax cut, with no plan to pay for them.

There are signs of tension among his supporters already. Some backers suggest his team has struggled to agree either on a policy platform or a political strategy for how they should approach the days after Makerfield. We have no idea who his chancellor will be. Or his No10 team. Or his top cabinet posts. His political operation is very limited: Louise Haigh, Ed Miliband, Miatta Fahnbulleh, Josh Simons. That’s a huge amount of uncertainty over someone who wants a coronation within weeks.

Burnham will want to focus on domestic policy and not as much on foreign policy as Starmer. But that’s easier said than done. He’d be PM in Trump’s world and the Ukraine war endgame would happen on his watch. Foreign policy may well define a Burnham premiership whether he likes it or not - just like Starmer.

No doubt Burnham is a better communicator. He seems at ease with working class voters and says all the right things. Maybe that’s enough reason to change. But with the constraints he faces, can he deliver the radical change he’s promising, or is he setting himself up to let voters down like so many PMs before him?

https://t.co/N2C4mrHajv

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

This is precisely the problem of the British disease of changing PMs all the time: everyone else changes. No one learns

What organisation could succeed if the boss & every head of dept is routinely purged?

Mahmood is proving the most effective Home Sec for years. Why move her?

[Jonathan Pie @JonathanPieNews]

A Trillion Dollars.
https://t.co/CHb4VKcq2E

[Formula 1 @F1]

The moment of victory!

#F1 #BarcelonaGP @LewisHamilton

[Candice Holmes @hol40900]

Owen Jones: Racists now think they're legitimate.
Because Farage gave them a script. Tommy gave them a signal. Musk gave them a platform.
Now Belfast burns. And they're acting surprised.
Don't be. 🎯🔥

[LBC @LBC]

'It’s about finding something awful and pretending people who had nothing to do with it are responsible!'

James O’Brien says blaming 'all immigrants and refugees' for the Belfast attack is 'ridiculous'.

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

The russian refinery says alumina shipped from Ireland does not end up in weapons.

The Irish Government seems uninterested in testing that claim.

So I took a sample myself.

It will now be compared with battlefield debris from Ukraine.

This should have been done by the state.

[England Cricket @englandcricket]

Dot. Dot. Wicket. Dot. Wicket. Wicket.

Every ball from that ridiculous Ollie Robinson over 👇

[Brian Harrison @1986Harrison]

@NavyLookout Very sad news RIP. Condolences to all the families.

[Nicholas Drummond @nicholadrummond]

This is the best summary of the current geopolitical situation I have seen. Sir Alex Younger was head of MI6 between 2014 and 2020. Really worth watching.

[Nicholas Drummond @nicholadrummond]

Another great soundbite from the late, great Sir Alex Younger, Britain's former spymaster. A highly respected apolitical advisor who was neutral and measured in his analysis. Here he is talking about Brexit, Putin, Xi, and Trump and... the need for Europe to re-arm.