More fence-sitting from Starmer as Labour MPs challenge deportation flight

As nearly 70 of the party’s MPs successfully campaigned to remove 30 criminals from a flight, their leader has gone quiet. Again.

How to ensure that disadvantaged children are fed when schools are closed

Ministers could not have handled the matter worse if they’d tried. But Paul Maynard, pictured, is championing a solution.

Iain Dale: The way the BBC and Sky News behave, you’d think we are the only country in the world with a second wave

Plus: Free school meals, Pointless Celebrities, Bower’s book And: “Did the honourable lady just call me scum?” Your chance to drink to that.

WATCH: The Prime Minister versus the Opposition Leader’s understudy at PMQs

“The next time a man with Covid symptoms drives from London to Durham, it’ll probably be for the nearest Covid test,” says Rayner.

Andrew Gimson’s PMQs sketch: A better day for Johnson, who refuses to go grouse shooting

Starmer’s absence permitted the Prime Minister to relax, and to strike a kinder, gentler tone.

Labour’s hypocrisy over A Level results

Starmer has been scathing about Williamson’s U-turn. But what right does he have to criticise?

WATCH: Government must “publish the science” behind June date for schools reopening, says Rayner

“I want to see Gavin working with the parents to reassure them”.

WATCH: New Labour deputy attacks Government over virus testing

Rayner says: ‘We’re nowhere near testing enough, the government has to start testing’, and criticises Hancock for returning to work too soon.

A new Leader of the Opposition: the results in full

It looks like a comprehensive rout for the hard left, with neither Long-Bailey nor Burgon getting close in their respective contests.

Iain Dale: Which Starmer will we get as Labour’s new leader this weekend? Radical Starmer? Or Safety First Starmer?

For his Shadow Cabinet, I would choose media friendly spokespeople, and back them up with deputies more on the policy wonkish side of things.

WATCH: Rayner warns of Labour “factionalism”

“We can’t just fragment. We have got to come together. There has been a culture where people have felt they have not been welcomed.”

Conservative Party members think Keir Starmer would be the most effective Labour leader

And by ranking Rayner second, they appear to agree that “Rebecca Long Bailey isn’t even the best Labour leader in her own flat”.

John Bald: Labour’s education policy of hiding failings by abolishing tests and independent inspection is the way of the ostrich

But there remains important unfinished business for the Conservatives to carry out – if we get the opportunity.

John Bald: Education was once a source of pride in Scotland. It is now a serious embarrassment to the SNP.

Wales is the only home country to be below the OECD average in reading, maths, and science.

WATCH: Rayner refuses to say if a Labour government would take position on a Brexit deal

The Shadow Education Secretary says the question about Labour’s stance on a future withdrawal agreement is a hypothetical one.