Netflix has announced the cast for its upcoming dramatisation of Emily Maitlis’s infamous Prince Andrew interview for Newsnight. Based on Scoops, the memoir by interview producer Sam McAlister, Maitlis will be played by Gillian Anderson, with Billie Piper featuring as McAlister and Rufus Sewell starring as Prince Andrew himself. The film begins shooting later this month. Some strong resemblances…

Lord Baker couldn’t work out how to stop his mobile phone ringing during his interview last night. In the end after the fourth time he handed it to Victoria Derbyshire to deal with. We’ve all had it happen…

Shadow Commons Leader Thangam Debbonaire used an appearance on Newsnight last night to criticise some of the reporting by Sky and Tortoise on donations to MPs. After an interview about Nadhim Zahawi’s taxes, Kirsty Wark widened the discussion to questions about MPs’ finances as a whole. Citing the ‘Westminster Files’ data investigation by Sky and Tortoise, she described it as an attempt to shine a light on what MPs get from whom. Thangam cut in:

 “That’s not strictly accurate, what they did was they showed donations as well as income. And frequently what I saw on Sky was a collapsing of the two things together. So there was some reporting which was misleading and said ‘so and so received such and such money’ when actually it had gone to their campaign, or to their constituency party.”

Thangam’s right about this – as Tom Harwood wrote recently. Investigating money in politics is an ancient pursuit for journalists, however implying that Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer or Rebecca Long-Bailey had money put into their personal bank accounts by donors to their respective leadership campaigns is obvious nonsense. Some MPs saw the Sky News website sloppily imply they’d personally pocketed money given by groups to fund policy experts in their offices, or pay for leaflets for their local constituency association. The Sky/Tortoise website stripped the context out to imply something darker happening in British politics. It muddied the water, it didn’t make things clearer…

Former Minister and Boris ally Stephen Greenhalgh used a Newsnight appearance last night to predict that 2023 will be the year Boris Johnson returns to No. 10. Using the show’s prediction whiteboard, Lord Greenhalgh told viewers he believes the unions will lose support; NHS reforms will stall; the economy will rebound; and Boris will return. While Greenhalgh has skin in the game, the two other panellists – Salma Shah and Stephen Bush – also agreed Boris will attempt a comeback this year off the back of a poor economic outlook. Local elections in May could prove to be a catalytic nightmare for Rishi.  Guido’s not so sure Boris wants to come back so soon…

Hard-left Corbyn fan girl MP Nadia Whittome was condemned by Wes Streeting on Newsnight last night for a tweet she posted after Rishi Sunak was confirmed as the new Tory leader and PM-designate. Whittome explained to her followers that Rishi is effectively so rich he is no longer Asian in the eyes of the left.

Streeting told Newsnight, “I think she’s done the right thing and deleted it… I think that’s a matter for Keir and I’m sure it’s no coincidence the tweet’s been deleted.”

“I’ll put it this way: there are children in my constituency this evening who turned on the news to see someone who looked like them about to become our country’s Prime Minister. I think that’s a wonderful thing.”

Angela Rayner also told PA “I think it’s really important actually today to see our politicians, I’ve said this many times as a working class girl with an accent from Manchester, for our politicians to represent and for people to see themselves within our senior politicians.”

Labour officials gave Nadia a stern word and told her to delete the tweet, rather than realising of her own volition it was a bad look. She’s yet to apologise. For the hard left, anti-racism only applies to fellow comrades…

The BBC has announced that veteran presenter Victoria Derbyshire is taking over as lead presenter of Newsnight, after Emily Maitlis jumped ship to LBC earlier this year. Derbyshire will present the show along with existing Newsnight regular Kirsty Walk from September. 

Announcing the move this morning, Derbyshire said:

“I am so delighted to be joining the legend that is Kirsty Wark and the talented Newsnight team under new and ambitious leadership. This is a special opportunity to take on one of the best jobs in British journalism and help shape the programme’s future. I can’t wait to champion more stories about people’s lives while holding those who represent them to account.”

There were rumours Derbyshire was in talks to join in the BBC’s brain drain and head to Channel 4, so it looks like she’s been thrown a bone here. Guido looks forward to seeing her pay rise in the next BBC annual audit…