Steering clear of dreary Keir

AS SIR Keir Starmer was boring delegates with his lacklustre Brexit speech, a man he sent to prison was doing a roaring trade in the conference bookshop.

Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions when Labour MP and former Europe Minister, Denis MacShane, was charged with fiddling £12,900 in parliamentary expenses. In November 2013, he was sentenced to six months (and served six weeks).

MacShane, who never benefited personally, used the money to fund EU research trips.

He was in the bookshop signing copies of his new book Brexit, No Exit. They were flying off the shelves.