15-07-2025
Is James Cleverly plotting a Boris-style path to power?
James Cleverly is understood to be considering running for the London mayoralty
James Cleverly is being very coy. The former foreign secretary would not be drawn on his career plans after giving a speech at the IPPR think tank yesterday, but Kemi Badenoch should not worry that yet another person is working on a leadership challenge. Cleverly is flirting with a tilt at the London mayoralty, and TMS understands he is 'actively supporting' polling work that is looking at how the Tories can win borough after borough.
This career path was last travelled by Boris Johnson (so it's more of a cycle lane) and it can lead to great things. You just need to know when to stop having your cake and eating it.
Ed Miliband declared that his shadow Claire Coutinho had gone into 'hiding' when she missed his climate statement on Monday. However, she was back at yesterday's environment questions and, after parliamentary undersecretary Kerry McCarthy made another point about the no show, they were all left a little red-faced when Coutinho revealed she had been caring for her six month-old baby. Miliband could not continue the session until he'd reaffirmed his feminist credentials by talking about the importance of understanding 'the needs of new parents'.
Many people think that prime minister's questions is an awful spectacle, but at least David Cameron stopped it from becoming a rap battle. The former education secretary Michael Gove told The Political Party at the Duchess Theatre that he tried to persuade Cameron to perform raps at the dispatch box.
'I was perhaps unduly and overly influenced by the rap battles in Hamilton,' Gove said. This proved a hard sell to an Old Etonian PM, and Gove's dream was never realised. However, he's still working in music and delighted the crowd with a version of Rasputin with lyrics rewritten for the historian of Russia, Simon Sebag Montefiore. It may be niche, but Boney M now faces a challenge from Govey M.
Gove also had advice for those looking for potential defectors as his former Tory colleagues try to stop turncoats from joining Reform. When he was chief whip, he was assured by the MP Mark Reckless that he was not about to defect to Ukip. However, Gove's suspicions were piqued when they went for lunch and Reckless offered to pay for his half. 'I knew he was going to defect,' Gove said. 'He wasn't so dishonourable to have me pay for his steak and chips.'
The journalist David Hepworth has made a career out of interviewing rock stars, but some were difficult to get a tune out of. He told The Oldie's literary lunch that interviewing Bob Dylan was a 'herculean' task, recalling a chat with the American on a taciturn day. In Hepworth's words, 'the loudest sound in the room that day was beads of sweat dropping from my forehead'. Eventually, the PR from the record company thought a break might loosen Dylan up. 'How do you think it's going?' she asked. 'I don't know,' Dylan replied. 'He keeps asking me questions.'
