ANDREW PIERCE: How humiliating! Starmer could lose seat to Corbyn ally

Daily Mail​

10 hours ago

After his disastrous first 12 months in No 10, most polls already point to Sir Keir Starmer losing the next general election. But will he forfeit his Commons seat as well?
That indignity looks increasingly likely thanks to the efforts of his predecessor as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who was expelled from the party last May.
Over the past week, Jezza's newly launched rival party has set up shop in Holborn & St Pancras, the north London constituency held by Starmer since 2015.
More worrying for the PM is the candidate who will contest the seat for Corbyn's party at the next election: Andrew Feinstein, the pro-Palestinian activist who ran as an independent in the constituency last year.
He secured an astonishing 19 per cent of the vote, slashing Starmer's majority from 28,000 to just 11,000.
Next time round, with the resources of Corbyn's party behind him, Feinstein is likely to fight an even more effective campaign. And his supporters are confident it will take him all the way to Westminster.
PS Whispers from the Westminster cloisters: Keir Starmer has fallen out with his Commons Chief Whip, Sir Alan Campbell.
I'm told Campbell was unhappy when Starmer and his sidekick Morgan McSweeney suspended York MP Rachael Maskell from the Labour Party for rebelling over benefits cuts.
Prime Ministers seldom prosper when they argue with their Chief Whips – and Campbell is nobody's fool.
He was hardly known for his charm and good manners when it came to his successor Margaret Thatcher, but it seems former PM Ted Heath was just as rude to his staff.
Lord Patten remembers being summoned to Heath's Piccadilly apartment in the mid-1970s. Patten and his colleagues arrived at 9am but Heath did not appear until 10am – in a kimono.
'About 1pm, his housekeeper comes in with a silver tray with a bottle of Chablis, a plate of lobster salad, and some brie and camembert,' recalls Patten, who hadn't even been offered a coffee.
'As Heath tucked in, he asked: 'Have you had anything to eat, boys?' We said: 'No, Ted, we haven't.' He said, 'Aww, you must be very hungry then.' That was it.'
Jets on a wing and a prayer
Labour's commitment to hike defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035 will include the purchase from US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin of 12 F-35 stealth jets, which can carry nuclear warheads.
So how much will they cost?
Cue this answer from defence minister Maria Eagle: 'Prices will be identified during contract negotiations.'
No wonder the defence procurement budget is in such a mess.
Tory culture spokesman Nigel Huddleston can't be accused of not being on top of his, er, brief at the lower end of the arts.
His brother-in-law was a member of all-male strip troupe the Chippendales, and even stripped off at the Tory MP's wedding in 1999. Sadly, he no longer provides that kind of entertainment. As Nigel says: 'They retire young in that line of work.'
On his Rosebud podcast, former MP Gyles Brandreth says he was proud to watch his MP daughter Aphra in a Commons debate she initiated: 'Watching her speaking was moving, and she was brilliant. What was interesting was the subject... potholes!'
Political leaders like to bask in the reflected glory of giving awards to rock stars, but Noddy Holder, lead singer of Slade, has gone one better than Sirs Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart and Paul McCartney.
He's been offered a token Lordship... from the Monster Raving Loony Party.