ANDREW PIERCE: Is early election plotter heading for the Lords?

By ANDREW PIERCE FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 00:08, 16 September 2024 | UPDATED: 00:54, 16 September 2024

There was a rare sighting of Rishi Sunak in the corridors of the Commons last week.

He cut a lonely figure, shorn of the entourage which always accompanied him when he was prime minister.

Instead, by his side was James Forsyth, Sunak's old chum from Winchester College who went on to become his political aide in No10.

Forsyth, best man at Sunak's wedding and godfather to his daughters, was instrumental in his disastrous decision to call an early general election in July.

Sunak has clearly forgiven him.

I hear Forsyth's name is on a 'spreadsheet' of names the former PM is putting together for his resignation honours list.

We should hardly be surprised at this reward for failure. Liam Booth-Smith, who was Sunak's chief of staff and whose fingerprints were also all over the early election plan, is already draped in ermine in the Upper House. 

Lord Forsyth? The prospect will surely stick in the craw of the 251 Tory MPs who lost their seats at the election because of his staggering misjudgement.

Anne Robinson, the journalist, TV presenter and author, says her much-publicised facelift has proved a talking point in the strangest of settings.

'At a party, Gordon Brown's female sidekick talked about tax and then said to me: "How much did your face cost?"'

Newly enobled Labour veteran Harriet Harman was a riot of colour for her introduction to the House of Lords.

Lady Harman of Peckham wore her ermine robes over a candy-pink trouser suit topped with a pair of blue spectacles.

In her rainbow hues, she looked not entirely unlike a Teletubbie.

Overheard on the Commons terrace: The Culture minister Chris Bryant revealing he had been asked to pose for a selfie with a complete stranger at the Royal Opera House.

Apparently, his admirer had mistaken him for Daniel Craig. They should've gone to Specsavers.

Scottish Lib Dem Angus ­MacDonald drawled so lairdishly in his maiden speech that one Labour voice snorted: 'He sounds like a Tory'. Not wrong.

Multi-­millionaire MacDonald, an habitue of gentlemen's clubs, was once a big Tory donor, but switched to the Lib Dems where he had a better chance of grabbing a seat.

Editor of The Spectator Fraser Nelson writes that after the magazine's £100 million purchase by Sir Paul Marshall, he contacted Sir Henry Keswick whose £100,000 purchase of the magazine in 1975 saved the title.

Keswick's reaction? 'He said: 'If the new proprietor asks, I'll recommend that he fires you,' ' reveals Fraser.

'Crestfallen, I asked why. He said we refused to review a book by Tessa, his late wife, about her time in China.'

Brown and Reeves at odds

Entering the Treasury last week was Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer for a decade in Blair's government.

It was his first trip back to his old fiefdom since he became PM in 2007. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall.

In his last speech as PM at the Labour conference, Brown cited the winter fuel allowance as his greatest achievement.

The current chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who professes to be a huge admirer of Brown, and even kept a framed photograph of him in her university bedroom – has just scrapped it for millions of pensioners.

An uneasy reminder for the remaining Tory leadership candidates, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat.

Only two years ago, all four were appointed proud ministers in Liz Truss's doomed cabinet.