Last night was the first Westminster Correspondents’ dinner since 2018, with hacks, SpAds, spinners and MPs piling into the National Liberal Club for a boozy bash just before heading up to Manchester to do it all again with the same people for four days. Rishi had a crack at some stand-up, inevitably turning fire on Liz Truss (not present):

“I’m glad to see, actually, that Liz Truss has been quietly reflecting. Not least on who’s to blame… HMT of course. OBR, B of E, IMF… HMV, DFS, AC/DC. I can’t think of an acronym in British public life that hasn’t yet been blamed… except perhaps the IEA.”

Matt Hancock was in the firing line:

“… Looking back over this tumultuous year, no one has had a busier year than Matt Hancock. It’s hard to keep up: I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. And that’s just one reason that I am so proud to have introduced the Online Safety Bill. It’s designed to prevent the spread of harmful, malicious and undignified content. Just like a 44-year-old former Health Secretary lip-syncing to a Barbie song on TikTok.”

He also couldn’t resist a swipe at Boris and Nadine ahead of conference:

“I’m excited about Conference karaoke next week. I’ve heard on the grapevine that Nadine and Boris are doing Nothing Compares 2 U. Liz Truss is apparently covering Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me’. And I will be performing Elton John’s classic Tiny Dancer.”

Some decent gags all in all. A warm-up act to Conference…