NEW: The Tory MP who chairs the health select committee lobbied the NHS Chief Exec and ministers on behalf of a company paying him £1,600 a month.

Steve Brine told Michael Gove in February 2021 he had been “trying for months” to get work for his employer.
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0… At the time Remedium, a recruitment consultancy, had been paying Brine as a “strategic adviser” at a rate of £200/hour

But he was frustrated the NHS had not used its services to hire anaesthetists, telling Gove: “How might I progress this or does the NHS just not need the help?”

NEW: Therese Coffey quietly announced this morning that the government is going to miss its own deadline for setting clean water, air and biodiversity targets.

Embarrassing as they were meant to be done by Oct 31 - in time to be discussed at COP27. telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/… Biodiversity is one of the main purposes of COP27 in Egypt - it's meant to be the conference that "goes beyond carbon".

Rishi Sunak is already under pressure after he said he doesn't have time to go because he's preparing the Autumn Statement.

EXC: Jacob Rees-Mogg says he no longer believes Rishi Sunak is a "socialist" and would now serve in his Cabinet if asked.

He urges Tory unity and warns party faces wipeout at the next GE.

Tells @Telegraph he is proud of achievements as Business Secretary
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/… Asked about his comment in July that Sunak was a socialist, he said:

"That was said in the run up to the leadership campaign, under very different circumstances. The leader of the Conservative Party is clearly not a socialist."

BREAKING LECTERN NEWS:
Rishi does not have his own lectern because there was no time to design a new one, I'm told.

He has a leftover straight version of Liz Truss's "twisty" lectern.
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/… The lecterns take around three weeks to build and cost between £2000 and £4000.

They are constructed from wood with a metal core to stop them from blowing over.

Each Tory PM has two - one in CCHQ and one in No10. They are retired to the archives when each PM stands down.

There is a rumour going around Tory MPs that the party whips have spies near Sir Graham Brady’s office and are watching for people who visit to deliver their letters of no-confidence in Boris Johnson. Some less brave MPs have given their letters to other members to deliver. Any MPs who are worried about this should know it’s now possible to email your letter into Sir Graham rather than delivering it in person. But that doesn’t have quite the same dramatic feel to it, I suppose.

BREAKING: No10 has apologised to Buckingham Palace after our story that aides attended boozy parties while the Queen mourned her husband.

Boris' deputy spokesman: "It's deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning and No10 has apologised to the Palace." But the spokesman said the Prime Minister *did not know* about the parties before he left for Chequers.

Downing Street says we will have to wait for the inquiry to find out when exactly Johnson found out about them.

No one has resigned or been sacked (yet).

🚨EXCLUSIVE

Number 10 held two boozy parties the night before the Queen mourned Prince Philip alone.

Staff drank and at points danced until the early hours of the night of April 16.

Hours later, the Queen went to a socially-distanced funeral for Philip. telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/… We have spoken to eyewitnesses. At a leaving do for a No10 photographer it’s alleged:

🥂Staff partied in the basement of No10, to music DJd by a special adviser.

🥂One broke Wilf Johnson’s swing in the No10 garden.

🥂Another was sent to the Co-op with a suitcase to buy booze.

Launching her new “True and Fair” party, Gina Miller says she wants to provide a party people “genuinely believe in”.

She’s got polling that reckons two thirds of the country would vote for a new party. She says the “immoral, irresponsible” behaviour of the two main parties is damaging public trust in politics.

“Ours is a country that is crying out for change…in need of a party that is focussed on right and wrong, not right and left.”

🌹Exclusive: Jeremy Corbyn is considering setting up his own political party after accepting he will never be readmitted as a Labour MP.

Figures in Corbyn’s inner circle, including his wife, think he should turn his Peace and Justice Project into a party. telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/… Corbyn got 63% of the vote in Islington North in 2019 so many think he would win again, even without Labour’s backing.

But sources say there is a concern the Corbyn party would be *too* successful and attract defections from the Socialist Campaign Group - harming Labour.

🇦🇫 EXC 🇦🇫

As Pen Farthing escapes Afghanistan with 150 cats and dogs, there are British people still there.

This is Ben Slater, former bodyguard to ambassadors, who has spent 2 weeks helping evacuate people.

Now he thinks he might not get out himself. telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202… Slater has been on the front line, passing people over the fence at Kabul airport.

“They started firing rubber bullets, throwing dispersion grenades,” he told me.

"I was lifting babies out of the sewage. I was lifting small children, and the parents were helping me."

The Tory MP Danny Kruger has been fined £120 plus costs of £609 by a court because his 11-month old puppy Pebble caused a stampede of 200 deer. In a video taken by a member of the public that sounds a lot like the Fenton video, Kruger can be heard repeatedly shouting "Pebble" before putting the dog on a lead.

NEW: Government laptops given to schools for students to use at home have come pre-installed with a serious virus that tries to connect them to a Russian server. telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/… An email to teachers from Bradford Council says DFE techies believe the "infected file was last modified on 7/12/2019 shortly after the laptop was manufactured".