Emily Maitlis' Tony Blair interview revelation

Tony Blair’s interview condemning Labour antisemitism may, it turns out, have been a favour for a friend.

Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis relates in her new memoir Airhead how she grew suspicious as to why the ex-PM approached her to do it as his words lacked passion.

Suspecting he was leaned on, she rings “Labour donors, well-known Jewish figures” and confirms it is true.

“The interview was done as a favour. It was the interview he was always going to give: no less, no more,” she writes.

Witchhunter seeks girlfriend

Readers may recall Pete Gregson and his long email row with another member of Labour Against the Witchhunt about whether he should distance himself from a Holocaust denier.

Fearing imminent expulsion from the group, he has written a long rant defending himself, attacking those he’d rowed with and complaining it was impacting his romantic life.

“All this slanderous Holocaust denier s**t is ruining my attempts to lure a girlfriend,” he moans.

One way to stop him

So, how would you caption this set of pictures of a cyclist getting on the wrong side of a tussle with a barrier? Is it Boris Johnson testing new technology for the Irish border? Or Prince Philip scaling down from his Land Rover?

That was the challenge set on the last episode of the BBC’s satirical series Have I Got News for You. So what did host David Tennant go for? Of course — it’s “Jeremy Corbyn on his way to allotment regrets taking a short cut through a local synagogue.”

Now, why didn’t we think of that?