This morning the Today Programme brought on the BBC’s North America editor, Sarah Smith, to give her analysis of Tim Walz‘ running-mate speech at the Democratic National Convention. What followed was pure fawning praise:

“It was a very impressive performance from somebody who is not an experienced public speaker and he gave the energy of your favorite high school teacher suddenly stepping up to the plate and telling the country things could be better I thought it was really interestingly brief which is always merciful in political speeches and extremely effective and he showed that this is a man who is a campaigner who is ready for the national stage even though I think most people in that hall had not heard of him three weeks ago.“

Nick Robinson tried to offer some counter by weakly adding that Republicans call Walz a “phony“. Smith was having none of it:

“That was a man dripping in authenticity that we saw appear there tonight. Somebody really very very unaffected by the national stage who looked entirely what he is: A former high school teacher a former football coach, the governor of a small state who’s proud of what he’s achieved in that state and who wants to bring things to America. There is nothing about him that seems contrived in any way at all. Now maybe you don’t want somebody bringing the ‘big dad’ energy to the campaign maybe you don’t like his small-town values but I think it would be very difficult to describe him as a phony of any kind.“

Robinson then also gave up with the impartiality malarkey and said Walz is a “very good warm-up act too“. To much agreement:

“He does, and and he was talking a lot about how proud he is of Harris and how great she will be for the country and he was a very very effective spokesperson for her.“

The entire 23-minute episode of Smith’s Americast episode about JD Vance’s RNC speech featured only impartial, to-be-expected coverage. Guido leaves it up to co-conspirators to decide whether today’s coverage corresponds with the BBC’s impartiality guidelines…

Michael Ashcroft’s “Red Queen” biography of Angela Rayner has already generated a lot of headlines, Guido is of the view that the biggest story in the book is yet to be told. In an almost throw-away paragraph at the end of Chapter Nine in the book is an explosive tale:

“What is perhaps more intriguing is that, throughout this time, there was alarm bordering on paranoia in select Labour circles that the extramarital affair of a senior party figure other than Rayner was in danger of being exposed. Most damagingly, the male politician at the centre of the claims is said to have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with a woman that had lasted until after his own wife was pregnant with their first child. The politician’s lover, who is herself a public figure, then went on to have a child of her own. She left the name of her child’s father off her child’s birth certificate. This led to concerns that the Labour politician was in fact the child’s father, but there was no evidence to support that.”

It is a story that hacks are gossiping about in private, the story has been going around in legal circles for years and Guido hears that more than one newspaper is only now trying to stand the story up. Labour’s senior campaign operatives are well aware of the story and are said to have prepared a counter-strategy if it breaks during the election campaign.

Most Lobby hacks are aware of the name of the “senior party figure” in question and yet seem strangely incurious to investigate. Guido has however seen the birth certificate in question where the father’s name is left blank. Curious…

Given how a recent PM was asked over and over again about his private life before and once he was PM, including how many children he had, Lobby hacks seem strangely lacking in curiosity during this campaign. Perhaps we will have to wait for someone like Piers Morgan or Nick Robinson to ask the classic question “Have you ever been unfaithful to your wife?” Maybe Nick Ferrari could ask the same question he asked of Boris; “How many children do you have?” 

Ofcom has got into a spat with Today presenter Nick Robinson over the channel’s rulings on GB News. Robinson complained this morning that Nigel Farage can present programmes on the channel along with Reform leader Tice and Lee Anderson MP. When someone pointed out that David Lammy, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, has a show on LBC, Robinson said “he’ll be a candidate so not permitted to present during an election campaign“. Which also applies to Anderson – D’oh!

So, @Nigel_Farage – one of the founders & owners of @reformparty_uk – can present an “impartial” programme on a TV “news” channel during the general election according to the broadcasting regulator @ofcom. The leader of the party @TiceRichard & its only MP @LeeAndersonMP_ can… https://t.co/G210M6rTp3

— Nick Robinson (@bbcnickrobinson) April 24, 2024

Ofcom’s executive for broadcast regulation Cristina Nicolotti Squires has admitted anti-GB News fanatics are hell-bent on destroying the channel:

“There are some people who won’t be happy unless we shut GB News down tomorrow and that’s not the kind of country we live in. We’re not censors. Nick would be the first one to be cross if Ofcom told him how Today ought to be. We live in a country with editorial freedom and the right for broadcasters to decide how they make programmes. It’s up to them to make them impartial.”

Ofcom is yet to decide if Farage is counted as a politician, which would make his show very difficult to do according to the rules. Even ITV refers to him as an “ex-politician”…

Nick Robinson explains his use of language…

“There’s been some controversy about words I used when I was interviewing the Foreign Secretary David Cameron on The Today Programme abut Israel this morning. My final question was about the perceived “morality” of the government’s position – in particular the “risk” that their position could “appear” to look like active support for Israel when it is under attack but nothing other than words “when Israel attacks or murders tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians”. I should have been clearer that I was not expressing my own view let alone that of the BBC when I used the words “murders”. In this 15 minute long interview I asked the Foreign Secretary why ministers had supported Israel militarily; why they didn’t go further & support Israel in confronting Iran; why they weren’t tougher in confronting Israel over Gaza and ended with that question about the perceived “morality” and the “risk” of how the government’s position “appears”. It was a lengthy and detailed exploration of the policy choices made by the government.”

Rishi’s more spirited side came out this morning in a testy exchange with Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4. Following his roll back of Net Zero policies yesterday, Robinson accused Rishi of telling the public of things that “aren’t true“,  and that his new plans were “all about politics“. Rishi was quick to retort: “This is absolutely about doing what I believe to be in the long term interests for the country.”

Rishi didn’t waste the opportunity  to take a dig at his predecessors, claiming “I could take the easy way out. That’s what politicians have done previously”. A feistier Sunak showing some grit…

Nigel Farage has just had a furious clash with with Nick Robinson on the Today Programme, after Robinson suggested – apropos of nothing – that the NatWest saga might be a pretext for Farage to return to frontline politics. “You’ve run seven times and lost seven times” obviously wasn’t going to go down well…

“I’m really not going to have this. I am sick to death of your condescending tone… what you should say to people is, you’re the only person in British history who’s won two national election in two different parties. Let’s try that for size, shall we?”

Farage is taking no prisoners this morning…