The Mirror’s Political Editor job is a much-prized title for any high-flying, ambitious and – most importantly – pro-Labour political hacks. Now Pippa’s moved aside in favour of The Guardian – a paper in need of a regular SW1 scoop-getter – Guido’s turned his attention to who might be next in line for the star prize. Runners and riders currently within the Mirror family are highlighted in red…

• Ben Glaze – An obvious choice, has played the role of Pippa’s Deputy Political Editor for five and a half years. Is overly familiar with The Mirror’s political campaign line after racking up seven and a half years of reporting for them, though doesn’t spring to mind as someone who could easily step into Crerar’s large scoop-getting shoes. 
• Mikey Smith – The Mirror’s current Whitehall Correspondent, almost nine years at the paper. Resentfully liked by some in Tory circles for his wry, ankle-bitey writing. A particular fan of sleaze and government transparency scoops. Would he struggle to juggle the new job’s extra hours with his imminent fatherhood?
  
• Rachel Wearmouth – Senior political correspondent at The Mirror, set to join the New Statesman as deputy political editor later this year. Guido reckons she could easily be persuaded to drop those plans if offered Pippa’s job. Andrew Marr wouldn’t be happy…
• Dan Bloom – Mirror’s online political editor. Racks up a decent number of exclusives. Spoken highly of by colleagues.
• Keir Mudie – Deputy News Editor, Sunday Mirror and People. Prolific opinion writer for the website. Could the Mirror go down the BBC route of choosing an internal transfer?
• Lizzy Buchan – The online Mirror’s Deputy Political Editor, albeit for the relatively short stint of less than two years. Previously of the Independent, PA and The Scotsman. Seemingly strong on Labour scoops. A potential front runner if the paper wants to promote a woman from within. 
• Dan Sabbagh – The Guardian’s defence and security editor, previously the Guardian’s national news editor with major experience covering Brexit from 2018, currently focusing on Ukraine. A former Labour Councillor and communications guy for Oona King…
• Jess Elgot – The banter option if The Mirror wants to get their own back at The Guardian for poaching Pippa. Currently The Guardian’s chief political correspondent. Guido’s not sure what would allure her away from her current job… more money?
• Gabriel Pogrund – Certainly a promotion within Progrund’s ability, one of the best hacks of his age group with consistently big exclusives for the Sunday Times as their Whitehall correspondent. A seemingly endless contact book for Labour stories, with a book already under his belt last year with Patrick Maguire, detailing Corbyn’s slow-motion car crash in 2019. Would presumably have to come with a significant pay rise to tempt him over…
• Patrick Maguire – The Times’ Red Box editor of two years, with two years at the leftie New Statesman before that. Similar to Pogrund has extensive Labour networks and a good writer at that. Or is his eye on the soon-to-be vacant Politico Playbook editor vacancy? 
• Emily Ashton – Politics reporter at Bloomberg. Another major contender if The Mirror is concerned about the gender make-up of their team. There is that old problem of hacks struggling to part from Bloomberg’s exceptionally deep pockets…
• Lewis Goodall – Left-wing enough, might have an eye on a non-screen role these days as his hair disappears. Would make for excellent preparation ahead of a possible head of communications job in Wes Streeting’s government…
• Matt Chorley – It’s a thought.
• Tom Newton Dunn – should the TV career come to an imminent end he would have useful transferable tabloid skills from his time as political editor of The Sun.
• Ben Riley-Smith – The Daily Telegraph’s political editor is known to be looking for a transfer after missing out on The Guardian pol-ed job.

Job news! I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be rejoining The Guardian as Political Editor this summer, taking over from the inestimable @GuardianHeather. Very excited about working with the brilliant politics team to hold politicians and power to account. https://t.co/qUyDZ4BmMc

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) May 10, 2022

Commiserations to Ben Riley-Smith…

During PMQs The Mirror’s Pippa Crerar dropped a deliberately-timed new photo of an event we already knew about – the No. 10 Christmas Zoom Quiz. Previously the Lobby went mental over a screenshot of Stuart Glassborow (the PM’s Deputy PPS) wearing a bit of tinsel – it failed to meet the Metropolitan Police’s threshold for investigation; the new photo shows an open bottle of £12 Prosecco. We’re now told this makes it meet the threshold for investigation. 

Given Gray has fully investigated this event, she’ll have known about the booze, the police will therefore have been told about the open bottle, if not already have the photo among their collection of 300 – they didn’t change their mind. The Lobby had a meltdown over the Guardian garden gathering picture that featured the PM and Carrie drinking red wine. That, despite the existence of booze and many more people, didn’t meet the threshold. A last attempt to get another Tory MP over the no confidence letter line ahead of recess…

The Daily Mirror’s coverage of the Jenrick affair is very muted. In fact it is hard to find it mentioned in the printed version of the paper at all this morning. You would have thought a Tory sleaze with billionaires story would be splashed day in, day out all over the front pages of the Daily Mirror. Pippa Crerar, the political editor, loves nothing more than bashing the Tories and sticking it to the powerful. So how come she’s so silent on this story?

Could it be because at the infamous fundraising dinner the Mirror’s editor-in-chief, Lloyd Embley, was there too? Guido spoke to the usually ebullient editor and asked him if it was true, that he was sat at the table with Richard Desmond – off whom he negotiated the purchase of the Daily Star and Daily Express. He was a tad evasive, though he didn’t deny it. 

Perhaps Pippa could ask her editor-in-chief what was said at the table. She might get a scoop. Though given her editor has been sitting on the story for months and Richard Desmond owns 8% of her employer, Guido is not sure how fearless she is going to be in speaking truth to power…