Iain Dale was forced to repeatedly correct Lib Dem MEPs’ Deputy Leader Luisa Porritt after she continuously got basic details about the new agreement wrong. It became increasingly clear that Porritt hadn’t even read the deal she was arguing against. Excruciating…

It’s not the first time a Lib Dem has been taken apart in a radio interview. Becoming quite the genre…

Iain Dale tore apart the Vice President of the EU Parliament last night, who tried to criticise Boris Johnson’s new deal without having read his letter setting out the details. Virtually anonymous EU politicians are very rarely subjected to this kind of scrutiny, and Dale batted away Heidi Hautala’s waffle with facts.

In the extraordinary exchange, Hautala not only revealed she has not read the letter, but also called the 2016 vote a “so-called referendum”; said she supports a second one; didn’t know checks occur away from the border in ports like Rotterdam; and seemed surprised that the interview was “very challenging”. If only Monsieur Barnier himself was willing to put himself under the same scrutiny UK politicians face…

Today’s spectacular Labour second independence referendum row sparked by John McDonnell has overshadowed a far more sinister policy proposal put forward by the Shadow Chancellor last night in conversation with Iain Dale. His desire to imprison his political opponents.

Corbyn’s notoriously aggressive deputy was challenged about past footage of him calling Tories “social criminals” who should be tried in court, initially shrugging it off and saying “I was angry. It was after the first round of benefit cuts”. When Dale pressed him and asked what law Tories would be tried under, McDonnell replied “I might want to invent it”. Marxists always turn to Stalinism eventually…

Iain Dale’s Edinburgh Festival show continues to generate great news nuggets, last night it was the turn of John McDonnell who gift-wrapped two exquisite presents for Boris Johnson on the Edinburgh stage. McDonnell ruled out Labour supporting any sort of ‘national unity’ Government to try to stop No Deal that wasn’t led by Jeremy Corbyn. It wasn’t an off-the-cuff position, perennially rising star Rebecca Long-Bailey repeated the line last night as well…

This renders any Remainer plot to replace Boris with a ‘caretaker’ Prime Minister like Hilary Benn or Yvette Cooper following a vote of no confidence completely toothless, while it is highly unlikely that a majority of MPs would countenance Corbyn being PM, even temporarily to stop No Deal. Much as the vast majority of Tory Remainer MPs draw the line at Corbyn as PM being worse than no deal, there is nothing Corbyn wants to see less than another Blairite as Prime Minister…

McDonnell wasn’t finished handing Boris gifts, he also said that Labour “would not block” a second Scottish Indepedendence Referendum. Labour have tanked in Scotland since hard-left leader Richard Leonard took over. McDonnell now appears to be doing his best to finish them off…

It’s not often that Guido agrees with Nicola Sturgeon but her brutal assessment of conversations with Theresa May at Iain Dale’s Edinburgh Fringe show will have got politicians and dignitaries the world over nodding in agreement:

“Having conversations with Theresa May was pretty soul-destroying and tortuous [laughter]. You know, that was her style and by the end of this interview people might decide that I should have taken some of her advice – she would never depart from a script, no matter where you tried to take the conversation.”

Sturgeon went on to pay Boris Johnson as much of a compliment as he could expect from the leader of the SNP, saying “Boris Johnson does talk a good game. He’s one of these guys that talks utter nonsense with complete conviction and confidence”. Presumably John “Lynch” McDonnell will be equally charitable when he joins Dale for tonight’s show…

I will be eternally grateful to all those people who have supported me – your generosity and kind words of encouragement have kept me going – and allowed me to win against the @ElectoralCommUK.

Here’s my interview with @LBC‘s @IainDale on my win in court against them 👇 pic.twitter.com/XQAM7Gte3w

— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) July 20, 2019