ANDREW PIERCE: Why Reform UK is at odds with no-show Nadhim
Another week, another Reform UK press conference – yet no sign of the party's biggest Conservative scalp, Nadhim Zahawi.
A former chancellor, education secretary, vaccines minister and Tory party chairman, Zahawi was the big hire in January. But he's not been seen at a Reform party since.
I hear it's because Reform members are unimpressed. Around 1,000 of them resigned in protest at the recruitment of Zahawi, who was sacked from the Cabinet by Rishi Sunak.
An ethics inquiry had found that Zahawi broke ministerial rules by failing to disclose that his tax affairs were under investigation by HMRC. He handed over a sum 'just shy of £5million' to close the matter.
There was no job for Zahawi in Nigel Farage's top team. He then blotted his copybook when he said of the war in Iran: 'Whatever the US needs, we should make all of our assets available' – a stance which would now put him at odds with the party hierarchy.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage with former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi as they announced his defection to the party
Reform's other defector, Robert Jenrick, was never popular on the Tory benches.
Simon Hoare, the usually mild-mannered MP for North Dorset, says of his ex-colleague: 'Party loyalty, national interest... not sure Mr Jenrick would recognise those things if they French-kissed him.'
Does Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy tune in to hear her colleagues getting kebabbed on Radio 4's Today programme?
'Heart FM is my morning listening,' she says, citing that their presenters are full of fun.'
Nandy does flick through the newspapers too, she says, lest anyone thinks she remains blissfully unaware of the Government's dire performance.
Defence Secretary John Healey is a creature of habit – he never travels without HP Sauce.
As the New Statesman magazine reveals: 'At the Munich security conference, he produced the welltravelled bottle at dinner to douse his steak with.'
Healey is following in celebrated footsteps. Harold Wilson, who won four general elections for Labour in the 1960s and 1970s, was so keen on the sauce, it was known as 'Wilson's gravy'.
Hannah Spencer MP walking along the River Thames which the caption, 'How I walk to work knowing the Establishment are terrified of me'
New Green MP Hannah Spencer has shared a video of herself strolling along the Thames with the caption: 'How I walk to work knowing the Establishment are terrified of me xx'. Strange. Instead of heading for Parliament, she was walking in the opposite direction!
I spy Morgan McSweeney striding in the direction of Downing Street last Friday. Sir Keir Starmer's ex-chief of staff is deeply mired in the disastrous decision to hire Lord Mandelson as ambassador to US. Yet could he be planning a comeback?
Is Sir Ian just a 'bard' loser?
Legendary luvvie Sir Ian McKellen is baffled by the fuss over the Oscar-winning film Hamnet, the moving tale of William Shakespeare's reaction to the death of his 11-year-old son.
'I don't quite get it,' says McKellen. 'I'm not very interested in trying to work out where Shakespeare's imagination came from, but it certainly didn't just come from his family life.'
Is this the same McKellen who starred in 2018 drama All Is True, directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh, which looked at the same subject? It got zero Oscar nominations compared with Hamnet's eight.
The warm-up act for Chancellor Rachel Reeves before her unimpressive Mais Lecture last week was Andre Spicer, dean of London's Bayes Business School. Just the man. Prof Spicer's book is named 'Business Bull***t'.
