Robert Peston made the most of the scorching temperatures this weekend to perform at the most North London street party imaginable. As the front man of the ‘Centrist Dads’ band, Peston channelled his inner Johnny Rotten in a performance of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK”. He was backed up by BBC host John Wilson, with none other than Ed Balls on drums. They absolutely murdered “One Way or Another” by Blondie:

The crowd at Dartmouth Park on Sunday included Ed Miliband, who was possibly excluded from the band on ideological grounds.

Peston’s dancing hasn’t come far in the past two years…

Amid the fallout from The Sun’s reporting on Huw Edwards’ extra-curricular pursuits, one man felt uniquely qualified to stick his oar in. Step up Robert Peston…

Taking to Twitter, ITV’s Political Editor claimed:

“As a journalist I have spent more or less my entire career weighing up stories by whether they are truly in the public interest or just interesting to the public…”

As the most senior political voice on the country’s second biggest broadcaster, you would hope so… 

This is the same Robert Peston whose confusion led him to believe that ‘picture of man in front of mirror’ constituted public interest news. “This is flipping weird”…

This is flipping weird. The phone cable should be visible in the mirror descending from @BorisJohnson’s watch, in this official Downing St picture. It’s not. What is going on? https://t.co/aRsrMSc0DT

— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 24, 2021

Other greatest hits of Peston’s public interest news-breaking include: reshuffle insights that were almost all wrong, claims that DUP sectarianism would “drive unaligned voters to Sinn Fein”, and, of course, an admission that he is “dim” after falling for a phishing scam. At least he understands how reflections work now. He’d never get a job at the Mirror…

Clearly not content with providing the cutting-edge political insight of a blunt butter knife, Robert Peston has broadened his horizons to TV trivia shows. On the weekend, Peston joined as an “Expert” on Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel. His expertise took him about as far as you’d expect.

Peston first faced a question on US Politics – surely the bread and butter for the ITV News Political Editor. As an expert, he had to advise contestant Nathan on which came first from a list of US political events – including the first televised TV debate, the first woman elected President, the first President elected to a fourth term and when women were granted the vote. Before even giving his answer, he corrected Nathan, who suggested the first televised presidential debate would be in the 60s – insisting “it would’ve been 50s I think”. It was in 1960.

Peston continued:

“I don’t know whether the founding fathers insisted on a two-term limit… it’s possible that in the 19th century a President was elected for four terms. I think I’m gonna go for the fourth term thing”.

Thankfully, Nathan ignored Rob’s advice, instead opting for the correct answer of “women granted right to vote”. After McIntyre explained that Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a fourth term in 1945, Rob chimed in “was he?”. A reminder – ITV pays Peston over £340,000 for his political knowledge…

Unfortunately, Peston’s mistakes didn’t end there. When prompted to which of a list of cycling events involved pairs, Peston said:

“I do watch a bit of cycling and for whatever reason, Keirin springs to mind.”

Keirin was incorrect.

As the show reached its conclusion, the expert panel were ranked based on their performance. Peston came below radio host and model Snoochie, comedian Joel Dommett, TV personality Dr Zoe and friend of the blog Georgia Toffolo. To be fair to Robert he did come in above Bez from the Happy Mondays. Bez of course can’t remember five years of his own life and has difficulty stringing a sentence together…

There’s still no love lost between Liz Kendall and Jeremy Corbyn. Both appeared on Robert Peston’s ITV show last night, and clearly the wounds of 2019 haven’t yet healed for Liz Kendall, who tore into Corbyn for the scale of Labour’s defeat and his total failure to root out antisemitism within the party. As usual for the absolute boy, he repeatedly claimed the problem had been “grossly exaggerated”  and refused to apologise. “He only has himself to blame”, Kendall seethed…

Kendall then proceeded to list all positive ways Sir Keir has improved Labour since Corbyn left, claiming:

“I am proud that Keir Starmer has taken firm action on this issue since he became leader of the Labour Party, and that he has changed the Labour Party since Jeremy Corbyn was leader. That he said that we love our country, that we’re proud of our armed forced, we stand up for NATO… people who think that the problem was exaggerated are actually part of the problem themselves…”

Corbyn also vowed to return as the MP for Islington North after the next election – “1000%” chance, apparently. Stone-faced, Kendall replied ,“I might put it down the other end of the scale.” Ouch.

Despite both Lord Geidt’s resignation letter and the PM’s response being published, the specifics behind the ethics adviser’s decision to quit remain broadly unanswered by both documents. Boris’s letter goes the furthest, specifying Geidt had been asked to look into a “potential future decision related to the Trade Remedies Authority” (TRA), which while “in line with our domestic law… might be seen to conflict with our obligations under the [World Trade Organisation]. With further details emerging, it now looks like Geidt’s decision is not only confusing, it takes the wind out of Labour’s sails…

In 2021 the TRA issued advice to then-Trade Secretary Liz Truss to drop tariffs on certain types of steel. While Truss was initially in favour of complying with the TRA advice, opposition from Cabinet – spearheaded by Kwasi Kwarteng – eventually meant the government deciding to go against it.

As Boris said, while this would be uncontroversial at home, it may have clashed with WTO rules. As reported at the time, rolling over the EU safeguarding measures without an investigation, according to some respondents to the TRA’s review, would be “incompatible with World Trade Organisation rules”. The great irony here is that the minister in charge of TRA policy is none other than Boris’s chief ministerial dissenter Penny Mordaunt, who by extension has now unintentionally caused Geidt to quit. 

The specifics behind Geidt’s resignation also create a headache for Labour, who have been revelling in the news since last night. In 2021 Labour responded to the TRA’s recommendation to withdraw steel safeguards by saying the government “must instead accept Labour’s offer to work together in the national interest and come forward with emergency legislation, which we will support, to amend the regulations and allow Britain’s steel safeguards to be maintained in full.” 

Before these details emerged, it was speculated that Geidt had been asked to investigate an issue relating to a conflict of interest. Even following the publication of both letters, Robert Peston tweeted “the only conclusion to be drawn is that Geidt was asked to sanction tariffs being imposed to help companies with connections to the Conservative Party or ministers.”

The only conclusion to be drawn is that Geidt was asked to sanction tariffs being imposed to help companies with connections to the Conservative Party or ministers.

— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 16, 2022

It now appears not only was this not the only conclusion one could draw, it was an incorrect one. Government sources tell Jim Pickard that Geidt “never” mentioned potential conflicts regarding Tory donors in his conversations and texts about this with the PM. A government source describes Peston’s flawed conclusion slightly more bluntly to Guido, as a “deranged falsehood”.

Conor Burns’s defence of the PM’s lockdown birthday party – that he was “ambushed with a cake” – may have received a Twitter ribbing, including from Nigella herself, though it’s hardly the most unbelievable claim. The PM himself was once caught on camera in exactly such a situation back on Peston’s show in 2016. At the time he’d been facing a barrage over his “have cake and eat it” quote regarding Brexit. Who ambushed the then-foreign secretary with the cake? None other than Robert Peston’s co-presenter, Allegra Stratton…