Congratulations to the newest member of Liverpool city council, 22-year old Ellie Byrne, who claimed her own stonking majority in the by-election for the Everton ward seat on Thursday – raking in 925 votes on a 62% share. A seat which, until January, was held by her Labour MP Ian Byrne… her father.

Byrne held the council position alongside his Westminster seat for over two years, presumably because he knew he was the best person for the job. Now his daughter has graduated from university, that appears to have changed, with Ellie soaring to victory without so much as giving an interview to local press and to the dismay of fellow campaigners. An anonymous email from furious Labour activists leading up to the election wrote:

“Does Labour condone nepotism as a way to recruit councillor candidates? To say we are startled by this information, that the candidate for this by-election is actually the daughter of the outgoing councillor, is an understatement.” 

The Labour NEC insists everything is above board, with Ellie selected “based on her own ability“. Byrne senior, meanwhile, has mostly stayed quiet about the whole thing, although just a day after his daughter’s win, Guido noticed Ian claim that Rishi’s ongoing tax headaches proved “his political choices benefit no one but his family & his interests”. Takes one to know one…

The Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov* has restated the conditions under which Russia is ready to stop hostilities. “They were told that all this could stop at one moment,” Peskov was quoted as saying by Reuters. These include Ukraine ceasing military action, changing its constitution to enshrine neutrality, acknowledging Crimea as Russian territory and recognising the rebel-held areas of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent territories.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that Kyiv will not “give up its own”, expressing confidence that control over the Donbas and Crimea would return to Ukraine “exclusively through diplomacy.” Slava Ukraini!

*Peskov’s daughter Elizaveta, on the other hand, posts “No to War” on Instagram.

Today’s the day to try your luck…

Love Island star and Thatcherite girl boss Molly-Mae Hague has, correctly, stuck to her guns following mass online lefty criticism about her comments on hard work and aspiration. A statement put out by her team this afternoon declares “if you want something enough you can work hard to achieve it is how she keeps determined”:

“Molly did a podcast interview in December about her own rise to success. If you listen to the full conversation and interview Molly was asked about how the nature of her potential grows and how she believes in herself. This part of the interview was discussing time efficiency relating to success.

Molly refers to a quote which says “We all have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyonce”. She was discussing her own experience and how she can resonate with this specific quote.

Her opinion on if you want something enough you can work hard to achieve it is how she keeps determined with her own work to achieve more in her own life. Molly is not commenting on anyone else’s life or personal situation she can only speak of her own experience.”

Molly-Mae shows precisely how to deal with online moaning: don’t back down. She’s not for turning…

Try explaining this headline to somebody 24 hours ago. On LBC this morning small business minister Paul Scully was asked by Nick Ferrari about the Molly Mae libertarianism controversy that Guido reported on yesterday afternoon. In classic ministerial question spinning, Scully managed to turn the issue into espousing the need for ‘levelling up’, while also agreeing with the bikini-clad star that “an aspirational approach to life is no bad thing”. Odds on Molly making an appearance at this year Tory Party conference?

Twitter-obsessed co-conspirators may have noticed the name “Molly-Mae Hague” trending today, as the former Love Island winner gets slammed by left-wing whingers for her comments on aspiration and hard work. Speaking on a podcast the Pretty Little Things creative director espoused:

“I just think you’re given one life and it’s down to you what you do with it. You can literally go in any direction.”

“When I’ve spoken in the past I’ve been slammed a little bit, with people saying, ‘It’s easy for you to say that, you’ve not grown up in poverty, you’ve not grown up with major money struggles. So for you to sit there and say we all have the same 24 hours in a day is not correct.”

Naturally Molle Mae’s belief that individuals are responsible for their own lot in life, and that hard work can improve one’s life, have outraged the left, branding her “gross” and “tone deaf” and even “a little mini-Thatcher girl boss”:

Guido thinks 2022 could actually be the year of the “Thatcher Girl Boss”  …