London Minister and former Tory Party chairman Greg Hands is on the morning round today. When talk came to planning for the year ahead on Times Radio, presenter Stig Abell asked Hands:

“Are you ready for a May election if it comes, do you think there is any sniff of actually there being a general election in May?“

Despite Jon Ashworth predicting a May poll on the same morning round along with increasing Westminster rumours, Hands had a short answer: “No.”

Meanwhile, Nick Ferrari tells Hands the Tories are the Sheffield United of politics, 5-0 at half down as they face some of the lowest polling on record. Hands could be forgiven for not wanting to head to the polls just right now…

Another week, another way that Labour attempts to “clarify” their position on the £28 billion black hole. Keir Starmer has once again brought the figure to the forefront, despite his Shadow Chancellor refusing to mention the number just last week. In an interview with Times Radio’s Kate McCann, he refuted claims of “scaling back” the pledge, asserting that the £28 billion is “desperately needed” for green investment. As Guido said when LOTO first came up with the commitment, whatever the details, a vast amount of borrowing will be necessary to fund it…

Starmer was clearly in a bold mood during the interview, as he went on to compare himself to Arteta, the Arsenal football manager. An interesting choice considering Arsenal hasn’t won the Premier League since Arteta took over. Will it be Arteta in or Arteta out…

Guido readers will be pleased to see Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has admitted that the BBC is biased. On the media round this morning, she told Sky News that she “think that on occasions it has been biased“, and told Times Radio, “there was a perception among audiences…we need to do more in relation to impartiality“. Co-conspirators will remember the broadcaster’s misreporting of an attack on a hospital in Gaza, which Frazer pointed to as an example of BBC bias. This comes after complaints made about the BBC has soared by more than 50% last year. Who can blame them, when overpaid stars continue to use their platforms for political preaching…

Ofcom is set to be given more powers to investigate the BBC, though it’s doubtful they’ll do much to correct the issue. Frazer even went on to say she is considering stripping the BBC of powers to prosecute people for non-payment of the eye-watering licence fee, saying it was not “appropriate for the BBC to have criminal tools in its armoury”. Guido can only agree…

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick went off script today on Times Radio, suggesting that further measures may be needed to cut down migration.

Discussing Home Secretary James Cleverly’s new five-point plan to cut net migration, he conceded there would be “merits” to introducing an annual cap on net migration, a proposal he’s put forward in the past. No wonder the Tory-right love him…

Jeremy Corbyn has been lying to Times Radio and on Piers Morgan Uncensored about his infamous line calling Hamas “friends“. Attempting to rewrite history, he claimed on Times Radio last night that he only referenced Hamas as friends at the event 10 years ago as “they’d gone out of the room and I said in a collegiate way, where has our friend gone? That was all I said.” He again said the same on Piers Morgan Uncensored. Guido has the original video where he says “I’ve also invited friends from Hamas to come and speak as well…”

More over at the same event he claimed specifically that the government labelling Hamas as terrorists was a big historical mistake. It turns out that it was Corbyn making the big historical mistake…

Thanks as ever to @TimesCorbyn for the archive footage.

Following the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ damning report that this parliament will be the most tax-raising on record, the economic secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith confirmed concerns that the tax burden won’t be relieved any time soon.

Speaking on Times Radio, he was asked if he could commit to no further tax rises . “Regretfully” he replied, “I can’t give you a commitment“. He did at least assure listeners the Conservatives are “philosophically” in favour of a strong economy and “directionally” support low taxes. ‘In theory’ and ‘in practice’ aren’t quite the same thing…