Politics is the new reality TV. We may be approaching summer recess but there is no let up in the double-speak and conniving as the Tories draw battle lines for a bloody leadership scrap, Labour try to bounce back from a European election trouncing and ever-present accusations of institutional anti-semitism and the LibDems enjoy a fillip ahead of their own leadership contest.
No doubt Pesto will get the inside track on how/why ChangeUK imploded on Tuesday with the loss of six of its 11 MPs. Heidi Allen, former leader of the party, takes a chair.
Also, hoping to achieve a bit of member buy-in is Conservative party leadership hopeful Rory Stewart – a candidate described as the ‘best person’ and ‘most sensible’ among his peers, though that is far from a voting intention endorsement and he still has to prove he has what it takes to get past the 1922 Committee after it moved the goalposts regarding the threshold for candidacy.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, a Peston studio regular, will earnestly try to knit together the latest multi-threaded Labour contradictions into something that resembles a cohesive and unifying policy while trying to avoid any further Corbyn/Lansman/Milne espoused verbal landmines.
While Andrew Marr has a clear run at Sunday morning viewers, Peston’s move to Wednesday evening has brought political commentary back to a prime time audience and his forensic questioning is a welcome – and much needed – check on the people who think they know what we need better than we know ourselves.
Peston – Wednesday at 10.45pm on ITV.
